Arch Manning is entering Caitlin Clark territory.
Wait, what?
That's right.
No, the young quarterback has not produced the on-field success at Texas that Clark did on the court at Iowa, where she became the NCAA's all-time leading scorer. In fact, Manning hasn't even thrown 100 career passes for the Longhorns.
But there is no more hyped college football player in the hobby than Manning.
According to Card Ladder, no other player in all of college football has a card sale above $6,300. Penn State quarterback Drew Allar ranks second among all players in top sales with a $6,250 transaction. Manning has 11 sales above that.
His top sale, $20,000 in July for his 2024 Prizm Draft Picks Arch Manning Rated Prospect Gold Vinyl #1/1 PSA 10, is more than three times Allar's.
Now, Manning hasn't quite reached the lofty air of Clark, whose top card sale is more than the entire rest of the WNBA combined, but the nephew of Peyton and Eli certainly has a stranglehold on the top of the college football card world.
Manning certainly enters this season with lofty expectations. He's currently the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy, and Texas is the No. 1-ranked team in the country. The Longhorns have a chance for a season-defining win Saturday, when they head to Columbus, Ohio, to face the No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes.
Manning, Allar and Raiola are the only three players in the country with a $5,000 sale. There are 24 total ... and Manning has 20 of them.
And he doesn't dominate in simply top sales. Comparing his number of sales to the rest of the Heisman hopefuls looks like a typo.
Behind Manning in Heisman odds are LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier, Clemson QB Cade Klubnik, Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith and South Carolina QB LaNorris Sellers.
According to Market Movers, their number of sales over the last 365 days are as follows:
- Manning: 10.2k
- Nussmeier: 1.6k
- Klubnik: 961
- Smith: 20
- Sellers: 13
Manning's volume is four times the COMBINED sales between the next two quarterbacks expected to vie for the title of the best player in college football.
We still have to see what happens on the field, but off it ... the card market is seeing "Arch Madness."
Matt Liberman is a video producer and reporter for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture.