Duke, UNC, Kentucky Headline 'Tier 1' Schools Spending $20M+ on CBB Rosters, New CBS Report Says

After the costly failure that was the 2025-26 season, Kentucky is once again hopeful a massive NIL outlay will bring on-court success.

According to CBS Sports' Matt Norlander and Isaac Trotter , the Wildcats are one of 11 schools in Tier 1 for spending in men's basketball. The others are Duke, Florida, Illinois, Louisville, Michigan, North Carolina, St. John's, Tennessee, Texas and Texas Tech.

Tier 1 is reserved for those with a budget of $20 million or more. A sign of how the financial landscape has shifted, Norlander and Trotter estimated that Kentucky and Louisville were the only schools that met that threshold last year.

Florida, for example, will have one of the most expensive rosters in the country after convincing Thomas Haugh, Rueben Chinyelu and Alex Condon to stick around in Gainesville. Haugh likely would've been a first-round pick in the 2026 NBA draft if he had declared.

"We definitely have a well-compensated team this year, but this is really the first year where we've been at the top, in terms of that conversation," Florida coach Todd Golden told CBS Sports. "... We're not going into the portal every year spending $20 million. We're retaining talent, guys that are growing within our program."

Michigan, meanwhile, was stuck between a rock and a hard place given the timing of Dusty May's exit.

The Wolverines already lost Morez Johnson Jr., Yaxel Lendeborg and Aday Mara as they try to defend their national title. They would've been in even bigger trouble if Elliot Cadeau or Trey McKenney had decided to explore their options after May left to coach the Dallas Mavericks.

North Carolina might be the most fascinating Tier 1 team given who it hired to replace Hubert Davis.

Michael Malone was an NBA Finals-winning coach with the Denver Nuggets in 2023, but he hasn't worked at the college level since 2001. Needless to say, the sport has evolved a lot since then.

Despite the Bill Belichick experiment being a disappointment for the football team, the Tar Heels are basically hoping a similar formula can make them successful on the hardwood.