Signing a historic contract with Fanatics, USC women’s basketball phenomenon JuJu Watkins is creating history both on and off the court.
Friday saw Watkins put pen to paper on an exclusive, multi-year contract with Fanatics and Fanatics Collectibles, the trading card component of the business. Signing such a contract with a multi-billion dollar company, she becomes the first female college athlete.
Along with trading cards with her autographs and game-worn goods, Fanatics will get rights to Watkins autographed memorabilia – mostly pictures and basketballs as part of the agreement.
On cards in the first standard issue of the 2025 Bowman University Chrome Basketball set, Watkins will be shown sporting her No. 12 USC uniform. Along with the Trojans guard, Duke standout Cooper Flagg, who recently signed with Fanatics on an exclusive arrangement, will be among the licensed card holders.
Fanatics claim that the agreement with Watkins “will continue into the next level of her career,” implying as though the relationship will last her WNBA stint. This is interesting as Panini actively owns the sole trading card license for the league.
Watkins’s big signing comes just over a year after Caitlin Clark signed a similar exclusive multi-year contract with Panini America while still in college. Paid almost $1 million in the first year of the contract, the Iowa product was the first of its type featuring a female athlete.
Lindsay Gottlieb, USC head coach, told Watkins Clark made an offer to “help her navigate” the demands of being a college basketball star ahead of next week’s NCAA Tournament. Speaking with Natasha Dye of PEOPLE, the 19-year-old admitted she hadn’t yet taken the Indiana Fever guard up on her offer.
“I haven’t yet reached out,” Watkins added. “Maybe.” Simply said, knowing that I have that support means a lot.
Watkins claimed to be a “big fan” of Clark and enjoyed seeing her “kill it” during a WNBA historic rookie campaign. “I am always proud and supporting her,” she said.
“She is simply a really great person, thus her doing such implies a lot. I haven’t gotten in touch yet, though.”
Following Iowa’s surprising 76-69 victory over USC last month, Clark was asked whether she regularly interacted with Watkins, who’s similarly drawn thousands of new fans to women’s basketball with her dynamic style of play.
She requires no assistance from me. She clearly is really gifted, and her game speaks for itself. As you can see from our whole scouting report, number 12 is everything it’s about. She is really entertaining to watch.
We really respect her quite a bit. She is a sophomore; she will get much better and now is really good. Hence, one finds it frightening to consider.