[Cactus Jack]

With the nil and portal, the playing field has been leveled.

Until schools like Kentucky have to start providing some form of compensation or buyout to schools like Drexel or Illinois State after they swoop in and take players that those schools have nailed the evaluation on and invested the time in developing, then the only schools who've "leveled the playing field" are other power conference schools that have donors interested enough in NIL funding for basketball. Right now, I don't see a lot of SEC or Big Ten schools that care more about basketball than football & whether the Big XII as configured has staying power or is any different if it does remains to be seen.


NIL and the portal as it's currently set up can help Louisville kneecap College of Charleston becoming the next Butler, VCU, or Wichita State because they can hire their away their coach, who'll take his best returning players with him and buy better role players for the positions to fill the holes he knows he has.

I'll give you that it may help a school with some decades ago tradition like Georgia Tech get there quicker if they decide to commit the money to making that type of push.

I'll also give you that it keeps a school like TCU or SMU from getting hit with probation when their filthy rich donors decide to open the checkbooks, but it isn't like the schools with that type of support and funding weren't already doing the same thing, only to a lesser extent; it was just that it was more limited to splashy coaching hires, new facilities, and having to keep any under the table payments off of too many people's radar back then.


That said, it's my hill to die on that it is asinine to say that it's "leveled the playing field" as if all some mid-major or Mountain West Conference school has to do is either "stop being poor" or apparently starting to spend the millions more than the other schools have that must have stashed away on getting to the Final Four.

It's also not seeing the big picture if you think strong academic schools with tons of money committed to research, medicine, engineering and the like sees the NIL and portal and think "this is the perfect time to try and become a top sports program even though the past 100 years have shown that our university's community doesn't care about that at all".

I never intended to say that it would pull the mid majors and off brand conferences up to the level of the major brands of the world.  The NIL money will actually destroy the low and mid majors and the smaller conferences.  I guess with BYU joining the Big 12 helped them sign the #1 recruit.  By leveling the playing field, I meant it will keep the top tier teams more equal.

That's how I interpreted your statement, and I think you are correct. Those seasons where we had one or two very dominant teams is likely gone for good.  Also, the chances of seeing a George Mason or Florida Atlantic in the F4 are over. Damn shame!!! NIL and portals suck ass!!!

Agree with all of that but the years of 1-2 very dominant teams being over. Think we'll see that again at some point in the not-so distant future. It probably won't happen as often, and we are definitely not going to see teams like '96 Kentucky, '97 Kansas, and '98 North Carolina where you have at least one NBA All-Star, 1-2 others with 10 year careers, and another 2 or more with multi-year careers.

Probably going to see more of the best college teams being built around a future NBA player (or two) and a ton of depth from players with one flaw that keeps them from being evaluated for anything more than a flyer in the NBA (read: guys who will make their money in college instead of leaving early). Good examples of those would be 2000 Michigan State, 2002 Maryland, or 2013 Louisville-- a lot of good college players but "tweeners" who were too short or slow to both score at and defend against their position in the NBA.