In Reply to: How do they come up with any of this, posted by ej on February 16, 2026 at 11:50:57
The NIL figures I gave earlier were aggregated estimates, not official audited numbers. In college basketball, there is no centralized, verified public database for exact NIL spending by each program. Most numbers come from media reports, collectives, agents, and industry insiders, so they should always be treated as approximations or ranges.
Main sources used for those estimates
These are the types of outlets that publish the NIL ranges I referenced:
HoopsHQ (Seth Davis reporting)
Regularly publishes program-by-program NIL estimates based on sources inside collectives and coaching staffs.
The ~$8 M UCLA figure came from one of those January 2026 columns.
College basketball/NIL industry trackers
Examples include:
College Football Network NIL reports
On3 NIL coverage
The Athletic reporting
Front Office Sports
These typically compile numbers from:
Collective fundraising totals
Reported roster budgets
Coach/agent comments
Donor announcements
Clearly not perfect, but not a WAG either. Probably directionally correct.