The Eccker 10 – Riley Weigelt

People often compare the impact of NIL on college sports to that of the passing of Title IX. Both of these paradigm-shifting rulings impacted women’s college athletics in a major way. Title IX led to hundreds of thousands of more female athletes at the college level. NIL is now paving the way for female athletes to generate huge amounts of revenue by building a personal brand and working to leverage that brand for partnerships with businesses.

Women’s basketball and women’s volleyball are in the top four of NIL’s highest-earning college sports. One program known for their NIL program is TCU. Freshman volleyball player Riley Weigelt is one of many athletes at TCU who is using NIL to their advantage early in their college careers. Riley gave some insights on managing your brand as an athlete, putting academics first, and taking advantage of the NIL resources available to you.

10 Questions

Tyler: What is your greatest memory as an athlete?

Riley: I would have to say my senior year of high school. My volleyball team beat Lake Travis in a very memorable game. Honestly, my entire senior year and our whole playoff run was a lot of fun.

Tyler: What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced as an athlete and how were you able to work past it?

Riley: My biggest challenge would probably be time management. I played softball along with volleyball my entire life until like two months ago, and I played both in high school and club for like my entire life, so I’ve always been a super busy person. Finding ways to balance sports and academics is really important because of how much academics matter to me. It’s my main priority over sports any day, so just finding things that will work for you and being able to say no to certain things in order to be able to say yes to being a student athlete is important.

Tyler: Do you have any unique or hidden talents?

Riley: Hmm…I can hold a handstand for a long time

Tyler: What was your first NIL deal?

Riley: My first one was with a make your own salad type restaurant that was opening a new location in Fort Worth, so I was able to use NIL to promote their restaurant and their products to the TCU community and other TCU athletes. It’s a good deal because it’s healthy, all natural, and great fuel for athletes.

Tyler: How has NIL impacted your experience as an athlete?

Riley: So I’m a biology major and it’s always been medical school till I die for me throughout my life, but it’s definitely given me a lot more insight into the business world because our NIL opportunities are connected through the business school here, and that’s been very informative and beneficial for me. I’m now adding a business minor because through NIL I’ve learned a lot about the business world and how to promote yourself and use social media to its full advantage.

Tyler: How do you determine which brands to partner with?

Riley: So we use this service called Opendorse, which lists all of the opportunities for us and we can go and apply for them through their service. In terms of which brands to partner with, for me, when I’m going through and applying for deals, I’m thinking through whether or not I’d want to post about the brand. I’m wondering if this is something I care about or if this is something I want to be seen promoting. The only things I apply for are things that I value. At the end of the day, if I do get a deal, then it shouldn’t be just something I’m doing to get money for.

I also think being selective about who you partner with is good for your future brand because companies will look at you and think, “oh she promoted this brand, that’s similar to our values, let’s target her for a deal”. I don’t want to hurt my image in any way and choose a deal that might drive other companies away.

Tyler: How do you educate yourself on NIL?

Riley: We thankfully have a lot of NIL resources here at TCU for NIL, which has been very informative. We have informational meetings and we have people who are like NIL coaches, which are a great resource. A lot of it for me has been learning to manage your social media. Thinking about things like what you’re putting out there and when you’re putting it out there. Thinking through how often you’re posting and choosing how you want to represent yourself on social media because people may see more of you there than in real life.

Taking opportunities after games to sign autographs or go out in the community and be someone that others look up to, and representing TCU in the right way is important because you want your image online to match your image in person.

Tyler: How has education played a role in your NIL experience?

Riley: I would say that it’s similar to what I mentioned in terms of being your own business and having to be able to manage that. It’s a job in a way…you’re responsible for making content, searching for opportunities, weighing your opportunities, and more. There are a lot of factors that go into it and education helps you learn how to navigate all that.

Tyler: If you could change one thing about NIL and how it’s worked so far, what would it be?

Riley: Coming from a woman’s perspective the opportunities are different for us than they are at big football or big basketball programs. Those programs are big money makers so I get it but there’s definitely a difference in opportunity there, so I’d like to see more of those opportunities for women.

Tyler: What piece of advice would you give to high school athletes as they start their NIL journeys?

Riley: Dive into your program and the resources available to you. I know that I find something new every day and TCU does a great job with NIL, which I’m super thankful for, but even if your school doesn’t have a ton of resources, there’s so much information available online or through upperclassmen and friends. You can do things like reach out to them or reach out to the business school… there are so many ways that NIL can be woven into athlete’s lives, so collecting those experiences and learning more from friends who have NIL experience is really valuable because you can learn so much more from that than you could from a PowerPoint presentation.

I’d definitely tell any future college athletes to dive into their resources because they can always learn something new each day about how to promote themselves and take full advantage of the opportunities they’ll have over their four years in college.