Weekly Word: NIL strengthening college basketball, June football recruiting and more
The Weekly Word is GoldandBlack.com’s weekly opinion column, written by Brian Neubert. In today’s Weekly Word, we discuss NIL’s positive impact on college basketball, Purdue football recruiting and much more..
COLLEGE BASKETBALL AND NIL
Watch the NBA Draft Thursday night and you may notice a recurring theme during the first hour to 90 minutes: Hardly any of the guys expected to go in the top 10 went to college. France’s Victor Wembanyama — perhaps you have heard of him — will be the No. 1 pick, but will be followed in the top-five-ish strata by G-League Ignite’s Scoot Henderson and Overtime Elite’s Amen and Ausar Thompson. Just a few years into this era of the elite players having other viable domestic paths to the NBA, this.
It’s part of the college basketball talent drain that the NCAA brought on itself — not to mention the thousand scandals — by being so behind the times on allowing athletes to get more than a scholarship while the NCAA Tournament brings in hundreds of millions of dollars for their schools.
Here’s where maybe NIL can really help college basketball keep the best players using the college game as their stepping stone and thus giving Almighty TV more of its money’s worth as a broadcast product. The guys college basketball may be missing out on may be Fox’s or ESPN’s next appointment-viewing sorts of guys.
Has NIL made college basketball dirtier? Well, can the Lake Michigan get wetter? NIL has just bought the black market above board.
But it will also yield a higher-caliber of play for two reasons: College now pays better and offers a cozier existence for the best players than either sub-pro route would.
And of course, the best players who stay a few years will be inclined to keep coming back.
Zach Edey‘s decision to return to Purdue wasn’t based solely on money, but the money part of it was almost certainly a prerequisite. How often do players of the year come back? They have two years running now, and in Edey’s case he will at worst make comparable money to whatever unknown sums he’d have drawn had he shot his shot with the pro ranks.
One thing I’ve always liked about college basketball is watching kids become men, and the imperfections of a game played by kids who’d move on to something else once they turn to adults. I’m not a huge fan of the game now being played by adults. Never mind the money; that’s the mark of a sport being professionalized.
But from a competitive perspective and a spectator’s perspective, any sport is only as appealing as its elite players, I believe. In that regard, NIL is strengthening college basketball.
Ryan Walters at Purdue’s practice on April 15, 2023. (Chad Krockover @KrockPhoto)
JUNE AND PURDUE RECRUITING
I tried to write this column hours ago, but Purdue football got two more verbal commitments before I sat down to write and I didn’t want to bury that coverage with my nonsense.
Such is the nature of June in college football. Drinking from the firehose.
I want to say this: Ryan Walters, his staff and his organization are tearing it up in recruiting, a testament to that staff’s energy, connections, creativity and so on. There are now 12 2024 commitments and one ’25 pledge in addition to all the transfers that’ll have you looking at a roster before every snap in September. But this is also just the nature of June now. A few years back, it became the new December once summer official visits became a thing. This June is not unlike Jeff Brohm’s first summer; if I recall, there were 17 June commitments then (several of which did not stick or were otherwise dropped).
It’s a dangerous game, man. Dangerous for coaches who are filling up their classes months in advance of signing days that barely matter anymore. There’s nothing binding for any of these summer commitments, and that’s a two-way street, because there’s nothing marrying coaches to these players either, other than the concept of doing the right thing and not burning bridges, which is especially bad business nowadays.
These high school players are making their decisions months before they have any idea whether their coaches will dump a transfer on top of them on the depth chart come December or January or at any point between June of one year and June of the next year.
Transfer reform has given recruits easier outs than ever before, but this is the most difficult time ever to be a high school recruit trying to make an informed decision, at least post-Internet (before that, recruits had no idea who else schools were recruiting), because springtime roster curveballs are going to be an annual deal as coaches turn over their rosters every single year.
In the moment, though, it’s a hell of a show.
Purdue Flag (Photo: Chad Krockover)
RANDOM THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK
• The concept of the commitment nowadays is what it is, but I think the stigma of recruiting other peoples’ commitments (in football, at least) is probably something that ought to go by the wayside, if it didn’t years ago
Seems to me like it would be good business for Purdue — for example — to keep talking to — for example — Mylan Graham after his commitment to Ohio State some time ago and Tae Johnson once he commits to Notre Dame, because what’s to say they’re not available again in eight months or two years or whatever? Those are just two rando names I threw out there, but they illustrate my point that if these high-end players find themselves stuck at a blueblood program and want opportunity, guess what’s gonna happen? Why not keep building a relationship and showing commitment to a player who didn’t commit to you?
• An interesting theoretical land mine brewing in basketball recruiting: Purdue’s offer this center to big man Trent Burns, as well as the obviousness that Matt Painter would be willing to take both Gicarri Harris and Travis Perry if he can get them, illustrates Painter’s pragmatic approach to over-signing, to overbooking the flight during an era when transfers are barely news anymore.
Nobody wants to get caught short of something. It’s not always about having 13 guys on scholarship as much as it is not being without something. So many coaches are going to be aggressive with their scholarships. Purdue’s actions in recruiting have shown Painter will be among them.
Thing is, Painter will keep up his M.O. of front-end vetting to gauge fit, to minimize roster tumult. It sounds trite, but he wants players who want to be at Purdue.
So what happens when the stars align and Purdue gets everything plus one in a class the same year no one transfers or departs early for the pros?
Good problem to have, I guess.
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