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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Jon Scheyer Still Wants One Kind Of Player At Duke
Jon Scheyers recruiting pitch at Duke still starts well beyond points, rebounds and rankings. As he continues the programs long-running emphasis on building around character, he wants players who come with a strong support system and the kind of independence that suggests they can handle more than just the next game. It is a familiar through line from the Mike Krzyzewski era, with families still part of the process and the off-court side of a prospect carrying real weight in Durham.
Scheyers view is that the Duke experience should prepare players for more than basketball success, and that means being ready for adversity, mistakes and the lessons that follow. He believes the right prospects are not only talented enough to fit the Blue Devils, but grounded enough to navigate the hard parts of college life and still grow from them. In his mind, the best fits are the ones who can lean on others without needing to be carried. [Read more 🡒]
Manny Diaz Has Duke Winning With One Problem Fans Will Hate
Manny Diaz has Duke winning, but the financial backdrop around the football program still looks more like a warning sign than a celebration. The Blue Devils roster spending for the 2026 season is estimated between $12 million and $15 million, a figure that leaves them 67th out of 68 Power Four teams and well below the ACC average, even as the team has stayed competitive and carried momentum from last seasons ACC championship into a strong early run this year.
The good news for Duke is that the program plans to spend more on the roster in the future, which should help it keep pace in a league where money increasingly shapes the ceiling. The hard part is less about the plan than the timing, because Diaz has already shown he can win with limited resources in Durham, and that kind of success does not go unnoticed for long. [Read more 🡒]
Manny Diaz Sent A Clear Message After Duke's Road Upset
Dukes 2-0 start got a major boost Saturday in its road upset of Illinois, and the defense was the biggest reason why. After a shaky opening stretch, the Blue Devils tightened everything up and leaned on a unit that held Illinois to just three points in the second half, with safety Andrew Pellicciotta pacing the effort with 11 tackles.
For Manny Diaz, the result fit the kind of identity he has been trying to build. Duke now heads into its first ACC game of the season against Stanford with real momentum, but also with proof that this team can travel, absorb punches and still finish with a defensive edge when it matters most. [Read more 🡒]