WNBA Draft: How NIL, an extra COVID year and collegiate perks have transformed draft decisions

Angel Reese flashed her two phones, set them next to her crown and took a seat as Alexis Morris joined her at the interview dais holding LSU’s brand new NCAA championship trophy.

“Price just went up,” Reese told reporters who asked about the double devices. “Today’s price ain’t tomorrow’s price. You think I have NIL deals now? Whew.”

Reese and Morris had just played in the most-watched NCAA women’s college basketball game ever when 9.9 million viewers tuned in to see LSU defeat Iowa in the title game on Sunday. The name, image and likeness (NIL) valuation for any player, particularly the stars, on the court that afternoon skyrocketed because of the sheer eyeballs. The same goes for all women’s basketball players as interest trends upward and businesses continue to invest.

The collision of NIL, an extra year of eligibility in the form of a “COVID year” and even the ability to transfer and play immediately has created one of the most chaotic moments in WNBA Draft history. Draft-eligible players, most of whom will not be drafted or if they are selected will not make rosters, have more to consider than ever when it comes to opting into the draft, which will be held at Spring Studios in New York City on Monday (ESPN, 7 p.m. ET).

There was a chance Aliyah Boston, the longtime projected No. 1 pick, would opt to stay at South Carolina for a fifth year. The morning after the team’s Final Four loss, and with the public backing of her coach Dawn Staley, Boston announced she would opt in to the draft and forgo the extra eligibility. Elizabeth Kitley, a Naismith Player of the Year finalist, did choose to stay an extra season at Virginia Tech. As did Charisma Osborne, who initially declared out of UCLA, but on Wednesday withdrew her name from consideration.

It flung the cracked door wide open on the conversation around players choosing to stay in college as long as possible for the NIL benefits and high-level program support that currently isn’t as much of a reality in the WNBA. While NIL endorsements snag headlines, there’s also the different treatment players receive. College players fly charter, largely because institutions are bound by Title IX and men’s teams use the service. They have meals waiting for them throughout the day and after games, training personnel readily available and top-notch living accommodations and schedules.

The WNBA is working to improve on all of that, and has made great strides, but teams are still kept to collective bargaining agreement (CBA) stipulations that newer owners, such as the Las Vegas Aces’ Mark Davis, are trying to find loopholes around to better care and pay their players.

“We’re kind of defenseless, some of the things that are being said about either opportunities in our league or when you get to our league what’s available to you versus what they have in college,” Minnesota Lynx head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve told reporters on a conference call on Thursday.

Even pros are chiming in that they would have stayed in college as long as possible given, as Dallas Wings guard Diamond DeShields described it, “the current climate of women’s college basketball.”

Making it in the WNBA is hard

The WNBA is notoriously difficult to break into with only 12 teams and a maximum of 12 roster spots, though most teams carry the minimum 11 because of the salary cap. With league expansion continuously being pushed back, the reality is few will make rosters or play in the league for a significant amount of time. That longevity has to be considered.

The NCAA estimates that 2.8% of draft eligible players were selected in the 2019 WNBA Draft and that .8% of NCAA players move on to play professionally domestically or overseas, lower than men’s basketball (1.2%), football (1.6%), men’s ice hockey (7.4%) and baseball (9.9%). Those sports all also have minor leagues as feeders, development leagues or other high-level leagues (such as XFL for football) in which to play.

In 2021, two-thirds of WNBA first-round picks made rosters and one quarter of second-round picks did, according to data by Brian Martin for WNBA.com. The chances dropped considerably after it. Ahead of the season openers every May, college standouts and top picks are waived the day before tipoff.

Even making it financially has historically been difficult. The 2023 first-round draft picks will make around $70K-$74K, with third-round picks in the $62K range. They are unprotected contracts. Players with zero to two years experience make a minimum of $62,285 and those over three years make a minimum of $74,305.

The player supermax is $234,936 for 2023, up from $119,000 before the collective bargaining agreement passed in 2020, but players cannot make close to that until free agency four years into their careers. That’s if they stick to a roster that long. The average length of a WNBA career is estimated between 3 ½ and five years.

The league has started player marketing agreements (PMA) to supplement salaries while in turn marketing their product and players. Some select players who make the supermax are on PMAs and earn additional bonuses from year-end awards and a Commissioner’s Cup victory can potentially reach $700,000 in WNBA-related income. There are 10 players on those agreements currently.

Outside investment in the league and its stars has also been lacking, leaving players without the additional endorsement money that boosts male players’ pockets. The PMAs are intended to help with that, and certain companies have stepped in for deals with stars like A’ja Wilson (Mountain Dew, Ruffles) and Breanna Stewart (Puma, Therabody) that are lucrative for both sides.

Many hope the introduction of NIL means it lifts that investment in the WNBA as more and more collegiate players enter the league with deals already signed. The wide spread of companies could also be advantageous to a league that hasn’t seen much differentiation in the space.

“I hope that this is something that starts just a domino effect of women getting sponsorships and deals that they deserve,” Wilson told Yahoo Sports in 2021. “And it’s pretty cool to see how many different ones these collegiate athletes are getting.”

The league has been working to connect the two fandoms and find ways to turn college fans, especially ones of their stars, into WNBA fans. Dallas Wings president Greg Bibb, who has three of the first round’s 12 picks, sees the bridge from the Final Four held in Dallas to the league’s 27th season.

“It was momentous, backed up by metrics to support the fact that the game has never been better, has never been healthier,” he told reporters on a conference call on Thursday. “While that’s specific to the women's NCAA game, I think it’s a very quick path from there to the WNBA and making that connection, and I think we saw similar kind of growth last year in the W.”

But the facts are that currently the spotlight is larger for the college game than the WNBA. Players who do take the extra year could grow their following and NIL base before attempting to grab a foothold at the professional level, which will only grow in popularity before they reach it.

The WNBA is also experiencing increased viewership, but to a smaller degree. The Finals averaged 545,000 viewers, peaking at 649,062 in Game 2, up against NFL games in September. Featured games on ABC peaked at 1.4 million viewers, by no means a small deal for the young league.

It still pales in comparison to the mind-blowing peak of 12.6 million for the NCAA title game that elicits dollar sign emojis in the eyes of the game’s best.

Hitting the NIL financial windfall

Reese, who as a third-year sophomore is not eligible yet, holds the most NIL deals of any college basketball player and has been open about staying in college as long as possible because she said she can make more money there than the WNBA. She also has an LSU staff member, who she does not have to pay, dedicated to helping her with NIL deals and branding opportunities.

After the title game, her Instagram following grew from 500,000 to 1.3 million. Her success and demeanor have provided her clout to grow a $876,000 annual NIL valuation that’s nearly doubled, per On3. It’s a sign of the NIL times with fuel from an extra year given by the NCAA.

The potential financial windfall for collegiate players is swift and staying in college where interest could be the highest it will ever be on them means a nice nest egg before joining the “real world” of post-collegiate life.

The WNBA requires all collegiate draftees finish four years of college or meet certain stringent requirements. A player who graduates from a four-year school prior to the draft or within three months can declare, as can a player who turns 22 the calendar year of the draft. The turnaround from the championship game to the draft is one week, and players have 48 hours after their last game to declare. Since few three-year players have entered the draft over its 26 years, there hasn’t been as much intrigue.

The draft list intrigue was at an almost all-time high and will continue to be through 2025, particularly since players have outright said or hinted that they would stay as long as possible. Many South Carolina seniors told Yahoo Sports through the Greenville regional and Final Four that they were compartmentalizing and putting a decision on the backburner.

Laeticia Amihere, a 6-foot-4 forward who eventually entered, said she “canceled that out” because it wasn’t right in front of her. Brea Beal, a 6-1 guard who also entered, said she focuses on what puts her in a good mental space and couldn’t not keep it top of mind.

“Every other day I’ll think about it, because you definitely have to make that decision soon,” Beal said ahead of the regional final. “You can’t run from it. It’s definitely something I think about because real life is about to hit me soon. I have to be an adult. I definitely think I think about it a lot.”

They’re joined in the draft prospect list by teammates Boston and guard Zia Cooke, largely viewed as a player who improved her draft stock.

“We are constantly feeding them with information that will help them make that decision to go or to stay,” Staley said during the regional. “But I’m sure they’re talking to their agents and their representatives about what makes the best sense for them. I’m not going to sway them. I’m not going to try to convince them to come back. I think what we’ve done here at South Carolina is put them in a great position to be drafted. That’s our job.”

After the Final Four loss, she told reporters that if Boston asked her opinion, she’d tell her to go because she’s ready, and she would face single coverage versus the paint-packing and junk defenses the 2022 National Player of the Year saw in college that didn’t “allow her to play her game.”

Boston is a near-lock to make the Indiana Fever roster if the team selects her No. 1 overall as expected. And for a player like her, it makes sense to enter. She’s already one of the most well-known college basketball players with three Final Four appearances in as many tries and a windfall, albeit small, of endorsements from her own championship and Most Outstanding Player award in 2022.

Prior to this season, Boston had largely been lumped into conversations with Paige Bueckers, the 2021 National Player of the Year winner who sat out this season with an ACL tear and is currently draft eligible. This time last year, the draft conversation focused on if players should have the option to leave early, because a player like Bueckers was that good.

Instead, she made clear in September she would return to UConn next season. The Huskies, who will also have a fully healthy Azzi Fudd back, are early favorites for a deep March Madness run. Bueckers, who has a $746K valuation by On3, said she has not yet made any decision on a fifth COVID year.

Caitlin Clark, the Iowa superstar who had a tournament performance for the ages, has also said she’s considering the extra year of eligibility. It’s created a backlog of talent with no clue as to what draft it will fall into, and what impact it will have on a league with few roster spots.

The chaos will last a few more years as players consider what their price is now, what it could be next season, and how that might translate as the first groups of women’s basketball stars to take NIL money into a growing WNBA.