The new CBS Sports investigation into college basketball roster spending peeled back the curtain on the NIL era in a way the sport rarely gets to see. After months of research from Matt Norlander and Isaac Trotter, the report mapped out high-major budgets and values for the 2026-27 season, giving a clearer picture of which programs are really spending and which coaches are squeezing every last bit out of what they’ve got.
One of the clearest takeaways comes from the middle and lower spending tiers, where a handful of coaches are consistently punching above their financial weight. Purdue’s Matt Painter sits at the top of that list, and for good reason. The Boilermakers landed in Tier 6, with a budget between $7.1 million and $9.9 million - the same general range as Utah, Northwestern, DePaul and Penn State - yet Painter keeps Purdue operating like a program with far deeper pockets.
Here’s how the tiers break down in the reporting: Tier 1 is $20 million plus, Tier 2 is just under $20 million, Tier 3 runs from $15.1 million to $17.5 million, Tier 4 from $12.1 million to $15 million, Tier 5 from $10 million to $12 million, Tier 6 from $7.1 million to $9.9 million and Tier 7 from $5 million to $7 million.
Painter’s edge starts with continuity. Purdue has built around retention, and the fact that the Boilermakers can keep thriving with modest resources says plenty about how well the program is run.
Among teams in Tier 6, no one is really in Purdue’s class. The only program in Tier 5 that comes close is Iowa State.
Nate Oats checks in next, and Alabama’s place in Tier 4 tells its own story. Thirteen of the SEC’s 16 schools are spending at least one tier above the Crimson Tide, yet Oats has Alabama winning like a heavyweight.
The Tide reached their first Final Four in 2024, have gotten past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament in each of the last four years, won league titles in 2021 and 2023, and have not been seeded worse than No. 6 under Oats. They’ve also turned into an NBA pipeline, with five first-round picks on his résumé.
TJ Otzelberger has done something just as striking at Iowa State. Entering Year 6, he’s gone 5-for-5 in NCAA Tournament trips, reached three Sweet 16s and delivered a No. 3 seed or better in each of the past three seasons.
That run looks even stronger when you remember what he inherited: a program that went 2-22 the year before he arrived from South Dakota State. He quickly built an elite defense around a roster that ranked No. 340 in KenPom’s minutes continuity metric and pushed the Cyclones to the Sweet 16.
His 2026-27 team is ranked No. 12 in Gary Parrish’s Top 25 And 1.
Fred Hoiberg’s work at Nebraska belongs in the same conversation. The Cornhuskers landing in Tier 5 fit the school’s profile as a football-first program without much basketball history, but Hoiberg has still made real progress. Nebraska has won 20 or more games in three straight seasons for the first time ever, and it has reached at least two NCAA Tournaments in a three-year span for the first time since the early 1990s.
Ben McCollum lands fifth on the list, and even with just one season at Iowa, the early signs are loud. He guided the Hawkeyes to a stunning Elite Eight run in his first year, and the question now is how far he can take that formula.
Replacing Bennett Stirtz, who is now with the Oklahoma City Thunder after playing for McCollum at three different schools, will be the big challenge in 2026-27. Iowa didn’t make a splash in the offseason, but in this part of the sport, that’s not unusual.
The job is to do more with less, and McCollum looks built for it.
Kyle Smith has Stanford moving in the right direction on one of the leanest budgets in high-major basketball. The Cardinal are 41-27 overall and 20-18 in the ACC through two seasons, and they barely missed the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Smith’s teams have also beaten their preseason projections by a healthy margin, finishing 18 spots higher than expected in 2025 and 27 spots higher the year before.
Jamie Dixon continues to keep TCU relevant on middling resources, reaching four of the past five NCAA Tournaments after the program had made just one in the previous 30 years before he arrived. The Horned Frogs still haven’t broken through beyond the first weekend, but Dixon keeps producing teams that are tough and competitive.
Ryan Odom’s first season at Virginia was a jolt. The Cavaliers won 30 games, earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and finished No. 17 in KenPom after being pegged at No. 59 in the preseason. That kind of leap makes him one of the clearest overachievers in Tier 4.
Mike White has Georgia moving in the right direction too. The Bulldogs rank last in SEC spending, according to the investigation, but they’ve made back-to-back NCAA Tournaments under White for the first time since the early 2000s. Going 10-8 in SEC play with a roster in the $10 million to $12 million range says plenty about the job he’s doing.
Greg Gard rounds out the list. Replacing Bo Ryan was never going to be simple, and Gard’s tenure has had its rough patches, but the results over the last three seasons are hard to ignore.
Wisconsin is 73-35 overall and 38-22 in the Big Ten in that span, despite sitting outside the top half of the league in spending. The Badgers also beat preseason expectations in 2025 and have been a No. 5 seed or better in each of the past three NCAA Tournaments.
In Other News...
Pitt's Breakout Win Comes With One Big Question Before Penn State
The Panthers 80-61 win over Buffalo was the kind of turnaround that can change the mood around a team in a hurry. After trailing by 13 at halftime, Pitt flipped the game with a dominant second half and got a major lift from Georgia Tech transfer Baye Ndongo, who controlled the paint, and freshman Chase Foster, who added 20 points as Jeff Capels group found its footing after a shaky start.
Now comes the part that matters even more for Pitts immediate outlook: whether that surge was a one-night fix or a sign of something sturdier before Penn State arrives. The comeback was Pitts biggest since the 2009-10 season, and it showed the Panthers can recover when things go sideways, but the real test is whether they can bring that same edge and consistency into a rivalry matchup where early mistakes are much harder to erase. [Read more 🡒]