Think NCAA sports are on the way out

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Hunter Woodhall’s story of perseverance would make great television. But the N.C.A.A. can’t lean on Woodhall. Why? In January, frustrated with the organization’s inability to change with the times, he quit running collegiate track and turned professional. He had worked himself into a position where he no longer needed college sports the way they needed him.

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Woodhall has over 3.1 million social media followers across various platforms. Those numbers have him poised to bring in significant income from sponsored posts and pay from the social media channels, possibly as much as $800,000 a year, according to an estimate by Opendorse, a social media consulting firm that tracks the brand value of athletes and advises them on how to use online technology as a boost.

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“I was just experimenting and having fun and growing it slowly at first,” Woodhall told me recently, speaking from a newly purchased home near the university campus in Fayetteville, Ark. “But then the whole thing just sort of took off.”

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Woodhall will spend his time training for the Paralympics while reaping the rewards of being an internet influencer, paid in full. He said he makes roughly $7,500 per post and that it’s not hard to produce 10 each month.

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