“Auburn went to Final Four without spending $10 million”: Fans unfazed by most expensive rosters feat. Duke, UNC, BYU, and more
Behind the success of Auburn, Florida and others, the biggest spending program across the men's basketball space have been unable to buy fans' unwavering support. According to CBS' Matt Norlander, 10 teams are supposed to invest at least $10 million to retain and bring in players for their 2025-26 season rosters.
These include John Calipari's Arkansas, Jon Scheyer's Duke, Mark Pope's Kentucky and Kevin Young's BYU among six other schools.
However, many fans surprisingly reamain indifferent, highlighting that financial investment to attain top-tier talent doesn't gurantee a championship run.
"It’s going to be funny when the Built teams win it all instead of the Bought teams," one wrote.
"And yet Purdue or Houston probably will be #1 team in the country next year," another added.
"IU with a 10 million dollar roster, just to play in the NIT😂😂😂," one ocommented.
More fans backed up the perspective:
"I’ll bet that $10Ms none of these teams win it all tho," one wrote.
"Man what happened to good old fashioned school programs 😂 used to go to college to get a higher knowledge of the game. Earned💪🏼!! Not given💰 Cmon man," another added.
"Peep how auburn went to the final four without spending 10 mil," one commented.
How did Auburn, Houston and the other Final Four teams spend?
Bruce Pearl's Auburn, who held the AP No. 1 rank for a significant stretch last season, was the third highest spender in the Final Four this season. Its atheltic department reportedly invested around $16 million on men's basketball program in the 2023-24 academic year. The program generated a little over $5 million in total revenue.
It was trailed by Houston, which poured over $12.55 million during the same stretch. Florida had spent $8.85 million a year before. It's the latest data available for the program. The Duke Blue Devils had the biggest budget of them all, spending $21.4 million in the same stretch as the 2025 NCAA champions.
Universities' budgets and profits usually come out months after a season has ended. So, fans will have to wait to learn the exact figures behind the operation of all the Final Four teams.