How much do college football players make? Exploring the NIL deal and endorsement rights of the NCAA players

Considering the huge NIL deals netting college kids millions of dollars, a question that is on everyone's mind is how much do college football players make?

This article will explore just how much college football players earn on any given basis. But don't be surprised if the more famous of these young players actually earn more than actual professional football stars.

How much do college football players make?

The short answer is it depends. But one thing is for certain: they don't get paid salaries like pro athletes do.

That's because at the end of the day, college players are amateurs. Instead, they get paid via the NIL, or the Name, Image, and Likeness agreement that the NCAA recently instituted via the Supreme Court.

In simpler terms, these young players can accept endorsements and earn profits based on their name, image, and likeness--just as the term suggests.

If a college football player is famous enough, say, Texas QB Arch Manning, they can earn millions. Manning's NIL deal, for instance, is worth $2.9 million with the trading card company Panini America.

This is even greater than the yearly salaries of real professional football players, even someone like Odell Beckham Jr. whose base salary is $1.165 million for this year.

But for a more "general" estimate, a good player with a decent-enough fanbase can bag an NIL deal around $650,000 on average, as per some researchers from the Ohio State University (via SportsBrief).

This means that any other player who's not as famous doesn't stand to earn as much as their highly touted peers.

A brief history of the NIL

For decades, numerous members of the college football community (and college sports, in general) deemed it "unfair" that highly touted players can't earn profits based on their fame.

These players are, after all, part of multi-million-dollar enterprises (their schools) that sign multi-year TV rights deals worth several billion, and regularly earn hundreds of millions from their venture.

As per Fox Sports, the NCAA used to believe this was an "existential threat." They said if players don't play the game just because they love it, it could threaten the core of collegiate athletics.

But eventually, the league relented with a few caveats. For one, the NIL agreement doesn't allow direct player payments. Either way, only the best college football players do profit--and they're in for massive paydays.