Kelvin Sampson cries 'poor' despite Houston's National Championship runner-up finish

Kelvin Sampson’s Houston Cougars squad have only two losses on the season, both to ranked opponents, and look for another Final Four appearance. As the No. 8 team in the country, Sampson has the Cougars somewhere they haven’t been since the Phi Slama Jama of the 1980s. Nationally relevant.

According to USA Today, Sampson believes they have achieved those heights despite a significant handicap. Houston is “poor.”

After a 79-55 win over UCF, Sampson decided to speak about player retention and the financial state of the program in his post-game press conference. Despite a favorable position prior to the Tournament, Sampson feels they may be losing the larger financial battle facing all college programs.

"We're poor,” Sampson said. “We were poor when I got here and we're still poor. We probably have the lowest budget of anybody in Power Four. The way our recruiting is going, we have to stop at some point because we don't have the money to keep bringing in many good players. And that's not easy for us to do."

The most money doesn't equal the most wins, yet

According to USA Today’s 2024 sports database, Houston ranks 56^th among all division 1 college basketball programs (56^th out of over 360 in D1). Of the teams ahead of them, only two are not Power 4 programs. Making Houston 54^th among the 68 Power 4 basketball programs.

Houston may be outside the top 50 of Power 4 spenders, but they are still a top 10 ranked team. Of the teams ahead of them in the rankings, Arizona (31), Michigan (4), UConn (50), Duke (NL), Illinois (24) and Iowa State (39), only Michigan is actually a big NIL spender.

The numbers reflected in USA Today’s 2024 report do reflect the numbers of Houston as a member of the AAC as opposed the Big 12 conference they currently reside in.

Sampson acknowledged that his best players are well-compensated, despite the financial woes. “They’re not starving here,” he said. “They’re getting exactly what the market is for them.”

Samson is not wrong about the numbers, however, the direct connection between money and success in college basketball is less literal than their football counterparts. From the final college football top 10, nine of those top 10 teams are among some of the biggest spenders. In college basketball, that corollary is much less literal.

Pre/post NIL, the landscape is similar but shifted

"Teams that have the best recruiting classes usually have the most money,” Sampson said. “That's the way it is today. It’s not about who we want to sign; it’s about who can we afford to sign?”

The issue Sampson is referring to is real, but it’s real for everyone. Unless certain guardrails, rules, or protocols are implemented, this will be the realization for most Power Four programs in basketball. There have always been the select teams at the top. Pre or post NIL era.

The only difference is Houston, and others are used to recruiting against the allure of Duke and UNC and UConn, while now they are recruiting against programs with deep pockets. Despite the financial aspects, the landscape is essentially similar.

A handful of teams at the top with a recruiting advantage over the larger majority. The specific programs just might have shifted to different names based on who is willing to spend the most. Sampson and many programs simply face the same problem by a different name. 

Houston is in a good position heading into the second week of February. However, the Cougars will need to remain focused on the task at hand. With nine games remaining in their schedule, Houston is set to face BYU, Iowa State, Arizona, and Kansas before looking to Tournament seeding. All four of those opponents are ranked between No. 1 and No. 16 in the nation. 

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