Shedeur Sanders and Arch Manning top NIL leaderboard following a spectacular performance in Week 1

Colorado's maverick quarterback, Shedeur Sanders, has unseated previously untouchable college football NIL king, Texas quarterback, Arch Manning.

Sander's performance against last year's college football playoff finalists, the TCU Horned Frogs where he threw for 510 yards and four touchdowns elevated him to superstar status.

This rise in status was reflected in his NIL valuation shooting through the roof from a pregame $1.3 million to a mammoth $3.8 million after the game.

According to On3, Shedeur Sanders saw a 171% increase in his NIL value rocketing him above household names like reigning Heisman winner Caleb Williams and Arch Manning of the Manning football empire.

Sanders now sits No. 2 on the overall NIL 100 valuation ranking just behind basketball megastar Bronny James.

Further, Shedeur's increase in NIL valuation has seen him leapfrog Dallas Cowboys star Dak Prescott in terms of earnings. Prescott has a prorated base salary of $1.7 million.

Arch Manning's NIL valuation also rose to $3.2 million even though he was controversially overlooked by coach Steve Sarkisian during the routine win over Rice.

The Shedeur Sanders hype train

Before the season began, not many people had seen Shedeur Sanders play football and the step up from FCS to FBS was thought to be too big for the quarterback.

After the electric performance against TCU, even NFL scouts are paying attention, according to Fox Sports analyst Colin Cowherd:

"I text two NFL executives during that Colorado win, and I ask the question, am I nuts, or do we have another first-round quarterback in the NFL? And both executives said the same thing, 'Deion Sanders' son is a first-round NFL quarterback.'"

Sanders knows how fast acclaim turns into criticism in sports, but his bullish talk ahead of the game against longtime rival Nebraska will endear him to college football fans even more.

"We just know the history of it, [at] Colorado we don't like Nebraska. Simple. That's just what it is," Sanders said. "We just gotta focus on that. OK, cool, we don't like Nebraska, but that's not really gonna change the preparation or anything like that, because we prepare like nobody likes us 'cause we know we're going to get everybody's best game.

"It's just a little bit more motivation, but we gotta already be motivated."

Shedeur Sanders, like his father, Deion Sanders, has become one of college football's most intriguing narratives that will make fans tune in to more Colorado Buffaloes games in the future.