During his appearance on the Show Me The Money podcast, UFC middleweight prospect Bo Nickal provided insights into the financial situation of college wrestling. He revealed that elite athletes are earning far more than most people realize through NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) deals.
When asked about UFC commentator Daniel Cormier’s claim that college wrestlers are making between $100,000 and $400,000 annually, Nickal didn’t hesitate to confirm the numbers.
“For sure, bro. For sure, these kids are balling out of control, bro,” Nickal said. “Like, so I graduated in 2019. NIL, all that wasn’t a thing. Like, it didn’t start until maybe 21, 22ish.”
Nickal explained how dramatically the space has changed since his own college career ended. “Now it’s like in full swing and these kids are making bank. Like, those numbers that DC gave for a top level college team are pretty conservative.”
When pressed on whether Cormier’s estimates were accurate, Nickal emphasized that the reality might be even more lucrative than publicly discussed. Nickal confirmed that the figures Cormier cited for top-level college wrestling programs were on the conservative side of actual earnings.
The conversation then turned to whether any college wrestlers have crossed into seven-figure territory annually.
“I’ve heard of seven figure deals. Yeah, I’ve heard of those. Yeah,” Nickal responded, confirming that while rare, million-dollar deals do exist in college wrestling.
When asked about what he thought about the financial opportunities now available to college wrestlers, Nickal expressed a mixture of admiration and playful jealousy.
“Oh, man. It’s makes you want to go back to school, right?” he said. “I’m like ‘Do I have like an a couple, you know, semesters of eligibility left somewhere?’”
Nickal also addressed how the financial situation compares to professional wrestling opportunities before organizations like RAF emerged. He explained that prior to professional wrestling leagues, athletes had extremely limited earning potential.
“I’s a huge opportunity because what RAF did… wrestling technically outside of collegiate wrestling, it’s all amateur still. There was no pro league. So the only way you were making money is if you’re winning a world championship or an Olympic gold medal, which it’s really, you know, not a lot of money.”
He broke down the financial reality for elite amateur wrestlers. “Let’s say you win a world championship in wrestling. You train your entire life and you make $50,000. You win an Olympic gold medal, which you can only do once every four year, you make 250 grand for every four years”
Nickal emphasized how inadequate these earnings were when viewed across an athlete’s career. “It might seem like a lot for, you know, that moment, but when you zoom out, it’s like this isn’t a lot of money to try to like support myself on.”
