3 College Football Powers Suddenly Falling Behind in NIL Spending

Not everyone has deep enough pockets to be among the top spenders in the sport year after year. In 2026, with team payrolls exploding now that direct pay-to-play payments are legal within the confines of collegiate athletics, some former gaudy spenders are no longer buying the most expensive rosters money can buy.

These three College Football programs were once among the biggest spenders, but have fallen off in the last few years.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Alabama Crimson Tide

The Alabama Crimson Tide were around the $15 million mark in spending for the 2025 season, and are in that ballpark in 2026. While that was around what the top-spending teams were doing in 2024, inflation has reached College Football. The Texas Tech Red Raiders, Texas Longhorns, Ohio State Buckeyes, and Miami Hurricanes are all reportedly blowing past that number.

Alabama may have dominated the game back in the days of bagman, and even when they landed top in-state receiver Ryan Coleman-Williams among a No. 2 overall 2024 class, but the Tide doesn't have a megadonor to step up and buy top classes. The brand is still selling top recruits, like 5-star Jackson, Alabama, running back Ezavier Crowell, but Kalen DeBoer isn't getting anywhere close to the deep classes Nick Saban stacked.

Tennessee Volunteers

The Tennessee Volunteers are one of the biggest victims of the NIL/rev-share era, with Nico Iamaleava's sudden transfer last April, changing the trajectory of the team's 2025 season. 25 players entered the transfer portal that cycle, many after the Iamaleava saga wrapped up.

While Tennessee, like Alabama, is spending in the $15-$20 million ballpark, the Vols have little chance of keeping up with the biggest spenders without significantly more support from mega-donor and Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam.

Colorado Buffaloes

When Deion Sanders arrived in Boulder in 2023, he brought with him two of the most expensive players in the sport: his son, Shedeur Sanders, and Travis Hunter. The Colorado Buffaloes, during that time period, were throwing around serious money to land 50-plus transfers.

As Postgame Co-Founder Bill Jula, who represented Hunter, Shedeur, and Shilo Sanders, told me in 2024, "I would imagine 95% of those big-time guys who are moving in the portal are landing in places because of money ... So I don't think he's just getting all of them on that great smile he's got. I think that there's definitely got to be some pockets behind that. If he was ranked 25th or 30th on that transfer portal ranking, I'd say, 'Okay, maybe he is truly not an ATM,' but the fact that he's top five twice in a row now tells me he's doing something different."

That spending fell off after Coach Prime's sons left for the NFL. Shedeur and Hunter's salaries were around the aggregate of the 2025 team's earnings. The Buffs no longer spend enough to truly be relevant on a national scale following a 9-4 campaign in which Colorado was in CFP conversations during the regular season's final month.