Top 2026 Women’s Basketball Recruit Discusses How NIL Will Factor Into Decision

NIL has been used by many of the top athletics programs in the country to land their top recruiting targets on the football field and men’s basketball court.

As the two revenue generators, it makes sense as to why that’s the case.

However, name, image and likeness has been a catalyst for collegiate athletes across different sports to cash in.

With different states legalizing NIL at the high school level, that opens up a whole different set of possibilities for athletes before they even get to college.

No. 1 women’s basketball player in the class of 2026, Jerzy Robinson, has been able to capitilize on that already. She secured an NIL deal with Nike at 15 years old, something the Arizona native called life changing.

“Being able to sign with Nike at 15 [years old] has just changed my life. Sometimes you have to take risks, but the reward is always greater. I still don’t believe it’s real. All the time, the hard work, the testimony, the struggle, the sacrifice and the tears – it just all comes to fruition and to be able to be signed by Nike has just changed my life,” she told Talia Goodman of On3.

She has been a force on the high school, AAU, and international circuit.

Many evaluators regard her as the best high school women’s player regardless of classification.

Because of that, Robinson is on the radar of the top programs in the country like UConn, South Carolina, and LSU. She still hasn’t taken any visits yet, but that will certainly change heading into her junior season.

With a Nike deal already in place, there are some questions about how NIL will play into her commitment decision. She spoke with Goodman about that after transferring to Sierra Canyon in California to pursue more NIL opportunities.

“I think there’s many pros and cons to [NIL] at this point. It’s a little early on. I think like a lot of people say, keep the main thing the main thing and the NIL stuff will come. I’m not choosing a college solely based on NIL, but that’s obviously a very good benefit that I’m interested in. I want to make sure it’s 100% well-rounded,” Robinson said.

That’s certainly a mature outlook, and something that seems to be the case for many high school athletes right now as name, image and likeness has become a more familiar commodity.