“Government has shirked its real duties — deciding issues of national importance — to focus on something it knows nothing about.”
Opposed the Protect College Sports Act in an op-ed, arguing that government shouldn't take control of college sports.
College Football
Football Business Report: College Football
Follow the money. Fix the game.
The clearinghouse for fixing college football. One place to see what players, coaches, commissioners, administrators, lawmakers and media have proposed to fix the sport, who agrees and who doesn’t, and the money behind every argument: NIL and revenue sharing, coach pay, TV deals, subsidies and school budgets. Every quote and figure links to its source.
Quotes & ideas
192 sourced entries from 107 people, filterable by topic, person, type and era.
Ideas index
18 proposals, from a commissioner to a super league, with who supports and opposes each, plus 3 outside reform plans.
People
107 person pages with role and every entry.
Money hub
NIL and revenue sharing, coach pay and buyouts, media rights, deficits, donors and endowments.
Money trail
Who pays, where it flows and who decides: revenue by source FY2005 vs FY2025, a cited flow chart, salaries and decision makers.
Sponsors & advertisers
183 sourced deals: apparel, multimedia rights, stadium naming, bowl and CFP sponsors, investors, and TV ad money by industry and network.
Media & how to watch
Who controls college football on TV, plus a watch guide for all 68 teams. Arizona State: $58.48/mo for every game (prices as of 2026-10-01).
Schools
68 school pages with EADA, Knight-Newhouse and Form 990 data.
Conferences
SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 and Notre Dame compared: markets, endowments, budgets.
About & methodology
Sourcing rules, definitions, data years, gaps and attribution.
Key money numbers
$268.5M
2025 season (FY2026)
$10.2M -> $72.4M
2007 vs FY2025
$950K -> ~$7.06M
2006 vs 2025
94%; $20.6M; $8,500
FY2023-24
14 of 53
FY2025
Only 14 of 53 public Power 4 athletic departments covered their own expenses in 2024-25. [S47]
$4.5B
2026-27
Opendorse raised its 2026-27 NIL market estimate from $2.8B to $4.5B, admitting it missed by more than half. [S20]
$1.6B; 60% vs 95%
2025-2035
The NCAA is withholding $1.6B from future payouts to fund the House damages. Non-power schools cover 60% of it, while over 95% of the damages go to power-conference football and basketball players. [S28]
$534.7M
FY2025
Penn State's athletics debt more than tripled in a year to $534.7M, driven by a $700M Beaver Stadium rebuild. [S71]
Latest quotes
“There is no cap on the amount of NIL deals. We would not agree to change that. That would be trying to restrict competition.”
Open to raising the revenue-share cap inside the settlement only if it stays soft; warned that a conference-built hard cap is 'not possible without our permission', though a one-free-transfer conference rule might survive.
“Having more teams in a tournament to determine a champion is not going to make it worse.”
At Big Ten media days, Riley said Big Ten coaches were unanimous in favor of a 24-team CFP. He argued expansion would bring back better nonconference games and preserve intersectional rivalries like USC-Notre Dame.
“Now, it has steadied. A true salary cap would steady it even more.”
Riley backed a 'true salary cap' to stabilize the sport but said it would only work if the model can actually be policed and hold up against lawsuits and state courts.
“That's not necessarily breaking away, that doesn't mean you're not going to play anybody else. But is there a path to have rules that we can at least operate from the conference?”
Asked about Sankey's 'breakaway' remarks, said the question is whether conference-based rules are needed if the Protect College Sports Act fails; that is not a breakaway, but the Big Ten is preparing for every scenario.
“We're not interested in finding the easiest path, we are focused on finding the right path.”
Opening SEC Media Days, Sankey pushed back on a 24-team CFP. He said there is no clear evidence of media interest, the calendar is already strained, and the sport needs to find the right path rather than the easiest one.
Browse all entries → · Ideas index →
Data credit: Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database, a joint project of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University.