NIL’s

I'm wondering about distribution among all sports...and the effect title nine will have on this.
And how exactly is the school going to be able to afford to directly pay the players, to the tune of $5 million or $6 million? The vast majority of high major D1 basketball programs lose money. I know that Georgetown men's basketball loses money. Even if SJU basketball makes a profit, it can't be much. I think Villanova men's basketball only made $1 million in profit few years ago, when they were still good. So where's the extra $5 million coming from to pay the players?
 
Last edited:
Like many (most?) of us Johnny fans, I'm most invested in our men’s basketball team emotionally, time-wise, and financially. From November till whenever it ends, I go to every home game, watch every away game, go to events, support financially, and sign on here multiple times per day. Each of us here does at least some of those things. For all of us, SJU basketball is a big deal, our go to refuge from all the realities of life.

We've waited so long for us to have a winning program that the improbable stars had to align: A university president willing to spend more on basketball, a hall of fame coach available at a steep discount, and some silent and one not so silent NIL backers willing to buy talent.

The result? A glorious 31-5 season that went beyond any reasonable prediction of success.

Then, immediately, our wealthiest NIL supporter makes it clear this is only the beginning. A huge estimated $4 million NIL budget that bought last season's success, is forecast by some media folks to go to $6-$7 million, and even that may be on the low side.

One of our joys of the NIL era is we could now afford to augment hs recruiting by bringing in talent to put us over the top. Bring in a few well regarded freshmen, coach up the roster players you have, and bring in 3 or 4 top players via the portal to put us over the top. Presto! SJU bball is back, and everyone is happy. An entire city, largely dormant college basketball fans, awakened like a Beast, filling the Garden, cramming Providence for the NCAAs. In fact, I'm certain we never had that many fans at an away 1st round ncaa weekend as this year. Not even close.

So why am I unhappy? In just one week, our best player, a great kid, a kid who radically improved over 2 seasons. Second team All-America, first team All-Big East, BET MVP, conference player of the year. Gone. Headed to another college if he isn't assured of a guaranteed NBA contract. Then a talented, well-liked rotation player, a kid still possessing a big upside, sees the writing on the wall. He is being recruited over and he must find a better opportunity elsewhere.

In just a week, our notion of team has shifted radically. Any kid not slated to be a starter is put in the position of assessing whether this is the best place for him. In 23-24 we saw a near total roster purge. This season we added talented key starters. Next season, starter roles will be roadblocked by new talent once again.

It's not an overreaction to realuze this is the new normal. With solid financiers, until rules change at least, each season will bring massive turnover of players with expired eligibility leaving along with those for greener pastures.

Don't get me wrong. Next season's team will likely be a bigger, better version of this years. Ticket demand will be high, and we will be ranked again in all likelihood.

But in the end, when you lose two kids in a few days who should have finished their college careers here, the reality smacks you. Now every kid is just a player, not even a student athlete anymore. The likeihood of a 4 year player at one school has gone the way of baseball franchise players staying with one team.

The reason i love college sports just took a big hit. I'll likely adjust. Maybe.
 
Like many (most?) of us Johnny fans, I'm most invested in our men’s basketball team emotionally, time-wise, and financially. From November till whenever it ends, I go to every home game, watch every away game, go to events, support financially, and sign on here multiple times per day. Each of us here does at least some of those things. For all of us, SJU basketball is a big deal, our go to refuge from all the realities of life.

We've waited so long for us to have a winning program that the improbable stars had to align: A university president willing to spend more on basketball, a hall of fame coach available at a steep discount, and some silent and one not so silent NIL backers willing to buy talent.

The result? A glorious 31-5 season that went beyond any reasonable prediction of success.

Then, immediately, our wealthiest NIL supporter makes it clear this is only the beginning. A huge estimated $4 million NIL budget that bought last season's success, is forecast by some media folks to go to $6-$7 million, and even that may be on the low side.

One of our joys of the NIL era is we could now afford to augment hs recruiting by bringing in talent to put us over the top. Bring in a few well regarded freshmen, coach up the roster players you have, and bring in 3 or 4 top players via the portal to put us over the top. Presto! SJU bball is back, and everyone is happy. An entire city, largely dormant college basketball fans, awakened like a Beast, filling the Garden, cramming Providence for the NCAAs. In fact, I'm certain we never had that many fans at an away 1st round ncaa weekend as this year. Not even close.

So why am I unhappy? In just one week, our best player, a great kid, a kid who radically improved over 2 seasons. Second team All-America, first team All-Big East, BET MVP, conference player of the year. Gone. Headed to another college if he isn't assured of a guaranteed NBA contract. Then a talented, well-liked rotation player, a kid still possessing a big upside, sees the writing on the wall. He is being recruited over and he must find a better opportunity elsewhere.

In just a week, our notion of team has shifted radically. Any kid not slated to be a starter is put in the position of assessing whether this is the best place for him. In 23-24 we saw a near total roster purge. This season we added talented key starters. Next season, starter roles will be roadblocked by new talent once again.

It's not an overreaction to realuze this is the new normal. With solid financiers, until rules change at least, each season will bring massive turnover of players with expired eligibility leaving along with those for greener pastures.

Don't get me wrong. Next season's team will likely be a bigger, better version of this years. Ticket demand will be high, and we will be ranked again in all likelihood.

But in the end, when you lose two kids in a few days who should have finished their college careers here, the reality smacks you. Now every kid is just a player, not even a student athlete anymore. The likeihood of a 4 year player at one school has gone the way of baseball franchise players staying with one team.

The reason i love college sports just took a big hit. I'll likely adjust. Maybe.
Amar Alibegivic was the last four year player. The money stuff is new but roster continuity at SJU has been dead for a very long time.
 
Like many (most?) of us Johnny fans, I'm most invested in our men’s basketball team emotionally, time-wise, and financially. From November till whenever it ends, I go to every home game, watch every away game, go to events, support financially, and sign on here multiple times per day. Each of us here does at least some of those things. For all of us, SJU basketball is a big deal, our go to refuge from all the realities of life.

We've waited so long for us to have a winning program that the improbable stars had to align: A university president willing to spend more on basketball, a hall of fame coach available at a steep discount, and some silent and one not so silent NIL backers willing to buy talent.

The result? A glorious 31-5 season that went beyond any reasonable prediction of success.

Then, immediately, our wealthiest NIL supporter makes it clear this is only the beginning. A huge estimated $4 million NIL budget that bought last season's success, is forecast by some media folks to go to $6-$7 million, and even that may be on the low side.

One of our joys of the NIL era is we could now afford to augment hs recruiting by bringing in talent to put us over the top. Bring in a few well regarded freshmen, coach up the roster players you have, and bring in 3 or 4 top players via the portal to put us over the top. Presto! SJU bball is back, and everyone is happy. An entire city, largely dormant college basketball fans, awakened like a Beast, filling the Garden, cramming Providence for the NCAAs. In fact, I'm certain we never had that many fans at an away 1st round ncaa weekend as this year. Not even close.

So why am I unhappy? In just one week, our best player, a great kid, a kid who radically improved over 2 seasons. Second team All-America, first team All-Big East, BET MVP, conference player of the year. Gone. Headed to another college if he isn't assured of a guaranteed NBA contract. Then a talented, well-liked rotation player, a kid still possessing a big upside, sees the writing on the wall. He is being recruited over and he must find a better opportunity elsewhere.

In just a week, our notion of team has shifted radically. Any kid not slated to be a starter is put in the position of assessing whether this is the best place for him. In 23-24 we saw a near total roster purge. This season we added talented key starters. Next season, starter roles will be roadblocked by new talent once again.

It's not an overreaction to realuze this is the new normal. With solid financiers, until rules change at least, each season will bring massive turnover of players with expired eligibility leaving along with those for greener pastures.

Don't get me wrong. Next season's team will likely be a bigger, better version of this years. Ticket demand will be high, and we will be ranked again in all likelihood.

But in the end, when you lose two kids in a few days who should have finished their college careers here, the reality smacks you. Now every kid is just a player, not even a student athlete anymore. The likeihood of a 4 year player at one school has gone the way of baseball franchise players staying with one team.

The reason i love college sports just took a big hit. I'll likely adjust. Maybe.
Well stated and a lot to agree with. The long era of student athletes is over and the new era is semi pro (or just plain pro) basketball. It is a new paradigm that will either continue to draw the same level of interest or not. For me, that is an open question. Undoubtedly, we all loved the success we saw this year, and the potential for sustained success at a high level. But, the endearing qualities of college basketball that captured many of us originally won't be coming back. That does not mean we can't adjust and continue to enjoy our favorite team in our favorite sport, but it is an open question.

We've already seen that the NCAA tourney may never be the same, with the big guys dominating more than ever before. We've already seen the mid-majors and lower high majors transform into feeder schools for the big guys. We have already seen the rise of agents driving the process. No reason those things will lessen.

College sport begged for reform for a long time. With the NCAA's failure to do anything of a material nature, the market (and courts) decided it, and not for the better. Yes, players needed to be compensated better (I am still of the quaint notion that the education et al was compensation, just not enough), and that the players deseved more mobilty. But what emerged was the worst thing that you could have devised. The NCAA, only concerned about generating more revenue, never dedicated enough attention to smart, needed changes, so this is what we have.
 
I still feel like we have more continuity than probably a lot of other schools. I mean we will see what happens and if anyone else enters, but as of now there’s a chance we have Sim, Jaiden, Zubs, Prey, Lefty, Ayo etc all a part of our rotation next year. That excites me.

RJ leaving after his junior year, perhaps prematurely, is no different to me than Ponds bailing after his junior year. Which is why I chuckled when I saw Shamorie tweet about RJ.

As for Brady, him leaving makes total sense to me. There was a quote from him yesterday saying he’s looking to play where there’s a better fit. To me this means he got a good look at how Pitino wishes to play defense this past season, with the constant switching. I think he knows it may be difficult for him to carve out significant minutes in that system. Vince may come to the same conclusion. It’s okay to me

It’s surely a different landscape now in college sports, but I think Pitino cares enough about culture and continuity to keep giving us that traditional feel of guys developing. And he utilizes the portal well too. He gives us the best of both worlds IMO
 
I'm going to miss the Cinderella teams in the tournament. I'm sure one might slip in from time to time, but how is it possible for a another FDU to defy all odds and make it to a sweet 16 when they have to go up against teams built by backers that have purchased NBA level talent and assembled them on one team.

I guess we should at least be fortunate enough that this new age of college basketball is part of the resurgence of our once mighty program.
 
There was a story in the Times the other day about a player who started out at UC-San Diego just as they were transitioning to D1. They weren't eligible his 4 years there, NIL money enticed him to USC where he played something like 71 minutes all year and didn't make the tournament. Of course, UCSD did. He said he doesn't regret it but he paid his own way to watch his former team play.

Then again, he gets to play in that concocted FS1 tournament in Las Vegas though.
 
Well stated and a lot to agree with. The long era of student athletes is over and the new era is semi pro (or just plain pro) basketball. It is a new paradigm that will either continue to draw the same level of interest or not. For me, that is an open question. Undoubtedly, we all loved the success we saw this year, and the potential for sustained success at a high level. But, the endearing qualities of college basketball that captured many of us originally won't be coming back. That does not mean we can't adjust and continue to enjoy our favorite team in our favorite sport, but it is an open question.

We've already seen that the NCAA tourney may never be the same, with the big guys dominating more than ever before. We've already seen the mid-majors and lower high majors transform into feeder schools for the big guys. We have already seen the rise of agents driving the process. No reason those things will lessen.

College sport begged for reform for a long time. With the NCAA's failure to do anything of a material nature, the market (and courts) decided it, and not for the better. Yes, players needed to be compensated better (I am still of the quaint notion that the education et al was compensation, just not enough), and that the players deseved more mobilty. But what emerged was the worst thing that you could have devised. The NCAA, only concerned about generating more revenue, never dedicated enough attention to smart, needed changes, so this is what we have.
Agree with much of the sentiment expressed by Beast & RMW except that at this point in my life I'm hooked on St. John's basketball so I will continue to love and religiously follow my Johnnies despite all the warts of college hoops (and agree there are plenty). Does not sound like Brady was pushed but made a sound decision for him based on what he has determined is a bad fit for his skills on a Pitino coached team. Good for him that he can make that decision without any need to sit out a year.
The one thing I will say is it is a lot more fun to root for a winning team without four year players than a losing, irrelevant one.
 
Someone else posted this on the other thread, but at the risk of being redundant, I’m posting it here, because it’s so relevant to the NIL discussion. Scathing take.

 
I still feel like we have more continuity than probably a lot of other schools. I mean we will see what happens and if anyone else enters, but as of now there’s a chance we have Sim, Jaiden, Zubs, Prey, Lefty, Ayo etc all a part of our rotation next year. That excites me.

RJ leaving after his junior year, perhaps prematurely, is no different to me than Ponds bailing after his junior year. Which is why I chuckled when I saw Shamorie tweet about RJ.

As for Brady, him leaving makes total sense to me. There was a quote from him yesterday saying he’s looking to play where there’s a better fit. To me this means he got a good look at how Pitino wishes to play defense this past season, with the constant switching. I think he knows it may be difficult for him to carve out significant minutes in that system. Vince may come to the same conclusion. It’s okay to me

It’s surely a different landscape now in college sports, but I think Pitino cares enough about culture and continuity to keep giving us that traditional feel of guys developing. And he utilizes the portal well too. He gives us the best of both worlds IMO
There is a paradox in comparing Ponds to Luis. One left early pre-NIL because at that time fewer and fewer college players were staying 4 years in college. Those that did were viewed as less capable of playing professionally somewhere and earning a living doing so.

Today with NIL, an overwhelming number of players are exhausting their eligibility to earn as much as possible. Transfers are occurring at alarming rates because of the potential to earn more money somewhere else. Teams loading up on expensive talent are pushing less expensive talent out seeking minutes elsewhere.


We are all addictef to SJU bball so we will get over it and root, but it still stinks just the same.
 
Funny to hear the words "will forgo the draft to remain in college" as opposed to what we were used to hearing which was the opposite "will forego the remains X amount of years of eligibility to enter the draft".
 
The NCAA with the help of the U.S. Congress has given us an overt professional sports framework. We have to adjust and get used to our players leaving for better opportunities, financial, etc. Despite the terrific year our team had, it has lost much of the charm our mom and pop history. Nice to have Mike Repole as our main banker.
 
Back
Top