$1 million Cavinder twins show how college athletes can profit off their image | Opinion

The one-year anniversary of the NCAA’s relaxed NIL policy is a few weeks away and depending on whom you ask, it is either the best thing that ever happened to college athletics or the worst.

Fans of NIL — such as University of Miami booster and NIL king John Ruiz — say it is wonderful, American capitalism at its finest, a long overdue opportunity for college athletes to profit off their name, image, and likeness rather than continuing to allow colleges and coaches to make all the money.

Once upon a time boosters were not allowed to buy an athlete a $100 pair of sneakers. Now, a guy like Ruiz, a lawyer and entrepreneur, can openly pay college athletes to promote his LifeWallet and Cigarette boat racing companies. He boasts about his deals on Twitter, proudly revealing that he signed an $800,000 two-year deal with Nijel Pack, a Kansas State basketball player who transferred to Miami.

(Side note: Still not sure how Pack’s endorsements of a medical records app and boat races are worth $800,000, as he is a good player but not a household name, but Ruiz obviously thinks it is a wise investment.)

Critics contend that without more stringent rules the NIL policy will allow college boosters to abuse the system, bankroll their beloved teams and create an uneven playing field. The vague and loosely regulated NIL policy has resulted in a multimillion-dollar arms race to induce athletes to attend and stay at certain schools in violation of the intended NIL rule, which states that athletes cannot be paid to play.

The idea behind NIL was for athletes to use their entrepreneurial spirit to get sponsorship deals with brands and local businesses that matched their personalities. Deep-pocketed boosters at big schools around the country have twisted that concept, pooled their resources, and formed “NIL Collectives” — multimillion-dollar pots of money disguised as start-up companies that pay athletes for appearances and social media posts.

Alabama football coach Nick Saban unloaded a few weeks ago about the potential for NIL abuse, saying: “I tell recruits the same thing: Our job is not to buy you to come to school here.”

Watching it all unfold with great interest are Haley and Hanna Cavinder, the basketball-playing twins and TikTok sensations who recently transferred from Fresno State to the University of Miami. They arrive in Coral Gables on Thursday with a TikTok following of 4 million, more than 800,000 Instagram followers and NIL deals estimated at $1 million.

The Cavinder Twins have been at the forefront of NIL since July 1, 2021, when they became among the first athletes to sign endorsement deals. They flew to New York City for the occasion, signed with Six Star Pro Nutrition and Boost Mobile and appeared on a Times Square billboard.

The Six Star marketing campaign featured the siblings holding $1 bills, an homage to tennis legend Billie Jean King and The Original Nine female tennis players who formed their own tour and signed $1 contracts to mark the occasion.

“When we got involved in NIL, we saw it completely changed college marketing,” said Jake Duhaime, communications lead for Iovate, the parent company for Six Star. “It used to be dominated by Greek life. That’s where you wanted to gain access to a nice concentration of students in a short period of time, but you couldn’t touch the athletes. Once that opened up, it changed our strategy. The idea of connecting with the Cavinders and their 7 million combined followers gives you a reach you couldn’t get with any fraternity of sorority marketing plan.”

Among the other companies in the Cavinders’ growing portfolio: Eastbay, PSD Underwear, Celestial Seasonings Teas and the WWE.

The sisters are proof that, if done smartly, NIL can not only be lucrative but also educational.

“Going into it we didn’t have any expectations, but we have learned so much over the year,” Hanna told the Herald on Tuesday. “We learned about making business relationships and connecting with brands you align with. Being in rooms with business people is not something you usually do as a 21-year-old. We also learned about time management and taxes, real-life stuff.”

Hanna and Haley both stressed that NIL is a way for female athletes to make money in an arena that has typically been reserved for men. Duhaime said female athletes have been some of the biggest NIL winners because “they know how to use the tools of technology to their advantage, create social footprints and create their own audiences.”

Asked if Ruiz’s NIL offer was a factor in them transferring to UM, the Cavinders, in unison, answered emphatically: “Absolutely not!”

Haley said the driving force for their move was the chance to make the NCAA tournament. They loved the vibe they got from coach Katie Meier and her staff. They also like the beach and have family in Florida.

“We were doing fine with NIL at Fresno, so that wasn’t even part of the conversation with Miami,” she said.

Time will tell how NIL will impact college sports. Like everything else, there are pros and cons. More rules will probably be needed to keep boosters from completely taking over.

But allowing college athletes to make money is inherently a good thing. They will soon discover that some people are more marketable than others, and that is a valuable life lesson. NIL is not the best thing to ever happen to college sports. But it’s not the worst, either.