The Median Power Four Quarterback Made $230,000 in Revenue Share. The Median Non-Power Four QB Made $31,000

The Median Power Four Quarterback Made $230,000 in Revenue Share. The Median Non-Power Four QB Made $31,000

The College Sports Commission published its first compensation data Friday: $1.77 billion in school payments to 34,915 athletes, $582 million in cleared NIL deals, and position-by-position medians for football.

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For the first time, college sports has published what its athletes are actually paid. The College Sports Commission released aggregated, anonymized compensation data on Friday from CAPS, the system that records school-to-athlete revenue sharing, and NIL Go, the clearinghouse for third-party deals, per the CSC's announcement.

The headline totals: $1.77 billion in direct payments from schools to athletes in the first year of revenue sharing, which ended June 30, 2026, and 46,478 NIL deals worth $582.49 million cleared through Aug. 31. CSC chief executive Bryan Seeley called it "the first time compensation data of this kind has been published" for college sports.

Football Medians by Position, Power Four vs. Everyone Else

The football breakdown, reported by On3's Nick Schultz, shows how steep the drop is below the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC. The median Power Four quarterback received $230,000 in revenue share, with the 90th percentile at $1.611 million. The median quarterback outside the Power Four received $31,000. Defensive linemen ($150,000 median), offensive linemen ($133,000), defensive backs ($115,000), receivers and linebackers ($112,500 each) and running backs ($108,500) followed at Power Four schools. The non-Power Four medians at those positions ran from $15,000 to $18,000.

Kickers ($48,500), punters ($56,000) and long snappers ($30,000) sit at the bottom of the Power Four list. The medians exclude athletes who received nothing.

Third-Party NIL Is a Quarterback Market

NIL Go numbers are smaller and more lopsided. The median Power Four quarterback's cleared third-party deals totaled $65,550, with a 90th percentile near $1 million; every other Power Four position group had a median between $20,000 and $28,000. Outside the Power Four, the median was about $1,560 at nearly every position, quarterbacks included.

Who Got Paid, and the Cap That Rises Next Year

An earlier CSC report, summarized by Forbes' Kristi Dosh, counted 34,915 athletes at 307 schools across 45 sports receiving revenue-sharing money, with 63 schools spending to the $20.5 million cap and 14 spending less than $100,000. The cap moves to $21.58 million for 2026-27. Division I athletes must report third-party deals over $600 to NIL Go.

The CSC says the data may be updated as more comes in, and that some sports were suppressed where the sample was too small to stay anonymous. For a high school recruit, the figures are the clearest look yet at the gap between a Power Four offer and the next tier. NIL coverage continues on the BallerTube NIL page.