Opendorse says Spencer Rattler is worth $769,300 in potential yearly NLI earnings

The conversation about name, image and likeness has ramped up. And with that, so have athlete marketing firms. Spencer Rattler is worth …

The name, image and likeness conversation for NCAA student-athletes ramped up throughout the coronavirus pandemic. As the NCAA took a harder look, so did marketing firms.

It started around the NFL Draft when one marketing firm floated the idea that Trevor Lawrence could make near $500,000 based on his social media following and influence. That micro conversation about college football’s biggest star turned into a macro conversation on Wednesday.

Opendorse, an athlete marketing firm founded by two former college football players, released data on selected college athletes. The internet burned down as Texas’ Sam Ehlinger had the biggest potential earnings despite less social media following than those listed below him.

Opendorse co-founder and CEO Blake Lawrence took to Twitter after criticism of the released data. The formula in which Opendorse uses isn’t media value—the regular centralized data marketing firms typically use that takes a handful of variables to come up with a value to give to potential advertisement suitors for a social media post or live advertisement.

Lawrence, in a response to one of my tweets, says, “… it is based on the actual amount that professional athletes (with similar following, engagement rate, etc.) get paid for promoted posts, based on 10+ years of primary transaction data captured through Opendorse.”

After the pushback, he shared data for three of Oklahoma’s prominent student-athletes. Lawrence says expected starting quarterback Spencer Rattler is worth $769,300 in potential earnings per year.

How media value and potential earnings is found remains to be in the eye of the beholder. A big conversation taking place for the NLI rights of student-athletes is a centralized system for media value so that there is not a major discrepancy in how the data will be presented to student-athletes.

Regardless, the commonality rings the same—these prominent student-athletes are worth a ton of money.

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