Syracuse Basketball: NIL is good for college basketball, Jim Boeheim says

Syracuse basketball head coach Jim Boeheim, his assistants and their peers around the country are navigating a rapidly changing landscape in the sport of collegiate hoops, due to NIL, the transfer portal and other factors.

With the NCAA allowing college-basketball players and all other student-athletes the ability to transfer once and retain immediate eligibility, that has resulted in a free-agency explosion as guys who are unhappy with their current situation can enter the portal and look for a new squad.

And student-athletes are also allowed to earn endorsement income from their name, image and likeness, although NIL to me is a complete mess right now.

The NCAA, in my opinion, is too incompetent to sort out NIL and come up with a uniform approach that is consistent from state to state, conference to conference, and school to school.

NIL is not supposed to be used as a payment to induce a recruit to pick one team over another, but let’s get real. That is happening. The recent college-football spat between Alabama head coach Nick Saban and Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher illustrates this theme to a tee.

Syracuse basketball boss Jim Boeheim discusses NIL in collegiate hoops.

In a recent interview with college basketball insider Adam Zagoria on forbes.com, Jim Boeheim said that NIL is good for his sport, because it can help keep some players from leaving school for professional options.

That, in turn, could make these teams stronger in the following season than they might have otherwise been, and that’s a good thing for college basketball.

He noted that players at North Carolina and Miami, for example, might have elected to depart for the pro ranks if not for NIL. The Tar Heels reached the national-title game this past spring and are expected to bring back four of their starters in 2022-23.

"Boeheim said in part to Zagoria, “guys at these schools are coming back because they’re making more money than they make in the (NBA) G league so it wasn’t meant to do that but college teams this year, several, are going to be a lot stronger than they would have been because of NIL.”"

The Syracuse basketball head coach added, “I think it’s inadvertently helping college basketball be stronger. It’s good for college basketball. The G League will probably have to respond and raise the salaries.”

Now, NIL is not a level playing field from conference to conference and school to school. So while UNC, Miami – maybe the Orange down the line – could see players come back rather than head for the pros because of NIL deals, smaller schools could get hurt, because players might decide to leave these teams for NIL opportunities in the Atlantic Coast Conference or other Power Five leagues.

So while NIL can be good for college basketball, the transfer portal has changed everything as it pertains to recruiting.

"Jim Boeheim said that NIL “helps some schools, but it hurts smaller schools who are losing their players to bigger schools to make more money. The whole thing, it’s tricky, it’s really tricky.”"