Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.

Head coach Jim Boeheim apologized for comments he made in an article published by ESPN’s Pete Thamel on Saturday, according to a statement from Syracuse Athletics.

“I would like to clarify remarks I made in a conversation I had with a media member following our game on Saturday evening,” Boeheim said in the statement. “I apologize to the schools I mentioned. I believe the ACC member institutions are in compliance with NCAA rules governing Name, Image and Likeness (NIL). It was not my intention to imply otherwise.”

Boeheim discussed the state of college basketball in the article, referencing how the transfer portal and NIL have helped other Atlantic Coast Conference teams bring in key players or maintain stars from the previous year’s roster.

“This is an awful place we’re in in college basketball,” Boeheim told ESPN. “Pittsburgh bought a team. OK, fine. My [big donor] talks about it, but he doesn’t give anyone any money. Nothing. Not one guy. Our guys make like $20,000. Wake Forest bought a team. Miami bought a team. … It’s like, ‘Really, this is where we are?’ That’s really where we are, and it’s only going to get worse.”

Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes told ESPN in the article that he never used NIL money to get a player to come to his school. In the ACC’s coaches call on Monday, Forbes said Boeheim reached out to him at around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday while he was watching “The Recruit,” a Netflix series about a CIA lawyer. 

“I’m fine with Coach (Boeheim),” Forbes said. “I like him. I respect him. I think the world of him … I’m not here to perpetuate the narrative of what occurred on Saturday.” 

Pittsburgh head coach Jeff Capel said he spoke with Boeheim but would not comment on what was said, but confirmed he never spoke to transfers about NIL during the recruiting process. Boeheim and Capel both said the conversation they had was between both of them. 

Boeheim clarified in the coaches call that all the NIL deals he knows of are 100% “legal.” He said the conversation with Thamel happened as he was walking away from the press conference and back to the locker room. 

“You can turn around a team overnight or you can retain players,” Boeheim said in the coaches call. “All that is part of the landscape of college basketball.” 

Boeheim also said Adam Weitsman, who has offered NIL deals to new recruits like 2024 guard Elijah Moore, hasn’t given any players any money before they’ve gotten to Syracuse.

“(Weitsman has) engaged with some of our players, as have many others, with NIL opportunities,” Boeheim said in the coaches call. “That’s perfectly within the rules and I’m happy that he and other people are doing that. There’s many people that are engaged in the NIL for our program.”

Boeheim stressed that “everybody has to get involved,” but that he doesn’t check what the players have in terms of NIL deals as they go through compliance. He added that Buddy Boeheim had around 20 groups or organizations involved with his NIL deals. 

“We have a strong NIL for our current players … that’s obviously the future of college basketball and it’s only going to grow,” Boeheim said. “I’ll let somebody else decide whether that’s good or bad, that’s reality.”

There’s also no solution for NIL, Boeheim said. He’s seen a variety of issues at the college basketball level over the last 50 years which have all had fixes, but NIL deals are something that’s unavoidable, especially with boosters like Weitsman having the ability to spark deals with players. And overall, the benefits are positive, Boeheim said. 

“The transfer portal is good for kids and it can be bad. But it’s here and players should have that opportunity. The NIL is here, it’s good,” Boeheim said. “I’m not that smart on it at all, obviously. But there is no solution.”

Published on February 6, 2023 at 1:35 pm

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu