Jim Boeheim ACC Media Teleconference Transcript
Syracuse head coach spoke during the ACC Media Call on Monday to discuss a variety of topics. Below is a transcript of the questions he was asked and his responses.
Q: How do you think NIL has impacted college basketball?
Boeheim: "I think the portal and NIL have had a huge impact. You're able to get players right away through the transfer portal. I think all the NILs that I know of are legal and within the rules completely, one hundred percent. It's the way college basketball's going. I was just talking about that as I was walking from a press conference, after the press conference, to my locker room. It's changed college basketball. You can turn around a team overnight or you can retain players. All that is part of the landscape of college basketball."
Q: Coach Capel (Pitt) mentioned you reached out to him. Will you share what you discussed?
Boeheim: "No. That's just between me and Jeff."
Q: Jeff and Steve Forbes both said you had spoken to them. Did you speak to coach Larrañaga as well and what was the crux of those conversations?
Boeheim: "I'm not going to talk about any of those conversations or who I have talked to."
Q: You have a booster in Adam Weitsman who says he has signed six of your players to NIL deals. You were quoted by ESPN as saying he doesn't give a single player any money.
Boeheim: "That wasn't accurate. I said he hasn't give any players money before they got to Syracuse. He has engaged with some of our players as have many others with NIL opportunities. That's perfectly in the rules. I'm happy he and other people are doing that. There's many people that are engaged in NIL with our program."
Q: Would you like to see more people get involved with it (NIL) the way he (Weitsman) has?
Boeheim: "Well everybody has to be involved. We do have a good collective. People are involved with that. I'm not going to go through every singled thing but Buddy was involved with 20 different things last year. This is what I know. I don't check with what every single player has. Everything they have goes through compliance and has to be vetted. I know Buddy had probably 20 different groups of people, organizations, involved with his NIL. That's good. We have a strong NIL for our current players. I think that's obviously the future of basketball and it's only going to grow. That's really basically what I was talking about. The ability with NIL and transfer portal to change your team overnight. I'll let somebody else decide whether that's good or bad. That's reality."
Q: How have you seen your relationships with prep coaches help with recruiting?
Boeheim: "Everything about recruiting is relationships. Some coaches you know, some are new coaches, some coaches you don't know at all. It's all part of recruiting. We mainly recruit through parents and players. Sometimes high school coaches are involved, sometimes AAU coaches are involved. That's all part of recruiting, really."
Q: Do you think prep players are more prepared coming in?
Boeheim: "Not necessarily. Both my sons went to prep school and I think it helped them. It can help."
Q: What would the wise next step or evolution (with NIL)?
Boeheim: "I've been in this game for 50 years, probably some people think too long. Every problem we've faced over those 50 years, there's been a solution. Things could be figured out. There is no solution for this. There's a call for congress or something, that's the craziest. There is just no solution. The transfer portal is good for kids and it can be bad but it's here. Players will have that opportunity. The NIL is here and it's good. The only thing that might have been able to be done, and I know it was thought about, was that boosters could not be involved in NIL. But I think that either you couldn't do it or they didn't want to do it. Somebody else would have to answer that question. Somebody from the NCAA would have to answer that question as to why boosters were allowed in this. Once you allow boosters in, they're going to be involved in the collectives and individuals. Again, I'm not that smart at all, obviously. But there is no solution."
Q: Would transparency or a clearing house that allowed people to see these agreements help?
Boeheim: "I don't know if you can do that. Again, you're talking to the wrong guy. You need lawyers and people who know what they're doing. Some of these agreements are known. Football it seems they all kind of get out there. I don't know what the difference is or why but there's obviously a lot of agreements in basketball and football. Some of them are out there, some of them are not. As long as they're legal agreements, I don't see whether it matters if they're transparent or not. As long as they're legal, what's the difference if you or I know if so and so player got this or that. I don't know the answer to that."
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