Next College Student Athlete (NCSA) took a look at the best school across all of the United States for basketball. The service that helps students pick their schools created a list of the best basketball colleges, and these are their picks.

1. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina has long been associated with top-level basketball stars, dating all the way back to Michael Jordan and beyond. It is considered one of the best basketball schools in the country by Next College Student Athlete thanks to a lower-than-average tuition cost and low average cost after financial aid. The university has helped create several top basketball stars, including multiple top 20 draft picks in the last decade.

2. University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA)

UCLA is another college that offers competitive basketball coaching for a lower price than the Division I average. The LA program has won a record 11 NCAA titles, and even though it hasn’t won one in over a decade, UCLA is still a widely respected college. There have been 36 first-round draft picks in the NBA to have played their basketball at UCLA.

3. Stanford University

Although it costs a lot more to go to Stanford than many other colleges, the NCSA seems to think you get what you pay for. It ranked Stanford the third-best basketball college in the United States, despite the Cardinals not having the most successful team on the court.

Disregarding the lack of trophies compared to other colleges, the overall basketball experience at Stanford is a quality one. The most recent player drafted to the NBA from Stanford was KZ Okpala in the second round in 2019.

Of course, just because these schools are ranked the best doesn’t mean you can’t get first-class basketball colleges elsewhere. These schools just give students a high chance of succeeding not only in the NBA but in life.

During the past eleven years, college sports programs have paid a total of over $500 million to basketball and football coaches after they were fired. This shows just how often dead money is being paid among athletic institutions.

Among College Sports, Football and Basketball Account for Most of the Dead Money

An analysis of financial records has found that college sports programs have spent over $500 million to pay the coaches who were fired from 2010 to 2021. The report has determined that football accounted for $402.3 million or 75% of the dead money, while basketball was responsible for the rest. In total, some 112 athletic coaches were paid over a million for no work done.

The College Sports Industry Has Paid Over $10 Million to Some of the Fired Coaches

The payments varied depending on the conference, and schools that paid coaches the most include Auburn, Nebraska, Texas, Ole Miss, and Kansas. The most well-paid coach was Will Muschamp, who in 2014 was paid $6.3 million to stop coaching football for the University of Florida. Later in 2020, he received an additional $12.9 million to stop working as a coach for the University of South Carolina. Charlie Strong comes in second with a total of $11.8 million from Texas and South Florida, while Todd Graham is third with $11.1 million of dead money from Arizona State.

It seems the top ten paid coaches have received a combined total of over $100 million to stop coaching for their teams. The report also highlights that the financial records were missing information for payments for many coaches fired during the past eleven years. This means that the total sunk cost for payments to coaches who stopped working for their team was likely higher than the $533 million figure.

According to critics of the college sports industry, people have noted that the report shows how broken the financial structure of the industry is. They pointed out how half a billion dollars could be used to support the education, health, and safety of college athletes.