Fiona Crawley may end up getting her deserved money after all.

The UNC women’s tennis star who qualified for the U.S. Open in both singles and doubles made headlines when she was forced to reject her $81,000 in winnings from the tournament in order to stay eligible for her senior season with the Tar Heels. The NCAA bars college athletes from claiming prize money of more than $10,000.

Now, the digital platform myNILpay, which according to a release “allows anyone to directly pay NCAA student-athletes through NIL rights,” is encouraging UNC alumni and fans to donate to Crawley through its mobile app.

“We created myNILpay for this exact reason, to easily support student-athletes and help them maximize their earnings,” said Brent Chapman, CEO of the platform. “This is an unfortunate situation following an amazing performance, so we’re aiming to help Fiona recover her earnings in an NCAA-compliant method.”

Chapman said fans who want to donate to Crawley can download the platform’s app, look up Crawley in the NCAA athlete database and enter the amount of money to send. Upon receipt of the money, fans will receive a “digital asset” featuring Crawley’s name and digital signature to complete the transaction.

Crawley – the reigning ITA National Player of the Year – was an integral part of UNC’s NCAA championship win last season, the first in program history. The then-junior from San Antonio helped Carolina to the team title before winning the doubles championship with teammate Carson Tanguilig, which automatically qualified them for the U.S. Open. Crawley then won three matches in U.S. Open singles qualifying to earn a bid into the main draw. She returns to Chapel Hill as the ITA’s top-ranked collegiate singles player.

 

Featured image via ITA on Twitter


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