All sixteen projected SEC starting quarterbacks, scored on four published components: Performance at 35%, NIL Visibility at 20%, Social Power at 20%, Fan Demand at 25%.
Trinidad Chambliss is ranked first in The Athletic’s survey of roughly three dozen coaches, general managers, personnel directors and scouts. He led the SEC in passing yards. He is sixth here. Byrum Brown, nineteenth in that survey, is first. Their Performance components are one point apart, and thirteen of these sixteen quarterbacks sit on the same number in the column that separates them.
The board
| # | Quarterback | School | NIL Index | Perf | Vis | Social | Fan | Expert |
| 1 | Byrum Brown | Auburn | 62.2 | 58 | 67 | 74 | 55 | 19 |
| 2 | Arch Manning | Texas | 60.2 | 58 | 88 | 92 | 15 | 7 |
| 3 | Marcel Reed | Texas A&M | 55.7 | 58 | 88 | 82 | 5 | 13 |
| 4 | LaNorris Sellers | South Carolina | 54.8 | 55 | 93 | 79 | 5 | n/a |
| 5 | Gunner Stockton | Georgia | 54.8 | 55 | 90 | 82 | 5 | 11 |
| 6 | Trinidad Chambliss | Ole Miss | 53.9 | 57 | 82 | 81 | 5 | 1 |
| 7 | Sam Leavitt | LSU | 53.1 | 58 | 67 | 78 | 15 | 8 |
| 8 | John Mateer | Oklahoma | 52.8 | 55 | 80 | 81 | 5 | n/a |
| 9 | Keelon Russell | Alabama | 35.4 | 4 | 88 | 75 | 5 | n/a |
| 10 | Austin Simmons | Missouri | 35.1 | 19 | 61 | 76 | 5 | n/a |
| 11 | Kamario Taylor | Mississippi State | 34.4 | 23 | 60 | 66 | 5 | n/a |
| 12 | Faizon Brandon | Tennessee | 29.2 | 0 | 67 | 72 | 5 | n/a |
| 13 | KJ Jackson | Arkansas | 28.8 | 10 | 57 | 63 | 5 | n/a |
| 14 | Aaron Philo | Florida | 27.3 | 13 | 44 | 64 | 5 | n/a |
| 15 | Kenny Minchey | Kentucky | 24.0 | 9 | 42 | 56 | 5 | n/a |
| 16 | Blaze Berlowitz or Jared Curtis | Vanderbilt | 18.0 | 11 | 18 | 47 | 5 | n/a |
Every projected and named SEC starting quarterback for 2026, ordered by NIL Index. Vanderbilt is the one job still open; Blaze Berlowitz is the projected starter and Jared Curtis scores 24.0 against his 18.0. Figures are live as of 2 September. Expert rank is The Athletic’s 2026 College QB Tiers, across all 138 projected FBS starters. The national quarterback board runs the same components across every conference.
| Component | Weight | What it measures |
| Performance | 35% | Stats, efficiency, team success |
| NIL Visibility | 20% | Estimated value, brands, exposure |
| Social Power | 20% | Followers, engagement, momentum |
| Fan Demand | 25% | RallyFuel searches, views, fuels |
Sellers and Stockton are level at 54.8 and are listed alphabetically by school.
1. The scouts rank him first. This board has him sixth.
Trinidad Chambliss is ranked first by the coaches and scouts. He threw for 3,937 yards and led the SEC. He is sixth on this board.
Set him against Byrum Brown, first here and nineteenth there.
| Brown over Chambliss | Raw gap | Weighted |
| Performance | +1 | +0.35 |
| NIL Visibility | -15 | -3.00 |
| Social Power | -7 | -1.40 |
| Fan Demand | +50 | +12.50 |
Chambliss wins both columns that measure recognition, by 4.4 points of composite combined. He is one point behind on football. He loses by 8.3.
One column does all of it. Brown has 55 in Fan Demand. Chambliss has 5.
It is not that nobody has noticed him. He signed with Nike in July, and Ole Miss printed yard signs for a Heisman campaign in his name. His Visibility of 82 reflects it.
What has not happened is the other thing. Nobody has fueled Trinidad Chambliss. Not one fan, at any school, for any amount. The Rebels’ NIL machinery is not short of money or attention. It is short of the one input that comes from outside the sport.
2. First on the board, tenth in both audience columns
Byrum Brown leads the SEC at 62.2. Here is where his four components actually rank among these sixteen quarterbacks.
| Component | Brown | Rank |
| Performance | 58 | joint 1st |
| NIL Visibility | 67 | 10th |
| Social Power | 74 | 10th |
| Fan Demand | 55 | 1st |
Tenth and tenth. Seven quarterbacks on this board are more visible than the one leading it, and nine have more social reach. Marcel Reed beats him by 21 points of Visibility and eight of Social Power and finishes 6.5 behind.
Arch Manning is the extreme version. His Visibility of 88 and Social Power of 92 are worth 7.8 points of composite against Brown. He gives back 10 in Fan Demand and finishes second by two, with identical Performance.
Across the eight quarterbacks who started a full season, Performance spans three points, 55 to 58, worth 1.05 of composite. Fan Demand across all sixteen spans 5 to 55, worth 12.5. The column that measures throwing a football is the smallest lever on this board by a factor of twelve.
3. Two pairs, holding two columns still
Two pairs on this board share a Performance component and a Visibility component. That leaves only Social Power and Fan Demand to explain the difference between them, and it makes the arithmetic legible.
Arch Manning and Marcel Reed both score 58 on Performance and 88 on Visibility.
| Manning over Reed | Raw | Weighted |
| Social Power | +10 | +2.00 |
| Fan Demand | +10 | +2.50 |
Four and a half points, and Manning beats Reed by exactly 4.5. Ten points of social reach and ten points of fan interest, and the fan column is worth more than the social one.
Byrum Brown and Sam Leavitt both score 58 on Performance and 67 on Visibility.
| Brown over Leavitt | Raw | Weighted |
| Social Power | -4 | -0.80 |
| Fan Demand | +40 | +10.00 |
Brown trails Leavitt on Social Power. He wins by 9.1, and every point of it comes from a column neither a brand nor an athletic department controls.
4. The eight who have barely played
Keelon Russell has thrown for 143 yards in his college career. His Performance component is 4. His NIL Visibility is 88, level with Arch Manning and Marcel Reed, who threw for more than three thousand yards apiece last season.
Vanderbilt’s Blaze Berlowitz has thrown for 131. Twelve yards fewer, and his Performance component is the higher of the two at 11. Russell beats him by 17.4 points on a Visibility of 88 against 18, the widest gap in any component anywhere on this board.
The clearest version is at one school. Vanderbilt has not settled its job, and Jared Curtis, the freshman competing with Berlowitz, scores 24.0 against his 18.0. Curtis has never taken a college snap, his Performance is 0, and his Fan Demand is 0, the only zero here. He is six points ahead anyway, on Visibility of 50 to 18 and Social Power of 70 to 47.
Same school, same job, same offseason. The quarterback who has not played outscores the one who has.
| Performance | NIL Visibility | NIL Index | |
| Keelon Russell | 4 | 88 | 35.4 |
| Austin Simmons | 19 | 61 | 35.1 |
| Kamario Taylor | 23 | 60 | 34.4 |
| Faizon Brandon | 0 | 67 | 29.2 |
| KJ Jackson | 10 | 57 | 28.8 |
| Aaron Philo | 13 | 44 | 27.3 |
| Kenny Minchey | 9 | 42 | 24.0 |
| Blaze Berlowitz | 11 | 18 | 18.0 |
Sort that group by Performance and you get one order. Sort it by NIL Index and you get close to the reverse. We watched the same thing happen on the receiver board. Attention arrives first.
Three calls for 2026
Trinidad Chambliss finishes top three. Currently 53.9, sixth. Projected above 57. His Visibility of 82 and Social Power of 81 already beat four of the five ahead of him. What he lacks is Fan Demand, and Ole Miss opens against Louisville this weekend in a standalone window.
Byrum Brown holds first through September. Currently 62.2. We called him for the top spot four weeks ago at 56.3 and projected above 58. Nobody else has more than 15 in Fan Demand, and a first season at Auburn gives him room in the two columns where he ranks tenth.
Arch Manning retakes first the moment fans move. Currently 60.2, second. He leads the conference in Social Power at 92 and is level with Brown on Performance. Two points separate first from second, and the column that closes them is the only one a fan can move directly.
We will grade all three in December.
A note on how these move
Every number above is a preseason number. Not one quarterback on this board has taken a snap that counts yet.
Week 1 starts this weekend across the full conference schedule, and the first Saturday of results will move this board more than the entire offseason did.
Treat it as a snapshot. Production changes slowly. Attention does not.
Learn more about the NIL landscape
What a valuation actually measures is not what this index measures. Across the SEC quarterbacks who played a full season, the component that measures passing is worth 1.05 points of separation. The one that measures fans is worth 12.5, and thirteen of the sixteen sit at exactly 5 in it.
The quarterback leading this conference ranks tenth and tenth in the two columns that money and fame buy, and first in the one they do not. Fan Demand is where the people reading this have the only vote that counts. Sixteen fans have out-fueled entire fanbases.
Fueling an athlete is a purchase of conditional NIL engagement rights, not a donation. The terms and refund conditions are posted at checkout.
Explore the Athletes on RallyFuel, then check the hardware in the Trophy Case.
