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$999-million college football team emerges as biggest spender on 2026 recruiting class

With the 2026 recruiting class finishing out, the big spender is clear.
Joe Cox|
USC and Lincoln Riley were reportedly the biggest spenders in the 2026 freshman recruiting class.
USC and Lincoln Riley were reportedly the biggest spenders in the 2026 freshman recruiting class. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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USC Trojans

With the 2026 recruiting cycle finishing, the state of the financial market for freshman talent is being reconsidered. In a world without open records or any sort of meaningful clearing house, it's difficult to find accurate information on college football spending. But a quick post-Signing Day observation reported by On3Sports noted a consensus on the likely biggest spender.

While portal deals for top transfer talent have sometimes become public, the market for top freshmen has remained quiet. But Pete Nakos reports seven-figure salaries for incoming freshmen and significant pre-enrollment payments merely to get freshmen to campus. In a financially-centered world, the highest roller seems clear.

College football's deepest pockets

USC is noted as the likely biggest spender in freshman class terms. The Trojans, whose program was recently valued at $999 million in a Wall Street Journal column, dug deep into their pockets for top freshman talent. A reported guess of $10-$12 million was noted by Nakos from an inside source. Nakos noted that USC partially pulled this trick off by lining up most of the class before the revenue-sharing agreement was enacted over the summer.

USC ended up with a 36-player class. Three five-star players have signed, with two of 247's top seven national players included. The Trojans ended up signing a full tenth of the top 100 players in the national recruiting class and 16 players from the top 200 players.

Pepe
Standout offensive lineman Keenyi Pepe (#71) is one of the most important prospects in USC's massive (and allegedly expensive) 2026 freshman class. | Mike Lang / Sarasota Herald-Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK

Can USC make its big payments pay off?

Sources within college football questioned the ultimate wisdom of USC's massive spending spree, noting the potential issues in leadership of the program. Coach Lincoln Riley had an 11-3 season in his first year with the Trojans while QB Caleb Williams won the Heisman Trophy. But since then, Riley is just 24-15 and hasn't had another double-digit win season.

Meanwhile, USC's alignment with the Big Ten isn't doing Riley any favors. The league produced the last three College Football Playoff champions and Oregon remains a strong contender in any given season. Accordingly, the mountain USC has to climb to be relevant figures to be steep, even if the Trojans did nab the nation's best freshman talent.

Given the difficulty of the Big Ten and the warming seat under Riley, it's fair to wonder whether it won't end up being another head coach who is the ultimate beneficiary of USC's outstanding 2026 recruiting. The top talent hasn't proven to be a guarantor of recent success. Texas finished No. 1 in the 2025 recruiting class rankings and failed to reach the College Football Playoff in the ensuing season. For now, all that is clear is that USC purportedly spent the most money and got the best players-- the hardest part of making that pay off starts now.

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Joe Cox
JOE COX

Joe is a journalist and writer who covers college and professional sports. He has written or co-written over a dozen sports books, including several regional best sellers. His last book, A Fine Team Man, is about Jackie Robinson and the lives he changed. Joe has been a guest on MLB Network, the Paul Finebaum show and numerous other television and radio shows. He has been inside MLB dugouts, covered bowl games and conference tournaments with Saturday Down South and still loves telling the stories of sports past and present.

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