Inside the college football NIL market: How much players at each position are actually getting paid

Diving into the truth about college football's name, image and likeness deals for players in the transfer portal

By John Talty May 20, 2024 at 3:42 pm ET• 6 min read

What does it cost to get a starting player in this current college football ecosystem?

It's a question begging to be answered but fraught with complications. Even in Year 3 of name, image and likeness where players getting paid has become increasingly accepted, it is still beyond challenging to get real, hard data on what players are making. 

There is no centralized data. There are deals that are run through platforms like Opendorse that give a sense of what the market is doing, but there are still plenty of deals happening in the shadows and not officially run through any system. 

With all that in mind, CBS Sports attempted to put together as accurate a market assessment as possible. We talked to NIL agents, collective operators, college coaches and personnel staffers, players and their parents and others with knowledge of the space. There will always be outliers, but this is our best effort at establishing the market range for Power Four starters at each position. These numbers also take into account what we believe to be the retention cost to keep a player from hitting the transfer portal.