11 college football teams with $40 million rosters share one striking trait — except one

11 college football teams with million rosters share one striking trait — except one

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11 college football teams with million rosters share one striking trait — except one

11 college football teams with $40 million rosters share one striking trait — except one originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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What's the current price tag on winning in college football?

That all depends on the program and the situation, but the latest piece from The Athletic puts the topic into perspective. There are eleven teams that fall within the $40 million range for roster spending. All the ones many people would expect to be there.

The Ohio State Buckeyes lead the nation and are approaching $50 million. They're right at the mark along with the Oregon Ducks and Texas Longhorns, who round out the top three. They are all believed to be spending roughly $50 million. However, at No. 4, there is an outlier among the rest of the top spenders.

Can Lane Kiffin reverse the LSU Tigers misfortune?

LSU is right below OSU, Oregon and Texas, but the Tigers haven't made the College Football Playoff under the current format. In fact, they're the only team in the top 11 who've committed a near record amount of money toward player NIL deals with no postseason experience to show for it. This comes at a time when Kiffin is trying to rebuild in Baton Rouge, and LSU at-large is trying to drop insane amounts of money to make a better athletic department.

The Athletic’s college football staff believes LSU is spending $47-50 million per year. When you think about every player getting paid equally, which isn't a reality, that's $476,190 for all 105 players. There's no wonder why NFL rejects are trying to exhaust all their options because that's half of the rookie minimum.

There are two things to consider with the data from the Athletic. "Few people inside a football building know that number, and even if they do, many don’t feel comfortable sharing it, even anonymously. Even if they do spill, coaches often undersell the number, either to temper fans’ expectations or keep their players from asking for even more. Meanwhile, administrators want people to think the number is higher than it is so that they look like great fundraisers."

What teams are at the bottom of the list?

There was data compiled for 70 programs. Another thing that became painfully obvious with the bottom-feeding teams in the survey was a commitment to football. Boston College was the lowest in the Power Four with a range between $8-13 million. Four out of the bottom six programs are traditional basketball schools. Kansas, Arizona, Iowa State and Duke are all hovering around $15 million per year. 

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