If you look at the top 5 athletes on the NIL earner list, three out of five are from college football. Gymnast Livvy Dunne almost seems like a fluke on the list of men’s sports occupying the other four positions. Where women’s basketball is slowly gaining steam, men’s is still ahead but the one sport truly dominating the pay-for-play era is college football. College hoops does boast Bronny James as one of its highest earners, but his crown is about to be toppled.

James may now be a pro player in the LA Lakers organization but in his first and only college season, he did set the bar high for NIL valuation at $7.3 million in March 2023. Currently, Cooper Flagg is the biggest name in college basketball’s NIL scene and is valued at $3.2 million by On3. Sure AJ Dybantsa out values him $3.3 million, but he’s technically still in high school. However, where Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter were on the way to surpassing James, another new name has popped up – Arch Manning.

The latest On3 valuation of the Texas Longhorns quarterback lands him at $6.6 million, surpassing Sanders’ $6.5 million and Hunter’s $5.7 million. Manning currently has deals with Panini America and EA Sports, whereas Hunter has deals with NerdWallet, Adidas, and United Airlines. Sanders, like James, also has a deal with Beats by Dre, as well as Nike and the 5430 Alliance. It might seem like Manning is lagging but he has a reason for not signing with more brands.

The grandson of Archie Manning, the Texas freshman finally began his college career this year as the Longhorns opened the season against UL Monroe in September. Although already a high school star, Manning’s famous grandfather had some reservations about watching his 19-year-old grandson signing deals worth millions of dollars.

“His grandpa won’t let him take any NIL money. He said, ‘You can take money when you become a player and you start,’” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “The beauty of it for us, here’s a guy whose NIL value of whatever it is–and this guy’s grandpa won’t let him take NIL money,” Sarkisian said. “It is a pretty good message from Archie.” 

Well, it’s been a few months since the younger Manning football prodigy has taken to the gridiron, even though he’s not a full-time starter yet, so maybe it’s time to sign some deals! Meanwhile, basketball is slowly taking the stage, too.

From Cooper Flagg to Dylan Harper, men’s college hoops NIL is slowly rising

On the women’s side, we already know JuJu Watkins and Paige Bueckers are two of the top NIL athletes in the post-Caitlin Clark era. But it’s really the men’s side that is still dominating and slowly trying to stand side by side with men’s college football as well. After the expected first overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft Cooper Flagg and his Gatorade and Nike deals, the No. 2 on the men’s college basketball NIL list is Marquette’s Kam Jones. Valued at $1.9 million, Jones was a four-star recruit with the Golden Eagles in 2022 and is lauded for his offense.

Next is Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier, valued at $1.8 million, who built up his stock with the North Florida Ospreys for four years. But his massive NIL deal to come to play with the Vols is what helped his valuation rise and the fifth-year senior is still growing. Fourth on the list is Rutgers freshman Dylan Harper, who is a likely top-five pick in the next draft. Also valued at $1.8 million, holds a slight edge over fellow freshman Ace Bailey with $200,000.

Last on the top 5 list is PJ Haggerty of Memphis, also worth $1.8 million, the sophomore’s third school helping him bring up his NIL value. It also helps that Haggerty leads the conference in scoring with 22.5 points per game, which is proving his worth in money!