Frustrated by stagnation, Mark Coyle puts more money into Gophers men’s basketball

Mark Coyle wants the money to talk.

The Gophers have $20.5 million to spend via revenue-sharing payments to current players for the 2025-26 academic year, and the U’s athletics director has put what he believes to be a larger investment into Minnesota’s men’s basketball program, which hasn’t been to an NCAA tournament since 2019 — and has advanced to the Sweet 16 just once since 1998.

“Like our fans, I’m frustrated that we haven’t had more success with our men’s basketball program,” Coyle said in a Pioneer Press interview in September.

For competitive reasons — and because no organization is compelling them to do so — how much money being divvied up by schools to its sports programs remains in the dark. That’s true across the country.

One estimate is new head coach Niko Medved has roug