Grimala wrote that Thomas got $ 400 k last year.
$ 400K is nothing. To me, after hearing Thomas got the majority of the NIL, that means our total BB NIL is around $ 1 mil - maybe a little less.
BYU is spending $ 20 million in the coming year on basketball NIL. They have Danny Ainge running their NIL program. UCON $ 8 million. Duke - $ 14 million. Kansas $ 12 million. And for a West Region G5 school Gonzaga $ 9 million. Other major programs are lower than this but still much larger than ours.
$ 1 mil is better than zero or near zero (SJSU- AF) . But we better recalculate our thinking that we can compete on a national level year to year. IMO, we should temper our thoughts on P4 inclusion. Why go to a conference where you will be outspent by tens of millions for players? There are only so many "diamonds in the rough" who a coach can "develop". And they will be gone in a year. Perhaps it would be better to be the big fish in the small conference - like now, make the Tourney and hope to get lucky for a couple of games.
(All the above numbers came from an AI search and must be tempered with the fact that NO major program publishes what they actually pay players for NIL. The numbers are complied from multiple forum and booster comments along with internet sports articles so they should be taken with some skepticism. But they are probably close because nobody is screaming denials.)
