Olivia Dunne Hit With Major Blow in NIL Rankings Amidst LSU Concerns

“The NIL rule changed, that’s the day my life changed,” stated Olivia Dunne once. Surely, drawing millions of dollars from the NCAA’s Name, Image, and Likeness program, Dunne has been quite a revelation. In fact, the amount of fame and exposure she got made her skyrocket to the list of the most heavily paid NCAA athletes. With over 13.66 million followers on social media, Dunne flaunts a healthy net worth of around $9.5 million. However, when it comes to her NIL valuation, Dunne seems to be struggling a tad bit. Despite being the highest-paid female athlete, Dunne’s position in the top 4 has been quite tumultuous. And to make matters worse, Arch Manning has caused her rank to plummet further.

Ahead of her LSU return in 2024, the stakes were expected to go through the roof for Dunne. However, that did not quite materialize. Although the LSU heartthrob did have a significant boost in her NIL valuation, the expectations weren’t quite met. Prior to her NCAA return, Dunne was valued at $3.9 million. But after her comeback, the LSU star’s valuation increased to $4.2 million. It was during this time that the redshirt freshman Arch Manning began his meteoric rise. After displacing Dunne from the second position, his latest endeavor has made the 22-year-old gymnast drop down further.

In a historic feat, Arch Manning claimed the top position in the NIL rankings. And in doing so, Manning did the impossible. He removed Shedeur Sanders from the first position! This looked like an impossible task as Sanders stayed put at the number 1 spot for over 250 days. According to On3.com, Arch Manning is now valued at $6.6 million. Giving him close competition is Sanders, who is right behind with a $6.5 million valuation. Now, all these shifts in rankings resulted in Olivia Dunne dropping to the 5th position. With her valuation remaining stagnant at $4.2 million, Dunne has quite a lot of competition. Apart from Sanders and Manning, the 22-year-old also has the likes of Quinn Ewers and Travis Hunter to beat.

And this was not the only instance of Manning messing up with the rankings of Dunne. As a matter of fact, Olivia Dunne enjoyed her privileged time at the second spot for quite some time. Unfortunately, Manning came in to spoil her party. Earlier, the redshirt saw his valuation shoot up to $4.8 million. This resulted in Dunne dropping to the third position. Next up, to make matters worse for the 22-year-old, Colorado’s star WR, Travis Hunter, gained a $4.5 million valuation to make the gymnast slip to fourth.

Thus, coming back for her final season at LSU, Dunne will surely look to make amends. And the task will be cut out for the NCAA phenom. On one hand, she will have to prove to her haters that she is capable of standing her ground on the mat and making meaningful contributions to the team’s victory. This is because Dunne had to face a lot of criticism as she looked from the bench when LSU won the title last year.

On the other hand, Dunne would also like to climb up the NIL ladder by acquiring some good brand deals. Unfortunately, the rising concerns regarding the LSU gymnastics team are making things even harder for the NCAA champ. Coincidentally, Dunne finds her at the exact spot where Bronny James was—displaced from NIL rankings with concerns over his team’s performance.

Olivia Dunne struggles to find rhythm amid rising LSU tensions

Olivia Dunne seems to have been surrounded by a cold blanket of negativity. With already enough problems for her to deal with, Dunne and the LSU have been hit with another major blow. Even before the start of the season, Dunn and co. will miss the services of their star player, Haleigh Bryant. Looking to defend their NCAA title, Bryant was one of the biggest of the Tigers. Unfortunately, as per the reports, Bryant will now be unavailable for their first game against Iowa State.

Bryant picked up her injury back at the 101 exhibition meet. Trying to execute a vault, the LSU senior gymnast got her elbows jammed. Right from that moment, she experienced discomfort that led to the somber diagnosis. “It’s a UCL strain. I don’t know the specific diagnosis, but it sounds like it aggravated what she did before,” commented Head Coach Jay Clark in a report from The Advocate.

Now, under such a tumultuous situation, the entire responsibility will be on Olivia Dunne’s shoulders. With a two-way goal in front of her, the LSU heartthrob is replicating a similar story to that of Bronny James. The son of the NBA legend, LeBron James was the first NCAA athlete to take the NIL by storm. Enjoying a healthy competition with Shedeur Sanders, Bronny James looked invincible at one point in his NCAA career. However, despite enjoying his sweet time at the top, things slowly started to go downhill.

Bronny James, a few months down the lane, was shining bright as the best NIL sensation with a total evaluation of $5.9 million dollars. However, soon things started to go haywire as young James was unexpectedly diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. It also resulted in him suffering a cardiac arrest at just 19 years of age. This affected his career, and he was forced to stay away from the court for five months. Moreover, he had to deal with a dull freshman season at USC. This started to reflect on his career graph with time, leading to his fall from the highest position as Shedeur Sanders dethroned James to grab the top spot.