March Madness always brings out the wackiest stories. While the college basketball schedule awaits the next series of matchups, some are wondering how these teams even got here to begin with.
Some teams seemingly have no business making it this far, rising from a class of unknowns to fight with the big dogs. At the same time, others have seemingly bought their way here, like the annual blue blood contenders.
That brings up an interesting question, just how much does it cost to build one of the best men’s college basketball teams in the nation?
How much does it cost to build a top men’s college basketball team?
While some teams advance to various stages of the men’s basketball tournament by getting hot at the right time, others build rosters that are too good to compete with. We’re talking about the dominant teams that successfully recruit the best players in the nation.
But just how much money does it cost to build one of the most competitive college basketball teams in the nation?
According to The Athletic‘s sources that spoke with coaches, general managers, and administrators, some of the “top spenders expected to reach $10 million” on their roster. This is a stark increase from last year, where the “consensus” was that a team “needed to spend $3-5 million to be competitive at the high-major level. Whereas, the average number is “expected to fall in the $5-8 million range.”
While those numbers continue to increase, programs are finding a number of creative ways to reach these thresholds.
“You need $7 million to be in the mix, when last year $4 million could get you a really good team,” a general manager of a high-major program said. “Everybody’s coming up with all this money to front-load in addition to the back end of rev share. So if your rev share is $2.7 million from the school, people are trying to raise $5 million in addition to that, where you can pay to retain guys, plus go out and spend a whole bunch of money for transfers.”
While the number is “expected to reach $10 million,” it’s only a matter of time before that number doubles, triples, and continues to soar to outrageous dollar amounts.
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