Steve Sarkisian frustrated by ‘irresponsible reporting’ about Texas NIL spend

With Arch Manning moving into his first season as the starting quarterback in burnt orange and white, how much are the Texas Longhorns spending on NIL?

Coming off back-to-back appearances in the College Football Playoff semifinals, the Longhorns are back in the national spotlight, increasing speculation about the roster spend for Texas as the program moves into the top five nationally in blue-chip ratio.

According to a report from the Houston Chronicle based on an anonymous source, the Horns will spend $35 to $40 million on their 2025 roster if revenue sharing with athletes as a result of the anticipated House vs. NCAA settlement.

In Destin, Florida for the SEC spring meetings, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian pushed back against that report in an appearance on Sirius XM’s SEC radio channel.

“What’s frustrating on that is that it was a little bit of irresponsible reporting,” Sarkisian said. “One anonymous source said that’s what our roster was. I wish we had $40 million on our roster, we’d probably be a little bit better team than we are.”

The report spread quickly.

“What’s crazy about this day and age in which you guys operate in — and I’ve watched this for 25 years now, the evolution of Twitter and social media and podcasts — one guy writes an article from an anonymous source that says, that’s what our roster is, and everybody ran it,” Sarkisian said.

“I’m talking real publications ran with it, and it was like, that’s what’s going on in Texas. Nobody asked me one question. Like, okay, sure, but if that’s what you think, that’s fine. If that’s the narrative you want to paint for our team. That’s fine, whatever.”

Sarkisian didn’t provide a specific number that Texas expects to spend on its roster if revenue sharing goes into place this year, but he did hint at it.

“I wish I had about another 15 million or so, though, we might have a little better roster,” Sarkisian said.

That would put the roster spend between $20 and $25 million, a number that deserves some context because Sarkisian revealed last month that three-year starting quarterback Quinn Ewers never took NIL money from the school collective, instead becoming a multi-millionaire by signing outside endorsement deals like Manning inked with Red Bull, Panini America, Uber, and Vouri this offseason.

So whatever money Texas will spend on its football roster this year, the total team income from NIL is much higher.