Every interesting to look at the portal page on ESPN.com right now. 7 UNC players in portal and dozens of other major program players. In general, the key to portal movement among the top conferences is either (a) coach has left or been fired or (b) player scored less than 10 points a game. You have all these 4-5 star guys who feel they didn’t get a chance to play. Sure, only a few would consider the Ivies but that is an opportunity for a major talent upgrade if only the Ivies decide to go for it.
They won’t. Probably ever.
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Pretty much the entire Tennessee women’s basketball team is in the portal.
Lots of players are also forced into the portal by their coach. If a guy isn’t contributing and coach doesn’t see a future for him in his program, kid gets pushed in that direction.
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No scholarship, no NIL and more academics.
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Right- called college!
They are not mutually exclusive. But there should be the requirement that the players attend class and move towards graduation. Allowing players to maintain eligibility while not going to class and transferring after the season for a new contract is a joke in “college” basketball
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Yes, I agree completely. Kids who get off track academically almost immediately and then transfer multiple times is terrible. A lot of those kids are in college for 4-5 years and don’t get a degree. As per your comment, a kid can probably take 12 credits 1st semester as a freshman, not go the class second semester and transfer.
I just want the CBS and ESPN reporters to ask the players about their favorite classes, the most interesting thing they learned in college, what they are majoring in, etc., rather than “what does it mean to you to achieve X?” or “what does it say about this team that….?” Let’s at least get some level of reality on the table about the academic status and engagement of these college basketball players.
And if that seems too mean, perhaps the old concept of just putting them on staff like the IT folks and the maintenance crews and not pretending that they are students would be the answer.
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as a 50+ alum i can speak for many yale and princeton basketball alums i stay in touch with.
no we dont care that much.
i have written incessantly in the past on this dynamic and includes 2 pretax billionaires in the cohort
i guess we cared enough to do a few conf calls a few yrs ago
as i have also written abt the reason was and is…tax issues with financial aid and the realization that after research this is a volume game…you need a lot of small donors to make it sustainable. we dont have that support.
yes there are examples of a few high dollar donors funding programs but that is the exception not the rule.
sec football and basketball nil for ex is an army of small donors by and large. duke basketball is even more that way with a dedicated vc fund that is well developed and harvesting. this is before rev share of which we have none. they do
it is a game we cant win anyway.
i do think while our society has lost its collective mind on sports as manifested in nil and loss of the student athlete…that the improvement in selectivity of admissions programs of just the sec since i graduated undergrad is jaw dropping
there are other factors, demographics–inmigration and college age cohort increase; politics, but still sports particularly football and to some extent hoops even are a front porch.
but when you have $40bn ish endowments and record apps you dont notice or care abt such things it seems
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Completely agree with these comments. And also the b guys from Penn care about and are already involved heavily in pro sports. Would mike repole be funding st johns if he owned the knicks?
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There are two issues–(1) Do Ivy schools have the alumni base willing to spend on basketball sufficient to compete with Power schools and (2) Do the Ivies have specific alumni willing to help to allow them to simply play Division 1 basketball under current revenue/salary rules and find a decent arena that Ivy students and alumni will fill for the ILT. James is certainly correct that (1) is a hard no. But (2) is not. Certainly, Penn is showing it will make it an option for players who can’t command a Power Conference salary. Harvard has shown with its coaching position that it is willing to pay well above what other Ivies were paying to have a winning program. Other Ivies are doing, or have done the same. But I see no reason why the Ivies can’t get any academically qualified player who cannot command 7 figure pay. Fitting in with that image is the absolute need to stop playing the ILT in 2000 seat high school gyms. Since no one other than the two schools themselves are willing to play every year at either the Palestra or the Hanger, the neutral site option has to be the way to go. The ILT is a showcase for the conference and we can’t afford to be seen as grossly cheap.
i tend to believe we are still getting the player Columbia cites above.
i forecasted doom and gloom a long while back in response to dingle and mack and pre wolf transfer.
i am not seeing it in the recruiting for yale and i see all their kids play live. i actually think it is improving if i had to draw a trend line though we can all debate the year to year due to positional need. the recruiting rankings are garbage and worse than ever as i also write bc no one does it like they used too below the top 150. it is all about the portal.
however, as i noted above and recurringly, it doesnt matter when you lose your best player (developed recruit) every few years at best. all the while the tier I ncaa competition reloads and you get net younger, relative. they also stock up on the portal take the mids best players, reload and redance. the flywheel spins for them but losing steam for us.
that impact on player mix and maturity is as the quotes above highlight more important than a star ranking or two in high school.
there is a chance that if the Ivy drops to the UAA level of D3 a lot of well heeled alums will care but until then no one really does. i also forecasted we would go to that level on an uncertain time frame just 2 yrs ago and on this board not the old one. i am pleasantly surprised how wrong i was starting with yale recruiting since i made the forecast.
James jones made the added distinction basketball could be more vulnerable than other sports. the fight at yale would be in mens lacrosse for one. football also though they start lower and are actually moving the right direction winning the first FCS playoff game ever.
this is unfortunate for hoops but maybe not true at penn or princeton or anywhere but Yale. i can only speak for what i know… the money men are behind lacrosse and football at least at yale.
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also for the benefit of those that care.
the UGA gridiron club (football NIL) avg contribution is a $100 biweekly auto payroll deduction.
I have lots of hoops anecdotes bc my kids play all over the power 4 but i think that tells a better story. 1) uga has been a sustainable football power w Kirby smart; 2) i am close to the powers at be who manage all facets of that operation and have the most detailed info.
it is volume. it is not $/person. Hoops is a little different as they are the stepchild to football from a revenue perspective and do rely on higher checks and fewer donors but the point still holds true with some exceptions like St Johns as cited in the thread above.
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