Cooper Flagg has been one of the big winners of the name, image and likeness (NIL) era in college sports, reportedly earning a staggering amount of money during his one year at Duke.

However, top recruits and NBA Draft prospects aren’t the only winners in the NIL era. At least 50 early-entry candidates withdrew their names from the 2025 NBA Draft ahead of the late May deadline with plans to return to school and cash in on NIL opportunities. 

“This year’s draft class, more than any ever, has been affected by the NIL and the new pay-for-play,” Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens told NBC Sports Boston in May. “The money can be higher in some of these schools than the bottom of the 20s in the draft. Good for them.”

The former Butler coach’s assertion seems to be correct when you look at On3’s most valuable college athletes entering the 2025-26 academic year.

Let’s take a look at the 10 most valuable players in men’s college basketball entering the 2025-26 season, via On3.

1. BYU F AJ Dybantsa ($4.1 million)

Dybantsa is the highest-valued non-football college athlete entering the 2025-26 academic year, coming in at No. 4 on the overall list. The incoming BYU freshman, who is ranked as the No. 2 prospect in the 2025 college basketball recruiting class (via 247 Sports), already has reported deals with Nike and Red Bull. But the bulk of his potential college earnings might have come with the deal he struck with BYU’s NIL collective, reportedly securing a deal worth around $7 million. That’s just scratching the surface on Dybantsa’s potential career earnings, though, as many prognosticators have him being one of the top few picks in the 2026 NBA Draft.

Toppin had Texas Tech on the precipice of its second Final Four appearance, leading the Red Raiders to the Elite Eight in 2024-25. As a result, the program rewarded him in order to ensure he wouldn’t enter the transfer portal or 2025 NBA Draft. It was reported that Toppin is expected to earn $4 million in NIL after he announced his decision to remain in Lubbock in April. Toppin’s reported deal with Texas Tech’s NIL collective is the only reported NIL deal he has. Toppin won Big 12 Player of the Year and was named a second-team All-American after scoring 18.2 points per game in the 2024-25 season. He’s the 12th-highest-valued player in college sports, per On3. 

Michigan not only got Lendeborg to remain in college for another season, but it also made him one of the highest-valued players in the sport. After the UAB transfer removed his name from the 2025 NBA Draft in late May, CBS Sports reported that Lendeborg received an NIL package from Michigan worth around $3 million. Prior to his decision to remain in school, Lendeborg was viewed as a potential first-round pick in June’s draft. Now, the two-time first-team All-AAC member will play his final year of college hoops in Ann Arbor, giving Dusty May’s Wolverines the No. 1 player in the transfer portal this offseason, per 247 Sports. He’s also the 20th-highest valued player in college sports, per On3. 

Fland also profited from his decision to remain in college, but transfer to a different school. The former Arkansas guard declared for the 2025 Draft, but removed his name from consideration and opted to head to Florida and receive an NIL package from its collective worth over $2 million, according to CBS Sports. Fland, who averaged 13.5 points per game as a freshman in 2024-25, was the 22nd-ranked prospect in the 2024 recruiting cycle, via 247 Sports, giving the defending champs another player with high upside. Fland is also the 22nd-highest-valued player in college sports, per On3.

UCLA didn’t need to incentivize Dent to remain in school. However, Dent was incentivized to make the move from New Mexico to UCLA earlier this offseason. The 2024-25 Mountain West Player of the Year reportedly received a $3 million NIL deal to transfer to UCLA in March, according to The Santa Fe New Mexican. He received $2 million of that deal up front, while he’ll earn the other $1 million during the 2025-26 season. Dent, who is the 23rd-highest-valued player in college sports, averaged 20.4 points per game as a junior last season.

Quaintance is the youngest player on this list. Even though he won’t turn 18 until July, Quaintance already has a year of college hoops experience, playing at Arizona State this past season. After being named to the Big 12’s All-Defensive and All-Freshman teams, Quaintance entered the portal and landed at Kentucky. While he has a pair of reported deals with PSD Underwear and Panini America, Quaintance likely cashed in on Kentucky’s growing NIL budget, too. Kentucky is rumored to be one of the three-highest NIL spenders in college basketball for the 2025-26 season, helping Mark Pope land a talented transfer portal class. Quaintance, who is also ranked No. 26 in On3’s most valuable college athletes list, is rehabbing from an ACL tear, but he’s hopeful to be back on the court early next season as he seeks to be a top pick in the 2026 draft.

Smith decided to forgo early entry into the 2025 NBA Draft, opting to play one more season at Purdue. Smith, who has reported NIL deals with Hey Dude Shoes and The NIL Store, also has a reported deal with Purdue’s NIL collective, per On3. However, it wasn’t reported if Smith agreed to a new deal with the collective when he announced his decision to remain in college for another year. Regardless, the Boilermakers will have the reigning Bob Cousy Award winner, Big Ten Player of the Year and one of the Naismith National Player of the Year finalists back on their roster for his senior season. That’s something that was becoming a rarity in the pre-NIL era. Smith is ranked 28th in On3’s most valuable college athletes list. 

Another transfer, Thiam moved on from UCF to Cincinnati following his freshman season in 2024-25. Ranked 32nd in On3’s most valuable college athletes list, Thiam doesn’t have any reported deals with a brand, per On3. However, he inked a $2 million NIL deal to join Cincinnati, the Orlando Sentinel reported in April. Thiam averaged 10.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game this past season.

9. Purdue C Oscar Cluff ($1.7 million)

Purdue is the only team with multiple players on this list. Unlike Smith, though, Cluff transferred into the Boilermakers’ program in the offseason. The 34th-ranked player in On3’s most valuable college athletes list, Cluff doesn’t have any reported deals with any individual brands. However, Cluff’s junior college basketball coach insinuated that he turned down a school that offered more NIL money to join Purdue in an interview with the IndyStar. Cluff helped South Dakota State reach the NCAA Tournament this past season, averaging 17.6 points and 12.3 rebounds per game.

A year after making Coleman Hawkins one of the highest-paid players in the NIL era, Kansas State dished out another rich deal for a top transfer. Haggerty, ranked 35th on On3’s most-valued college athletes list, reportedly agreed to a $2.5 million deal ($2 million base, $500,000 incentives) with Kansas State, according to On3. That’s actually lower than what he was seeking, as his father believed he could’ve snagged a $4 million NIL deal, the Field of 68 reported. Haggerty doesn’t have any reported NIL deals with a brand, per On3. He was third in the nation in scoring this past season, averaging 21.7 points per game at Memphis.

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LUBBOCK, Texas – Texas Tech announced the signing of three of the top 30 transfers in the country on Friday. All-American Mia Williams join the roster along with two-time 20-game winner and two-way player Kaitlyn Terry and three-time First Team All-Conference selection and 2024 MVC Player of the Year, Jackie Lis

The Red Raiders finished their historic 2025 campaign as national runners-up in the Women’s College World Series and are already making a case to be one of the favorites next year with the returning talent and new additions.

Mia Williams – 2B – Junior – Florida

Williams is coming off a breakout sophomore season where she slugged 19 home runs and 44 RBI on her way to being named to the All-SEC Second Team, NFCA All-Gulf Region First Team and NFCA Second Team All-American. The rising junior’s numbers massively improved from her freshman season where she slashed .164/.345/.287 before bringing those numbers up to .335/.714/.430 last year. Defensively, she was in on 18 of the team’s 31 double plays at second base and had 96 assists on the year. A smart player in the box, Williams reached base safely in 53 of her 65 games and drew 18 walks. Her 130 total bases was second best on a Florida team that finished top 10 in the country in home runs, slugging and hits.

Kaitlyn Terry – P/OF – Junior – UCLA

Terry recorded her second straight 20-win season with the Bruins, going 20-5 with a 2.64 ERA and striking out 172 batters while walking just 34. The lefty helped UCLA to a 2025 WCWS appearance as she was named to the NFCA All-West Region Third Team. Her freshman season, Terry was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year as she posted a 21-3 record with a 2.38 ERA and 161 strikeouts. A two-way player, Terry swung the bat more this past season recording 35 hits, including 10 extra-base hits, and 24 RBI while also stealing nine bases. When she wasn’t pitching, the Glendale, Arizona native played in the outfield.

Jackie Lis – INF – Senior – Southern Illinois

Lis was a three-time All-MVC First Team selection and was named the MVC Player of the Year in 2024. The rising senior has played and started in 164 games and has hit .340 or better in all three seasons and post double-digit home runs in those years. A Newburgh, Indiana native, Lis holds the program record for career home runs with 44. For her career she is slashing an impressive .353/.690/.457 with 141 RBI and 95 walks to go along with her home run numbers. Lis was also a two-time NFCA All-Region selection and a two-time MVC Scholar-Athlete. Was the No. 29 ranked player in the portal according to Softball America and was named to the D1Softball Top-100 Players list prior to the 2025 season.

 

Earlier this month, it was reported that UNC gave their basketball program a significant financial boost to keep up with the ever-changing college sports landscape. More specifically, Hubert Davis had $14 million to spend on his roster, which ultimately led to landing some quality pieces in the transfer portal, a big-time overseas player, and a five-star freshman. It all sounds pretty good on paper, and ultimately fans should be happier than they were last offseason, but there’s something happening. Rather than celebrating the fact that all of the holes have been filled on the roster, the sports world has decided that because they know a number now that it is time to play the most frustrating game I’ve ever witnessed: does UNC have a $14 million roster?

Exhibit A comes from Tim Donnelly and Max Goren with 99.9 The Fan

Exhibit B is from The Drive’s Josh Graham:

Combine these radio shows with the numerous posts that I’ve seen across social media, and you will see that there is a big problem with how we are now navigating the college basketball offseason. You see, when NIL started, there was a lot of mystery around who much players were getting paid. Heck, we didn’t even know if players were making legitimate money, or if they were being slipped money under the table. Every “deal” was behind closed doors as far as who was getting what, and so finding a way to judge teams wasn’t as simple as “Oh man, you spent money on THIS?” Now the cat is out of the bag, and because Jeff Goodman alleges that UNC’s payroll for their roster is the second-highest in college basketball, everyone has a take about the construction of this roster, and whether or not it was worth the money.

Let me start off by saying this: as far as my opinion of whether or not this is a $14 million roster, I don’t know. I really don’t. I think if you hear a team got one of the best players from a highly competitive European pro league, a future NBA Draft pick in Caleb Wilson, an underrated piece in Henri Veesaar, and a guy with a ton of upside in Jarin Stevenson, you would say that’s a good haul, and that’s without factoring in some of the other guys they got/kept. I have no idea what your finances have to be like to pull this off, but I can tell you this: it is a lot better than what they came away with last year, though one could make the argument that actually landing a center would’ve made somewhat of a difference. So do I think Hubert Davis could do some good things with this roster? Absolutely, but then the question is: what do people expect from a $14 million roster?

If you listen to each of these videos, the answer is: a title contender. While I don’t completely disagree with this, I do feel like it’s a lazy take. Those of us that are fans of pro sports know that sometimes franchises can spend crazy amounts of money and not have things work out. Did the Falcons spending crazy amounts on Kirk Cousins work out for them? Zach LaVine getting a super max contract in Chicago? Do I need to remind everyone of the expensive teams the Brooklyn Nets and LA Clippers have had, and yet came away with nothing to show for it? The Angels spending insane amounts of money on Mike Trout only for him to stay injured to the point that he isn’t as good anymore?

I say all of this to say that I’m convinced all nuance will be lost in college sports now that we are learning how much money teams have. When looking at UNC specifically, I think this roster is underrated in the way that they are being talked about, but at the same time I think there’s this idea out there that money fixes all that ails the program. It doesn’t. In this moment, I think UNC has a good ACC-contending team that should make the NCAA Tournament, which is a standard baseline for the program. As for the Final Four? I have no idea, and honestly I don’t think anybody else knows either. Need I remind you that ESPN had Florida at #21 in their way-too-early preseason rankings last year, and had teams like Kansas, Alabama, and UConn near the top? I think UNC has the potential to be good enough to not make us suffer like we did this previous season, and for me personally, that is all that matters (for now).

With that said, I do think that screaming out numbers is going to make sports media, whether it is social media or professional, insufferable. I wish so badly someone would reveal what teams like Kansas, Alabama, Kentucky and Duke spent on their roster last season, so that we can just go ahead and air out once and for all how stupid this conversation is. Even with a great season, the NCAA Tournament is so unforgiving that one bad game ends your season. Guessing how much money will buy you a title is a wild game to play. People will continue to play it, though, so I suppose we will just have to tune it out and hope that we get to have some fun watching this team this fall.

KNOXVILLE — A federal judge has denied University of Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler’s request for a preliminary injunction allowing him to play a fifth season of NCAA Division I basketball in five years.

U.S. District Judge Katherine A. Crytzer listened to arguments during a hearing in Knoxville last Friday and entered her denial Thursday morning. She wrote that Zeigler failed to demonstrate he would likely succeed on his argument that the NCAA keeping him from playing a fifth season of Division I basketball is an antitrust violation under the Sherman Act and the Tennessee Trade Practices Act.

“This Court is a court of law, not policy,” Crytzer wrote in her order denying the injunction. “What the NCAA should do as a policy matter to benefit student athletes is beyond the reach of the Sherman Act and TTPA and by extension, this Court.”

The two-time Southeastern Conference defensive player of the year asked for an injunction when he sued the NCAA on May 20 over its rules limiting him to four seasons in a five-year window as an unlawful restraint of trade under both federal laws and Tennessee state laws.

His lawsuit argues he could earn from $2 million to $4 million with another season of college basketball, which the 5-foot-9, 172-pounder from Brooklyn, New York, has said he would use by returning to the Volunteers, who have reached the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight the past two seasons. Zeigler’s attorneys made clear in a statement released Thursday that this is only a first step in his legal fight.

“We are disappointed the Court declined to grant a preliminary injunction on the basis that the NCAA does not directly control NIL compensation, just days after the House settlement confirmed they would do exactly that,” the statement from Litson PLLC and the Garza Law Firm read.

“This ruling is just the first chapter of what we believe will ultimately be a successful challenge. We intend to press forward and are evaluating the best path ahead for Zakai.”

The judge wrote that the harms Zeigler argues he would suffer can be addressed with a future damages award.

She also noted the “fixed number of roster spots” for each Division I basketball team and that “an injunction would run the risk of harming currently enrolled players committed to a university and current high school seniors being recruited.”

The NCAA argued in its brief before the hearing that Zeigler’s injunction request should be denied because he is asking the court to make him the first athlete in history to play a fifth season in five years in Division I “as a matter of right.”

During the hearing, the judge asked Zeigler’s attorneys to file a quick brief answering whether or not Zeigler is an “intercollegiate athlete” as defined under state law and what legal standard applies to his claim under the TTPA.

ACC/SEC Challenge set for Dec. 2-4

Dates and pairings have been set for the annual ACC/SEC Challenge for men’s and women’s basketball teams.

The 2024-25 season will mark the third edition of the interconference competition after the Atlantic Coast Conference and the SEC split 14 meetings each in men’s and women’s competition two years ago and the SEC finished with a 14-2 edge in men’s games and a 10-6 advantage in women’s games this past December, when the event expanded after the SEC added Oklahoma and Texas to its membership.

Because the ACC has 18 members for basketball, two of its schools must sit out every year.

This season, the men will play Dec. 2-3 and the women on Dec. 3-4, a Tuesday to Thursday stretch.

Men’s games on Dec. 2 are Florida at Duke, Georgia at Florida State, Miami at Ole Miss, Missouri at Notre Dame, North Carolina at Kentucky, Oklahoma at Wake Forest, Tennessee at Syracuse, Texas A&M at Pittsburgh, and Virginia Tech at South Carolina. Men’s games on Dec. 3 are Clemson at Alabama, Louisville at Arkansas, LSU at Boston College, Mississippi State at Georgia Tech, N.C. State at Auburn, SMU at Vanderbilt, and Virginia at Texas.

Women’s games on Dec. 3 are Auburn at Syracuse, Georgia at Florida State, Georgia Tech at Texas A&M, Kentucky at Miami, N.C. State at Oklahoma, Tennessee at Stanford, and Virginia at Vanderbilt. Women’s games on Dec. 4 are Arkansas at SMU, California at Missouri, Clemson at Alabama, Florida at Virginia Tech, LSU at Duke, North Carolina at Texas, Notre Dame at Ole Miss, Pittsburgh at Mississippi State, and South Carolina at Louisville.

Matchups will be televised across ESPN’s platform, including each league’s network, with specfic TV listings and times for all ACC/SEC meetings revealed later.