The number of millionaire college athletes has tripled. Here are the top 10 earners this year.

By Weston Blasi

More college athletes are making over $1 million from NIL - or name, image and likeness - deals, and most of them play the same position in the same sport

There are more millionaire college athletes than ever before.

Last October, there were just 10 NCAA athletes whose NIL earnings exceeded $1 million, according to On3's NIL deal tracker. That number grew to 24 during last season's March Madness basketball tournament, and now sits at 34.

College athletes have been allowed to make money from their names, images and likenesses since 2021, after decades of having to judiciously avoid any form of payment that could compromise their amateur status and NCAA eligibility. Many student-athletes during those years lamented the rules that barred them from seeking any form of financial payment while the games they played in generated millions of dollars - especially in football and basketball.

See: U.S. News has revised its college ranking system. It still fails to help families find their best higher-education deals.

NIL deals can come in many forms, are negotiated by college athletes and their representation, and the deals typically involve leveraging an athlete's influence. A car dealership located near a college may give the school's starting quarterback a monetary payment (or even a car) if he appears in a TV commercial. An athlete can also ink sponsorship deals by leveraging their social-media following, depending on how extensive their digital reach is.

Some athletes and colleges also work with collectives that can raise money to bolster schools' recruiting efforts. These collectives can take in money from boosters and other fans, which are then used to compensate players and lure recruits to the school.

Unlike previous years, this year's list of top NIL earners is composed almost entirely of football players. In past years there were several women's basketball players (Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, notably), as well as men's basketball players like Bronny James.

Nine of the 10 top earners play football, and among those nine players only one is not a quarterback. Here are the college athletes who make the most money from NIL deals, according to On3's proprietary NIL algorithm, which is based on deal data, performance, influence and exposure.

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Tie-8: Nico Iamaleava, $1.9 million

Nico Iamaleava, a redshirt freshman quarterback on the University of Tennessee football team, has led the Volunteers to a 4-0 record to start the season. Tennessee is currently the No. 4-ranked team in the nation, and Iamaleava has the fourth best odds to win the Heisman Trophy, the prestigious award given to the top player in college football every year since 1935.

Iamaleava has NIL deals with wellness brand Force Factor; memorabilia company Top Tier Authentic; Apple's (AAPL) Beats by Dre unit; and the university's own NIL platform, Volunteer Club. He has 353,000 followers on social media.

Tie-8: Carson Beck, $1.9 million

Georgia quarterback Carson Beck entered the season as one of the nation's top-rated players. Beck, a redshirt senior, has thrown for seven touchdowns and has not been intercepted.

He has NIL deals with Beats by Dre, Powerade, Chipotle (CMG) and Electronic Arts (EA), and has 132,000 followers across his social-media platforms.

Tie-8: Cam Ward, $1.9 million

Senior quarterback Cam Ward has led the University of Miami to a perfect 4-0 start. Ward, who played two years at Washington State before joining the Hurricanes, has thrown for 14 touchdowns this season and just two interceptions, completing 72% of his passes. He is the oddsmakers' favorite to win the Heisman Trophy.

Ward's NIL deals are with the Miami-centric NIL collective Canes Connection, EA Sports, Panini America and C4 Energy. He has the smallest social-media reach of any player in the NIL top 10 at 67,000 total followers.

7: Jaxson Dart, $2.1 million

Senior quarterback Jaxson Dart led the University of Mississippi to a Peach Bowl victory last season, and has picked up this year right where he left off. Ole Miss is 4-0, and Dart has 1,554 passing yards over those four games.

Dart has NIL deals with the school's NIL program called the Grove Collective, EA Sports and Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS). He has 181,000 followers on social media.

See: If NFL star Tua Tagovailoa retires, here's what happens to his $212 million contract

Tie-5: Jalen Milroe, $2.2 million

It pays to be the quarterback of the University of Alabama football team. Redshirt junior Jalen Milroe has led the Crimson Tide to a 4-0 record and is currently the third most likely player to win the Heisman Trophy, according to odds from FanDuel (UK:FLTR).

Milroe has 272,000 followers on social media and has NIL deals with Celsius, Six Star Pro Nutrition and Beats by Dre.

Tie-5: Quinn Ewers, $2.2 million

Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers is viewed as one of the top pro prospects in all of college football. The redshirt junior suffered an abdominal injury and had to miss last week's game. The Longhorns are 4-1 and ranked No. 1 nationally.

Ewers has NIL deals with Dr Pepper (KDP), Athletic Brewing, private-jet company Nicholas Air and EA Sports. He is the cover athlete of the "College Football 25" videogame, which has reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue so far.

Ewers has 293,000 followers on social media, but he is not the top NIL earner on his own team, even at the quarterback position.

Tie-3: Arch Manning, $3.1 million

Quinn Ewers's backup at the University of Texas is sophomore Arch Manning, a nephew of Super Bowl champion quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning, and the grandson of Archie Manning, a legendary collegiate quarterback at Ole Miss before his long NFL career, mainly with the New Orleans Saints.

Filling in for the injured Ewers, Manning made his first collegiate start last weekend and led the ranked Longhorns to a 51-3 win over Louisiana-Monroe. Manning has 345,000 followers on social media and has NIL deals with Panini America and EA Sports.

See: Want to watch every NFL game this season? It's going to cost you nearly $2,500.

Tie-3: Travis Hunter, $3.1 million

After transferring from Jackson State to the University of Colorado two years ago, Travis Hunter's star has only continued to rise. Hunter, a five-star junior prospect, plays on both offense and defense - as a wide receiver and defensive back - an extreme rarity in high-level college football.

Hunter has NIL deals with United Airlines (UAL), Cheez-It, 7-Eleven and American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), and has over 3 million followers on social media. Deion Sanders, his coach at Colorado (and previously at Jackson State), has publicly claimed that rival schools have tried to poach Hunter from his Buffs with NIL offers of around $1.5 million.

ESPN NFL draft expert Mel Kiper said Hunter may be the "best pure football player" in the 2025 class. Last year's No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft, USC quarterback Caleb Williams, got a rookie contract worth nearly $40 million from the Chicago Bears.

2: Livvy Dunne, $4 million

Olivia "Livvy" Dunne is the only woman among the top 10 NIL earners this year. The senior on the Louisiana State University gymnastics team has the most followers of any collegiate athlete at 13.6 million.

Since college athletes have been able to capitalize financially, Dunne has been one of the major success stories. Dunne said last year she could earn as much as $500,000 from a single social-media post.

Dunne has NIL deals with Nautica, Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions, Body Armor (KO), Motorola (MSI) and Vuori.

1. Shedeur Sanders, $5.1 million

Senior Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders is the top NIL earner in all of college sports at $5.1 million, up from an estimated $4.8 million a year ago.

Colorado has become one of the top stories in college sports since Shedeur's father - and NFL legend - Deion Sanders took over as coach in 2022. Coach Prime's team is currently 3-1 and its games are among the most watched each weekend.

The younger Sanders has NIL deals with Nike (NKE), Beats by Dre, Google (GOOG) (GOOGL), Topps, Urban Outfitters (URBN), Oikos, Mercedes-Benz (XE:MBG) (DE:DAII) and KFC (YUM). He has 2.3 million followers on social media.

If, as many draft experts anticipate, Sanders is a first-round NFL pick after the season, he'd receive $12 million in guaranteed money on his rookie contract, at minimum.

See: Shohei Ohtani clinched 50/50 while only making $2 million. Here's how much his season was really worth to his team.

-Weston Blasi

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09-27-24 1921ET

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