NIL Collectives Share Most Challenging Positions To Retain in College Football

Power Four NIL collectives and personnel staffers reveal the most difficult positions in college football to retain and add in the transfer portal.

Alan Youngblood / USA TODAY NETWORK

College football personnel staffers and NIL collectives across the country are expending more and more resources to retain star talent on their rosters.

Name, image, and likeness deals are dominating the sport and player movement in the transfer portal, with some positions more difficult to keep competitive than others.

After gaining intel on the wilder requests made by elite high school recruits, Pete Nakos with On3 Sports surveyed more anonymous opinions of Power Four NIL collective members and personnel staffers to assess roster retention issues in college football. 

While quarterback was mentioned as an obvious difficulty, surprisingly, the consensus falls along the offensive line.

“I thought linemen got up there higher than previously,” one SEC NIL collective said. “We’ve all been dealing with quarterbacks, defensive linemen, corners, and receivers, but to have offensive linemen jump as high as they did was a little surprising. Three years ago, there were collectives that weren’t even compensating linemen.”

A personnel staffer from the SEC focused on paying quarterbacks, left tackles, and EDGE. All four surveyed sources pointed to the offensive line. The aforementioned collective member pointed out that linemen received minimal compensation when NIL began.

Some positions have become more of a premium, with schools looking for mere bodies to fill spots and often overpaying talent.

“Offensive line. It doesn’t matter if you’re good or not,” one Big 12 personnel staffer said. “If you play, somebody will pay you. Last year it was $250,000 for a good one. This year, with revenue sharing and NIL, it was a minimum of $400,000 up to $750,000 and $1 million for some guys.”

Interestingly, despite a consensus on offensive linemen being the most difficult positions to keep on the roster, none of the sources answered that position as the most challenging to add through the transfer portal.

Running backs, wide receivers, quarterbacks, and defensive tackles were the positions collectives and personnel staff felt were the hardest to rebuild via the portal due to asking prices doubling at multiple roles.

So, while a left tackle may be a tougher position to retain, it doesn’t appear to be as difficult to add back through the portal.

It may just be that good offensive linemen are hard to find and are overdue for being recognized for their crucial contribution to a football team. Without blocking and protection, the offense cannot progress.

It therefore sounds reasonable to focus NIL efforts on the trenches, and while the position may not be the worst one for finding talent via the portal, schools are offering more than previously to poach them off other rosters.

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