The same players that ESPN analysts call "X-factors" — the ones who swing championships, fill stadiums, and drive ad revenue — are the only people in the college sports supply chain who don't get a guaranteed cut of the billions they generate.
KABC-TV, citing ESPN's preseason Top 25, identified the specific players most likely to determine whether powerhouse programs succeed or disappoint in 2026: wide receiver Chris Henry Jr. at Ohio State, safety Koi Perich at Oregon, receiver Talyn Taylor at Georgia, and Notre Dame's entire receiving corps among them. The framing is telling. These athletes are described as variables, pieces, tools — "Henry has the tools to become a dangerous downfield and red zone weapon," "it remains to be seen how the Ducks will fully utilize Perich." Utilize. The language of capital deploying labor.
And the money at stake is staggering. Ohio State's athletic department reported over $280 million in revenue in its most recent fiscal year. Georgia and Oregon aren't far behind. The Big Ten's new media deal is worth roughly $1 billion annually. Notre Dame stands alone with its own NBC contract worth tens of millions per year. The administrators who negotiated those deals collect six- and seven-figure bonuses. The players who actually deliver the product — the "X-factors" without whom there is no product — get whatever name, image, and likeness deal they can scrape together on the open market, with no minimum guarantee and no union backing.
The Fort Collins Coloradoan, meanwhile, ran a poll spotlighting ten local products projected to make an impact this fall — from Mikey Munn, the former Windsor standout who transferred from South Dakota to Rutgers after earning second-team FCS All-American honors, to Marcus Mozer, the Fossil Ridge three-star recruit who transferred closer to home at Northern Colorado after a year at San Diego State without seeing the field. The Coloradoan's coverage, partnered with Blue Federal Credit Union, framed these athletes as hometown pride stories. What it didn't frame is the economics: Munn now competes in the Big Ten, a conference distributing roughly $60 million per school annually in media rights alone, while he shoulders the risk of injury with no guaranteed compensation beyond his NIL arrangements.
Newsweek covered the professional side of the equation — the Miami Heat acquiring Giannis Antetokounmpo as their 2026 "X-factor" — and the contrast is instructive. In the NBA, the superstar who determines a franchise's fortunes signs a contract worth hundreds of millions. In college, the equivalent player is called an "X-factor" and paid in exposure.
Name, image, and likeness was supposed to fix this. It hasn't. NIL deals are marketplace negotiations, not structural guarantees. A five-star like Taylor who catches two balls in limited play — as KABC-TV noted of his 2025 season — sees his earning power crater while Georgia's athletic department keeps cashing checks. A freshman like Henry Jr. could tear an ACL on his first route and walk away with whatever he'd negotiated up front. The university's revenue doesn't skip a beat.
The college sports industrial complex isn't broken. It's working exactly as designed — for everyone except the workers on the field.
The open question is how long the players who are called "X-factors" will accept being treated as X's that someone else profits from.
