How much does Oklahoma's roster cost, compared to the rest of the SEC?
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Name, image, and likeness officially became a part of college football in the summer of 2021, and the sport has been changed forever since then. With the explosion of the transfer portal and the expansion of the College Football Playoff since then, things are very different now than they were just a few years ago.
College football has always had plenty of money flowing through it, but in the era of player empowerment, money now runs everything. There are always exceptions, but players and coaches are making decisions based almost entirely on money in the current era of the sport.
The Athletic's team of college football writers released a report this week outlining how much each roster costs this year for all 68 teams at the Power Four level. They reached out to coaches, general managers, personnel directors, athletic directors, agents, and more to get a gauge of how much the teams in the SEC, the Big Ten, the ACC, the Big 12, and Notre Dame are spending on their 2026 rosters.
College football’s most carefully guarded secret is the amount of money flowing to the players on each roster. The financial resources a program allocates to build its team each offseason dictate fair expectations for the next season, but precise figures are hard to come by. – The Athletic.
According to The Athletic, their numbers refer to the amount of money a school had at its disposal to assemble its roster this season. They don't include any player income the program doesn't manage or control, such as endorsements with national brands. The money comes from a combination of athletic department revenue, outside booster donations, and other sources that vary from school to school.
In today’s game, nothing is a better predictor of big-picture success than the money a coach has available to spend on acquiring and retaining talented players. And as schools reconstruct their rosters each offseason, they have to do their homework to understand the market in which they’re competing … Schools typically avoid making their exact player compensation information public, citing everything from state laws to student privacy concerns to competitive disadvantages, but many (though not all) provided at least some input into the ranges below. – The Athletic.
The Oklahoma Sooners ranked as the 20th-highest-spending program in the country this season, with an estimated budget of $28-34M. Ohio State topped the list with an estimated budget of $49-54M, while Boston College came in last with an estimated budget of $8-13M.
While simply spending the most money isn't a guaranteed way to win at the highest level, it's a pretty good indicator that a team has the talent to do so. The four teams that have participated in the national title game in the last two seasons (Ohio State, Notre Dame, Miami, and Indiana) are all inside the top 13 highest-spending programs this season.
Oklahoma, despite being one of the five-best programs in the history of college football, isn't spending nearly as much as plenty of other teams are on their roster in the NIL era. The Sooners are spending $20M less a year than the top-of-the-line rosters. Of course, OU doesn't have the money to outspend programs like Ohio State, Oregon, Texas, LSU, Texas A&M, Miami, Notre Dame, and Texas Tech, but a program that expects championships isn't really all that close to spending what recent champions have spent.
The Athletic also ranked the top spenders within the four conferences, with some interesting results. In the Big 12, Texas Tech is spending way more than everyone else, and that number would be higher if the program was still paying Brendan Sorsby the millions of dollars they had initially planned to. In the ACC, Miami is spending the most by far, as the Hurricanes are positioning themselves as the prevailing power in the league.
The Big Ten has two huge spenders, Ohio State and Oregon, but three other teams are also spending significantly more than everyone else. USC, Indiana, and Michigan are all inside the top 14 spenders nationally. The rest of the conference falls into two remaining tiers: average spending and below-average spending.
As for the SEC, that league might be the most interesting to dive into when it comes to this topic. We'll go through where each team ranks in the conference and nationally according to The Athletic, as there are some surprises when it comes to who is estimated to be spending more or less than others this year.
1. Texas Longhorns
- National Rank: 3rd
- Estimated Budget: $45-55M
2. LSU Tigers
- National Rank: 4th
- Estimated Budget: $47-50M
3. Texas A&M Aggies
- National Rank: 5th
- Estimated Budget: $45-50M
4. Ole Miss Rebels
- National Rank: 8th
- Estimated Budget: $39-45M
5. Tennessee Volunteers
- National Rank: 9th
- Estimated Budget: $41-43M
6. Alabama Crimson Tide
- National Rank: 10th
- Estimated Budget: $38-42M
7. Florida Gators
- National Rank: 15th
- Estimated Budget: $31-41M
8. South Carolina Gamecocks
- National Rank: 16th
- Estimated Budget: $32-35M
9. Auburn Tigers
- National Rank: 17th
- Estimated Budget: $31-35M
10. Georgia Bulldogs
- National Rank: 19th
- Estimated Budget: $31-34M
11. Oklahoma Sooners
- National Rank: 20th
- Estimated Budget: $28-34M
12. Missouri Tigers
- National Rank: 24th
- Estimated Budget: $27-30M
13. Mississippi State Bulldogs
- National Rank: 26th
- Estimated Budget: $25-30M
14. Vanderbilt Commodores
- National Rank: 29th
- Estimated Budget: $25-28M
15. Kentucky Wildcats
- National Rank: 31st
- Estimated Budget: $23-26M
16. Arkansas Razorbacks
- National Rank: 33rd
- Estimated Budget: $22-25M
Takeaways
Firstly, each of the 16 schools in the SEC ranks in the top half in estimated spending nationally. It is the only conference that can say that. However, when you are playing at least nine other such teams like that each season, it becomes important to be in the top half of that group.
Teams like Texas, LSU, and Texas A&M are always going to be able to spend the most, but Alabama being down in sixth place is noteworthy. The Crimson Tide are not as loaded as they seemingly were before the NIL era.
No one in the SEC is doing more with less than Kirby Smart and Georgia. Two straight conference championships and five straight SEC title game appearances with three total wins is doubly impressive when you consider the Bulldogs are spending in the league's bottom half.
For Oklahoma, this study's results show that they are certainly in the bottom half of the league and below the league average in spending, and their estimated budget is lower than every other team who could be considered a perennial contender in the conference. In fact, the Sooners spend less than at least a couple of teams that don't fit that description.
OU won't ever be able to spend at an obscene level like a handful of other programs nationally can, but spending the 11th-most in the SEC and 20th-most nationally means that there's a going to be a talent gap between Oklahoma and the highest-spending programs.
Like it or not, college football now revolves even more around money than it always has. Oklahoma made the College Football Playoff last season, beating out teams that certainly spend far more than they do. However, if the coaching staff and front office in Norman are going to continue to be given a budget of $20M less than the teams that spend the most, they'll have to find more creative ways to break through that talent ceiling, especially in big games against teams with deeper pockets.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: How much does Oklahoma's roster cost, compared to the rest of the SEC?
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