According to this article, Iowa was #5 in the country in NIL spending last year:
Top NIL programs
Whether you believe that or not is fine, but what is most notable to me is the numbers. Michigan is #1 at $8.8 million. They list Iowa at $6.6 million. Most notably, nobody is even close to the "$17 million" figure in Beth's quote.
My take is that Beth threw out that figure simply to illustrate the point that Iowa is never going to be an outrageous spender in MBB roster-building. $17 million would be outrageous for anyone, if the article above is to be believed. What I think Beth was saying, and what she has always said, is that Iowa will be competitive. We just aren't going to be one of those programs that goes out and buys the best roster available. Instead, we are going to be smart. Spend where we need to; develop where we can.
There's nothing that Beth has said in this quote, or any other time, that makes me think the plan for Iowa MBB is to build a roster on the cheap.