What $1 million will buy in today’s college basketball NIL market

What $1 million will buy in today’s college basketball NIL market originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

With the transfer portal window open for college basketball, there’s always the question of who’s available on the market and what a certain player is demanding. For example, the top portal talent this cycle was Kansas center Flory Bidunga, who came with a pretty heavy cost.

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After one good season under coach Bill Self, the big man was reportedly asking around $5 million for his services, and apparently signed, sealed and delivered himself to Louisville. This is the rare exception or outlier for the current market, according to basketball analytics guru Evan Miyakawa. However, the five positions are one programs are overpaying for right now.

“To obtain a center or a point guard who are equivalent in talent level, it would cost $1.3 million for the center, while only $813,000 for the point guard,” Miyakawa wrote. “That means, in this market, it costs 61% more NIL dollars to get a center of the same caliber as a point guard.”

As for $1 million overall, some programs can’t compete with the rising costs of trying to maintain a top-tier roster. Look at Kentucky’s spending last year, which was reportedly over $20 million for 15 players. Yet, the blue-chips Mark Pope brought to Lexington might’ve been a bargain under Miyakawa’s figures. A top-450 player in the nation will run programs roughly $1 million-plus right now.

What $1 million can net in college basketball?

“Let’s pretend that a team had $1,000,000 to spend on an extra player. For the sake of this example, let’s assume they already have rotation pieces figured out and are willing to either get a starter-level PG or C to add to the mix,” Miyakawa added.

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“Based on the high demand for centers, they could reasonably get a big with a projected Bayesian Performance Rating next season of 3.9. A player of that caliber would be a…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/1-million-buy-todays-college-192729948.html

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Publish date : 2026-04-14 19:27:00

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