Fall is right around the corner, which means apple picking, pumpkin spice, and spending every Saturday watching college football.
But that’s not the only college sport with a fandom. Women’s volleyball, for instance, has been making waves ever since the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers filled a stadium with more than 92,000 fans in 2023, setting an attendance record. And with the World Cup coming to North America in less than a year, US soccer fandom is on the rise, which could translate to the college level.
With more athletes across sports leveraging social media and taking control of their brands through NIL deals, sports marketers seemingly have more sponsorship choices than ever. To help get them started this fall sports season, NIL platform Out2Win ranked 50 college athletes from football, volleyball, soccer, and field hockey based on their marketability.
Man(ing) of the year: Football fans have no doubt heard the name Arch Manning, quarterback for the Texas Longhorns and nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning. The heir to the Manning dynasty landed in Out2Win’s top three most marketable college football athletes, with a score of 95 out of 100. Manning has more than 480,000 Instagram followers and an engagement rate of about 16%, according to Out2Win, though his stats on TikTok, where he’s much less active, are lower.
Out2Win scores athletes based on a number of off-field factors, including social performance metrics like followers and engagement rates, “growth trends” that indicate potential up-and-comers, and previous sponsorship performance.
No. 1 on the college football list was Jeremiah Smith, a wide receiver for the Ohio State Buckeyes who was the top recruit of the 2024 class. Off the field, Smith, who scored 98 on Out2Win’s scale, has brand partnership experience, including participating in Travis Kelce’s recent campaign with American Eagle, and he is reportedly earning between $4 million and $5 million in NIL deals this season. He has close to 600,000 Instagram followers and an engagement rate of 28%, per Out2Win. On TikTok, he has more than 61,000 followers and an engagement rate of about 5%.
Ryan Williams, a wide receiver for the Alabama Crimson Tide, scored a 96, landing him in the No. 2 spot on Out2Win’s list. Williams is reportedly set to make more than $1.8 million this season from NIL deals, according to college sports platform On3, with more than 750,000 Instagram followers and about 485,000 TikTok followers. His Instagram engagement rate sits at about 4%, and it’s about 2% on TikTok.
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Y(ear) of corn: Some of the top volleyball players boast social stats in line with or better than the top football marketing prospects, and the top 8 are all Cornhuskers. Harper Murray, who has an NIL deal with Adidas, is the most marketable college volleyball player, per Out2Win, with a score of 94. She has close to 550,000 TikTok followers and an engagement rate of about 12%, and more than 235,000 followers on Instagram, where her engagement rate is about 13%.
Teammates Andi Jackson, Laney Choboy, and Maisie Boesiger each scored a 92 rating, and all have over 100,000 Instagram followers, with even larger followings on TikTok. They all had at least 21% engagement on Instagram, with Choboy topping 26%, Out2Win found. Taylor Landfair, No. 6 on the list, sees more than 37% engagement on Instagram, and Ryan Hunter, who ranked No. 8, is close to an engagement rate of 40% on that platform.
Southern soccer: While Out2Win’s soccer list includes both men and women athletes, the top 50 are mostly women, some with more than 1 million TikTok followers. Mississippi State’s Ava Nucci is Out2Win’s most marketable soccer player, with a score of 94, 1.8 million TikTok followers, and about 600,000 Instagram followers. Her TikTok engagement rate is about 10%, and it’s about 7% on Instagram. Last year, when she was 18 years old, Nucci joined the Gainbridge Super League’s DC Power academy program.
Kiana Paloma Dufour of the University of Southern Mississippi followed Nucci on the list with a score of 93. Third on the list is Matty Moore of the Stetson University men’s team, who scored a 92. He has 1.4 million TikTok followers and an engagement rate of about 10%. No. 5 on the list, Mariah Nguyen of the University of Minnesota, also boasts more than 1 million TikTok followers.
Spread the field (hockey): In field hockey, the scores and follower counts tend to be lower, but a handful of players have high engagement rates, according to the report, indicating opportunities for brands outside of the biggest sports. The University of Maryland’s Fleur Knopert averages about 44% engagement on Instagram posts with 1,300 followers, and Northwestern’s Maddie Zimmer averages about 33% with 6,700 followers.
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