College sports have become professional in the NIL era, and the amount of money it takes to field a championship-caliber roster continues to increase.
A report from On3.com’s Peter Nakos suggests that the top spenders in the sport will shell out north of $20 million on their rosters next season.
The report lists UConn among the most expensive rosters in the sport, with the Huskies estimated to be spending $10-15 million on next season’s roster.
That number doesn’t touch the biggest spenders though– as Tennessee, Louisville, Texas and Duke were reportedly expected to spend more than $20 million. Most of that spending will come on transfers. Louisville has the No. 1-ranked transfer class by 247 Sports, and is bringing in six players so far. Tennessee is No. 2 with seven commits, followed by Texas (5).
Meanwhile, Dan Hurley and his staff have taken a balanced approach to roster building, focusing on player retention, high school recruiting and adding key pieces via the transfer portal. UConn doesn’t have one of the top-ranked high school or transfer classes (coming in at No. 29 and No. 15, respectively, on 247Sports), but player retention and development have helped the Huskies reach three of the last four national title games.
Hurley and staff were able to convince Braylon Mullins to come back to school instead of entering the NBA Draft, and retained starting point guard Silas Demary Jr. and forward Jayden Ross. They also brought in big men Najai Hines and Oskar Giltay from Seton Hall and Stanford, respectively, wing Nikolas Khamenia from Duke and guard Nils Machowski from Wofford.
The Huskies signed top high school recruits Colben Landrew (No. 32 in ESPN’s Top 100) and Junior County (No. 39).
UConn is listed among several schools who are expected to spend more than $10 million on their rosters– including Indiana, North Carolina, Texas A&M, Miami, Arizona, Michigan, Houston and South Carolina.
Though it doesn’t have quite the same financial advantage of Power-4 schools on massive TV deals, UConn has remained competitive by prioritizing basketball. According to Sportico, a publication focusing on the business of sports, UConn was the only FBS school to spend more money on basketball than football in the 2023-24 season, when the Huskies won the second of back-to-back national titles.
