College Basketball's Average Roster Now Costs $13.5 Million, and the SEC Leads the Way
By faNILy ·
CBS Sports has put a price tag on the sport's rosters, and it's a big one. Matt Norlander and Isaac Trotter spent nearly six weeks talking to more than 100 sources, and their estimate is that a typical high-major roster now costs $13.5 million for 2026-27. A year ago, the average power-conference squad cost about $7 million.
That's the fourth straight offseason of rising spending, and the jump at the top is even sharper. Last season, only Kentucky and possibly Louisville were believed to be at $20 million or more. This season, CBS counts 11 programs at that level.
How the numbers were built
The survey covers 80 schools: 79 power-conference programs plus Gonzaga. The sources were head coaches, assistants, athletic directors, general managers, agents and outside consultants. More than half of the programs gave an exact figure on background, and the rest gave a range.
A few things to keep in mind when you read the totals:
- They reflect each roster's maximum projected earnings, not what a school has on its books as of October.
- Incentive bonuses that would be paid at the end of the season are included.
- The tiers assume every player seeking fifth-year eligibility as of Oct. 21 stays eligible. That matters for schools like Texas Tech, whose total depends on three players clearing eligibility.
- Rivals believe some programs spend 10% to 20% more than the reported figures.
Who's at the top
The 11 schools in the $20 million-plus tier are Duke, Florida, Kentucky, Illinois, Louisville, Michigan, North Carolina, St. John's, Tennessee, Texas and Texas Tech. Florida's roster is estimated at north of $25 million. Even so, Gators coach Todd Golden is quoted in the piece pushing back on the idea that the program reloads with cash every spring:
"We're not going into the portal every year spending $20 million."
Arkansas, UConn, Indiana and Kansas sit just below that line. None of the four was projected to reach $20 million as of mid-October.
Individual players are driving a lot of it. According to the survey, big men needed to be paid up to nearly $5 million, and elite guards and wings commanded close to $4 million. Kentucky landed Iowa State transfer Milan Momcilovic, and CBS says Iowa State wasn't in a position to pay $6 million for a player like him.
The SEC spends the most
By conference, the SEC ranks first in spending and the Big East second. The SEC has five of the 15 biggest spenders, and its median roster is worth about $16 million, well above the national average.
Here's the Georgia angle: CBS puts Georgia as the least-funded team in the SEC, yet its budget is still "easily north of $10 million." That says a lot about what it now costs just to compete in the league. In Atlanta, Georgia Tech lands in the lowest tier, with first-year coach Scott Cross inheriting a tight budget.
The ACC has the widest gaps between its haves and have-nots, with 12 of its 18 teams below the $13.5 million average. At the very bottom of the high-major world, Stanford has the smallest budget, but CBS notes that no high-major school is paying less than $5 million this season.
Money isn't everything
The survey has plenty of reminders that spending doesn't guarantee wins. Alabama sits near the bottom of the SEC in spending but is consistently a top-10 to top-15 team, and coach Nate Oats credits player development. Purdue, in the $7.1 million to $9.9 million tier, has won 12 NCAA Tournament games over the last five years. The other 13 teams in that tier combined for eight.
Why fans should care
For fans, these numbers help explain how much money now moves through a single roster, and they show where the competitive pressure is heaviest. In the SEC, even the league's lowest budget clears eight figures, and the bar keeps rising.