Thoughts on Adam Weitsman, Syracuse and NIL

What to make of Weitsman public divorce from SU Athletics.

Tuesday was an eventful day for Syracuse basketball. Jesse Edwards entered the transfer portal and it was reported by both Neil Adler and Brent Axe that Adam Weitsman was no longer involved with the NIL program at Syracuse. I want to examine the Weitsman situation a bit to give my thoughts on that divorce as well as how Syracuse navigates the NIL space moving forward. 

Adam Weitsman/Syracuse Divorce

Neil Adler of Inside The Loud House reported that Adam Weitsman would no longer be participating in NIL arrangements with current Syracuse athletes or recruits. That was followed up by Brent Axe of Syracuse.com confirming the news. Obviously losing your most high profile booster who was getting more involved with NIL is not a great thing. Before we dive into the specifics, let's take a a slight detour for a moment to provide context. 

That detour is to Miami women's basketball. Less than two months ago, shortly after it was reported that the NCAA was going to start looking closer at NIL related activities with recruits and transfers, Miami's women's basketball program was punished due to violations related to the transfer recruitment of Haley and Hanna Cavinder. Why did the NCAA look into Miami in the first place? Booster John Ruiz posted a picture of himself with the Cavinders on social media just eight days before they committed. Keep that in mind as we circle back to Syracuse.

Given Syracuse's history with NCAA scrutiny and punishment (see Jim Boeheim's vacated wins as an example), it is understandable if the university's administration would be weary of such situations. Not that Syracuse is against NIL arrangements, but rather making those public which would bring the NCAA's watchful eyes to focus on SU. 

As Weitsman became more involved with recruits and NIL offers, the public nature of those offers significantly increased. It was reported on by several media outlets regarding Weitsman's NIL offers to prominent high school recruits who were seriously looking at the Orange. He made posts on his Instagram stories alluding to these things as well. 

“From what I understand, hearing it from sources at the university, he did not like the high-profile nature of the celebrities coming to games and the way I was going about NIL, discussing it with the media,” Weitsman said via syracuse.com.

“He was not comfortable with that, but the only way I knew to go about doing NIL is to do it high-profile. We’re in Syracuse, New York. We have to bring attention to our area.

“Even though I didn’t go to Syracuse, I love Syracuse athletics and every single person that works there. But I’m not the boss. If the boss doesn’t want me there, I understand.”

I believe Syracuse is just high profile enough that the NCAA would feel it made a proper example with NIL related punishments but not so powerful that the NCAA would shy away from such investigations as it would with other schools. Therefore, Syracuse not wanting all of that publicity on those NIL arrangements is understandable.

It is important to note that Weitsman hired a top notch NIL attorney to ensure he was not committing any violations. In addition, Weitsman ran all of his NIL related activities by Syracuse Universities compliance department to further verify NCAA infractions did not occur. 

Where I am lost is the comment "the only way I knew to go about doing NIL is to do it high-profile." If you know you can make an impact on a program you love with NIL arrangements, but also know they prefer it not be so public and would rather it be privately behind the scenes, why would you not help in that manner? Adam Weitsman is an extremely successful businessman and can do whatever he chooses with his money. I am in no position to tell him otherwise. I just do not comprehend that approach, personally. 

That aside, the impasse between Weitsman and Syracuse seems to stem from that very thing. Weitsman's desire for publicity surrounding his NIL dealings and Syracuse's desire to keep that private to avoid NCAA scrutiny. 

Many programs with robust NIL initiatives are not very public with many of those arrangements. Sure the details of some of those agreements do leak, but most do not have boosters with strong social media presence that posts pictures or has media detailing each step of those discussions. 

From Weitsman’s perspective, after speaking with him Wednesday afternoon, he views Syracuse as different than a lot of places across the country. One that needs high profile publicity of such NIL activities in order to promote Upstate New York, Syracuse University and Syracuse Athletics. He also stated part of the reason he was so public with all of it was for transparency’s sake. He would welcome an NCAA inquiry, he said, as he says he has nothing to hide and has done everything within the rules. 

He has more confidence in the fairness of NCAA investigations than I do. Call me a conspiracy theorist on that side of things, if you must. 

Where Syracuse Goes From Here

So now what? With Weitsman out of the picture, how does Syracuse use NIL to its advantage? 

On the positive side, there is a collective that fans and alumni can contribute to that will go directly to student-athletes. There are other boosters that support Syracuse as well. Weitsman may have been the most high profile, but he was not acting alone in the NIL space. 

Now Syracuse certainly has work to do on the NIL front. The Orange is not at the forefront of this. Syracuse can be better in terms of how much it can offer from an NIL perspective. The Jesse Edwards situation is a prime example of that. According to Brent Huot, Syracuse found a workaround for Edwards' international NIL hangup but was outbid for his services by multiple programs. 

That is a problem Syracuse must address in order to not only land top talent but retain it. Not only for men's basketball but for other programs as well. That is the challenge moving forward, but Syracuse is not starting at zero with its NIL program. 

Final Thoughts

The Weitsman divorce is certainly a blow to Syracuse's NIL approach from a dollars standpoint. However, if he was unwilling to contribute in a non-public way, this may be best to avoid NCAA inquiries. The challenges for Syracuse with NIL are noted, and we will see how the Orange responds specifically with the men's basketball program. 

Syracuse was able to land one of the top transfers in the portal in JJ Starling. The Orange is recruiting several high profile 2024 prospects. Can Syracuse land another high profile transfer in Chance Westry? Who will Syracuse get to replace Edwards for the 2023-24 roster? How the Orange fills out its final spots will provide insight into how successful Syracuse can be with roster construction and talent accumulation. 

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