Tennessee reportedly ready to spend big on basketball roster for next season
The Volunteers will be among the elite spenders in college basketball.
Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes arrives for NCAA Tournament Elite 8 round between Michigan and Tennessee at United Center in Chicago on Sunday, March 29, 2026. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images The NCAA Tournament will wrap up on Monday, then all the fun begins again. The college basketball transfer portal opens shortly after on Tuesday, opening up the always crazy roster movement portion of the season.
Tennessee has been a big player over the last few seasons in the transfer portal, landing elite guards like Dalton Knecht, Chaz Lanier and Ja’Kobi Gillespie. Nakos reports Tennessee is ready to enter the elite tier of spending, with Rick Barnes set to have over $10 million to spend on next year’s roster. Tennessee’s Rick Barnes and Kansas’ Bill Self will both be back for the 2026-27 season.
The Volunteers spent $8. 5 million on this year’s Elite Eight roster; that number is expected to jump over the $10 million mark. The Jayhawks spent over $10 million this past season, and with Self lobbying for more dollars, that could balloon up to $13 to $15 million.
This report goes along with some rumors we heard last week during the Elite Eight. In Chicago last week, Tennessee people were very enthusiastically telling reporters that Barnes was going to have a bigger war chest for next year. https://t.