Recruiting has become a high-stakes financial game as the NIL era reshapes college football. From donor-backed collectives to massive player investments, programs spend tens of millions to attract top talent and stay competitive. This article discusses which schools are leading the way in recruiting budgets for the 2025–2026 season and what it means for their title hopes.
Breaking Down the Recruiting Budgets: Which College Football Programs Are Leading in 2025–2026?
Ever since NIL became legal on July 1, 2021, college sports have drastically changed and become way more business-oriented. Recruiting has been way more important than how much money you can offer. Player retention has also gone significantly down as players are just entering the transfer portal. Regardless of people’s opinions on NIL, whether for good or for worse, college sports have changed, and a main factor is due to NIL.
Programs are approaching recruiting differently, as some have even hired general managers and built staff and departments specializing in NIL and finance. There was even a documentary on Amazon Prime that featured NIL impacting some popular athletes at LSU, including Livvy Dunne, Jayden Daniels, Flau’jae Johnson, Alia Armstrong, and Trace Young, called “The Money Game”.
The documentary goes into great detail about how NIL has affected their lives professionally in their sport and how it has affected them in their personal life, as well as the future of NIL.
Five teams, specifically in college football, have utilized NIL and spent tens of millions to earn as much money as possible while competing for conference and national championships.
5. Texas A&M Aggies ($17.2 Million)
The Texas A&M Aggies have spent the fifth most money on their football roster for the upcoming season. Via donations from fans, former players, and alumni, their 12th Man Foundation brings in the most amount of money to help them out to raise funds for a $120 million renovation, which includes a 140-yard indoor football practice facility, an indoor track, and an updated academic and nutrition center for student-athletes.
Since NIL became a thing in 2021, the Aggies have settled in, figured out, and thrived. In 2022, they were able to sign the highest-rated football recruiting class in program history. Their athletic director at the time, Ross Bjork, mentioned last spring that Aggies football players were signing NIL deals up to $10 million.
4. Georgia Bulldogs ($18.3 Million)
No team has arguably been more dominant than the Georgia Bulldogs in the NIL era. With national championships in 2021 and 2022 and a plethora of first-round talent drafted into the NFL, the Georgia Bulldogs look like a college football dynasty. Their $18.3 million football roster, placing them fourth in college football, is a great start.
With their constant dominance, some recent national championships, and one of the best head coaches in Kirby Smart, it has helped the Bulldogs continue to have one of the best recruiting classes annually and one of the most enormous NIL budgets.
3. LSU Tigers ($20.1 Million)
As mentioned earlier, the LSU Tigers are one of the more dominant and big spenders in the NIL era. Some notable alumni, including Shaquille O’Neal, continue to donate to the program to keep it at the top.
Head coach Brian Kelly recently donated $1 million to help his program. His donation went towards a brand new training room for his athletes. Between 2005 and 2022, LSU ranked fourth in money collected from donors.
2. Ohio State Buckeyes ($20.2 Million)
Spoiler alert, but the Ohio State Buckeyes are the lone SEC team on this list. The recent national champions are second on this list after spending $20.2 million in efforts to go back-to-back.
The Buckeyes have a lot of elite talent on their team, and that is due to the amount of money they have spent on those players. Wide receiver Jeremiah Smith and safety Caleb Downs are third and 15th in NIL value among college football players, respectively.
1. Texas Longhorns ($35-$40 Million)
At one, the largest spending budget is the Texas Longhorns. They are rumored to have spent between $35 and $40 million on their roster this upcoming season. Quarterback Arch Manning has the largest NIL deal valued at $6.6 million.
KEEP READING: Steve Sarkisian’s Texas Longhorns Just Shattered an SEC Record — and It Has Nothing To Do With Football
Having spent the most money on their football roster is good and should lead to a lot of winning. But spending the most money adds a lot of pressure to deliver or be close to winning a national championship. The last time the Longhorns could call themselves national champions was in 2005 when Vince Young was the quarterback.
Hopefully, for Longhorns fans, this $40 million roster, mixed with Heisman’s favorite Manning, could be enough to deliver a national championship.
College Sports Network has you covered with the latest news, analysis, insights, and trending stories in football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and baseball!
