In the NIL landscape, schools are turning to companies to train and manage in

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Riley Ammenhauser has become a record-breaking, triple-jumping track athlete at Michigan and something of an entrepreneur.

Leveraging her value with about 250,000 followers on social media, she has landed endorsement deals with Peloton, Gatorade and Lululemon while potentially setting herself up with a career as an influencer after hanging up her spikes.

“Coming into college, I just really didn’t know anything about NIL,” said Ammenhauser, a junior from Naperville, Illinois. “I didn’t even know it was a thing, and I didn’t know that you couldn’t make money before.”

College athletes across the country have been making money — millions of it — since July 2021, when the NCAA cleared the way for them to earn money for the use of their name, image or likeness. The NIL era has upended college athletics like few things in its long history and forced conversations to the fore about everything from athlete unionization to revenue sharing.