With regard to NIL money, UH basketball coach Kelvin Sampson wants recruits to know he's not running a match program.
The days of under-the-table dealings with runners and bag men handing untold sums of money to college athletes and recruits are long gone.
Now, name, image, and likeness (NIL) payments are made by collectives with no shame, as it should be, and basically no rules, which is a serious problem.
It is worse than the Wild West, because even the notoriously heavy-handed NCAA has chosen not to be the sheriff.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione told the Daily Oklahoman that the lack of structure concerning NIL has “created the most chaotic and disruptive environment in the history of college athletics, period.”
If schools had not fought so hard against paying athletes what they deserve, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
MORE FROM JEROME SOLOMON: UH's Fertitta Center is home to the best show in town
Money has always played a role in high-level recruiting. For most schools, it was about coaching salaries, facilities and even athletic dining hall menus.
Not every school cheated. Not every athlete wanted to be on the take.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
There are no qualms about taking the money that is available now, though. And there is plenty to go around.
According to data released by the NIL Summit last summer, the top 10 basketball players in the country averaged $500,000 in NIL money via collectives, with the top 25 averaging $350,000.
Schools aren’t supposed to be involved directly with NIL monies, and the NCAA eventually said payments could go to athletes only after they have enrolled and couldn’t be used as an inducement. Yeah, right.
Athletes aren’t enrolling until they know how much money is available. The same goes for players demanding specific sums to transfer.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
“I don’t like to talk numbers, but I live with these numbers,” Houston men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson said. “The NIL is real.”
Sampson says there have been instances when UH has stopped recruiting players because the school got wind of how much money it would cost to land them.
“We’ve dabbled with some kids, and you hear, ‘Will you match this?’ ” Sampson said with a laugh. “No. We’re not a match program. We’re not doing that.
“If he can get that, God bless him. Go for it, son.”
The crazy story Johnny Manziel told about his father asking Texas A&M football coach Kevin Sumlin to break all the rules and come up with $3 million to secure Manziel’s return to school for his junior and senior seasons wouldn’t even be considered crazy today.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Oklahoma State basketball coach Mike Boynton Jr., whose team is in a three-way tie for last place in the Big 12, recently spoke about his frustration in trying to recruit in the new college sports landscape where the grass is actual green.
As in moolah, dough, cash.
“Recruiting has never been a challenge (for me) — until recruiting became not recruiting anymore,” Boynton said.
Boynton says what it took for OSU to attract Cade Cunningham, a five-star recruit who was ranked the No. 2 player in the country in the 2020 class, was far more difficult than what it takes these days.
“It took four years of making sure I was there more than (Kansas coach) Bill Self and making sure I was there more than (then-North Carolina coach) Roy Williams and making sure I was there more than all these other coaches who had national championships and Final Fours and (had coached) all these NBA guys,” Boynton said. “Over time, the relationship mattered enough that he believed I was going to do the right thing by him.”
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
OSU earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament during Cunningham’s lone year on campus. The ensuing summer, when Cunningham was the No. 1 overall draft pick in the NBA, rule changes allowing players to benefit from their name, image and likeness were put into effect.
Confusion has reigned.
When a recruiting battle comes down to a hefty sum of money versus a hardworking coach with a plain old scholarship offer, the latter won’t win often.
“Not when (a school) can say, ‘Hey, here’s $500,000 to come spend nine months over here,’ ” Boynton said. “ ‘I like you, Coach, but I might get hurt this year, and all you've got is a scholarship for me, and I still have to give those books back at the end of the year.’ ”
Boynton told the Tulsa World that Oklahoma State ranks last in the Big 12 in NIL resources for men’s basketball.
"Without naming specific schools, I'll tell you what I know," Boynton replied. "There are at least six programs operating above $2 million for their roster. There are three or four others that operate between $1 million and $2 million, and we are last. We're barely over $500,000 in total expenses (committed to basketball athletes)."
With the transfer portal as popular as it is, player retention is vital for top programs like Sampson’s. He describes UH as a “high school development program.” Four of the Cougars’ five starters were high school recruits.
“I’m pro portal, and we will get kids out of the portal, but that’s not going to define who we are,” Sampson said. “I like developing kids, and once a kid is in this program, we’re gonna play the NIL game with them.
“But as far as matching some of these outlandish, ridiculous numbers that some of these schools are able to throw around (for recruits and transfers) … good, glad you got it.”
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Rami G Khouri
Mort Laitner
Rachel Marsden
Bradley Blankenship
Michael Kwet
visit website
