Welp, there it is. More info with quotes from Pierce here:
Pierce informed coach Mitch Henderson of his decision last week.
âWhat went into the decision: some of my teammates were leaving, two of our assistant coaches werenât retained. And obviously the current landscape of college basketball is always sitting in the back of your mind. Those things kind of guided my decision.â
âI probably could have sat out and recovered a little bit more,â said Pierce, who added that he hasnât done any serious basketball movements in the past two months in order to get his ankle healthy. âBut Iâm a competitor.â
Between Leeâs stomach flu in 2024 and Pierceâs ankle in 2025, we blew our chances for another 2023-style NCAA run. Such a bummer.
Grow-up Ivy League. You are arrogant. You think that you are better. Yet, you accept athletes with an 1180 and a 3.5. Amherst doesnât. Carnegie-Mellon doesnât. But you wonât treat them like the other 355 universities. Why? You have the $$$. You puff when an Ivy beats a big boy. You are going to lose almost everyone over the years. The best Ivy baseball player left yesterday. I had a long talk with an Ivy President and that President had no clue at all about NIL. None. Who is educating them? Not the ADâs. That seems certain.You wonât let teams practice in the summers. That prevents injuries. You will only play 28 basketball games. Who on earth do you think you are. Truly.Caden will get $750,000 plus at virtually any university and a nice masters. And Princeton is now gutted. It is all Yale and Penn, as I have said repeatedly.Who is next to go. I think that I know full well.
Wow, it really bothered you to lose the last two years to Princeton, didnât it? Look, it isnât âarrogantâ to refuse to get into bidding wars that the Ivies are not willing to win. I have a feeling just about everyone will end up being outbid by the SEC and a few others bankrolled by billionaires who donât care about the money. The Ivies have always accepted 3.5/1180s guysâthey are called âlegaciesâ. The Ivies are bigger than Williams and Amherst so doing that doesnât skew the numbers . As you note, this professional basketball masquarading as college student basketball will eventually result in a major realignment, as schools that want to remain schools go to a different division which limits money and movementâand that will require a contractual agreement with players. The NIL system is unsustainable for all but the SEC and a few others. It hasnât fully played out yet, but it wonât remain as it is.
all this is a regurgitation of my âroad to d3â
but yes you likely will be right on the shakeout but when?
most of the endowments aided greatly by 1180/3.5s based on athlete giving statsđ
i see why he does this as i commented earlier on the rumor. but i also question a $750k payout for him given his year off and the phase in of revenue sharing.
regardless i get it and he will make good money.
Since I am a 50 year Yale fan and am mad at Rutgers for NOT playing Princeton, Iâm confused about your comment. Your comment about the SEC is comical. Look at the Big Ten (18). Look at the Big East which has more basketball money than the SEC. And no, they have not just been legacies. They have been athletes. You canât spell Yale in Westport as a 1550 and a 3.9, but as a lacrosse player who is a stud, you are in with an 1180 and 3.5. Can the Ivy really ignore Mister Justice Kavanaugh and his 8 brothers and sisters with impunity?
Totally agree. The road to d3 is fast approaching. Following princeton 50 years, maybe darkest day in program history
I donât support dark money, pay-for-play NIL collectives, but itâs time for full-ride athletic scholarships.
Heck, give full-ride scholarships for every student admitted. Billion-dollar endowments have got to be good for something.
Trump"s BBB will cost Yale something like $280 million annually in the new endowment tax. The tax will hit Harvard and Princeton very hard too and the other Ivies less but still materially. Hard to see this as the moment for the Ivy League schools to start increasing their scholarship programs.
This does seem like a no-brainer, though. If he wasnât completely healthy, and apparently, still isnât - the chances of winning a title declining with the loss of Xaivian - he gets his Princeton degree, AND a six-figure NIL deal?
We had to enjoy the sweet 16 run when it happened - a confluence of factors, maybe not seen again for the foreseeable future. Even if we had both Lee and Pierce healthy together - remember, we never replaced the size of Tosan and Kellman.
Iâm not sure it will literally be D3 - the Ivyâs may stay D1 in the non-revenue generating sports and be okay with being non-competitive for the rest.
I think the most disappointing thing about this is that Pierce is an example of a player who historically has been the reason Ivy League teams can compete vs top notch programs in March. Undersized, tough, smart upperclassman who can compete with the top recruits who are often younger.
âPierce battled injury issues last season, suffering an ankle injury in late December that resulted in two fully torn ligaments and two partially torn ligaments.â
No idea how a fully torn ligament heals without surgery???
What kind of message does it send to prospective student athletes if the league is comfortable being non-competitive?
Was obviously compromised, but missed one d3 game and played regular minutes rest of year. Guess the dude is a superman.
From the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.
âNearly all isolated low ankle sprains can be treated without surgery. Even a complete ligament tear (Grade 3) will heal without surgical repair if it is immobilized and rehabilitated appropriately.â
"Surgical treatment for ankle sprains is rare.
- Surgery is reserved for injuries that fail to respond to nonsurgical treatment, and for patients who experience persistent ankle instability and pain after months of rehabilitation and nonsurgical treatment."
Iâm thinking back to a time when the lack of scholarships had the biggest impact - after tuitions started to go up but before the financial aid became generous - others can figure out when the peak of that was - the league didnât have a problem with the teams being non-competitive.
Irony: As I pondered the profile of student-athlete that will come to the Ivy League, I went back to review what the lineup of the 1996 Princeton team that beat UCLA did post Princeton - finance, finance, coach, coach, orthopedic surgeon, coach, finance. Stumbled on Jamie Mastaglioâs obituary which had the title of his senior thesis: "âPay for Play: Compensating the College Athlete.â
Thanks. I did some more reading based on this, and the ligament can grow back together, presumably with immobilization. How long was Pierce in a cast or boot? I donât recall.
Two of the three considerations cited were non-NIL factors (losing teammates, losing coaches). If I were in his shoes and wanted to maximize my future Bball potential, knowing I needed to let my injuries fully heal, and doing so meant I could also potentially earn significant $ in another year of playing elsewhere, I would make the same decision. Itâs not hard to see the coaching changes roiling some player relationships - new coaches will take some time to integrate. and I think there will be pressure on Coach to show his judgment was reasonable.
What some people think is arrogance, I see as principled and based on reasonable assessments rather than mere herd-following. Now, like any decision it may turn out to be wrong, but I think P38 shows his usual measured judgment.