NIL Platform Opendorse Announces New ’NIL Book’ to Help Navigate Landscape

LAS VEGAS — The top Power 5 quarterbacks earn an average of nearly $200,000 in compensation for their name, image and likeness each year, according to new figures revealed this week.

Opendorse, one of the largest NIL platforms in the industry, released data as part of an announcement on Wednesday of the Opendorse “NIL Book,” which provides earnings expectations for college athletes. The physical book, kept confidential and private, is only available for schools that are Opendorse partners and contribute data from NIL disclosures and transactions.

The book includes expected NIL earnings for each position group by division, including FBS, Power 5, Group of 5, FCS, NCAA D-II, NCAA D-III, NAIA and NJCAA. Earnings are also divided by conference. The book will be distributed twice annually, January and July, to college athletic departments, conferences, NIL collectives and talent agencies.

The first version of the book will be shared with participating partners in January with individual books for football and basketball. More sports will be included in the July release.

Opendorse shared some evaluation figures with Sports Illustrated ahead of its announcement Wednesday from the Sports Business Journal symposium in Las Vegas. The earnings expectation for a Power 5 quarterback is about $196,000 a year based on the average annual earnings of the top 25 players at that position. The top 25 Power 5 running backs earn about $130,000 a year.

The averages are based on more than 100,000 NIL transactions disclosed or processed by Opendorse as well as data contributed by schools.

“How should a coach or administrator respond when an athlete asks, ‘How am I doing with NIL? I’ve earned $X. Is that good?’” says Blake Lawrence, Opendorse CEO. “Right now, they don’t have the answer. There are endless projections and pumped-up claims, but no single source of truth. Opendorse is changing that.”

Players started to earn money from their NIL in July 2021. Eighteen months in, NIL has evolved into a central a significant piece of college football recruiting, with collections of boosters amassing millions in cash to distribute among players.

Last year, the NCAA started allowing players to transfer without penalty, leading to a flurry of activity in the transfer portal. Administrators say that schools are using NIL cash to induce prospects to transfer.

Since the portal opened on Monday, more than 700 FBS players have entered the portal, including more than 60 quarterbacks.