Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 women's basketball league founded by WNBA players Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, signed nine premier college players to NIL agreements. Sarah Strong (UConn) and Hannah Hidalgo (Notre Dame) headline the class. The league did not disclose deal values.
The signings follow Unrivaled's January debut in Miami, where 30 WNBA players competed for six weeks during the offseason. The league pays salaries north of $100,000 per player, plus equity. Now it extends its footprint backward into college rosters, creating a brand pipeline before draft night. The nine include Kiki Iriafen (USC), Dominique Malonga (Duke), Olivia Miles (Notre Dame), Sedona Prince (TCU), MiLaysia Fulwiley (USC), Jaloni Cambridge (USC), and Janiah Barker (USC). Most are sophomores or juniors, eligible for the WNBA draft in 2026 or 2027.
The calculus is straightforward. Unrivaled needs to build a talent bench while WNBA rosters remain capped at 12 players. College NIL deals let the league claim mindshare with athletes who will define the next draft classes, and the timing is clean: these players cannot sign WNBA contracts until they exhaust college eligibility or declare early. Meanwhile, college seasons end in April; Unrivaled runs January through March. No schedule collision. The league positions itself as the offseason employer for future pros while those pros are still running through March Madness brackets.
The USC concentration—four players—is worth noting. The Trojans rebuilt around transfers this season, including Iriafen from Stanford and Fulwiley, a McDonald's All-American. Unrivaled's partnership with a single program signals either a bulk negotiation or a targeted bet on coach Lindsay Gottlieb's ability to pipeline talent. Either way, it is efficient market-making: one compliance office, one set of university approvals, four Instagram posts.
For sponsors, the play is temporal arbitrage. A brand that locks Sarah Strong now—before she signs a WNBA rookie deal in 2026 and triggers agent negotiations—buys two years of upside at college pricing. Strong averaged 17 points and 7 rebounds as a UConn freshman this season. If she declares early and goes top-three, that NIL deal becomes a bargain retroactively. Unrivaled itself becomes the middleman, bundling talent before agents can set reserve prices.
The league has not yet announced broadcast renewals beyond its inaugural TNT partnership, and ticket revenue from Miami's Aventura venue remains undisclosed. But this NIL expansion suggests Unrivaled is building less like a seasonal league and more like a vertical franchise: own the player relationship from sophomore year through WNBA free agency, then sell the continuity to broadcasters and apparel partners as a decade-long content stream.
Watch whether other college programs follow USC's lead. If Unrivaled signs a similar bloc from South Carolina or LSU before the 2025-26 season, the league stops being an offseason experiment and starts resembling a pre-draft combine with salaries. Also watch whether any of these nine declare early for the 2025 draft, which would test whether the NIL deals include clauses that convert to pro contracts. The league has not addressed that scenario publicly.
The WNBA draft is in April 2026. Between now and then, these players will appear in Unrivaled marketing, probably wear co-branded warmups, and might play in summer exhibition games if the league tests a second seasonal window. The leverage shifts every month they stay in college while the league builds their likeness into its IP stack.
The takeaway
Unrivaled locks **nine** college stars to NIL deals, creating a two-year talent pipeline and claiming brand equity before WNBA draft leverage resets prices.
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