The game has changed in college football over the last couple of years, but the numbers being thrown around at players and rosters now really puts things into perspective.

247 Sports did a deep dive on the most expensive rosters in all of college football for the 2026 season, and while only a few teams — for the most part the usual suspects — crossed the $40 million roster threshold, the teams in the Yellowhammer State are not far behind either.

Teams like Miami, Texas, Ohio State, Oregon, LSU and Texas A&M all topped $40 million, with a significant bulk of the SEC coming just behind, spending between $30 million and $40 million after paying their own players as well as bringing in names from the transfer portal.

The SEC teams in that tier include both Alabama and Auburn, as well as Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma, Ole Miss and Tennessee, and in the Big Ten, teams like Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, USC and Wisconsin all crossed the $30 million mark.

Numbers like this certainly are a stark change from where the sport was even just a few years ago, and where it’s going from here seems to have the chance to go up exponentially before legislation gets passed to put any kind of salary cap on teams. If that doesn’t happen, it won’t be long before we see $100 million rosters in college football.

Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.