Jeff Goodman rips Syracuse’s NIL budget, but he misses one key point in his rant

National analyst Jeff Goodman says that Syracuse basketball's financial resources are "clearly not where they need to be." That may or may not be true (it's probably true).

One thing is true, though: Help is (hopefully) on the way.

Just a week ago, SU hired its next athletics director, current Toledo AD Bryan Blair. Blair comes to the Hill with a stellar reputation as a tremendous fundraiser, and that will certainly come in handy at Syracuse Athletics.

Today's college sports landscape is built on two primary things, especially in basketball and football. One is free agency season after season due to the transfer portal's explosion. The second is that schools can now pay their athletes directly in revenue-sharing, along with third-party name, image and likeness ("NIL") funds.

As SU leaders conduct their search for the next head coach of the Orange hoops program, the topic of NIL has, understandably, come up. A lot. Goodman, the co-founder of The Field of 68, said in a recent podcast that he believes the 'Cuse has an NIL budget in basketball of around $8 million. Or, at least that's what reports have suggested Syracuse basketball had to work with in the recently completed 2025-26 season.

Syracuse basketball is likely lacking in NIL funds, but that could improve under SU's new athletics director.

Hall of Famer Jim Boeheim has said the team needs a $10 million budget to be competitive. Of course, it's difficult to know exactly what SU's annual budget is for hoops. As a private university, the school's athletics leadership doesn't typically respond to my requests for comments on this topic.

Syracuse Athletics has said that it would share the maximum amount allowed in 2025-26, about $20.5 million, with its athletes as a result of last year's House antitrust settlement. But how much of that is going to Syracuse basketball isn't clear.

Also, it isn't clear how much in third-party NIL dollars the Orange had in 2025-26, and I'm not aware of a substantial collective in place to support SU players in sports beyond football these days.

Amid reports on Tuesday night that South Florida's Bryan Hodgson is out of the running for the Syracuse basketball head coaching vacancy, Goodman said on X that if the Orange wants "to compete for (the) top 5-6 spots in the ACC, they will need to improve their financial package for the next coach."

That's probably true. But what Goodman failed to note, which would be important context, is that Blair was only hired a week ago. If he replicates his Toledo success at Syracuse, then the ongoing narrative that SU is lacking in financial resources, whether in basketball or other sports, can potentially diminish.

Or evaporate altogether.