Orange County Businesses Are Trading Celebrity Endorsements for College Athletes, and the Numbers Back Them Up

Irvine, CA, July 30, 2026 --(PR.com)-- A new marketing playbook is taking hold in Orange County. Instead of celebrity endorsements and traditional advertising, local businesses are paying college athletes from nearby campuses to bring their followers through the door. And the athletes cashing the checks are not quarterbacks. They come from seven sports: tennis, volleyball, basketball, water polo, softball, track and field, and soccer. Most had never been paid by a brand before.

Nationally, the market for college athlete partnerships reached $4.5 billion this year, according to Opendorse's 2026 annual NIL report. Most of that money flows to football and basketball players at major programs. The Orange County version looks different: local businesses signing local athletes, across every sport, at budgets a small business can afford.

Orange County Soccer Club learned the difference the expensive way.

"We fell into a trap a lot of people fall into," said Dan Rutstein, President of Business Operations at OCSC, the USL Championship club that plays in America's second division. "We thought the way to do influencer marketing was to throw money at a giant celebrity. It got a very good number of views, but it didn't really move the needle at all. We knew we needed to move to community-based marketing."

This spring, the club took a different approach. Working through Contested, a platform where businesses partner with college athletes and run NIL campaigns end-to-end, OCSC signed 31 athletes from Orange County schools to attend matches from March through June and post about the experience on their own channels. The athletes produced 137 pieces of content that generated more than 198,600 views at 6.1% average engagement, 3.84 times the 1.59% average for Instagram influencers (Statista).

"There's definitely a larger number of people who know who we are now," Rutstein said. "Through the affiliate side, there were some real ticket sales that came off the back of it. In terms of the awareness play, we definitely achieved our goals in making ourselves more visible to that community."

The content worked because it didn't look like advertising, Rutstein said. "You could feel from the content that they were having fun. Quite a lot of the time they brought friends with them, some of whom seem to have become super fans along the way. It feels like a young person who likes sport came to watch a sports event and had a really good time, which is ultimately the story you want to tell."

For the athletes, the campaign was often a first. Kara Chen, a tennis player at UC Irvine, had cold-emailed brands on her own and received free product in exchange for content, but never a paycheck.

"I was honestly a little shocked when I received my first payment," Chen said. "Before this, I didn't think NIL opportunities were common for tennis, since most of what I had seen was centered around football and basketball. It showed me there are opportunities for athletes in every sport."

Marisol Cowles, a women's water polo player at UC Irvine, agreed: "I never thought I would be able to do an NIL deal. Now I know it's not only possible, it's easy and fun."

Keegan McGann, who plays men's water polo at UC Irvine, heard about the program from a teammate over lunch. He went to a match, shot photos and video with friends, and posted the next day. "It was pretty simple. I was paid less than a week later," he said. "I took my friend and my girlfriend, and they've been asking when we're going back."

The model is spreading beyond the soccer club. Contested has signed many more Orange County businesses, according to co-founder Blake Godlove.

"An Orange County business doesn't need a Power 4 quarterback," Godlove said. "It needs athletes whose followers live 20 minutes from its front door. That audience already exists on the campuses down the street, in every sport."

Asked what he would tell another local business considering the approach, Rutstein didn't hesitate. "If you want clear, innovative content from genuine, enthusiastic young people who've got a story to tell and want to go out and tell it, the student athlete is probably the type of person you want to be working with."

About Contested
Contested is a platform where businesses partner with college athletes and run NIL campaigns end-to-end, from finding athletes to contracts to payment. Learn more at Local.contested.com.

About Orange County Soccer Club
Orange County Soccer Club is a professional soccer team competing in the USL Championship, America's second division, playing home matches at Championship Soccer Stadium in Irvine, California.