The Nine Cheapest Power 4 College Football Programs In Terms Of NIL Spending

While we’ll never know exactly how much each college football program in the country is spending NIL, several news outlets have done their best in recent years to provide a rough estimate of the budgets of the nation’s top programs.

The most recent estimates, which were compiled as part of a project by The Athletic, involved interviews with dozens of sources from across the country to try to figure out the NIL budget of every Power 4 program across the country.

Unsurprisingly, the numbers show that powerhouse programs such as Ohio State, Oregon, and Miami lead the way. But what about the other end of the spectrum?

College football’s most carefully guarded secret is the amount of money flowing to the players on each roster.

So we reached out to 70 sources across the sport.

Estimated budgets for all 68 teams: https://t.co/MFwc0s1Nzy pic.twitter.com/SGEfei8jWt

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) September 16, 2026

College Football NIL Spending Is Wildly Variable

According to the story’s estimates, the Buckeyes and Ducks are likely spending more than $50 million dollars on their 2026 football rosters, which explains why both are considered national title contenders (although that status is currently in serious doubt for the Ducks).

Also unsurprising is the fact that Big Ten and SEC programs dominate the list of the top spenders, with Miami as the only ACC program in the top 10 and Texas Tech marking the only Big 12 program in the top 20.

It stands to reason, then, that the list of the nation’s cheapest spenders when it comes to NIL budgets in the Power 4 is littered with teams from those conferences.

We’re counting down the nine cheapest programs according to The Athletic’s research.

9) UCF Knights – $15-$20 Million

It wasn’t all that long ago that Scott Frost was leading the University of Central Florida to an undefeated season, and we were discussing whether or not the Knights got snubbed from the College Football Playoff.

That began a three-year span for UCF where it went a combined 35-4 and was undeniably the best non-power conference program in the country. That earned the Knights an invitation to the Big 12, where you’d think, especially given their large enrollment numbers, that UCF would be able to spend big.

Instead, the Knights are reportedly pinching pennies, and it’s showing in the results. UCF hasn’t finished above .500 since joining the Big 12 in 2023, and even with Frost back at the helm, it appears things are off the rails in Orlando.

T7) Houston Cougars – $15-$19 Million

The Houston Cougars are among the nation’s top spenders in NIL in the men’s basketball world and, as such, have developed one of the programs in the country on a year-to-year basis.

The football program, however, is a different story.

Like UCF, Houston made the jump from AAC to the Big 12 in 2023 after a lengthy run as one of the nation’s top non-power programs. That resulted in a pair of back-to-back seasons under head coach Dana Holgerson, who was then fired.

The Cougars replaced Holgerson with former Tulane coach Willie Fritz in 2024, and the move immediately paid dividends, as they went 10-3 in 2025. Fritz and company are off to a 2-0 start in 2025 despite a reportedly minuscule NIL budget.

Could another strong season lead to increased investment in a program that should be able to regularly compete for the Big 12 championship?

T7) Oklahoma State Cowboys – $15-$19 Million

Former business magnate and Oklahoma State booster T. Boone Pickens, whose name adorns the Cowboys’ stadium, was previously one of the most generous donors in the country.

But Pickens passed away in 2019, and the investment in Oklahoma State athletics, particularly the football program, hasn’t been the same since.

After a nightmare 2025 season, the Cowboys made the difficult call to part ways with longtime head coach Mike Gundy, bringing in Eric Morris from North Texas as his replacement.

Morris brought with him a pair of star transfers: quarterback Drew Mestemaker and running back Caleb Hawkins, who recently sparked a big upset of Oregon. Perhaps the increased excitement on the back of that upset could lead to further NIL spending for a former perennial top-25 program.

6) Kansas Jayhawks – $15-$17 Million

It’s no secret that the University of Kansas has always and will always be a basketball school. While the school recently announced a major investment in the football program, it remains second fiddle by a large margin.

Still, head coach Lance Leipold, who came over from Buffalo, is doing his best to do more with less.

After taking over a team that went 0-9 under Les Miles in 2020, Leipold had the Jayhawks ranked inside the top AP Top 25 in every season between 2022-24.

Last season proved to be a step back. But with offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki back in the picture after a two-year stint with Penn State, Kansas might well be headed back in the right direction despite its lack of financial resources.

5) Arizona Wildcats – $13-$18 Million

Much like Kansas, Arizona has always been a school that has prioritized its basketball program over its football program.

The ‘Cats have just two 10-win seasons since the turn of the century, the last of which came in 2023 under then-head coach Jedd Fisch, who parlayed the strong season into the head coaching job at Washington.

Arizona then turned to Brent Brennan to right the ship, and after a difficult debut season in 2024, Brennan did just that in 2024, turning the Wildcats into a 9-4 team that finished 17th in the final College Football Playoff rankings.

Still, if the ‘Cats continue to neglect their football program financially, it’s hard to imagine any coach sticking around long-term.

4) Iowa State Cyclones – $13-$17 Million

Perhaps no coach in the country repeatedly did more with less than former Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell.

Campbell took over the historically putrid Cyclones in 2016 and almost immediately turned them into a regular contender in the Big 12, highlighted by a victory in the Fiesta Bowl in 2020.

But over the offseason, Campbell left Ames for greener pastures with Penn State, and Iowa State is now left to rebuild yet again with new head coach Jimmy Rogers.

The early returns have been strong, as Rogers and company pushed rival and top-25 program Iowa to the wire in a 16-13 loss in Week 2. But if he wants to have the same sort of long-term success as Campbell, he’ll have to do so with a shoestring budget.

3) Cincinnati Bearcats – $14-$16 Million

Much like UCF, it’s not all that long ago that the Cincinnati Bearcats were genuinely in the national championship discussion.

The Bearcats went 13-1 under head coach Luke Fickell in 2021, winning the AAC Championship and making the College Football Playoff, where they lost to Alabama in the semifinals.

In a familiar story, Cincy then joined the Big 12 two years later, and Fickell jumped ship for the University of Wisconsin, where he’s now on the hot seat (the parallels between the Bearcats and UCF truly are remarkable, especially if Fickell returns).

Since joining the Big 12, Cincinnati and head coach Scott Satterfield are just 17-22, and after taking a step forward in 2025, they lost star quarterback Brendan Sorsby to the transfer portal (although we all know how that worked out).

Unless the Bearcats invest more financially, they’ll likely continue to have to scrap just to make bowl games in the Big 12.

2) Duke Blue Devils – $12-$16 Million

Duke, like Kansas and Arizona before them on this list, is obviously a basketball-first school. However, the Blue Devils have reportedly splashed cash on the football program in the past, particularly to land quarterbacks Maalik Murphy and Darian Mensah (who then left the program a year later).

Still, while the last three head coaches in Durham – David Cutcliffe, Mike Elko, and Manny Diaz – have shown that it’s a place where you can win, you’ll need to do so on an extremely limited budget.

Thus far, Diaz has shown the ability to do just that, leading the team to its first ACC Championship since 1989 this past season. In fact, Diaz has won nine games in both of his first two seasons in charge and is off to a 2-0 start in 2026 after an impressive win over Illinois in Week 2.

If the Blue Devils are hoping to keep Diaz around much longer, they may well have to open up the purse strings a big moving forward.

1) Boston College Eagles – $8-$13 Million

It’s not just that Boston College is at the bottom of this list that stands out. It’s that the Eagles are at the bottom of the list by a relatively wide margin. The upper bounds of their estimated spending is in line with the lower bounds of the schools closest to them.

Given that fact, it’s no wonder that head coach Jeff Hafley left after a 7-6 record in 2023 to become the defensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers, and it’s no wonder that replacement Bill O’Brien went 2-10 a year ago after a 7-6 record in 2024.

The Boston College job is the least attractive Power 4 head coaching job in the country for a number of reasons, and the school’s lack of financial investment only exemplifies that fact.