College sports changed for good when athletes won the right to profit from their name, image, and likeness. At Arizona State, players now build personal brands, partner with companies like Allstate, adidas, and GoDaddy, and earn real money while they’re still students. For decades, a scholarship was the ceiling. Not anymore.
Sun Devil Athletics runs its own NIL program, connects athletes with sponsors, and helps players handle the fine print. Here’s how it all works in Tempe — and how fans fit in.
What Is NIL?
NIL stands for name, image, and likeness — an athlete’s right to make money from who they are. NCAA rules blocked athletes from earning anything beyond scholarships until July 1, 2021, when the policy changed and the old model cracked open overnight. Now athletes earn through endorsements, social media, appearances, camps, merchandise, and their own businesses — and they can hire agents to manage it all. The change spread opportunity everywhere: female athletes and players in smaller sports are cashing in, not just star quarterbacks.
Why Brands Flock to Tempe
Arizona State sits in one of the country’s biggest media markets, and the numbers show why brands pay attention: more than 16 million TV and streaming viewers, over 2.5 million social media followers, 1.3 million in-venue fans, and 650-plus student-athletes across 26 varsity sports — the most in the Big 12.
The timing helps, too. Under head coach Kenny Dillingham, Sun Devil Football won the 2024 Big 12 title and reached the College Football Playoff, falling to Texas in a two-overtime Peach Bowl classic. Winning teams draw eyeballs, and eyeballs draw brands — national names like Allstate, Coca-Cola, Ford, and Coors Light, plus regional partners like Desert Financial and Mountain America Credit Union, whose name is on the stadium itself.
Some real deals Sun Devil fans have seen:
- Allstate x Jordyn Tyson — ASU’s star receiver made Allstate’s 2025 Good Hands Receivers Team, then went No. 8 overall to the Saints in the 2026 NFL Draft, the highest ASU pick in 50 years
- San Tan Ford x Sun Devil Football — select players drive electric Mustang Mach-E trucks
- Mountain America x the Bourguet brothers — a Tucson family with deep Sun Devil roots, including quarterback-turned-assistant-coach Trenton and wide receiver Coben
- adidas x Noemie Glover — the school’s apparel partner backing an individual athlete
- Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers x ASU’s offensive line — yes, there’s an official “O-Lineman Burger”
The money is real, and it flows more ways than one: paid social posts, custom merchandise, appearances, and camps. Fans can support athletes directly by buying gear from approved vendors like the NIL store and ONIT trading cards. Earning while studying eases the squeeze of tuition and rent — and athletes pick up contract, negotiation, and marketing skills most students never touch.
The Ground Rules (the Quick Version)
NIL isn’t a total free-for-all, but the rules boil down to a few things worth knowing. Since June 2025, third-party deals run through NIL Go, a clearinghouse run by the College Sports Commission that checks whether a deal is real work at a real market rate. It has cleared roughly $166 million in deals so far — and rejected close to $30 million that didn’t pass the smell test. Beyond that: no pay-for-play (athletes get paid for their brand, not their box score), a handful of industries are off the table, and schools can now pay athletes directly under the revenue-sharing model.
The one rule that matters most for fans: you can’t just hand a player cash or freebies. That counts as an impermissible benefit — it can cost the athlete their eligibility and get a booster cut off from the program. It’s a big part of why fan-powered platforms like RallyFuel exist: they turn fan support into structured, compliance-checked deals with real deliverables and refund protection, instead of handshake money that puts a player’s season at risk. When in doubt, ASU’s compliance office has two words of advice: ask first.
The Balancing Act
NIL doesn’t just change bank balances — it changes routines. Deals come with deadlines, content, and meetings stacked on top of practice and class. It’s genuinely tough: heavier workloads, more pressure, real burnout risk, and grades that can slip if an athlete takes on too much. That matters, because losing eligibility means losing the platform every deal depends on.
But the athletes who pull it off graduate with professional networks, business experience, and a personal brand most students spend years building. Plenty of Sun Devils are winning the juggling act: ASU’s 2025–26 Big 12 Scholar-Athletes of the Year were swimmer Jonny Kulow, a microbiology major, and lacrosse player Helen Park, who stacked a biomedical sciences degree with a master’s in medical nutrition — all while competing at a championship level.
Social media is where much of this plays out. Instagram and TikTok let athletes talk straight to fans — and to sponsors watching from the sidelines. ASU’s pitch to brands leans on “authentic, story-driven marketing,” and the playbook is simple: post content that feels real, show up consistently, engage your followers, and collaborate. The athletes who work it turn followers into income, and income into careers that outlast their playing days.
Opportunity for Every Sport
One of the best things about NIL? It spreads the wealth. Football grabs the headlines, but with 26 sports on campus, athletes in every program can land deals.
NIL has been especially good to female athletes, and at ASU the timing couldn’t be better: Sun Devil Volleyball just went back-to-back as Big 12 champions, while Softball and Women’s Tennis each captured their first-ever conference titles in 2026. ASU’s partnership with jewelry brand gorjana — built to celebrate and empower women in sports — shows brands are paying attention.
Fan-powered NIL pushes the idea further: instead of waiting for a brand to call, athletes in any sport can connect with supporters directly — which matters most for the players traditional sponsors overlook.
The Olympic Angle
Here’s a group NIL changed more than almost anyone: Olympic hopefuls. Before 2021, they faced a brutal choice — take sponsorship money or keep NCAA eligibility — and plenty skipped college entirely. NIL killed that dilemma. Now a medalist can compete collegiately and keep the sponsors.
And ASU’s Olympic pipeline is legit. Twenty Sun Devils competed at the Paris Games, representing 12 countries across seven sports and combining for nine medals. Léon Marchand — the face of those Games, with four golds in his home country — swam on ASU’s 2024 national championship team, and fellow Sun Devil swimmer Ilya Kharun added two butterfly bronzes for Canada. The Paris roster even included golf superstar Jon Rahm and NBA standout Luguentz Dort. All told, more than 180 Sun Devils have brought home 66 Olympic medals since 1952 — and with the Los Angeles Games just two summers away, the next wave can build brands and followings before they ever reach a podium. Home-soil Olympics plus NIL is a combination college sports has never seen.
How ASU Backs Its Athletes
ASU doesn’t leave athletes to figure this out alone. Sun Devil Athletics runs the NIL program with a dedicated team lead — Zach Thornton — as the point of contact for brands, while the compliance office educates athletes on rules, disclosures, and contracts before anything gets signed. The goal isn’t just to help athletes earn; it’s to help them earn the right way and keep what they make.
What’s Next
NIL keeps moving, and the rules Sun Devils play under today may not be the rules next season. A few trends worth watching in Tempe:
- Sponsor patches on uniforms, cleared by the NCAA starting August 1, 2026 — a whole new category of commercial real estate
- The April 2026 executive order and the Protect College Sports Act, either of which could rewrite NIL rules nationwide
- Growing brand interest in women’s sports, following deals like gorjana’s
- The road to LA 2028 — a home-soil Olympics that will spotlight Olympic-sport Sun Devils and their stories
The Bottom Line
NIL changed the deal for Arizona State athletes. With a massive media market, more than 650 athletes, and sponsors from Allstate to the local burger joint, Sun Devils can build brands, earn real money, and gain experience that pays off long after college.
And you don’t have to own a business to be part of it — fan-powered NIL means everyday supporters can back a Sun Devil directly, the compliant way. College sports won’t go back to the way things were, and at Arizona State, athletes and fans alike are making the most of the new rules.
Q&A
Question: What is NIL, and how did it change college sports?
Short answer: NIL — name, image, and likeness — is a college athlete’s right to earn money from their personal brand. Since the NCAA’s 2021 policy change, athletes can earn through endorsements, social media, appearances, and their own businesses, spreading opportunity across big and small sports alike.
Question: What does NIL look like at Arizona State?
Short answer: Sun Devil Athletics runs its own NIL program, pitching brands on 16 million-plus viewers, 2.5 million social followers, and 650-plus athletes across 26 sports. Real partnerships include Allstate’s campaign with Jordyn Tyson, San Tan Ford putting football players in Mach-E trucks, and gorjana’s deal spotlighting women in sports.
Question: How can ASU athletes earn money through NIL?
Short answer: Brand endorsements, paid social media work, appearances, camps, and merchandise sold through approved vendors like the NIL store and ONIT trading cards. The income helps cover tuition and living costs while teaching athletes real business skills.
Question: What rules do athletes have to follow?
Short answer: Deals have to be real work at a market rate — no pay-for-play — and anything worth $600 or more from one company goes through the College Sports Commission’s NIL Go review. A few industries are off-limits, and boosters can’t hand athletes cash or freebies.
Question: How can fans support ASU athletes without breaking the rules?
Short answer: Buy athlete merchandise through approved vendors, engage with athletes on social media, or use a compliant fan-powered NIL platform like RallyFuel to back players directly through structured deals. Handing athletes cash or gifts is an impermissible benefit that can cost them their eligibility.
Question: Who benefits beyond the star athletes?
Short answer: Athletes in smaller sports, female athletes, and Olympic hopefuls have gained the most — from gorjana’s women-in-sports partnership to Olympians who no longer have to choose between sponsors and college eligibility. With LA 2028 approaching, that group’s moment is coming.
