Top 10 athletes turning Instagram followers into NIL money

5. Shedeur Sanders, Colorado football – Sanders is estimated to pocket $20,000 per Instagram post. He has the highest NIL valuation in all of college football (~$5 million) – in part thanks to his 1.69 million Instagram followers that he mostly gained due to Deion Sanders’ unprecedented impact on the Buffaloes program.

4. Flau’jae Johnson, LSU basketball – Johnson is estimated to bring in $21,000 per Instagram post. She has 1.7 million Instagram followers as both a LSU star and rapper. Many can recall she made national headlines at 14 years old when she got the Golden Buzzer on America’s Got Talent (2018) and shone once again on America’s Got Talent: All-Stars (2023). 

3. Angel Reese, LSU basketball – Reese is estimated to rack in $32,000 per Instagram post. She has gained more than two million followers on Instagram since winning the 2023 National Championship with LSU. She currently stands with 2.6 million Instagram followers and has a high engagement rate of 232,000 likes on average per post. 

2. Livvy Dunne, LSU gymnastics – Dunne’s estimated cost per Instagram post is $58,000. She has the most Instagram followers of any female college athlete at 4.47 million and averages over half a million likes per post. It’s a huge reason why she’s one of the top creators of 2023, according to Forbes. 

1. Bronny James, USC basketball – James can easily charge an estimated $98,000 per Instagram post. As the son of LeBron James, he is the most followed college athlete on Instagram with 7.66 million followers. He has yet to hit the court for the Trojans but is already averaging nearly 1 million likes per post.