In the growing landscape of college athletics, Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals play a vital role in sports. Some programs are set up better than others based on a program’s valuation. Programs with higher valuations can help some of the top-performing teams stay successful.

CNBC released its valuation rankings for the country’s athletic departments, showing their growth from the 2024 fiscal year. The Colorado Buffaloes are ranked No. 47 in the nation, a rise from No. 55 in 2024.

Breaking Down Colorado Buffaloes’ Valuation Ranking

Colorado’s 2025 valuation is $574 million, with a year-over-year value change of 22 percent. The program’s 2024 revenue is set at $147 million, with a 16 percent year-over-year revenue change.

A program’s valuation determines its monetary worth, and it is important to look at the growth, which shows that Colorado is trending in the right direction. It is also important to note that the valuation rankings are based on all of the athletics, not just the football program.

Where Colorado Ranks In The Big 12

When focusing on the Big 12 conference, several of the programs are in the same vicinity with their valuation ranking.

• No. 39 Kansas: $620M
• No. 41 Oklahoma State: $600M
• No. 42 Baylor: $585M
• No. 46 Iowa State: $575M
• No. 47 Colorado: $574M
• No. 49 Texas Tech: $570M
• No. 50 TCU: $568M
• No. 55 Arizona: $529M
• No. 57 BYU: $500M
• No. 58 West Virginia: $481M
• No. 60 Utah: $451M
• No. 62 Kansas State: $435M
• No. 63 Arizona State: $430M
• No. 68 Cincinnati: $280M
• No. 70 UCF: $262M
• No. 73 Houston: $222M

MORE: Colorado Gets Hit With Biggest Transfer Portal Loss Yet

MORE: Michael Irvin Gets Real On Blame Surrounding Shedeur Sanders

MORE: Deion Sanders Faces Recruiting Problem After Omarion Miller Transfer News 

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER HERE

While from the top valuation of Kansas to the bottom, which is Houston is a significant difference in the Big 12, the conference teams are still in a similar vicinity overall. With it having to do with all athletics, the programs that have consistently strong teams, such as Kansas’ basketball team, make sense to have a higher valuation.

Looking at the Big 12 as a whole shows that the Colorado Buffaloes are in the top five for their valuation and trending upward. 

Calling Back To Deion Sanders’ Comments On Fairness

While valuation is not the same as revenue, seeing the difference in the conferences does call back to Colorado coach Deion Sanders’ comments on the fairness between programs. The schools in the top five for their valuation are either in the Big Ten or the SEC, and all are in the billions. 

“You talk about equality,” Sanders said during the Big 12 media day. “All you have to do is look at the playoffs and see what those teams spent, and you understand darn near why they’re in the playoffs. It’s kind of hard to compete with somebody who’s giving $25, $30 million to a darn freshman class.”

Although the valuation is on the programs’ overall athletics, Sanders has been outspoken about money when it comes to building the football program. With the Buffaloes facing a mass exodus through the transfer portal, Sanders has highlighted that several players are leaving because of money.

The positive side is that the Buffaloes’ valuation is growing with a 22 percent increase. This shows that the school’s athletics overall are being valued higher, and will help lead to more money poured into the program. With more money, the Buffaloes can put more of an emphasis on NIL as they look to build their roster and compete in the Big 12.

RECOMMENDED ARTICLES

From a player retention standpoint, the first few weeks of the offseason haven’t been kind to the Colorado Buffaloes.

Several key Buffs have announced their intentions to enter the college football transfer portal when it opens next month, including wide receiver Omarion Miller, safety Tawfiq Byard and freshman defensive end Alexander McPherson. While every situation is unique, one Colorado insider believes money has been a common denominator among players’ reasons for leaving Boulder.

“The super majority of those people, I’m talking 95 percent, are going to be leaving for a bigger bag,” Thee Pregame Show’s Uncle Neely said on his YouTube channel. “This ain’t transferring in 1990. This ain’t transferring in the year 2000. This is 2025. This is business now. This isn’t, ‘Oh, I don’t like the coach. Oh, I don’t want to be treated the way they treat me.’

“This doesn’t mean something is wrong. These are business decisions now. But what we like to do is run with the narrative that woe is me, something must be wrong, something must be going on. How are all these people leaving?”

The NIL (name, image and likeness) era has rocked college football, and the depressing truth is that schools with more money will ultimately land the best players. In the Big 12, no school better exemplifies that trend than new conference champion Texas Tech.

Who’s Leaving Colorado?

As of Sunday, 16 Colorado players will enter the transfer portal next month. That group includes 12 defensive players, six members of the Buffs’ 2025 high school signing class and a few other Buffs who spent only one season in Boulder.

Below is an updated list of Colorado players who plan on entering the transfer portal:

• Safety TJ Branch
• Defensive lineman Jehiem Oatis
• Cornerback Noah King
• Cornerback Teon Parks
• Linebacker Mantrez Walker
• Safety Terrance Love
• Safety Tawfiq Byard
• Wide receiver Omarion Miller
• Defensive tackle Brandon Davis-Swain
• Offensive lineman Carde Smith
• Defensive end Alexander McPherson
• Offensive lineman Tyler Brown
• Defensive tackle Gavriel Lightfoot
• Defensive tackle Christian Hudson
• Defensive tackle Tawfiq Thomas
• Wide receiver Dre’lon Miller

Uncle Neely shared his take that Colorado’s losses should be replaceable via the transfer portal.

“Have you ever stopped to say, what am I actually losing by those people leaving?” Uncle Neely said. “Have you ever looked at the numbers production-wise of who has announced that they’re getting up out of here and what you’re actually losing by them leaving?… Is it replaceable via the portal? And in this business in college football, is it replaceable cheaper? I would wager to say the answer is yes in all regards.”

MORE: Colorado Gets Hit With Biggest Transfer Portal Loss Yet

MORE: Michael Irvin Gets Real On Blame Surrounding Shedeur Sanders

MORE: Deion Sanders Faces Recruiting Problem After Omarion Miller Transfer News 

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER HERE

The college football transfer portal will open on Jan. 2 and close Jan. 16. Colorado coach Deion Sanders and his staff can begin adding players from the portal at the start of that period.

Lane Kiffin is bringing another Ole Miss assistant with him to LSU. According to Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports, the Tigers have finalized a deal to hire Rebels running backs coach Kevin Smith for the same role.

Smith is reported to have a salary of close to $1 million, which would make him one of the highest-paid running backs coaches in the country. He is the sixth Ole Miss assistant to follow Kiffin to Baton Rouge.

The other coaches joining Kiffin at LSU are offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., tight ends coach Joe Cox, receivers coach Joe McDonald, inside receivers coach Sawyer Jordan and quarterbacks coach Dane Stevens. So far no defensive assistants from the Rebels have made the jump to Baton Rouge.

Smith worked with Kiffin as a running backs coach at Florida Atlantic form 2017-19 and joined his very first staff at Ole Miss in 2020. He stayed for the next two seasons in Oxford before leaving to take the running backs coach position at Miami in 2022.

Smith’s stint with the Hurricanes was a short-lived one as he returned to Ole Miss in 2023 and stayed through this season. Now he’ll look to continue the success he has enjoyed with Kiffin while building up the running backs room at LSU.

Smith helped to develop running backs such as Quinshon Judkins and Kewan Lacy during his time in Oxford. This past season, Ole Miss ranked fifth in the SEC with 185.6 rushing yards per game as Lacy led the conference with 21 rushing touchdowns and ranked second with 1,366 yards.

Ole Miss had its best season in program history this year to reach the College Football Playoff for the first time. However, Kiffin was not granted permission from the school to finish out the season with the Rebels after he accepted the LSU job.

Other assistants, including offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., were allowed to complete the playoff run with Ole Miss. The Rebels defeated Tulane in the first round and will face No. 3 Georgia, which they lost to earlier this season, in the quarterfinals.

As of right now, it looks like most of the Ole Miss offensive staff will follow Kiffin to Baton Rouge. The defensive side keep defensive coordinator Blake Baker, who has been on staff at LSU since 2024.

The quarterback market is expected to be extremely competitive this offseason.

A ton of experienced signal-callers have announced their decisions to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal, including Arizona State’s Sam Leavitt, North Texas’ Drew Mestemaker, Cincinnati’s Brendan Sorsby, and TCU’s Josh Hoover, among countless others.

The right move can benefit young quarterbacks, as players such as USC’s Jayden Maiava and Oregon’s Dante Moore benefited from transferring early in their careers.

An offseason coaching change has led one former blue-chip recruit to explore his options in the portal.

Former Four-Star Quarterback Expected To Enter Portal

On Sunday, Memphis true freshman quarterback Antwann “AJ” Hill announced his plans to leave the program after one season, per On3.

Hill appeared in two games in 2025, earning a redshirt. His most extensive action came in a 31-24 loss to UAB on October 18. Hill entered the contest after starting quarterback Brendon Lewis went down with an injury. In roughly two quarters of action, he completed 13/25 passes for 176 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception.

On the season, Hill connected on 19/32 passes for 223 yards with 1 touchdown to 1 interception.

Hill is transferring after Memphis head coach Ryan Silverfield was hired away by Arkansas. The Razorbacks don’t have a ton of depth at quarterback. Redshirt freshman KJ Jackson holds the most experience on the roster with five appearances and one start last season.

It wouldn’t be a surprise if Arkansas is involved in Hill’s transfer recruitment.

Hill was one of the highest-ranked prospects in program history to sign with Memphis. He was regarded as the No. 15 QB and a top-200 recruit in the 2025 class. Hill chose the Tigers over Florida following official visits to both schools.

During his prep career at Houston County High School, Hill compiled over 11,000 passing yards and led his team to at least one playoff victory in all three seasons as a starter.

Overall, Hill completed 800-of-1239 passes for 11,020 yards with 123 touchdowns to 20 interceptions. He added six more scores on the ground.

The 6-foot-4, 215-pound quarterback is expected to have four seasons of eligibility remaining.

Read more on College Football HQ

• $45 million college football head coach reportedly offers Lane Kiffin unexpected role

• Paul Finebaum believes one SEC school is sticking by an ‘average’ head coach

• SEC football coach predicts major change after missing College Football Playoff

• Predicting landing spots for the Top 5 college football transfers (Dec. 17)

Former South Carolina wide receiver Matrick Belton is reportedly going to get a real shot on the main roster in the WWE. Belton, who goes by Trick Williams in the top professional wrestling and sports entertainment company, joined WWE in 2021 in the NXT brand. Now, he’s going to move up to either the Raw or Smackdown roster.

NXT is basically the developmental arm of WWE while Raw and Smackdown – shows on Mondays and Fridays, respectively – are considered the main roster. According to this report from PWInsider.com, Belton will make an appearance on the upcoming Smackdown, which was pre-taped.

Whether Belton moves to Raw or Smackdown is to be determined. Here’s the reporting from PWInsider:

Former WWE NXT and TNA Champion Trick Williams will debut on Smackdown on 12/26 with the storyline being he’s a free agent looking to sign with the brand. We are told Williams has not been officially listed internally on a brand yet, so he could appear on Raw in the upcoming weeks as well, but he’ll be moving to the main roster in 2026.

Belton is a two-time NXT champion and also held the TNA World Championship for 140 days earlier this year. Belton, a former SEC football player who was in the Philadelphia Eagles’ minicamp in 2018, recently got engaged to another former SEC athlete – women’s basketball player Anriel Howard, who played for three years at Texas A&M and her final year at Mississippi State.

Belton, a Columbia native who played for Keenan High School, joined the program in 2014 after spending his first two years out of high school at Hampton University. After sitting out due to NCAA transfer rules, Belton played in every game for South Carolina in 2015 and made five starts. He caught 11 passes for 121 yards his first season on the field.

As a senior in 2016, he played primarily on special teams, appearing in nine games. He played in 21 games over the course of his two-year career with the Gamecocks and made five starts.

Belton also spent time in training camp with Philadelphia Eagles. However, he decided to take a chance on pro wrestling and started training at the Combat Zone Wrestling Academy in New Jersey.

OXFORD, Miss. – About an hour before kickoff, athletic director Keith Carter stood on the sideline, just a few yards from Ole Miss legend Eli Manning, and did his best to describe what the last month had been like for the Rebels’ football program.

Chaotic would be a good place to start. Contentious would be fitting and even maddening at times.

Good luck, though, in finding a more dysfunctional build-up to a game earmarked as the most important in school history, certainly in the modern era.

“Somebody told me that I ought to write a book about it,” Carter said with an easy smile. “I said, ‘No, I’ve tried to block it all out.’”

Not the season, and certainly not Saturday, a landmark moment in the annals of Ole Miss football. The Rebels, in their first-ever College Football Playoff game, pounced on Tulane from the outset and pounded the Green Wave in a convincing 41-10 victory before a record crowd of 68,251 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

It was win No. 1 for newly promoted Pete Golding as Ole Miss’ head coach and one the Hotty Toddy Nation was thirsting for ever since Lane Kiffin’s messy exit last month when he bolted for LSU.

“I’ve felt a different vibe, I really have, the way everyone has connected with Pete,” said Carter, referencing a vibe that included Archie Manning coming back to speak to the team this week for the first time since early in Kiffin’s tenure.

At a place known for throwing festive parties, hence the long-standing boast by Ole Miss fans that they’ve “never lost a party,” this was one giant football party. And make no mistake. Ole Miss fans, players and coaches (even the ones on loan from LSU) rejoiced in every minute of it.

While Kiffin might have tweeted during the game — a statistic showcasing his impressive offensive numbers since the advent of coach-to-player communication — he wasn’t around to see the Rebels make history.

“We were ready, just blocking out all extra noise,” Ole Miss receiver Deuce Alexander said. “People were saying we weren’t going to be the same team without coach (Kiffin). He’s a great coach and all, but at the end of the day, the players play the game. So we were just prepared for the moment, just ready to go out there and prove everybody wrong.”

Ready, the Rebels (12-1) were. They ran seven offensive plays on their first two possessions and led 14-0 before anybody could blink. The Green Wave never got closer than 11 points the rest of the way.

It was Golding’s first game as Ole Miss’ coach and the Rebels’ first game without Kiffin, who accepted the LSU head job two days after the Egg Bowl win over Mississippi State. He pushed to continue coaching the Rebels throughout the playoff. As the ordeal dragged on, some players became increasingly frustrated and expressed their displeasure on social media. Carter and the Ole Miss administration made it clear they were moving on without Kiffin.

He took most of his offensive staff with him to LSU, and according to sources, told the coaches they had better be on the plane with him to LSU when he departed on Nov. 30 if they wanted a job. In the end, Kiffin agreed to let offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. and others come back and coach Ole Miss’ team in the playoff, but they’re all headed back to LSU after Ole Miss’ playoff run is over.

Meanwhile, LSU’s interim head coach and one of the Tigers’ best recruiters, Frank Wilson, was recently hired to join Ole Miss’ staff after LSU’s bowl game. Sources told On3 that Kiffin wasn’t planning to keep Wilson along with general manager Austin Thomas, who has returned to Ole Miss in that same role.

“You couldn’t make this stuff up if you wanted to, the wildest shit you could imagine, how all this went down,” one Ole Miss staff member told On3. “I give these kids credit. They had a lot of questions. There was a lot of anger. Think about it. This is the greatest season in Ole Miss history, and you’re playing without your head coach, who left a playoff team for another job, and you’re being coached by other coaches who are going to one of your biggest rivals when the playoff is over and basically working for two schools at the same time.

“I don’t care what happens the rest of the way. These players are champions.”

Kiffin told On3 earlier in the week that he had “moved on” and didn’t feel like it was appropriate to make any comments heading into the game. But afterward, he congratulated the Ole Miss coaches and players on his X account and singled out Golding and seeing his two boys on the sideline.

For Golding, as has been the case since he was promoted, his focus remained squarely on the players. Over and over again, Saturday in a packed interview room, he lauded the players.

But he also threw a little shade in Kiffin’s direction when asked about some of the specific changes he made in taking over the program. He immediately pointed to his right from the podium and asked what used to be sitting down front in the team meeting room.

“We got rid of the basketball goal first,” quipped Golding, referencing a portable basketball goal Ole Miss players and staff would dunk on and play games on during meetings when Kiffin was the coach.

Golding explained that as a player he didn’t like the “forced fun aspect” of bringing teams together. What he did do after being named coach was have players make a list of things that they would want and called every player in to meet with him.

“It was like, ‘Hey give me one thing that you love the most about Ole Miss and give me the one thing that you would change first in this program if you were the head coach,’” Golding recounted.

The most important part was keeping the routine the same, no matter all the staff swapping and keeping everything being said on the outside — on the outside.

Chants of “Pete! Pete!” rang out as Golding left the field, and he joked that he’s also been on the flip side when his teams or defenses haven’t played as well. He also downplayed any difficulty of working through the chaos with the players and having them focused.

“I mean it would be one thing, no disrespect, if this was the Pop-Tarts Bowl or something like that,” Golding said. “It would have been really hard, but this is the playoffs. When people start talking about, ‘Are they going to play or not going to play?’ What are we talking about? I mean, these kids have gone 11-1 up to this point and have a home playoff game for the first time in the history of the program. … They don’t really care who runs them through the tunnel. That’s the truth. They care about their preparation. They care about the plan, are they getting developed?”

Golding held down the curse words, only a couple of “shits,” and joked that he was working on his cursing. He also wasn’t buying any conspiracy theories about the coaches on loan from LSU, including Weis, somehow not being fully invested.

Ole Miss finished with 497 yards – 346 passing and 151 rushing – and racked up 29 first downs. The Rebels were 5-of-7 in the red zone, and the only penalty came on fourth down when they took a delay and punted.

“I had zero concern with Charlie Weis calling this game for this one reason: Charlie Weis cannot afford not to call a hell of a game,” Golding said. “All he’s heard his whole life is that this is Lane Kiffin’s offense, it’s Lane Kiffin’s offense, it’s Lane Kiffin’s offense. Charlie Weis calls the offense just like he’s done all year. He did a great job tonight. So I had no concern because the last thing Charlie wanted to do was come out here and lay an egg, right? Then it’s ‘Who’s offense is it?’ and you (the media) would write about it.”

The only real downer for Ole Miss on Saturday was running back Kewan Lacy leaving the game with a bruised shoulder. He went back into the game after initially injuring it, but later left the sideline for the locker room. Golding said Lacy, the Rebels’ leading rusher, would be further evaluated.

Ole Miss now gets another shot at Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day. The Bulldogs handed the Rebels their only loss this season.

As historic as Saturday’s win was, there won’t be much celebrating for the Rebels.

“The expectation is to make the playoff every year,” Golding said. “That’s why Keith Carter invests the way he does and runs the program the way he does. That’s the expectation and that’s what was unique about this group. We felt like last year we screwed that up. We had a talented enough team to be able to make the playoff and we didn’t. So all these guys that came into this team this year, their expectation was to make the playoff,  and that came true for them. I think that’s going to be for every class going forward. That’s the expectation of where this program is.

“It’s a top-5 program in the country, and that’s your expectation every year.”