UConn basketball star Paige Bueckers has just signed an unprecedented NIL deal with the new Unrivaled women's basketball league. According to The Athletic's NBA insider Shams Charania, Bueckers is signing an NIL deal with Unrivaled, a new 3-on-3 women's basketball league. Unrivaled promises the highest average pay in professional women's basketball, over the WNBA.

This deal makes Bueckers the first NCAA athlete to receive ownership equity in a league.

The UConn basketball star is expected to play in both Unrivaled and the WNBA after she finishes her collegiate career at UConn. She is expected to join Unrivaled after her first WNBA season, according to sources.

Paige Bueckers will play her final collegiate season for UConn basketball this year. She is a potential No.1 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft. Bueckers averaged 21.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game for the Huskies last season.

What is the Unrivaled women's basketball league?

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WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier announced Unrivaled in July 2023. The league features a 10-15% ownership pool for players and has been aggressively pursuing WNBA stars to join. It will include six franchises with 30 total players. The league salary cap for those 30 players will be at least $7.5 million, which promises an average salary of $250,000. This is barely above the WNBA supermax of $241,000.

“Women’s sports is on such a rise, and it feels like everyone is benefiting from that except the women in the sport, and obviously that’s something we’re trying to change and then also create generational wealth for these women,” Collier said via The Athletic back in May. “From the beginning, (Stewart) and I really set out to create a league that was founded on that principle that players deserve compensation and ownership that reflect their value.”

Unrivaled features top-shelf WNBA stars like Arike Ogunbowale, Jewell Loyd, Kelsey Plum, Kahleah Copper, and Angel Reese among others. UConn basketball star Paige Bueckers will fit right in.

The league will officially launch in January.