NIL Support a Key Factor to Kellie Harper Landing at Mizzou

You can't win games without a little bit of NIL money, and Harper believes the Missouri Tigers will provide adequate funding.

March 31, 2025; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers women's basketball head coach Kellie Harper at her introductory press conference in the Mizzou Arena Practice Gym. | Amber Winkler/MissouriOnSI

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Like it or not, NIL, revenue sharing and a whole new world of money revolving around college sports is here. It impacts every sport in some way, including the rapidly growing industry of women's basketball.

Because of that, the Missouri Tigers decided now was the time to invest in the sport and bring along new head coach Kellie Harper for the ride.

NIL and the transfer portal go hand in and at this point in college sports, a team in the Southeastern Conference won't be able to compete without a strong NIL investment from a school's athletic department. That was a factor in Harper ending up in Columbia, among other things. Facing the cold hard truth that the financial aspect of sports is staring women's basketball in the face is something that had to happen, and Harper's ready for it.

“It's a big part because that's where we're at in athletics,” Harper said Monday. “So I had to feel and know that the support was going to be there for women's basketball and support, not just in being here, in showing up, but support financially.”

Plenty of teams throughout the highly-contested SEC are also competitive in the NIL market, especially when it comes to landing recruits and players in the transfer portal. There might not be a figure to mark where the Tigers stand in the conference in terms of money to spend, but that number will be enough for them to compete.

“I would say we are highly competitive,” Missouri Director of Athletics Laird Veatch said after Harper's introductory press conference. “We are not going to outspend everybody, but we're also not going to be at the lower end either.”

Another part of the athletic department-to-coach connection is confidence in one another. It needs to be reciprocated on both sides, but Veatch and those surrounding him, feel just fine about the decision they made to bring in Harper.

With the financial commitment donors and others have rounded up for the women's basketball program, Veatch is optimistic about the commitment to the team from its support system and the person they brought in to execute their vision.

“Knowing that we have that commitment, and them feeling confident they can come in here and build a roster at a high level in this in this league, and at this time, it was really important, but it was also such a selling point to us that we've got such a good infrastructure here,” Veatch said.

On the flip side of that, Harper is nothing but confident in the athletic department, as well as the many donors, to provide the support neccesary in order to find success on the court. The relationship goes both ways and it doesn't work without trust.

“I feel like now, there’s something new every week,” Harper said. “If things change and there needs to be a different approach, I feel really confident in our administration to be able to figure out how to keep us competitive.”

As the collegiate sports landscape is full of nonstop changes, all teams can do is be ready for change and be quick to adapt. Veatch and the Tigers are ready for it and are analyzing what is working and what isn't with the money they have.

When it comes to the actual use of the investment that the Tigers are receiving to get players, finding the right players to spend that money on will be important. On top of that, keeping your players happy in this climate college sports climate can be hard, making player retention another piece of the NIL pie.

“We have real data, information [that] tells us, hey, are we doing the right thing for spending the right way, but are we spending smart.,” Veatch said.

Tennessee Head Coach Kellie Harper communicates with players in the game with Alabama during the second quarter of the SEC Women's Basketball Tournament game at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C. Friday, March 8, 2024. | Ken Ruinard / staff / USA TODAY NETWORK

With the growth women's basketball has seen over recent years, there was no better time but now to bring Harper in for the head coaching job. Her range of experience in multiple conferences and plenty of wins during that time made her the right fit to help grow Missouri basketball.

“This was really about, for us, ceasing a moment. We had an opportunity with what's going on in this country with women's basketball, to really seize the moment and take advantage of the attendance growth, the viewership growth, all the excitement around women's basketball,” Veatch said. “So it was really the right time for us to make a very strategic but responsible investment in this program.”

If the investment Missouri is pouring into Harper's new team is truly valid, the Tigers could see improvements fast. It's something that had to happen if Missouri wants to take advantage of what's happening across the country in collegiate women's basketball and all of that trust now lies on Harper.