Latest NIL rankings prove Ole Miss can compete with nation's elite in college football's current landscape

Ole Miss hasn't always been amongst the nation's leaders when it comes to the NIL space, but the Rebels sure have made up some serious ground.

On Thursday, On3's College Sports Business Reporter Pete Nakos released his list of the Top 10 NIL Collectives in college sports . Rebels fans will be pleased to find out Ole Miss checks in at No. 6 on this list.

From On3: In just two years, Walker Jones and The Grove Collective changed the tenor of NIL conversations around the Ole Miss campus. The NIL entity was playing major catch-up when Jones arrived in the fall of 2022.

Since then, Jones has emerged as a leader in the space. He was a Congressional witness last fall. He’s led the Grove Collection Week over the last two years, raising millions in a matter of days while working hand-in-hand with Ole Miss. Jones told On3 the collective now has more than 6,000 members.

Ole Miss head football coach Lane Kiffin has been the primary beneficiary in the Rebels' quest for college football superiority. The Grove Collective has provided Kiffin with plenty of resources to consistently assemble some of the best transfer portal classes in the sport.

In the article, Nakos reports that one fellow SEC NIL collective said, “I hate to admit it, but Ole Miss’ marketing strategy is impressive." In this person's defense, it's hard to take a look at what Ole Miss has built and not admire the current state of the collective.

Kiffin, dubbed The Portal King, allocated these resources well in the most recent transfer portal class. Ole Miss was able to land three of the top 24 players in the portal and the No. 5 transfer portal class in the country, which includes 25 players transferring in.

The high expectations Kiffin has been able to set around Ole Miss football will not be going away as long as The Grove Collective remains healthy. Unlike other collectives with a few donors with deep pockets, Ole Miss fans have played a major part in this meteoric rise in Oxford.

Time will tell if the results are to follow, but Ole Miss fans can rest assured knowing the process is the prize.