Former Soccer Star Emily Harrigan Discusses NIL Opportunities for College Athletes

Emily Harrigan, a social media sensation, talks about how she made a career after her playing days.

Feb 6, 2016; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; The Pittsburgh Panthers mascot and the PITT student section prepare as the Panthers host the Virginia Cavaliers at the Petersen Events Center. / Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Emily Harrigan started her career at Rutgers as a women's soccer player, but ended her career at Pittsburgh. The once-soccer star has since seen her profile grow an immense amount, working with some of the top brands in the world.

Harrigan missed out on NIL opportunities when she was a student-athlete as it wasn't in place just yet. However, she built her brand and has landed many massive partnerships, something collegiate athletes might not understand.

While playing professionally is often many athletes' dream, there are ways for former student-athletes to still make money from content and other strategies.

In a conversation with Jon Conahan of Sports Illustrated, Harrigan went into detail about how she capitalized on her brand-building and was able to monetize things for herself.

"As soon as the NIL laws passed, I actually was one of the people on my team with the biggest platform," Harrigan said. "I was like 'I guess I'll start to reach out to brands on my own.' I was messaging multiple brands and everything. Once I started to see my platform grow, that's when I started looking for management and that's how I ended up with Outshine. My team at Outshine has been amazing at helping me."

Outshine Talent helps athletes land partnerships, and Aaron Koschitzki has been a big help in that. When speaking with Koschitzki, he said Harrigan "is the perfect example of what they look for."

Of course, Harrigan wonders what it could've been like if she did play during this NIL landscape. She did, however, have a chance to play a fifth year, but decided against it as she was injured when getting ready for the season.

Social media is a big piece in all of this.

Brands want to work with athletes who, not only have a platform, but create fun and engaging content. Harrigan's Instagram, which has nearly 450,000 followers, is the perfect example of that.

"When I decided to not take my fifth year was when I told myself that if I don't, I'm going to put everything into my content and really focus on that. Shortly after that, I hit about 100,000 followers on Instagram.

My mindset was, just because I'm not affiliated with a team, doesn't mean I haven't played the last 16 years, that's why I kept up with the soccer content at the time."

She has since branched off into other sports, too.

Landing deals with Coinbase, Gatorade, Under Armour, Xfinity, DraftKings, L'Oreal, Bleacher Report, and many more, Harrigan has it all covered.

She did a recent deal with Gatorade in New York City a few weeks ago, calling it a "really good experience."

Harrigan ended her conversation with some advice for female student-athletes who might want to pursue a similar career path that she's currently on.

"The biggest thing when it comes to content, especially as a female, is putting yourself out there on the internet. Even for me, I get negative comments sometimes. Luckily, I would say about 90% of my comments are positive.

But, you just have to not really care about what other people think. And as cliche as that sounds, it's true. Just having fun with it and if it becomes too stressful, take a step back from it. You have to love it, it's not something that you can really do because you want to have so many followers and make money from it"

Authentic and engaging content is what Koschitzki is looking for when he looks for people to work with. Outshine has an impressive roster of talent due to the strategy they take as a company.

"Emily's someone who creates content that feels real. Her followers love it. We also look for work ethic. We want to work with athletes who want to grow, who really want to succeed, so we can help them get to where they want to get to."