USC standout junior guard JuJu Watkins joined the investor group of National Women’s Soccer League’s expansion Boston Legacy Football Club, the club announced Thursday. She became the first college athlete to directly invest in a professional women’s sports team. 

Watkins joins a growing list of high-profile investors backing Boston Legacy ahead of the club’s 2026 inaugural season, including Indiana Fever forward Aliyah Boston, Chicago Bears quarterback and USC alum Caleb Williams, Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman, and actress Elizabeth Banks. 

Boston Legacy Controlling Owner Jennifer Epstein called Watkins’ involvement “a groundbreaking moment for women’s sports,” in a Thursday news release. She said the rise of name, image and likeness opportunities has allowed college athletes unique opportunities to build long-term influence beyond competition. 

“She’s showing that today’s student-athletes aren’t just building their own brands — they’re shaping the future of the game,” Epstein said in the release.

Watkins echoed that sentiment in the release, framing the move as a step toward expanding leadership opportunities for women across sports. 

“Boston Legacy FC is creating a space for women to achieve, lead and inspire others at the highest level,” Watkins said in the release. “I’m proud to be part of the movement pushing women’s sports forward.”

The investment comes as Watkins continues her recovery from the ACL tear she suffered during USC’s second-round NCAA Tournament matchup against Mississippi State in March. The injury will sideline her for the 2025-26 collegiate season, though she will likely return to USC for her senior year before presumably heading to the WNBA.

During her freshman campaign, Watkins set the all-time Division I freshman scoring record with 920 points, leading USC to its first Pac-12 Tournament title in more than a decade. She was a unanimous first-team All-American and ranked second in the nation in scoring, earning recognition as the face of USC’s return to national prominence under Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb. 

As a sophomore, Watkins led USC to the Big Ten regular season championship and swept the nation’s top individual awards, including the Naismith College Player of the Year, the John R. Wooden Award and Associated Press Player of the Year honors. 

Watkins’ move also comes amid a broader surge in investment into professional women’s sports — a wave that includes USC leadership. Last year, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Dean Willow Bay and her husband, Disney CEO Bob Iger, purchased a controlling stake in Angel City Football Club, valuing the NWSL team at $250 million — the highest of any women’s professional sports franchise to date. 

“Women’s sports is having a culture-defining moment,” Bay told The Los Angeles Times in July 2024, after her investment in Angel City was announced. “Participation is on the rise, viewership is on the rise, and appreciation for the level of the skill that these athletes demonstrate also is on the rise.”

Together, these developments mark a new era in which women athletes are not only competing at the highest levels but shaping the economic and cultural futures of their sports. 

Boston Legacy FC will begin league play in March 2026.