Kentucky's Milan Momcilovic is reportedly one of the highest paid athletes in college sports

It took a ton of money to get Milan Momcilovic to Lexington.

Mar 22, 2026; St. Louis, MO, USA; Iowa State Cyclones forward Milan Momcilovic (22) speaks during the postgame press conference after the game against the Kentucky Wildcats during a second round game of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at Enterprise Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Le-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

In the new day and age of college sports, these athletes are making a ton of NIL money, and Kentucky basketball is one of the top spenders in all of college sports. Last season, a lot was made of the over 20 million the Wildcats spent on the roster, and now Kentucky is making NIL noise once again.

On3 just put out a list of the NIL valuations for the top ten highest-paid players in college sports, and one of them was a Kentucky basketball player. On3 believes that Kentucky spent six million dollars to land Iowa State transfer Milan Momcilovic. This had him listed as the second-highest-paid player in college sports behind Miami quarterback Darian Mensah.

NEW: Top 10 On3 NIL Valuations in College Sports💰https://t.co/UvYa8usnp8 pic.twitter.com/G9rXzBKGTq

— On3 (@On3) July 14, 2026

Another interesting name that was on this list was Kansas superstar freshman Tyran Stokes. Obviously, the Wildcats and Jayhawks went down to the wire for the #1 player in the 2026 class, but Bill Self was able to get the best of Mark Pope. According to this report from On3, Stokes is the tenth highest-paid player in all of college sports, bringing in five million dollars.

Some will look at this list and think schools are paying too much money to these players, but this is the type of money it takes to get these deals done. For Kentucky, they had to get Milan Momciloivc after missing on Stokes. If the staff hadn’t landed Momcilovic, this would have been a very bad Kentucky team, and Pope might not have been Kentucky’s coach next season. This is why giving him all of that money makes a ton of sense.

Iowa State Cyclones forward Milan Momcilovic (22) takes a shot against BYU during the first half in the Senior Day Big-12 conference showdown of an NCAA college basketball at Hilton Coliseum on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The surprising fact is that Flory Bidunga of Louisville and Momcilovic are both making more money than college football superstars Dante Moore and Jeremiah Smith. Knowing how much money they bring into their respective colleges, this did come as a big surprise to me. It just goes to show how much the college sports landscape has changed over the last decade, and these changes are nowhere close to being done.

When it is all said and done for the 2026-27 season of Kentucky basketball, I feel that it will be a no-brainer for Kentucky to have given Momcilovic this money. He is the best shooter in college basketball, so it is scary to think how good he will be in Pope’s system. College sports have truly become the Wild West.

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