The 2026 college football transfer portal cost (price range) by position:

Quarterback $1 million to $4 million
Running back $400k to $900k
Wide receiver $500k to $1 million
Tight end $300k to $900k
Offensive tackle $600k to $1.3 million
Edge rushers $500k to $2 million
Safeties $250k to $900k
Cornerbacks -$250k to $1 million
Interior defensive linemen $500k to $1.5 million

Penn State, Texas Tech, LSU, Texas A&M, Ohio State, Indiana, Alabama, Auburn, Texas,
Oklahoma State and other elite programs have offered to shelled out big bucks to land
either proven stars or high potential players ahead of the 2026 college football season.

Just looking at starters and not considering the rest of the roster pay:
A top 25 team needs about $20M just for their starters.
A top 10 team to contend for a championship will need double or triple that.

Add in $20M coaching and staff pay and that's a massive amount of money for coaching and player salaries each year. Some perform up to their pay, many do not.

I understand those numbers are for portal players but I suspect players that don't enter to portal are paid a similar amount to stay on the team.

Gross.

Have fun BMA pay pigs, the second this gets auctioned off to PE or the Saudis I'm out

twelve12twelve said:

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Have fun BMA pay pigs, the second this gets auctioned off to PE or the Saudis I'm out

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It will all come to a head at some point. At the pace things are escalating, my bet is sooner rather than later. Unionization is coming and then you will get the fun of collective bargaining. So all those promoting paying the players...this is the ultimate outcome. An NFL feeder system.

Might as well stay around now if it will annoy you

twelve12twelve said:

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Have fun BMA pay pigs, the second this gets auctioned off to PE or the Saudis I'm out

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It looks like you're barely in now.

Well now none of the sunshine pumpers can cry when people criticize the athletes

Didn't stop them in the past...

LSU has offers to their top 2 QBs of 4-5 million. They offered 2 million to RB Lacy to compete with Ole Miss offer of 1.8 million. WR Livingstone is asking for 1 million.

There is a top left OT from NC State, Peak. I have not sourced what he is asking but I am sure it is top dollar. I would choose him over just about anybody in the portal due to losing our OT starters. He is #1 in my book.

That's not the entire range. There are many players in the portal that aren't getting a tenth of
that..

I just can't imagine that this is sustainable long term. If all the fans and all the schools and tradition fall apart, what will we have? I am all for the kids getting paid, but you can't destroy all the tradition and schools and maintain the fanbases that drive the money in the end.

"Student Athlete" my butt.

Quote:

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Wide receiver $500k to $1 million

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has anyone shown this to Cam Coleman?!

Dallas82 said:

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"Student Athlete" my butt.

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They haven't been students for a long time.

SouthCollegeStation said:

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The 2026 college football transfer portal cost (price range) by position:

Quarterback $1 million to $4 million
Running back $400k to $900k
Wide receiver $500k to $1 million
Tight end $300k to $900k
Offensive tackle $600k to $1.3 million
Edge rushers $500k to $2 million
Safeties $250k to $900k
Cornerbacks -$250k to $1 million
Interior defensive linemen $500k to $1.5 million

Penn State, Texas Tech, LSU, Texas A&M, Ohio State, Indiana, Alabama, Auburn, Texas,
Oklahoma State and other elite programs have offered to shelled out big bucks to land
either proven stars or high potential players ahead of the 2026 college football season.

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Remember the two highest spenders in the portal last year was LSU and Auburn. You have to be smart about how you invest.

Signel said:

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I just can't imagine that this is sustainable long term. If all the fans and all the schools and tradition fall apart, what will we have? I am all for the kids getting paid, but you can't destroy all the tradition and schools and maintain the fanbases that drive the money in the end.

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A&M's Athletic Department is worth in the neighborhood of $1.32 Billion per CNBC if it could be publicly (privately?) traded with revenue in the 266 million range (a ~5x Price/Sales multiple). That's above the S&P 500's 3.4X, but then again college sports revenue is probably growing even faster than the average S&P 500 company.

That is of course (separatish?) money from the Aggie NIL effort including Texas Aggies United, Playfly Max, TexAgs..spending only $20.5 million on the House settlement seems ridiculous low already. Even $50 million for a football roster would be less than 20% of the $266 million..

Logos Stick said:

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Dallas82 said:

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"Student Athlete" my butt.

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They haven't been students for a long time.

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Sort of true, sort of not true. At many universities, student-athletes have graduation rates that exceed the general student body. No, most aren't engineering majors or pre-med. Neither are we . . .

Does OSU still have access to T Boone Picken's money? If he was still alive I bet they'd be in Tech's position…

I think it's pretty clear they don't.

SouthCollegeStation said:

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Safeties $250k to $900k
Cornerbacks -$250k to $1 million

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I'm just trying to figure out which cornerback decided to pay their University of choice $250,000 to allow them to play there, and which University agreed to take the money.