Was AJ Storr negotiating a new deal with a new team during the Badger season?

^Let me give you the TL;DR version of this story: *ALLEGEDLY* AJ Storr’s agent(s) started shopping for a new NIL deal in February when the Badgers rose to #6 in the Top 25 polls and AJ’s name was becoming more and more known across college basketball. In fact, a Michigan State reporter for 247 alleges that Storr essentially had a new deal in place to join Illinois DURING THE SEASON last year:

Then, apparently, Kansas was able to outbid Illinois once the portal opened, and Storr went there.

Now there are a LOT of reasons the Badger basketball team fell apart after they rose up to #6 in those polls, but do you think having your best player planning his exit and next move while the season is still going on might be a decent sized slice on that pie chart??

These are somewhat serious allegations if true, but the chances that anything can be proven or comes of this are, as Dean Wormer would say, 0 point 0 percent.

It is, however, further proof of how chaotic college sports have gotten. I think most fans of college athletics can agree on two things:

1. “Student”-athletes that are generating billions of dollars for their schools, for TV networks, ad agencies, etc. deserve to get paid. Spare me the scholarship argument. For the stars of lower profile sports, fine, a free education is a big deal. But when we’re talking about the stars of high profile sports that are truly making 9-10 figures for their school and the NCAA, that doesn’t cut it. 95% of the time those athletes aren’t going to class anyway, and are just biding their time until they can turn pro.
2. The current version of the NIL Era ain’t it. There’s no cap on money, every player is a free agent after every single season, if you’re going to operate like a professional sports league, a few guardrails need to exist.

Like I said on the podcast last week, I don’t begrudge these players at all for operating within the current system and trying to make as much money as possible. If I were AJ Storr, and I had the chance to make 7 figures playing basketball at 20 years old, you can bet your ass I’d be looking for the best deal available. Get paid while you can. Anyone who says they wouldn’t do that are lying to themselves. Or are just saying they wouldn’t because that opportunity would never present itself to him/her. It would be easy for me to say, “I would never chase money, I’d be loyal to my coaches and my school!” Yeah, easy for you to say, Jon. Your greatest athletic achievement was getting the President’s Award for gym class in 1993*.

But from a fan perspective, the NCAA is going to have to do something to set a few parameters. It’s already clear that the original purpose of NIL has just turned into pay-for-play. NIL (Name Image Likeness) was supposed to be in place so that student-athletes can make money on themselves. If they wanted to get paid for an autograph session? Fine. Sign a deal with a local car dealership to appear on their commericals? Great! Get paid by EA Sports when they use your image in a video game? About time! But at this point we’re already in a space where schools are basically giving these players money to commit to playing there and that’s it. I don’t know how you put that toothpaste back in the tube, but they have to at least try.

In my opinion, the larger issue is the transfer portal. If NIL is going to boil down to pay-for-play even though that’s against the rules, it is what it is. But the fact that every athlete can transfer every single year with no penalty is what is leading to a lot of frustration. That’s how you end up in a situation where, *ALLEGEDLY*, AJ Storr is negotiating deals for his next stop while he’s still at Wisconsin. If these players had to sign contracts, or the ‘sit out one year’ rule was still in effect for any transfer, you wouldn’t have schools trying to poach each other’s talent every minute of every day. That’s the part that needs to be reigned in. Do you think if Chucky Hepburn had to sit out the year next year he’d still be transferring? I think it’s much less likely. And my guess is that AJ would have just gone to the NBA Draft if that were the rule.

Whatever they decide to do, the NCAA needs to address this quickly. There will always be fans of college sports, even if they’re frustrated with the product. But I do think they they will erode their fan base slowly if this continues down the path it’s on. And I truly think the solution is to limit the portal. Make it so it’s only open certain hours, make it so that you need a certain key to get in, whatever, but putting restrictions on that will clean up the amount of player movement we’re seeing.

*Everybody got it.

PS: I know people are pissed off with Greg Gard for a variety of reasons, but I don’t think the amount of transfers has anything to do with him. If Greg Gard were coaching the team that was offering AJ Storr the most money, he’d play for Greg Gard. It’s happening everywhere. Hell DUKE had 7 guys leave their program this offseason. And that’s as blue-blood as it gets. Tell me you don’t like Gard’s rotations, tell me you don’t like his schemes, tell me you don’t like his f—- necktie, but don’t blame him for the current economics of college sports.