College Football’s Richest Programs Exposed for Playing by Different Rules

New reporting reveals how major athletic departments plan to bypass the $21.3 million salary cap to reach $40 million.

How athletic departments are deploying NIL to compensate players continues to push programs to the margins of the rules. | NIL Summit via USA Today Network

The 2026-27 academic year will see the revenue-sharing cap for major athletic programs rise to $21.3 million due to a built-in annual increase. While this number is often cited as the official limit, it only accounts for a portion of the total compensation programs plan to provide. Most power conference schools are currently developing strategies to nearly double this amount through external financial streams.

In Lubbock, athletic directors are already presenting these aggressive blueprints to their most loyal supporters and donors. They explained that while the official cap is rising, the real spending ceiling at the highest level of the sport is closer to $40 million. This total is reached by combining direct school payments with several other buckets of cash that fall outside of the formal cap.

This strategy relies on a sophisticated mix of traditional revenue sharing and new third-party endorsement opportunities, as outlined in On3's Ross Dellenger's latest reporting. Schools are no longer just managing budgets. They are orchestrating a complex financial network involving apparel brands and multimedia partners. This approach ensures that elite programs can remain competitive in a rapidly changing environment without violating current oversight regulations.

Major college football programs use corporate partnerships to exceed the revenue share salary cap

Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt recently detailed how his department plans to maximize its resources by utilizing four distinct compensation buckets. The program will pay the full $21.3 million in direct revenue and provide $2.5 million in new scholarships for non-revenue sports. This move helps programs like baseball, which will see its scholarship count jump from 11.7 to 34 next year.

The most significant growth comes from redirecting corporate sponsorship money away from the school and toward the athletes. Partners like Adidas and Learfield have been asked to create NIL deals for players in place of traditional rights fees paid to the department.

Texas Tech director of athletics Kirby Hocutt (right) speaks with head coach Joey McGuire during spring practice. | Nathan Giese/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

This maneuver could potentially add $10 million in extra value to the roster without counting against the official revenue-sharing limit.

Beyond corporate deals, schools are getting creative with private events such as high-end fantasy camps for wealthy donors. These camps feature current players as coaches and can generate up to $5 million in additional compensation for the team.

College Sports Commission CEO Bryan Seeley is responsible for overseeing all of the College Sports Commission’s ongoing operations and stakeholder relationships. | Phil Didion

This supplemental income provides an additional edge that can be the difference between a conference title and a national championship appearance.

Rivals VP of Recruiting Steve Wiltfong recently noted that some of this newfound financial freedom is being used to address past roster-management errors. He observed that many front offices are currently using their massive budgets to "erase their evaluation mistakes," but warned that professional accountability is coming for those who waste these resources.

Right now there are college football front offices that are being allowed to spend freely to erase their evaluation mistakes (which ended up being wasted money). As this evolves, won't be long before folks are fired for these mistakes. https://t.co/1ptnoYbDiT

— Steve Wiltfong (@SWiltfong_) February 12, 2026

This perspective highlights the increasing pressure on scouts and coaches to ensure that multimillion-dollar investments deliver on-field results.

The College Sports Commission is currently tasked with monitoring these high-dollar deals through a specialized algorithm. While the enforcement of these rules is still being finalized, schools are pushing the boundaries to ensure their rosters are the best in the country.