Can Purdue Preserve Its Innocence in the Lawless World of NIL?

For Better or Worse, College Basketball Ain't What It Used to Be

The Purdue University basketball team, fresh off a second straight Big 10 Championship and a trip to the Final Four, has done something so perfectly retrograde it has left pundits in shock. Coach Matt Painter dared to begin the season without a single transfer “student” on the roster. Incredibly, in this day and age, all of his players began at Purdue as freshman.

For those not paying attention, in 2021 the NCAA systematized the rules for students wishing to transfer. In the past students had to sit out a year before changing schools. Now, they could put their name in what’s called a “transfer portal.” Coaches could then recruit players from the portal and add them to their rosters for the upcoming season.

Full disclosure, the author is a Purdue alum (Ph.D., 1982)

Starting in 2021 as well, students had an incentive to jump. Universities could now pay them—over the table—to play for their various sports teams. These transactions go under the rubric “NIL,” shorthand for name, image, and likeness. Theoretically, players receive compensation for having their images used in promotional efforts. In reality, university boosters pool their resources to lure gifted athletes with guaranteed money.

Unlike in pro sports, where a level field playing is encouraged through the use of player drafts and salary caps, the world of college sports is borderline anarchic. Witness the hiring of legendary NFL coach Bill Belichick to the football backwater of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. On the surface the move made no sense until it was revealed that UNC had upped its football NIL budget from $4 million to $20 million. With that kind of money Belichick can buy an instant national contender without ever making a single home visit.

As of this writing, the Purdue basketball team has a 13-4 record and a more than respectable #17 ranking in the national polls. This year, however, Purdue and other Big 10 teams have been pushed out of the top 10 by a suddenly dominant Southeastern Conference (SEC). Long known for its football prowess, five SEC teams have bought their way into the current Top 10 in the AP college poll. Last year, only two SEC teams made the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16.

In November, Purdue beat the now #4 ranked University of Alabama 87-78 at Purdue’s home court in West Lafayette, Indiana. On its roster, the SEC’s Alabama has seven students who transferred in from other colleges. Among them is Clifford Omoruyi, a star at Big 10 school Rutgers before finding greener pastures in Tuscaloosa. Of Alabama’s 14 listed players, only three are native to the state.

In December Purdue got thumped 87-69 by the SEC’s #1 ranked Auburn at the school’s home court in Alabama. Ten of Auburn’s players transferred from other universities. Others prepped at basketball academies with names like “Overtime Elite.” Only two of the 18 players listed on the roster hail from Alabama despite the fact that Auburn, like the University of Alabama, is a state university.

Purdue is also a state university. Its roster reflects that fact. Four of the starting five graduated from high schools in Indiana. There are 11 hoosiers total on the Boilermaker roster. Several of the players had parents who graduated from Purdue, including star sophomores Cam Heide and Miles Colvin.

AI gets the Purdue story right. “Matt Painter, the head coach of the Purdue Boilermakers men's basketball team, is known for his old-school coaching style. Painter's style involves recruiting high school players and developing them over time, rather than relying on the transfer portal.” Exactly. Purdue has never had a so-called “one-and-done.”

In 2020 Painter saw potential in a gawky, largely un-recruited, half-Chinese 7-footer from Canada named Zach Edey. As a freshman, Edey came off the bench. In his sophomore year, he split playing time with a veteran center. In his junior and senior years, he was named National Player of the Year and led Purdue to the finals of the NCAA tournament in 2024.

In 2021, Painter recruited an overlooked, six-foot point guard from a suburban Indianapolis High School. He was the first Division 1 coach to offer Braden Smith a scholarship, and Smith snapped it up. Entering his junior year, Smith was named pre-season Big 10 Player of the Year.

Smith’s three-year running mate at guard, Fletcher Loyer, is also an Indiana public high school grad, as is junior center Trey Kauffman-Renn. For two years, Kauffman-Renn played patiently in Edey’s shadow. This year, still a junior, he has emerged as the team’s leading scorer.

Painter’s style of recruiting close to home has led to more ethnic diversity than in most college basketball programs. Three of its starters are white, two black. Five of the nine players in rotation are white, four black. Alas, with Edey’s departure for the NBA, the Asian-Canadian quotient has shrunk to zero.

Although Purdue has made the NCAA tournament 16 of the last 18 years and won four of the last eight Big Ten championships, only two of its alumni now play in the NBA. By contrast, the SEC’s University of Kentucky, a one-and-done factory, now has 30 of its alumni—if they could be called that—playing in the NBA. At least, five of the 30 are genuine all-stars.

Two Kentucky players were among the top eight in the 2024 NBA draft. That said, the UK basketball team did not reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. In fact, Kentucky has not reached the Sweet 16 since 2019 and the Final Four since 2015. Nor has Kentucky won its own conference championship since 2020.

Bottom line: in the last decade or so Purdue has had the more successful program, despite having 28 fewer future NBA players on its roster. Once the Purdue players move on—usually to graduate—many of them remain an active part of the Purdue community.

Clearly, the NCAA needs to reestablish order in its ranks, but that is an assignment for university athletic directors to sort out. Here’s hoping that the courts and Congress let them do their job.

On a personal level, as a long-time fan, I have to wonder how fans at other schools can warm up to the new crew of mercenaries that pass through their campus every year. I have to wonder even more at those pundits—and, yes, Purdue fans—who think “Coach Paint” should adopt the SEC model.