Maybe some of the OG college head coaches still don’t understand that the game has changed. Alabama legend Nick Saban hung on for a couple of years after the 2021 bombshell NIL ruling that changed college sports forever, but he wasn’t going to be buying players. It’s against everything he built his multi-million dollar legacy on.
But that’s the game now. Every nationally-ranked high school player is looking for a bag, and it’s most often the motivating factor in where they commit.
So if your NIL collective isn’t tight and you don’t have the money to lock down your most desirable recruits, then for now, acting like you have the money and lying to the recruits to get them on campus is an unethical option but an option none the less.
Leonard Hamilton Sued For Failure To Fulfill $1.5M NIL Promise To Recruits
Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton has been a head coach for 33 years. He’s the winningest hoops coach in FSU history and fifth all-time among the coaches in ACC history.
Hamilton has had a nice run at Florida State (9-4) this season, but he’s seen the recruiting game change right before his eyes, and now the coach is under fire as six former FSU players have filed a lawsuit against him over what they claim are unfulfilled promises of NIL compensation totaling $1.5M.
The six plaintiffs are former Seminoles Darin Green Jr., Josh Nickelberry, Primo Spears, Cam’Ron Fletcher, De’Ante Green, and Jalen Warley. Each of them is alleging that the coach had promised them $250,000 in NIL payments from Hamilton’s “business partners.”
This happened in the 2023-24 season, as Hamilton allegedly referred to these payments in two separate team meetings plus individual conversations with some players and their families.
But the checks never cleared despite them taking the court. Naturally this news sent basketball fans into a frenzy, with old heads denouncing the NIL as evil and newer fans demanding some better contractual guidelines for NIL.
One X user clowned Florida State’s program as having no money, saying, “Ohhh boys up north broke broke. Collective ain’t collecting huh.”
One fan said on Reddit, “The sport needs to go to a contract model so bad.”
Another said, “I don’t know how successful this suit will be, given that Ham was pretty circumspect about not putting any of the promises in writing. That said, seems like there’s plenty of circumstantial evidence about the promises, so there’s definitely enough meat on the complaint to survive any early attempts to dismiss it.”
Lying To Recruits About Money To String Them Along Is An Option For Those Programs Who Don’t Have It
Florida State was “ass betting” as they called it back in the days when cats played three-dice cilo on the city streets. On the other hand, No. 1 overall recruit AJ Dybantsa chose BYU, whose money is already in the bank and not just a shrewd assurance.
Hamilton’s players acknowledged within the legal documents that they even boycotted a practice last season over the missed payments.
“The NIL system where the coach and even university are disconnected from actually paying people makes no sense,” said another fan.
NIL Money Changing The Coaching Game: Old School Coaches Don’t Fit The Same
Very few “old head” coaches will be able to survive in this climate without a huge NIL collective. Bill Self is in a great position because Kansas always has a bag for basketball recruits. Jim Boeheim doesn’t even try to win anymore in Syracuse. I’m sure he got the family deal with Kiyan Anthony, being that his dad, NBA legend Melo, also went to ’Cuse and is close to Boeheim. Anthony will get to put up shots and play, but Syracuse isn’t competing for the top players in the country anymore, even as members of the ACC.
College Players Have To Start Getting NIL Money Up Front: Ask Jaden Rashada
The Hamilton situation, which we have already seen in football with top prospects such as 5-star quarterback Jaden Rashada, opens up another layer of drama. Another cat-and-mouse game within the game of the recruiting process.
RELATED: Jaden Rashada Is Not Playing Amateur About His NIL Money | Bidding Wars Are Real In College Football
Back in 2023, rumors had it that a four-year, $13M NIL deal with the Gators Collective fell through due to lack of funding, which led to Rashada leaving the school.
Prospects have to start getting their money up front, because some schools apparently have no intentions of paying them or the people they are depending on are unreliable.
This NIL rabbit hole gets deeper and deeper. Let’s see how the NCAA and Florida State handle this embarrassing lawsuit.