College basketball NIL budget for players will exceed $10 million in 2025-26 for Michigan

Michigan News

CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander wrote on Thursday that Michigan is among 10 teams that “either (has) $10 million committed already or (is) easily capable of reaching that total in roster-building efforts by the end of this year’s transfer cycle.”

“Our market allows the best players to be competitive with a second-round (NBA) contract,”

Norlander’s sources indicate 10 programs have (or will have soon) a $10-million budget for the 2025-26 season: established blue bloods like Duke, Indiana, Kentucky, and North Carolina; Arkansas and St. John’s, both led by Hall of Fame coaches; plus BYU, Louisville, Michigan, and Texas Tech. Michigan and Indiana are the only Big Ten teams in that upper tier.

Another group of schools, per the report, including three Big Ten teams, are at $8 million: Auburn, Connecticut, Florida, Houston, Kansas, Kansas State, Miami, Purdue, Tennessee, Texas, UCLA, USC, Villanova, and Virginia.

“If you’re a high-major program and don’t have at least $3 million (some would argue $4 million, at bare minimum) in NIL reserves in 2025,” Norlander wrote, “you’re in trouble.”

Terrible what is taking place in college athletics and there are a number of SEC schools who are not in this list. 24 teams will already have a budget over 8 million for roster building and 10 of the 24 will be over $10 million in roster building. The Supreme Court has allowed college athletics to implode.