Former Maryland basketball star reportedly suing over canceled NIL payments

With NIL money flying and deals being broken often, it’s a wonder more lawsuits haven’t been filed by college athletes or the schools paying them. But the first such scenario at Maryland has arrived, with former star basketball player Ja’Kobi Gillespie suing for NIL payments he claims he’s owed.

The Baltimore Sun’s Taylor Lyons reported that the former Terps point guard, who transferred to Tennessee after the season, is suing Blueprint Sports — the outside company that manages much of the school’s NIL operations — because did not receive the final payments for his deal, despite that it has no clause stating the deal wouldn’t be paid out if he transferred elsewhere. He wrote: 

“Blueprint, which says on its website it works with more than 70 college athletic departments, has partnered with Maryland since 2023. The school announced a “multiyear partnership extension” with the collective last month.

Connor and Byron Gillespie told The Sun that Blueprint is refusing to honor Ja’Kobi Gillespie’s NIL contract that he signed with the collective before last season. They said the contract did not have a clause that terminated the agreement if he entered the transfer portal, which he did days after Willard left to become the coach at Villanova on March 30.”

Ja’Kobi Gillespie was one of Maryland’s best players, earning second-team all-Big Ten honors after averaging 14.7 points and 4.8 assists per game on 45.3 percent shooting overall and 40.7 percent from three. His deal was worth around $600,000 for the year, leaving an unpaid balance of $100,000, sources told InsideMDSports. Lyons reported that Blueprint offered to settle for one-quarter of the remaining amount; the company says there was a clause that negated the remainder of payments because Gillespie transferred, while the player’s camp says there was no such deal.

Byron Gillespie referenced the issue to IMS in April, when he also criticized Willard for how his departure went down.

“We were smart and our lawyer/agent kept the original contract. They added language in [after the fact], because his wasn’t like the other agreements. Most said once you enter the portal, it nulls the agreement. Ours didn’t,” he wrote in a text. 

What I’m Hearing: Early reviews of new-look Maryland basketball and the deal with Zion Elee

On Willard’s sketchy departure, he said in that April interview: “The coaching circle talks … I knew he was gone when we were in Seattle. I understand taking a job that’s better for you and your family. I just wish it didn’t come out and cause a distraction during such a great run … Over and over he told them that. [That] he was using it for leverage [to get a new deal from Maryland]. All the way ’til the last game. He told Ja’Kobi that Saturday night [two days after the Sweet 16 loss] he had decided to take it.”

The elder Gillespie told Lyons that Blueprint’s failure to pay gives credence to Willard’s complaints before he left, about Maryland not having enough NIL money. And Gillespie’s mother, Heather Johnson, told IMS: “We loved it there and I’m just so disappointed in a few different ways. Ja’Kobi did his job.”

But the best quote of the story came from booster Harry Geller, who ran the point on the basketball program’s NIL negotiations before Willard left, bout Willard and former AD Damon Evans, now both gone.

“There was always a rift,” Geller told the Sun. “Willard had an attitude about it the whole time and Damon didn’t do much to help it. The two of them went at it. They butted heads from the beginning. In the end, they both had exit strategies and Maryland got screwed.”

Geller said in an April radio interview that Maryland’s NIL budget was significant.

“We had a pretty competitive NIL, all donor-based fundraising, and I think his his biggest complaint was a lot of other schools were assisting the NIL collectives and Maryland wasn’t. They kind of left us, myself and the other guys that run and women that run the Turtle NIL and the athletic foundation, to ourselves to run it,” he said. “as far as dollars spent this year, we were probably in the lower part of the top half of the Big Ten. There was schools certainly ahead of us. Indiana spent a lot more money than we did, and look where that got them. And some schools spent less, but I would say we were probably five, six, seven in the Big Ten out of 18 schools.

“And I think Buzz is coming in into a better situation. I think he was a very good hire. He’s won everywhere he’s been. I really applauded the administration for moving quickly on it because there’s – this year is an unusual year for NIL because there, the NCAA is phasing out all collectives July 1, including ours. Until then, you have an opportunity to raise money and sort of pre-pay for next year. So the player amounts are hyper-inflated right now, and it should level off to more of a de facto salary cap next year. But I thought, and I went to the administration and said, ‘Look, if you want us to pre-spend the money next year, we only have a few weeks to do it. So you really got to get moving on this hire.’ And to their credit, they were proactive about it.”

Before you go …

— Get the latest Terps news delivered to your inbox FREE!  Sign up for our email newsletter here and stay informed on Maryland basketball, football, recruiting and every other Terps storyline. 

— Support Maryland basketball’s recruiting and player-retention efforts by joining TurtleNIL!

— Follow IMS on Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok and Instagram.

— Don’t miss any of our new video Terps content: Subscribe to InsideMDSports on YouTube and hit the notification bell so you know when new videos drop.

– Need a go-to Terps podcast? Listen to IMS Radio here, watch earlier episodes here and don’t forget to subscribe to IMS Radio on  iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | Podbean | Amazon Music | TuneIn | Apple Podcasts