NCAA Basketball: Top 5 former players who would’ve benefitted from new NIL rules

Honorable Mentions

Before I get into the honorable mentions, the players I chose for this list have been more recent players due to the new age of social media. Before social media, there were a ton of big-name players, but social media wasn’t around, or it wasn’t quite as popular yet so some of the only advertisement opportunities would have been TV commercials, and most companies would go with a professional athlete before they went to a college athlete.

Trae Young: University of Oklahoma

Current Instagram Follower Count: 3.4M

Current Twitter Follower Count: 1M

Since leaving Oklahoma, Trae Young has become a borderline superstar in the NBA, but he was just as good in college. Young played at Oklahoma and was the most talked about player in the nation for just about the entirety of his lone season with the Sooners. Oklahoma’s home and road games were all sold out as people wanted to see Young play, and he showed out just about every night.

Tacko Fall: University of Central Florida

Current Instagram Follower Count: 1.1M

Current Twitter Follower Count: 63.4K

If the NIL rules were around a couple of seasons ago when Tacko Fall was at UCF, he likely would’ve made a good amount of money. Whether it was through memes, or just talking about him because of how tall he is, or his incredible story, people loved to talk about Tacko Fall, and that peaked during the 2019 NCAA Tournament.

Bol Bol: University of Oregon

Current Instagram Follower Count: 1M

Current Twitter Follower Count: 80.1K

Similar to Tacko Fall, people loved to talk about Bol Bol, he was a meme for the most part, but people still loved to talk about him. Unfortunately, for most of his lone season at Oregon he was injured, but seeing all endorsements are off the court anyways, that likely wouldn’t have impacted the amount of money he would’ve been able to make during his time at Oregon.

Rui Hachimura: Gonzaga University

Current Instagram Follower Count: 457K

Current Twitter Follower Count: 201.7K

While not quite as popular in the United States, Rui Hachimura was, and still is wildly popular in Japan. Hachimura is from Japan, and he was incredible during his time at Gonzaga before being drafted ninth overall to the Washington Wizards.