How a Texas High Jumper Used His TikTok Savvy to Score Nearly $1 Million in Deals

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One of the highest-earning college athletes on the planet says a little prayer. Sam Hurley, a University of Texas sophomore, does so before every leap. He prays that God gives him the wings—represented by an angel tattoo on his left calf—to carry him over the high-jump bar. On this bright, 80-degree late-April afternoon in Austin, Hurley sprints toward the bar, his wavy dark-brown hair bouncing in front of a sea of empty stadium seats. The overwhelming majority of college athletes who earn in the neighborhood of $1 million or more to market their name, image, and likeness (NIL), like Hurley does, perform athletic feats before 50,000 to 100,000 fans in packed football stadiums or sold-out basketball arenas. But a few hundred eyes, at most, are fixed on Hurley as he attempts to win the Texas Invitational.

Hurley, 19, soars, arches his back over the 7 ft., ½ in. bar, and flops on the mat. To a smattering of applause at Mike A. Myers Stadium, he hops up, pounds his hand against his chest, and points one finger up in the air. He’s clinched his second meet title of the outdoor track-and-field season. “It was a good day,” Hurley says afterward, “to be great.”

July 1 marks the second anniversary of the day that college athletes, at long last, were given the freedom to profit off their personal brands. After years of sustaining hits in the courts and in the media for allowing schools and administrators and coaches to enrich themselves on the backs of football and basketball players, the NCAA finally relented, and dropped its arcane rules preventing athletes from signing third-party sponsorship deals. Since then, companies and collectives—the nebulous alumni and booster groups pooling money together to entice athletes to their campuses—have been offering athletes deals ranging from millions for multiyear marketing agreements to meal money for an appearance or social media post. Name-brand businesses like Wells Fargo, Sony, and Dunkin’ are competing in this space, as are local car dealerships and taco joints. According to Opendorse, a company that connects athletes with businesses, some 90,000 college athletes have made money on its platform. It expects athletes to have earned more than $100 million in NIL by the end of 2023.

Hurley, the Texas high jumper, presents a crucial case study. Of the 25 college and high school athletes with NIL valuations of $1 million or more, according to On3.com, all except two—Hurley and LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne—play football or basketball, the two sports that drive athletic-department revenues. Like Dunne, Hurley has leveraged his enormous social media following into earnings that, he says, are approaching $1 million. Among the 25 most highly valued athletes, only Bronny James, LeBron’s son, and Dunne have more impressive social media metrics than Hurley (12.9 million followers for James, 11.4 million for Dunne, 5 million for Hurley).

READ MORE: https://time.com/6284880/sam-hurley-track-and-field-tiktok-nil-texas/