"And yet, we still know too little about what college football players are actually earning. Agents share exaggerated sums in the interest of signing more clients. General managers downplay the numbers to avoid locker room issues. In the NFL, salary and contract data are easy to access. In this sport, without transparency, it's an inefficient market with an incredibly wide spectrum of underpaid to overpaid players."
"To be clear, these price ranges do not reflect what everybody is making at the Power 4 level. There are million-dollar outliers with the elite players at most positions, and there are still good, young players earning less than $100,000. Talent retention is still more affordable than acquisition, so it's the transfers who tend to reset the floor and ceiling. Agents say SEC and Big Ten programs continue to consistently outspend the ACC and Big 12, regardless of the revenue share cap."
Power 4 programs entered the first year of revenue sharing with more money to spend, re-signing returning players and acquiring over 1,400 transfers via the portal. Players increasingly hired agents to negotiate significant raises and maximize their market value. Lack of transparency makes actual player earnings difficult to verify, producing an inefficient market with exaggerated and downplayed figures. More than 20 college general managers and agents were surveyed to better define positional price ranges for 2025. Talent retention remains cheaper than acquisition, transfers tend to reset market floors and ceilings, and conference spending disparities persist. Quarterbacks are roughly $1 million to $2 million.
Read at ESPN.com
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