Once again CBS Sports presents our annual Candid Coaches series, which spotlights relevant topics and issues in men’s college basketball. Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander polled roughly 100 coaches in recent weeks on a variety of subjects. Coaches spoke on background and were provided anonymity to offer unfiltered opinions. This is the second installment in our 2025 survey.
Talk to any sitting athletic director these days, and most of them will tell you that among the toughest decisions they’ve had to make in the past year is how to divide the up to $20.5 million their departments are now allowed to share annually with athletes.
How much of that should go to men’s basketball?
It’s a question with lots of answers — answers largely connected to whether schools have or do not have an FBS football program and/or how much a particular school cares about the hardwood. Put another way, every institution with an FBS football program is spending the bulk of its money on football, in part because of the number of players needed to field a team, in part because football is the driving economic force on most campuses. But the breakdowns are much different at schools without FBS football because at schools without FBS football the basketball programs are, in some cases, getting up to 95% of the money.
Candid Coaches: Who will be the best men’s college basketball team this season?
Matt Norlander
(This is why multiple Big East and Atlantic 10 men’s basketball programs currently have more money in their budgets than some SEC, Big Ten,…
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