Tennessee’s highest earners do not appear to be coming from the football program.

The NIL landscape has completely reshaped college athletics over the last six years, but it’s done so in a bit of a wild west, behind the scenes way. Thousands of players each year flock to the transfer portal and come out on the other side in new uniforms, and with new NIL deals.

What are the dollars signs associated with these new NIL deals? That’s remained a mystery for a long time because they’ve not been made public nor have they been required to be.

Until perhaps now, at least according to one major outlet. On3 Sports has released what it claims is the NIL valuation for the top 100 athletes in college sports. According to On3 CEO Shannon Terry, “[a]ll NIL Valuations with a green check are confirmed deals, and no check means market value and active negotiations.”

And so, who are Tennessee’s top NIL earning athletes, per On3? As it turns out, the biggest money for individual athletes is not on the football side, but on the basketball team.

On3 Sports lists 3 of top 4 Tennessee NIL earnings among Vols basketball program, not football

On3 lists men’s basketball transfer addition Juke Harris as the university’s top earner with a listed NIL valuation of $4 million. Two more new basketball transfer portal additions are tied for second: former Notre Dame F Jalen Haralson and former Cal G Dai Dai Ames. Both men have a listed valuation of $3 million each.

Tennessee football’s top two players are Chaz Coleman and David Sanders, Jr.. But with Tennessee already having parted ways with Coleman, that puts Sanders as the top NIL earner on the football team, according to On3. George MacIntyre’s name is next on the list at $1.6 million, but it should be noted that On3 hasn’t confirmed that total.

That certainly puts into perspective to a degree the claims by those who argue Tennessee is money whipping players above and beyond others to get players to come to Knoxville, as has been the case in the competing fans’ social media squabbles surrounding the recruitment of David Gabriel Georges. Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith and Ole Miss’ Trinidad Chambliss both have valuations of $5 million each.

It’s the age we live in nowadays, and the skyrocketing money doesn’t show any sign of changing direction any time soon.

This article was originally published on A to Z Sports. Read the full story here: National outlet reveals Tennessee's 4 highest NIL earners, and some are not who Vol fans might have expected

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Ahead of the season opener against Baylor in Atlanta, Auburn has entered into a lucrative NIL deal with the Aflac Kickoff Game, the Peach Bowl announced Tuesday. The agreement is worth “multi-million dollars,” according to the release.

This year’s matchup between Baylor and Auburn was to take place at Jordan-Hare Stadium to conclude a home-and-home series. In October 2025, On3’s Brett McMurphy first reported the game would instead move to Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the Aflac Kickoff Game and Auburn athletes would be able to earn up to $5 million in NIL opportunities. The Peach Bowl did not disclose the exact figure.

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Up to 24 Tigers athletes will enter into third-party deals that include marketing assets and promotional appearances, starting in July through the Sept. 5 game, the Peach Bowl said. They will participate in social media posts, public appearances, advertisements, in-game promotions and media interviews while also appearing on signage and branding opportunities.

“In the new NIL era of college football, this will be an innovative way to create wins for the teams, programs and student-athletes,” said Peach Bowl, Inc. CEO David Epps in a statement. “This new model is a true win-win scenario where Auburn and its student-athletes get a financial boost in the NIL space. At the same time, it’s a potential gamechanger for neutral-site games like ours who want to bring added value to participating teams and make it a more attractive and lucrative opportunity.”

How NIL led Auburn to move Baylor game

Third-party NIL deals have become an important part of the college sports landscape, especially in the post-House settlement era. While schools can directly share up to $21.3 million with athletes through revenue-sharing, outside opportunities are ways to get “above the cap.” Those deals are subject to the NIL Go clearinghouse.

After the news came out about Auburn’s decision to move the Baylor matchup to a neutral site, Tigers AD John Cohensaid third-party NIL deals are essential to future success in the modern era. While it wasn’t an easy call, he noted the broader impact.

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“When opportunities present themselves, you have to very seriously consider that knowing all the factors that we know – one of which is the fact that anytime you move a home game, you’re affecting lives,” Cohen told AuburnSports’Justin Hokanson at the time. “There are a lot of businesses in and around Auburn. Dr. Chris Roberts and I both, along with our board members, realize that taking a game away from Auburn, Ala. and moving it somewhere else can economically hurt a community and it can have an adverse effect.

“The challenge that we have is we also have to be extremely competitive in the third-party marketplace for NIL. We have to. … We have to get great, quality student-athletes.”

Jersey patches in college football are all the rage. Cal is the latest program to announce a partnership, doing so with AI customer experience platform Dialpad.

Dialpad has also been named the Official AI Platform for Fan Experience of Cal Athletics. It is the largest corporate partnership in Golden Bears history. All 30 Cal sports will wear the patch this upcoming season.

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“This is a historic moment for Cal Athletics,” Cal Co-Directors of Athletics Jenny Simon-O’Neill and Jay Larson said, via a release. “Our partnership with Dialpad will have a profound impact on our student-athletes, department and university as we move forward in this dynamic era of intercollegiate athletics. Craig Walker, Dialpad’s CEO, is a true Golden Bear, and we are thrilled to work side by side with him and Dialpad in this new venture.”

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Dialpad CEO Craig Walker got his start at Berkeley, making his company a no-brainer to partner with Cal Athletics. Along with the jersey patch, the partnership also features naming rights to the Dialpad Field Club (the largest club space at California Memorial Stadium), as well as on-field apron logos with TV broadcast visibility behind one end zone.
 
Per the release, ‘Dialpad will also activate across signage and promotion inside California Memorial Stadium and Haas Pavilion for Cal football and basketball home games, radio broadcast spots during all Cal football games, and digital advertising via CalBears.com, the Cal Bears mobile app, and Fan365.’

“Fans reach out because they care,” Walker said, via the release. “They want to attend the game, find the answer or solve the issue without starting over. That’s exactly what Dialpad is built to deliver – AI that doesn’t just talk, but takes action. Cal is setting the pace for how athletics programs connect with fans, and getting to build that future at the university that shaped me makes this one especially personal.”