These 25 Colleges Spend the Most on Men’s Basketball

With the return of March Madness this year, the attention of American sports fans has been on college basketball and the NCAA Tournament. The three-week hoops fest is a high-profile event each year, with roughly 100 million viewers watching on TV.

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With so many eyeballs on the tournament, universities are willing to spend on their men’s basketball programs each year. But which programs spend the most?

GOBankingRates looked at U.S. Department of Education information on men’s basketball expenses for 2018-2019, then added information about men’s NCAA Tournament berths, Final Four appearances and titles.

Most of the schools on this list are no shock, with perennial powers such as Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and Michigan State. Other names might surprise, as five universities on the list don’t have a single Final Four appearance.

Read on to see where your school ranks.

• Expenses: $10,554,613
• Appearances: 22
• Final Fours: 0
• Titles: 0

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• Expenses: $10,646,711
• Appearances: 1
• Final Fours: 0
• Titles: 0

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• Expenses: $10,798,893
• Appearances: 29
• Final Fours: 2
• Titles: 0

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• Expenses: $10,996,364
• Appearances: 33
• Final Fours: 11
• Titles: 1

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• Expenses: $11,013,283
• Appearances: 26
• Final Fours: 1
• Titles: 0

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• Expenses: $11,117,186
• Appearances: 20
• Final Fours: 2
• Titles: 0

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• Expenses: $11,204,115
• Appearances: 50
• Final Fours: 20
• Titles: 6

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• Expenses: $11,649,912
• Appearances: 34
• Final Fours: 3
• Titles: 0

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• Expenses: $11,818,860
• Appearances: 14
• Final Fours: 0
• Titles: 0

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• Expenses: $12,338,645
• Appearances: 17
• Final Fours: 1
• Titles: 0

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• Expenses: $12,547,439
• Appearances: 48
• Final Fours: 15
• Titles: 3

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• Expenses: $13,230,211
• Appearances: 39
• Final Fours: 8
• Titles: 5

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• Expenses: $13,400,721
• Appearances: 23
• Final Fours: 3
• Titles: 1

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• Expenses: $13,573,946
• Appearances: 30
• Final Fours: 5
• Titles: 1

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• Expenses: $14,395,851
• Appearances: 33
• Final Fours: 10
• Titles: 2

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• Expenses: $14,428,932
• Appearances: 39
• Final Fours: 6
• Titles: 3

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• Expenses: $14,845,555
• Appearances: 40
• Final Fours: 6
• Titles: 1

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• Expenses: $14,979,149
• Appearances: 33
• Final Fours: 3
• Titles: 1

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• Expenses: $15,468,381
• Appearances: 49
• Final Fours: 18
• Titles: 11

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• Expenses: $15,718,763
• Appearances: 8
• Final Fours: 0
• Titles: 0

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• Expenses: $15,966,875
• Appearances: 21
• Final Fours: 0
• Titles: 0

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• Expenses: $16,773,013
• Appearances: 17
• Final Fours: 1
• Titles: 0

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• Expenses: $19,180,078
• Appearances: 43
• Final Fours: 10
• Titles: 3

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• Expenses: $20,202,558
• Appearances: 59
• Final Fours: 17
• Titles: 8

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• Expenses: $22,178,473
• Appearances: 43
• Final Fours: 16
• Titles: 5

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Methodoloy: For this piece, GOBankingRates used the United States Department of Education’s “Equity in Athletics Data Analysis” (EADA) dataset to find (1) men’s basketball expenses for all NCAA Division I schools all in FY18-19 data (the most recent available). Only the top 25 schools in terms of factor (1) were included in the final list. For those 25 schools, GOBankingRates also found (2) the number of men’s basketball championships won; (3) the number of men’s NCAA tournament appearances; and (4) the number of men’s Final Fours, all sourced from ESPN. All data was collected on and up to date as of March 1, 2021.