Kentucky Basketball has strong NIL support, according to college coache
Kentucky is ranked in the top five for NIL in college basketball.
In July 2021, Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) became legal in the NCAA, allowing athletes to finally get paid while playing in college.
When it became part of the NCAA, the Kentucky Wildcats were a bit slow to react and get on NIL due to not having many rules or restrictions, which is still a point today. Nevertheless, Kentucky finally started to get more into NIL, and that has helped by continuing to have great recruiting classes in football and basketball.
In an article recently written by Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander
They asked more than 100 basketball coaches who they think have the best name, image, and likeness programs in place. Kentucky coming in at No. 4 on the ballot, with them appearing on it 25.3% of the time.
The other teams that were in the top five included: No. 1 Arkansas at 73.7%, No. 2 Kansas at 43.2%, No. 3 BYU at 30.6%, Kentucky at 25.3%, and Indiana at 16.9%.
Although we won’t know how much college athletes are making, some coaches say that you will hear teams offering more than what a certain team has offered, in this instance, for a player Kentucky was trying to get.
“This answer varies from week to week,” A coach tells Parrish and Norlander of CBS Sports. “One week on the road you hear Washington is offering a kid $2.3 million, then you hear Kentucky and Louisville have offered more. At this point, no one knows what to truly believe with agents involved and trying to drive prices through the roof with false information.”
At the very beginning, when John Calipari left for Arkansas and Kentucky hired Mark Pope from BYU, some anonymous boosters donated $4 million to the NIL funds to help Pope create a brand-new roster for this upcoming year.
Here is a list of all the teams that were voted on in the ballot:
Arkansas- 73.7%
Kansas- 43.2%
BYU- 30.6%
Kentucky- 25.3%
Indiana- 16.9%
Baylor- 11.6%
Louisville- 11.6%
Alabama- 10.5%
Illinois- 9.5%
Texas Tech- 9.5%
Duke- 8.4%
UConn- 6.3%
North Carolina- 6.3%
Tennessee- 4.2%
Memphis- 3.2%
Texas- 3.2%
St. John’s- 2.1%
(Other programs that received at least one vote: Arizona, Florida, Georgetown, McNeese State, Ole Miss, Oregon, Villanova, Washington).
