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5 Wolverines that will benefit most from NIL Ruling

By Alex Hinton

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - MARCH 30: Hunter Dickinson #1 of the Michigan Wolverines reacts during the first half against the UCLA Bruins in the Elite Eight round game of the 2021 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium on March 30, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - MARCH 30: Hunter Dickinson #1 of the Michigan Wolverines reacts during the first half against the UCLA Bruins in the Elite Eight round game of the 2021 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium on March 30, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /

Cade McNamara/JJ McCarthy

Cade McNamara and JJ McCarthy have one career start between them, but one of them is about to be thrust into a huge role. Michigan Football is one of the most renowned brands in all of sports and its Twitter page has 868K followers, third-most in college football.

Quarterback is the most important and most recognizable position in football. This means McNamara or McCarthy will soon be the face of one of the biggest brands in college football.

Both McCarthy and McNamara have plenty of social capital on their own. McCarthy has 20.1K followers on Twitter, 64.5K on Instagram, and 751 followers on Tik Tok.

McNamara has 11.4K followers on Twitter and 13.5K followers on Instagram. Those numbers will certainly rise once the season gets underway. For comparison, Oklahoma QB Spencer Rattler started last season for the Sooners as a redshirt freshman. A year later, Rattler has 63.5K followers on Twitter, 377K followers on Instagram, and is one of the favorites to win the Heisman this season. Rattler was also a five-star recruit out of high school just like McCarthy was.

If McCarthy and McNamara are productive on the field, the opportunities for them to profit off their name, image, and likeness will be endless. I mean, what company would not want to partner with the starting quarterback for the Michigan football team? If one of them is the next Michigan QB to lead the Wolverines to a victory over Ohio State, a lot of Michigan alums who own or run businesses will want to partner with them just off that alone.

AJ Henning

Henning will be on the receiving end of passes from McNamara and McCarthy. I think Henning can have a big year if the Wolverines can get the ball in his hands more often.

However, he is already in an excellent position to profit off his name, image, and likeness. Henning has the largest social following of any current Michigan football player. Henning has 8.9K followers on Twitter and 19.6K followers on Instagram.

However, unlike many of his teammates, the bulk of Henning’s social following comes from Tik Tok. Henning has over 164K followers on Tik Tok, bringing his combined social following over 192K. That kind of following will make Henning very attractive to companies looking to sponsor him.

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