I fully support student-athletes doing what’s best for themselves. It’s not their fault the Ivy refuses to evolve. But I don’t know that this move is actually best for Pierce.
Instead, it feels like he saw Xaivian getting paid $6M to join the national champs and suddenly had second thoughts. He didn’t even bother entering the portal to test the waters. I hope Caden knows that he’s not getting remotely the same usage and money as Xaivian, especially after his weak junior season.
Also, a year is a long time. Whatever promises were made to Caden now might not be honored in 2026: “Sorry, kid. It turns out we landed a 5-star recruit and a mid-major POY who isn’t coming off injury. Best of luck elsewhere!”
Except this way, he gets his Princeton degree and is sure of a grad school scholarship, before any money figures in. So anything he gets is gravy and helps him if he wants to play professional basketball afterwards. I see no downside for him in this decision. It’s not what Dingle did, leaving a team that had a real shot of going somewhere and giving up a Penn degree for a St John’s degree and then actually regressing as a professional prospect.
My view on the SEC is comical? Look at the numbers. The SEC has been pulling away from the Big 10 and now has well over $3 million more per school in NIL money
6 of the top 10 money paying schools are in the SEC. “Basketball money” is irrelevant. Football is what drives the money machine and the Big East is declining rapidly except for a few schools and I don’t know how long they can be competitive. Just look at those Gators to see that football money is paying for basketball greatness.
I have read in several places (for example, Winners and Losers of the House v. NCAA NIL Settlement in College Sports) that under the House settlement, non-football schools - specifically the Big East - will benefit compared to football-centric schools by being able to allocate a disporportionately larger amount of the estimated $20M revenue amount payable directly to athletes to basketball players rather than the (much larger) football rosters. I know that additional NIL payments are expected (theoretically subject to a “College Sports Commission” review by “NIL Go” for “fair market” value - ha!), so is your point that the football-school NIL payments will overwhelm the impact of the revenue sharing benefit accruing to such basketball schools notwithstanding such “review”?
This is once again an even more bizarre take. And I’m on the ground in the trenches. The Big Ten and the SEC had a meeting to deal with the Big East “problem.” The big winner is the Big East in hoops. No one is remotely close. What on earth does football money have to do with an 11 million rev share budget at St. John’s to only 3.5 million at Ohio State in basketball. Nothing.
Good point–I meant to include the issue of the NIL settlement–I was referring to the effect so far. On that issue, while on paper it limits what can be spent by the schools themselves, the athletes can still get NIL deals directly. If you think most Big East schools, small Catholic schools (except for UConn) can help bring in corporate NIL deals like the big boys will for their players, fine. It’s the total package that will matter. We’ll see, but I don’t see the Big East the winners other than St. John’s and UConn.
Finishing his degree is a smart move, but I honestly think his basketball career would be better served by staying. Caden is below both Tosan and Xaivian in terms of NBA/pro potential, so I don’t think he’s gonna get a career boost from transferring. Be the #1 star at Princeton, not the 3rd/4th option at Illinois.
Pierce is a crafty, undersized PF who’s coming off a weak, injury-riddled season. By the 2026-27 season, he’ll be “cold product,” a year removed from playing any D-1 games. Not sure what big NIL offers and starring roles he’s expecting at that point.
I remain stunned at how some don’t realize how sought after Caden will be in 2026. Also, remember that Brett is at Stanford now and that would be a great landing spot. But, the Duke and UNC types will be offering.
i agree and see the debate as only what he gets paid.
certainly he wont get a legitimate nil deal like xaivian lee with a shoe company. but thats also not the point.
he has good tape from 2 years ago and has a special skill—he can rebound in traffic and can defend a bit.
he will be a solid role player wherever he wants to play.
I was reading how Kentucky has now completely removed control of its Athletic Department from the University to a new separate company (called Champions Blue LLC). When you read the description of the purposes and “benefits”, its hard see how the House settlement is anything other than a way station to the next great commercialization stage.
Gary Parrish of CBS had a nice column noting the intelligence of Pierce’s decision, and he didn’t even take into account the ankle and the coaching changes.
I suspect Pierce will do well as a grad transfer, and I certainly hope that is the case. He did a LOT for the program and the school.
Between the small picture of Pierce and the big picture of NIL/settlement and college hoops, I am mostly concerned with the middle picture–what is going on with Princeton’s men’s basketball program? The communications strategy since the end of last season has been so reticent as to encourage negative speculation.
The two new coaches seem fine. But firing the main recruiter for the last several years without a hint of an explanation, then losing Pierce (who mentioned coaching changes as a factor in his decision), then seeing that the 2025-26 roster includes zero freshmen (are we still recruiting?), all in contrast to the apparent activity of some of our IL rivals, is not a great look. Is MH white-knuckling all this change? Is the program paralyzed or functioning?
At least some public statements about some of this would seem advisable to me, if only to reassure potential future recruits about program stability.
I don’t understand business structure AT ALL, but I deduce that U of Kentucky, a non-profit, is spinning off a for-profit LLC, and somehow can reap some or all of the profits.
Or could Kentucky split the profits with private equity investors?
I believe that is the exact intent (sharing profits with investors). I expect that once PE firms get involved we will see ever more “creative” ways of monetizing the assets (Kentucky brand/sports). I haven’t spent time trying to ascertain all the possible avenues, but PE firms only invest when they see a path to generating returns for their own investors.
I don’t have specific knowledge, but it is my understanding that the school’s webpage roster pages typically (or at least frequently) do not list incoming freshmen until the school year starts (I know this is true for lacrosse). Verbal Commits lists several incoming freshmen. https://www.verbalcommits.com/schools/princeton.
I have no knowledge whether any of them have decommitted.
The profits of a spinoff LLC can be used by the parent non-profit to further the goals thereof. So…could Princeton use such an LLC to fund its general operating expenses and/or feed the endowment? This would be a justification to participate in the world of for-profit college sports.
An interesting question. There are limits on the extent to which a tax exempt entity (FYI, technically not necessarily the same as a nonprofit - tax-exempts are a subset of nonprofits; not all nonprofits are tax exempt) can enage in for profit activity before jeopardizing its tax exempt status. While this is always a fact-specific issue, normally I would say this is probably not an issue here, but in the current political environment who can say for sure.
As I understand it, the model here is that UK retains an ownership stake which means (unless the LLC Operating Agreement allocates earnings in a non pro-rata fashion) that UK would have an income stream, which is very likely taxable as unrelated business income. Is this more bottom-line efficient way to raise funds than other ways to raise funds (and considering fundraising aspects unique to ivies)? A consulting firm will earn handsome fees addressing this.
I had the same thought, and hope the frosh are
still coming. Some of them should earn significant time,
as I see only 7 on the roster now who will play–
Davis, Stanton, Seals, hicks, Abdulahi, Happy and
Huggins. Hoping Austin returns, but I think that is
unlikely.