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.
The usual suspects — Kentucky, Duke, Kansas, Houston, North Carolina, Arizona and Florida are expected to land in this range. Arkansas, LSU, St. John’s, Auburn, UConn, Texas and Vanderbilt could all get there as well.
The Volunteers have already added one piece of the puzzle, landing former Belmont sharpshooter Tyler Lundblade.
Tennessee reportedly spent $8.5 million this season, with a big chunk of that going towards landing 5-star freshman forward Nate Ament. Decisions are now being made by all sides on who will return next season, which is just a part of this new era of college sports. We’ll begin to get those answers on Tuesday, as the portal officially opens.
