NIL arms race: Matt Painter leads ranking of college basketball coaches outperforming their roster budgets

Purdue's Matt Painter and Alabama's Nate Oats lead a group of high-major coaches routinely beating college basketball's biggest spenders on a fraction of the budget

Oct 23, 2026 at 7:45 am ET • 5 min read

Wednesday's bombshell investigation from CBS Sports' Matt Norlander and Isaac Trotter into college basketball roster spending is loaded with insights. The piece, published after months of meticulous research, breaks down the budgets and values of high-major college basketball teams into tiers for the 2026-27 season.

It is the most thorough look yet during the NIL era into what programs are actually spending on men's basketball, and it will shape narratives around the sport during the 2026-27 season. One of the many takeaways from a rare under-the-hood examination of the sport's financial inner workings comes from looking at tiers 4-7.

Inhabiting these rungs of the sport's financial ladder are some overachieving coaches with relatively limited spending power. Look no further than Purdue's Matt Painter as the prime example. The Boilermakers landed in Tier 6 ($7.1 million to $9.9 million) for the 2026-27 season. For context, that puts Purdue in the same neighborhood as programs like Utah, Northwestern, DePaul and Penn State.

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Yet, Painter's teams routinely perform as well or better than the high-dollar programs in tiers 1-3. Painter is just one example of a high-major college basketball coach doing more with less.

For reference, here are the tiers used in the reporting:

Tier 1: $20 million plus
Tier 2: Just under $20 million
Tier 3: $15.1 million to $17.5 million
Tier 4: $12.1 million to $15 million
Tier 5: $10 million to $12 million
Tier 6: $7.1 million to $9.9 million
Tier 7: $5 million to $7 million

Here is a ranking of the 10 coaches who are overperforming relative to their spending power.

1. Matt Painter (Tier 6)

Seeing a perennial power like Purdue in Tier 6 was one of the more shocking revelations of the Norlander/Trotter investigation. The Boilermakers have never been viewed as crazy spenders, but the article underscored just how remarkable a job Painter does on an annual basis.

Continuity is the bedrock of his program, and it says something about how well-respected he is that the Boilermakers are able to thrive in retention with unremarkable resources. No one else in Tier 6 is even in Purdue's neighborhood when it comes to program quality. The only school in Tier 5 that can hold a candle to Purdue is Iowa State.

2. Nate Oats (Tier 4)

Of the SEC's 16 schools, 13 are at least one tier above Alabama in spending. The Crimson Tide share a neighborhood with Mississippi State yet produce wins as if they are billionaire-backed blue blood. Oats authored the program's first-ever Final Four run in 2024, and the Crimson Tide have been past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament each of the past four years. They won double league titles in 2021 and 2023 and have never been worse than a No. 6 seed for the Big Dance under Oats' direction.

Furthermore, the Crimson Tide are producing NBA talent, which speaks to Oats' player development. He's got five first-round picks on his resume. Oats can be a polarizing figure, but there's no debate that he's maximizing Alabama's resources in the nation's most cash-happy league.

3. TJ Otzelberger (Tier 5)

Entering Year 6 at Iowa State, Otzelberger is 5 for 5 on reaching the NCAA Tournament, has three Sweet 16 appearances and has led the Cyclones to a No. 3 seed or better each of the past three seasons. 

Given the status of the program he inherited, those achievements are even more remarkable. The Cyclones went 2-22 the year before Otzelberger arrived from South Dakota State. He immediately crafted an elite defense with a roster ranking No. 340 in KenPom's minutes continuity metric and guided the Cyclones to the Sweet 16. His 2026-27 team ranks No. 12 in Gary Parrish's Top 25 And 1.

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4. Fred Hoiberg (Tier 5)

As a football school without much of a basketball history, Nebraska's landing spot in Tier 5 made sense. The Cornhuskers had never even won an NCAA Tournament game before this past season. Why would they dump extravagant resources into basketball? Against that backdrop, what Hoiberg has done over the past three seasons stands out. It's the first time in program history Nebraska has won 20+ games in three consecutive years and the first time since the early 1990s that it has been to at least two NCAA Tournaments in a three-year span.

5. Ben McCollum (Tier 6)

This is based on just a one-year sample size, but would anyone be surprised if McCollum builds Iowa into a perennial player in the Big Ten? After guiding the Hawkeyes on a stunning Elite Eight run in his first season, he's on a great early trajectory.

The trick in 2026-27 will be to replace do-it-all guard Bennett Stirtz, who is with the Oklahoma City Thunder after playing for McCollum at three different schools. The Hawkeyes didn't make any headlines with their offseason acquisitions, but what teams in the Tier 5/6 realm did? For these coaches, it's about doing more with less, and the early returns on McCollum are that he's built to do exactly that.

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6. Kyle Smith (Tier 7)

Stanford is 41-27 (20-18 ACC) through two seasons at Stanford while operating on one of the lowest budgets of any high-major program. The Cardinal narrowly missed the 2026 NCAA Tournament but have over-performed in a significant way under Smith's direction. The 2025 team finished 18 spots higher at KenPom than expected in the preseason, and last year's squad finished 27 spots higher than its preseason projection.

7. Jamie Dixon (Tier 5)

Dixon has reached four of the past five NCAA Tournaments with a program that had been to one Big Dance in the previous 30 years before his arrival. TCU hasn't yet gone beyond the first weekend, but Dixon always molds a gritty and competitive team with middling resources.

8. Ryan Odom (Tier 4)

Tier 4 is by no means the poor house, but it still requires a deft roster-building touch and significant coaching acumen. Odom is off to an unbelievable start after winning 30 games in his first season at Virginia. The Cavaliers earned a No. 3 seed for the NCAA Tournament and finished at No. 17 in KenPom after carrying a preseason ranking of No. 59.

9. Mike White (Tier 5)

Georgia ranks last in the SEC in spending, according to the investigation. Yet, the Bulldogs have made consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances under White for the first time since the early 2000s. To reach 10-8 in SEC play with a roster in the $10-12 million range is evidence of White's coaching acumen.

10. Greg Gard (Tier 5)

Replacing a legend like Bo Ryan is never easy, and Gard's tenure hasn't always been a smooth ride. But the Badgers are 73-35 (38-22 Big Ten) over the past three seasons, despite ranking outside the top half of the league in spending. Wisconsin significantly outperformed preseason expectations in 2025 and has been a No. 5 seed or better in each of the past three NCAA Tournaments.