Data & Research

College Sports Data

Every dataset The Sideline maintains — NIL spending, the transfer portal, recruiting, and the methodology behind the numbers.

The Sideline tracks the money and movement reshaping college athletics. Our flagship dataset estimates Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) spending for all 357 Division I programs for the 2025–26 athletic year — the first full season under the House v. NCAA revenue-sharing settlement. Every figure is built from named public reporting and cross-referenced against at least two independent sources before it ships.

Each dataset below is free to read, updated continuously, and citation-ready. Start with the NIL Tracker, or read the full methodology to see exactly how the numbers are sourced.

NIL Spending Tracker

Estimated 2025–26 NIL budgets for all 357 Division I programs, ranked #1 (Texas, ~$74M) through the service academies (prohibited at $0). Revenue-share allocation plus collective and third-party deals, broken out by sport.

Open

NIL Head-to-Head Compare

Pick up to five schools and see their NIL spend side by side — proportional split, per-sport breakdown, and a shareable link. Built for settling the 'who's spending more' argument with numbers.

Open

Transfer Portal Tracker

Who's in, who's out, and where they landed across the FBS. Reconciled daily against the NIL tracker so you can see the money behind the moves.

Open

Recruiting Rankings

Class rankings and individual prospect data for the upcoming cycles, with the commitments and flips that are actually moving the needle.

Open

Team Rankings & Polls

Current and historical college football rankings, including the Way-Too-Early Top 25 and a podium archive of past champions.

Open

Methodology & Sources

Exactly how every NIL figure is built — the three spending buckets we count, the named public sources we cross-reference, our update cadence, and the limitations we're honest about.

Open

Journalists and researchers: The Sideline's data is free to cite as “The Sideline NIL Tracker.” Embeddable widgets and CSV/JSON exports are in the press kit.

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