Report: Indiana Basketball Is In The $10 Million Club

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Since NIL became part of the reality of college athletics, it’s always been assumed that Indiana has the resources to spend more on men’s basketball than most Division I programs.

A CBS Sports report by Matt Norlander on Monday seemed to confirm that belief.

Norlander reported that Indiana is one of 10 Division I schools that will be in the $10 million club for the 2025-26 season.

This number isn’t just achieved via NIL payouts. It also anticipates how much each school will spend on men’s basketball as part of the approximate $20 million spending cap expected to be put in place by the still unresolved House settlement.

The House settlement will initiate revenue sharing by schools, and 22% of their revenue will be paid to players across the breadth of their athletic department. It is expected to be a $20 million cap for 2026.

Specific numbers are hard to come by. NIL collectives are not subject to public records laws, so specific numbers paid to players are not public knowledge. Since the revenue sharing has not yet come into existence, those numbers aren’t yet publicly available, either.

However, Indiana has long been perceived as a program that has access to some of the best resources in the sport to fund men’s basketball.

Spending on all college sports has skyrocketed in the current transfer portal windows. With the House settlement creating a clearinghouse that will determine “fair market value” for any NIL deals above $600, many players are getting into the portal and demanding big money for their services.

If players secure those deals and are paid before July 1 when the proposed House settlement is supposed to go into effect, they will not be subject to the clearinghouse.

Add in the fact that the numbers aren’t public knowledge. It means the market for players has exploded in their favor. Teams over-spend not knowing what their competition is offering.

By some estimates, portal spending has doubled from the 2024 offseason.

Joining Indiana in the $10 million club are Arkansas, BYU, Duke, Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan, North Carolina, St. John’s and Texas Tech.

Two more Big Ten schools – Purdue and UCLA – are expected to spend $8 million on their rosters.

The CBS report also noted that schools and collectives are making their contracts more ironclad. The report cited one unnamed school where a player backed out of a contract by going into the portal. The unnamed school claimed it will get every penny back in return for the contract having been violated.

College football spending, where most schools intend to allocate much of their $20 million budgets, is also expected to rise dramatically with the spring football portal having opened a week ago.

So far, Indiana basketball has received commitments from Conor Enright, Tucker DeVries, Reed Bailey, Lamar Wilkerson, Jasai Miles and Tayton Conerway from the transfer portal. Incoming freshman Trent Sisley will also be on the team. Indiana still could add as many as nine more players to its roster.

How high will the expenditure go for the Hoosiers? Among the highest in the sport.

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