Kentucky junior center Oscar Tshiebwe man-handled opposing frontcourts throughout the 2021-22 season, averaging 17.4 points and 15.1 rebounds to earn Southeastern Conference and consensus National Player of the Year honors.

The 6-foot-9, 255-pound Tshiebwe could have declared for the NBA Draft as a borderline first- or second-round draft pick. But with the chance to earn upwards of $2 million in Name, Image and Likeness deals at UK, according to Stadium.com’s Jeff Goodman, Tshiebwe opted to return to school, becoming the first national player of the year to do so since North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough in 2009.

Opportunities to earn NIL money have given college football and basketball players another option to ponder before making decisions to enter the pros as underclassmen.

Underclassmen still dominated the lottery of the 2022 NBA Draft. The first seven picks were players who left college either after their freshman or sophomore seasons. But more of the borderline first-round picks, such as Tshiebwe, Gonzaga forward Drew Timme, Indiana center Trayce Jackson-Davis and Michigan center Hunter Dickinson, opted to return to school. Timme has NIL deals with Dollar Shave Club, Boost Mobile and a Spokane, Washington, area casino, while Dickinson has a deal with Outback Steakhouse. Terms of all the deals were undisclosed.

“We all recognize that there was something for them to be had with another year of college basketball from a development standpoint and now also from a monetary standpoint, so it works for them,” Sporting News and Big Ten Network college basketball national analyst Mike DeCourcy said. “Whereas three years ago we were seeing …. a couple of dozen players or thereabouts who would leave early entry and not even get picked.”

First-round NBA Draft picks receive four-year contacts, with two years guaranteed and two team options. Most of the four-year contacts for NBA first-round rookies ranged from $20 million to $40 million in value.

Second-round picks come into the league with no guaranteed deals. Some can get stashed away in the NBA’s developmental league, the G League, on two-way contracts worth $250,000 annually.

Miami point guard Nijel Pack, a former All-Big 12 point guard, showed the earning potential a star college basketball player could generate in the NIL era when he agreed to a two-year, $800,000 deal to promote the app LiveWallet after transferring from Kansas State.

“That’s not an easy number to match,” DeCourcy said. “You’d have to be quite a college star to get that in Europe. You’d have to be a significant player, and you certainly aren’t going to get that as a G League regular.”

Indiana University basketball players Jackson-Davis and forward Race Thompson both earned money off NIL deals during the 2021-22 season, with Thompson appearing in a commercial for an Indiana bank.

“There’s some little things, but I wouldn’t say NIL was the reason I came back,” Thompson said. “It really was just about me becoming the player that I want to become, and then again trusting in these coaches to push me to be that player.”

Jackson-Davis, a former first-team All-Big Ten standout and likely preseason All-American, should cash in with more deals this year as the best and highest profile college player in a basketball-mad state.

“I wouldn’t consider the NIL to be a big reason why I stayed even though I know there’s probably going to be money there and opportunity there, which I’m blessed to be in that situation,” Jackson-Davis said. “Obviously, I’m going to use it to my advantage, but I’m here to play basketball, and I’ll finish my degree.”

In football, Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford announced his return for the 2022 season before the school’s Outback Bowl appearance in Tampa. Last December, the soon-to-be fourth-year starter shared he would use an additional year of eligibility, his sixth with the program.

In April, Clifford announced the creation of Limitless NIL, believed at the time to be the first player-founded NIL agency. In an article with ESPN’s Pete Thamel during the rollout of Clifford’s company, the quarterback said he “made more than $100,000” in NIL deals in 2021. Clifford, however, didn’t explicitly cite his NIL returns in 2021 as the primary motivator for his return for another season.

He did credit his early experiences with the nascent changes and their potential long-term impact as driving forces for creating his agency. He hopes to take what he’s learned during the NIL process and help his colleagues in college athletics better navigate the space and understand its intricacies.

“I believe that where NIL is heading, there needs to be very strict direction,” Clifford said during the spring. “If there’s not, it can either go left or right. I would love to see, for the next generations to come, it can really be a life-changer for everybody.”

Including Clifford, Limitless NIL has seven employees. The quarterback’s younger brother, Penn State wide receiver Liam Clifford, is the company’s chief development officer. Former Penn State defensive lineman Aeneas Hawkins works as Limitless NIL’s chief athlete officer.

The client list for Limitless includes Penn State safety Ji’Ayir Brown and Penn State men’s and women’s basketball players Myles Dread and Anna Camden.

“We’d been working on that together for a while, just tag-teaming it,” Liam Clifford said this spring. “That’s been so much fun. I’ve learned so much. The most I’ve learned the last few months has been working with Limitless. Picking different CEO’s brains and doing a bunch of stuff like that, it’s been really fun.”