Kansas is right on the edge of college basketball’s priciest spending class.
In CBS Sports’ new NIL roster spending report, published by Matt Norlander and Isaac Trotter, the Jayhawks landed in Tier 2, the bracket for programs spending just under $20 million on roster construction for the 2026 season. That puts Kansas alongside Arkansas, Indiana, and UConn, with only a sliver separating KU from the top tier.
The report says the average NIL cost of building a roster across the 79 Power Five programs and Gonzaga is $13.5 million. The Big 12 checked in a little below that at $12.7 million, good for fourth among the power conferences behind the SEC ($17.3M), the Big East ($13.6M), and the Big Ten ($12.7M).
CBS broke the spending numbers into seven tiers, and Tier 1 is reserved for programs at $20 million or more. Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Louisville, Tennessee, Texas Tech, St. John’s, Michigan, and Florida all showed up in that group.
Kansas, though, is described as being almost there. The report notes that if Trey Kaufman-Renn, Tre White, and Melvin Council Jr. are eligible for the full season, KU could reach $20 million later in the year.
As CBS put it, “If Kansas is able to roster Trey Kaufman-Renn AND the Jayhawks get Tre White and Melvin Council Jr. eligible for the entire season, our information suggests KU would hit $20 million later this season, but as of this story's publication, the Jayhawks are an eyelash away and literally as close to Tier 1 as possible. (Kansas also boasts the most expensive freshman in college basketball, No. 1 prospect Tyran Stokes).”
That kind of number fits the shape of this Kansas roster. Outside of Stokes, the Jayhawks don’t appear to have a lot of future NBA lottery pieces, and the transfers KU added were solid rather than splashy. None of them were ranked inside the top 50 in 247Sports’ 2026 transfer player rankings.
Still, the Jayhawks may be built to be deep, and that kind of depth comes with a hefty price tag. Kansas is spending like a team that expects to win like one, too.
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