Mark Pope wasn’t kidding when he said Kentucky was “going big.” New reports confirm the Wildcats’ 2025-26 roster is the most expensive in college basketball — by a mile. The final number? Over $22 million… and it’s still climbing. Let’s break down how Kentucky became the sport’s biggest spender overnight.
When Mark Pope joked that his second roster at Kentucky had a payroll “close to $200 million,” it sounded like classic coach humor. But the truth? It’s not far off.
According to The Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky basketball’s 2025–26 roster carries a payroll of around $22 million — the most expensive in the entire country and easily a new high-water mark for the NIL era.
> “The payroll number for the UK basketball team this season is around $22 million,” reported Ben Roberts. “That was the number as of the finalization of the House settlement, which set guidelines for what constitutes legal payments to players moving forward.”
And that number could still rise once midseason NIL deals roll in.
From $4 Million to $22 Million — The Wild Jump
Just two years ago, John Calipari’s final Kentucky team reportedly cost less than $4 million total, despite having five top-40 recruits and two top-10 NBA draft picks.
Fast forward to 2025, and Pope’s roster is now five times more expensive — thanks to a recruiting race that insiders described as “a massive bidding war.”
> “It went through the roof,” one source told Roberts. “It just became a massive bidding war among everybody.”
Some top players now command NBA-level price tags. One elite recruit reportedly carried an asking price of $5 million, a number that multiple schools — including Kentucky — confirmed as realistic for top-tier talent.
With 14 scholarship-level players, that averages more than $1.5 million per player on this roster alone.
Pope’s Philosophy: “Be the Best at Everything”
For Mark Pope, this isn’t about bragging rights — it’s about expectations.
> “Put NIL, put the transfer portal on the list,” Pope said. “Our job is to go be the best at everything. We’re not shying away from that.”
And so far, he’s backing up every word. Kentucky’s 2025–26 roster features headliners like SEC Preseason Player of the Year Otega Oweh, plus several high-profile transfers and top freshmen.
The New Revenue Split
The Herald-Leader also broke down Kentucky’s revenue-sharing structure, which gives men’s basketball a much larger slice of the pie compared to most SEC programs.
While the typical split across college sports is 75% to football and just 15% to men’s basketball, Kentucky reportedly allocates 25–30% to Pope’s program — one of the highest shares in the nation.
That means Pope will have $5–6 million in official rev-share money to work with under the new $20.5 million cap, before NIL deals and collectives are added on top.
The Takeaway
The message from Lexington is clear: Kentucky isn’t playing small ball anymore.
Between NIL deals, transfer portal power, and a financial commitment unlike anything in college basketball, Mark Pope has turned Kentucky into the gold standard of the modern era — literally.
