2026 College Football NIL Value Rankings: Top 25

Roster budgets have become one of the loudest signals in college football. In the revenue-sharing era, total NIL value — collective NIL, donor investment, and the football share of revenue sharing — is the closest public proxy for how much talent a program can afford to buy and keep. And talent is exactly what our power ratings are built to measure. Below is our top 25 for 2026 total NIL value, followed by the question that actually matters for bettors: does the money translate to wins?

Total NIL Value — Top 25 (2026 Preseason)

Total NIL value includes collective NIL, donor investment, and revenue sharing allocated to football. Based on publicly reported opportunities, industry estimates, and NIL collective disclosures as of May 2026. Figures are estimates and vary by source.

Money buys talent — but not always wins

The top of the NIL board mostly maps to the top of our power ratings, which is what you'd expect: Texas, Ohio State, Oregon, and the SEC heavyweights concentrate both the talent and the money. When a team sits near the top of both lists, the market has usually priced it correctly, and there's little edge to find.

The value lives at the mismatches — where a team's spot on the NIL board and its spot in our ratings don't agree.

Spending more than it's winning: fade candidates

Every year a heavy investor underdelivers relative to its checkbook — coaching, scheme fit, roster construction, or simple variance. When a top-10 NIL budget is attached to a team our ratings don't have inside the national top 10, that gap is a flag: the win total may be inflated by name and payroll rather than on-field strength, which points toward the under.

Winning above its budget: value risers

The flip side is more interesting. Notre Dame is the cleanest example on this board — 21st in NIL value at $18.9M, yet one of the very best teams in our power ratings. Programs that rate far higher than they spend are doing something efficient (development, continuity, culture), and the market is often slow to fully price it. Those are the teams whose overs and weekly spreads tend to carry value.

How we use it

NIL value is one input, not the answer. Our power ratings don't assume a team's payroll equals its quality — they measure on-field efficiency, market signals, and situational data, then let the results decide. When a big budget's rating lags, we look at the under; when a modest budget rates higher than its money, we lean toward the over. The dollars tell you where the talent should be. The ratings tell you where it actually is — and the space between the two is where the bets live.

For entertainment and informational purposes only. NIL figures are third-party estimates as of May 2026 and may not be exact. Nothing here is financial or betting advice. Must be 21+ (or of legal age in your jurisdiction). If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER.