How Much Are College Football Players Really Making? Position-By-Position Breakdown

It’s been a heck of a week for the College Football Playoff selection committee. As much as we all like to argue about the rankings — and the first batch released on Tuesday brought plenty of consternation — this week felt particularly questionable. For those who aren’t as familiar with the process, I went down to Dallas earlier this month to participate in a mock selection exercise that mimics the CFP’s own process. Give it a read if you haven’t already. It’s a good parallel for how this will continue to play out over the next month. But enough about that. Let’s get into some numbers! The Main Event: How Much CFB Players Are Making If there’s one complaint I hear from every corner of college sports almost weekly, it’s the lack of information and transparency about what people are paying athletes. Behold! We actually have data to discuss. The College Sports Commission — the entity created out of the House settlement that’s responsible for effectively vetting athlete compensation — released a new-look database on Friday that revealed revenue share and third-party NIL payment information. “Everyone, to some degree or another, has probably been flying blind as far as what the market is actually bearing,” CSC Head of Operations and Deputy General Counsel John Bramlette told me. “People have tried to construct reports about that — and very, very valiantly. But we felt like if there was a way that was legal, equitable and under the various legal considerations where we could present information that would be useful to everybody — schools and student athletes — we felt like it was a good opportunity to do it.” The data provided is admittedly a bit dense, so I did my best to simplify it and make it a little more digestible, while also diving into a few of the numbers that stood out. Here’s a sampling of the median payment figures for football players that includes how much they are receiving directly from their schools (revenue share) and how much is coming from outside marketing deals (NIL): Quarterback Running Back Wide Receiver Tight End Offensive Line Linebacker Defensive Back Defensive Line Again, these are the median figures and might seem a touch low relative to some of the reporting that’s out there around athlete compensation. Take quarterbacks, for example. On3 reported in August that at least 13 signal-callers were being paid $3 million or more this fall. That tracks. The CSC’s data showed quarterbacks in the 90th percentile of earners are making a combined $2.6 million between NIL and revenue-share dollars. That group includes Miami’s Darian Mensah, Ole Miss’ Trinidad Chambliss, Oregon’s Dante Moore, Oklahoma State’s Drew Mestemaker and Indiana’s Josh Hoover. The report also included other sports, such as men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball, etc. In men’s basketball, the data showed that the gap between high-end spending in the Power Four ($662,000) and non-Power Four ($250,000) in revenue sharing was dramatic, while the 90th percentile of compensation within the Power Four ranged from $559,500 in the Big Ten to $662,000 in the Big 12. The hope with the data released last week is that it will help arm schools with more insightful information that can inform decision-making heading toward another December transfer portal window. “Maybe this data can play some role as trying to help student athletes have some sense or semblance of what the market might bear, which might inform decisions about transferring and might inform other decisions, whether it’s going pro or transferring or whatever else,” Bramlette speculated. “Hopefully, there’s some value to student athletes, and then hopefully there’s value for schools. “Practitioners at schools feel like they’re in the dark when negotiating or when discussing with kids, with athletes what compensation they might be being offered in other places. If nothing else, hopefully it closes an information gap and maybe yields to ‘better’ outcomes for both sides.” Best Quote I Saw This Week “This is entertainment, right? So we figured we’d bring some entertainment value.” — Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti I genuinely cannot remember an end of a game quite like what Indiana and Minnesota displayed last Saturday, trading a pair of 60-yard field goals to push the game into overtime. I hope everyone in greater Bloomington got in with their cardiologists during the bye week this week. Hoosiers football hasn’t exactly been for the faint of heart this fall. Best Deal I Saw This Week If you’ve ever spent more than about five minutes in downtown Indianapolis, you have undoubtedly seen the enormous complex occupied by Eli Lilly near the city’s heart. Well, now the company is getting into college sports. The pharmaceutical giant announced on-court logo deals with Indiana and Purdue ahead of the start of the college basketball season. Short of John Mellencamp, that’s about as Indiana as a sponsorship deal can get.