Study: University of Miami, Florida State Among Nation’s Best for NIL Deals

Now that college athletes in the U.S. can profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL) for the first time in NCAA history, the process of recruiting athletes has shifted to include not only a tour of the campus, but full-fledged out-in-the-open business negotiations involving third-parties.

To summarize how the system has worked out — it's been sort of a shitshow. A long, overdue, and oddly welcome shitshow.

Since the NCAA changed its policies in 2021 to make room for college athletes to profit off NIL deals, a maze of state and college-level regulations has emerged, with Florida pushing to loosen rules in the NIL department. Nationwide, each school has been on its own to navigate the new landscape, with some more successful than others.

FloridaBet.com, a website covering sports betting in Florida, decided to look at which colleges had the best NIL outcomes in terms of athletes maximizing their revenue potential.

While the research was not exact due to a lack of revenue details, the results were pretty interesting for the home teams: Florida State University (FSU) and the University of Miami (UM) were found to be among the top 10 schools for NIL.

The two Florida universities combine to give the state the second-best collective ranking when it comes to NCAA athlete earning potential, coming in behind Tennessee and ranking ahead of states like Oregon, Ohio, and Texas.

The results are based on data from On3.com, a website that analyzed athletes with the highest valuation in each sport and the NIL collectives from each school that are bringing in the most revenue for student-athletes.

Miami Ranked Second-Best for NIL Deals

John Ruiz, the attorney and business executive man behind many of Miami's NIL deas, has been ultra-aggressive in the NIL space, signing football and men’s and women’s basketball players to high-priced endorsement deals. This has elevated Miami’s standing nationally regarding NIL's potential for prospective athletes, resulting in the program ranking in a tie for fifth nationally in athlete valuation, alongside the Seminoles.

Ruiz and Miami have landed a long list of NIL signees, highlighted by nearly $2 million dollars spent on luring the Cavinder twins of TikTok fame to the women's basketball team. On the men's side of hoops, the NIL results paid instant dividends, with guard Isaiah Wong sticking around for an additional year thanks in part to a hefty payday and shooting guard Jordan Miller transferring to 'The U'.

A full list of Miami's NIL signings can be found here.

FSU Ranked Ninth-Best for NIL

FSU's "Rising Spear" collective has been as big of a player on the NIL scene as any, signing a host of FSU athletes to deals since merging with fellow FSU collective "Warpath" last year. Headlining Florida State's NIL signings is Heisman frontrunner and FSU starting QB Jordan Travis.

A look down at FSU's list tells the story of a football team that went from bad to Top 10 in 2022 and a possible Top 5 ranked team when polls come out for this upcoming season. Millions of dollars have been doled out to the best players on FSU's team, likely a big factor in a handful of their stars staying in school an extra year rather than entering the NFL Draft.

A full list of FSU's NIL signees can be found here.

Methodology of the Rankings

FloridaBet.com makes it clear its rankings are a stab at sorting through a chaotic time in college sports. In ranking each college, the site claims to have combed through the athletes who currently have the highest valuation in each sport, as well as the NIL collectives from each school that are bringing in the most revenue for student-athletes.

Using a combined ranking from those statistics, the site says it was able to rank the top 10 schools utilizing NIL.

What's It Mean?

The lesson learned here? Miami and FSU players have top-tier opportunities to capitalize on the newfound opportunity to profit from their name, image, and likeness. At both schools, NIL dealmakers have been able to put their money where their mouth is in support of young athletes and help open up new opportunities they'd be banned from taking advantage of in the past.