March Madness 2022 -- Women's and men's Sweet Sixteen players are heavily involved in NIL deals

It's been less than a year since the NCAA said college athletes could profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) — and college basketball stars have been signing deals left and right ever since. That includes several athletes in the Sweet 16 of the men's and women's NCAA tournaments.

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According to data from Opendorse, women's basketball players have earned the second-most compensation of all NIL deals (19%), only behind college football players (51%) and ahead of men's college basketball players (15%).

And it makes sense. The 2021 women's NCAA title game between Stanford and Arizona drew 4.1 million viewers — the most since 2014. This year, the women's tournament finally has the same branding as the men's. Viewership is up 15 percent through the first two rounds, and the second round jumped 25 percent over 2021, according to ESPN PR.

The Sweet Sixteen has its share of significant endorsements on both the women's and men's side.

Bueckers, a star point guard for UConn, signed her first endorsement deal with footwear and apparel marketplace platform StockX in November 2021. According to a company spokesperson, the multi-year deal means she will become «the centerpiece» of StockX's upcoming focus on women's sports and basketball.

A few weeks later, she became the first college athlete to sign an endorsement deal with Gatorade.

Bueckers, who also has a deal with CashApp, filed a trademark for «PAIGE BUCKETS» last year through the Wasserman agency, which represents her.

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