Boston College is staring at the bottom of the Power 4 spending pile, and the picture around the Eagles explains why.
According to the findings in this reporting, Boston College’s 2026 roster spend lands in the $8 million-$13 million range, the lowest among the Power 4 schools examined. That places the Eagles in a tough spot as a private school in the Northeast, operating in a metro area crowded by professional sports - including the New England Patriots, one of the region’s most established franchises.
The on-field burden is real, too. Boston College hasn’t won more than seven games since 2009.
Last season’s top rusher, Turbo Richard, is now at Indiana, while the team’s second-leading receiver, Reed Harris, has moved on to Arizona State. Bill O’Brien, a Boston native and former Patriots assistant under Bill Belichick, went 2-10 last season after opening with a 7-6 debut in 2024.
The Eagles did beat Rutgers last week, and they’ll host Maine on Saturday before ACC play begins.
That’s a brief window to breathe. The rest of the schedule gets much more expensive in a hurry, with Boston College facing NIL underdogs status the rest of the way, including matchups against Notre Dame and Miami, where the roster-spend gap sits in another stratosphere.
Boston College is not alone near the bottom of the list, but its spot comes with its own set of hurdles. Duke checks in at $12 million-$15 million after losing quarterback Darian Mensah to Miami in the final hours of January’s transfer portal window, though the Blue Devils later added Walker Eget, who spent 2025 at San Jose State.
Manny Diaz has still found a way to make it work. Coaches may avoid the “Moneyball” label, but Duke’s formula has been hard to ignore.
The Blue Devils won the school’s first ACC title since 1978 last year and have started this season with wins over Tulane and Illinois. Diaz is 20-9 at Duke and 11-5 in conference play.
Iowa State sits in the $13 million-$17 million band after a major roster reset. When former coach Matt Campbell took the Penn State job, 55 Iowa State players entered the transfer portal, and many of the top names followed him to Happy Valley.
New coach Jimmy Rogers responded by bringing in a group of players from Washington State, a cheaper route than getting dragged into bidding wars for proven Big 12 portal talent. Even so, the expectation is that Iowa State’s spending will need to climb as Rogers settles in, especially with an athletic department that puts major emphasis on football and basketball.
That will be a major issue for whoever succeeds Jamie Pollard, who is set to retire as athletic director next June.
Arizona comes in at $13 million-$18 million, and coach Brent Brennan has managed to keep key players such as quarterback Noah Fifita. The Wildcats also fit a broader pattern among lower-spending Power 4 programs: strong basketball often shapes where the money goes.
More revenue-sharing dollars can flow to the hardwood, and donors backing third-party deals may be more inclined to support programs with more realistic championship expectations. Arizona just reached a Final Four in men’s basketball and is expected to have a top-five team in 2026-27.
Cincinnati rounds out the group in the $14 million-$16 million range. The Bearcats reached the College Football Playoff in 2021, but that came when they were still in the American.
They’ve only been in the Power 4 since 2023, and they’re trying to carve out space in a major city with two pro sports teams. That makes it harder to keep pace with the schools above them on this list, even in the Big 12, where only one team’s top end topped $25 million.
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Boston College Faces A Maine Test Fans Can't Just Dismiss
A win can disappear quickly in a college football season, which is why Bill OBrien spent the postgame stretch steering Boston College toward what comes next instead of letting anyone linger on the last one. Maine is on the schedule, and for the Eagles it is the kind of matchup that can tempt outsiders into treating it like a formality, even though the rhythm of FBS teams meeting FCS opponents has long come with its own history, its own expectations and its own opportunity to get humbled if the focus slips.
Marcus Upton sounded like someone who understands that better than most, stressing that Boston College cannot afford to treat the Black Bears lightly just because of the label next to their name. The series history adds a little texture to the week, too, with the teams having seen each other before and then going years without another meeting, which only makes the current one feel a bit more unfamiliar. For BC, the real test is not whether fans think the opponent is worthy enough, but whether the Eagles approach it with the same edge they would bring to a bigger stage. [Read more 🡒]