Which Conference Has the Most Million-Dollar NIL Players?

The SEC has 98 players termiNIL values above $1 million, more than the ACC's 52 and the Big 12's 51 combined. The Big Ten sits second at 77. Those four conferences account for 278 of the nation's 313 confirmed seven-figure valuations, a 88.8% share, as of termiNIL's Oct. 6, 2026 snapshot.

Counting roster totals or per-team averages answers "which league has the most money." Counting individual seven-figure players answers a different question: how deep is that money, and how many actual rosters are stacked with it. The two answers mostly agree, but not in the order or the margin you'd guess from totals alone.

One number needs a caveat before any of this is useful. termiNIL's audit process currently holds 152 seven-figure valuations out of every ranking, conference count, and leaderboard on the site because they look implausible on inspection, for example a seven-figure price attached to a player with no grade and no snaps. Those 152 are still inside the site's market-wide total of 465 million-dollar players. Every count below is the clean 313 that passed that audit.

Which Conference Has the Most Million-Dollar NIL Players?

The SEC's 98 is the single biggest number on the board, but the per-team column is where the gap actually widens. An SEC roster averages 6.1 million-dollar players; a Big Ten roster averages 4.3, an ACC roster 3.1, a Big 12 roster 3.2. The SEC is not just producing more seven-figure players in aggregate, it is producing more of them per program.

Why Do the SEC and Big Ten Produce So Many More Than the Group of Five?

Scale shows up in the underlying roster value too. termiNIL prices the SEC's total NIL market at $612.76M across 16 teams, an average of $38.30M per roster, and the Big Ten at $598.16M across 18 teams, averaging $33.23M per roster. The AAC, the highest-value Group of Five conference by this measure, totals $249.70M across 14 teams, a $17.84M average. The SEC's average roster is worth roughly 2.1 times the AAC's. More total dollars per roster buys more rosters that clear the $1 million mark for an individual player, which is exactly the gap the table above shows.

Is Notre Dame Carrying the Independent Conference Alone?

Yes. All nine of the independent conference's million-dollar players, led by quarterback CJ Carr at a modeled $5.81M, play for Notre Dame, whose total roster value termiNIL puts at $47.53M. UConn, the league's other full member, has zero players above $1 million. An average of 4.5 million-dollar players per team across the conference is really one program at nine and one program at zero.

Which Conference Has the Fewest Million-Dollar NIL Players?

The MAC, by a wide margin, with exactly one: Eastern Michigan quarterback Noah Kim, graded C+ and modeled at $1.71M. Conference USA and the Sun Belt each have three, led by Middle Tennessee quarterback Roman Gagliano ($1.65M) and Arkansas State wide receiver Chauncy Cobb ($1.39M). The Mountain West has four. None of the seven non-power conferences reaches double digits.

How Concentrated Is the Market at the Top?

Enough that four conferences out of eleven hold nearly nine in ten of the country's confirmed seven-figure players. The remaining seven leagues, AAC through MAC, combine for 35, just 11.2% of the national total, spread across 69 programs. A player crossing $1 million outside the SEC, Big Ten, ACC, or Big 12 is still the exception rather than the rule.

Check where any specific roster or player lands in the live rankings in the termiNIL terminal, or see how these same four conferences compare by total roster value in SEC vs. Big Ten: Where the NIL Money Actually Is.

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