CBB Coaches, Insiders Reveal NIL Costs for Transfers; Up to $2M for High-End Players

The men's college basketball transfer portal has seen a bevy of big-time stars changing teams, including First-team All-Big East point guard Kadary Richmond (Seton Hall to St. John's), Second-team All-Big Ten wing AJ Storr (Wisconsin to Kansas) and AAC co-Player of the Year Johnell Davis (FAU to Arkansas).

It's unclear how much exactly transfers are they getting paid through NIL (name, image and likeness), but anonymous sources—including a "behind-the-scenes power broker" and 2 head coaches—revealed to Kyle Tucker of The Athletic that the number is well into the seven figures and perhaps as high as $2 million.

"Starter: $200,000-$300,000. All-conference: $500,000-$750,000. High-end: $800,000-$2 million," one source said.

All five sources who spoke to The Athletic listed figures no less than $200,000 for starters, with all-conference players around a half million or even more.

"Depends on position," one source said. "An all-conference guard could be looking at $450,000-$600,000 and, as they've gotten more scarce, $600,000-$800,000. For bigs, what was $600,000-plus for an all-conference player is now over $1 million."

One of the sources was quite high with his figures.

"Starter: $500,000. All-conference: $800,000-$1 million. Top guys: Well over $1 million. Some teams are getting wild as well with money in the portal."

As for who those teams are, it's fair to wager some guesses. One insider told The Athletic that "Baylor, Arkansas and Louisville have helped the market," and another source mentioned those three while adding pointing toward Indiana, Alabama and Kentucky as the offseason's biggest spenders.

All of those schools have made waves in the transfer portal. Outside of the aforementioned names, big man Oumar Bello notably left Arizona for Indiana, Miami forward Norchad Omier and Duke guard Jeremy Roach transferred to Baylor and Rutgers center Clifford Omoruyi is now a member of the Crimson Tide.