How many college football teams are spending around $50 million on their roster this year?
The Athletic ranked college football programs by money spent at the start of the 2026 college football season. The 2026 college football regular season is only a few weeks old, as we head into Week 3.
Week 2 was of course highlighted by Ohio State’s loss to Texas, Michigan’s win over Oklahoma and Oklahoma State’s stunning victory against Oregon, among other games.
As we head into Week 3, roster data and spending amounts have surfaced. And they are pretty telling.
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College football roster spend amounts are not public, unlike professional sports, but the numbers are apparently there to find.
“College football’s most carefully guarded secret is the amount of money flowing to the players on each roster. The financial resources a program allocates to build its team each offseason dictate fair expectations for the next season, but precise figures are hard to come by,” The Athletic wrote.
“This summer, The Athletic’s college football staff tried to find them.”
College football programs spending around $50 million
Half a dozen college football programs are spending close to $50 million on their roster this year, according to the report:
- Ohio State
- Oregon
- Texas
- LSU
- Texas A&M
- Miami
Unsurprisingly, the college football programs spending the most are winning the most.
“On Sept. 12, Oregon, believed to be spending around $50 million, lost to Oklahoma State, whose estimate is below $20 million. Clemson has the ACC’s second-highest estimate, but last year the Tigers lost to some of the league’s lowest spenders in Duke and Syracuse. The numbers can be seen as a proxy for which teams are overachieving and which are underperforming,” The Athletic added.
What do you make of the budgets for college football’s top programs?
