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It’s been a rough offseason for Kentucky Basketball in terms of roster defections and transfer portal misses.
A big part of that has allegedly been John Calipari not fully embracing NIL, which you can read more about here.
Thankfully, it sounds like this challenging offseason is leading to change for Calipari.
According to KSR’s Matt Jones, Calipari is starting to embrace NIL in a more effective way, including the use of a collective.
Hearing Calipari has modified his NIL stance slightly
— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) June 13, 2023
Some money has been raised from some outside sources and will be used for a Collective-like entity that may not be called a Collective
A very good development in my mind
I will give some more details tomorrow on show but I am told events of this summer have changed Calipari’s mind slightly and this “non-collective Collective” may pay dividends in next 48 hours
— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) June 13, 2023
The collective is a big step, as it’s something Calipari has publicly admitted he’s not a fan of.
“I’m not doing a collective, no disrespect. I don’t want anybody to own my team, tell me who to play or what assistant [to hire] or all that,” Calipari said in October via 247 Sports. “So we’re just doing the way it was designed which is their name, image and likeness and their value, what do they do? And then the best thing is, this is America, and the most talented and the best players make the most because the agents do it.”
It’s no secret that NIL collectives have become a major part of college sports, so it was only a matter of time before Calipari, or his successor, would have to utilize them to help Kentucky Basketball, which has missed on every transfer target they’ve pursued this offseason.
Hopefully, this is the start of some positive change that helps Kentucky get back to being the gold standard Calipari claims it to be.
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