Kelvin Sampson isn’t one to sugarcoat things, and after another dominant win - this time a 79-55 rout of UCF - the Houston head coach pulled back the curtain on what he sees as a growing issue for his program: keeping up in the NIL arms race.
The Cougars are riding high. Ranked No. 8 in the country, sitting at 20-2, and fresh off a national championship game appearance last season, they’ve become a fixture in March.
That’s six straight years of making it to at least the Sweet 16. And their recruiting has never been better - Houston landed the No. 3 class in the 2025 cycle, trailing only college basketball royalty like Duke and Arizona.
But behind the scenes, Sampson says the Cougars are running into a harsh reality: they simply don’t have the financial firepower to keep stacking elite classes.
“We participate in NIL like everybody else, we know what our kids’ market value is,” Sampson said. “Trust me, they’re not starving here.
They’re getting exactly what the market is for them. But we have a very poor athletic department.
We’re poor. We were poor when I got here, and we’re still poor.
We probably have the lowest budget of anybody in the Power Four.”
That’s not bitterness - it’s blunt honesty from a coach who's built a powerhouse without the resources many of his peers enjoy. And with NIL now a major player in recruiting, Sampson’s concern is clear: Houston’s rise might not be sustainable unless the financial side catches up.
“The way our recruiting’s going, we’re going to have to stop at some point because we don’t have the money to keep bringing in good players,” he continued. “That’s not easy for us to do.
Teams that have the best recruiting classes usually have the most money. That’s the way it is today.”
It’s a jarring statement from one of the sport’s most respected coaches - not just because of what he’s saying, but because of how candidly he’s saying it. NIL is no longer the elephant in the room. It’s front and center, and Sampson’s not pretending otherwise.
Under the new revenue-sharing model allowed by last summer’s House v. NCAA settlement, schools can distribute up to $20.5 million annually to athletes.
But football typically takes the lion’s share. According to estimates, men’s basketball players account for about 20.9% of that pie on average.
If Houston is aligned with that national trend, that would leave roughly $4.3 million for the basketball roster - a number that doesn’t stretch as far as it used to when trying to keep up with the Dukes and Kansases of the world.
And Houston’s football program isn’t exactly on the back burner. The Cougars just wrapped up a 10-win season under Willie Fritz and signed the nation’s 44th-ranked football recruiting class. So the budget’s being pulled in multiple directions.
Still, Houston’s been punching above its weight in recruiting. Eric Bossi, 247Sports’ Director of Basketball, credits Sampson and his staff for identifying the right guys - players who fit the program’s culture, style, and long-term vision.
“Houston does a great job of identifying prospects who fit their mentality and their culture,” Bossi said. “And when you combine that with the success they’ve had in developing guys for the NBA, particularly some lesser-known guys, like the Marcus Sassers of the world, their pitch has resonated.”
That development track record matters. It’s helped Houston open doors that were once closed - and they’ve walked through them.
In the 2025 class, the Cougars signed three top-20 players. For 2026, they’ve already secured commitments from two top-60 prospects, including Akenna Alozie and Arafan Diane, putting them at No. 24 nationally.
But Sampson made it clear: the future of those recruiting wins isn’t guaranteed.
“We signed Akenna and Arafan for 2026 early, and a lot of these kids we have will come back,” Sampson said. “But who knows who else we’ll sign?
It depends on how much money we have. It’s not about who we want to sign - it’s who we can afford to sign.”
That’s the new reality in college hoops. Fit still matters, development still matters - but so does the bottom line. And for Sampson, it’s still a bit surreal to be having these conversations at all.
“For so many years, it was illegal to do that,” he said. “It’s legal now. That’s why they call it NIL - now it’s legal.”
Despite the financial constraints, Houston has managed to keep its core intact. Sampson pointed to several key returners from last year’s squad: Mercy Miller, Chase McCarty, Ramon Walker Jr., Cedric Lath, and Jacob McFarland all came back. That continuity has been huge - and rare in today’s transfer-heavy landscape.
“I never thought Mercy would leave, but I’m around him every day, so I have an advantage because I coach him,” Sampson said. “It was a big deal he came back.
It was a big deal for Chase. All our guys came back, so that helps us.”
Sampson’s built something special in Houston. Since taking over in 2014, he’s gone 319-86 and taken the Cougars to two Final Fours. But sustaining that success in the NIL era is a different kind of challenge - one that might not be solved with coaching acumen alone.
For now, Houston’s still winning. Still recruiting.
Still competing with the best. But Sampson’s message is clear: if the financial playing field doesn’t level out, the Cougars might not be able to keep up the fight forever.