The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is known for its sports programs, but now it has something else to offer hundreds of student-athletes: the opportunity to become an influencer. Sapna Maheshwari, a business reporter who covers social media for The New York Times, returned to her alma mater to learn more. Video by Sapna Maheshwari, Melanie Bencosme, Laura Salaberry, Valentina Caval, Cornell Watson #UNC #chapelhill #studentathletes #NIL

A long-awaited gold rush is coming to college athletes, and it starts with an influencer agency. The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is working with a new firm called Article 41 to turn 850 of its student athletes into influencers, basically relying on their name, image, and likeness, known as NIL, to turn their TikToks and Instagrams into cash cows. Hold this. They've already hooked up UNC athletes with a bunch of really big brands. They've made posts on their TikToks and Instagram promoting Uber, Atleta, State Farm, and more. A lot of influencer marketing is a black box, but student athletes can make thousands of dollars for a sponsored post. None of this would have been possible four years ago. Then came the court's decision in 2021, and the contract around college sports really changed. The idea that a college athlete could just get a scholarship in exchange for playing for a school became something very different. Students can now make money from brand deals and endorsements. These are the top-earning college athletes by NIL deals. And as you can see, most of them are basketball and football stars. More recently, a proposed settlement says that schools in the upcoming school year will be able to pay student athletes directly. A lot of that money is expected to go to big sports like basketball and football. That leaves all the other sports looking elsewhere for money. I talked to the father of an incoming tennis star, and he told me that now is the best time in history to be a female athlete. His daughter, Anna, is going to enter school with 2.1 million TikTok followers. She'll be the most followed student athlete on campus, and the other kids know it. She's already landing brand deals, and the school thinks they could sell more tickets to tennis games. And it might help them recruit other tennis stars, too. Article 41 thinks that this idea could spread to other schools. It's already talking to the University of Michigan and a lot of other D1 schools who want to train their athletes as influencers, too. There have been a few concerns raised around this sort of a program. Some people have wondered, is this adding one more new thing to an already really full plate for a student athlete? There's also the concern around social media. It's not always known as a place that's great for a kid's mental health. Zooming out, this is a huge sea change in how we think about college sports. For a long time, the contract was simple. You get a scholarship and a college education in exchange for playing for a school. Now, a lot of money and big brands are entering the mix, and it's going to be a lot for students, coaches and universities to grapple with.