Iowa keeps winning in a way that doesn’t always fit the modern college football money race, and the latest NIL spending numbers make that clear.
According to The Athletic’s research into football department budgets across the 68 Power Four teams, the Hawkeyes sit near the bottom of the spending pile. Iowa is listed at No. 55 overall, with a football NIL budget of $17 to $21 million. That puts the Hawkeyes well short of the teams pushing $40 million to $50 million in roster costs.
Inside the Big Ten, the gap looks even starker. Ohio State and Oregon are near the top of the conference and each are approaching the $50 million mark. Iowa, meanwhile, checks in at No. 17 out of 18 Big Ten teams, ahead of only Purdue and just behind Minnesota.
The conference-wide numbers underline how far Iowa is operating below the standard. The Big Ten’s average football roster spending lands between $27 million and $31 million, a range Iowa falls comfortably under.
The national picture is just as telling. Only Houston, at $15 million to $19 million, spends less than Iowa among teams currently ranked in the top 25.
Yet the Hawkeyes keep producing. Since NIL was introduced before the 2021 college football season, Iowa has gone 45-22, not including its 2-0 start to the 2026 season.
That record places Iowa inside the top 15 nationally in total wins over that span. The Hawkeyes are right there with programs such as Notre Dame, Penn State, Texas, Clemson, and Tennessee, even though they’re doing it at a fraction of the cost.
It’s a familiar Iowa formula: less splash, more development. Kirk Ferentz and his staff have leaned more on the transfer portal over time, but the backbone of the program still comes from building players and building a roster the traditional way. The numbers suggest that approach is still working.
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