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🏅 Which college QBs are out-earning NFL QBs with NIL?

Hey there,

NIL has revolutionized how college players get paid — so much so, that there’s multiple college football quarterbacks that are making more than NFL starters. If you can make more playing college ball, why leave early for the NFL?

Today we’re exploring how much these QBs are making. For each high-earning college quarterback, they’ve got an NFL salary doppelganger, and we’re going to tell you who they are right now.

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Which College QBs are out-earning NFL QBs with NIL?

One of NIL’s initial selling points was that players will stay in school longer. The more money they make, the less incentivized they’ll be to leave for the NFL draft a few years early. That hypothesis has been proven true recent years.

In 2020, 128 underclassmen entered the NFL draft. That number came down to 100 the year that NIL rules were passed, and it’s been steadily dropping ever since. In the 2024 NFL draft, we saw only 58 underclassmen declare – a 55% decrease within a four-year period.

But is the money really keeping them in school? Thanks to Opendorse’s annual NIL report from this summer, we’re now sure that’s the case. If you’re a top 25 QB in college football next season, you’re going to be making more money than half of the QBs in the NFL:

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