Arizona men’s basketball is spending heavily to stay in the hunt, but the Wildcats are still not in the top financial class of the sport.
According to a new CBS Sports report from Matt Norlander and Isaac Trotter, Arizona is set to spend about $15-17.5 million on its men’s basketball roster. That places the program in a third tier of roster budgets, grouped with schools such as Gonzaga, Houston and Michigan State.
CBS Sports said it spoke with more than 100 sources across college sports for the report, which is meant to map college basketball spending the way The Athletic recently did for college football. Arizona football’s roster cost is estimated at approximately $13-20 million, putting that program in a similar range despite having far fewer players to pay.
The numbers make one thing clear: Tommy Lloyd’s team is operating a step below the sport’s biggest spenders.
Arizona’s projected figure sits above the Big 12 average of $12.7 million, but the Wildcats still trail at least 15 programs in what they are paying players for the 2026-27 season.
At the very top are 11 schools spending $20 million or more on rosters. That group includes Texas Tech from the Big 12, along with Michigan and Illinois, two teams that reached last year’s Final Four. The list also features heavyweights Duke, Louisville, Kentucky and North Carolina, plus Texas and Florida.
Just below that sits another cluster of major players: Arkansas, Kansas, Indiana and UConn. CBS Sports reported those four schools are spending just under $20 million.
Arizona is not in that lane financially, even though its recent on-court results stack up well with many of the programs above it. The Wildcats instead land in a broader second tier, alongside programs that do not have the same level of success built up by Lloyd and his predecessor, Sean Miller.
That group also includes Auburn, LSU, Missouri, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt from the SEC; Big 12 programs Cincinnati and Oklahoma State; ACC member Miami; and USC from the Big Ten.
It’s a solid neighborhood. It’s just not the sport’s most exclusive one.
The report also notes that several programs spending less than Arizona have still reached recent Final Fours before and after NIL, including Alabama, Baylor, Purdue, UCLA, Villanova and Virginia.
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