Recent logic in football says running backs aren’t worth overpaying. But an older adage still applies: value is whatever someone will pay.
Enter Jadan Baugh, the star Florida running back who announced his return to the Gators on Tuesday morning via social media. Multiple sources indicate Baugh will receive at least $1 million for his services in Gainesville, a further indication that the running back market has exploded across college football.
In 2024, CBS Sports did analysis of the market at each position with the range for running backs between $200,000-$300,000. At the time, Ohio State’s Quinshon Judkins was on the high end making, according to a source, around $650,000. Now the high end is into the seven figures at the position.
“Who are the agents telling kids that a reasonable ask? Surely it can’t be anyone with a frontal lobe?” One industry source responded to the seven-figure ceiling number.
One Big Ten general manager told CBS Sports: “The running back numbers have been absolutely stupid. They don’t make any sense.”
While the average, according to industry sources, is $400,000 to $700,000 at the position this year, that signals that the price has risen in the revenue sharing era overall. Kewan Lacy decided Tuesday to stay with Ole Miss rather than follow Lane Kiffin to LSU and his price point will be significantly higher than Baugh’s, an indicator of the even more desperate battle the Rebels and Kiffin are up to.
It may strike fans as odd as the emphasis on running backs has been lessened at the professional level, but college football operates a little differently with a running back having more of an outsized impact on an offense’s success, and there’s no worry about the spectre of a player turning 30 and falling off a cliff production wise. If Baugh were to enter the portal, it is expected he would be one of, if not the highest ranked player at the position in the 247Sports transfer portal rankings and likely a top 10 player overall, according to transfer portal analyst Cooper Petagna.
The stakes are high around Baugh, who rushed for 1,170 yards last season. There is a level of legitimacy within the fanbase that retaining Baugh gives new coach Jon Sumrall, who is under scrutiny because he is the second Group of Five coach at Florida, right or wrong. And there is an implicit level of seriousness involved with the concept of stepping up to pay a star player. Baugh is a symbol of that for Florida in 2026, and Sumrall and his staff know that well.
Baugh was the SEC’s third-leading rusher last year, and the lasting memory Florida fans have of him is running for a rivalry game record 266 yards against Florida State at home to end the season. Florida fans also remember in 2023, when promising running back Trevor Etienne left in the portal to go to their other hated rival, Georgia.
The Dawgs weren’t the Gators key challenger for Baugh’s services, though. That title belonged to running back-hungry Texas.
For the Longhorns and specifically new running backs coach Jabbar Juluke, Baugh was a high priority in what is likely the Longhorns’ final season with Arch Manning. Texashas serious aspirations at the school’s first national championship in 20 years.
Four Texas running backs are in the portal, including three of its top-four backs in terms of carries. It was an industry assumption when Juluke came over from Florida that Baugh would be following as the post-Billy Napier exits piled up. Texas wants multiple running backs in the portal and has contingency plans after missing out on Baugh, but none will be as good (or, albeit, as expensive).
What the market around Baugh indicates is that the market for player compensation continues to mature rapidly. The sticker shock exists, but it’s the price of doing business in today’s college football.
