Geno Auriemma Laments Bleak NIL, Transfer Reality After UConn NCAA Championship

UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma does not like this part of his job.

Connecticut Huskies Head Coach Geno Auriemma watches practice at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, Thursday, April 3, 2025 ahead of their Final Four match-up against the UCLA Bruins on Friday. | Sara Diggins/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The UConn Huskies women's basketball team is surely still riding high after their NCAA national championship win over the South Carolina Gamecocks on April 6. This marked the 12th national championship that legendary Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma won. In the eyes of some, this makes him the best American sports coach of all time.

Despite having nothing left to prove, it doesn't appear that Auriemma is considering retirement in the near future. Therefore, he must continue to reckon with the NCAA's current NIL and transfer portal-centric landscape, which is the bane of all college sports coaches.

Auriemma made an appearance on an April 8 episode of The Dan Patrick Show. And at one point, he opened up about the challenges that NIL rules and constant transfers present.

When Patrick asked specifically about the transfer landscape, Auriemma said, "I don't deal with it on a daily, monthly, weekly basis, no... We just coach our team. We know at the end of every year, because we get pretty good players, and that if they don't all play as much as they want, those days of 'I'll wait my turn', those are gone.

"We know that at the end of every year, some kid is already halfway out the door when they realize 'I'm not getting the time that I thought I was gonna get.' We understand that we're gonna lose a couple every year, but there's a couple of kids that want to come every year," he added. "What makes it hard is, in the NBA, they have a free agency period of time... Our free agency is the whole year, and every kid is a free agent every day, the whole year."

He then added, "And then the portal is open the NCAA Tournament. Can you imagine the NBA playoffs, and free agency is going on during the playoffs? I mean, it's insanity... Some of the money that I hear programs have to spend [in NIL]... It's out of hand, man. It's out of hand."

"It's out of hand, man. It's out of hand."

– Geno Auriemma on the challenges of coaching in today’s college game amid NIL and the transfer portal. pic.twitter.com/6UR59aljUT

— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) April 7, 2025

This is one part of the job that Auriemma is clearly not fond of.