College Athletics is Rolling In the Dough

Tipoff

If there was ever a story that demonstrated how much money is in college sports, it was when the news broke that LSU hired former Notre Dame football head coach Brian Kelly for nearly $100 million. That is an absurd amount of money to pay a single person at a university. On the other hand, this sort of headline, just a year ago, would have been accompanied with cries of being unfair to the unpaid players. They are still unpaid by the teams, of course, but they are not without opportunities anymore. The winners of the new era of name, image, and likeness (NIL) are not the obvious ones, either.

Take Jared Casey, for example. He plays at Kansas, so that shouldn’t be surprising. Then again, you probably never heard of him. He’s a walk-on for the football team. Casey scored the winning touchdown over Texas earlier this season and turned that into commercials for Applebee’s, among other deals.

In college basketball, big-name stars like Duke’s Paolo Banchero signed deals, including with EA Sports. He is featured in their popular NBA 2K series as the first playable college basketball video game character in more than a decade. UConn’s Paige Bueckers also signed a big deal recently, becoming Gatorade’s first college basketball player - female or male - to sign a spokesperson contract. Bueckers has cashed in on several fronts and is using her opportunities to raise awareness of women in sports. While we can roll our eyes at the lavish contracts handed out to 60-year-old men to yell from the sidelines, the players themselves are now able to cash in on the big business that has always been part of college athletics. Some of them are doing it in very interesting and encouraging ways.

The Mixtape 

The Field of 68 team puts out lots of great content each week. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights.

• Down goes Duke! Just 4 days after taking down Gonzaga in Las Vegas, the Blue Devils ran out of gas in the final 5 minutes in Columbus and took their first loss of the season to The Ohio State University Buckeyes. The ebullient pair of Joey Lane and Andrew Zoldan of the Drive the Lane podcast spoke with ESPN’s Jay Bilas to break down the action and the key to the big win for the Buckeyes.

• The Memphis Tigers are full of talent for head coach Penny Hardaway. The roster is more than just the freshmen Emoni Bates and Jalen Duren. In spite of that wealth of talent, Iowa State caged the Tigers. Is Memphis in trouble? Jeff Goodman, Robbie Hummel, and the Miller Brothers, Archie and Sean break it down. It all starts at the point guard position. The main issue is that Penny isn’t playing a point guard. That’s kind of an important position in college basketball. Can they fix this?

• It’s the Mid-Major Top 25 with Sean Paul! You can read all about Paul and his love affair with the little guys in Four Point Play below. In the weekly podcast from the Field of 68, Paul talks with Connor Hope of the Hope and Rauf podcast to discuss all things mid-majors over the past week. Later on, USF head coach Todd Golden joins the podcast to dish on the Dons.

The Field of 12

The college football regular season has wrapped up and the Field of 12 is on the scene. Here is a brief sample of the new network from the makers of Field of 68.

• Field of 12 After Dark | Michigan DOMINATES Ohio State, Alabama escapes, and the CFP!!!

• Ted & Yogi’s Pac-12 Adventure | Lincoln Riley is IN at USC!

• The Trevor and Bryce Show | BEDLAM! Oklahoma State-Baylor in the title game, Lincoln Riley leaves, what's next for Oklahoma?

Four Point Play

Every week, we’ll check in with one of our podcast hosts and see what they’re up to besides producing compelling content for us at The Field of 68.

This week, we checked in with Sean Paul, “Mr. Mid Major” (according to me), writer, and co-host of the Making the Madness podcast as well as the Field of 68’s Sean Paul’s Mid-Major Top 25 show.

1. For a lot of our hosts, they played the game and are well known by their fans. You are a young and up-and-coming writer. Tell me about yourself and how you got into writing about college basketball.

• Around May of 2020, I started talking with Jonathan Wariner of the Making the Madness podcast and blog. I had less hours of work at the time due to COVID. From there, it grew into what it grew into, having my own Mid-Major Top 25 show, contributing to the Field of 68 After Dark show, having more than 7,500 twitter followers. I never really expected it to blossom into this.

1. I’ve gotten to know your writing on the Making the Madness blog as well as your Mid Major Top 25 podcast for Field of 68. What do you love about the mid majors and what do you want people to know about them?

• To me, there are a lot of similarities to myself and mid-majors. I wanted to try to grow in this industry and make something of myself. In a similar way, that is what mid-major players have. They weren't recruited by Kentucky or Duke and aren’t known nationally. Overall, giving shine to smaller teams and conferences, teams like Oral Roberts, that can go a long way in March; I definitely think that’s a good thing to do.

1. I’ve noticed that you do not rank Gonzaga among your Mid-Major Top 25 while other West Coast Conference teams, such as USF and Saint Mary’s, are ranked. This implies that teams can “graduate” from mid-major status out of their conference. What teams do you think are capable of graduating to high-major status?

• A lot of it is resources, facilities-based. Look at a school like BYU. We don’t rank them either. They are going to be in the Big 12 soon. Then look at a program like Portland. Their resources and facilities don’t stack up. Sustained success and resources play a role in it. There are in-between conferences like the Mountain West, Atlantic 10, they aren’t high-majors or mid-majors. For the most part, I try to give the attention to the 1-bid leagues. For the West Coast Conference, when you take out Gonzaga and BYU, that is going to be a one-bid or two-bid league most years.

And one!

1. This question pops up on Reddit all the time. Fans without a primary team join the college basketball sub and ask which team they should watch. Let’s answer this question two ways. Which team should casual fans adopt as their own and which conference should they follow and why?

• I would say, for me, the Summit League is one I am super interested in. There’s a ton of scoring, not a lot of defense, a ton of 3’s. It’s transforming there. You can have a true big man in college basketball, like Kofi Cockburn at Illinois. Most Summit League teams don’t have that. They spread the floor and shoot it, which can lead to upsets. For a team, South Dakota State, is a good one. They have a decent track record, they have a number of good players this season. Even after Mike Daum left, they have had several 20-win seasons since. They are a fun program to watch without a doubt.

Stay tuned for upcoming episodes of Sean Paul’s Mid-Major Top 25 podcast with Sean Paul. Upcoming guests include head coaches, such as USF head coach Todd Golden, featured on Tuesday’s episode.

Wednesday Superlatives

Each week, we will shine a light on a team and an individual player that has captured the hearts of the world of college basketball.

• Team of the Week: Dayton

  • Grounded is a term you could have used to describe the Dayton Flyers less than 2 weeks ago. Expectations for the former home of Obi Toppin weren’t that high. The Flyers rank 358 out of 358 teams according to KenPom’s experience ranking. It is the youngest of young rosters. It was no surprise, then, when Anthony Grant’s squad lost to UMass-Lowell, Lipscomb, and Austin Peay. Then, everything changed in Orlando. Dayton knocked off Miami with ease. They stood tall against Kansas and won it on the friendliest bounce of the rim for Mustapha Amzil’s prayer at the buzzer. They followed that up by beating Belmont to take the preseason tournament. Grant is building the plane while they are in the air.

• Player of the Week: Trayce Jackson-Davis

  • How many All-American big men can one conference have? The Big Ten is going to test the record. Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis has flown under the radar a little, even this season. On Saturday night, TJD put up an Assembly Hall record 43 points in a win over Marshall, breaking Steve Alford’s record. Then on Tuesday night, in a thrilling and maddening double-overtime game in Syracuse, the lefty poured in 31 points, 16 rebounds, and 3 blocks in the losing effort. The Hoosier big man is now second in the Big Ten in points, third in rebounds, and first in blocked shots per game.

Around the Rim

This section highlights some of the best writing on college basketball to hit the web. Consider these your extra credit assignments for fall semester.

• The Athletic | Men’s college basketball rankings: Who’s the new No. 1, Duke or Purdue? [$]

• Heat Check MBB | Shaw’s Sleepers: Kenneth Lofton, Jr. is building his own legacy

• Making the Madness | Updated National Player of the Year Rankings