A new look at college basketball’s money game has put a spotlight on the coaches squeezing the most out of modest roster budgets, and Purdue’s Matt Painter sits at the top of that list.
CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander and Isaac Trotter published a sweeping investigation Wednesday into high-major roster spending for the 2026-27 season, breaking programs into tiers after months of research. It’s the clearest picture yet of how NIL-era budgets are shaping men’s basketball, and one of the biggest takeaways comes from the coaches thriving in the middle and lower spending bands.
Painter is the headliner. Purdue landed in Tier 6, which covers budgets from $7.1 million to $9.9 million, placing the Boilermakers in the same general range as Utah, Northwestern, DePaul and Penn State.
Even so, Painter keeps Purdue operating like a far richer program. His teams keep winning, keep retaining players and keep standing toe-to-toe with schools spending far more.
Here are the tiers used in the reporting:
Tier 1: $20 million plus
Tier 2: Just under $20 million
Tier 3: $15.1 million to $17.5 million
Tier 4: $12.1 million to $15 million
Tier 5: $10 million to $12 million
Tier 6: $7.1 million to $9.9 million
Tier 7: $5 million to $7 million
Painter is the clear No. 1 on the list of coaches outperforming their roster budgets, but he’s far from alone.
Nate Oats checks in at No. 2 after building Alabama into a force despite sitting in Tier 4. Thirteen of the SEC’s 16 schools spend at least one tier above the Crimson Tide, yet Oats has still delivered a Final Four in 2024, four straight trips past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, league titles in 2021 and 2023, and no worse than a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament under his watch. Alabama has also become an NBA pipeline, with Oats producing five first-round picks.
At No. 3 is TJ Otzelberger, whose run at Iowa State keeps getting more impressive. He has made the NCAA Tournament in all five seasons at the school, reached three Sweet 16s and taken the Cyclones to a No. 3 seed or better in each of the past three years. That’s a massive turnaround from the 2-22 team he inherited, and his 2026-27 squad is ranked No. 12 in Gary Parrish’s Top 25 And 1.
Fred Hoiberg comes next at No. 4, and Nebraska’s place in Tier 5 fits the program’s history. The Cornhuskers had never even won an NCAA Tournament game before this past season, but Hoiberg has pushed them into new territory. 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 stretch for the first time since the early 1990s.
Ben McCollum lands at No. 5 after one season at Iowa. It’s a tiny sample, but the early signs are loud. McCollum guided the Hawkeyes to a stunning Elite Eight run in his first year, and the article points out that the challenge in 2026-27 will be replacing Bennett Stirtz, now with the Oklahoma City Thunder after playing for McCollum at three different schools.
Kyle Smith is sixth after two seasons at Stanford, where the Cardinal are 41-27 and 20-18 in the ACC while working with one of the lowest budgets among high-major programs. Stanford narrowly missed the 2026 NCAA Tournament, but Smith has already pushed the team well beyond preseason expectations in back-to-back years.
Jamie Dixon, ranked seventh, has kept TCU in the tournament mix with a program that had been to just one NCAA Tournament in the previous 30 years before his arrival. The Horned Frogs have made four of the past five NCAA Tournaments under Dixon, even if they have yet to break through to the second weekend.
Ryan Odom sits at No. 8 after a blistering start at Virginia. In his first season, the Cavaliers won 30 games, earned a No. 3 seed and finished No. 17 in KenPom after opening the year at No. 59.
Georgia’s Mike White is ninth. The Bulldogs rank last in SEC spending, according to the investigation, but White has still delivered consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time since the early 2000s and managed a 10-8 SEC mark with a roster in the $10 million to $12 million range.
Greg Gard rounds out the top 10. Wisconsin has gone 73-35 over the past three seasons and 38-22 in Big Ten play despite spending outside the top half of the league. The Badgers have also been a No. 5 seed or better in each of the past three NCAA Tournaments, another sign that Gard continues to get more out of his roster than the budget might suggest.
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