The 25 most powerful people in college football: Who is too high and too low?
Matt Hayes of USA Today joined in before the snap to explain why Greg Sankey and Tony Petitti are too expensive among the 25 most powerful people in the CFB.
Who are the most powerful people in college football? The USA Today Sports Network decided to understand that.
Our panel of experts has spent hours debating and debating the topic and settled into the top 25 that enters the 2025 season.
Names like Sankey, Big Ten Tony Pettitty, Colorado manager Dion Sanders and retired coach Nick Saban are familiar to college football fans, while others like Jimmy Sexton, Cole Gahagan and Dave Brown have a tremendous upset behind the scenes. And like President Donald Trump, some members of this exclusive club may surprise you.
Our network’s expert panel that determined this ranking includes National College Football writers Matt Hayes and Blaketop Meyer, USA Today writers Paul Meyerberg and Brent Schlotenbour, former USA Today sports columnist Dan Walken, and beat writers Frank Bodany (Pennsylvania), Scott Wright (Oklahoma), Mark Weyjeser (Oklahoma), and Mark Weyjeser (Oklahoma). Editors Eric Smith, Andrew Burkle and Tommy Diaz helped shape the debate.
We present the top 25 most powerful people in college football, with the 2025 season underway.
1. Greg Sankey, SEC Commissioner
Why he’s on the list: Sankey blends the credibility he gained from a career working in college track and field with the unparalleled tribute to Gravitas that accompanied the “Super 2” conference, which has accumulated from leading college football throughout the pandemic season and has immersed a strong brand.
2. Burke Magnus, President of ESPN, Content
Why he’s on the list: He oversees live content, studio shows and journalism for companies that pay billions of dollars to league partners for the right to air games, including college football playoffs and postseason bowl games. His company controls much of what you see and learns about the game.
3. Tony Pettitty, Big Ten committee member
Why he’s on the list: Petitti leads the wealthiest conference in college football. However, his power and influence are not entirely in shaping and leading the sport with SEC’s Greg Sankey.
4. Mark Silverman, President of Fox Sports, COO
Why he’s on the list: He oversees live events, studio programming, production, marketing and digital for Fox Sports, a television partner at Big Ten Conference. His company funded the Big Ten expansion, and was the owner of 61% of the Big Ten network and previously served as president.
5. Steve Berman/Jeffrey Kessler, Antitrust Attorney
Why they are on the list: They are the landmark case Housev. He is the lead lawyer who helped dismantle the NCAA’s amateurism model in class actions, including the NCAA. For their work, the school is currently paying players for names, images and portraits. They are in a position to promote player rights.
6. Claudia Wilken, Federal Jews
Why she’s on the list: Wilken approved a massive $2.8 billion residential settlement that paved the way for the current era of university sports, allowing schools to directly refund student athletes. Just a decade ago, Wilken took the lead side of Ovannon vs. NCAA and ruled that the ban on athletes was compensated for their rights representing illegal restraints.
7. Pete Bebaqua, Director of Athletics at Notre Dame
Why he’s on the list: Notre Dame remains one of the biggest brands in college football, and Bebakua’s impact on sports is consistent with it. Notre Dame’s value on national landscapes gives the table valuable seating at a table with major conferences and television networks when the future of sports is being molded.
8. Brett Yomark, Big 12 Commissioner
Why he’s on the list: His meetings do not have the weight of Big Ten or seconds, but his innovative approach to leading Yomark’s meetings and generating revenue streams has strengthened his influence. His aggressive style and business background have made the Big 12 more relevant in the evolving college football environment.
9. Rick Kordera, president of NBC Sports
Why he’s on the list: NBC Sports’ first president since September 2023 oversees the Big Ten Saturday Night package, which brought Notre Dame’s first regular season game since 1959 to the network.
10. Jimmy Sexton, Coach’s Agent
Why he’s on the list: Sexton represents the cavalry of prominent coaches. Clients include Kirby Smart (Georgia), Steve Salkisian (Texas), and Karende Boer (Alabama). No agent has facilitated the rise in coaching salaries and acquisitions, and the emergence of fully guaranteed contracts than Sexton.
11. Donald Trump, US President
Why he’s on the list: Trump has involved the federal government to focus on college sports police, Big Money College football. It seems like a difficult bureaucratic lift. Does his actions prove that he will create a presidential committee on university sports and sign an executive order to reform it – more symbolic than changing policies?
12. Jim Phillips, ACC Commissioner
Why he’s on the list: As the future of Power-Conference College Football evolves, Phillips is in an impact. He offers another influential voice, especially in the college football playoffs, in the fight for fair and equal treatment of the moving Power Council.
13. Mark Keenum, Mississippi State Speaker
Why he’s on the list: Keenum is an 11-person group consisting of the president and prime minister of the college football playoffs, president of the board of managers and who holds authority over all aspects of playoff operations. Keenum has been Mississippi president since 2009 and has previously served as president of the SEC and leader of the league’s executive committee.
14. Cody Campbell, Texas Technology Booster and Regent Committee Chair
Why he’s on the list: He changes paradigms at both ends. He will continue to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on Texas tech sports, earning significant benefits in soccer and softball. He is also the point man for President Trump, where the White House is pushing for university sports reform.
15. Cole Gahagan, CEO of Learfield
Why he’s on the list: Founded as a farm radio network, Leafield has transformed into a leading player in the university sports business that serves as a conduit for a variety of transactions, from stadium naming to media rights to engineering over $140 million in the 2025 NIL sponsorship agreement.
16. Dave Brown, founder and president of Gridiron
Why he’s on the list: Brown’s Company offers the go-to software for scheduling college football. Gridiron serves as a matchmaker platform where schools can connect with potential enemies to potential enemies according to their scheduling needs. If you’re watching non-meeting games, there’s a good chance that grid irons will help you procure matchups.
17. TexasAthletics Director, Chris del Conte
Why he’s on the list: It oversees the division that generated total operating revenue nationwide in 2024 for $331.9 million and oversees operating expenses of $325 million. He helped him lead Texas and helped him go to the SEC, where he began league play in 2024.
18. Nick Savan, retired ESPN analyst and coach
Why he’s on the list: Even after leaving the bystander, Saban continues to be a visible presence on ESPN’s College Game Day and a voice that resonates with the entire sport. President Donald Trump spoke during his Alabama Spring graduation and met him when he relied on him to coach the changing landscape of college athletics.
19. ChadChatlos, Managing Director of Turnkey ZRG Search Company
Why is he on the list: ZRG is the most respected search company in college sports, and Chatlos searches some of the top football jobs, including Texas, Oklahoma, Michigan, and Ole Miss.
20. TedCruz, US Senator, R-Texas
Why he’s on the list: Cruz, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, is the face of Congress’s efforts to reform university athletics. Cruz has worked on issues with largely bipartisan support within his own parties and across the aisles, and has had great influence in the university field.
twenty one. Colorado coach Deion Sanders
Why is he on the list: He is the most attractive audience in sports where the eyeball is the currency of the territory. His great reliance on the transfer portal has affected recruitment nationwide. His success has opened the doors wider for former black athletes to become college coaches.
twenty two. Brian Sealy, CEO of College Sports Committee
Why is he on the list: Potential. Because while his organization oversees the transaction, it is easy to leave it to the frontman for the most powerful president and prime minister of the SEC and Big Ten, there are many unknowns in the position of a framework to become a “emperor” in college football.
twenty three. Shannon Terry, founder of ON3 Sports, 247 Sports and Rivals
Why is he on the list: His ON3 brand, a visionary in the multimedia world of content offering, has now become a reputation for NIL, the industry standard. Previous companies (rivals, 247Sports) are trendsetters in recruitment scope, used by many FBS and FCS coaching staff.
twenty four. Georgia Kobe Coach
Why is it on the list: Entering his 10th season, the former Alabama defensive coordinator has won at a Saban-like level, and he appears to be the mainstay in competing for the national title. Co-chairs the NCAA Football Rules Committee and is not shy to express his views on the issues of the day beyond national landscapes like the Transfer Portal Window.
twenty five. KIRKHERBSTREIT, ESPN Personality
Why he’s on the list: Herbstreit, an ESPN college football fixture since 1996, is the anchor of college Gameday and undoubtedly a sports outstanding television analyst. His nationwide cache (including his popular golden retriever) was driven by his pointy commentary on the sport and social media interaction with fans.
Brent Schrotenboer, Paul Myerberg, Matt Hayes, Blake Toppmeyer, Marc Weiszer, Scott Wright and Frank Bodani all contributed to the biography.
(This story has been updated to add videos.)
