One of the better Point Guards still available is Xaivian Lee at Princeton. First team all league multiple years. He is 6'4 / 180lbs. 16.9ppg/6.1rpg/5.1apg.
Fg % 43.9
Fg % 43.9
Portal PG
- Thread starter bergemj
- Start date
UNLV has no shot with these high-level portal guys. They will command huge $$$$$$
Toppin at Texas Tech just got $4MM for next year. For one player. At Texas Tech. Almost our entire tv contract money for a year. To one player. Good luck JP.
From what i understand DJ got around 3 million???!! I mean how is this sustainable? These boosters and millionaires are throwing away millions every year and most with very little return!! The gap is only going to widen for the haves and haves nots.
Just split CBB into 2 leagues. There is no more David and Goliath ! There is no chance that any team outside the TOP NIL money to compete. The rest of DIV 1 are basically playing against border line NBA level talent players at multiple positions against most of P4 teams. Much easier to dominate at CBB only 5-7 players u got to pay.
Then when u find a diamond in the ruff of develop someone they are gone with NOTHING IN RETURN. Maybe have the NIL contracts last 2 years?? Some kind of $ going back to the team that got poached?? IF CBB want to survive they need to do something.
i would be willing to bet that TOP P4 schools bench has more $ than 99% of the starters at others school. IMO i think Pastner will do better than CKK but worse then CDR. Too much to overcome. If we hired Wade he would of attracted bigger NIL money . UNLV has more to work with than most of NON-P4 schools. The others are doomed. Once the facts come to light the NIL money will drop even more for the NON-P4 teams and even some of them that you throw millions at a player only to get bounced in the first round or 2 if your lucky or not even make it they will come HOPEFULLY to the realization they cant and wont make a difference.
It’s not an apples to apples comparison here?
There was no NIL back then and it was about recruiting more than it is now. I think Josh would have compared favorably with Rice in recruiting.
But now it’s just about the money and if that is right you get the player. Now he may leave at the end of the year for even more elsewhere but it’s all about your NIL dollars now and much less about the coach’s charisma or even character!
you keep bringing up Wade but where was the extra 10m we would have had to come up with just to match his deal let alone what they came up with for nil.
There are about 900 Billionaires and 7000 worth $ 300 million or more. Over the years Warren buffet has averaged a 20% return on his money. ( $ 200 million annually for a billionaire ) Anything close to that return and each of these people can personally finance the entire NIL for their favorite team. We are nowhere near the end for the top 20-30 teams.
A couple of things can stop or slow it. Contracts - Programs need to insist on two or three year contracts - like a coach - and if the entire contract is not fulfilled all or a portion of the NIL funds would be refunded to the benefactor. Collective Bargaining - this would allow teams to act like the NFL - NBA and establish caps on income. Portal - change the portal rules to once a career. Saturation - eventually the mega wealthy will tire of paying for their team to win and will back off.
Explaining the NIL is like explaining compound interest. Once you understand it you realize your advantages and hopelessness. Being outside the P4 is hopeless. Having hope that we get in the Big 12 is all I got.
True that P4 would be an answer. But the exception breaks the rule. Gonzaga has a reported $ 9 mil NIL made from several benefactors across the country. $ 9 mil will get you a team that can excel on a national basis. Every G 5 needs one or several sugar daddies or they are screwed as far as National competition goes. But they can win their conference with much less. For me, making the Dance and winning one game is like a sweet 16 used to be.
It will only get worse until the courts get involved and end all the games. No more athletic fees on students, no more tax payers subsidizing school athletics, no more NCAA setting rules that clearly favor the have's. Now that athletics has turned into a marketing program for the schools, and no longer has anything to do with education, how long before limits are set on how much they pay for players, how long before they end the game of a player being able to jump to one school, and a week later jump to the next school, how long before singed NIL deals are contracts that the players can no longer break without financial consequences?
Worst money spent ever. I remember Memphis, miss st, new mex and boise point guards dominating DJ. He could be good on a loaded team. I do not think lsu will be that loaded.
Wasn't NIL supposed to be Name Image and Likeness. Now its a salary !!!!
It begs the question why anyone would donate to NIL for UNLV knowing we still can’t compete with the P4s. Unless you’re a multi-millionaire several times over there’s just no point. Now if I had a few hundred million in the bank, yeah I’d make UNLV my “pro” team, donate several million each season and have a great time.
I think our only hope is if casinos could start donating directly to the NIL fund, but I don't see that happening anytime soon
But it needs to happen!
I know the mega conglomerate casinos probably won’t but what about some of the smaller ones…
It’s a great point. Putting up money towards NIL does nothing in getting UNLV to the next step. Or, if you argue that with money, they would have a better chance at winning, better chance at better conference. That’s a lot of money for a very long shot.
So why put up the money?
If UNLV gets left behind once and for all, I know people that would stop with football and basketball.
I can see mega rich parting with money. Can’t see hard working every day slobs doing it. It’s paying a 1000 dollars for a basic scratch dollar lotto ticket.
Just a really sad state of college sports. Perhaps there should be a secondary”league” where schools participate under the “old rules” where student competing exchange for an education. It wouldn’t be anywhere near the same level of competition but I sure would feel better about supporting it.
If it was actually image and likeness, most of these players would be lucky to get a few thousand a year, now they get a big chunk of revenue, which in many cases is from schools that lose money with their athletic programs. I wonder how and where most of these schools will get the money to replace the revenue being provided to the players? In truth only a couple of dozen athletic programs make a profit.
If someone put up enough $$ you don't need the next level - a la Gonzaga. Football - schedule three top level teams ( Notre Dame, Ohio State etc ) a year and go every year or two to the playoffs. Basketball - schedule four or five top teams at the Mack ( pay to bring them in ), win your conference every year and go to the dance every year. Buy the best players and hire the best coaches. Average 50000 plus at allegiant and 15,000 + at the Mack. $ 20 mil a year from a booster will do the job. Walking around money to a Billionaire.
LSU reloaded. 18th ranked class overall and 4th ranked portal class. They brought in four very good transfers and starters at their former schools and 3 top 100 recruits in addition to Dedan.
Well the easy solution is to implement a NIL spending cap. But we all know the SEC and B1G aren't going to play that nonsense.
The only thing they'll do is raise a hellstorm when a small school happens to get a big-time donor and they start landing high-level recruits left and right. Keep an eye on what BYU does over the next few years
With the amount of money being dished out they need to start instituting contracts. I dont know of any business that doesnt have their high level people under contract. If they are going to be paid big figures they should sign that they are at a college for 2-4 years. Also the NBA and NFL both have salary caps for teams they need to do the same thing in college. The way college sports have changed they are their own professionsal sports now.
There is a salary cap. Their salary is revenue sharing. Revenue sharing is capped at $ 20.5 million per school.
As of now, the revenue sharing is not the same as NIL. It's in addition to NIL. So P4 schools (or any that have money to do so) can pay out 20.5M per year from their own resources, while also getting NIL money to athletes through outside sources.
Exactly. Just like professional sports. Professional players get their contracted pay from their team and are free to make additional deals with anyone. Commercials, endorsements etc.
The thing is though, are most of the dollars given to these athletes really tied to any sort of commercials, endorsements, etc? It would be pretty hard to justify giving a guy $2M a year to appear in 1 commercial and do a few signing events. It's just a way around being able to pay them through the school.
IMO, if, through revenue sharing, they're basically allowing the schools to pay them, they should do away with the NIL stuff. Otherwise, you're just giving double the advantage to the P4 schools, and the schools with the most money/boosters.
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That's a decent point. Just sort of a spin on the old scam of giving the kid $10k envelopes under the table to turn on the sprinklers.
At the very least if they get paid NIL they should need to do the actual work for that money i.e. commercials, promotions, public appearances, etc.
I don't believe NIL will ever be taken away. The NCAA has tried to moderate it but they have been overruled by courts every time.
The NCAA’s Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) policy emerged from a mix of legal battles and shifting tides in college sports. It started with Ed O’Bannon’s 2009 lawsuit against the NCAA over his likeness being used in a video game without pay. The 2014 O’Bannon v. NCAA ruling chipped away at the NCAA’s amateurism rules, opening the door to limited benefits and sparking debate. Then, in 2019, California’s Fair Pay to Play Act—signed on September 30—allowed athletes to profit from endorsements starting in 2023. Other states followed, forcing the NCAA to adapt. On October 29, 2019, the NCAA voted to modernize its rules, but it wasn’t until the Supreme Court’s June 21, 2021, NCAA v. Alston decision—paired with looming state laws—that the NCAA acted fast, adopting an interim NIL policy on June 30, effective July 1, 2021.
That policy suspended old bylaws, letting athletes earn from endorsements, autographs, and social media deals, guided by state laws or school rules. The first big deal came instantly—Hercy Miller signed a $2 million contract with Web Apps America on July 1, 2021—followed by stars like the Cavinder twins with Boost Mobile. By mid-2022, donor-backed collectives were fueling NIL, blurring lines between endorsements and recruiting. The NCAA’s tried to rein it in, like with May 2022 guidance on boosters, but as of April 10, 2025, NIL’s a multi-billion-dollar force reshaping college sports, born from a push for fairness that the NCAA couldn’t outrun. ( Taken from Grok AI)
I agree with you that it likely won't be taken away, but it's not really like NBA endorsements. In general, NBA players get endorsement deals because those companies believe that it will help their company to make more money, or get a different market share than they had previously.
In the cases of people like Livvy Dunne and the Cavinder twins, they're getting paid by these companies because of their looks, which is fine. Not necessarily due to their athletics, but it's definitely a combination of the two.
The NIL deals that we're talking about for football and basketball are not that though. And realistically, if they were about the individual athlete, would it really even matter too much which school they went to? Other than car ads or restaurants that are local to a certain area. But it's not like a small bar in Truckee is going to be paying a UNR athlete 500k, right?
I guess my point is, if you're actually getting paid by outside companies for NIL, it should actually be tied to a company, and a product, like with Livvy, Cavinders, etc. Otherwise, it's just a cheat code for the rich programs to be able to buy all the players.
I’d sign blind for $3M, too.
One of the first ones I remember was DeColdest Crawford at Nebraska. And it was for a local HVAC company and he did a commercial for them.
