With the conclusion of the men’s and women’s March Madness tournaments, the Big Ten NIL dominance has been on full display. The league has regularly won national championships across all sports since schools were able to pay players. The highlight of this run has been Indiana stunning the college football world, with Fernando Mendoza (who might not be the best QB in the draft this year) winning the national title.

Spending a bunch of money is not a guarantee of success, but the schools in the conference seem well-positioned to stay nationally relevant with the resources at their disposal. Is there any conference in college sports that can come close to the Big Ten in spending and winning?

What’s Behind The Big Ten NIL Dominance

Since the introduction of NIL in 2021, no conference compares to what the Big Ten has accomplished on the field. The conference boasts the last three football national champions, with Michigan, Ohio State, and Indiana all taking the crown. On the hardwood, 2026 has been a special year for the league, as the Michigan Wolverines and UCLA Bruins won national titles in men’s and women’s basketball, respectively. The Big Ten has also added 19 national championships in non-revenue sports since 2021, so the league’s money-making programs aren’t the only ones benefiting from NIL.

The number of resources at the Big Ten’s disposal is what is likely powering the league during this boom period. In 2025, three of the top nine football teams in roster cost were from the Big Ten (Ohio State with $33.5 million, Oregon with $26.1 million, and Indiana with $21.1 million). Men’s basketball is a similar story, where the average cost of a Big Ten roster is $8.5 million. When the large alumni bases of OSU, Michigan, and USC are factored in, athletic programs have a lot of money to construct rosters with.

What makes it difficult to know how much schools are spending on NIL is that there is little public information about how much each school is paying its players. The few things known about NIL should be eye-opening to college sports fans. Per an article from the Indiana Daily Student, Maryland had an NIL deal worth $250,000, but there is no information on who received that money.

If a school like Maryland is throwing around money like Mr. Monopoly, one can only imagine what the major players in the Big Ten are doing. The House v. NCAA settlement imposed a $20.5 million cap on schools directly paying players via revenue sharing, but institutions are almost certainly cooking the books given the limited regulation of NIL.

Programs outside the Big Ten are spending an outrageous amount of money, but the results haven’t matched the price tag. The men’s basketball team for Kentucky allegedly cost $22 million and was largely underwhelming for that price point. In football, Texas A&M and Texas Tech had a combined roster cost of over $62 million, but all that oil money didn’t keep them from being one-and-done in the College Football Playoff. Individual schools have their unique financial circumstances, but there isn’t a conference in college sports that can compete with the Big Ten’s resources.