The NIL landscape has completely reshaped college athletics over the last six years, but it’s done so in a bit of a wild west, behind the scenes way. Thousands of players each year flock to the transfer portal and come out on the other side in new uniforms, and with new NIL deals.

What are the dollars signs associated with these new NIL deals? That’s remained a mystery for a long time because they’ve not been made public nor have they been required to be.

Until perhaps now, at least according to one major outlet. On3 Sports has released what it claims is the NIL valuation for the top 100 athletes in college sports. According to On3 CEO Shannon Terry, “[a]ll NIL Valuations with a green check are confirmed deals, and no check means market value and active negotiations.”

🚨 MASSIVE CHANGE 🚨 Launched NIL Valuation in 2021 when the market was figuring itself out. Today, we are proud to announce that we have moved to a "market and deal-based model."

All NIL Valuations with a green check are confirmed deals, and no check means market value and… https://t.co/d5XMv0cAnM

— Shannon Terry (@ShannonTerry) July 14, 2026

And so, who are Tennessee’s top NIL earning athletes, per On3? As it turns out, the biggest money for individual athletes is not on the football side, but on the basketball team.

On3 Sports lists 3 of top 4 Tennessee NIL earnings among Vols basketball program, not football

On3 lists men’s basketball transfer addition Juke Harris as the university’s top earner with a listed NIL valuation of $4 million. Two more new basketball transfer portal additions are tied for second: former Notre Dame F Jalen Haralson and former Cal G Dai Dai Ames. Both men have a listed valuation of $3 million each.

Tennessee football’s top two players are Chaz Coleman and David Sanders, Jr.. But with Tennessee already having parted ways with Coleman, that puts Sanders as the top NIL earner on the football team, according to On3. George MacIntyre’s name is next on the list at $1.6 million, but it should be noted that On3 hasn’t confirmed that total.

That certainly puts into perspective to a degree the claims by those who argue Tennessee is money whipping players above and beyond others to get players to come to Knoxville, as has been the case in the competing fans’ social media squabbles surrounding the recruitment of David Gabriel Georges. Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith and Ole Miss’ Trinidad Chambliss both have valuations of $5 million each.

It’s the age we live in nowadays, and the skyrocketing money doesn’t show any sign of changing direction any time soon.