Caitlin Clarke, Zia Cooke Headline $1M NIL Initiative Helping Female College Athletes

H&R Block on Tuesday announced the launch of A Fair Shot, a program aimed at providing $1 million in "sponsorships and support" for female college sports student-athletes through name, image and likeness (NIL) contracts.

Iowa's Caitlin Clark and South Carolina's Zia Cooke, two of the top point guards in women's college basketball, received the first deals as part of the initiative.

Clark, who attends Iowa's business school, told ESPN's Mechelle Voepel that the program aims to assist athletes in dealing with the complexities of the new opportunities presented by the NIL era:

"I think that's what H&R Block's goal is: To help student-athletes. This isn't something college athletes have really had to deal with before at all because NIL has only been around a short time. And it is taxable money, so they're just trying to guide us along that process."

"They approached me with their campaign and what they were looking to do, and it was an easy yes for me to be a part of it. The inequities are something that female athletes have been dealing with a long time, and over the past year it was brought to light even more with the situation with the weight room at the NCAA tournament and things like that."

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June opened the door for college athletes to sign NIL contracts, saying the NCAA couldn't bar payments "related to education," and thousands of players have benefited.

In January, Erica Hunzinger of the Associated Press detailed information compiled by two tracking organizations, INFLCR and Opendorse, which showed around 125,000 of the 500,000 athletes across the NCAA's three divisions had received NIL compensation.

A gender gap had emerged, however, as the data showed 59 percent of the deals and 67.4 percent of the compensation went to men's student-athletes, per Hunzinger.

H&R Block said A Fair Shot will aim to "amplify the voices of female student-athletes" and attempt to "level the playing field" with their male counterparts. Company CEO Jeff Jones said:

"When we saw the disparity already growing in college NIL sponsorships, we knew we had to help female college athletes get a fair shot. This commitment draws from our purpose to provide help and inspire confidence in our clients and communities everywhere. When we invest in female college athletes, we are helping to create a positive impact in society that’s good for all of us."

Cooke told Voepel her work with the tax preparation company has already shifted her mindset:

"We are making history being the first student-athletes to navigate going to school, practice and now NIL deals. Athletes need to start thinking about finances and NIL when they think about playing sports in college. Something that H&R Block has taught me is that we also need to start thinking of ourselves like small businesses."

H&R Block said it is looking to work with more female players "across several other sports and schools" as part of the effort to push for equality among college athletics.