Texas A&M basketball has assembled an elite roster for the upcoming season, led by Mackenzie Mgbako, who should be back from injury this year, as well as transfer guard PJ Haggerty, one of the nation's best scorers. The Aggie program was able to recruit well through the transfer portal, and should be one of the most competitive teams in the 2026-2027 season.
That said, it's still a wild world out there in the SEC, especially when it comes to transfer portal recruiting. The Aggies did well for themselves, but when you're going up against some of these high-level programs in this new era, nothing is guaranteed— especially with a Will Wade back at LSU, for example.
Bucky McMillan has never been afraid to tell it like it is in his interviews, and he chimed in on this exact subject. In an interview with The Next Round, the Aggie head man laid out the conundrum that Texas A&M is facing in going up against these schools.
Texas A&M head coach Bucky McMillan calls out NIL spending from SEC rivals
Here's a clip of what coach McMillan had to say on the subject in his recent interview.
Texas A&M Head Coach Bucky McMillan on roster spending in the SEC:
— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) June 19, 2026
"This year, in the SEC, this recruiting class - it's been something different. It doesn't even mathematically make sense, and I mean this, what some of these places have spent this year." pic.twitter.com/Da46JkJ6CS
Beyond what's quoted in the text of the post, McMillan goes on to elucidate that he means that the point at issue comes with respect to how much these schools are spending on men's basketball in particular— as he mentions, it's not football.
The financial investment that is being made in this sport to assemble rosters at some SEC schools outstrips the revenue that men's basketball brings in, in other words. Football is king and always will be, but men's basketball still brings in a considerable chunk of change— but the rosters are getting to a point, according to McMillan, that outdoes that.
That's an unsustainable status quo if I've ever heard of one. Something will have to change, if McMillan is right, before very long— while this can go on for a year or two, the lack of return on investment will precipitate some shifts in how this all happens.
"What do you call a business that's not profitable?" McMillan asks in the clip, and he answers: "A bad business." This is something that can't be sustained for very long— don't be surprised if things start looking very different very quickly.
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