UConn star Paige Bueckers lands first of its kind NIL deal with Unrivaled

Although she likely would have been among the top players selected in the 2024 WNBA draft, Paige Bueckers opted to return to UConn and run it back for another season and a chance to win a national championship.

It helps that her earning potential through NIL is significant as one of the faces of college basketball, and already the star guard signed a first-of-its-kind deal with the new Unrivaled Basketball league.

Bueckers’ deal makes her the first college athlete with ownership equity in a professional league, and she is expected to play in the Unrivaled league as well as the WNBA after her college career comes to a close, per Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Unrivaled is a three-on-three women’s basketball league set to begin play in January of 2025. It features 30 players on six teams and was founded by former UConn teammates Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier as an alternative for WNBA stars to stay in the country and play during the offseason – rather than going overseas.

“It’s the ability for players to stay home, to be in a market like Miami where we can just be the buzz and create that with the best WNBA players,” Stewart told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne . “We can’t keep fighting [the WNBA’s prioritization rule]. It is a rule that takes away our choices, which should never be a thing, especially as women, but it is still a rule.”

Unrivaled plans to offer the “highest average salary in women’s professional sports league history” and has already received financial investments from the likes of Steve Nash, Carmelo Anthony, Alex Morgan, and Megan Rapinoe.

Bueckers, a two-time Big East Player of the Year, has led UConn to the Final Four three times with one national championship appearance in 2022.