Oglethorpe University's Laney Higgins on NIL Undressed

Today’s guest has done something that the majority of people that follow college athletics didn’t think was going to happen, a non divison 1 athlete making an impact in the NIL space. In fact, Laney Higgens of the Oglethorpe University women’s volleyball team, a division 3 program in Atlanta not only told the skeptics to shut their mouths through her actions but she became a leader in the NIL space. Get comfortable and listen to this. Laney has forged partnerships with brands such as, Meta, Champs, Outback, Q-collar, Inn Beauty, Campus Ink and many others. It doesn’t stop there, one of the untold stories of athletes in the NIL space is how they give back. Laney has donated her earnings to charities like USF Health, Extra Yard for Teachers and the Women’s sports foundation. Her partnerships have resulted in over 450 media placements with a total audience of nearly 70 million people. This is how you can tell Laney is going to do something big in life, she understands the metrics. As a freshmen she was named to Meta’s NIL Empower 2.0 which features 30 of the top female student athletes around the country. As part of her participation in the program, Laney earned the program’s Hustle Award. This summer, Laney was one of four female student-athlete’s featured at the NIL Summit on Instagram’s “Content Capture, Creation and Storytelling” panel. She also recently spoke as the featured athlete panelist for NACDA’s “Navigating Small School NIL” Webinar.
Through her involvement in Meta’s NIL Empower 2.0 program, Laney started a weekly content franchise on Instagram Live called “W4LKING and T4LKING”. The show has already featured 18 female student-athletes, who are also social influencers from around the country. The show’s guests have a combined social media following of over 1,200,000 people. The “W4LKING and T4LKING” recap reels have already generated over 90,000 views averaging nearly 5,000 views per episode.
In addition to her success on the court and with NIL, Laney has been successful in the classroom throughout high school and college. In high school, Laney was a four time Academic all-American. More recently, she was named to the Southern Athletic Association’s Academic Honor Roll as well as to Oglethorpe University’s Deans List. Laney also earned the Southern Athletic Association’s Sportsmanship Award this past Fall.
During her senior year of high school, Laney became the first high school female athlete in Florida to sign a NIL deal and she earned college scholarships from USA Volleyball, Positive Coaching Alliance and the Heart of a Champion.
Laney resides in Tampa with her family while not in college and works as the Orlando Tampa Volleyball Academy’s Social Media Manager. She also recently worked on the NCAA’s social media team for the 2023 NCAA Men’s Frozen Four.