Scion of a football dynasty, Arch Manning, will make his first collegiate start for the top-ranked University of Texas Longhorns against Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday night. Manning, the nephew of Peyton and Eli and grandson of Archie, proved why he is the most highly-anticipated quarterback recruit in the class of 2023, scoring five touchdowns in place of an injured Quinn Ewers last Saturday against the University of Texas at San Antonio.
A player with his pedigree would generate plenty of interest for any program, but Manning’s willingness to sit behind Ewers at Texas created an interesting situation in the NIL shadow world.
Due to the persistent belief that the Manning name would earn Arch record-breaking NIL wealth, the Manning family’s father was adamant about setting the record straight about how much Arch actually received. Prior to last year’s Sugar Bowl, Arch’s father, Cooper Manning, denounced previous media reports about his son’s NIL earnings, telling Yahoo Sports, “All that NIL stuff is bullshit. People just make up numbers. Don’t believe what you read.”
While the actual NIL figure has not been released, some of those reports were based on On3’s NIL rankings, which claimed Arch was third behind Colorado’s Shedul Sanders and Travis Hunter, valued at $3.1 million.
One of Arch’s reported transactions was with sports merchandise collecting company Panini America, which auctioned an autographed card of Arch for $60,250, with the sophomore donating the proceeds to charity.
Another was EA Sports, which used Manning’s likeness in a re-release of a college football game. Manning initially declined to have his likeness used in the game (and to receive a copy of the game and a check for $600), but On3 reported that he was included in the game for a much larger check of $50,000 to $60,000.
Ironically, Ewers, who is projected to be the first quarterback selected in the 2025 NFL Draft, is actually on the cover of EA College Football 25. Ewers also ranks fourth in On3’s NIL rankings with $2.2 million. The Ohio State transfer is expected to make $1.4 million in NIL earnings in 2021 during his time at Columbus.
Having two potential NFL franchise quarterbacks — one of whom comes from a single family and could become a third-generation NFL star quarterback — on the same roster is good news for a Texas program that is transitioning to the talent-rich Southeastern Conference and has had no trouble making money despite lacking national recognition for most of the past 15 years.
As of 2022-23, UT is ranked second among public universities nationwide in both total operating expenses ($232,323,521) and revenue ($271,129,326), behind Ohio State, according to Sportico’s college sports finance database. Had the university joined the SEC that year, it would have topped the SEC in both expenses (4th place) and revenue (3rd place) over Alabama and Texas A&M.
But the football program has consistently led the nation in revenue generation since at least 2017. Football accounted for more than a quarter (26.3%) of Texas’ operating expenses for the 2022-23 school year, at $61,042,363, ranking 11th in the country.
Of course, the University of Texas famously celebrated joining the SEC with a lavish $2.3 million party on campus featuring music superstar Pit Bull, and the Longhorns had been a member of the Big 12 Conference since its inception in 1994 until this summer.