For decades, the business of sports operated on a familiar model: athletes performed on the field, court or track, while leagues, teams, broadcasters and sponsors controlled the machinery of media rights, branding and monetization. Athletes were the talent, but rarely the owners or architects of the platforms that made them stars.

This model is undergoing a structural reconfiguration.

We are in the age of the “athlete creator” — a new generation of competitors who are also media brands, content creators and distributors, owners of significant intellectual property and entrepreneurs. Athlete creators are building direct-to-fan businesses that shift control away from traditional institutions and toward individuals, and promise value far beyond athletes’ playing careers.

Athlete branding and endorsements are not new. From Michael Jordan’s iconic Nike deal to Serena Williams’ portfolio of endorsements, star athletes have long been valuable marketing partners. But a new and rapidly accelerating structural change — the growth of the digital economy, the expansion of name, image and likeness opportunities and the fragmentation of media rights — is empowering athletes to operate less as spokespeople and more as independent economic agents.

The NCAA’s adoption of a uniform NIL policy in 2021 meant that, for the first time, college athletes could monetize their personal brands — signing partnership and endorsement deals, creating sponsored content and leveraging their athletic skills to build independent revenue streams outside of academic scholarships — without forfeiting their eligibility. This policy change, reinforced by proliferation of state-level NIL laws, spawned a college NIL market that has grown exponentially to a projected $2.75 billion for the 2025-2026 academic year.

The effect on student athletes has been........

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