Report: Villanova in Middle of the Pack in High-Major NIL Spending

College basketball has changed fundamentally since Jay Wright led Villanova to national championships in 2016 and 2018, the advent of Name, Image and Likeness deals and the free-for-all transfer portal leading to major roster turnover from year to year.

With schools now able to reimburse their athletes directly, finances are more important to program success than ever before… and based on an October report from CBS Sports, the Wildcats sit in the middle of the pack among high-major programs when it comes to their roster price tag, checking in somewhere between $12.1 million and $15 million along with fellow Big East programs like Creighton, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence and Xavier.

The upper spending limit exceeds $20 million, including Michigan and Florida, the last two national champions, perennial hopefuls like Duke, UNC and Kentucky and even St. John’s, which is pouring resources into basketball with legendary head coach Rick Pitino coming off consecutive Big East Tournament titles. UConn, picked to finish first in the conference in the preseason coaches poll, checked in just underneath the $20 million benchmark and won the two national titles before Michigan and Florida; Butler, DePaul and Seton Hall round out the conference with a price tag between $7.1 million and $9.9 million.

The raw data might put the cart before the horse, as it makes sense for teams that recently won a championship or made the Final Four to pour resources into another run, but the fact remains that there are at least 31 programs spending more on their roster than Villanova this season: only time will tell how the Wildcats’ payroll decisions pay off.