Guides
Plain-English explainers on how college athletes get paid—and the rules that shape it.
Start here
The cornerstone overview: every way a Division I athlete can earn money in 2026, plus the legal questions still being fought.
Read the guide ->Go deeper
How schools now pay athletes directly under the House settlement: where the cap comes from, and how it differs from NIL.
Read the guide ->How NIL Go reviews third-party NIL deals of $600 or more: what it checks, the outcomes, and what falls outside it.
Read the guide ->What booster-funded collectives are, how their deals get reviewed, and why their money sits on top of the revenue-sharing cap.
Read the guide ->The factors that move an athlete's NIL value, from production and position to audience and marketability, and how we turn them into an estimate.
Read the guide ->How NIL income and the new school revenue-sharing pay are taxed: self-employment tax, quarterly payments, deductions, and the unsettled parts. General information, not tax advice.
Read the guide ->An NFL team and a college football program run on very different books: a representative P&L for each, side by side -- scale, player share, and where the rest goes.
Read the guide ->An average NFL club out-earns the richest college football programs roughly 4-to-1. We break down where each side's money comes from -- and who ends up with it.
Read the guide ->Reported starter prices at all 12 positions in the 2026 market—from GM and agent surveys—with our own starter valuations overlaid for comparison.
Read the guide ->In the NFL, players collectively out-earn the head coach about 18 to 1; in college football, even after revenue sharing, it's close to even -- and the gap is roughly 16 times wider in one league than the other.
Read the guide ->A look inside one Power 4 valuation -- the factors, the logic, and the public inputs behind a single quarterback's number.
Read the guide ->The revenue-sharing cap resets to an estimated $21.3M per school for year two -- what the number covers, what it leaves out, and why a roster's real cost runs higher.
Read the guide ->Congress is moving on a national NIL standard. What the Protect College Sports Act and HUSTLE Act actually say, who's for and against, and what's next.
Read the guide ->We publish independent research on college athlete valuation and the business of college sports. Follow along for new analysis as the landscape evolves.