Bronny James and Shedeur Sanders are certainly making bank from NIL. A recent report lists the USC freshman and Colorado junior as the top NIL earners at the college level. According to On3, Bronny James is earning $6.1 million and Shedeur Sanders is earning $4.1 million. Rounding out the top three are LSU's Livvy Dunne ($3.2M), Texas' Arch Manning ($2.9M), and USC's Caleb Williams ($2.6M). Only one other woman appears in the top ten. LSU's Angel Reese sits at eighth in the current rankings.
However, NIL earners, especially female athletes, still receive criticism. There are many people, several in positions of power, who don't believe that athletes should receive any compensation before the pro level of their respective sport. Livvy Dunne recently spoke out on this exact issue. “People definitely discredit what I do. People need to understand that I’ve worked for everything I’ve earned. I’ve spent years building an audience, and brands pay me for what they believe is worth the reach of the demographic that I offer," Dunne recently said.
Read More: Livvy Dunne says she can no longer attend classes for her safety
Sanders Take Aim At Rivals
Meanwhile, Shedeur is less focused on his NIL earnings and more on his upcoming football game. Things are getting heated in Colorado after Colorado State's head coach took shots at Deion Sanders. ""I don't care if they hear this in Boulder, I told them [ESPN] -- I took my hat off, and I took my glasses off. I said, 'When I talk to grown-ups, I take my hat and my glasses off. That's what my mother taught me," Jay Norvell said amid a bevy of comments about Sanders and Colorado.
Shedeur's father Deion says he has taken the comments personally. "I'm minding my own business watching some film, trying to get ready, trying to get out here and be the best coach that I could be and I look up and I read some bull junk that they had said about us, once again," Sanders told the team. "Why would you want to talk about us when we don't talk about nobody? All we do is go out here, work our butts off and do our job on Saturday. But when they give us ammunition, they done messed around and made it [personal]," Deion responded.
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