Indiana’s men’s basketball program has landed in the conversation among the sport’s biggest NIL spenders ahead of the 2026-27 season, according to a CBS Sports report from Matt Norlander and Isaac Trotter.
The Hoosiers are not quite in the top tier that reportedly includes Kentucky, Duke, Florida, North Carolina and Illinois, all of which are said to be spending more than $20 million on their rosters this year. Indiana is just behind that group, sitting with Arkansas, Kansas and UConn and coming close to the $20 million mark.
That kind of financial push has become part of the broader picture at Indiana Athletics, which has built a strong NIL operation. And while the school is not among the biggest spenders in most sports, it has clearly backed Darian DeVries’ men’s basketball program as well.
There are no public figures for most programs, but Norlander and Trotter’s reporting offers one of the clearest looks at how the money is flowing around college basketball.
For Indiana, the spending lines up with the shape of the roster overhaul. DeVries had to rebuild quickly after nearly everyone from his first team either ran out of eligibility or entered the portal, with sophomore Trent Sisley the lone holdover.
The roster makeover also came with a change in style and personnel. Indiana added size and skill in the frontcourt and brought more speed to the backcourt, and that kind of reset does not come cheap. The staff moved fast, too, locking in nearly all of the key pieces within a matter of weeks instead of stretching the process out over a month.
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Purdue Needs A Much Cleaner Response After That Opening Loss
Purdues season opened with a reminder that even a veteran program can be forced to reset in a hurry. Matt Painters team dropped its opener to No. 15 Gonzaga, only the second time in his 22 seasons in West Lafayette that the Boilermakers have started with a loss, and the performance left plenty of room for a cleaner showing as the schedule moves on.
There were still some encouraging individual signs in the loss, with center Daniel Jacobsen giving Purdue a scoring presence inside and newcomer Caden Pierce making an immediate impact in his debut. The next chance to settle things down comes against Valparaiso, which arrives with some momentum after opening its own season with a win over Western Illinois, and Purdue will be looking for a more polished response. [Read more 🡒]
Purdue Gets A Maryland Team Thats Reeling But Still Dangerous
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For Purdue, that makes Maryland a tricky opponent rather than a comfortable one. The Terrapins have been in a number of close conference games, which is usually enough to keep a team dangerous even when the record says otherwise, and the Boilermakers will need to treat this like a real test instead of a get-right spot. The late-game swings have been a theme for Maryland all season, and that kind of volatility can make a struggling team harder to pin down than its standings line suggests. [Read more 🡒]
Purdue Faces A Progress Test It Cant Afford To Fail
Purdue enters this matchup with a chance to show the progress that has been building in recent weeks, and the timing matters. Maryland has been going the other way, with a six-game losing streak and a coaching change adding even more uncertainty to a program already searching for answers. For the Boilermakers, this is the kind of game that can either validate the improvement people have been pointing to or remind everyone how fragile momentum can be in November.
The conversation around this one keeps circling back to whether Purdue can control the parts of the game it should control. The Boilermakers will need steadiness on offense and a clean overall performance to avoid letting a struggling opponent hang around, and the details in this matchup figure to matter more than the records suggest. It is the sort of test that can say a lot about where Purdue really is, even before the final score tells the rest of the story. [Read more 🡒]