How much would a quality transfer center have cost Michigan State basketball?

NIL has quickly become the main talking point throughout all of college basketball. I think we all can agree that NIL has turned into a monster that none of us expected, but the reality of college athletics nowadays is that you have to pony up and pay players a lot of money if you want to be competitive.

From Michigan State basketball's perspective, I believe they are extremely competitive when it comes to NIL. Why else would they have been able to sign some of the top recruiting classes in the country the last few cycles and keep elite players like Xavier Booker, Jaden Akins, and Jeremy Fears Jr. from transferring elsewhere?

But the one thing that we haven't really seen Michigan State do yet is break the bank for a transfer. Maybe that's due to Michigan State using all of their NIL money up on current players and incoming high school recruits, but it also might have to do with the market pricing the impact transfers way too high.

How much would it have cost MSU to get an elite center?

Some of the reported NIL deals for transfers are just absurd. Even AJ Hoggard got offered $800k from Vanderbilt the other day. But the center position potentially has the biggest NIL deals being offered simply because that's the position with the least amount of talent in the portal.

Unfortunately for Michigan State, that is the position where they have the most need for a transfer. But even though they have a significant need for a transfer, Michigan State may not have enough of the funds to attract the top centers in the portal.

Yesterday it was reported that one of the top big men in the portal, Great Osobor, will received $2 million in NIL at Washington.

With that being such an insane number, Tom Izzo had a big decision to make. Pony up and spend that much himself or save their money to spend on their current players. He clearly has decided to spend his money on his current team, and as long as that is the case I wouldn't expect Michigan State to be competitive with any high profile center transfer going forward -- landing Szymon Zapala is a perfect example of avoiding the big market.

Izzo however may have to change that way of thinking. I'd like to think that MSU has no shortage of NIL money to offer their basketball team, and I imagine Izzo could find even more by making a few phone calls. So unless he wants to stay in the middle of the Big Ten pack, Izzo may need to start becoming a big spender.