A couple stories by Matt Brown ran earlier this week at Front Office Sports. While the national college football reporter’s name suggests one of the duller crayons in the box, he undertakes some interesting projects as part of his work, such as writing a computer game last year called “Athletic Director Simulator 3000.”

(Yes, it is like what it sounds like, as you got to decide things like whether or not to fire the baseball coach, if you should divert funding toward a couple Olympic sports to bolster the school’s overall profile, or if your arena should sell Coke or Pepsi. You were rewarded or penalized through donations, budget increases, publicity and other things based on how successful your choices were.)

Brown’s non-traditional thought processes, as a result, tend to lead him toward some interesting observations about college football. In light of Ohio State claiming the national championship last week, Brown thought about one storyline tossed about a fair amount regarding the Buckeyes’ success.

Even before the season started, a fair amount of noise was made about the $20 million of NIL funds Ohio State spent on their roster (to be clear, a couple other schools reportedly spent more money). That noise was the Buckeyes should be an excellent team simply because they spent $20 million on their roster. Most observations were along that simple value proposition.

Brown, however, took a different tack than most because Ohio State took a different tack than most. Many schools splashed their NIL funds around to entice big name players to transfer through the portal and the Buckeyes were not immune from this, bringing in players who would end up as substantial contributors.

However, the Buckeyes spent the majority of their funds on keeping currently rostered players in Columbus, including several who could have otherwise taken their chances in the 2024 NFL draft. Players who likely would have been taken in the mid- or later rounds were offered significant compensation, possibly more than a potential signing bonus at that expected draft range, to stay at Ohio State and pursue a national championship.

As such, Brown theorized that the Buckeyes’ success was not about the sheer amount of money they were spending, but the manner in which they were spending it. He summarized this plan as “spend a lot to build a very experienced, productive roster, with minimal transfer starters, prepared to handle a 16-game season”.

The reason for building this type of roster was to create a strong base to support the team’s top players with the players providing internal leadership, having the emotional maturity to handle losses, and pacing themselves over a season expected to be longer than any their team had played previously. As such, a mass of experienced players complementing the stars was quite possibly a key to being able to survive a long season and build a program set up for success.

So, while Syracuse is not in the same boat as Ohio State from an NIL perspective, perhaps following the same course is a way to build the program to a level of sustained success.

In need of both higher-end talent and deepening the talent pool in the locker room, the Orange were extremely active in the portal last offseason at the direction of coach Fran Brown, bringing in lots of players with power conference pedigrees, including a couple stars in Kyle McCord and Fadil Diggs.

As Ohio State did, Brown also kept many of the top-of-the-roster players at SU, including LeQuint Allen, Justin Barron, Oronde Gadsden II, and Marlowe Wax. It’s hard to believe players who set the on-field example these program veterans did were not just as effective in the locker room, especially when united with Diggs and McCord. That undoubtedly rubbed off on some of the younger players who grew on the field and off by following the examples of those leaders.

The results this past season were terrific, as the Orange went 10-3 and won the Holiday Bowl, outpacing their preseason expectations by far. While those top-of-the-roster players led the way in making that successful campaign, lots of young players got their feet wet over the course of the season, getting a taste of power conference football and everything that comes with it.

The current offseason, however, has been a sharp contrast from a dozen months ago. To this point, Syracuse has lost 11 players while bringing in a grand total of six transfers through the portal. Only quarterback Rickie Collins carried a significant degree of hype with him when he arrived from LSU while defensive backs Marcellus Barnes and Jayden Bellamy and center J’Onre Reed were the biggest names to depart.

The Orange, however, have 35 commits in their 2025 class coming in to supplement the returning roster members. Sounds like Brown cast an extremely wide net to bring in young players to develop, hopefully well enough to eventually retain.

There has never been a public statement about an NIL strategy of this sort by Brown, so it’s just speculation. However, it is a way to potentially build a program for sustained long-term success. And while that success may never result in a national title, as it did for Ohio State, Syracuse fans could certainly get used to stringing together seasons with results like 2024.

----

Chat about this story and all things Syracuse and Syracuse recruiting on our premium message board, Cuse Classified!

Follow us on Twitter @TheJuiceOnline, like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram @SUJuiceOnline and listen to our podcast.

Tips/questions/concerns? E-mail Recruiting Analyst Charles Kang here.

Not a subscriber to The Juice Online? Join today for access to all our premium content and message board community.