Money is the need of the hour in college football. To get the best players, programs will have to break their banks; there were rumors of the Texas Longhorns spending $40 million on their roster last season. But according to Michigan head coach Kyle Whittingham, managing a roster might cross that number in the immediate future.

According to On3, Kyle Whittingham figures it might take $50 million to secure a good team roster by 2027. Teams are nearly there anyway, like Ohio State spending 20 million on theirs last year. But the Wolverines’ head coach figured that only 12-15 schools in the country will be able to spend such a hefty amount.

“There are a few schools that can weather that, but not many,” he said. “So it’s already unsustainable for most schools and is only going to get more so until we come up with a model that provides some guardrails and works for everyone.”

Michigan has already made its mark in the NIL scene, so that’s one job that Whittingham can strike off his list. The program ruined LSU’s plans by offering Bryce Underwood a reported $12 million to flip from there. That’s more than half of the $20 million Ohio State spent. The Wolverines’ NIL collective, called the Champions Circle, has consistently been among the biggest spenders in the country. They have to be.

Elite players like Jackson Cantwell have big contracts with their programs despite not having played a single snap in college football. And if one is not getting the money they’d wanted, programs can lose players through the transfer portal. This year alone has enough examples to back it up. LSU and Texas Tech have built very strong classes in the portal this year, thanks to the money they were offering to players.

As much as college football teams with better resources would love to continue doing so, this does not make for a level playing field. Going heavy on NIL has made recruitment a very volatile arena for head coaches, where they have to enter cutthroat battles to keep their players with them. That is why Whittingham and all other coaches have been asking for more guardrails. The NCAA has tried and failed, with the SCORE Act collapsing before a vote in Congress. But Donald Trump himself has taken up the charge to address this issue. He’s a big fan of wanting to go back to the old days of college sports, where money was not so much of a priority.

However, money talks. Players stand to make more in one season of college football than they will as a rookie in the NFL, especially if they are picked in the lower rounds. Former Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia’s eligibility lawsuit has been a game-changer not only because it fought redshirt norms, but also because he accused the NCAA of violating antitrust laws. If Pavia were not able to play the 2025 season, he wouldn’t be able to use the opportunity to make use of his NIL and earn some cash. Now signed as a UDFA by the Baltimore Ravens, he is making nearly a million less than what he did last year.

But until more rules are enforced in this area, Michigan will have to keep up with the trend. Kyle Whittingham has quietly built a promising front office that seems capable of bouncing back and spending big to get the best players.

How Kyle Whittingham is retooling Michigan’s strategy

Kyle Whittingham got more experienced players to support his NIL front. He hired Berj Najarian as assistant general manager of strategy, who has worked closely with Bill Belichick in the NFL. Then there’s Dave Peloquin, who leads the overall operation, bringing experience from NIL work and 21 years at Notre Dame.

Whittingham also hired Skylar Phan from USC, who helped build the No. 1 recruiting class in 2026. Also in the fold is Chris Pettit, a long-time NFL scout who will now help identify the top talents for the Wolverines. Michigan’s 2027 class currently has six commits, but it is among the Top 20 in the country. That’s a commendable fact for a staff that has been almost completely overhauled in this offseason.

Kyle Whittingham might have been seen as an outlier of a coach when he was hired at Michigan. But all those years of experience are faring well for the program, which is adapting itself to match the pace of other schools in college football. With time, the Wolverines can grow to control the narrative like Ohio State, Oregon, and Miami do.