The March Madness rankings have been released, and not just the No. 1 seeds.
The University of Connecticut Huskies, a No. 2 seed in this year’s tournament, were the most marketable women’s team, according to the NIL platform Out2Win.
The team scored 96 out of 100, according to Out2Win’s 2025 March Madness Athlete Marketability Report, which highlights the schools and athletes participating in this year’s NCAA tournament that it has determined are especially marketable. The company determines a school’s marketability based on the average score of its athletes, which is calculated by an algorithm that evaluates factors like performance of paid social media posts, engagement rates, and follower growth, according to CEO Jack Adler.
On-court performance doesn’t always correlate with marketing partnership potential, but while the majority of the most marketable teams in the men’s and women’s tournaments are No. 1 or No. 2 seeds, there were a couple of underdogs that Out2Win ranked as highly marketable.
Stor(rs)-y time: In addition to topping the list of most marketable women’s teams, the Huskies dominated the rankings of individual women basketball players based on Out2Win’s marketability scores:
- Paige Bueckers, the Huskies guard who’s considered “a lock” as this year’s No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft, led Out2Win’s rankings with a score of 98.
- Fellow Huskies Azzi Fudd, KK Arnold, and Aubrey Griffin also made the top five.
- USC Trojans guard JuJu Watkins broke up the UConn cohort at No. 2, with a score of 96.
The only other team with multiple athletes in the top 10 was the University of South Carolina Gamecocks, last year’s champs. Forward Chloe Kitts came in at No. 6 on the rankings, and guard MiLaysia Fulwiley was ranked No. 9.
The No. 1-seeded Gamecocks were deemed Out2Win’s second-most marketable team, followed by the No. 3 seed LSU Tigers; Tigers guard Flau’jae Johnson was ranked No. 8 on the individual athletes list.
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Devil-may-care: The Duke Blue Devils, a No. 1 seed and a favorite to win the championship this year, were the most marketable men’s team, with a score of 94, according to the report.
Duke star Cooper Flagg, the projected No. 1 pick in this year’s NBA draft who’s been out with an ankle injury, was the top men’s basketball athlete, scoring a 95, and teammate Isaiah Evans also made the top five.
The North Carolina Tar Heels were the second-most marketable men’s basketball team, with a score of 92 and two players—Ian Jackson and RJ Davis—on the top 10 list. Though a top team from the mid ’70s through the aughts, the Tar Heels are a No. 11 seed this year. The Michigan State Spartans, a No. 2 seed, took the third spot of the men’s teams, with a marketability score of 90.
Dealbook: During the 2024-25 season, the Ohio State Buckeyes had the most athlete brand deals on the men’s side at 20, per the report, followed by the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles and the Tar Heels. The Huskies led the pack of the women’s teams with 44 deals, followed by the Texas Longhorns and the Tigers.
Though the top three women’s teams had more total brand deals than the top three men’s teams, the men saw bigger deals and higher earnings, Out2Win found:
- The median social media brand deal size for a male college basketball player this season was $576, up 130% from last season, and their median total earnings from social deals was $10,572.
- For the women, the media deal size was $250, up 5% from last season, with median total earnings of $1,870.
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