The Big Ten's Most Valuable Transfers of 2026: What Each Move Is Worth

Updated 2026-07-30

The defending national champions lost their quarterback and most of their edge room, so Indiana went shopping. The Hoosiers left the 2026 portal cycle with the Big Ten's most expensive transfer and two of its priciest defenders, and they were not alone. Oregon restocked four spots on this list by itself.

These are the highest-valued players suiting up for a new Big Ten program in 2026, ranked by their current valuation in our database. Ranges are shown here; each player's page has the exact figure and the full breakdown. Valuations blend published figures from services such as On3 and The NIL Standard with our own modeled estimates, and only deals noted as reported reflect actual published dollar amounts.

The top 14 Big Ten transfers by NIL value

1. Josh Hoover, quarterback, TCU to Indiana. Range: $2 million to $3 million. Hoover threw for 3,472 yards and 29 touchdowns at TCU in 2025 and enters the season as the active FBS leader in career passing yards and touchdowns. His Indiana deal was widely reported at seven figures, one of the few transfer contracts of the cycle with a published number.
2. Rocco Becht, quarterback, Iowa State to Penn State. Range: $1.7 million to $2.3 million. Becht started four seasons in Ames and followed Matt Campbell east within weeks of Campbell taking the Penn State job. He is the centerpiece of the largest coach-driven roster migration of the cycle.
3. Chiddi Obiazor, edge rusher, Kansas State to Indiana. Range: $1.3 million to $1.7 million. An honorable mention All-Big 12 pick, Obiazor is half of the Kansas State edge pair Indiana imported to replace Mikail Kamara.
4. Tobi Osunsanmi, edge rusher, Kansas State to Indiana. Range: $1.3 million to $1.7 million. The other half. Osunsanmi rates as the Hoosiers' highest-graded defensive addition of the cycle and is competing for the starting Stud role.
5. Dylan Raiola, quarterback, Nebraska to Oregon. Range: $1.1 million to $1.5 million. A two-year starter in Lincoln, Raiola arrives in Eugene as the veteran in the quarterback room and still carries one of the sport's most recognizable NIL portfolios, with past national deals including adidas and EA Sports.
6. John Henry Daley, edge rusher, Utah to Michigan. Range: $1 million to $1.4 million. Daley followed Kyle Whittingham to Ann Arbor after a first-team Walter Camp All-America season: 17.5 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks in 11 games.
7. Michael Bennett III, offensive tackle, Yale to Oregon. Range: $1 million to $1.4 million. A first-team All-Ivy pick who allowed two sacks on 839 snaps in 2025, Bennett is the rare FCS-to-power jump that projects as a day-one starter.
8. Koi Perich, safety, Minnesota to Oregon. Range: $950,000 to $1.25 million. Rated the top safety in the portal after piling up 128 tackles and multiple all-conference honors in two Minnesota seasons.
9. Anthony Colandrea, quarterback, UNLV to Nebraska. Range: $950,000 to $1.25 million. The 2025 Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year threw for 3,459 yards on a nine-win UNLV team. Nebraska hired him to replace the man one spot above him on this list.
10. James Smith, defensive lineman, Alabama to Ohio State. Range: $925,000 to $1.25 million. A former five-star, Smith is expected to anchor the interior for the Buckeyes.
11. Iverson Hooks, wide receiver, UAB to Oregon. Range: $900,000 to $1.2 million. Hooks caught 72 passes for 927 yards and seven scores at UAB and slots in at slot receiver for the Ducks.
12. Sahir West, edge rusher, James Madison to UCLA. Range: $875,000 to $1.2 million. The Sun Belt Freshman of the Year posted 14 tackles for loss and seven sacks in 2025, then followed Bob Chesney west. He is the headline addition of UCLA's rebuild.
13. Aiden Gobaira, edge rusher, James Madison to UCLA. Range: $875,000 to $1.2 million. A former Notre Dame signee and third-team All-Sun Belt pick, Gobaira projects to start opposite West, giving UCLA both edges from one JMU pipeline.
14. Chase Sowell, wide receiver, Iowa State to Penn State. Range: $775,000 to $1.05 million. Sowell is on his fourth school after Colorado and East Carolina, and he followed Campbell and Becht from Ames to State College.

Two programs did not rebuild, they relocated

Becht and Sowell are two names out of roughly two dozen. When Matt Campbell left Iowa State for Penn State, he brought a sizable share of his roster with him, and the Nittany Lions now list more than 20 players whose previous school was Iowa State.

UCLA ran the same play from a different level. New head coach Bob Chesney arrived from James Madison with roughly 40 portal additions, about 10 of them former Dukes, and West and Gobaira now project as both starting edge rushers. Programs have always poached individual players. Moving a functioning defensive front, or most of a depth chart, in a single offseason is new.

The Raiola-Colandrea trade that wasn't

No two moves explain the modern portal better than Nebraska and its quarterback room. Raiola left Lincoln for Oregon, and Nebraska replaced him within weeks by signing Colandrea away from UNLV. Two starting-caliber quarterbacks, two seven-figure valuations, zero high school recruiting involved.

Two names deliberately missing. Washington's Demond Williams Jr. entered the portal in December and then agreed to return to the Huskies on one of the largest reported packages in the sport. He never changed schools. And UCLA's Nico Iamaleava, the most valuable quarterback in the conference at a reported seven figures, made his move from Tennessee in the spring of 2025, not this cycle. He stayed in Westwood after Chesney was hired, so 2026 is his second season as a Bruin. Both pages tell those stories.

Look up the exact numbers

Every player above has a profile with his current valuation and range. Browse the full database or run any player through the calculator.

Ranges reflect current valuations in our database as of late July 2026. They are estimates of 12 month earning potential, not confirmed salaries or contract amounts.

Sources

• On3 NIL Valuations
• On3 Transfer Portal rankings
• The NIL Standard team valuations