NIL
The Tax Implications of NIL By State
How much a player earns in NIL is paramount, but WHERE they receive that payment has massive financial implications.
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As a former resident of California, let me assure you of this.
We’ll evaluate two yearly NIL comps, $150,000 and $1,000,000, and place that player in Austin, Los Angeles, Eugene, Columbus and Athens and see if there are any meaningful tax implications.
$150,000
| Texas | USC | Georgia | Ohio State | Oregon | |
| Effective State Tax Rate | 0% | 6.64% | 4.96% | 2.48% | 8.0% |
| Local Tax Rate | 0% | 0% | 0% | 2.50% | 0.79% |
| Total With Federal | 24.68% | 31.32% | 29.63% | 29.65% | 33.46% |
| Dollar Differential | 0 | 9963 | 7438 | 7467 | 13,183 |
| Sales Tax | 8.25% | 9.75% | 8.0% | 8.0% | 0% |
| Ranking | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
I bet a lot of you didn’t know that the state of Oregon taxes like North Korea and that those tax rates peak in the tables even earlier than in Trotskyite California.
Oregon pushes their lack of a state sales tax to recruits while hiding the ball on income taxes, but the idea that zero sales tax is a wash vs. a very high state income tax is counting on basic innumeracy.
A high state income tax is 3X to 10X more disadvantaged than the benefits provided by zero sales tax, depending on income and expenses.
The state income tax is with you always and starts at the EARNED DOLLAR, not the SPENT DOLLAR and a $50,000 vehicle is a one time purchase. Your income is a sheep that may always be fleeced.
Any notion of a sales tax offset is particularly spurious for a college football player that has no real expenses beyond their discretionary purchases.
Don’t ignore the sneaky local tax rate in Columbus, OH. It takes some of the shine off of a low state income tax rate.
If a 150K per year player, living the same consumption life, took the $13,183 differential that he pisses away to Oregon taxes and chose Texas or Florida and invested that amount every year for four years, he’d have 1.5 million dollars sitting in an account at age 62 assuming no other contribution made his entire life.
That’s not inconsequential or a rounding error.
Let’s look at a more highly compensated NIL player:
$1,000,000
| Texas | USC | Ohio State | Georgia | Oregon | |
| Effective State Tax Rate | 0% | 10.37% | 3.35% | 5.33% | 9.61% |
| Local State Tax Rate | 0% | 0% | 2.50% | 0% | 0.79% |
| Total with Federal | 35.49% | 45.86% | 41.34% | 40.82% | 45.90% |
| Dollar Differential | 0 | $103,695 | $58,467 | $53,253 | $104,148 |
| Sales Tax | 8.25% | 9.75% | 8.0% | 8.0% | 0% |
| Ranking | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
As incomes rise, the differences are more stark as you climb the progressive tax tables.
Effectively, you’re throwing away over 100K a year to play at USC or Oregon vs Texas at this comp level.
Take the income tax differential between playing at Texas vs. USC, invest it every year for four years at a 9.5% return, and you’ll have 3.8 million dollars in the bank at age 62 having never put another dime into savings.
If you’re a truly high income NIL athlete, making in excess of 1.4 million dollars per year, California taxes every single dollar over that sum at 13.3% with an additional 1.1% on your payroll tax if you incorporate (and you should).
You’re getting hit with 14.4% state tax rates and giving away half of your money after the Feds take their cut.
Have fun with that.
For the highly compensated athlete, even modest state/local income tax states like Ohio and Georgia mean giving up 50K a season (at 1 million earnings) you’d otherwise save or enjoy.
How about $232,000 towards your (or Mom’s) new house over four years if you chose to play in Gainesville or Austin rather than Columbus?
Needless to say, schools in Texas and Florida are massively advantaged.
My question is whether those schools are adequately emphasizing the difference?
The “same offer” from USC, Oregon or Texas for a coveted five star or portal transfer is actually Oregon and USC trying to acquire that player at a steep discount.
Ultimately, athletes should choose the best overall fit, but at minimum, these considerations are a hell of a tie breaker.
Dec. 23, 2025, 6:07 a.m. ET
Arizona State football coach Kenny Dillingham says he was never offered the Michigan job. Never got to that point.
This, of course, isn’t the story nor the takeaway from Dillingham’s dalliance with the Wolverines.
The irony of the state of Arizona’s highest-paid public employee begging for private donations to compete at the highest level of college football is where this bizarre story begins.
“We live in Phoenix, Arizona. You’re telling me there’s not one person who could stroke a $20 million check right now?” Dillingham said after agreeing to a new contract worth more than $37 million over the next five years.
That’s right, the guy whose future could never be more secure, sees the immediate horizon line for the Arizona State football program. And frankly, it’s financially unstable at best — and a house of cards at worst.
It’s Arizona State today, but could be Kansas State or Colorado or North Carolina State or Virginia Tech or Boise State — or any of the other 100-plus Bowl Subdivision teams not protected by the golden parachute of the Big Ten and SEC.
Coaches at those 34 schools in the two big conferences — many of those institutions born on third base from long-term association with the leagues before the financial boom of television media rights — aren’t publicly calling out dignitaries and alums associated with their schools.
They’re not standing during a media availability and pleading for the next Cody Campbell to please step up. Or else.
Dillingham made it very clear that college football is about those who wish to spend money, and those who don’t. This isn’t about revenue sharing between schools and players, this is all about private NIL funding.
This is about the dirty underbelly of the sport that can’t be legally controlled. A growing vice that doubles and triples the obstacles faced by conferences chasing the Big Ten and SEC.
It’s bad enough that mega media rights deals give the Big Ten and SEC a huge competitive advantage over the rest of college football. It’s downright sinister that those same schools have deep pocket boosters willing to spend tens of millions in private NIL deals to eliminate all doubt.
Sam Leavitt led Arizona State to the Big 12 title and the College Football Playoff in 2024, and returned to Tempe this season for another run. A foot injury ended his season early, and now he’s headed to the transfer portal looking for a new home.
Not because he doesn’t think he can win big with the Sun Devils — he already proved that. He’s in the portal, like so many other players, to strike when its hot and score a deal before moving onto the NFL.
What are the odds he signs with a Big Ten or SEC school? A program which has boosters that can pay him an outrageous salary through a private NIL deal.
Do you really blame Leavitt?
Do you really blame Campbell, Texas Tech’s billionaire booster, who built a championship-level team with a $25 million roster — and the Red Raiders responded by winning the Big 12 and earning a first round bye in the CFP?
They’re just following the rules, and until a different set of rules is in place, they’ll take advantage of it.
That’s why Dillingham sounded like a panhandler last weekend, begging — literally begging someone, anyone, in The Valley to jump on board and throw money at the program. He even specifically called out school alums Phil Mickelson and Jon Rahm.
Hey, Kenny, while you’re at it, why not place a call to the sheiks in Saudi Arabia? See if their Public Investment Fund (PIF) is interested in sports washing with the second-most popular sport in America.
Because if you’re reaching out to Mickelson and Rahm, you’re reaching out to the Saudis — who own LIV Golf — by proxy. The only difference between the PIF and Utah’s new $500 million agreement with Otro Capital is one group of investors has a long line of human rights violations.
The other is a financial shark, whose only goal is to make money.
Any way they can.
“College football is absolutely chaotic right now,” Dillingham said. “You’ve got to be able to have a plan to be aggressive in this thing for three, four, five years down the road. If you don’t have that, you’re a ticking time bomb for failure.”
This nonsense isn’t going to end until players are considered employees, and players collectively bargain their best deal. Until FBS conferences go to market as one, and sell their games to make double or more than the current market value of $4 billion-plus annually.
That move will allow universities to restrict player movement through multi-year contracts, and find a fair and equitable postseason for all. One that doesn’t include charity for the Group of Five conferences, who have no business in a playoff unless invited based on merit (see: Boise State, 2024).
But that move also means players would go from earning about 20 percent of media rights revenue to likely 45-50 percent. NFL players currently make 48 percent of the media rights.
That’s why the Big Ten and SEC don’t want players collectively bargaining. It has nothing to do with the pollyanna idea sold by conference commissioners that players, “don’t want to be employees.”
If they’re going to earn 20 percent, who wants to deal with the headache of collectively bargaining? Move that number to 45-50 percent, and watch how many players say they’re all in.
Then maybe their coaches wouldn’t have to shamelessly beg for cash, mere hours after signing a new $37 million dollar contract. Or else.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
As Indiana prepares to host its first-ever College Football Playoff game as the No. 1 seed, the Hoosiers are quietly already planning for 2026.
Fernando Mendoza, a redshirt junior transfer who led the Hoosiers to a 13-0 regular season, won the 2025 Heisman Trophy after throwing 2,980 yards and a national-best 33 passing TDs and is widely seen as an early NFL first-round prospect.
Should Mendoza depart for the draft, Indiana would be tasked with replacing an elite, NFL-caliber starter, which explains why numerous quarterbacks expected to enter the transfer portal have been linked to the Hoosiers.
On a December 20 episode of “Hoosiers Football Tailgate,” host Coach Griff specifically named TCU quarterback Josh Hoover, who announced he will enter the transfer portal and skip the Alamo Bowl, as a name Indiana should watch.
“I like this guy as a definite target for Indiana,” Griff said. “So, Josh Hoover, keep an eye on him as a potential target… The one I think they’ll really try to get is Hoover.”
Hoover was a three-star recruit out of Rockwall-Heath (Texas) and initially committed to Indiana in 2021 before flipping to TCU after the school extended an offer.
He then redshirted in 2022 and became the starter in 2023, producing breakout numbers in 2024 with 3,949 passing yards, 27 passing touchdowns, and 11 interceptions with a 66.5% completion rate.
In 2025, Hoover threw for 3,472 yards and 29 TDs, with 13 INTs, and projects among the most productive returning QBs in 2026 on career totals of 9,629 passing yards, 80 total TDs, and a career passer rating of 147.8.
On3’s NIL valuations list also shows Hoover ranking among the most marketable college quarterbacks, with a valuation in the neighborhood of $2.1 million.
Hoover is an intriguing option for Indiana due to his proven production and Power Five experience, positioning him as a potential one-year, plug-and-play solution as Curt Cignetti prioritizes continuity.
There is also a “full-circle” aspect to his recruitment, as Hoover originally committed to Indiana before flipping to TCU in 2021.
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Two teams that have really embraced the NIL era are set to meet on New Year’s Day. Oregon‘s win over James Madison advanced them to the College Football Playoff quarterfinals, where Texas Tech was waiting on the other side. Now, it’s Dan Lanning vs. Joey McGuire in the Orange Bowl with a lot of resources put into rosters.
Oregon has been at the forefront of NIL since its inception, especially under Lanning. Texas Tech could be considered the new kid on the block after major investment from a few donors. Even so, McGuire sees some similarities between the two when it comes to winning at whatever cost.
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“They’ve got a great booster in Phil Knight that really said, ‘We’re going to go win at the highest level and there’s no excuse when it comes to finance.’ You turn around and I think that we’re showing that we’re doing that. I think we’re really comparable,” McGuire said.
“We’ve got guys that have stepped up and done a great job. I kind of call them the ‘Big Five’ whenever you talk about Cody and John, Mike, Dusty, and Gary. Those guys have, along with everybody else in Red Raider Nation, but those guys have really led the charge. So, we’re kind of comparable on and off the field in this team. They’ve just done it for a little bit longer. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
As he said, McGuire is looking to put together a run similar to Oregon. All four years since hiring Lanning have been a resounding success, finishing with double-digit wins in all of them. This is the program’s second College Football Playoff appearance in the 12-team format, just missing out in 2023 due to a Pac-12 Championship loss.
Oregon won the Big Ten in its inaugural season inside the conference. Texas Tech can check that box already though, winning the Big 12 for the first time in school history. Advancing in the CFP would be a sweet bonus.
No matter the result on Jan. 1, Texas Tech is positioning itself to be successful moving forward. The 2026 recruiting class ranked 20th in the country but No. 1 in the Big 12 per the Rivals Industry Team Rankings. This is all before raiding the NCAA transfer portal, something McGuire and his staff did so well with last offseason.
In the weeks leading up to the opening of the NCAA transfer portal, hundreds of college football players have announced their decisions to leave the schools they played for in 2025 for new horizons next season.
Some cases involve players transferring up from Group of Five or FCS programs to broaden their exposure. Others feature players following their coaches from one school to another due to the coaching carousel. In occasional instances, players are searching for the highest bidder on the portal.
Former Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt is a portal entry drawing the attention of high-bidding college football programs. He will enter the portal with two seasons of eligibility remaining.
On3 ranks Leavitt as the top available quarterback in the transfer portal. Chris Hummer of CBS Sports reported that schools are expected to offer Leavitt around $3 million.
“Sam Leavitt on the open market is going to command a significant amount of money,” Hummer said. “We’re talking $3 million plus most likely. Although, in all fairness, I think teams really do have questions about Sam Leavitt’s injury and what that means moving forward. It’s kind of like the Carson Beck situation a year ago.”
The 6-foot-2, 205-pounder began his college football career with Mel Tucker at Michigan State in 2023. He played in a maximum of four games that season to maintain his redshirt, throwing for 139 yards, two touchdowns, and a pair of interceptions.
Leavitt transferred to Arizona State in the 2024 offseason. The Sun Devils were 10-2 in the regular season and defeated Iowa State (45-19) en route to the program’s first-ever College Football Playoff appearance. Leavitt passed for 2,885 yards, 24 touchdowns and six interceptions and rushed for another 443 yards and five touchdowns.
Postseason honors for Leavitt included Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year and Second Team All-Big 12. His 2,885 passing yards are the most by a freshman quarterback in Arizona State history.
Leavitt’s season was cut short after the Sun Devils’ game against Houston due to a Lisfranc injury. He threw for 1,628 yards, 10 touchdowns and three interceptions while he ran for 306 yards and five touchdowns in seven games.
Arizona State will not start Leavitt in its bowl game. The Sun Devils (8-4, 6-3) will play ACC champion Duke (8-5, 6-2) in the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas (3 p.m. EST, CBS).
The NCAA transfer portal officially opens on Jan. 2, 2026, the final day of bowl games across the FBS ranks. It will remain open for the following two weeks.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala (WIAT) – University of Alabama offensive lineman Parker Brailsford’s childhood experiences inspire him to help Tuscaloosa’s underserved youth.
Brailsford is an Arizona native, who has made a name for himself in the world of college football. But when he takes off the helmet and pads, his focus shifts to something else.
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“Being able to give back to kids that don’t have – that’s something that fulfills me,” Brailsford said. “It’s my purpose.”
Brailsford took 10 children and their families from the Boys and Girls Club Christmas shopping on Monday.
Each child received a $100 Target gift card. All together it was $1,000 of NIL money.
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“He just gave her a turkey for Thanksgiving, and now he’s taking her Christmas shopping,” Toniko Bryant said. “I’m very thankful because he doesn’t have to do that.”
Brailsford understands he doesn’t have to – but he wants to.
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“As a kid, we didn’t have a lot but we had enough,” Brailsford said.
During Brailsford’s infancy years he was adopted.
“I never was in the foster care system, but one of my friends was,” Brailsford said.
Brailsford’s formative years were a stark contrast to what he saw other children experience. His parents gave him support and stability, while other children moved from home to home.
At the same time, his mother took him to homeless shelters and food pantries to volunteer. There he saw how poverty affects anyone of all ages, races, and gender.
“Sometimes you get caught in the what you’re living in right now – you think there’s not a place for you,” Brailsford said.
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Brailsford found his place on the field, but his purpose is to help children find theirs.
“This is something God put on his heart,” John Nero said. “I appreciate every bit of it, not just for Oshae but for all the other kids.”
Brailsford relates to many of the children he serves. Whether it’s adoption, financial hardships, or empathizing with experiences his friend encountered years ago.
While Brailsford’s success in football gives him the financial resources and name recognition to coordinate outreach events, this is just the beginning even if his football career comes to an end.
“I’m working on my social work degree right now because I really want to be able to help kids, anyway I can,” Brailsford said.
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Indiana’s meteoric ascent to the top of college football has transformed the Hoosiers into a prime destination for transfer quarterbacks, and for a brief moment, that attention turned toward a familiar face.
Cincinnati signal-caller Brendan Sorsby, who spent his first two seasons at Indiana before moving on, formally entered the transfer portal on December 15 after a productive 2025 campaign with the Bearcats.
In 2025, Sorsby produced 2,800 passing yards, 27 touchdown passes, and five interceptions, plus 580 rushing yards and nine rushing scores.
Across his collegiate career, he has totaled 7,208 passing yards, 60 passing touchdowns, 1,305 rushing yards, and 22 rushing touchdowns, positioning him as one of the top dual-threat quarterbacks currently available in the transfer portal.
He is also one of the market’s most valuable quarterback assets, with an estimated NIL valuation of approximately $2.4 million and reports indicating that suitors have discussed packages exceeding $4 million.
Recent reports have tied Sorsby to several Power-5 suitors, notably Texas Tech and, in initial rumor threads, a potential reunion with the Hoosiers.
However, “Hoosier Tailgate” host Shannon “Coach Griff” Griffith pushed back on the speculation during a December 20 episode, suggesting that Indiana would not view Sorsby as a realistic target.
“I do not think Sorsby is anybody that Indiana would have any interest in,” Griff said. “I don’t necessarily think Sorsby is better than, other than playing, Alberto (Mendoza). I just don’t think that’s something that I can see them getting back in. He’s kind of linked to Texas Tech.”
The Hoosiers finished the 2025 campaign undefeated, captured the Big Ten title, and entered the College Football Playoff as the No. 1 seed.
Their offense was driven by Fernando Mendoza (2,980 yards, 33 TDs, six INTs), who swept national awards (Davey O’Brien, Maxwell, and the Heisman) and is widely discussed as a top prospect for the 2026 NFL Draft.
Head coach Curt Cignetti’s program has proven adept at integrating transfer quarterbacks, with both Fernando Mendoza (Cal) and Kurtis Rourke (Ohio) finding success after joining the Hoosiers.
For Sorsby, the portal still offers multiple paths, including a high-value college package or an NFL evaluation, but commentary from influential IU voices, such as Griff, has effectively taken a straightforward reunion scenario off the table.
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