BATON ROUGE, La. (KAMR/KCIT) — Angel Reese has garnered massive attention during the women’s NCAA tournament receiving both love and hate from fans on social media.

Before winning the national title and going viral, during the most-watched women’s college basketball game in history, Reese’s NIL valuation was valued at $371,000.

According to On3, Reese’s NIL valuation is now valued at $1.3 million, which ranks her third among the highest-paid women in college sports. She currently has over 17 NIL deals inked, ranking her fifth among all college athletes. To go along with her huge pockets she also has a social media following of 3.6 million people across Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. 

All of this exposure was sparked after Reese taunted Caitlyn Clark during the women’s NCAA championship game while about 9.9 million people tuned in. Reese, while the clock winding down, pointed to her hand where she planned to put her championship ring while also waving her hand in front of her face that Clark previously did in the game before.

Reese brands herself as the “Bayou Barbie”, because of her on-court playstyle as well as her pre-game routine. According to her agent, she likes to get her nails and lashes done before games.

Despite her social media hype, she can really ball finishing the season averaging a double-double with 23 points and 15.4 rebounds. She was named a first-team All-American, First Team All-SEC, SEC- All-Defensive Team, and she was also awarded as the 2023 Women’s Final Four Most Outstanding Player.

The Bayou Barbie is only a sophomore and has at least one more year of college before she can declare to the WNBA draft. Recently in a podcast, Reese explains that she is in no rush to go to the WNBA due to the amount of money she’s making in college. The league minimum for a WNBA player is $74,000 and the current highest-paid WNBA player’s average salary sits at $252,450.

This success not only benefits Reese but also draws more focus toward college women’s sports. According to SponsorUnited deals for women’s college basketball athletes grew 186%, the second-largest area of growth for new deals behind football. SportsUnited also details that the average female basketball player partners with
three brands, versus two for men.

This sparked a love and hate nationally for Reese following the game, drawing both good and bad criticism on social media. Reese has quickly become one of the biggest names in women’s sports and has recently announced more deals on the horizon including a sneaker deal and a deal involving one of the biggest spenders in the NIL arena.

Reese inked NIL deals with the following companies:

• Campus Ink on 4/05/23
• Raising Cane’s on 4/04/23
• Intuit TurboTax on 4/01/23
• JanSport on 3/21/23
• Bose on 3/14/23
• Banter by Piercing Pagoda on 3/10/23
• Sonic on 3/09/23
• TOGETHXR on 2/11/23
• Gordon McKernan Injury Attorneys on 11/17/22
• DTLR on 11/03/22
• Hancock Whitney on 11/02/22
• StyleByStudio33 on 10/24/22
• Coach on 8/25/22
• Amazon Merch on Demand on 7/30/22
• McDonald’s on 4/30/22
• Sparkling Ice on 3/28/22
• Bantam Bagels on 3/27/22
• Xfinity on 3/17/22
• Wingstop on 3/13/22
• TIAA on 3/01/22
• Outback Steakhouse on 2/02/22
• Discord on 12/15/21
• STARFACE on 11/20/21
• Giant Food on 10/30/21
• Prissy Athletics on 8/02/21