These Fresno State basketball twins have 2.8 million TikTok fans

As the NCAA tip-toes through student-athlete protests and state and federal oversight toward Name, Image and Likeness legislation, Haley and Hanna Cavinder, the twin guards on the Fresno State women’s basketball team, are gaining more and more interest in their potential on social media platforms.

Their earning potential on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok has exploded since last August when the Fresno State athletics department partnered with Opendorse, a marketing solution platform for athletes, and was the subject of an Outside the Lines feature on ESPN on Saturday.

The Cavinders last August had individual Instagram accounts with more than 100,000 followers, a YouTube channel with more than 25,000 subscribers and a TikTok account that had more than 662,000 followers.

Their earning potential, according to a valuation prepared by Opendorse, ran well into six figures annually.

But since then, those numbers have exploded, putting the Bulldogs’ sophomore guards in the same social media stratosphere as any of the top NCAA football or basketball stars.

They both have more than 185,000 followers on individual Instagram accounts, more than 63,000 subscribers on YouTube and a TikTok account that has more than 2.8 million followers; in less than one year, their followers have increased by 85% on Instagram, 152% on YouTube and 308% on TikTok.

A single branded TikTok post to more than 662,000 followers was valued at about $7,900, and they now have more than 2.7 million followers. One of their TikTok posts typically will garner 400,000 to 1 million views; one has more than 27.5 million.

When the Cavinders and NCAA student-athletes will be able to cash in is an open-ended question. The NCAA in January tabled the Name, Image and Likeness proposals while adopting a fatuous resolution stating it is committed to modernizing its rules. But the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Alston v. NCAA, an antitrust case that could play a role in how future Name, Image and Likeness rules are put together.

This story was originally published March 27, 2021 at 8:55 PM.