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Friday’s Peach Bowl pitting Indiana against Oregon might be a glimpse of college football’s future.
The College Football Playoff semifinal will feature two teams backed by their school’s wealthiest alumni, while ADs and coaches across the country try to find one of their own.
In some ways, the game is a battle between the old alumni guard and the new. Nike founder Phil Knight has been supporting Oregon for decades and has helped turn the Ducks into a national powerhouse providing top-notch gear, uniforms, and facilities over the years.
But since NIL became legal in 2021, Knight, who graduated from UO in 1959 where he ran track and is worth more than $31 billion, according to Forbes, has raised his donations to another level. The Ducks’ team salary has been a source of intrigue in college sports the past few years. Oregon’s 2024 roster reportedly cost the Ducks $23 million, according to Washington’s AD.
Knight’s spending has made the Ducks the envy of college football, with other coaches openly jealous of Oregon coach Dan Lanning and his extensive resources.
Before Oklahoma State’s 69–3 blowout loss to Oregon in September, then-coach Mike Gundy claimed the Ducks actually spent $40 million on their roster and argued it should impact scheduling.
“What I hear, chatter from coaches around the country, is that non-conference scheduling—and I never thought anybody would ever say this—should be based on the financial situation for each school,” Gundy said. “Oregon is paying a lot, a lot of money for their team. So from a non-conference standpoint, there are coaches saying they should play teams that are spending the same amount of money.”
In 2024, Georgia coach Kirby Smart said of Knight: “I wish I could get some of that NIL money he’s giving Dan Lanning.”
Lanning has come to the defense of Knight each time. “I think it’s impressive that guys like Kirby have been signing the No. 1 class in the nation without any NIL money this entire time,” Lanning said on The Pat McAfee Show in July 2024.
“If you want to be a top-10 team in college football, you better be invested in winning,” Lanning said. “We spend to win. Some people save to have an excuse for why they don’t. … I can’t speak on their situation; I have no idea what they got in their pockets over there.”
Mark Cuban, meanwhile, had never donated to Indiana athletics before Curt Cignetti started coaching there in 2024.
The 1981 IU graduate, who is worth $6 billion, according to Forbes, had given millions of dollars over the years to initiatives such as a sports media technology center and the rugby club, but connected with Cignetti over their shared Pittsburgh roots.
“I’m all in on IU, and coach Cig,” Cuban wrote to The Indianapolis Star in October.
Cuban, who is a minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, donated to Indiana’s athletic department a year ago, after Cignetti led the Hoosiers to an 11–2 record in his first season that ended in the College Football Playoff.
The Hoosiers are going into Friday’s game 14–0. Cuban told Front Office Sports on Tuesday he recently sent IU an even bigger donation, without specifying how much.
“Already committed for this portal,” Cuban wrote in an email to FOS. “Let’s just say they are happier this year than last year.”
Indiana previously beat Oregon 30–20 on Oct. 11, and neither program has ever won a national championship, despite Knight’s money.
Knight has turned the Ducks into a college football powerhouse, while Cignetti has laid the foundation for the Hoosiers to do the same. Now, college sports will be watching to see whether Cuban can get them there, too.
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