Will Wade’s work building N.C. State into an immediate winner included the pursuit of an NBA draft entrant, just in case he returned to college.
It wasn’t a huge risk. With all the cash flowing in college, the number of early entrants in the NBA draft has continued to shrink. This year’s draft starts Wednesday night with its lowest total of those prospects in at least 10 years.
“Now you can play the long game a little bit more,” Wade told The Associated Press, referring to how college players can look at their futures. “Look, I can get paid the same I would get paid in the G League, the same I would get paid on a two-way (contract). Some guys are getting first-round money.”
And more money is on the way.
It has been four years since college athletes were permitted to profit off the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL), opening the door for athlete compensation that NCAA rules once forbade. July 1 marks the official start of revenue sharing, when schools can begin directly paying athletes after the $2.8 billion House antitrust settlement.
For Wade, that led to signing Texas Tech’s Darrion Williams after 247Sports’ fifth-ranked transfer withdrew from the draft.
“Basically now if you’re an early entry and you’re not a top-20, top-22 pick — where the money slots — you can pretty much make that in college,” the new Wolfpack coach said.
It’s all part of a seismic change that has rippled through college athletics since the pandemic, its impact touching the NBA. Players willing to “test the waters” in the draft before returning to school now have a lucrative option to consider against uncertain pro prospects.
And it shows in the numbers.
“With all the money that’s being thrown around in NIL, you’re having a lot less players put their names in,” Detroit Pistons president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon said. “You’re having pretty good players pulling their names out.”
Declining number of early entrants
This year’s drop is significant compared with the years before anyone had heard of COVID-19. There was a spike of college players jumping into the draft in the pandemic’s aftermath, when they were granted a free year of eligibility to temporarily make even a fourth-year senior an “early” entrant.
But those numbers had fallen as those five-year players cycled out of college basketball, and they’re now below pre-pandemic levels. That decline coincides with NIL’s July 2021 arrival, from athletes doing paid appearances or social-media endorsements to boosters forming collectives offering NIL packages amounting to de facto salaries.
As a result:
Eighty-two players appeared on the NBA’s list of early entrants, primarily from American colleges with a smattering of other teams, down 49% from 2024 (162) and nearly 47% compared with the four-year average from 2016-19 (153.5).
Thirty-two remained after withdrawal deadlines, down from 62 last year and an average of 72 from 2016-19.
Adding international prospects, 109 players declared for the draft, down from 201 last year and a 205 average from 2016-19.
And only 46 remained, down from 77 in 2024 and 83.8 per year from 2016-19.
More college players weighing options
Duke coach Jon Scheyer understands draft dynamics, both for no-doubt headliners and prospects facing less clarity. He sees college athlete compensation as a “legitimate game changer.”
“Hopefully it allows players to decide what’s truly best for their game,” Scheyer told the AP. “It allows them to analyze: ‘Am I actually ready for this or not?’ Where money doesn’t have to be the deciding factor. Because if money’s the deciding factor, that’s why you see kids not stick. The NBA’s cutthroat.”
The Blue Devils are expected to have three players selected in the first round Wednesday: presumptive No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg and top-10 prospects Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach. They also had players sorting through draft decisions.
Freshman Isaiah Evans — a slender wing with explosive scoring potential — withdrew instead of chasing first-round status through the draft process. Incoming transfer Cedric Coward from Washington State rapidly rose draft boards after the combine and remained in the draft.
“There’s no substituting the money you’re going to make if you’re a top-15, top-20 pick,” said Scheyer, entering Year 4 as successor to retired Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski. “But if you’re not solidified as a first-round pick, why risk it when you can have a solid year and a chance to go up or be in the same position the following season?”
College compensation is reshaping the draft pool
Langdon, himself a former Duke first-rounder, sees that evolution too.
His Pistons made their first playoff appearance since 2019 but lack a first-round selection and own a single pick in Thursday’s second round. Fewer candidates could make the already imperfect science of drafting even trickier in this new reality.
According to the NBA’s 2024-25 rookie scale, a player drafted midway through the first round would make roughly $3.5 million in first-year salary. That figure drops to about $2.8 million at No. 20, $2.3 million at No. 25 and $2.1 million with the 30th and final first-round pick.
A minimum first-year NBA salary is roughly $1.2 million.
“These NIL packages are starting to get up to 3 to 4 to 5 to 6 million dollars,” Langdon said. “These guys are not going to put their name in to be the 25th pick, or even the 18th pick. They are going to go back to school in hopes of being a lottery pick next year.
“With that pool of players decreasing, it kind of decreases the odds of the level of player we get at No. 37, just the pure mathematics.”
Current NBA players offer insight
Indiana Pacers big man Thomas Bryant and Oklahoma City Thunder counterpart Isaiah Hartenstein, who both played in the seven-game NBA Finals that ended Sunday, illustrate Langdon’s point.
They were back-to-back second-rounders in 2017 — Bryant at No. 42, Hartenstein at 43 — pushed down a draft board featuring early-entry college players in 33 of the 41 picks before them.
Bryant played two college seasons at Indiana before stints with five NBA teams, including the Denver Nuggets’ 2023 championship squad. Would the ability to make college money have changed his journey?
“To be honest, I see it from both sides,” Bryant said. “If you’re not going to get drafted, you understand that a kid needs money to live in college and everything. So I understand where they’re coming from on that end.
“But for me, I took the chance. I bet on myself and I believed in myself, and I worked to the very end. And the thing about me is that if I went down, I was going down swinging. I hang my hat on that. For some, it might not be the same case.”
The American-born Hartenstein moved to Germany at 11 and played in Lithuania before being drafted. As he put it: “Everyone’s journey is different.”
“You should have the right people around you to kind of guide you,” said Hartenstein, a newly minted NBA champion. “I mean, I was lucky that my dad, who was a professional before, kind of guided me. Depending on your circumstances, it’s hard to turn down guaranteed money. If there’s an opportunity to get in a good situation in the NBA, you do that. But it’s a hard decision.”
College can be more of an allure
At N.C. State, Wade’s pitch to Williams included a leading role and a shot at boosting his draft stock.
The 6-foot-6 junior averaged 15.1 points with multiple big NCAA Tournament performances as the Red Raiders reached the Elite Eight, nearly beating eventual champion Florida.
“He was most likely going to be a second-round draft pick, and his package here is better than probably he would’ve gotten as a second-round pick,” Wade said. “We certainly talked about that. We went over that. We went over the math of everything. We went over the plan on how to accomplish that.”
That’s not to say it’s easy at the college level in this new landscape. Roster management is tricky, including a balancing act of maintaining financial resources to potentially land one player while risking missing out on others.
“It’s the way life works; it’s the way it should work,” Wade said. “If there’s no risk, there’s no reward. The riskiest players, in terms of waiting on the money and waiting them out, are the best players. That’s why they’re in the draft process. We’re not going to be scared of that.”
Nor should he, not with the allure of campus life these days.
One of college football’s most accomplished young head coaches is now among the candidates being considered by a fledgling NFL franchise for its coaching vacancy.
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman has emerged as a candidate for the open position with the New York Giants, according to The Athletic’s Diana Russini.
Interest in Marcus Freeman is rising
New York isn’t the only place that could be taking a close look at Freeman, as the Tennessee Titans may also become interested in him, according to the report.
Freeman, who will turn 40 next month, signed a contract extension with Notre Dame last year that will lock him in with the school through the 2030 season, but if this carousel has proven anything, it’s that almost any contract can be gotten out of.
Notre Dame is a private school and is not obligated to publish its coaching salaries, but insiders contend his deal pays him $9 million per season and is worth a total of a reported $54 million.
But that raise is already somewhat out of date after Indiana recently inked Curt Cignetti to a new deal that will pay him $11.7 million per season.
Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
Notre Dame knows Freeman is getting that interest
“Everybody has eyes on Marcus,” Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua said.
“College has eyes on Marcus. NFL has eyes on Marcus. I bet Hollywood has eyes on Marcus. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s in the next Leo DiCaprio movie with Martin Scorsese.
“Marcus is Marcus. All the credit to him. He deserves it. He’s the absolute best coach in the country for Notre Dame, full stop. One of the greatest college coaches in the country.
“And people forget how young he is, so I get it. That’s a compliment to him and his success and the way he represents himself and the way he prepares and who he is and how he talks.”
What Freeman has done at Notre Dame
Freeman has just completed his fourth season at the helm of the Fighting Irish program and boasts a 43-12 overall record, winning more than 78 percent of his games.
Freeman led Notre Dame to a No. 2 national ranking and an appearance in the national championship game against his alma mater a year ago.
His team went 10-2 this season and seemed poised for another berth in the College Football Playoff, before the committee reversed course on Selection Day and left the Irish out of the field, leading the school to decline playing in a bowl game.
Michael Caterina-Imagn Images
Notre Dame won’t let him go
Cognizant of the talk around his head man, Bevacqua is not willing to watch from the sidelines if his successful football coach is going to be courted by opportunities in the NFL, or anywhere.
“I would never say we wouldn’t match anything when it comes to Marcus,” Bevacqua said recently.
“I make sure that he knows that he will be where he deserves to be, and that is at the top, top, top tier of college football coaches when it comes to compensation every year.
“I view his contract, although a multiyear contract, as a living, breathing document that we will revise every year as need be to make sure he’s where he deserves to be. He knows he has that commitment from me and more importantly from the university.”
Nike announces a new NIL venture, and it has chosen LSU as the first school to partner with.
Nike, along with other equipment manufacturers, have been partnering with university athletic departments for decades. But Nike’s Blue Ribbon Elite NIL program is the first to partner with the athletes themselves.
Zach Greenwell, LSU’s deputy athletic director for external affairs, said Nike is partnering with ten athletes on a very extensive campaign to promote Nike products.
“They brought in a very large-scale production company from out of town to work with those athletes, and it was 15-hour days with our athletes doing individual shoots,” Greenwell said. “They did a big group shot, which was a big part of our roll-out.”
Among the LSU student-athletes joining Nike’s growing roster of elite NIL athletes are: Kailin Chio, Gymnastics, Derek Curiel, Baseball, Tori Edwards, Softball, Casan Evans, Baseball, Trey’Dez Green, Football, Jayden Heavener, Softball, ZaKiyah Johnson, Basketball, DJ Pickett, Football, Jurnee Robinson, Volleyball and Dedan Thomas Jr., Basketball. Greenwell said Nike is working with them on product that they like, and they’re promoting products on the Nike store that’s specific to them and their respective sports.
“It’s a big thing for Nike to work with this demographic whether it be college kids, teenagers, so they’re going to work with all of those ten athletes across seven sports to tap into that demographic and they think LSU is a great place to start,” Greenwell said.
Greenwell said it’s a tremendous honor for LSU to be the first school that Nike selected for its new Blue Ribbon Elite NIL program.
“I think we’re the envy of a lot of people around the country to be able to launch this program with them (Nike) and we know they’ll work with other teams as they go, but our first immediate thoughts are, ‘How can we grow this? How can we take this to the next level?’” Greenwell said.
Along with the Blue Ribbon Elite NIL program, LSU Athletics and Nike have announced an extension to their five-decade long partnership through 2036.
WSU President Betsy Cantwell delivers strong appeal to Cougar fans. (Photo: WSU)
WASHINGTON STATE President Betsy Cantwell took to social media Friday evening to deliver as clear a picture as you’ll hear as to why support for NIL is critical not just to the success of Cougar football but to the entire athletic department and the broader university.
Just hours after WSU announced Kirby Moore as the new head coach of the Washington State football team with what is believed to be a five-year contract, Cantwell videotaped a two-minute message asking WSU alums and fans to help push NIL funding to new heights through the CAF’s tax-deductible coaches excellence funds.
“By now, you know we’ve announced a phenomenal new football coach,” she said. “He’s ready to lead us into winning in the new Pac-12 Conference. What will get us there and show the world that we are deadly serious about winning will be our willingness to give this coach the tools to win. And for us, that means building $5 million in new NIL support immediately to compete — a fund that acknowledges the modern world and says, we are ready. We are in it.
“We all know that NIL isn’t an option. It’s an essential tool today,” she added. “Whether we love it or not, it’s part of the game. But NIL isn’t just about keeping up. It’s about giving our Cougs every chance to excel on the field, in the classroom, and in life beyond sports. Your investment in NIL through the Cougar Athletic Fund helps us recruit, retain, and elevate our WSU student-athletes.”
Last month Cantwell told Cougfan.com that WSU Athletics needs to raise an additional $20 million per year for revenue sharing and NIL to compete at the highest levels of the new Pac-12, which kicks off in 2026.
Related: New Cougar coach Kirby Moore’s background remarkably similar to legendary Mike Price’s
“Athletics is the front porch of our university,” Cantwell noted in her Friday video. “It’s the place that draws people to us. That means that winning football leads to healthy sports across the spectrum, leads to higher enrollment, leads to a healthier WSU.
“So strong Cougar teams lift the entire WSU family. We boost pride, we boost enrollment, we boost national visibility. This is the moment for Cougs everywhere. Let’s hit $5 million together. Let’s set our new coach and our student -athletes up for success. Go to the Cougar Athletic Fund website and choose NIL. Do it now.”
You can watch her full commentary in the Twitter post embedded at the bottom of this story.
CANTWELL’S COMMENTS echoed remarks earlier in the day by former WSU and Seattle Seahawks standout Robbie Tobeck when he was asked for his reaction to Moore’s hiring.
“In this day and age, I don’t care how good your coach is, you need the resources to compete and win,” Tobeck said. “It’s imperative the university, regents and alums back up this program and give Kirby a chance to excel. If you want to boost enrollment, field a good football team. It’s time to step up to the plate and invest in winning.
“I’m talking about dominating the new conference and going to the playoffs. We have an opportunity at WSU if we invest. We should be the bell cow of this new conference and we need to come out of the gate quickly.”
Related: Instant reaction from WSU luminaries to Kirby Moore’s hiring at WSU
INSUFFICIENT NIL SUPPORT was a growing frustration for former WSU coach Jimmy Rogers and his staff. While WSU has kept the numbers tight, Rogers apparently shared them with his new athletic director at Iowa State, Jamie Pollard, who somehow felt at liberty this week to disclose that Rogers told him WSU had a $2.5 million NIL budget in 2025. That number is believed to be the combined total of WSU’s revenue sharing program and the fundraising efforts of the independent NIL organization Cougar Collective.
At the CougsFirst! Show in Spokane last month, Cantwell told WSU partisans that “we’re at the bottom of every team coming into the Pac for football in NIL. We’re at the bottom. We cannot stay there and compete and win.”
She added, “We must be winners, we must, in football, within four years (sit atop the Pac-12) because that is the time that every single media rights contract across all of college football, every conference, is up for grabs again,” she said.
Cougar Nation, the time is now! Success starts with $5M in NIL support to recruit, retain, and elevate student-athletes—setting the stage for a winning future in the Pac-12. #GoCougs
After Michigan terminated head coach Sherrone Moore “for cause,” the program now faces immediate roster and reputation questions, most pressingly the status of true-freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood.
Underwood, the class of 2025 No. 1 recruit, committed to Michigan in December 2024 with an NIL package reportedly valued at around $3 million, among the largest in college football, helping swing national recruiting attention to Ann Arbor.
Moore’s firing followed an internal investigation that the athletic department said found “credible evidence” of an inappropriate relationship; Michigan named associate head coach Biff Poggi interim head coach for the Wolverines’ Dec. 31 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl.
On CBS Sports HQ, Chris Hummer suggested that Moore’s dismissal creates an opening to “reset” the quarterback-staff relationship, arguing a coaching change could be a good thing for Underwood’s development and future at Michigan.
“There was an awareness around Michigan that Bryce Underwood had a bit of discontentment with the offense. So, this change might actually provide an opportunity for Michigan to reset that relationship a little bit and find something that fits for Bryce Underwood’s vision of offense and also fits for the future of Michigan football.”
Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood (19) looks on after warms up at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Underwood started as a true freshman and posted 2,229 passing yards, nine passing TDs, and six interceptions during the 2025 regular season, while adding 323 rushing yards and five rushing TDs.
His dual-threat ability was a key factor in Michigan’s 9-3 (7-2 Big Ten) finish, highlighted by a five-game win streak before a 27–9 loss to rival Ohio State to close the regular season.
Underwood flipped his high-profile recruitment from LSU to Michigan in November 2024 and signed in the early period, a move widely reported to be tied to a historic NIL package orchestrated by Michigan’s primary collective.
As for who might replace Moore, national outlets have floated a wide board of potential candidates, including established Power Five coaches such as Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer, as well as offensive architects known for quarterback development, like Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham.
Whoever’s hired will need to sell both winning and a clear developmental plan to keep Underwood from entertaining portal approaches, notably reported interest from LSU and others.
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The decision by Notre Dame to decline playing in a bowl game turned out to be one of the most-discussed choices made by any school in the 2025 college football season.
Now, one of the team’s most talented players is going public with why they decided to forgo the postseason entirely after missing the College Football Playoff.
Notre Dame running back and Heisman Trophy finalist Jeremiyah Love says the players were the deciding factor in ending their season.
Notre Dame made a team decision
“It was kind of a full team decision, full consensus decision,” Love said on SportsCenter.
“Our captains asked all of the players that they could, you know, what they think about the bowl games and things like that. And we all came to a consensus, or final decision, that we didn’t think that playing in that bowl game would really represent our 2025 football team in the right way.
“Because we feel like our team was just very special throughout the year, we did a lot of great things, and in that bowl game, a lot of people are going to opt out. A lot of people are just going to not play, or have their own plans … which, rightfully so. They have that right.”
Notre Dame was left out of the playoff
Notre Dame looked poised to take one of the dozen places in the College Football Playoff, but the selection committee reversed course on the last day, and swapped it out for Miami instead.
While most observers agreed in theory with that move since Miami beat Notre Dame this season, the timing of the decision and perceived lack of an explanation as to why then and not before, left the Irish enraged.
Enough to decline playing any bowl game at all.
“We didn’t feel like that team that would go into that bowl game was a great representation of how special this 2025 football team was,” Love said.
“So we all came to a consensus of, you know, we don’t want to put this team in a bad light because we feel like it was a great team.”
He added: “We’re not saying playing in a bowl game would put us in a bad light, but it just wouldn’t be the best representation of our team. So that ultimately led us to come into that decision.”
What Jeremiyah Love has done for Notre Dame
Love was a crucial element in the success Notre Dame had on the field that put them in playoff contention in the first place.
The running back had 199 carries for 1,372 yards and 18 touchdowns on the ground, catching 27 passes for 280 more yards and another 3 touchdowns.
His 21 total touchdowns set a new single-season Notre Dame record, surpassing Jerome Bettis.
But that could be the last time we see him on the field in the gold helmet given the Irish will not play again this season, and if he decides to enter the NFL Draft this spring.
Scandal is an inevitable thread in the fabric of college football. Pretty much every major school as waded through one or two notable scandals involving administrators, coaches or players on a particular team. But there’s one Big Ten school, and college football program, who might be the new “Scandal U.”
That was a popular phrase around Louisville, KY in regard to the Cardinals’ run of scandals that included mismanaged funds by a university president, a strippers-in-the-dorms basketball scandal, an FBI probe, a playbook-stealing scandal called Wakey-Leaks (after Wake Forest) and the list goes on. Well, the Ville can now mover over after getting their act together in the 2020s, because Michigan is the new big bad rulebreaker in college athletics.
In light of Michigan head football coach Sherrone Moore’s firing this week, one of the largest news outlets in America, CNN, decided to do dig into the noticeably high number of scandals that have rocked Michigan of late. Of course, Moore was fired, for cause, do to an inappropriate relationship with a staffer. But he’s only the latest in a long line of Michigan men who’ve gotten their hands a bit dirty.
CNN noted the following occurrences all within the Michigan athletics department over the last few years:
Michigan Scandal Rundown
Head football coach Sherrone Moore was fired over an inappropriate relationship with a staffer, then later arrested the same night he was fired.
Head football coach Jim Harbaugh was suspended for several games during the 2023 national championship season over recruiting violations.
Head football coach Jim Harbaugh left college football after 2023 with a 10-year show cause, four years of probation for Michigan, plus millions in fines over a sign-stealing scandal that dominated the entire 2023 college football news cycle.
Football assistant Connor Stalions was let go for his very direct involvement in organizing and enacting the sign-stealing scandal.
Head basketball coach Juwan Howard was suspended for slapping an opposing assistant coach during a handshake line and then fired after that season.
Head hockey coach Mel Pearson, was not retained after investigations discovered the program urged athletes to lie on COVID tests and also had reports of verbal assaults on female staff members.
Football assistant Matt Weiss was let go after it was discovered that he was hacking into students’ accounts to steal private photos of them.
That’s a tornado of bad ripping through Ann Arbor over just a couple of seasons. And while the basketball and hockey stories were tough situations, most of these scandalous missteps have come from the football program. According to CNN, there’s just one big culture problem under athletic director Warde Manuel.
CNN notes deeper problems with UM athletics
Michigan Wolverines’ Sherrone Moore (left), head coach Jim Harbaugh (center) and special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
“People associated with Michigan athletics have told CNN that they believe there is a cultural problem, if not of indifference, certainly of arrogance,” they wrote. Going beyond just the bad behavior from people hired by Michigan, CNN reports that the school’s firing process itself raises major red flags.
“A source familiar with the matter said that Manuel dismissed Moore without anyone from human resources present, and – while that is not required – it is standard behavior at most companies,” CNN added, which is true, especially for a situation like Moore. In fact, he’s the example of why HR is used in that capacity, to maybe prevent something messy from transpiring afterward, which is exactly what happened.
Perhaps 2026 can offer a new day for Michigan. The Jim Harbaugh era ended with raging success on the field but has left a disastrous wake. With Moore now out, the Wolverines can start anew and bring in a head coach completely severed from the Harbaugh era and the baggage it brought.
