Do College Soccer Players Earn Money For Playing?

College soccer represents a key part of the American sports culture, offering an opportunity for college athletes to engage in professional play and serving as a source of pride for many colleges.

One of such topics, often argued about during the past few years, is whether college soccer players and in general college athletes make any money from playing.

In this article, we’re going to dive deeper into the changing scenery of college soccer, the implications of the above-mentioned name, image, and likeness policies, and whether college soccer players could or do earn money for playing.

The Standard Model: Scholarships and Stipends

Normally, college athletes, in general, do not receive direct financial compensation through earnings for engaging in sports. The ways they were compensated lied in the scholarships that paid for tuition, room, and boarding, among other allowances.

Such scholarships represented some form of compensation, but it was not in the sense of a salary or wages for the services provided as an athlete.

In some cases, the athletes were provided with stipends as a means to assist in supporting their living, but these were typically very small and only token compensation for the true value the time and labor of the athlete produced.

The NCAA, which is the governing body responsible for college sports, has traditionally maintained that athletes should be amateurs and that payment of athletes would compromise the integrity of collegiate athletics.

The Need for Change: A Rising Call for Compensation

The latter was starting to come under considerable strain as the commercial returns from college sports burgeoned in the early years.

High-stakes contracts in television, merchandise, and ticket sales made college football and basketball games highly profitable for schools, conferences, and the NCAA, while the athletes playing the sports were not.

The system, however, had always been described by its critics as exploitative, especially of athletes from low-income backgrounds who, in turn, were making lots of revenue for their schools yet were not allowed to share in the fruits of their talents.

The fact is, the debate proved to hinge on the aforementioned gap between the earnings of the coaches, administrators, and the earnings received directly by the schools themselves and by the athletes in question.

It is just a small number of high-profile legal cases that have taken on the NCAA’s rules of amateurism. In the leading case O’Bannon v. NCAA (2014), former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon sued the NCAA over its use of his likeness in video games and other media.

This arguably eventually paved the way to the ruling that NCAA should stop prohibiting its athletes from getting compensation based on their names, images, and likenesses.

The decision in the O’Bannon case and the shifting tide of public opinion in favor of paying athletes opened the door for further change.

By 2019, most states, among them California, had enacted laws that allowed college athletes to make money from their NIL rights, thereby adding immense pressure on the NCAA to effect rule changes countrywide.

A New Era of College Athletes

The NCAA finally changed its rules to officially allow college athletes to profit from their NIL rights.

This certainly was a threshold to be waded through: college athletes were now to earn from the sweat of their brows while still maintaining their eligibility to compete in sports organized under the purview of the NCAA.

The NIL laws do not authorize colleges to remunerate athletes for their direct involvement in sports.

But now the athletes have the right to make endorsement deals, earn money through social media, and get involved in other commercial activities, which were not allowed earlier.

College soccer players, this means that even though they cannot be paid for playing soccer on their college teams, they have a number of avenues with which to make an income.

Earnings potential, of course, is going to be highly variable, based on characteristics like the player’s skill, marketability, social media reach, and interest in soccer occurring at his or her school and in his or her community.

How College Soccer Players Can Make Money?

NIL rights have opened wide a range of avenues for college soccer players to make money. Here are further details on some of the most common ways they can use their NIL rights wisely:

Endorsement Deals and Sponsorships

One of the simplest ways the players of college soccer could make some significant money, though there are very few easy possible avenues, would come through endorsement deals and sponsorships.

Companies of large and small concern may well look to work with collegiate athletes featuring big personal brands or potential to sell to their niche markets.

For example, a star player from one of the country’s premier soccer programs may enter into an endorsement agreement with an athletic apparel company, a local restaurant, and maybe even a national corporation.

These agreements often involve personal appearances, modeling in print advertising, or product endorsements through social media.

Endorsement deal size and scope can vary considerably.

While many players will go on to secure high-dollar contracts in the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, others might secure smaller deals with local businesses that offer modest financial compensation or free products and services.

Social Media Monetization

Social media has been the go-to for many athletes as it provides the avenue for personal branding and access to a fan base.

With several platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, college soccer players can actually monetize their content with such opportunities through affiliated posts and advertisements.

Those followers with a larger reach and higher engagement can make money through brand partnerships, allowing those companies to market their products or services.

Followers can also make money from the advertisements on these ‘paid for’ platforms in the same way YouTubers make their money: the higher the views and the higher the engagement, the more money.

Social media is play to make lots of money, more so, if they have a good online presence because of high fan interaction. However, a process that will require much time and effort to build the following, it turns out not all the participants have success with that approach.

Autograph Signings and Personal Appearances

Other forms of earning potential for college soccer athletes also is from autograph signings and personal appearances. Fans residing in cities or towns that are obsessed with soccer might pay all kinds of money for memorabilia that is signed or to just be in the presence of players.

These events can be managed by the athletes themselves, their representatives, or partnered with enterprises and sponsors. Autograph signings and personal appearances can be a very business source of income for star players or simply for those athletes involved in big programs.

At other times, players may even be called upon to take part in soccer camps or clinics or other such events through which they can pass their knowledge on to younger athletes for money.

Merchandising

Some of the college soccer players have also ventured into merchandising as one of the ways through which they can earn some cash. It could be products which are branded in their name.

The branded products may range from apparel to posters, among other mementos, whose name, image, or likeness is incorporated.

Merchandising is a force that becomes really powerful when players interact with fans and make personal statements through a brand. For example, a player might design and sell custom jerseys, t-shirts, or gear that appeals to one’s fan base.

While merchandising does take an initial investment in both time and resources, it can be a valuable way for players to earn income and establish a brand that continues well after their college days are over.

The Financial Reality for Most Soccer Players of College

While NIL rights represent an opportunity to make cash from college soccer that has not been previously available, every player is not going to go on to make a lot of money.

Generally speaking, earning potential is directly linked with one’s ability to market him/herself.

This can be based on athletic performance, the overall personality of the athlete, in addition to their social media following, and sometimes the popularity of the sport in the region in which one competes.

For instance, a very good player in a college playing in Division I and in a college which has a good soccer program may have several endorsement agreements and substantial social media income while players playing in a college which is smaller or in a less strong conference would probably have a more difficult time getting such lucrative agreements.

Moreover, in the desire to maintain top performance on the field, the additional time commitments that are often needed may cause some athletes to struggle to get the full advantages of NIL.

The Future of College Soccer and Player Compensation

NIL rights arise as just a small piece of an even bigger discussion: paying of athletes in college sports. With the continued shaping of the landscape, this could include other ways on which the college soccer players will be retributed.

Some believe that there may be a more organized way for athlete compensations in the future, or it may even lead to the sharing of revenues between the athletes and their colleges.

Others believe that the present NIL framework will only expand, give even more opportunities to the athletes.

However, the shifts just described were not without their controversies.

There are those who doubt whether increased commercialization by college sports will involve erosion of university educational missions and increased disparities between athletes in different schools and sports.

Final Whistle

Do college soccer players get paid to play, therefore? Yes, but only by the most roundabout definition of the idea.

Though they do not have direct remuneration from the college, now they have a chance to make money from endorsements, sponsorships, and social media, among other things related to NIL.