What the number is
$36K a year is the only individual college-baseball NIL figure the research found with primary-source verification: a 2024 Georgia (SEC) transfer, documented in a federal court filing, on a $18K term sheet. It anchors the floor of the "established Power-4 everyday bat" tier below.
For scale, the whole sport's NIL market in 2024-25 was reported at $75M — $40.9M of it in Power-4 programs. That total is not divided down into a per-program or per-player average anywhere in Sightline, because doing so would require a program count the source never reported.
The five Power-4 pay tiers
T1 — Draft-leverage elite: $250K to $500K a year (estimated). Projected rounds 1-2 talent staying or arriving — e.g. a 6'4"+ arm at 96+ FB, or an SEC-caliber bat with elite contact and a Freshman-of-the-Year-level debut.
T2 — Proven P4 weekend starter / All-American arm: $100K to $300K a year (estimated). 6'5"+ SP, 95+ FB, K-BB% >= 20%, 85+ IP.
T3 — Established P4 everyday bat / high-leverage arm: $36K to $150K a year (confirmed). .300+/.400+ OBP SEC/Big 12 regular with 15+ HR, or a proven high-leverage arm.
T4 — P4 role player / good mid-major starter: $10K to $50K a year (estimated). Partial scholarship plus modest NIL.
T5 — Rank-and-file D1: $0K to $10K a year (estimated). Everyone else, including a typical Power-conference bench/depth player.
What it does not claim
None of this is an input to a player's estimated value. The research pack's player-level dollar figures come from a handful of named cases — real, but far too few to fit a coefficient against without overfitting the engine to nine examples. They are kept as a sanity check a coach can hold a number up against, and as a documented starting point for a properly scoped fitting pass later.
NIL "valuation" figures from content/marketing sites (e.g. SportsGrid Top-13 lists, RallyFuel) do not correlate with real production and should never be used as pricing input — confirmed by 2-vote adversarial verification finding every traceable figure led to a single uncited marketing page, not a real disclosed deal.
All NIL deals of $600 or more must clear NIL Go's fair-market-value review (per the House settlement's clearinghouse rules); roughly $90M in deals were rejected league-wide as of this pack's compile date. Source: ESPN, via the 2026-07-22 research pack.
Sources
- Goldstein v. NCAA, M.D. Ga. No. 3:25-cv-00027, via Sportico (2026-07 pack, [S6])
- Opendorse NIL annual report, via AP/College Sports Network coverage ([S9])
- Baseball America, "Coaches Confidential" survey of 51 D1 coaches, January 2026
Compiled July 22, 2026. A source with no link is a court filing, a research pack, or a table inside Sightline named in the entry.