Bryan Hodgson turning down Syracuse is another concerning sign

Syracuse basketball used to be a pillar of the sport: a true blue blood that competed at the highest levels. With a national championship in 2003, five Final Four appearances and five Big East tournament titles, the Orange were feared and respected.

Jeff Goodman reported on Tuesday night that Bryan Hodgson, the school’s top choice to replace the recently fired Adrian Autry as head coach, is no longer in the running for the job. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Syracuse men’s basketball has been on a downward trajectory for much of the past five years, but this is a new low.

It is a sobering reality check for fans, students and the athletic department. Syracuse is no longer a sought-after destination. ‘Cuse is in the midst of its longest NCAA tournament drought since the 1960s and is clearly lagging as the sport evolves.

Syracuse's finances appear to be an issue

Goodman added to his original note that Hodgson had chosen to withdraw from consideration. He was blunt. “Syracuse’s resources clearly not where they need to be. If they want to compete for top 5-6 spots in the ACC, they will need to improve their financial package for the next coach,” Goodman wrote on X.

This comes on the heels of former head coach Jim Boeheim telling the ACC Network that he believed Syracuse was in the same tier as Boston College and Georgia Tech from an NIL standpoint. Both of those schools fired their head coaches earlier this month as well.

Hodgson, an Olean, NY native, turning down the opportunity was bad enough. The fact that the Orange could not pony up enough money and NIL backing to pry him from South Florida is flat-out embarrassing. Goodman had said over the weekend that Syracuse would likely need to put up roughly $10-to-14 million in NIL funding to attract a highly coveted coach to Central New York. Clearly, ‘Cuse fell short of that.

It is certainly an inauspicious start for new athletic director Brian Blair. However, it is hard to fault him too much because he can’t offer Hodgson what he does not have. Blair is known for building the NIL pipeline and tapping into new donors. He’s been on the job less than a week, so if the coffers are bare, that falls on former athletic director John Wildhack.

Where does Hodgson's departure leave SU?

Ideally, this will be a short-term setback for Syracuse as they revamp the athletic department, specifically the men’s basketball program. Gerry McNamara will almost assuredly become the focal point of the head coaching search moving forward. The ‘Cuse legend will be leading Siena in its first NCAA tournament game since 2010 when the Saints take on top-seeded Duke on Thursday. Assuming McNamara and company don’t pull off the UMBC-like upset, he will likely be the Orange’s next coach by Friday.

Bringing in McNamara is not necessarily a bad thing. He is a young, up-and-coming coach with prior experience, a conference tournament win and an NCAA tournament appearance on his resume. Siena won four games the year before he took over. To have them dancing two years later is impressive. He is a familiar name that will energize the fan base with hopes of bringing back the glory days.

That being said, Syracuse will need to step up its NIL game fast. Expectations are not going to change for this program with McNamara at the helm instead of Hodgson. Fans demand that this is a tournament team every year and they should be able to compete with the top teams in the ACC. To do that, it is going to cost a significant amount of money. That’s the world we live in these days. College basketball is fully pay-to-play. It’s time for Syracuse to wake up and do what it can to catch up, because it is clear it is on the verge of being left behind.

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