There’s never been more money spent on trying to win big in college football, and yet there’s still little transparency around who is spending it.
There are lots of rumors and speculation, but little hard data. Unlike professional leagues like the NFL and NBA, college football fans don’t know how much their favorite team spends on the roster. Even within the industry, athletic directors and general managers may not know for sure how much their top rivals are spending to beat them. It leads to a lot of “How much do you think so-and-so is spending this year?” questions.
There’s a wide range in the Power Four.
According to data CBS Sports acquired from a survey of general managers at the 2026 Personnel Symposium, Power Four programs have an average roster cost of $22.5 million for the upcoming season. But that number didn’t include some of the bigger-spending schools and also, per people in the room, didn’t always include the most truthful answers, especially when it came to some of the higher-cost players on each roster.
“Nobody knows. That’s part of the problem — nobody knows,” said TCU head coach Sonny Dykes said this summer. “I think people should know. That’s part of the issue with recruiting because sometimes you’re bidding against yourself. Agents try to get as much as they can for a player, and sometimes the information you give the agent is not completely correct. I do think everyone would benefit from transparency. I think it would be good for the fan base, the coaches and young men to actually understand what people are getting paid.”
In order to bridge that gap and provide some transparency to the spending levels in the sport, CBS Sports asked upwards of 50 people to gauge what each Power Four school is spending on its 2026 roster. We talked to a mix of athletic directors, general managers, personnel executives, agents, cap experts and boosters who have knowledge of roster numbers and industry spending. We cross-checked those numbers with others in their conference and geographic area to try to get as accurate a number as possible. Each Power Four team was placed in a range: More than $40 million, $30 to $39 million, $20 to $29 million and below $20 million.
