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Five Months of Data That Show Who Really Runs College Football
Every critical football visualization we've made, curated and summarized
We made it. The 2025 college football season is here. (And no, Week 0 still doesn’t really count.)
To mark the occasion, I’m rolling back the tape on some of the football-centric visuals we’ve published since NILnomics launched in April. Think of this issue as a crash course for new readers and a refresher for longtime subscribers—a way to get everyone on the same page about the state of college football finances before kickoff.
Charts, charts, and more charts - going to share the greatest hits, 4 months in
College hockey - finally digging into the women’s teams a bit.
Strong opinions - be on the lookout, they could be anywhere!
Pour a drink. Get comfortable. Let’s get into it.
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Pool Revenue, Roster Spots, and Arenas
This is the year schools officially start cutting checks to their players. Thanks to the House settlement, the cap sits at $20.5 million—before “legit” NIL deals kick in. But what does that number actually mean in context?
For some schools, it’s a pittance. For others, it’s bigger than their entire pool revenue. Remember - pool revenue is ticket sales, media rights, licensing, game guarantees, and 50% of donations. The chart below (from our second issue) shows the FBS schools’ total pool revenue vs. the salary cap. Clearly the P4 won’t struggle to pay athletes up to the cap (don’t listen to their cries of how poor they are). But the G6 schools - not as easy. These institutions are going to have to make some very hard decisions and get creative if they’re going to revenue share with their student athletes.
This has been my most frequently used graphic (it’s our Twitter banner!) - a nice way to quickly remind oneself of the real (financial) hierarchy in college football.
Another chart (from our second issue ), born out of peak roster-spot hysteria, still strikes me as underdiscussed. Cuts are coming—and while administrators warn of “the end of the walk-on,” I remain skeptical. Either way, this is one subplot worth watching all season.
And then, there are stadiums. I’ll admit it: I’m a stadium nerd. These massive, campus-anchored cathedrals are equal parts architecture, history, and absurdity. I’ve tracked their capacities and, in one collaboration with the Sickos Committee (from back in June), even ranked them by distance to the nearest Waffle House (content that truly moves the needle). For the record, Bowling Green—my alma mater—finally topped a chart.
This is the type of content that gets asses in seats and newsletters opened on a Monday morning. I suspect this will be the only time when Bowling Green ever sits atop a chart of mine. That and if I can visualize best locker room pet. I miss grad school football games.
In June, I collected the social media following of every FBS school across TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook—a project that took longer than anything I’ve done so far. The payoff? A unique lens on how schools market themselves. My favorite nugget: Colorado, newly in the Big 12, outpacing many B1G and SEC schools, thanks entirely to the Coach Prime effect.
In July I looked at which school is driving the most alumni donations. This was in the context of the plaintiff (read: athlete) attorneys inquiring about the alumni donations and whether or not they should be included in the salary cap (hint: I can’t imagine they’re not pulled into the calculations at some point). I estimated what the salary cap could look like at different levels of alumni donations, which I don’t think is being covered as much as other pieces of the House settlement. While the famous sports economist Dr. Daniel Rascher used 50% of donations to go towards damages in the House settlement, no one knows how much of these donations are ticket/suite related. The safe bet is 50% of these funds will be added to pool revenue for athlete revenue sharing. Still, it’s wild to think we’ll have a big change to the salary cap and the first season hasn’t even started.
Lastly, I have some visualizations for two athletic programs at opposite ends of the FBS spectrum. First, from early August, I looked at the University of Louisiana Monroe. The school’s AD quite abruptly and had his role taken by the school’s football coach on an interim basis. Rumors abound whether ULM will drop down to FCS and move back to the Southland Conference. I did several visualizations on the topic, including average P4/G6 pool revenue and institutional support for the poorest schools. But my favorite graphic was plotting every school’s pool revenue over the last 20 years and highlighting ULM’s position in the hierarchy. Which is… not great. But I like how the chart looks!
It sounds like ULM is going to tough it out. At least that’s the word on the street now. I hope they can turn it around.
Lastly, after the announcement of the NCAA completing their investigation into the University of Michigan’s sign stealing scandal, I dove in last week. I think the charts I put together show what a $30 million fine in context is, but I liked visualizing my hypothetical of what that $30 million could do for the students of Michigan. Digging up how many in-state students UM has and their tuition/fee costs, I made this graph to show just how many students could get a full ride for what the school will be paying because of this penalty (imagine if I added all the legal fees into it!). I think the visualization is pretty stark.
🏒 College Hockey Corner 🏒
It’s long overdue for me to dive into the women’s college hockey space. This week, I’ll start light - looking at the basic hierarchy of the space. And since this is NILnomics, that means looking at budgets. Whose top of the heap? Let’s see:
Quick Takeaways:
Wisconsin goes from #8 in the men’s ice hockey operating budget to #1 for women - you love to see it.
I have a soft spot in my heart when I see my alma mater, Northeastern, up there at #4. I knew they had a great program, but this surprised even me.
What may be the biggest story is who isn’t on this chart. EADA data for the men that I reported on showed 64 mens programs whereas this is only 40 programs in the women’s game. It’s sad to me that schools aren’t offering teams for both sexes. I’m calling out North Dakota, Notre Dame, and Denver specifically. Shame.
At $3.99 million, Wisconsin’s women’s program is costing the badgers more than all but 14 men’s programs. Impressive.
Analyst’s Desk
🔉 What I’m Listening To 🔉
I’m always on the lookout for anyone breaking down college sports and especially the business side of the industry. Here’s this week’s best listens:
Highway to NIL - a great breakdown of President Trump’s executive order on college athletics. These lawyers dive into deep into the weeds and all the information is great.
Trustees and Presidents - another great episode highlighting the challenges in athletics from a legal perspective.
Final Thoughts
That’s it for reviewing the major football related posts we’ve had in the first 5 months of NILnomics. I hope this gets you as excited as I am for the upcoming football season. And that you learned something new. We’ve got a lot of great content planned for the upcoming season - looking at olympic sports revenue, diving into coaching salaries/contracts, new MMR/apparel contracts, and some fun collaborations with other college sports content creators. There’s going to be some surprising product launches coming down the pike, too. So stay tuned!
Thanks again for your time. Now finish your beverage 😀
Greg Chick, PhD
Data Analyst
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NILnomics is an independent data-driven newsletter uncovering the real numbers behind college sports finances with sharp insights, clear visuals, and exclusive datasets. Please send any thoughts, questions, or feedback to me at [email protected] and please follow me on X @NILnomics. Don’t forget all our data is available on Kaggle, code on GitHub, and FOIA documents on GoogleDrive. See you next week!
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