Forget projections and guesses based on athletic department revenue. We’re talking real numbers, straight from the people who live this stuff. Coaches and athletic directors who can give us a peak behind the curtain.

Let’s start with UTSA’s Jeff Traylor, who didn’t hold back last season when talking about NIL: “We’re getting our teeth kicked in by Memphis and South Florida.” Memphis secured a commitment from Fedex worth 5 million per year. While 2 years ago Corey Staniscia of USF's Collective mentioned their annual goal was 3.5 million per year, which is likely higher now.

According to Traylor, Memphis’ roster cost six times more than UTSA’s. That either makes Memphis the NIL king of the G5 or UTSA is a few tiers down the ladder. Probably both. And while many assumed Tulane would be a top spender, Traylor didn’t even mention them. That said, since then Tulane landed a $3.5 million private donation to kickstart their Green Wave Fund, so yeah, they’re in the mix now.

East Carolina was around $400K for football in 2023, according to one of their collective board members. That was middle of the pack in conference at the time. Its probably a safe assumption that number has continued to grow, but they're positioning in the conference in regards to NIL spending may be similar.

The conference, though outside the Power 4, has opted into the NCAA's new revenue-sharing model. Part of this entails every school will be required to pay out 10 million in compensation to athletes over a rolling 3 year period. In theory, the bottom of this conference should get a lot stronger moving forward. However that does not apply to Army and Navy. Service academy athletes, unlike their civilian counterparts, are generally prohibited from participating in NIL deals due to their status as federal employees.

Nevada’s getting bold. AD Stephanie Rempe says they’re targeting $5 million in revenue sharing and NIL deals next year. That’s across all sports, but football’s almost definitely getting the biggest slice. That would put Nevada among the top of the G5 heap.

And then there’s Oregon State. Post Pac-12 chaos hasn’t slowed them down, they’re spending like a Power Five program. They reportedly dropped $1.5 million just on quarterback Maalik Murphy. That might be the biggest individual NIL deal in Group of Five history. When Washington State’s Jake Dickert was asked about how their NIL compares to the competition, he said: “Oregon State probably has us 10 to 1 in the NIL space.” Translation: the Beavers are not playing around.

Fresno State may be hot on their tail. An athletic department source told the Fresno Bee their goal for football is 4 to 5 million annually. Which would even significantly clear Boise State. Dirk Koetter mentioned in January that Boise State's NIL budget is $2 million. Which speaks to their culture, as Jeanty could have commanded a huge fraction of that on the open market before last season.

UNLV? Either they don’t have the money, or they don’t have the structure to use it well. The Matthew Sluka situation where the starting QB didn’t get the NIL money he was promised made national news. They might be turning a corner, but for now, they’re not in the top tier.

Over at UConn, the athletic director got real: their 2023 NIL budget was just $100K. No shocker they got raided in the portal. But for 2024? It’s was up to $1 million, with plans to double that again and becoming a top five NIL spender in the Group of Five. Which is telling, once you're in the few million per year range you are in the top tier of spending at this level.

UMass isn’t messing around either. AD Ryan Bamford says they’re putting $2 million behind their 2024 football roster roughly double what he thinks the next-biggest spender in the MAC is dropping. No wonder Vegas is giving them a win total projection that makes no sense looking at their history.

Sun Belt and MAC schools? Mostly quiet. And that’s probably telling. When Coastal Carolina had to cough up NIL records, it turned out they spent just $77,344 last season. If anyone else in those leagues was spending serious cash, you'd better believe we’d be hearing about it. Silence speaks volumes. To be fair though, there are some schools in those conferences that do spend like they want to compete so i'm sure they spend more than Coastal in NIL. But we were unable to find any public comments on those numbers.

The Bottom Line: To play at the top of the Group of Five, you probably need at least $2 million a year going into NIL. A few schools are there, or blowing past it. Most are still figuring it out. And some? They’re already getting left behind.