One day three years ago, Jake Coker’s job attracted a television audience of more than 26 million. As the University of Alabama’s starting quarterback, he threw two touchdowns to help the Crimson Tide beat Clemson University in the national college football championship.

On Monday, when Alabama and Clemson meet again for the title, Mr. Coker will be performing in front of a smaller crowd—a few regional business owners in Alabama. He will try to make them fans of property and casualty insurance.

“If your building somehow gets destroyed,” Mr. Coker says, “you need to be covered.”

Alabama and Clemson, meeting in the College Football Playoff for the fourth year in a row, have dominated college football for so long that a prominent player from their first title game is now an insurance salesman. After his bid to make the National Football League fizzled, Mr. Coker joined what has become a league unto itself: former college football players who sell insurance.

Members include Craig Krenzel, the quarterback who led Ohio State to a national championship in 2002, and an array of prominent ex-players in the Southeast.