One day after the 2024 MAC Championship Game, Miami (Ohio) coach Chuck Martin prepared to meet with four of his best players. Armed with a new influx of money that would take his $80,000 roster and push it into the $500,000-750,000 range, Martin hoped to retain key pieces of the roster. He had $40,000 a year for each of them.
Martin first met with star wide receiver Reggie Virgil.
He talked with Virgil about his next steps. That’s when Virgil pulled out his phone and showed Martin a seven-figure offer from Texas Tech.
When Martin walked out, his assistant coaches were waiting and asked what Virgil thought of Miami’s offer.
“I didn’t make the offer,” Martin said. “I didn’t embarrass myself.”
A pair of RedHawks — Virgil and Will Jados — started for Texas Tech in the College Football Playoff last season. The other members of the quartet Martin met with transferred to Minnesota (Javon Tracy) and Auburn (Raion Strader).
That is the reality for most Group of Five schools.
They evaluate and develop all-conference-caliber players only to watch them leave for bigger offers. During the 2024-25 transfer cycle, 66.7% of returning first-team all-conference players entered the portal.
The conversations were a little different for Martin ahead of the 2026 portal window.
He didn’t keep everyone, including star edge rusher Adam Trick, who entered the portal and transferred to Texas Tech. But Miami is a rarity in the MAC with 11 returning starters, a group that includes players such as all-conference offensive lineman Eric Smith.
Then there’s the portal. Multiple Power Four schools messaged CBS Sports this cycle asking what Miami was working with dollar-wise after losing recruiting battles to the RedHawks, who signed a 15-player class.
That group is currently ranked first in the MAC and doesn’t include grades on five Power Four dropdowns, four of which were four-star recruits out of high school and three of which have played significant snaps.
It’s a roster spark made possible by a major funding boost. Sources told CBS Sports that Miami’s 2026 roster cost — which is not finalized — sits in the mid-to-upper seven-figure range, with one source estimating $8-10 million.
Just a few years ago, the RedHawks fielded a roster that cost less than a Power Four backup. Now, they may be one of the biggest spenders in the Group of Five.
“It’s such a dynamic time in college athletics,” Miami athletics director David Sayler said.
“A lot of schools are putting their heads in the sand because they want to go back to the old way. We’ve simply put our head above the ground and said what we want to be, and we’ve had donors step up and say they want to get us there.”
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Located 30 minutes northwest of Cincinnati, Miami is one of the oldest public universities in the country. Despite being known as the “other” Miami to most college football fans, the RedHawks have won the most championships (15) of any program in MAC history.
Lately, they’ve drawn national attention thanks to their men’s basketball team.
Miami enters the MAC tournament at 31-0. The RedHawks are only the sixth program since 1979 to begin the year with 30 straight wins.
It’s transformed Miami’s basketball team into both a plucky underdog story — Sayler points out the RedHawks made the MAC championship game last year — and a lightning rod for criticism as analysts like Bruce Pearl debate the worth of a 31-0 team making the Big Dance.
Either way, Miami is pushing its way into the broader college athletics consciousness.
The RedHawks have made three straight MAC Championship Games in football. Their women’s basketball team sits atop the MAC standings. Baseball is coming off a conference title. Hockey cracked the top 25 rankings last season for the first time in a decade.
Sayler pushes back on the idea that success is due to financial investment. That’s a boon of the future, not an explanation for the school’s recent successes
But the new spending offers a glimpse of what’s possible — even outside the Power Four — when a university commits to athletics.
“(College athletics) has changed dramatically,” Sayler said. “(It’s) so different than it was. The schools that have been able to get out in front on that — like Indiana — have had success. The thought of Indiana doing what they’ve done, if you’d brought that up six years ago, you would have been laughed at.
“(A) unique time gives opportunities.”
The MAC is not a wealthy league.
It’s got the second-lowest total revenue of any FBS conference, with only Conference USA lagging, and its teams have struggled to retain talent in the NIL era.
Competing with Power Four rosters that spend $15-plus million in rev share — not to mention additional NIL payments — requires aggressive fundraising. Sayler and Miami athletics have leaned into that reality.
One strategy Sayler employs mirrors what many Power Four programs use: donor scholarship matches with the university and athletic department. Teams can now fund 105 scholarships, up from 85. Even if programs don’t reach that number, the money raised via the match can support the roster.
Sayler said the RedHawks have already exceeded their scholarship-match goals.
Miami University contributes heavily to athletics. According to the Knight Commission, the school funded 22% of the athletic department’s revenue in 2024.
It’s a commitment to athletics that seems to have paid off.
After two straight appearances in the Snoop Bowl, Miami commissioned a study that found the games generated $675 million in earned media value. That exposure, along with basketball’s run so far this year, has helped admissions.
“We are seeing a large amount of early interest from admitted this spring, which we know is related to the success and constant discussion around the basketball program,” Miami vice president of enrollment management and student success Rachel Beech said.”
It’s why Miami keeps investing.
The RedHawks’ football facilities were built within the last decade, and the Miami Board of Trustees just approved a $242 million basketball arena.
“Our goal is to be the best Group of Six program in the country across all of our sports,” Sayler said. “That’s what we want to be. And just, you know, keep an eye towards the future and whatever happens next in this crazy world of college athletics.”
Sayler and Martin see opportunity in the future.
The ACC reaches an inflection point during the 2030-31 fiscal year when the conference exit fee drops to $75 million, opening a window for unhappy tenants like Florida State and Clemson to explore other options. Given that TV deals for the Big Ten and Big 12 are both up in 2030, it’s a time industry sources expect to be ripe for another round of realignment.
Miami’s recent investments are made with that possibility in mind.
“We’re trying to look in the future and say, ‘Where does Miami want to be?'” Martin said. “Are we trying to move forward? Are we trying to stay the status quo? If you’re trying to be a status quo athletic department in 2026, in my opinion, you’re a dead man walking.
“You want to invest or you don’t.”
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When asked about Miami’s portal strategy this year, Martin laughs:
“We had no idea what we were doing, because we’ve never done it.”
He’s being a bit self-deprecating. But there’s truth in the admission. In the past, there were no negotiations with players and no conversations with agents. Miami didn’t have the money.
The 2026 portal window became a crash course.
There were 18-hour days, seven days a week. Martin would go to sleep only to wake up to a completely different official visit schedule — two visitors canceled, two more added.
At one point, Martin remembers being crushed when the RedHawks lost to an ACC school. Coaches were frustrated. Donors who helped fund the push were disappointed.
It’s a memory that causes Martin to laugh.
“Guys, 12 months ago we had no money,” Martin would say. “Now, we’re pissed we lost a receiver to an ACC school. You know how great that is? The fact that we even have the audacity to think we could pull it off?”
When Martin thinks about the gift of Miami’s newfound funding, he immediately thinks about the players who left.
Fourteen months ago, he didn’t even bother pitching Virgil on his $40,000 offer. Now, he can make a competitive offer to nearly anyone on his roster — especially players considering leaving for Power Four backup money.
Trick was never going to stay. He was destined to get paid like a Power Four starter.
But maybe the money changes the conversation for someone like Raion Strader, who went from All-American underclassman at Miami in 2024 to playing just 179 snaps at Auburn last season.
“At least having money protects our kids,” Martin said. “If you come here, we’ll be one of the few G-5s in the country that can protect you. We have enough money for you to not go be a backup. We’ll be in the ballpark.
“The sell is: Stay, get a great degree, compete for championships and play in bowl games. That’s a pretty good floor, right? The best case scenario is you’re Reggie Virgiil and you leave for a million bucks.”
Do expectations change with such a major cash influx? Sure.
He’s aware of it. The RedHawks won championships with nothing. Now they have more financial backing than anyone in the MAC.
He was expected to win then. He’s expected to win now.
Mainly, though, Martin is excited about the opportunity.
College athletics is changing rapidly. Miami decided to change with it.
“Is there another level to Miami football and basketball? We’ve done a great job in the last 11 months of figuring out where college athletics is going and where Miami wants to be in that picture.”
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