Top 20 Biggest Spending College Basketball Programs

Earlier in the week we told you which college football programs in the country spend the most money.  As promised, I said I’d do some digging to find out which college basketball programs spend the most money.  Well, courtesy of Business of College Sports, here’s your list of the top 20 biggest spenders in college basketball:

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20.  Oklahoma St.

EXPENSES: $5,658,993

REVENUE: $12,262,241

PROFIT: $6,603,248

19.  Washington

EXPENSES: $5,702,562

REVENUE: $10,474,040

PROFIT: $4,771,478

18.  Maryland

EXPENSES: $6,062,659

REVENUE: $10,965,638

PROFIT: $4,902,979

17.  Texas A&M

EXPENSES: $6,340,072

REVENUE: $9,786,655

PROFIT: $3,446,583

16.  Wisconsin

EXPENSES: $6,394,547

REVENUE: $16,353,313

PROFIT: $9,958,766

15.  North Carolina

EXPENSES: $6,510,942

REVENUE: $19,672,012

PROFIT: $13,161,070

14.  UCLA

EXPENSES: $6,702,818

REVENUE: $11,621,364

PROFIT: $4,918,546

13.  Alabama

EXPENSES: $6,819,080

REVENUE: $11,016,184

PROFIT: $4,197,104

12.  Tennessee

EXPENSES: $6,863,233

REVENUE: $13,785,893

PROFIT: $6,922,660

11.  Arizona

EXPENSES: $6,918,239

REVENUE: $21,209,980

PROFIT: $14,291,741

EXPENSES: $13,819,529

REVENUE: $28,917,329

PROFIT: $15,097,800

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I have to admit that I’m fairly surprised that Marquette, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, and UCLA are all ahead of the Tar Heels in spending.  To me, that’s just crazy, especially when you compare the bottom lines.  How impressive is North Carolina’s ability to manage costs towards generating hefty income? They make almost as much money as Duke, but spend half as much as their biggest rival.  Then there’s Louisville who blows pretty much everybody out of the water- who knew?

Now, click here to find out which colleges generate the most revenue from both, basketball and football operations.

Raju Kansagra
Raju is a former Wall St. trader turned renaissance man living and working in the New York City area. He graduated from Boston College with degrees in Finance and Philosophy. Born and raised in NJ, he's traveled the globe. He's an ambitious entrepreneur who has worked with some of the brightest minds in business, IT, medicine, real estate, hospitality, law, finance, and most importantly college sports.