We explain recruiting changes and why some basketball players bypass college altogether
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A Recruiting Revolution
Things are about to get wild post-high school basketball. In the world of recruitment, high-level prospects are navigating a completely different world than their predecessors did even five years ago. Follow the recruitment of a highly-touted basketball prospect in an evolving and changing college athletics (and particularly college basketball) landscape.
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Even for those who closely follow the developments surrounding college athletics, keeping up with the changes can be a dizzying exercise. For those who follow college sports only casually, or not at all? Good luck keeping track.
Schools are switching conferences at a faster and faster rate these days. The very model that provided the foundation of college sports has been upended in recent years. There are words and phrases that didn’t really exist a couple of years ago -- “NIL” and “transfer portal” -- that are now commonplace.
Here in North Carolina, college basketball means more than it does in a lot of places. And that sport, too, has changed (and continues to change) with the times. As it relates to recruiting, in particular, it’s an entirely different game than it used to be. Here’s an informal Q-and-A primer on what’s new, and where everything might be headed:
Q. What are the main differences with college basketball recruiting now compared to the recent past?
A. To put things simply, prospects have a lot more options than they used to. Used to be, prospects pretty much had one choice to advance their basketball endeavors: they needed to go to college. Now there are competing professional leagues offering money and exposure, and there’s also the choice of spending some time in Europe, as a few high-level American players have done in recent years, and bypassing college altogether. And of course, NIL has changed everything, too.
Q. We’ll get to NIL. But first, what are you talking about with these different leagues?
A. There are two of them: Overtime Elite and the NBA’s G League Ignite. They’re similar, but different, but both leagues are targeting some of the best high school players. Overtime Elite, or OTE, as it’s known, allows for high school-aged players to join its league, and those players can surrender their college eligibility, too, by accepting a six-figure salary and playing with OTE after they would’ve graduated high school. The G League Ignite, meanwhile, targets players who would otherwise be freshmen in college.
Q. What’s the draw of these leagues, for a recruit?
A. Well, let’s be honest here: It’s money. OTE’s minimum salary is $100,000, for any player who joins the league (and the best players will receive more than that). The salaries for prospects entering the G League Ignite are less well-known but top prospects are reportedly making as much as $500,000 per year. That’s a lot of money for kids in their late teens. Another aspect of both of these leagues is that they promise great coaching and a better opportunity for development, and they claim to provide the best of the best when it comes to facilities and equipment. In short, they both promote the idea that they provide a professional training environment for top players.
Q. Has it worked? Have these leagues been able to land top players?
A. They have. A lot of them. G League Ignite has landed several top prospects since it launched in 2020, including Jalen Green, Isaiah Todd and Daishen Nix, all of whom were five-star prospects who joined shortly after the league’s creation. Ignite has continued to draw its share of talent. OTE has recruited its share, too, including Jalen Lewis, the No. 2-ranked prospect in the Class of 2023. Nassir Cunningham, the top-ranked prospect in the Class of 2024, has also committed to OTE -- though he’s going with the intent of retaining his collegiate eligibility.
Q. What’s this mean for college basketball?
A. It means that some of the best players will never set foot on any college campus. So far it hasn’t had much of an effect, because the vast majority of prospects still go to college. But could it slowly erode the talent level in college basketball, eventually? It’s certainly possible, especially if OTE and Ignite become bigger -- both literally and figuratively -- in the years to come. One thing that will help college basketball attract and retain talent is that college athletes can finally make NIL money.
Q. Ah, yes. There’s that abbreviation again. What’s it mean, and why might it help the college game?
A. NIL stands for “name, image and likeness.” Basically, athletes can profit off of their NIL now, whereas before the summer of 2021, doing so would’ve been against NCAA rules. Athletes can sign endorsement deals. They can make money off of autograph shows. They can do commercials. They can be pitchmen or women. At least, that was the intent of allowing athletes NIL rights. In reality, a lot of purported NIL deals have turned into “pay for play” by another name, which is still against NCAA rules but has become impossible to enforce.
Q. So how has NIL affected recruiting?
A. Well, it’s another thing -- and all of a sudden a very important one -- for a prospect to weigh and consider. A player may love everything about school X, but what if school Y is offering a much more lucrative NIL deal? Now, technically, NIL deals aren’t supposed to be used as recruiting inducements. But also: come on. Let’s be real here. It’s happening all the time. And sure, deals used to happen all the time, anyway, under the table. But now, under the guise of NIL, they’re much more common and the amount of money involved, by all accounts, has increased. Some prospects might not care about making a lot of NIL money. A lot of them do, though.
Q. Where is this all headed?
A. It’s difficult to say, though it sure seems like it’s probably a matter of time until college athletes -- at least in football and basketball -- become employees of the schools they represent. That would allow, at the least, for some regulation over NIL, and would perhaps make things more organized than they are now. But if that were to happen, it’s still a good way off.
Q. I see. So in the meantime, expected continued craziness?
A. Oh, yes. And if you’re a fan of high-level basketball, hope that the best of the best high school talent makes it to college in the first place. Now, there are more options than ever.
This story was originally published December 20, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
