The ACC lagged when it came to paying players, drawing criticism from legendary Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim.
Boeheim took part as a special guest on an episode of The Dan Patrick Show on Wednesday. He says that other teams in other conferences have been paying their players for a while. This means it was already happening before NIL became the main topic of player compensation.
“I love the ACC, it’s a great league, it’s down more than it’s ever been down right now because they don’t understand about paying athletes. They understand that in some of these other leagues, they’ve been doing it awhile. They have to pay, they have to pay athletes,” Boeheim said at the 7:59 mark.
Why Jim Boeheim’s criticism of ACC is significant
The ACC did not have a great representation this season in the NCAA Tournament. While Duke was a No.1 Seed, Clemson had the next highest rank as a 5 Seed, Louisville an 8 Seed. And North Carolina, who just won their play-in match against San Diego State 95-68, is also an 11 Seed.
For the Tar Heels, even making the tournament was very controversial. Their Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham, being the NCAA Selection Committee chair, got plenty of criticism for his conflict of interest. This came even though he was not in the room when the committee selected the team for the tournament.
Jim Boeheim’s former Syracuse team had a rough season finishing 14–19 on the year and 7–13 in the ACC Play. The Orange also signed Kiyan Anthony, the son of former National Champion Carmelo Anthony, who signed his own personal NIL deals. However, what he’s making from the university has yet to be known.
Syracuse has said it expects to pay its student athletes around $20 million next season to try and keep up with the other universities. As for the ACC, for them to keep up with other leagues, they must pay their players with the compensation they deserve.
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