Written from 42 named sources · Oct 31 · first result The Price of the Field: An Investigative Audit of the October 30, 2026 College Sports Commission Football Compensation Data On Friday, October 30, 2026, the College Sports Commission (CSC)—the independent oversight body established under the House v. NCAA antitrust settlement [3, 32]—released its inaugural athlete compensation datasets [9, 26]. Operating through two separate tracking platforms, the College Athlete Payment System (CAPS) for direct institutional revenue sharing and NIL Go (built with Deloitte) for third-party Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) contracts [26, 37], the release represents the first official empirical look at Division I football compensation [9, 26]. For an investigative series examining whether money buys wins across the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Big 12, American Conference, and the Group of Six, this release is both a milestone and a minefield. While it replaces years of blind guesswork with verified contract distributions, the CSC data is strictly aggregated and anonymized, splitting Division I football into only two tiers: the Power Four (labeled "A4" or Autonomy Four by the CSC) and non-Power Four ("Non-A4") [9, 13, 15, 24]. Furthermore, early media coverage of the October 30 release has introduced severe statistical distortions—including the mathematical error of adding separate marginal percentiles together to claim "combined" player earnings [15], and typographical conflicts in transcribed positional numbers [9, 12]. This report provides the complete, verified positional data, a plain-english breakdown of the accounting rules and their directional biases, an analysis of zero-dollar roster distributions, a cross-tier disparity audit, a forensic reality check against pre-release market valuations, an assessment of Group of Six retention using 2025–2026 transfer portal records, and a media fact-check. Every figure is explicitly labeled as CSC reported (directly from the CSC pages or verbatim media transcriptions of the CSC dropdowns) or estimate (derived mathematical calculations or third-party market models). Complete Football Data Tables Important Capture and Suppression Disclosure The CSC’s web pages load positional tables via interactive JavaScript dropdowns [24, 39]. Direct HTTP extraction of the static CSC URLs exposes the methodology and sample-size suppression rules, while the positional figures themselves are recovered from verbatim transcriptions published on October 30, 2026, by 247Sports (which transcribed the complete Power Four table across all five percentiles, paid sample sizes, and $0 exclusions) [12], On3 (which transcribed the 50th and 90th percentiles and $0 counts for both Power Four and non-Power Four across all 12 position categories) [9], and FootballScoop (which transcribed quarterback sample sizes and rounded combined medians/90th percentiles) [15]. Where specific cells were not transcribed by those outlets—namely, the dollar percentiles for the "With $0" cohorts, the 10th, 25th, and 75th percentiles for non-Power Four positions, and the paid sample sizes ($n$) for non-Power Four positions other than quarterback—they are marked "Not available" rather than guessed or interpolated. Where the CSC itself withheld a cell because the cohort failed to meet its minimum sample-size thresholds ($n \ge 100$ for p10/p90; $n \ge 40$ for p25/p75; $n \ge 10$ for p50) [24], the cell is marked "Not published (n < threshold)" [12, 24]. Table 1A: Institutional Revenue Sharing — Power Four (A4) Football Window: January 1, 2026 – December 31, 2026 (payments made or scheduled) [24, 33]. All figures are CSC reported via [9, 12, 15, 24] unless marked estimate. Position Cohort Paid $n$ (Without $0) Unpaid $0 Count Total Roster $n$ (With $0) 10th Percentile (p10) 25th Percentile (p25) 50th Percentile (Median) 75th Percentile (p75) 90th Percentile (p90) Quarterback (QB) Without $0 257 [12, 15] — — $23,500 [12] $60,000 [12] $230,000 [9, 12] $675,000 [12] $1,611,000 [9, 12] Quarterback (QB) With $0 — 110 [9, 12, 15] 367 (estimate) [15] $0 (estimate) $0 (estimate) Not available Not available Not available Running Back (RB) Without $0 360 [12] — — $24,000 [12] $50,000 [12] $108,500 [9, 12] $236,000 [12] $383,000 [9, 12] Running Back (RB) With $0 — 135 [9, 12] 495 (estimate) $0 (estimate) $0 (estimate) Not available Not available Not available Wide Receiver (WR) Without $0 707 [12] — — $20,000 [12] $49,500 [12] $112,500 [9, 12] $247,000 [12] $456,000 [9, 12] Wide Receiver (WR) With $0 — 282 [9, 12] 989 (estimate) $0 (estimate) $0 (estimate) Not available Not available Not available Tight End (TE) Without $0 370 [12] — — $17,500 [12] $40,000 [12] $93,000 [9, 12] $199,000 [12] $300,000 [9, 12] Tight End (TE) With $0 — 126 [12] vs. 146 [9] 496 vs. 516 (estimate) $0 (estimate) $0 (estimate) Not available Not available Not available Offensive Line (OL) Without $0 1,105 [12] — — $22,500 [12] $50,000 [12] $133,000 [9, 12] $312,500 [12] $512,000 [9, 12] Offensive Line (OL) With $0 — 293 [9, 12] 1,398 (estimate) $0 (estimate) Not available Not available Not available Not available Defensive Line (DL) Without $0 885 [12] — — $25,000 [12] $60,000 [12] $150,000 [9, 12] $309,500 [12] $509,500 [9, 12] Defensive Line (DL) With $0 — 175 [9, 12] 1,060 (estimate) $0 (estimate) Not available Not available Not available Not available Linebacker (LB) Without $0 643 [12] — — $24,000 [12] $50,000 [12] $112,500 [9, 12] $246,500 [12] $425,500 [9, 12] Linebacker (LB) With $0 — 215 [9, 12] 858 (estimate) $0 (estimate) $0 (estimate) Not available Not available Not available Defensive Back (DB) Without $0 1,141 [12] — — $23,500 [12] $50,000 [12] $115,000 [9, 12] $250,000 [12] $416,000 [9, 12] Defensive Back (DB) With $0 — 303 [9, 12] 1,444 (estimate) $0 (estimate) Not available Not available Not available Not available Kicker (K) Without $0 99 [12] — — Not published ($n < 100$) [12, 24] $24,000 [12] $48,500 [9, 12] $87,500 [12] Not published ($n < 100$) [9, 12, 24] Kicker (K) With $0 — 95 [9, 12] 194 (estimate) $0 (estimate) $0 (estimate) Not available Not available Not available Punter (P) Without $0 66 [12] — — Not published ($n < 100$) [12, 24] $26,000 [12] $56,000 [9, 12] $88,500 [12] Not published ($n < 100$) [9, 12, 24] Punter (P) With $0 — 65 [9, 12] 131 (estimate) $0 (estimate) $0 (estimate) Not available Not available Not available Long Snapper (LS) Without $0 57 [12] — — Not published ($n < 100$) [12, 24] $12,500 [12] $30,000 [9, 12] $46,500 [12] Not published ($n < 100$) [9, 12, 24] Long Snapper (LS) With $0 — 92 [9, 12] 149 (estimate) $0 (estimate) $0 (estimate) $0 (estimate) Not available Not available Position Unspecified Without $0 127 [12] — — $25,000 [12] $52,500 [12] $150,000 [9, 12] $237,500 [12] $348,500 [9, 12] Position Unspecified With $0 — 35 [9, 12] 162 (estimate) $0 (estimate) Not available Not available Not available Not available TOTAL P4 Both 5,817 (estimate) 1,926 vs. 1,946 (estimate) 7,743 vs. 7,763 (estimate) — — — — — Note on Tight End $0 Count Conflict: 247Sports reports "370 total players, excluding 126 players paid $0" [12], while On3 reports "(excludes 146 P4 and 724 non-P4 TEs who earned $0)" [9]. Both figures are shown side-by-side. Table 1B: Institutional Revenue Sharing — Non-Power Four (Non-A4) Football Window: January 1, 2026 – December 31, 2026 (payments made or scheduled) [24, 33]. All figures are CSC reported via [9, 15, 24] unless marked estimate. Position Cohort Paid $n$ (Without $0) Unpaid $0 Count Total Roster $n$ (With $0) 10th / 25th / 75th Percentiles 50th Percentile (Median) 90th Percentile (p90) Quarterback (QB) Without $0 256 [15] — — Not available $31,000 [9] $260,000 [9] Quarterback (QB) With $0 — 573 [9, 15] 829 (estimate) [15] p10 = $0; p25 = $0 (estimate) $0 (estimate) Not available Running Back (RB) Without $0 Not available — — Not available $16,000 [9] (vs. $100,000 prose typo [9]) $100,000 [9] Running Back (RB) With $0 — 822 [9] Not available Not available Not available Not available Wide Receiver (WR) Without $0 Not available — — Not available $15,000 [9] $100,000 [9] Wide Receiver (WR) With $0 — 1,650 [9] Not available Not available Not available Not available Tight End (TE) Without $0 Not available — — Not available $14,000 [9] $66,000 [9] Tight End (TE) With $0 — 724 [9] Not available Not available Not available Not available Offensive Line (OL) Without $0 Not available — — Not available $17,500 [9] $112,000 [9] Offensive Line (OL) With $0 — 2,188 [9] Not available Not available Not available Not available Defensive Line (DL) Without $0 Not available — — Not available $18,000 [9] $103,000 [9] Defensive Line (DL) With $0 — 1,575 [9] Not available Not available Not available Not available Linebacker (LB) Without $0 Not available — — Not available $17,500 [9] $99,500 [9] Linebacker (LB) With $0 — 1,370 [9] Not available Not available Not available Not available Defensive Back (DB) Without $0 Not available — — Not available $15,000 [9] $89,000 [9] Defensive Back (DB) With $0 — 2,289 [9] Not available Not available Not available Not available Kicker (K) Without $0 Not available — — Not available $12,000 [9] Not published [9] Kicker (K) With $0 — 386 [9] Not available Not available Not available Not available Punter (P) Without $0 Not available — — Not available $10,000 [9] Not published [9] Punter (P) With $0 — 183 [9] Not available Not available Not available Not available Long Snapper (LS) Without $0 Not available — — Not available $10,000 [9] Not published [9] Long Snapper (LS) With $0 — 271 [9] Not available Not available Not available Not available Position Unspecified Without $0 Not available — — Not available $7,500 [9] $50,000 [9] Position Unspecified With $0 — 1,222 [9] Not available Not available Not available Not available TOTAL NON-P4 Both Not available (256 QB) 13,253 (estimate) Not available — — — Table 1C: Third-Party NIL (NIL Go) — Power Four vs. Non-Power Four Football Window: January 1, 2026 – September 30, 2026 (full contracted value of cleared deals) [33, 39]. Includes only players with $\ge 1$ cleared deal (no "With $0" cohort exists) [33, 39]. All figures are CSC reported via [9, 12, 39]. Position Group Cleared Deal $n$ 10th Percentile (p10) 25th Percentile (p25) 50th Percentile (Median) 75th Percentile (p75) 90th Percentile (p90) Quarterback (QB) P4 194 [12] $1,570 [12] $10,722 [12] $65,550 [9, 12] $293,020 [12] $996,049 [9, 12] Quarterback (QB) Non-P4 Not available Not available Not available $1,570 [9] Not available $21,805 [9] Running Back (RB) P4 245 [12] $1,500 [12] $1,600 [12] $26,050 [9, 12] $95,000 [12] $213,012 [9, 12] Running Back (RB) Non-P4 Not available Not available Not available $1,500 [9] Not available $7,508 [9] Wide Receiver (WR) P4 436 [12] $1,500 [12] $3,090 [12] $27,785 [9, 12] $99,325 [12] $246,035 [9, 12] Wide Receiver (WR) Non-P4 Not available Not available Not available $1,560 [9] Not available $4,458 [9] Tight End (TE) P4 233 [12] $1,500 [12] $1,600 [12] $20,000 [9, 12] $75,000 [12] $158,901 [9, 12] Tight End (TE) Non-P4 Not available Not available Not available $1,560 [9] Not available $3,359 [9] Offensive Line (OL) P4 596 [12] $1,500 [12] $1,608 [12] $21,600 [9, 12] $95,018 [12] $213,500 [9, 12] Offensive Line (OL) Non-P4 Not available Not available Not available $1,560 [9] Not available $2,563 [9] Defensive Line (DL) P4 588 [12] $1,500 [12] $1,600 [12] $26,500 [9, 12] $100,000 [12] $231,655 [9, 12] Defensive Line (DL) Non-P4 Not available Not available Not available $1,570 [9] Not available $3,000 [9] Linebacker (LB) P4 391 [12] $1,500 [12] $1,500 [12] $21,500 [9] vs. $1,550 [12] $86,750 [12] $228,100 [9, 12] Linebacker (LB) Non-P4 Not available Not available Not available $1,550 (bullet) vs. $1,500 (prose) [9] Not available $4,298 [9] Defensive Back (DB) P4 646 [12] $1,500 [12] $1,708 [12] $25,000 [9, 12] $82,600 [12] $200,000 [9, 12] Defensive Back (DB) Non-P4 Not available Not available Not available $1,560 [9] Not available $3,048 [9] Kicker (K) P4 81 [12] Not published ($n < 100$) [12, 24] $1,570 [12] $6,500 [9, 12] $33,300 [12] Not published ($n < 100$) [9, 12, 24] Kicker (K) Non-P4 Not available Not available Not available $1,570 [9] Not available Not published [9] Punter (P) P4 33 [12] Not published ($n < 100$) [12, 24] Not published ($n < 40$) [12, 24] $1,660 [9] vs. $1,600 [12] Not published ($n < 40$) [12, 24] Not published ($n < 100$) [9, 12, 24] Punter (P) Non-P4 Not available Not available Not available $1,500 [9] Not available Not published [9] Long Snapper (LS) P4 44 [12] Not published ($n < 100$) [12, 24] $1,500 [12] $1,600 [9, 12] $9,044 [12] Not published ($n < 100$) [9, 12, 24] Long Snapper (LS) Non-P4 Not available Not available Not available $1,560 [9] Not available Not published [9] Position Unspecified P4 430 [12] $1,000 [12] $1,500 [12] $1,600 [9, 12] $9,053 [12] $50,000 [9, 12] Position Unspecified Non-P4 Not available Not available Not available $1,560 [9] Not available $2,017 [9] TOTAL P4 NIL P4 3,917 (estimate) — — — — — Note on Sample-Size Threshold Validation: Every single Power Four cohort published by 247Sports [12] strictly obeys the CSC’s stated suppression rules ($n \ge 100$ for p10/p90; $n \ge 40$ for p25/p75; $n \ge 10$ for p50) [24]. Specifically: Kickers (Rev-Share $n = 99$, NIL $n = 81$) and Long Snappers (Rev-Share $n = 57$, NIL $n = 44$) fall between 40 and 99; accordingly, their p10 and p90 cells are suppressed, while p25, p50, and p75 are published [12, 24]. Punters have $n = 66$ in Revenue Sharing (suppressing p10/p90, publishing p25/p50/p75) but only $n = 33$ in NIL Go—dropping below the $n = 40$ threshold and resulting in the suppression of p10, p25, p75, and p90, leaving only the median (p50) published [12, 24]. Plain-English Methodology & Directional Biases To interpret these numbers without overstating or understating what athletes take home, you must understand how the CSC built the two reports. The School Revenue Share report and the NIL Go report track different pools of money, across different calendar windows, using different accounting rules [24, 33, 39]. Mismatched Reporting Windows The Rule: For football, the School Revenue Share report captures payments made—or scheduled to be made—to players on 2026 football rosters between January 1, 2026, and December 31, 2026 [24, 33]. The NIL Go report captures third-party deals submitted and cleared between January 1, 2026, and September 30, 2026 [33, 39]. By contrast, men’s and women’s basketball use a window ending April 6, 2026, and all other sports use the 2025–26 academic year (July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026) [24, 33]. Furthermore, the widely cited $1.77 billion (CSC reported via [9, 34]) first-year revenue-share total covers the 2025–26 academic year across all 45 sports [23, 34]. Directional Bias: Upward for football revenue sharing relative to cash received to date (because November and December 2026 installments are still scheduled in the future as of October 31, 2026) [24, 33]. Downward for NIL Go deal flow relative to a full calendar year (because deals cleared in October, November, and December 2026 are excluded, as are deals cleared in late 2025 before the January 1 window opened) [33, 39]. In-Season Performance Bonuses Counted as Paid The Rule: During the football season, the CAPS platform treats virtually all contingent "performance incentive" promises in institutional revenue-sharing contracts as scheduled payments [4, 33]. Even if a player has not yet reached a statistical milestone, playing-time threshold, or team bowl/playoff benchmark, the bonus is included in the reported percentiles as if it will be paid in full [4, 33]. Directional Bias: Upward (+) on revenue-share dollar percentiles (especially at the 75th and 90th percentiles, where incentive-laden contracts are concentrated) relative to actual cash ultimately earned [33]. Downward (-) on the "$0 share" if a walk-on or depth player’s only revenue-share compensation is a contingent bonus they never earn (shifting them into the "Without $0" paid cohort during the season) [24, 33]. Multi-Year NIL Contracts Reported as Lump Sums, Not Annualized Pay The Rule: The NIL Go report records the full contracted amount of any deal submitted and cleared between January 1 and September 30, 2026, regardless of when the contract begins or ends [33, 39]. Deals vary in duration from a single afternoon appearance to multi-year licensing agreements; the CSC does not prorate or annualize them into a yearly salary [33, 39]. Directional Bias: Strongly Upward (+) on upper-tier NIL percentiles (such as the Power Four QB 90th percentile of $996,049 CSC reported [9, 12]) relative to single-season income, because multi-year collective and brand agreements cleared in 2026 have their entire multi-year value lumped into this one window [27, 33, 39]. Conversely, if a player signed and cleared a multi-year deal in December 2025 that pays out across the 2026 season, it contributes $0 to the 2026 NIL Go window, pulling the numbers Downward (-) [33, 39]. Exclusion of Unpaid Players from NIL Go ("Without $0" Only) The Rule: In the School Revenue Share report, the CSC provides both "With $0" (all rostered players) and "Without $0" (only paid/scheduled players) cohorts [24, 33]. In the NIL Go report, rostered athletes who did not have at least one cleared third-party deal during the nine-month window are completely excluded from the cohort [33, 39]. Directional Bias: Strongly Upward (+) relative to the whole football roster. For example, across the entire Power Four, 5,817 players (estimate) received revenue sharing and 7,743 to 7,763 total players (estimate) were rostered, but only 3,917 (estimate summed from CSC counts [12]) had a cleared NIL Go deal. Reading the NIL Go medians as what the "typical player at that position makes in NIL" overstates reality by ignoring the roughly 50% of Power Four players—and the vast majority of non-Power Four players—with no cleared deal [12, 33, 39]. Unsubmitted, Pending, Rejected, and Sub-$600 NIL Deals The Rule: Mandatory NIL Go reporting applies only to third-party deals worth $600 or more in the aggregate (though some athletes voluntarily submit deals under $600, which may be included in the data) [33, 36, 37]. Furthermore, the report includes only cleared deals [39]. As of August 31, 2026, NIL Go had cleared 46,478 deals worth $582.49 million (CSC reported via [10, 26]), but had rejected $156.9 million in deals since launch (CSC reported via [20])—including $67.08 million not cleared in July–August 2026 alone (CSC reported via [10, 20])—while thousands of deals sat pending review or went unreported outside the system [8, 20, 31]. Directional Bias: Upward (+) at the bottom percentiles (p10 and p25) due to the $600 reporting floor cutting off small deals (notice how nearly every Power Four position's 10th percentile in NIL Go sits right at $1,500 or $1,570 CSC reported [12], and non-Power Four medians sit at $1,500 to $1,570 CSC reported [9]). Downward (-) on total NIL volume and upper percentiles because rejected, delayed, and off-the-books collective payments are missing from the cleared dataset [8, 20, 33]. Exclusion of Scholarships, Cost-of-Attendance, and Alston Awards The Rule: Both reports exclude traditional athletic scholarships, cost-of-attendance stipends, and NCAA v. Alston academic achievement awards (up to $5,980 per year) [25, 33]. Systemwide, schools distributed $42 million (CSC reported via [23]) in Alston awards and $163 million (CSC reported via [23]) in new and incremental scholarship spending in 2025–26 on top of the $1.77 billion in revenue sharing [23]. Directional Bias: Downward (-) if a reader treats the CSC tables as "total athlete compensation" [25, 33]. A non-Power Four player listed at $0 in revenue sharing may still receive $30,000 to $70,000+ in tuition, room, board, stipends, and Alston cash [25, 33]. Zero-Dollar Distribution Analysis: How Schools Spread Their Money By combining the paid sample sizes ($n$ Without $0) from 247Sports [12] and FootballScoop [15] with the excluded $0 player counts from On3 [9] and 247Sports [12], we can reconstruct the complete Power Four positional roster distribution and compare it to the non-Power Four zero-dollar counts. Formula: $$\text{Total Roster } n = n_{\text{without \$0}} + \text{Count}_{\text{\$0}}$$ $$\text{Zero-Dollar Share} = \frac{\text{Count}_{\text{\$0}}}{\text{Total Roster } n}$$ Table 2: Positional Zero-Dollar Revenue-Share Breakdown (Power Four vs. Non-Power Four) Paid $n$ and $0 counts are CSC reported via [9, 12, 15]. Total $n$, Zero-Dollar Share, Paid Share, and Per-Team Averages are estimates calculated from CSC counts (using 68 Power Four programs [8, 10, 34]). Position P4 Paid $n$ P4 $0 Count P4 Total $n$ (Est.) P4 % Receiving $0 (Est.) P4 % Paid (Est.) Avg P4 Paid / Roster (÷68) Avg P4 Total / Roster (÷68) Non-P4 Paid $n$ Non-P4 $0 Count Non-P4 % Receiving $0 (Est.) Defensive Line (DL) 885 [12] 175 [9, 12] 1,060 16.5% 83.5% 13.0 15.6 Not avail. 1,575 [9] Not avail. Offensive Line (OL) 1,105 [12] 293 [9, 12] 1,398 21.0% 79.0% 16.3 20.6 Not avail. 2,188 [9] Not avail. Defensive Back (DB) 1,141 [12] 303 [9, 12] 1,444 21.0% 79.0% 16.8 21.2 Not avail. 2,289 [9] Not avail. Position Unspecified 127 [12] 35 [9, 12] 162 21.6% 78.4% 1.9 2.4 Not avail. 1,222 [9] Not avail. Linebacker (LB) 643 [12] 215 [9, 12] 858 25.1% 74.9% 9.5 12.6 Not avail. 1,370 [9] Not avail. Tight End (TE) 370 [12] 126 [12] / 146 [9] 496 / 516 25.4% / 28.3% 74.6% / 71.7% 5.4 7.3 / 7.6 Not avail. 724 [9] Not avail. Running Back (RB) 360 [12] 135 [9, 12] 495 27.3% 72.7% 5.3 7.3 Not avail. 822 [9] Not avail. Wide Receiver (WR) 707 [12] 282 [9, 12] 989 28.5% 71.5% 10.4 14.5 Not avail. 1,650 [9] Not avail. Quarterback (QB) 257 [12, 15] 110 [9, 12, 15] 367 [15] 30.0% 70.0% 3.8 5.4 256 [15] 573 [9, 15] 69.1% Kicker (K) 99 [12] 95 [9, 12] 194 49.0% 51.0% 1.5 2.9 Not avail. 386 [9] Not avail. Punter (P) 66 [12] 65 [9, 12] 131 49.6% 50.4% 1.0 1.9 Not avail. 183 [9] Not avail. Long Snapper (LS) 57 [12] 92 [9, 12] 149 61.7% 38.3% 0.8 2.2 Not avail. 271 [9] Not avail. ALL POSITIONS 5,817 1,926 / 1,946 7,743 / 7,763 24.9% / 25.1% 75.1% / 74.9% 85.5 113.9 / 114.2 Not avail. 13,253 Not avail. What the Zero-Dollar Math Reveals About Roster Construction Power Four Schools Pay Essentially Every Scholarship Player (85.5 Paid Players Per Team): When you sum the paid players ($n$ Without $0) across all 12 position groups in the Power Four, the total is 5,817 paid athletes (estimate from CSC counts [12]). Divided across the 68 Power Four programs, that equals 85.54 paid players per school (estimate)—matching the historical 85-scholarship limit [8] to the decimal point. Meanwhile, the total rostered pool (7,743 to 7,763 players, estimate) averages 113.9 to 114.2 players per school (estimate), reflecting the 105-player roster limit plus grandfathered walk-ons and mid-year portal turnover [3, 8]. Across the entire Power Four, 74.9% to 75.1% (estimate) of all rostered football players receive direct revenue sharing, while only 24.9% to 25.1% (estimate)—roughly 28.5 walk-ons per team—receive $0. Trench Players Have the Highest Paid Rates; Specialists Have the Lowest: In the Power Four, revenue sharing is most universal on the lines of scrimmage and in the secondary: 83.5% of defensive linemen (13.0 of 15.6 per team, estimate) and 79.0% of offensive linemen (16.3 of 20.6 per team, estimate) and defensive backs (16.8 of 21.2 per team, estimate) receive direct school pay [9, 12]. Because offensive and defensive line units require deep two- and three-deep rotations, Power Four schools pay almost their entire trench rooms. Conversely, specialists are the only group where half or more of Power Four players get nothing: 49.0% of kickers, 49.6% of punters, and 61.7% of long snappers receive $0 (estimates) [9, 12]. An average Power Four team pays 1.0 punter, 1.5 kickers, and 0.8 long snappers (es