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Michigan basketball could have $10-million roster next season, per report

Apr. 18, 2025

7LC2BWHHR5CWLMV3FKGG6RTNXM.jpg


As NIL has exploded across college sports, the Michigan men’s basketball program has reportedly joined an exclusive club.

CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander wrote on Thursday that Michigan is among 10 teams that “either (has) $10 million committed already or (is) easily capable of reaching that total in roster-building efforts by the end of this year’s transfer cycle.”

Michigan coach Dusty May has certainly been busy since his season ended in the Sweet 16 on March 28. Michigan has added four marquee players: North Carolina guard Elliot Cadeau, Illinois forward Morez Johnson Jr., UAB star Yaxel Lendeborg, and UCLA center Aday Mara.

These days, that sort of talent isn’t cheap. “The sport is producing millionaire players on the regular,” Norlander wrote. He reported that multiple mid-major players who averaged fewer than 10 points for non-NCAA Tournament teams will each earn at least $400,000 next season.

“All of these numbers are insane,” an SEC assistant coach said for the story. “Going to have 4-5 guys [on our roster] making way more than me!”

In a radio interview earlier this month, May spoke about NIL in men’s college basketball.

“Our market allows the best players to be competitive with a second-round (NBA) contract,” he said. “Every year the market’s changing. … There might be a market correction next year, but the last couple years there’s been a boom in what the players are able to make and what the market says.”

By this time next year, many programs believe they’ll be dealing with revenue sharing and a government-imposed NIL “cap.”

May was asked how Michigan’s NIL situation had changed since he’d gotten the job a year earlier.

“It’s improved greatly, and there are a lot of reasons,” he said. “First and foremost, the way our players represent Michigan is probably the biggest reason for our NIL improvement. Another area is our staff does a great job of developing relationships. When people want to help, they want to feel good about who they’re helping and what it’s going to.”

He said Michigan’s budget was in a “much healthier place” than it was a year ago, though it’s worth noting the program snagged several transfers last offseason as well, including starters Danny Wolf, Vladislav Goldin, Rubin Jones, and Roddy Gayle Jr.

May cited Michigan’s official NIL collective, Champions Circle, for the group’s hard work. “We’ve embraced that part of it — getting boots on the ground and developing relationships and letting people know that what they’re giving is not just going into a black hole, but it’s going to help in a lot of ways.”

Norlander’s sources indicate 10 programs have (or will have soon) a $10-million budget for the 2025-26 season: established blue bloods like Duke, Indiana, Kentucky, and North Carolina; Arkansas and St. John’s, both led by Hall of Fame coaches; plus BYU, Louisville, Michigan, and Texas Tech. Michigan and Indiana are the only Big Ten teams in that upper tier.

Another group of schools, per the report, including three Big Ten teams, are at $8 million: Auburn, Connecticut, Florida, Houston, Kansas, Kansas State, Miami, Purdue, Tennessee, Texas, UCLA, USC, Villanova, and Virginia.

“If you’re a high-major program and don’t have at least $3 million (some would argue $4 million, at bare minimum) in NIL reserves in 2025,” Norlander wrote, “you’re in trouble.”

Michigan, at the moment, is not in trouble.
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continued

Just sayin':

1. In case you wondered how much NIL money a year it takes to field a basketball team that will compete for a BIG Championship, #1 seed in March Madness, and a National Championship. The answer is $10M!!! scUM had a BIG Conference Championship team in 2024/2025, had to totally rebuild in 2025/2026, and they did.

2. Re: Michigan and Indiana are the only Big Ten teams in that upper tier. Lets' give scUM and Dusty May credit here. $10M doesn't guarantee a contender; however, obviously they choose more wisely in who to offer the money to than Indiana did.

3. Re: Another group of schools, per the report, including three Big Ten teams, are at $8 million: Purdue, UCLA, and USC. I couldn't find any article that listed how much NIL money Ohio State basketball spent this past season; but apparently they were outspent by a lot of other schools including at least 5 in the B1G.
 
Upvote 0

Michigan basketball could have $10-million roster next season, per report

Apr. 18, 2025

7LC2BWHHR5CWLMV3FKGG6RTNXM.jpg


As NIL has exploded across college sports, the Michigan men’s basketball program has reportedly joined an exclusive club.

CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander wrote on Thursday that Michigan is among 10 teams that “either (has) $10 million committed already or (is) easily capable of reaching that total in roster-building efforts by the end of this year’s transfer cycle.”

Michigan coach Dusty May has certainly been busy since his season ended in the Sweet 16 on March 28. Michigan has added four marquee players: North Carolina guard Elliot Cadeau, Illinois forward Morez Johnson Jr., UAB star Yaxel Lendeborg, and UCLA center Aday Mara.

These days, that sort of talent isn’t cheap. “The sport is producing millionaire players on the regular,” Norlander wrote. He reported that multiple mid-major players who averaged fewer than 10 points for non-NCAA Tournament teams will each earn at least $400,000 next season.

“All of these numbers are insane,” an SEC assistant coach said for the story. “Going to have 4-5 guys [on our roster] making way more than me!”

In a radio interview earlier this month, May spoke about NIL in men’s college basketball.

“Our market allows the best players to be competitive with a second-round (NBA) contract,” he said. “Every year the market’s changing. … There might be a market correction next year, but the last couple years there’s been a boom in what the players are able to make and what the market says.”

By this time next year, many programs believe they’ll be dealing with revenue sharing and a government-imposed NIL “cap.”

May was asked how Michigan’s NIL situation had changed since he’d gotten the job a year earlier.

“It’s improved greatly, and there are a lot of reasons,” he said. “First and foremost, the way our players represent Michigan is probably the biggest reason for our NIL improvement. Another area is our staff does a great job of developing relationships. When people want to help, they want to feel good about who they’re helping and what it’s going to.”

He said Michigan’s budget was in a “much healthier place” than it was a year ago, though it’s worth noting the program snagged several transfers last offseason as well, including starters Danny Wolf, Vladislav Goldin, Rubin Jones, and Roddy Gayle Jr.

May cited Michigan’s official NIL collective, Champions Circle, for the group’s hard work. “We’ve embraced that part of it — getting boots on the ground and developing relationships and letting people know that what they’re giving is not just going into a black hole, but it’s going to help in a lot of ways.”

Norlander’s sources indicate 10 programs have (or will have soon) a $10-million budget for the 2025-26 season: established blue bloods like Duke, Indiana, Kentucky, and North Carolina; Arkansas and St. John’s, both led by Hall of Fame coaches; plus BYU, Louisville, Michigan, and Texas Tech. Michigan and Indiana are the only Big Ten teams in that upper tier.

Another group of schools, per the report, including three Big Ten teams, are at $8 million: Auburn, Connecticut, Florida, Houston, Kansas, Kansas State, Miami, Purdue, Tennessee, Texas, UCLA, USC, Villanova, and Virginia.

“If you’re a high-major program and don’t have at least $3 million (some would argue $4 million, at bare minimum) in NIL reserves in 2025,” Norlander wrote, “you’re in trouble.”

Michigan, at the moment, is not in trouble.
.
.
.
continued

Just sayin':

1. In case you wondered how much NIL money a year it takes to field a basketball team that will compete for a BIG Championship, #1 seed in March Madness, and a National Championship. The answer is $10M!!! scUM had a BIG Conference Championship team in 2024/2025, had to totally rebuild in 2025/2026, and they did.

2. Re: Michigan and Indiana are the only Big Ten teams in that upper tier. Lets' give scUM and Dusty May credit here. $10M doesn't guarantee a contender; however, obviously they choose more wisely in who to offer the money to than Indiana did.

3. Re: Another group of schools, per the report, including three Big Ten teams, are at $8 million: Purdue, UCLA, and USC. I couldn't find any article that listed how much NIL money Ohio State basketball spent this past season; but apparently they were outspent by a lot of other schools including at least 5 in the B1G.
They've always been willing to invest in basketball to a much greater degree than Ohio State. It means more to them. Our opinion seems to be that we'll be happy to ride a wave of success id we stumble into one, but there's only so much we"ll do to make it happen.
 
Upvote 0
They've always been willing to invest in basketball to a much greater degree than Ohio State. It means more to them. Our opinion seems to be that we'll be happy to ride a wave of success id we stumble into one, but there's only so much we"ll do to make it happen.

Yea especially since they know that they can't consistently compete at the highest level in football (without cheating) even when they splurge huge amounts of money (Like with Underwood) they put extra effort into making sure they are a high level winner in Hoops.
 
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