Angel Reese Shares Why She Left School Early and How NIL Played a Role in Decision

The Chicago Sky star was one of the most well-known college athletes in the nation.

Zach Boyden-Holmes / USA TODAY NETWORK

Former LSU Tigers women's basketball star Angel Reese took the WNBA by storm this season with a huge rookie year on the court and the rivalry between her and Caitlin Clark dominating the stories off the court.

From her days at LSU and the 2023 national championship run the Tigers made ending in a national title victory over Clark's Iowa Hawkeyes, Reese helped push the women's game to a place it had never been before and was one of the key cogs in creating a genuine media interest. As a result, she was one of the highest compensated NIL athletes in all of college sports along with teammate Flau’jae Johnson, but Reese says that it wasn't all great when it came to capitalizing on her brand.

"That was another reason why I left college too. I couldn’t do certain things while I was in school. Only certain deals could go through college," Reese said on her podcast to guest Dwayne Wade on her decision to go to the WNBA a year early. "You’re in college for nine months, I can't fly in and fly out like I’m able to do now."

Reese went on to share that when it came to earnings out of the LSU collective, every player on the team was getting the same thing, but this led her to have to take on the added burden of having to negotiate her own personal NIL deals with brands such as Beats and Reebok.

"It makes you look in the room because everybody wasn’t making the same amount of money because my teammates weren’t making the same amount of money," she said, adding that she tried as best as she could to share with her teammates who were not making near what she was making and give them goods and resources she was receiving from brands.

By the time Reese decided she was leaving school for the WNBA, she had an NIL valuation of approximately $1.8 million. After being drafted No. 7 overall to the Chicago Sky, Reese had a huge rookie year. She averaged 13.6 points per game along with 13.1 rebounds per game, finishing second in rookie of the year voting to Clark.