Rapid Reaction: Syracuse needs a better NIL strategy

On Tuesday morning, reports from both Inside The Loud House's Neil Adler and Syracuse.com's Brent Axe stated that super booster Adam Weitsman is stopping his NIL work with SU, and will no longer provide compensation to Syracuse players or bring name-brand celebrities to its events moving forward.

The news coincides with a report saying that Syracuse center Jesse Edwards is entering the transfer portal because he couldn't come to terms on an NIL deal with the Orange because of various rules behind his US immigration status.

The intersection of this year‘s 20th anniversary celebration of the 2003 Syracuse National Championship hoops team, along with this week’s announcement that grad transfer Jesse Edwards is putting his name into the transfer portal led us to think just how much money Syracuse boosters would have had to come up with to try and retain championship stars Carmelo Anthony, Gerry, McNamara, and Hakim Warrick.

Anthony was going to the NBA no matter whether NIL existed back in 2003, but retaining that trio in today's world would’ve been probably between $1.5 - $2 million.

Edwards decision no doubt came down to how he could cash in on one final year of college eligibility as an international student while fine-tuning his game before embarking on a professional career.

Let’s face it: College athletics has turned into professional sports, and the new reality is that the going rates for recruiting All-Americans with huge social media profiles, and even lesser known players, comes down to how much money is behind boosters and collectives.

Syracuse had one such big booster in upstate business tycoon Adam Weitsman, but his eye-opening comments this week to several media entities that he's pulling out of NIL is a clear sign that there is a disconnect with the Syracuse University administration.

It starts with Chancellor Kent Syverud, who couldn't figure out a way to connect or set up a meeting behind closed doors with Weitsman to hash out a strategy that worked for both him and the administration.

Until other wealthy individuals step up to the plate and more people participate on contributing to SU collectives, it's hard to imagine recruiting the best athletes to Central New York until all parties are on board to figure out the way the new financial game is played.

While we wait for that transformation, we're afraid the glory days for football and basketball may be forever in the rearview mirror.

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