Florida’s NIL position has been a constant topic of conversation ever since NIL became the way of the land. The Gators have been able to land notable talent over the past few years, but have seemingly lagged behind some of the big dogs when it comes to writing checks.
Scott Stricklin, this week, laid out Florida’s standing in the NIL space and essentially confirmed the vibes of where it seems the Gators are in the NIL world.
Scott Stricklin lays out Florida’s NIL position
Appearing on the Gator Nation Football Podcast, Stricklin was asked about Florida’s NIL standing and whether Florida could be a top-five player in this space. Stricklin essentially admitted that Florida is not at that level:
“It's hard to say. We're not close to (being top five) now, to be quite honest with you. And I hear a lot of numbers, and then I have conversations with people.
I may have some of our staff say, “State College U here has got $45,000,000.” I happen to know people say College U that I have that trust, and turns out that they're actually behind us or, you know, similar to us.
So, I think we're in a very competitive spot.”
Based on the players Florida has and hasn’t landed over the years, this tracks. Florida hasn’t been “poor” and has assembled a talented roster over the past few years. But it has also seemed clear that Florida hasn’t been interested in bidding wars, and that is part of the reason they haven’t landed many of the “big fish” in the transfer portal.
For what it is worth, Yahoo Sports estimated that Florida was 11th in the country in NIL budget for the 2026 transfer portal.
As Stricklin would later go on to point out, spending NIL money for the sake of spending money doesn’t automatically lead to success, as Kentucky Basketball or LSU Baseball fans can attest to. And while Indiana Football certainly has had a boost in NIL, they were far from the top spender for 2025 and still won the national title.
The perception problem Florida has had at times in the NIL era is that Florida has postured like it is one of the big dogs, when it was clear they were not. Most notably, part of the justification for keeping Billy Napier after the 2024 season is that Florida was going to be “aggressive” in the transfer portal, and “sources” made sure to run to insiders to tell them as much. The Gators then proceeded to largely sit on their hands during the transfer portal, and almost no money ended up getting spent.
We will state that Jon Sumrall seems to have a decent-sized pot to work with to open his tenure as he was able to retain every key player on the roster whom he wanted to retain (AKA, not DJ Lagway), and he has landed 16 blue-chip prospects for his class of 2027, the most in the country. The real test of Florida’s NIL standing is going to be whether or not it can flip with Easton Royal or Jalen Brewster, both of whom are being pursued by schools that, on paper, have deeper pockets than Florida.
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