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Message: [QUOTE="CL82, post: 4975108, member: 44"] As I noted above coupled with NIL it has created de facto free agency for college players. When we're saying that "player x" he's getting $1.2 million to transfer to "school y", we've essentially admitted that college athletics is a semipro league. Right now we are being insulated by the fact that Hurley has rapidly adjusted and has become adept at using the system, but, eventually I think it will dampen peoples enthusiasm for college athletics. The notion that this is a great boon for the athletes is myopic one. Yes the kids at the very top of the sport are getting huge amounts of money dumped on them while they are in college, but that ignores the dark underbelly of the portal, in which kids give up their scholarship, enter the portal, and don't get picked up. They are just out of luck and their college dream has ended for those of them who lack the resources to pay for themselves. Now, I'm sure someone will say there has always been under the table payments in college athletics. I am sure that's true, but that was constrained by fear of sanction. Now it's not and it has jumped up to astronomical amounts. Remember when we used to talk disparagingly about programs giving kids "a bag"? Now, having "a bag" is a measure of praise for university. As I noted above I am enjoying our run. Amazingly, Hurley and staff have managed to both be able to compensate quality athletes through the outside NIL programs and still emphasize the uniqueness of the experience at Connecticut. He has, somewhat uniquely, managed to maintain both the "we" and the "me" aspects of college basketball as it currently exists. That is an extraordinarily difficult thing to do and I find his management of it amazingly impressive. I'm not sure every coach will be able to do that. I'm not even sure that he can do it indefinitely. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach