Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
The vast majority of college athletes who land an NIL deal are going to use that money to treat themselves to something nice. However, Stanford cornerback Collin Wright declined to go that route while helping firm up his school’s reputation as the “Ivy of the West” with the responsible decision he made after cashing in.
It’s been four years since the NCAA entered its NIL Era, and the decision to allow student-athletes to profit off of their name, image, and likeness has had a fairly staggering impact on the landscape of college sports.
Most people would agree that change in policy was a welcome one in theory, but it’s been a much more controversial one in practice due to the NCAA’s decision to take a fairly hands-off approach to policing the endorsement deals that have allowed some players to rake in millions of dollars a year.
Many of those arrangements are linked to boosters and NIL collectives that essentially created a pay-to-play system, and while plenty of fans are less than thrilled with the new reality that’s been created as result, it’s hard to blame the athletes who’ve benefited from cashing in.
You usually only need to take a quick peek at a player’s Instagram to get an idea of how they’re spending their dough, although there’s one guy who plays for the football team at one of America’s most prestigious learning institutions who’s harnessed a slightly less flashy approach.
Stanford CB Collin Wright used all of his NIL money to invest in the stock market
The Athletic recently chatted with close to 60 college football players to get some insight into how they’ve decided to use their NIL money, and you won’t be shocked to learn that a good chunk of them decided to spend it on flashy cars, fairly lavish vacations, and hobbies like golf, fishing, and hunting.
However, Collin Wright, the Stanford cornerback who kicked off his senior season with the Cardinal last weekend, has opted for a strategy that certainly meshes with the reputation of a university that was ranked only behind Princeton, MIT, and Harvard in the most recent U.S. News & World Report college rankings, saying:
“I put it in index funds and ETFs that are very diverse, S&P and NASDAQ and all that. They give me a very diverse portfolio with consistent growth. I hate losing money.”
I’m certainly not trying to mock Wright for making an objectively solid decision, and while others may choose to, history suggests he’ll be laughing all the way to the bank.