Top 5 College Football Players With the Highest NIL Valuations

Just five years ago, the biggest perk a college football star could count on was a free jersey and a good parking spot. Well, that world is past us. The best players in the sport now carry agents, long lists of sponsors, and price tags that stretch into the millions, and On3 recently updated its national valuation board to show just how deep the money of these stars has reached.

A lot of players are cashing checks these days, but only a handful of them live like royalty on their own campus. To make this list, a player needs the kind of deals that turn heads in the dining hall, and almost every one of those spots belongs to a quarterback. That is what makes the one wide receiver you will find here so unusual. These are the five college football stars cashing the biggest checks and living the biggest lives on campus.

5. Dante Moore is Oregon’s biggest NIL star

Nobody waited longer for a payday than Dante Moore, and the reward could hardly have been bigger. He started his career at UCLA, transferred to Oregon, waited his turn behind other quarterbacks, and now walks into his senior season as the face of the flashiest program in college football.

Oregon has built its whole identity around speed and style, and the quarterback is always the star of that show. Moore sits inside the top five of the national valuation board, and reporting has linked him to deals with Nike and Beats by Dre. You could not script a more Oregon set of sponsors even if you tried.

4. Sam Leavitt and the recruitment that overtook the sport

Imagine being injured and unsigned and somehow still one of the most wanted men in college football. That was Leavitt back in January. He showed up in the transfer portal on the second day of the month, and for two straight weeks, nearly every powerhouse program chased after him.

The recruitment got so intense that new LSU coach Lane Kiffin flew to Knoxville in the middle of it just to win Leavitt back after their talks nearly fell apart. It helped that Leavitt had already led Arizona State to a Big 12 title and a College Football Playoff appearance, so schools knew what they were paying for. His price climbed past four million dollars before he finally signed with LSU, and the whole city knows exactly what he cost to get there.

3. Bryce Underwood landed a record NIL deal

Underwood was still a high school senior in Belleville, Michigan, and he had already committed to LSU, when his hometown school decided to change the whole market. Michigan flipped his commitment with a four-year package that reports valued at $10.5 million, and that deal still stands as the largest in college football history.

The remarkable part is his age. Underwood is only 18 years old and heading into his second college season. Most students his age are still splitting a pizza four ways and arguing over gas money, while he sits near the top of the national money board as the youngest name on it.

2. Jeremiah Smith built College Football’s biggest brand

The Ohio State receiver might own the best collection of deals in the entire country. Smith became the first college athlete ever printed on a Red Bull can, earned a spot on the cover of the College Football 26 video game, and stacked Nintendo, Lulumelon, American Eagle, and 7- Eleven on top of all of it.

Then a local dealership deal put a brand new Mercedes in his driveway, and the dealership itself belongs to movie star Mark Wahlberg’s auto group. When you sort every athlete in college sports by value, only Arch Manning and one basketball star rank ahead of Smith. He also turned down a transfer offer he described as “over $10 million, easy,” so he could stay in Columbus, which is the rare case of a king looking at a bigger castle and deciding he likes the one he already has.

1. Arch Manning still sets the NIL standard

The famous last name opened the door, and now the arm is doing the rest of the work. Manning carries a $5.4 million valuation, the only figure above five million dollars in all of college football. Every other deal in the sport ends up measured against his number, which is about as close to royalty as this era gets.

He has been famous since he was a middle schooler, long before he ever started a college game, and the grandson of Archie Manning now runs the most valuable brand in the sport from his spot at Texas. When your last name doubles as the benchmark everyone else chases, calling you campus royalty is not a stretch at all.

One hoest note belongs here before anyone argues over the order. These numbers are estimates of a player’s market value, not the guaranteed money in their bank account, and the actual private deals could run even higher than what the public sees. You can debate the ranking all you want, and plenty of students will. Just remember that while you are reading this, one of these five is somewhere on campus deciding which car to drive to class.