Study: College basketball NIL spending surges to $932.5 million for 2025-26 season

Since the NIL era began in 2021, college basketball has seen a surge in spending. In 2025-26, an estimated $932.5 million was spent on NIL products and services for men’s and women’s basketball, according to a study from Opendorse.

The surge in spending comes in Year 5 of the NIL era and also includes revenue-sharing for the first time. For comparison, in Year 1, schools spent an estimated $314.4 million on NIL products and services for college basketball. That number included both commercial NIL deals and dollars from collectives.

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Roster construction has also changed during the NIL era. For high-major men’s basketball programs, freshmen and senior stars are considered the biggest earners, making 4-7 times more than sophomores. Rotational players also earn roughly 15-25% less than starters while bench players make 30-55% less.

The power conferences – the Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, SEC and Big East – spend between $7 million and $10 million on a roster, on average, according to Opendorse. For comparison, power conference women’s basketball rosters average between $1 million and $5 million.

From there, the “B Tier” rosters in men’s basketball cost between $2 million and $5 million. Conferences in that category include the American, Atlantic 10, Mountain West, Pac-12 and Horizon League. Other low- and mid-major leagues have rosters between $1 million and $2 million in the “C Tier.”

How rev-share impacts college basketball

This season is the first during which college basketball players can receive dollars directly from schools through revenue-sharing, thanks to the landmark House settlement. As a result, the amount of money from collectives plummeted, and more than $500 million in “collegiate” dollars – also known as rev-share payments – came in for those athletes.

Through the 2025-26 campaign, men’s basketball receives an average rev-share cap allocation of $4.2 million, according to Opendorse. For women’s basketball, that figure is $1.4 million. But there are also ways to maximize the “over the cap” dollars and create more outside NIL opportunities for athletes.

Of course, the transfer portal will also open after the men’s and women’s basketball national championships, respectively. More than 2,500 players entered the portal last cycle when the window opened after the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament.

According to Opendorse’s analysis, players who moved up to high-major programs from mid-majors saw their earnings increase by more than 540%. On the flip side, players who went from high-majors to mid-majors saw a 35% decrease in their earnings.

March Madness’ strong earning potential

The NCAA tournament remains the prime opportunity for college basketball players to cash in through NIL. In fact, from 2022-25, men’s basketball NIL earnings during the NCAA tournament increased by 92%, according to findings from Opendorse.

Women’s basketball, meanwhile, outpaced NIL earnings for the men’s game in 2023-24 as TV ratings skyrocketed that season. That was also the final seasons for big names such as Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese before they graduated and headed to the WNBA.

Some of the biggest names in college sports are on the women’s basketball side, including some of the most-followed basketball players. LSU guard Flau’jae Johnson leads the group with 4.12 million across X, TikTok and Instagram, while USC guard JuJu Watkins has 1.59 million and UConn guard Azzi Fudd has 1.47 million.

On the men’s side, two Sacramento State players – Mikey Williams and Shaqir O’Neal – lead the way with 5.18 million followers and 4.26 million, respectively. Only two of the Top 10 men’s basketball players, BYU star AJ Dybantsa (1.23 million) and Alabama guard Jalil Bethea (998,000) are expected to play in March Madness this year. Arizona guard Bryce James has 2.9 million followers, but is redshirting.