Ohio State's Emeka Egbuka signs NIL deal with Amazon Style
Emeka Egbuka is one-half of college football’s most potent wide receiver tandem.
While Marvin Harrison Jr. may grab the most headlines for his jaw-dropping catches, Egbuka has emerged as one of the sport’s most consistent pass catchers.
A former five-star recruit, the Ohio State star finished with 74 receptions for 1,151 yards and 10 touchdowns last season. One of CJ Stroud‘s top targets, he averaged 15.6 yards per catch.
Egbuka is now the face of an Amazon Style campaign at Easton Town Center in Columbus. The first-ever physical store concept from the tech giant features clothing, shoes and accessories. The receiver made the announcement on Instagram.
As part of the campaign, the 6-foot-1, 205-pound receiver is featured on a billboard over the story. The Columbus location is one of just two stores in the country next to Glendale, California.
Amazon has become a notable spender in the NIL marketplace. Former Auburn quarterback T.J. Finely and Clemson basketball player Brevin Galloway each launched personalized apparel brands with Amazon in 2022 summer. Amazon also enlisted USC athletes to promote merchandise through NIL deals. And in the last month, LSU basketball stars Angel Reese and Flau’jae Johnson starred in a “Dormz” commercial for the brand.
Egbuka wasn’t considered to be up for the Biletnikoff Award last fall. The receiver was recently named to the watch list for the trophy, given the college football’s top receiver. Expected to be a first-round pick in the 2024 NFL draft, he snagged at least five passes in nine of the Buckeyes’ 13 games last season. His 526 yards after the catch were tied for 12th among all players nationally in 2022, per PFF. He will be working with a new quarterback this year.
Emeka Egbuka’s NIL brand
The wide receiver has developed a major social media following in his first two years of college. Egbuka has nearly 100,000 social media followers. That number should continue to grow with a strong start to the fall.
He has signed NIL deals with the Ohio-State driven NIL collective The Foundation and Intuit TurboTax. Egbuka also participated in last November’s Fortnite Tournament. Powered by eFuse, sources told On3 more than six figures were spent in signing talent to the Ohio State and Michigan tournament rosters.
The wideout has a $977,000 On3 NIL Valuation, which ranks in the top 20 college football NIL rankings. He sits at No. 25 in the On3 NIL 100, which is the first of its kind and defacto NIL ranking of the top 100 high school and college athletes ranked by their On3 NIL Valuation. It is also the top-ranked On3 NIL Valuation in college football.
The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets the standard market NIL value for high school and college athletes. A proprietary algorithm, the On3 NIL Valuation calculates an athlete’s NIL value using dynamic data points targeting three primary categories: performance, influence and exposure.
About On3 NIL Valuation, Brand Value, Roster Value
While the algorithm includes deal data, it does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals athletes have completed to date, nor does it set an athlete’s NIL valuation for their entire career. The On3 NIL Valuation calculates the optimized NIL opportunity for athletes relative to the overall NIL market and projects out to as long as 12 months into the future.