Going For It – University of Maryland Athletics

Since Name, Image, and Likeness legislation was first passed a few years ago, the headlines surrounding it have been dominated by men’s sports, specifically football and men’s basketball. At Maryland, however, female athletes aren’t just participating in NIL; they’re thriving and succeeding in this new era of college sports. 

In terms of the number of NIL deals, women lead the way in College Park with the most deals being female student-athletes including the top three overall.. Over the past school year, female student-athletes have disclosed 327 deals.

“I think a lot of times brands hear ‘NIL’ and immediately their thought process goes to football and basketball when in reality there are so many opportunities to work with all student-athletes, especially from our female programs,” said Grayson Wagner, Maryland’s Director of NIL Services. “The more we can hammer home that reality and provide examples of the successful partnerships that have occurred in the space, the better.”

According to several Terp women at the top of the NIL game, their success began this year thanks mainly to Maryland’s education on the subject and the university’s partnership with Opendorse, the leading NIL marketplace and technology company, via Maryland’s MOMENTUM Program.

“Maryland did a great job setting up a meeting early when they introduced the (Opendorse) app,” said softball catcher Kiley Goff. “Opendorse just sat us down and was like, ‘You can do it or you can not do it, but if you do it’s going to benefit you a lot.’ And so I just dove right into it from there.”