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Last season, Ohio State reportedly spent upwards of $20 million on NIL payments for players en route to a National Championship.
According to Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, the price of doing business has gone up. He said while IU is trying to remain competitive, the Hoosiers don’t have the type of money that top programs are spending this offseason.
“I think our little pot of gold is pretty nice, but we’re not at $40 million. Or $30 million. Or even $25 million,” Cignetti told CBS Sports for a story that published on Tuesday, confirming he believes $40 million is where the top teams have set their payrolls for 2025.
Cignetti even named some of the schools he believes are at the top of the market.
“I mean if you want to be the best, you got to be able to compete against the best,” Cignetti told CBS Sports. “Right now I understand that is Oregon, Ohio State, Texas … Texas Tech because of their oil money. I think Notre Dame’s up there pretty good right now, too. Miami, of course.”
The primary reason for the spike in payrolls is the expectation that the House Settlement will soon be finalized. That settlement is expected to clear the way for revenue-sharing payments to be made to student-athletes. That would allow for schools to pay players directly in addition to the NIL payments they could receive from endorsements.
As teams wait for final approval of the settlement, the spring transfer window has been extremely active across the country. While Nico Iamaleava’s move to UCLA has garnered most of the headlines, numerous other potential contributors have made their way to power-conference programs since the spring window opened on Wednesday.
However, the spring roster turnover period will likely grind to a close in the coming weeks. The spring transfer window will close on April 25.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
