I mean a few guys making $1M isn't crazy.
... But probably Cause thats vet min in the NFL, and the rosters in CFB are 2.5x larger than the NFL.. **** Practice Squad for the year only gets you paid <$250k.
And it may be a $10B/yr industry, but each program isn't making that. The VERY TOP programs are making $150-$180M (oregon-ohio st). The Bottom P4 programs are making closer to $60M/yr in revenue. ... The NFL is a $23B industry and only has 32 teams. Teams bring in about $500M (like Bengals)-$1.2B (like Cowboys) in revenue... And like legit 100% of your neccessary yearly expenses are covered as a CFB player.
If you wanted to think of it compared to the NFL Multiply everything by 6x for like the top 10 spenders, and closer to 10x for the bottom of the P4 spenders. Thats the difference in pay between what you'd expect from CFB programs to NFL 6-10x. Then you gotta factor in roster size... NFL WR room is usually 5 or 6 guys. CFB is like 11. So naturally the top contracts must be less, because you got similar positions to pay. So instead of it being like a 6-10x multiplier, it shoudl be like 10-15x... So like a WR making $1.8M is more equivalent to a NFL player making $18-$27M/yr effectively...