Recent reports have revealed the huge cost for the LSU Tigers and UCLA Bruins men’s basketball programs to land a pair of impact players in the transfer portal.
College sports have undergone some major changes over the last few years. For generations, teams were specifically built through recruiting the best talent from the high school ranks and developing them into winning players at the collegiate level. However, in the era of name, image, and likeness collectives, that has completely changed.
Landing stars from high school is still important, but with collectives — and soon the universities themselves — being able to hand out huge checks, the transfer portal has turned into the college sports version of free agency in the pros. In the last few years, we have seen the massive impact this new era of roster building has had on football and basketball.
The current college basketball transfer portal is one of the biggest stories in the game this month, as a huge amount of talented players are up for grabs to the highest bidder. When the portal opened in March, LSU and UCLA were two programs that landed good players immediately. This week, news has emerged on how much the programs had to fork over to land Donovan Dent and Dedan Thomas.
LSU basketball paid Dedan Thomas over $2 million to leave UNLV
“Former UNLV guard Dedan Thomas, who averaged 15.6 points and 4.7 assists as a sophomore, reportedly received a package close to $2.5 million to transfer to LSU,” Sports Illustrated college basketball reporter Ben Sherman wrote on Wednesday.
LSU’s winning bid is believed to have beaten out college basketball powerhouses Kentucky, Florida, and Syracuse for Thomas. Yet, that was quite a bit lower than what the Bruins gave to Donovan Dent.
“Sources from the University of New Mexico said Donovan Dent will earn $3 million though a name, image and likeness deal by transferring to UCLA.” Santa Fe New Mexican reporter Will Webber wrote earlier this week. The report added that sources claimed Dent agreed to a $2 million payment up front and then a $1 million payment that will come during the 2025-26 season.
The junior posted 20.4 points and 6.4 assists per game for New Mexico last season. The deal makes him the third-highest paid player in the game behind incoming BYU freshmen AJ Dybansta ($3.8 million) and Duke’s Cooper Flagg ($3.3 million).
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