“You Make 10 Times What I Make”: Olivia Dunne’s LSU Coach Jay Clark on Her Millions Worth NIL Deals

The 21-year-old LSU sensation, Olivia Dunne, has a net worth of millions at such a young age owing to her NIL deals. As her latest NIL valuation stands at $3.6 million, according to the 2024 On3 estimation, she stands as the highest-paid female student-athlete. Olivia stands third in the NIL ranking in the country. Sitting before her are only Bronny James and Shedeur Sanders. Interestingly, Jay Clark, who is the coach of LSU gymnastics, had once compared his earnings with his star student.

The conversation recently came out in the X post of Washington Post reporter, Emily Giambalvo. The post read as, “LSU coach Jay Clark on NIL + Olivia Dunne: “I did joke with Liv one time when she wasn’t doing well one day. I said, ‘How do you want me to handle this? Since you make 10 times what I make.'” 

The Georgia native, Jay Clark is the fourth coach to lead two Division 1 programs to the national gymnastics championship final. As per the latest statistics, the LSU gymnastics’ head coach has a $275,000 unchanged compensation for the upcoming gymnastics season. Understandably, his emoluments are nowhere close to his star gymnast student. With endorsement deals such as American Eagle, Forever 21, and Vuori, Olivia reportedly earns in seven figures. In an interview with The New York Times, Livvy had once said, “I’m very grateful to be making seven figures. It is very cool that someone in college has the opportunity to do that now.” That the NIL deals are not the only source of her earnings.

Olivia Dunne’s social media fame and the road ahead

Olivia has amassed millions of followers across social media platforms like TikTok, X, Instagram, and more. These contribute a significant share of Olivia’s earnings. According to reports, she charges between $31k and $43k for one Instagram-sponsored post. She even revealed to have made $500,000 on one occasion. When it comes to TikTok, her fees are reportedly between $12k to $18k. This might soon see a sharp rise, given the way followers are increasing on that platform. But are things going to be the same in the coming days?

Olivia and LSU just lifted the National Championship for the first time in LSU history. Amid this, Olivia’s retirement talks are also in the air. But Olivia has yet to come out clean on this. She has not confirmed if she will come back for another season with LSU. Notably, till now elite/professional gymnastics is not on the cards for her. Rather, she had vowed to stay away from that. Under these circumstances, the most imminent question is, will Olivia’s NIL deals follow her if she retires from gymnastics? Here the fate remains undecided for someone who has been a model for brands like Nautica and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit. But Livvy is not the one to stop. She has a plan.

Olivia Dunne in a recent interview stated, “After school I would definitely like to have my own brand… I would love to have my own thing, my own product one day… I definitely feel like I can do something entrepreneurial, so, I would like to have my own product.” That does not sound over-ambitious at all. The world has seen Livvy building herself from scratch to create an all-encompassing empire at just 21. So whatever her new endeavor be, it has to be grand! We keep our fingers crossed!