College Football's Biggest NIL Value Movers This Week

USC quarterback Jonas Williams posted the largest dollar gain in this week's termiNIL snapshot, up 52% to a modeled $1.91 million. Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer lost the most ground in dollar terms, down 32% to $1.89 million. Both numbers come from the same comparison window, Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, 2026, across the 3,713 players termiNIL revalued in that span.

Look past the top two names and a different pattern shows up on each side of the ledger. Nine of the week's fifteen biggest gainers are starting quarterbacks, each moving within a five-to-ten-point band. Eleven of the week's fifteen biggest losers were already graded D+ or worse before this snapshot. That is not nine unrelated big games or eleven unrelated bad ones — it is what a tier-based repricing model looks like when a role group gets a collective nudge and an already-discounted group keeps sliding.

Who Gained the Most NIL Value This Week?

Williams (B-, medium confidence, backup) and Jalen Cooper (C, medium confidence, SMU's fourth receiver) are classic thin-sample swings — both started from a valuation under $800K, so a single tier adjustment moves the percentage a lot. Colton Joseph, Kamario Taylor, Bear Bachmeier, Sam Leavitt, and Ashton Daniels are the opposite case: established, multi-million-dollar starters whose gains land inside a tight 5%-to-9% band, which is the signature of a role-tier bump rather than five separate breakout weeks.

Who Lost the Most NIL Value This Week?

Mateer carries a D grade (36) and high confidence despite 124,721 followers, the most of anyone on either list this week — a reminder that follower count and modeled value are separate inputs. CJ Brown, Dylan Lonergan, Cataurus Hicks, Ore Adeyi, Rico Scott, Dezz Ricks, and Enow Etta all share the same trait: each was already graded D+ or worse heading into this snapshot, and all seven lost between 23% and 49% of an already-discounted value. Kwazi Gilmer is the outlier — a B- grade and 138,372 followers, still down 11%, the only clear exception to the low-grade pattern on this list.

Why Are So Many Quarterbacks Gaining at the Same Time?

Nine starting quarterbacks — Alonza Barnett (UCF), Colton Joseph (Wisconsin), Kamario Taylor (Mississippi State), Bear Bachmeier (BYU), Sam Leavitt (LSU), Avery Johnson (Kansas State), Gio Lopez (Wake Forest), Caden Veltkamp (Florida Atlantic), and Alessio Milivojevic (Michigan State) — gained value this week, spanning the Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, ACC, AAC, and SBC. Excluding Barnett's 19% jump, the other eight all land between 5% and 10%, a tighter band than the week's losers show. No single slate of upsets explains eight starters across six different conferences moving the same fraction in the same 48 hours. It is a sign of termiNIL's model applying the same adjustment to every established QB1 who shares a confidence tier, which is worth knowing before reading any one quarterback's gain as a verdict on that week's game.

How Big Is the College Football NIL Market Right Now?

termiNIL prices 14,068 players for a combined market of $3.17B, with a $103,000 median valuation and 468 players above $1 million. Separately, termiNIL's audit currently holds 227 players out of rankings and blog callouts because their pricing looks implausible on its face — a seven-figure valuation with zero snaps, for instance. None of the players named above are on that excluded list; every mover here carries a valuation termiNIL is willing to stand behind, even where confidence is still developing.

Check any player's current valuation, grade, and confidence level in the termiNIL terminal, or read how NIL valuations are calculated for the full methodology behind these numbers. For last week's snapshot, see the Sept. 29 movers report.

Keep reading