Texas A&M athletes more than doubled total NIL compensation in last academic year

(KBTX) – Texas A&M’s name, image, and likeness compensation (NIL) more than doubled over the last academic year, according to data obtained by KBTX via open records request.

From June 2, 2024, to June 1, 2025, Aggie athletes raked in $50.5 million in NIL deals, an improvement of more than $31 million from the year prior.

Data provided from the three previous years included the total payout of multi-year contracts, each listed in the year the agreement was signed, according to A&M.

July 2025 marked the completion of four academic years in which college athletes could earn money from their name, image, and likeness. Texas A&M’s total compensation has at least doubled every year since 2021-22, when Aggie athletes earned approximately $3 million.

As has been the case throughout the NIL era of college athletics, the vast majority of increased compensation went to male athletes. In this past academic year, A&M’s male athletes earned $48.3 million, while Aggie female athletes brought in $2.2 million. Male athletes saw an increase of $29.4 million from the 2023-24 academic year. Female athletes’ compensation rose above the $1 million mark for the first time in 2024-25, after earning $528,184 last academic year. It now accounts for 4% of A&M’s total compensation, up from 2% the previous year.

Senate Bill 1385 initially legalized NIL compensation for college athletes in the state of Texas in 2021 and was replaced by the updated House Bill 2804 in 2023. During the past regular session, House Bill 126 updated the NIL law by opening the doors to revenue sharing between college athletes and universities to fall in line with the House v. NCAA antitrust case settlement. The newest bill also added language that updates the Texas law to match any future court rulings or NCAA rule changes, eliminating the need for future changes to state NIL laws.

Over the four years of legalized NIL deals, A&M’s athletes have earned approximately $79.2 million.

In the open records request, KBTX requested the total amount of NIL compensation earned by athletes, as well as totals broken down by sport. Citing student confidentiality laws and state NIL confidentiality laws, the university did not provide the numbers for individual sports, but did break the total into compensation totals earned by male athletes and female athletes.

KBTX requested the same information from the University of Texas, Texas Tech University, and the University of Houston, but did not receive the data by the time this story was published.

During the 2023-24 academic year, University of Texas athletes earned just $12.7 million, while Texas Tech athletes earned $6.3 million. Texas A&M athletes earned a total of $19.5 million in NIL compensation during the same period. KBTX obtained all NIL figures through open records requests with the corresponding university, and the details provided in those requests varied from school to school.

KBTX has not previously reported the NIL totals from Texas and Texas Tech before this story.

The University of Houston was the only power conference public program in Texas to deny releasing its total NIL numbers for 2023-24, citing the state’s NIL confidentiality laws.

In 2023-24, female University of Texas athletes earned approximately 8% of the school’s total NIL compensation at $994,398. Of Texas Tech’s total compensation, 10% was paid to female athletes, totaling $603,215.58.

Over the first three years of NIL compensation, University of Texas athletes earned $28.7 million, while Texas Tech athletes earned $14.2 million. Over the same three-year span, Texas A&M athletes were paid $28.7 million.

Texas A&M NIL compensation

Data obtained via open records request from Texas A&M. Values from July 1 2021 – July 2, 2024 are from deals signed during that year and include the full value of multi-year contracts.

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