Who are the biggest NIL collectives in 2027 by total fund size?
Direct Answer
The biggest NIL collectives in 2027 by total fund size are Texas One Fund (~$22M annual), Spyre Sports Group at Tennessee (~$25-30M), The Foundation at Ohio State (~$20M), Matador Club at Texas Tech ($63.3M raised since 2022, ~$25M annual run-rate), and Crimson & Cream at Oklahoma (~$15M).
Post-House settlement, the top 10 collectives each push $15M-30M annually, layered on top of each school's $20.5M revenue-sharing cap (rising 4% annually to ~$22.2M in 2027). Texas, Ohio State, Tennessee, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech form the "Big Five" of NIL fundraising, each clearing $40M in combined rev-share + collective dollars for the 2026-27 athletic year.
1. Why The 2027 Collective Ranking Looks Different Than 2024
1.1 The House settlement reshuffled the deck
Before the House v. NCAA settlement took effect July 1, 2025, NIL collectives were the *only* legal vehicle for paying college athletes. In 2027 they have shifted to a supplemental role, sitting on top of direct revenue-sharing payments that schools now make from a $20.5M cap (FY26) rising 4% per year to roughly $22.2M in FY27.
Collectives still matter — they fund the delta between cap and market — but their *relative* ranking now depends on who can stack above-cap "fair-market-value" deals the fastest.
1.2 The NIL Go clearinghouse changed who can spend
Every collective deal above $600 must clear NIL Go, the Deloitte-operated clearinghouse that ranges payments against a fair-market-value algorithm. Booster-funded "pay-for-play" deals are flagged and rejected, which has compressed some collectives' spend and rewarded those who built legitimate marketing inventory: ticket bundles, autograph signings, branded apparel runs, and licensed video content.
Texas One Fund, Spyre, and The Foundation built that inventory first and now process 3-5x the cleared deal volume of mid-tier programs.
1.3 Frontloading distorted 2025-26 numbers
In spring and summer 2025, dozens of collectives frontloaded deals to athletes before the cap kicked in. Spyre Sports paid out roughly $20M in a six-week window. Texas One Fund cleared $15M.
The Foundation at Ohio State paid $12M. Those 2025 spikes do *not* recur in 2027 numbers, so apples-to-apples requires looking at the 2026-27 annual run-rate rather than the 2025 calendar total.
2. The Top 5 Collectives By 2027 Annual Fund Size
2.1 Texas One Fund (Texas Longhorns) — ~$22M annual
Texas One Fund remains the single largest collective by annual deployed dollars. It paid out $11M to Longhorn athletes in 2023, $15M in 2024, and is on a $22M run-rate for 2026-27. The fund operates as a subscription model ($99/month base tier) plus major-donor circles.
Football consumes ~70% of the deployed budget, men's basketball ~15%, women's hoops + softball ~10%, Olympic sports ~5%. CEO Patrick Smith has been public about plans to push toward $30M by 2028, financed by the Forty Acres' donor base of 18,000+ paying members.
2.2 Spyre Sports Group (Tennessee Volunteers) — ~$25-30M annual
Spyre Sports Group, run by Hunter Baddour and James Clawson, has procured $30M+ in cumulative NIL deals for Tennessee athletes since July 2021 and operates with a stated $25M annual target. Spyre runs the Volunteer Club subscription plus a major-gift arm ($1M+ donors).
Its football roster is the highest-paid in the SEC by collective dollars, with starter QBs in the $2.5-4M range and edge rushers + tackles in the $1.5-2.5M tier. Spyre's diversified inventory — autograph signings, NIL-licensed jerseys, NFT collectibles — gives it the cleanest NIL Go clearance rate in the country (~92% approved).
2.3 The Foundation (Ohio State Buckeyes) — ~$20M annual
The Foundation is Ohio State's primary collective, formed in 2023 by Brian Schottenstein, Cardale Jones, and Brian Hartline. It runs a ~$20M annual budget funded by a mix of Columbus-area real estate donors, Schottenstein family money, and a 12,000-member subscription base.
The Foundation aggressively used the 2025 frontloading window to lock multi-year deals with QB Julian Sayin, WR Jeremiah Smith, and DE Caden Curry, which compress the visible 2027 spend even though the deal-value commitment is closer to $28M-30M when amortized.
2.4 Matador Club (Texas Tech Red Raiders) — ~$25M run-rate
The Matador Club, co-founded by billionaire oil-and-gas operator Cody Campbell, has raised $63.3M since 2022 from 3,500 donors, an average of $18,000 per member. In FY26 (Sept 1, 2025 onward) the Red Raider Club absorbed Matador into a $36.25M combined annual fund that splits between the $14M rev-share contribution Texas Tech needs and a ~$22M discretionary NIL pool.
The 2027 ranking puts Matador in the top 5 because of Campbell's willingness to underwrite recruiting classes personally — including the $2.5M-plus already committed to eight 2027 football recruits.
2.5 Crimson & Cream Collective (Oklahoma Sooners) — ~$15M annual
Crimson & Cream, Oklahoma's primary collective, runs at a ~$15M annual budget. It is smaller than the top 4 but punches above its weight in football-only spend (roughly 85% of deployed dollars), and has been one of the most aggressive in the 2027 recruiting class, with at least one SEC program reportedly setting aside $7-10M specifically for 2027 recruits.
OU's collective also benefits from a dense Oklahoma City + Tulsa energy-sector donor base that mirrors the Matador Club's Permian Basin financial roots.
3. The Next Tier: Collectives In The $10M-$15M Range
3.1 Champions Circle (Michigan)
Champions Circle, Michigan's main collective, operates at a ~$13M annual run-rate. It has been disciplined about NIL Go compliance — its rejected-deal rate is below 5% — and prioritizes multi-year locked deals rather than one-year cash bursts. Sherrone Moore's football program is the primary beneficiary.
3.2 12th Man+1 successor (Texas A&M) — ~$14M annual
After the 12th Man Foundation discontinued its 12th Man+ NIL fund in August 2023 under IRS pressure, A&M's NIL operations migrated to a for-profit successor collective that now runs at ~$14M annually, anchored by Houston and Dallas oil-and-gas donors. The A&M roster reportedly carried a $61M total NIL + rev-share envelope in 2026, with roughly $14M coming from the collective and the balance from direct rev-share + brand deals.
3.3 Division Street (Oregon)
Division Street, the Phil Knight-aligned Oregon collective, runs ~$12M annually in deployed dollars, with a soft cap of $20M when Knight personally tops up the fund (which happens 1-2x per year for specific recruiting battles). Division Street's direct Nike apparel inventory gives it the deepest legitimate-deal pipeline of any collective in the country.
3.4 The Battle's End (Florida State)
The Battle's End runs ~$10M-12M annually and has been one of the loudest about above-cap spending. FSU's football coach Mike Norvell publicly defended the collective's role in flipping 5-star transfer commitments in the 2026 portal cycle.
3.5 502Circle (Louisville)
502Circle combines football + men's basketball spending into a ~$12-15M annual envelope, the highest combined-sport ratio in the top tier. It is the only collective in the top 10 where basketball spending exceeds 30% of deployed dollars.
4. How Collectives Actually Deploy Their Money
4.1 Football starter QB tier: $2M-$4.5M
In 2027 a proven Power 4 starting QB at a top-5 collective school cashes $2M-$4.5M per year across rev-share + collective. Arch Manning's documented Texas package sits at the top end. Backups carry $300K-$800K packages.
4.2 Offensive line + edge rushers: $1M-$2.5M
The next tier of position-spend is offensive tackles and edge rushers. A 5-star OT at Ohio State, Texas, or Tennessee will clear $1.5M-$2.5M. Interior O-line and DTs run $750K-$1.5M.
4.3 Skill positions: $400K-$1.5M
WR1s at top programs hit $1M-$1.5M. RB1s $600K-$1.2M. TE1s $400K-$800K. The market for slot WRs and rotational RBs has compressed under NIL Go fair-market enforcement.
4.4 Non-football allocation
Outside of football, men's basketball starters at Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, UConn, and Houston clear $500K-$2M through collectives. Women's basketball stars (Caitlin Clark's successors at Iowa, USC's JuJu Watkins-tier players) reach $300K-$1.5M. Softball, baseball, and volleyball rarely exceed $100K per athlete.
5. The 2027 Funding Sources Powering These Collectives
5.1 Major-donor concentration risk
Eight of the top 10 collectives have one or two donors funding 30%+ of annual revenue. Phil Knight at Oregon, Cody Campbell at Texas Tech, the Schottenstein family at Ohio State, and the Joe Lacob/Texas-tech-billionaire group at Texas all carry disproportionate weight.
If any one of those donors pulls back, the collective's ranking moves 3-5 spots immediately.
5.2 Subscription bases
The subscription model is the most durable revenue stream. Texas One Fund's 18,000 members at $99/month generates ~$21M annually before major gifts. Spyre's Volunteer Club runs roughly 15,000 members. Champions Circle, The Foundation, and Crimson & Cream all sit between 8,000 and 12,000 members.
5.3 Brand-deal pass-through
Roughly 20-30% of top-collective revenue is now legitimate brand-deal pass-through — auto dealerships, regional restaurants, energy-drink sponsorships — that the collective brokers on behalf of athletes and takes a small fee on. This is the fastest-growing segment and counts cleanly against NIL Go thresholds.
6. What To Watch In The Back Half Of 2027
6.1 The next $20M+ entrant
Auburn's On To Victory and Miami's Canes Connection are both on a trajectory to break $20M by the 2027-28 athletic year. Auburn benefits from John Cohen's aggressive donor outreach in Birmingham + Mobile. Miami leans on South Florida billionaires John Ruiz and the Ruiz Law Firm's continued investment.
6.2 Collective consolidation
A handful of mid-major collectives (American conference, Mountain West) are merging or folding because NIL Go enforcement and the rev-share cap make sub-$5M operations unsustainable. Expect 5-10 collectives to fold or merge by December 2027.
6.3 The rev-share cap escalator
The $20.5M cap rises 4% annually: roughly $21.3M for FY27, $22.2M for FY28. Collectives that successfully convert their above-cap spending into multi-year contracts before the cap rises will lock in a competitive recruiting advantage.
FAQ
Q1: Which collective spends the most on football specifically? Spyre Sports at Tennessee leads pure football collective spend at roughly $22M of its $25-30M annual budget, edging out Texas One Fund's football allocation of ~$15M.
Q2: Is the $20.5M rev-share cap separate from collective spending? Yes. The rev-share cap covers direct school-to-athlete payments. Collective spending sits on top as long as deals pass NIL Go's fair-market-value test. Top programs run $40M-$55M total per year across both streams.
Q3: How does NIL Go decide which deals are approved? NIL Go, run by Deloitte, uses a fair-market-value range based on social media reach, school market size, athletic performance, and comparable celebrity-deal benchmarks. Booster pay-for-play with no marketing service is the #1 rejection reason.
Q4: Do basketball-first schools (Kentucky, Duke, Kansas) crack the top 10? No collective with basketball as its primary focus is in the top 10 by total fund size. Kentucky's Kentucky Basketball Foundation runs roughly $7-9M annually. Duke and Kansas operate similarly. The football-money gap is structural.
Q5: How much of collective money is actually paid vs. Pledged? Industry estimates suggest roughly 75-85% of pledged collective dollars actually reach athletes. The rest goes to administrative overhead, marketing, NIL Go submission fees, and legal compliance.
Bottom Line
The top 5 NIL collectives in 2027 by total fund size are Spyre Sports (Tennessee, ~$25-30M), Texas One Fund (~$22M), The Foundation (Ohio State, ~$20M), Matador Club (Texas Tech, ~$25M run-rate), and Crimson & Cream (Oklahoma, ~$15M). Layered on top of the $20.5M rev-share cap rising 4% annually, these collectives push top-program total athlete-pay envelopes to $40M-$55M per year.
The next tier — Michigan's Champions Circle, A&M's 12th Man successor, Oregon's Division Street, Louisville's 502Circle, and FSU's Battle's End — runs $10M-$15M annually. Auburn and Miami are the most likely next entrants to the $20M club by 2028. Watch for mid-major collective consolidation in late 2027 as NIL Go enforcement prices out sub-$5M operations.
Sources
- On3 — "On3's top 15 NIL collectives in college sports" — comprehensive collective ranking
- 247Sports — "College football NIL collective leaders for 2025: NCAA estimates nation's top-25 spenders"
- Sportico — "Texas One Fund NIL Collective Raised Big, Spent Bigger in 2023"
- The Athletic — coverage of House v. NCAA settlement and revenue-sharing cap mechanics
- ESPN — Pete Thamel reporting on NIL Go clearinghouse and Deloitte's role
- Front Office Sports — "House v. NCAA Lawyers Reach Agreement Over NIL Collectives"
- CBS Sports — "House v. NCAA settlement approved: Landmark decision opens door for revenue sharing"
- Yahoo Sports — "Texas Tech's Matador Club raises $63.3 million in NIL era" — Cody Campbell announcement
- On3 NIL Database — Spyre Sports Group, Texas One Fund, The Foundation entries
- SwimSwam — "Texas One Fund Pays More than $11 Million to University of Texas Athletes"
- Opendorse — NIL marketplace data on athlete deal volumes by position and school
- INFLCR — NIL deal-management platform data on collective payment processing