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Rules·NIL Budget Penalties
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DOGHOUSE · Rule Book

NIL Budget Penalties

2 rules

Your recruiting budget is your program's Dynasty-Points (DP) total from the in-game recruiting page — you enter it yourself on My Hub in the Legacy Manager app. This is the authoritative number: it already accounts for graduating seniors, players who leave, and recruits charged to next season, which a fixed tier formula can't. Keep it up to date as your DP changes.

The tier table below is only a fallback for programs without a DP figure (older NCAA-25/26 seasons). Season 12 and earlier are unchanged — the tier figures do not apply retroactively.

Tier Annual NIL Budget (fallback) DP (◆)
5.0 — Blue Blood $44M 11,000
4.5 — National Power $38M 9,500
4.0 — Conference Elite $33M 8,250
3.5 — Playoff Contender $29M 7,250
3.0 — Bowl Regular $26M 6,500
2.5 — Rebuilding Project $20M 5,000
2.0 — G5 Championship $16M 4,000
1.5 — Mid-Major $12M 3,000
1.0 — Cellar Dweller $8M 2,000

DP (◆) = CFB27 Dynasty Points at the locked $4,000/DP rate.

Budgets rose to reflect higher recruiting, portal, and retention costs. Note: player retention is charged against the following season's budget (see Player Retention), so retained stars reduce next year's room.

Any team that finishes the season over their NIL budget will face a stacked set of penalties applied to the following season. These penalties compound — they are not alternatives.

Penalties applied next season:

  • 25% deduction from next season's total NIL budget
  • Additional deduction equal to the highest-paid incoming player's NIL value
  • Highest-rated incoming recruit nerfed to 30 OVR
  • −12 USDA Legacy Points (LP)

These penalties are non-negotiable. The NIL system is a hard cap, not a soft target — finishing over budget is a failure of roster management, and the penalties are designed to make it materially worse to overspend than to walk away from a target.