Arch Manning has wings courtesy of massive new NIL partnership

The Texas Longhorns are already a pretty popular college football team but heading into the 2025-26 season, there's going to be a bandwagon so large it'll hardly fit in Austin. Quarterback Arch Manning will be the single-biggest reason why so many eyeballs will be on the heart of Texas and now major corporations are taking advantage of that hype.

On Jan. 30 Red Bull USA announced Manning signed an NIL deal with the energy drink giant, releasing a video on social media of the rising sophomore passer demonstrating his super human skills with a football.

"Target locked, wiiings (sic) secured," the post read as Manning is seen tossing a ball in the air - which suspends in slow motion while he takes a drink of Red Bull. The ball returns to his hands where promptly turns around and throws a dart through the bullseye of a target behind him.

Arch Manning lands lucrative NIL deal ahead of huge season starting at QB for Texas

The contract details for Manning's deal with Red Bull aren't publicly known but according to On3 Sports, his NIL is currently valued at $6.5 million - that's more than any other current college athlete. Duke basketball star Cooper Flagg is the next closest at $4.3 million.

Manning started just two games this season behind No. 1 quarterback Quinn Ewers but in his brief appearances he showed some brilliant promise. 939 passing yards, 108 rushing yards and 13 total touchdowns as a redshirt freshman in 10 appearances (regular postseason) is nothing to sneeze at.

Texas should certainly open as one of the favorites to win the national championship with Manning under center in 2025, especially with the team making it all the way to the CFP semifinals before coming up short.

With the hype just continuing to grow, it also wouldn't be surprising to see Manning's NIL value inflate even more ahead of his eventual move to the NFL.