Syracuse Orange: $1M NIL offers from Adam Weitsman are absolutely vital

News recently broke via Syracuse.com that businessman and top Syracuse Orange booster Adam Weitsman will offer $1 million annually to one five-star football player and one five-star basketball player to represent his companies, and ‘Cuse fans are hopeful that these offers from Weitsman will ultimately benefit Syracuse in the recruiting arena.

Of course, since Weitsman will be making these huge offers to recruits, those offers can’t be used as inducements (i.e., pay-for-play) for these high-school players to commit to a specific college or university.

So Weitsman offering $1 million to these high-school football and hoops players to represent his companies amid the name, image and likeness landscape means that these prospects, if they ink deals with Weitsman, would receive the money whether they choose to play for Syracuse Orange sports teams or not.

That being said, let’s get real here. How likely would it be that a high-school football or basketball player would end up receiving $1 million, and that player wouldn’t end up suiting up for Syracuse football or Syracuse basketball?

This is merely my own personal opinion, but given everything that’s going on across the country in NIL, I simply can’t see such a scenario transpiring.

Big NIL offers from Adam Weitsman could prove critical to Syracuse Orange athletics.

Ever since NIL was put into place, SU Athletics has done a variety of things to help its student-athletes benefit from their names, images and likenesses.

And I believe that several NIL collectives have formed in Central New York to provide financial payments to current Syracuse Orange student-athletes.

However, Weitsman’s offers are targeting recruits, and that’s a whole different landscape than present SU sports players lining up NIL deals.

To me, what Adam Weitsman has agreed to do is absolutely pivotal for the Syracuse Orange. Yes, I hope that Weitsman (and SU) plays by the rules.

But let’s face it: massive NIL deals are flowing in to current student-athletes at big-time football and basketball programs. SU needs something similar to compete.

However, when NIL is directed at a recruit, that changes everything. It’s a murky, gray area. Do I think that recruits are committing to certain schools based on NIL deals, which is not permitted by the NCAA? I do.

I also think that the NCAA is too incompetent to enforce anything as it pertains to NIL deals, whether for current student-athletes or high-school players.

I hope that Syracuse University doesn’t get involved with anything not permitted, although some of my fellow SU fans think that if other programs are doing it, why shouldn’t the Syracuse Orange?

What I will say is this. Syracuse basketball, for example, brought in a strong six-member 2022 class. To date, in 2023, the Orange has swung and missed on numerous high-school players.

The ‘Cuse has scholarship offers out there to a wide range of top-flight prospects in the 2024 recruiting cycle, and perhaps Weitsman’s NIL deals could benefit Syracuse basketball, so long as no rules are broken.

As for Syracuse football, the Orange is presently 5-0, nationally ranked and in position to land its first bowl berth dating back to the 2018 season.

In recent recruiting cycles, Syracuse football has picked up commitments from a boatload of quality three-star prospects, sprinkled in with a four-star player here and there.

But is Syracuse football grabbing those five-stars like the heavyweights in college football, such as Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia and others? Definitely not.

Now, even though I want to see the Orange land five-star players, I also think that national rankings can be overrated, and a team like the ‘Cuse can find success with three-star and four-star commits who fit in well with the Syracuse football system.

Then again, in this brave new NIL world, if these $1 million offers from Adam Weitsman are done within the bounds of what is allowed by the NCAA, and Syracuse Orange recruiting efforts also get a boost, that to me feels like a win-win. We’ll see if that sort of scenario ends up transpiring.