The new economics of college sports
Coverage, filings, and our own perspectives on how athletic departments are financing the NIL era. Updated as the market moves.
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In The News
College football program valuations: What the top programs in the country are actually worth
The Athletic's 2026 valuations put Texas at $2.46 billion, Ohio State at $2.3 billion, and Notre Dame at $2.1 billion — the clearest public evidence yet that football programs are assets with measurable enterprise value.
Existing Donor Base May Be Goldilocks Solution for College Sports Investments
JohnWallStreet on why an athletic department's own donor base — rather than outside private capital — may be the right-sized source of investment for college sports, the thesis behind Project Northstar.
Learfield touts $300 million in NIL payments, including massive rise for female athletes
Learfield reports it delivered more than $300 million in multimedia rights partnership revenue involving college athletes in FY26, with NIL deals for female athletes jumping over 120% — from 2,136 activities to 4,772 year over year. Multimedia revenue deals nearly doubled to 1,700-plus, spanning national partners like T-Mobile, Marriott, Uber and AT&T across 69 schools. Football, men's and women's basketball, baseball and softball led all sponsorship categories.
College NIL bill includes $25 million 'retention pool' but is that enough to sway Big Ten, SEC?
A reworked Senate version of the Protect College Sports Act would more than double what schools can share directly with athletes, adding a $25 million "retention pool" on top of the existing cap. The revisions are aimed squarely at winning over the Big Ten and SEC, whose backing is seen as essential to getting federal NIL legislation to the floor.
Protect College Sports Act readies concessions to Big Ten, SEC
Sponsors of the Protect College Sports Act are rewriting key provisions to bring the two most powerful conferences on board, including allowing conferences to expand to as many as 19 members and reshaping how media rights are handled. The concessions signal how much leverage the Big Ten and SEC hold over the sport's next governance framework.
Most power conference sports won't see revenue-sharing dollars
With the House settlement's revenue-sharing era underway, the overwhelming majority of direct payments are flowing to football and men's basketball. Olympic and non-revenue programs largely sit outside the pool — their upside comes from expanded scholarship limits rather than cash, leaving a widening capital gap for the sports that build broad-based athletic departments.
The NCAA House settlement: one year later
A year into the $2.8 billion House settlement, schools are distributing up to roughly 22% of average power-conference revenue directly to athletes while $2.8 billion in back-pay damages remains paused pending Title IX appeals. Compliance, roster limits, and third-party NIL clearinghouse review have become the defining operational challenges for athletic departments.