# SEC Scouts NIL Weekly: Arch Manning Headlines a $5.4M SEC Market as the Revenue-Share Cap Tightens **Published:** 2026-07-10 — **By:** Stacy Stanfield **Category:** nil — **Type:** nil-weekly **Source:** https://secscouts.com/news/sec-scouts-nil-weekly-arch-manning-5-4m-revenue-share-cap --- ## The SEC's NIL Machine Enters the 2026 Season Fully Loaded The SEC remains the financial center of gravity in college athletics, and the numbers heading into the 2026 season leave little doubt. Every SEC program's NIL collective ranks inside the nation's top 38 by reported athletic contributions, and the conference places four schools inside the national top five in collective spending, according to NCAA figures compiled by SEC Rant. But the headline this week is less about a single new signature and more about how the money is being restructured: the College Sports Commission's revenue-sharing cap, the NIL Go clearinghouse, and a federal bill working through the Senate are all reshaping how SEC athletes get paid. At the top of it all sits one name. ## Biggest Deals and Valuations **Arch Manning, QB, Texas** — Manning carries a $5.4 million valuation from On3, the highest figure for any college athlete in any sport entering 2026. His portfolio is a blueprint for national-brand NIL: Red Bull, Vuori, Uber, Raising Cane's, Warby Parker, and a Panini America trading-card deal. In March 2026 he added a Google Gemini campaign pitching the AI tool to students, per On3 and Bleacher Report reporting. No player better illustrates how legacy branding and quarterback scarcity compound into market-leading value. **Sam Leavitt, QB, LSU** — Leavitt checks in at a reported $4.0 million valuation after LSU retained him rather than losing him to the portal, a retention that mattered even more once Garrett Nussmeier moved on to the NFL Draft. Leavitt is now the face of an LSU collective operation that ranks third nationally in reported spending at roughly $20.1 million. **DJ Lagway, QB, Florida** — Lagway sits at a $3.7 million valuation, buoyed by Florida's national fan base and heavy local-business NIL support, per Fox Sports' rankings. Florida's collective spending of about $15.8 million ranks eighth nationally. **John Mateer, QB, Oklahoma** — Mateer's $2.8 million valuation is anchored by a visible Beats by Dre partnership through the brand's Beats Elite program, one of the more prominent national-brand tie-ins for an SEC signal-caller this cycle. **Ryan Williams, WR, Alabama** — The most valuable SEC non-quarterback on the endorsement side, Williams (a $1.8 million valuation) has stacked consumer deals with Uber Eats, Hollister, and Sally Hansen, proving wideout marketability travels well beyond the quarterback position. ## Rising Stock **LaNorris Sellers, QB, South Carolina** — Sellers chose to return rather than test the portal, and his dual-threat production has pushed his valuation into the $2.7 million-to-$3.7 million range depending on the tracker. His confident style and highlight production have made him one of the fastest-rising brands in the league. **Dylan Stewart, EDGE, South Carolina** — At a $2.5 million valuation, Stewart is the rare defensive player commanding QB-adjacent money, valued for pressure clips that perform on social media. He is proof that disruptive edge play now carries genuine endorsement weight. **Marcel Reed, QB, Texas A&M** — Reed's $1.9 million valuation reflects Texas A&M's aggressive collective posture; the Aggies rank fifth nationally at roughly $17.2 million in reported collective spending. ## School Spotlight By reported collective spending, the SEC pecking order is clear: **Texas** leads the entire country at approximately $22.3 million, followed by **LSU** ($20.1M, No. 3), **Georgia** ($18.3M, No. 4), **Texas A&M** ($17.2M, No. 5), **Alabama** ($16.0M, No. 7), and **Florida** ($15.8M, No. 8). **Oklahoma** ($14.8M) cracks the top 10 in its second year in the league. Alabama's Yea Alabama collective and Georgia's Classic City Collective both operate at the top tier of SEC funding. The middle of the league — **Tennessee**, **Auburn**, **Arkansas**, and **Kentucky**, all clustered near $11.3–$11.6 million — remains well-funded by national standards, while **Mississippi State** ($6.5M) and **Missouri** ($7.1M) anchor the conference's spending floor. ## Market Trends Three trends define the SEC's NIL market this week: 1. **Quarterbacks own the ceiling.** QBs hold roughly two-thirds of the national top-25 valuations, and the SEC's top five earners are all signal-callers. National consumer brands continue to concentrate their dollars on the position. 2. **The cap is now the story.** For 2025–26 the revenue-sharing cap sits near $20.5 million per school, rising to $21.3 million for the fiscal year ending June 2027 and projected toward $33 million by 2035. Athletes must now report third-party deals of $600 or more through NIL Go, typically within five business days, with the College Sports Commission reviewing for fair-market value. 3. **The "associated entity" fight is heating up.** The CSC has approved nearly $300 million in third-party deals since inception, but more than $200 million has been rejected or flagged for review, much of it tied to school-affiliated sponsors and multimedia-rights partners used to route money around the cap. ## Looking Ahead Watch the legislative track. The Protect College Sports Act of 2026 (S. 4668) is moving through the Senate Commerce Committee and would install a national revenue-sharing cap, mandatory NIL disclosure, agent oversight, and an antitrust shield for schools that enforce the rules — a framework that would directly govern how SEC collectives and their biggest earners operate. On the field, expect the SEC's returning quarterbacks — Manning, Leavitt, Lagway, Sellers, and Mateer — to headline the next wave of national-brand announcements as the season opener approaches. *Valuations via On3, Fox Sports, and RallyFuel; collective spending estimates via NCAA figures reported by SEC Rant; regulatory details via the College Sports Commission and Senate Commerce Committee.* --- *Original article: [SEC Scouts NIL Weekly: Arch Manning Headlines a $5.4M SEC Market as the Revenue-Share Cap Tightens](https://secscouts.com/news/sec-scouts-nil-weekly-arch-manning-5-4m-revenue-share-cap) — SEC Scouts*