Female athletes dominate NIL deal counts. Why do their campaigns still collapse?

The math just doesn't add up. 

Female athletes now represent 52% of the top 100 college athletes with the most NIL deals, but most partnerships never execute as planned.

Athlete marketability is not at fault. (Brands already know women's sports has massive upside.) On the operational side, companies underestimate how difficult it is to work with students juggling 40+ hour training schedules alongside full course loads.

WME Basketball agent Kailey Edwards represents some of the most marketable women's basketball players in college sports. 

Her roster includes projected 2026 WNBA lottery picks Lauren Betts (UCLA's Big Ten Player of the Year) and Olivia Miles (TCU's Big 12 Player of the Year), along with Mikayla Blakes (Vanderbilt's SEC Player of the Year) and UCLA's Sienna Betts. Three of her four featured athletes just swept Player of the Year honors across three of the four Power 4 conferences. 

She's watched too many campaigns struggle during execution and built a four-part process that addresses what brands consistently miss about working with student-athletes.

🤿 Below the Surface

Here's what's on deck this week:

• Signal Strength: Launch NIL campaigns with insights player-turned agent, Kailey Edwards

• In the Current: Records, primetime slots, brand deals

• Blue Zone: Women's History Month kicks off with major brand moments, plus BOWS returns to NYC

• Shark Bite: Sarah Spain on why the product was never the problem.

⚡️ Signal Strength  

The Pro Player-Turned Agent's Guide to NIL Deals That Last

NIL partnerships with female athletes are booming. The data backs it up, but Edwards witnesses a recurring problem: brands recognize the market opportunity yet struggle to execute successful campaigns. Campaigns fall short during activations for many reasons, ranging from the limited availability for brand work to the competing high demands and shift in priorities required of student athletes.

Edwards has clear priorities to ensure that NIL deals launch successfully and continue as strong, long-term partnerships.

By the numbers:

• Division I student-athletes spend up to 34 hours per week on athletics plus 38.5-40 hours on academic work

• Over 80% of student-athletes report feeling overwhelmed by their responsibilities at some point during their academic year

• The majority of NIL deals involve less than $100 in compensation, but execution challenges exist regardless of deal size

• Female college athletes maintain 10-15% average engagement rates compared to 1-3% for traditional influencers

What they're saying: "Being a full-time student, and then putting in forty plus hours a week to your craft—time is limited. Just being able to be flexible and work with the student athlete. Rest, recovery, mental health is still at the forefront of everything that they do." — Kailey Edwards

Kailey Edwards’ Formula For Successful NIL Partnerships:

• Map the University Support Network: Building relationships with the people who control scheduling and availability before finalizing deal terms.

• Identify Tentpole Moments: Find high-visibility moments where activations generate maximum earned media beyond contracted deliverables.

• Build Growth Incentives: Structure deals with incentives tied to social media growth and performance benchmarks, rather than static pay that leaves value on the table.

• Plan for the Unplanned: Treat unpredictable schedules as normal. Every content shoot includes Plan A, B, and C options with flexible deadlines.

Edwards points to the Gorjana partnership with Lauren and Sienna Betts as proof the process works. Student-athletes offer nine months of brand exposure through televised games, media interviews, and authentic social content. Brands that build operational systems to capture this value win big.

Read the complete breakdown.

📰 In the Current  

We monitor the current so you can ride the wave. Here's what you need to know this week:

• Kicking off Women’s History Month, NCAA women's sports reports a record 242,341 participants in 2024-25, up 14% over the past decade, while female ADs rose 24% and head coaches 13%.

• ESPN replaces 35-year-old Sunday Night Baseball with "Women's Sports Sundays," a nine-week primetime hub for WNBA and NWSL—one of the biggest investments in women's sports programming by a major sports-media provider.

• Flavor Flav is hosting a four-day Las Vegas celebration for all female U.S. Olympic and Paralympic medalists — backed by MGM Resorts, StubHub, Alaska Airlines, and The Gist, with $85K raised directly for athletes in 48 hours.

• Uniqlo has signed Emma Raducanu to a multiyear deal despite her not winning a title since 2021, betting on her 2.9M Instagram following and cultural reach over rankings, and signaling that results alone no longer determine an athlete's commercial value.

🦈 Blue Zone  

No better way to kick off Women's History Month than with two big moments featuring two big brands:

• On Sunday, GEICO launched its multi-year partnership with Big East's Scholar & Player of the Year Azzi Fudd with a media blitz surrounding UConn's last regular-season game at Madison Square Garden.

• Monday set another record for Unrivaled, this time in Brooklyn, and Ally Bank was front and center with the fans hosting the Ally House as the official pre-game spot.

The hype for women's basketball in New York City is palpable…

Plus, Deep Blue’s 4th annual Business of Women's Sports Summit is returning to NYC on Tuesday, April 14th.

NEW! We’re thrilled to announce DALYA NYC will be popping up at this year's Summit. The brand’s created custom suits for a wide range of athletes and commentators, including previous BOWS speakers Tina Cervasio McKearney, Arielle Chambers, and Monica McNutt.

JUST ANNOUNCED! On the main stage, we’ll bring together fashion designer Domo Wells and renowned stylist Jasmine Caccamo to talk women’s sports × fashion × personal style.

Register now →

🌊 Shark Bite

“There was this blaming of the product of women’s sports, without understanding the incredible ecosystem and infrastructure that was lifting up and bringing fans back over and over again to men’s sports… Now we’re finally catching up in terms of investment.” – Sarah Spain | ESPN veteran and host of Good Game on iHeart

Female athletes represent over half of top NIL earners, but it’s the right execution that determines which brands actually capture that value. Build the support system before the campaign, or watch campaigns stall in production limbo.

– Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment

Interested in learning what Deep Blue is up to? Have an idea?  

Reach us at [email protected].

Rising Tide is published by Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment, the first-of-its-kind firm designed to identify, create, and influence business models and growth opportunities in women's sports for forward-thinking brands.