With all the talk about money, and certain universities throwing money at certain sports, I thought it would be interesting to look at the numbers regarding this question: How does a top budget for a given sport compare to how the team ranked at the end of the season? Is more money translating into a higher ranking?
I had considered not looking at men’s basketball, but I decided that basketball was not in the same position as football, where NIL in football distorts a look at their numbers. Yes, NIL affects men’s basketball, but subjectively not to the extent of football – at least in my view. Regardless of the NIL money, top programs are budgeted with big dollars, so why not take a look? A future look at NIL for men’s basketball and football might be worth going down that rabbit hole, but in any case that’s a separate discussion.
As with our other budget vs. ranking examinations, private universities are not included in this list. Let’s get to it:
Here are the top 12 publicly available men’s basketball budgets for 2024-2026:
Because I have the same fiscal year information to work with, the charts below are different in how these 12 schools ended their season in 2025 vs. 2026 . This first chart is based on the 2025 final rankings:
Quite a few schools did not rank in the top 25 – Indiana, Texas, Arkansas, Michigan State, Louisville, and Kansas.
Here is the same information with the end of season final rankings for 2026:
Here we have fewer unranked spenders, with Indiana, Kentucky, and Auburn finishing the season unranked.
Based on basic budgets, it’s apparent that schools like Indiana and Kentucky view themselves as blue blood basketball schools and are are going to spend the money. While these charts are interesting, I have an as-yet unsubstantiated hunch that other funds, such as NIL, do some talking with a lot of schools by the end of the season.
On the other hand, when you have a school like Houston make it not only to the 2025 Final Four, but to the championship game, money isn’t the entirety of the picture. Be that as it may, I’m inclined to think that spending the big dollars should at least translate into decent NCAA tournament runs, and based on these numbers that may not be the case for a lot of schools that are spending top dollar.
I will revisit this series again before putting it down for now. My question going forward is: Where do the Oregon volleyball, softball, baseball, and women and men’s basketball teams fall in terms of budget vs. end-of-season ranking? I’m curious about that comparison and will do my best to give you something to chew on.
