The biggest star in college basketball last season was undoubtedly Duke Blue Devils’ freshman forward Cooper Flagg.

The highly-touted recruit was viewed by many as the best player in the nation before he ever stepped foot on the court in college.

Flagg lived up to the enormous hype, though, as he averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game while leading the Blue Devils to the Final Four. This performance also netted him every major award in the nation, including the coveted Wooden Award, which is handed out to the best player in college hoops on an annual basis.

In the modern era of NIL, Flagg’s enormous star power naturally secured him some very lucrative endorsements, and one prominent analyst recently suggested that the true amount of these NIL deals was much higher than anyone could have guessed.

According to CBS Sports’ Brad Crawford, sports reporter Howard Bryant recently sat down with Bob Costas, and in this conversation, Crawford revealed the jaw-dropping NIL total that Flagg secured in his lone year at Duke.

“$28 million,” Howard said. “He had a $13 million deal with New Balance and then $15 million with Fanatics.”

The crowd in attendance was audibly shocked when Howard dropped the enormous figure, and for good reason.

$28 million is more than many All-Star-caliber NBA veterans currently make, so the thought of a college freshman raking in that much is pretty astonishing.

This figure also may be a case of something being too good to be true, as well.

According to Crawford, it’s likely that Howard was conflating the total amount of the deals that Flagg has signed with the amount they are slated to pay out per season.

“Here’s the thing,” Crawford writes, “Howard’s reported total is likely Flagg’s NIL contracts in totality and not an annual payment. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski previously reported Flagg’s New Balance agreement was ‘significant.’ These are often multiyear contracts between incoming rookies and sneaker companies.”

This seems far more plausible than Flagg getting paid $28 million for one year of college basketball.

After all, the New Balance deal he signed as an incoming college freshman was reportedly for several years, and the company knew full well that only one of those seasons would be at the college level.

While Howard’s reporting might have been a bit sensationalized, there’s no denying that Flagg has used his brand to maximum effect at the college level.

He secured generational paydays before ever stepping foot on an NBA court.

Now, the presumptive first overall draft pick will enter his professional career with a level of financial security that no other rookie has ever known.

Dallas Mavericks star big man Anthony Davis is one of the best basketball players in the world.

The accolades throughout his professional career speak for themselves. He helped the Los Angeles Lakers win the 2020 NBA Championship in the Orlando Bubble and is a 10-time All-Star who was named to the NBA 75th Anniversary team.

Selected No. 1 overall by the New Orleans Hornets in the 2012 NBA Draft, he has certainly lived up to the hype and expectations that follow being picked as a franchise cornerstone.

A future Hall of Famer, Davis’s dominance on the basketball court goes beyond even his NBA production.

When he experienced a growth spurt in college, he shot up rankings as a recruit and became the best player in the country.

He ended up with the Kentucky Wildcats for one season, helping them win the national championship as one of the most dominant college basketball players of the modern era.

During his lone campaign with Kentucky, Davis averaged 14.2 points, 10.4 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.4 steals and the most blocks in the country with 4.7 per game.

He was a one-man wrecking crew, picking up a laundry list of accolades and awards for his single season with the Wildcats.

Had Name, image and likeness deals been around at the time, he would have made a killing with how popular he was on and off the court.

As part of a collaboration with CeraVe, Davis sat down and did an interview with Sports Illustrated, where one of the topics discussed was NIL and how much it has changed college sports.

“It’s tough, because obviously they didn’t have that when I was in college,” Davis said, via Patrick Andres of SI. “It kinda takes away from the game a little bit because of — and I’m not hating — it takes away from the integrity in the sense of players are only going to certain schools because of the money.”

There is a lot of money being thrown around by schools, looking to bring the best players into their programs. It has also had an impact on the NBA Draft, with players being able to make money in college.

Not only are high school athletes being wooed by these schools, but so are established college players who hit the transfer portal looking for a payday, changing the entire recruiting dynamic from when Davis was in school.

“College basketball is still competitive, but the recruitment of it has kinda gotten a little wacky, especially when player can leave and enter the (transfer) portal and go anywhere. It just gets a little tricky,” Davis said. “The coaches either a) have to be more strategic with their recruiting, or b) if you don’t have a lot of money for NIL, that kind of takes away your school, your program, as far as being a top recruiter for some of these players.”

Likely gone are the days of a coach building something with a core group of players sticking together for multiple seasons.

The smaller programs are having their top-end talent poached by bigger schools, who are watching their regulars leave for bigger paydays elsewhere throughout the country.