Spending on SEC roster construction keeps growing. Can USC MBB keep up?
College basketball in the Southeastern Conference has never been more competitive.
The SEC sent 14 of its 16 teams to the NCAA Tournament in the 2024-25 season and finished the year with eight teams in the AP Top 25. This year, six SEC teams made the AP’s preseason poll and 11 are projected to make the tournament in ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s preseason report.
By most major metrics, the SEC is the conference to beat.
So how can South Carolina, which went 2-16 in the SEC last season, find success against such tough competition in the 2025-26 season and beyond? It starts off the court with roster construction.
USC’s roster for year four under coach Lamont Paris is set in stone. All that’s left for this version of the Gamecocks is to see how the 11 newcomers fare against the conference slate.
The key this year, Field of 68 analyst Jeff Goodman told The State, is for USC to carve out a rotation with a roster he says isn’t as deep as its SEC counterparts.
“There’s a lot of what-ifs. I think for South Carolina, there’s far less room for some of those [new players] not to work out,” Goodman said. “South Carolina is probably five deep. Can they find five, six, real strong, deep? Can they find a couple other guys off the bench?”
Looking past this upcoming season, there are two major areas that will dictate which tier the Gamecocks find themselves in among the SEC: Roster turnover and budget.
Getting the best bang for USC’s buck
Money is everything in college sports nowadays. Recruiting and NIL have become intertwined, and the U.S. House of Representative’s ruling in June to grant schools up $20.5 million in revenue-share payments to athletes has given programs even more to work with.
Programs are now able to combine revenue share and third-party NIL collectives to create massive roster budgets each season. And some SEC men’s basketball programs are pushing it to the limit.
Kentucky reportedly spent $22 million on its 2025-26 team. Schools like Florida, Tennessee and Auburn are past the $8 million mark, according to CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander. So where does USC stand?
The Gamecocks’ total 2025-26 roster budget, factoring in revenue share and third-party NIL, is probably about $4.5 million and likely near the bottom of the SEC, according to Patrick O’Rourke, a Washington, D.C.-based CPA who runs nil-ncaa.com.
O’Rourke compiles information on revenue share numbers from schools around the country. He assumes that every SEC school is using the maximum $20.5 million for all of its programs, and he estimates that every school gives 75% or more of that total to football.
His best estimate is that every SEC men’s basketball program uses about $3 million to $5 million from revenue share and gets the rest from third-party NIL deals. South Carolina’s $4.5 million estimate is an increase from last year’s reported allotment of less than $2 million.
“I’d still be thinking $3 million [in revenue share] for the men’s team is probably a pretty good guess,” O’Rourke said of the Gamecocks. “We did an estimate of what the collectives were funding, and so we had South Carolina’s collective at around $10 million. ... Fifteen percent might go to basketball, which would be another $1.5 million.”
Keeping Gamecocks in Columbia
The next biggest obstacle in roster construction is the sheer amount of players USC and most programs need to bring in each season. Whether a school is working with $4.5 million or $22 million, that money has to stretch across half a roster’s worth of new players each season.
South Carolina was tied for third in the SEC for most newcomers with 11 — excluding Eli Sparkman, a former walk-on who rejoined the team. Texas A&M led the way with 14, and Kentucky was right behind the Gamecocks with 10. Reigning national champion Florida had the fewest newcomers with six.
The turnover trend also affects how many players sign as freshmen and then stick around. USC hasn’t had many high school signees turn into four-year college seniors in the Paris era and in years prior. The only such player under Paris was Jacobi Wright, a holdover from Frank Martin’s staff.
Cam Scott is the only current non-freshman at USC who is eligible to reach the milestone. Paris has had two high school signees — GG Jackson and Collin Murray-Boyles — turn pro.
For comparison, women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley graduated seven total fourth- and fifth-year seniors in her first four seasons at USC, and nine total since Paris was hired as the Gamecocks men’s coach.
Despite the major roster turnover that’s become the norm in the sport, Paris told The State he’s committed to prioritizing freshman recruits. USC tied for second in the SEC with five total freshmen in its 2025 recruiting class.
“I think that trend will continue as long as the rules stay the same as they are. I’m committed to young guys,” Paris said. ”We’ve had some young guys play important roles for us. I’m not naive enough to start putting the name plates from 2029 up when they’ll be seniors, right? But it’s an outstanding group, and they fit me perfectly.”
South Carolina men’s basketball 2025-26 roster
Returners
- G Cam Scott, sophomore
- G Eli Sparkman, senior
- G Myles Stute, redshirt senior
- F Jordan Butler, sophomore
Freshmen
- G Abu Yarmah, freshman
- G Eli Ellis, freshman
- G Grant Polk, freshman
- F EJ Walker, freshman
- F Hayden Assemian, freshman
Transfers
- G Kobe Knox, senior (USF)
- G Meechie Johnson, redshirt senior (Ohio State)
- G Mike Sharavjamnts, senior (Utah)
- F Christ Essandoko, redshirt junior (Providence)
- F Elijah Strong, junior (Boston College)
- F Nordin Kapic, senior (UC San Diego)
This story was originally published October 22, 2025 at 8:00 AM.
