The recruiting landscape has changed dramatically in recent years, and the almighty dollar is more powerful than ever when it comes to landing the best talent in college football.
Conferences like the Big Ten and SEC have morphed into “Super Conferences,” piling up the nation’s richest and most storied football programs into two conferences and pitting them against one another in gladiator-esque matchups.
One of the biggest problems with college football’s new look format is that the distance between the have’s and the have-not’s is only widening.
Unfortunately, Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and the transfer portal are booming at the same time, sending the sport into some sort of unregulated wild, wild west version of NFL free agency. Players are free to come and go as they please, as long as it’s in the proper window, and take their money – sometimes seven figures worth or more – with them.
The most reliable way to build a talented roster in college football has always been doing it through high school recruiting, but over the past two or three offseasons, we’ve seen championship contenders supplement their rosters through the transfer portal – and they’re doing it with money funded by NIL collectives.
Recently, a detailed list of NCAA Revenue Sharing and NIL estimates for 2025 was released, giving us some insight into just how much some of these schools are reportedly spending.
According to the document, the average Power Five school’s collective spent a projected $9,815,217 on NIL in 2023-24. Of that total, roughly 66% of the spending was allocated to football, while 24% went to men’s basketball.
When you consider the average Group of Five collective spent $1,452,645 in that same span, and just 50% of it went to football, it’s not hard to see why G5 schools can’t keep top-shelf talent around.
But how much does the Big 12 spend in NIL? Can they be competitive with some of the wealthier brands in college football?
Let’s take a look at the NIL spending averages across each of the conferences from 2024:
Average Collective NIL Funding in Each Conference (2024)
- SEC: $13,949,067
- Big Ten: $9,725,407
- ACC: $8,936,535
- Big 12: $7,321,404
- Pac-12 (Oregon State, Washington State): $3,190,207
On average, Big 12 schools are operating on an NIL budget that is just over half of what the average SEC team has. Additionally, the Big 12 is spending roughly $2.4M less than the Big Ten on average, or around 33% less, and $1.6M less than the ACC, or around 21% less.
Averages can skew the numbers, though, so what happens when we take a look at the top and bottom spenders from each league?
(Note: Only public universities are represented in the report.)
Top and Bottom Spenders
SEC
Top Spender: Texas ($22,272,474)
Bottom Spender: Mississippi State ($6,467,166)
Big Ten
Top Spender: Ohio State ($20,253,400)
Bottom Spender: Rutgers ($3,624,816)
ACC
Top Spender: Clemson ($15,258,274)
Bottom Spender: California ($3,932,903)
Big 12
Top Spender: Iowa State ($7,551,312)
Bottom Spender: Houston ($2,098,333)
The Big 12’s top-funded school collective (Iowa State) for 2024 was estimated at just over $7.5M. While that looks great compared to other schools in the conference, it pails in comparison to schools like Texas or Ohio State, which both operate with funds that are at or above 3x that of the Cyclones.
In fact, the Big 12’s top spender would rank 14th in the SEC, only surpassing that of Mississippi State ($6.5M) and Missouri ($7.1M).
Compared to all the public universities in the report, Iowa State comes in at No. 31 in estimated NIL funds, just edging out Kansas and Utah for tops in the Big 12.
Here’s how the Big 12 teams rank, as well as where they fall nationally,
Big 12 Estimated NIL Funding (2024)
- Iowa State ($7,551,312) – 31st
- Kansas ($7,427,957) – 32nd
- Utah ($7,252,969) – 33rd
- Kansas State ($7,121,436) – 36th
- Texas Tech ($6,986,182) – 37th
- Arizona ($6,414,683) – 39th
- Arizona State ($5,689, 877) – 42nd
- West Virginia ($5,495,362) – 44th
- Oklahoma State ($5,338,583) – 45th
- Colorado ($5,337,719) – 46th
- Cincinnati ($3,984,845) – 49th
- UCF ($3,308,993) – 54th
- Houston ($2,098,333) – 67th
Some notable things to take away from this list:
- The top ten Big 12 schools are ranked ahead of the top-funded Group of Five program (San Diego State, $4.2M)
- Houston is the only Big 12 team ranked behind multiple G5 teams, falling behind members of the Mountain West (six teams), AAC (three teams), Sun Belt (one team), and even a member of the Big Sky (Montana, $2.2M)
- The top five Big 12 schools are separated by just ~$500,000
- The difference between the top-funded and lowest-funded collectives is right around $5.5M
Overall, it’s a sobering reminder of just how far the financial gap has grown between the top 5% of college football teams and everyone else. Unfortunately for the Big 12, they aren’t in that financial tier.
