CFB Teams' 'Workarounds' to Salary Cap Reported Ahead of 2026 Transfer Portal Window

As part of the House Settlement, collegiate athletic departments can share up to $20.5 million in revenue with student-athletes during the 2025-26 school year.

However, athletic departments are finding ways to circumvent that cap, per Stewart Mandel of The Athletic, who listed some "workarounds sources say they've already encountered."

One is easy: an agent's commission doesn't count toward cap space. Mandel brought up a hypothetical $200,000 figure for a player. A 20 percent commission means that an agent takes $40,000, but that money wouldn't count toward the cap.

Mandel also brought up another example: "Say a school promises a player $200,000, and wants to split it between rev-share and the [NIL collective], but it fears that [the College Sports Commission] won't approve a $100,000 collective deal. The parties agree to the amount verbally, then the collective submits smaller deals throughout the year (for autograph signings, charity appearances, etc.) that eventually add up to the total."

In addition, Mandel reported on another tactic: "It's believed that at least one school's collective paid their entire incoming freshman class what they would have earned in rev share, so that the payments don't get counted against the cap."

Of course, teams can also simply not report the deals, per Mandel, who said that "was probably happening already." He called that the "simplest" but "riskiest" workaround of them all.

The money is rising well above $20 million for some big-time Power 4 schools.

Wilson Alexander of The Advocate reported soon after LSU hired Lane Kiffin away from Ole Miss that the school "has also prepared to commit $25-30 million annually for Kiffin's roster through revenue sharing and name, image and likeness funds."

"That's very clearly an institution saying, we don't give a f--k," the head of a Power 4 collective "with a smaller budget" told Mandel.

Per Nathan King of Auburn Undercover, new Tigers head coach Alex Golesh (formerly of USF) is looking at a payroll "positioned to be closer to $30 million."

College football journalist Matt Fortuna of The Inside Zone substack reported that Penn State is going to commit $30 million in NIL money.

Quite frankly, these college football programs have to find ways to stretch their money to keep up with the Joneses and avoid falling behind other big-name schools. The fact of the matter is players' asking prices are only going to go up.

As Mandel noted, Miami quarterback Carson Beck (formerly of Georgia) and Duke signal-caller Darian Mensah (formerly of Tulane) got north of $3 million each without even counting incentives.

However, top quarterbacks on the market this offseason are expected to get $4 million or even more, per Mandel.

"This year, the price for a proven player like Arizona State's Sam Leavitt, Cincinnati's Brendan Sorsby or Nebraska's Dylan Raiola is expected to start at $4 million and could reach $5-$6 million, according to an agent who's shopping a quarterback, a GM trying to retain one and a collective head who's losing one."

Given those facts, it's no surprise teams are reportedly doing what they're doing just to survive the brutally tough and intensively competitive college football landscape.