MARLER: NIL era sends college hoops spending into overdrive
04/01/2025
By Chris Marler
College basketball is having a moment.
To be fair, it usually has its moment in the sun every March during the tournament. The product put on the court this year across the country has been awesome and arguably the deepest, yet evenly talented collections of teams and players.
The NIL Era doesn’t care about your history. The transfer portal doesn’t care how many banners you have in the rafters collecting dust and dating back to before we landed on the moon. The new age of college sports is here, and it is as flawed and chaotic as it is beautiful, deserving, and life changing.
We all knew the time was coming when players could get paid.
Let me rephrase – players could get paid actual American dollars and not a free Dodge Charger to lease for 3-4 years after signing day. No one’s surprised that money is changing hands—but the sheer amount going in and out is honestly pretty shocking.
A few years ago, Nebraska’s head coach Matt Rhule brought up very candidly to the media that signing a quarterback in the transfer portal would cost between $1 and $1.5 million. That was the market and that was the going rate. I remember hearing that and wondering how the market had been set that quickly, at that price, and by that crop of quarterbacks.
Keep in mind, just two years prior to Rhule saying that, we saw the first brand deals and partnerships roll out all at once. But, it wasn’t with million dollar deals. Auburn quarterback Bo Nix posted a brand deal with Milo’s sweet tea at 12:01 AM on the first day it was legal to make money.
The next morning, Miami quarterback, D’eriq King, landed one of the biggest deals that anyone in the sport had seen at that point. It was for $20,000 and it was for College Hunk Movers. That was not that long ago. Last year’s quarterback transfer to Miami? He (Cam Ward) got a reported $1.5 million. This year’s quarterback transfer to Miami? He got a reported $4 million, a new Lamborghini, and a very public breakup. How the hell did we go from the TEMU version of Two Men and a Truck to living like Jordan Belfort?
Insert the Ron Burgundy “that escalated quickly” gif.
Basketball is no different this year. According to a report from On3, the going rate for point guards at Power Four schools is between $2 and $3 million. That’s, in large part, because of the first domino to fall when former New Mexico guard Donovan Dent got a reported $3 million to go to UCLA. He picked UCLA over Kentucky—and it wasn’t because the Wildcats didn’t offer plenty of green. Both teams met the offer.
“If you can score, you’re going to get paid,” a source said. “It seems if you’re averaging 15 to 18 a night in the Power Four, you’re going to get close to a million.”
Even LSU has entered the fray. They dropped a cool $2 million on Dedan Thomas, a guard out of UNLV who averaged over 18 ppg last year and is a top ten player in this cycle. However, LSU won only three games last year in SEC play. Coach Matt McMahon was given public support for a fourth year as head coach. That came along with some financial backing, as well.
That’s really the market and everything that has dictated it. The pressure, the short leash, and the emotional arms race that boosters and athletic departments are constantly spending, building, and raising money to do it all over again.
It’s like watching a doomsday prepper in West Texas doing everything he can to win over lottery picks and Elite 11 quarterbacks. However, in this story, they’re not preparing for Armageddon, they’re preparing to not have another 8-4 season.
Whatever it takes. Money isn’t real in most college sports in general, but it’s especially true in the SEC. I mean, just imagine explaining this scenario to Dave Ramsey.
You give Matt McMahon $2.8 million dollars to keep your basketball program in a position as one of the best in the SEC like it usually is.
He then won just 3 conference games in year three as the head coach. You then make the rational (and in my opinion correct) decision to keep him for another year and trust his plan and process.
Then, you give him several million dollars more to go spend the equivalent of his annual salary on one player.
And why? To support him and hopefully help him win. The $5 to $8 million dollars you’re going to spend on this roster and his salary for the 2025-2026 season is an investment into giving him the resources to succeed. You have to. You have to spend money to win games. You have to buy players to win games. And you have to spend around $5 million now so you can – wait for it – paying him over $10 million in his buyout next year.
Let me be clear that no part of this is a negative finger pointing or scoffing at LSU and McMahon. I’m simply most familiar with the details in comparison to other schools or players. I’m glad they’re taking the patient route and giving him a fourth year. And hopefully he finds a few Walter Claytons, Marks Sears, and Chaz Laniers in the portal for next season.
But above all else hopefully all of those things are accomplished without every portal window resulting in exponentially increased spending like the government. Sheesh.