In just four years of her college career, Olivia Dunne can boast of having the top echelon in the list of the highest-earning college athletes from their NIL deals. Furthermore, she is the only gymnast and only woman athlete to make her place in the top 5. And it is not the end of the stunning facts. Her NIL (name, image, and likeness) valuation has not experienced any slump during her gymnastic off-season as well. That speaks for the popularity Livvy holds. Her popularity has always been tremendous. However, the same cannot be said about the deals she has had. No, it wasn’t because of a decline in the gymnast’s charisma; rather, something else occurred. 

Since July 1st, 2021, a plethora of colleges accepted the idea of NIL deals. Because of the fresh rules, the student-athletes have no barrier in inking deals with the brands, allowing them to make a profit from the athletes’ fame. Previously, colleges held the upper hand in the subject. They had established rules that prohibited student-athletes from making deals on their own. Notably, Olivia Dunne has seen that timeline, and she has no favorable memories of that time.

In the docuseries, The Money Game, the New Jersey native narrated her experience‌. However, in the first episode, The Wild West, the 22-year-old disclosed her initial experience with the LSU Tigers on this aspect. Olivia Dunne revealed that she used to get calls from the brands to accept their free products. But she couldn’t do that. 

The prime reason behind it was the college rules that prohibited the student-athletes from accepting those. As a result, Olivia couldn’t utilize the situation despite having stunning popularity on social media. Sitting on the $6 million earnings, Dunne said, “I couldn’t work with some of my favorite brands that were reaching out to me, that sucked. I remember my freshman year of college.” However, the grief of the inability to promote the favorite brands doubled for another reason. 

According to Olivia Dunne, the above-mentioned rule never bothered normal students. Under the NCAA rules and regulations, they were allowed to accept gifts from the brands or promote them. Livvy Dunne has no idea of the contributing factors. But she could never think of shedding her athlete tag to make a profit under the same rule. After all, she earned the tag of social media ingenue by highlighting her gymnastics moves on social media. On that aspect, she boasted, “I had amassed about 100,000 followers from just gymnastics. That kinda all blew up when quarantine came around and TikTok came about.” But when NIL came, could she make the full profit out of it? 

In the NIL career as well, Olivia Dunne suggests measuring one’s steps 

In the last season, Olivia Dunne has achieved some tremendous feats. She appeared in the special edition of Swimsuit Illustrated. She helped her LSU Tigers squad lift the national gymnastics championship trophy. But all hell broke loose when Livvy landed the multi-million dollar deal with Pass. Riding on the numbers, she is now in a settling position on the NIL list of college athletes. But has the situation ever been similar to hers? No, it has not been. Even she had to limp in the initial days to get the nitty-gritty of the NIL realm. As per her, it is quite obvious. 

In her conversation with Flau’jae Johnson, the gymnast conceded, “I know at first how confusing that can be for a lot of especially girls, because there’s not a lot of NIL opportunities for the women’s athletics in the first place.” But now, after surviving four long years at the NIL jungle, Olivia Dunne knows the lanes and corners of it. So would this knowledge help her to add a few more names to the list of her NIL deals? The future holds the answer.