How Much Do College Athletes Make From NIL? What the 2026 Numbers Show

College athletes now earn money through two separate channels, and the official numbers for both are large. As of the College Sports Commission's September 9, 2026 report, Division I athletes had cleared 46,478 third-party name, image and likeness deals worth $582.49 million since its NIL Go platform opened in June 2025. Separately, according to an October 1 release, schools reported $1.98 billion in distributions to 34,915 athletes at 307 schools, $1.77 billion of it revenue sharing, in the first year of revenue sharing under the House settlement, a cap year that ended June 30, 2026. Those are national totals. The commission's releases do not say what a typical athlete earns.

This is general education, not financial advice. For the basics, start with the Utah NIL Guide and what NIL is.

How much do college athletes make from NIL?

The best public measure is the College Sports Commission's own data. The commission, created by the House v. NCAA settlement to enforce its rules, reviews third-party NIL deals worth $600 or more in the aggregate through NIL Go. Its September 9, 2026 release reported:

• 46,478 deals worth $582.49 million cleared since NIL Go opened in June 2025;
• 12,283 deals worth $227.25 million cleared in July and August 2026 alone, the highest two-month total the platform had recorded and, in the commission's words, "nearly 40 percent of all deal value cleared to date";
• an average of more than 200 deals a day processed during July and August.

These figures count deals, not people. One athlete can hold many deals, and deals worth less than $600 in the aggregate are not required to be reported, so the data cannot be turned into a reliable figure for what an average athlete earns.

NIL money and revenue sharing are not the same thing

Since the 2025-26 academic year, schools that take part in the settlement can pay athletes directly. The commission is explicit that this is a different stream from NIL: revenue-sharing payments "come from the school itself," while third-party NIL deals are made with outside companies and people and are reviewed through NIL Go.

The first-year numbers, released October 1, 2026, covered the 2025-26 cap year:

• $1,770,453,776 in revenue-sharing payments, part of $1,975,973,365 in total distributions tracked by the commission's College Athlete Payment System;
• $42,034,090 in Alston awards and $163,485,499 in new and incremental scholarship spending inside that total;
• 34,915 athletes at 307 schools across 33 conferences and 45 sports;
• of the 319 schools that opted in, 307 paid athletes directly and 68 reached the cap or came within five percent of it.

How much can a school pay its athletes?

Each participating school could share up to $20.5 million with its athletes in 2025-26. Under the settlement the cap rises each year, and for the 2026-27 year that began July 1, 2026, it is $21.58 million per school, according to the commission. The NCAA bylaw summary published by the commission sets the cap at 22 percent of average total revenue in categories defined by the settlement.

A school decides how to divide that money across its sports and rosters. Each payment must be written into a signed agreement and uploaded to the College Athlete Payment System within five business days.

Where Utah's schools stand

All seven of Utah's Division I schools appear on the College Sports Commission's list of participating schools for 2026-27: BYU, Utah, Utah State, Utah Valley, Weber State, Southern Utah and Utah Tech. The commission says all current members of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC participate, while other Division I schools choose each year, by May 1, whether to opt in. The commission's releases report national totals and do not break revenue sharing down by school.

Utah law adds three details that matter for anyone trying to follow the money here. House Bill 479, which took effect May 7, 2025, lets a Utah institution pay its athletes directly for NIL, but not with money the Legislature appropriates or with student fees. It also says a student athlete agreement is not subject to the state's public records law, so individual Utah athletes' NIL contracts are not available through a state records (GRAMA) request. Starting in fiscal year 2028 and every five years after, the state's higher education board must audit what state institutions spend paying athletes directly for NIL and report to the Legislature's Education Interim Committee and Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee.

Westminster, a Division II school, and Utah's three junior colleges do not appear on the list, which covers Division I schools. The commission's rules still follow junior college athletes who later move to Division I: deals worth $600 or more with payments from their two-year enrollment or July 1, 2025, whichever is later, must be reported when they arrive.

What about individual athletes' NIL values?

Public figures for individual athletes come from private firms' estimates, not from the commission. Our roundup of public NIL valuations for Utah college athletes collects published estimates from firms such as On3. Treat any single number as a model's estimate of earning power rather than a record of money paid.

For an athlete working out a fair fee, our guide to pricing a sponsored Instagram post is the practical companion, and how to get an NIL deal covers the first steps. Families of younger athletes should read our guide to high school NIL in Utah.

Does NIL money get approved automatically?

No. A deal worth $600 or more must be reported to NIL Go within five business days, and the commission can clear it, decline to clear it or flag it for more review. Deals from people and businesses associated with an athlete's school, such as collectives and major donors, must show a valid business purpose and pay within a range comparable to similar athletes. Our NIL Go explainer covers that review, and local business owners can read how a Salt Lake City business can do a local NIL deal.

NIL income is also taxable; see NIL taxes for Utah college athletes.

Key facts:

• Third-party NIL cleared: 46,478 deals worth $582.49 million from June 2025 through the Sept. 9, 2026 report
• July-August 2026: 12,283 deals worth $227.25 million, the platform's highest two-month total
• Revenue sharing, 2025-26: $1,770,453,776, part of distributions covering 34,915 athletes at 307 schools
• All tracked distributions, 2025-26: $1,975,973,365, including Alston awards and new scholarship spending
• School cap: $20.5 million in 2025-26; $21.58 million in 2026-27
• Schools at or near the cap: 68 of 319 opted-in schools in 2025-26
• Utah: all seven Division I schools are on the 2026-27 participating list
• Utah law: state appropriations and student fees cannot fund institutional NIL pay; athlete NIL contracts are exempt from state (GRAMA) records requests