Six takeaways from college basketball's NIL arms race: UNC is spending big, what is the 'Duke discount'

CBS Sports contacted more than 100 sources to dive deep into what NIL looks like in college basketball this season CBS Sports spent over a month talking to over 100 sources to discover how much every power-conference college basketball team is spending this season on their respective rosters. The findings from CBS Sports college basketball writers Matt Norlander and Isaac Trotter were fascinating, with 11 programs projected to spend more than $20 million on their rosters during the 2026-27 campaign. Ten of those 11 teams (Texas Tech, Kentucky, Illinois, Texas, Florida, St. John's, Louisville, Duke, Tennessee and Michigan) were ranked in the preseason AP Top 25 poll earlier this week. The lone team in Tier 1 of spending that wasn't ranked in the first poll of the season?

North Carolina. The Tar Heels are entering a new era with Michael Malone at the helm of the program. The longtime NBA coach is a first-time college head coach who got a late start on the recruiting trail after being hired in early April. Malone took in six transfers, including former Virginia Tech star Neoklis Avdalas, and finished ranked No. 9 in the 247Sports team transfer rankings. It should come as no surprise that the biggest spenders in the sport make up a majority of the top teams in the AP Top