Arizona Women’s Coach Laments ‘Transactional’ Nature of NIL, Portal

Arizona women’s basketball coach Adia Barnes admits it’s to the point where she’s staying away from players that have agents.

Mar 23, 2024; Storrs, Connecticut, USA; Arizona Wildcats head coach Adia Barnes watches from the sideline as they take on the Syracuse Orange at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion. / David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

Adia Barnes has grown the Arizona Wildcats into one of the top programs in women’s college basketball.

Since she arrived to take over the program in 2016, she’s won 150 games, won a WNIT title and taken the Wildcats to the 2021 National Championship Game, where they lost to Stanford.

Now, she and the Wildcats are getting ready to join the Big 12 Conference in August, coming off an 18-16 season and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

One might think that Name, Image and Likeness is having an impact on the program. According to Barnes, it’s not.

In fact, the women’s basketball program doesn’t even have a collective supporting it. The program may eventually benefit from the House vs. NCAA settlement, which could bring revenue sharing to college sports in the form of up to $22 million per year if schools opt in.

Arizona, being in a power conference, is likely the kind of school that would opt in. That might take some of the recruiting headaches off of Barnes’ shoulders when it comes to NIL and money for players.

Because, right now, she’s generally staying away from it, especially if that player has an agent.

“Usually, we’re not trying to recruit players like that,” she said to Tuscon.com and other outlets last week. “I just don’t have the energy, and I don’t want to deal with all that. So we’re not going after those players.

“We’re not in a position to and I really don’t want to deal with agents.”

She also estimated that only 20% of her conversations with recruits don’t involve money, and of her initial conversations with incoming transfers, money comes up early about 95% of the time.

Barnes said she would like to see limitations on NIL, and the House settlement may help in that regard. But it’s likely players will still have ways to capitalize on NIL outside of any revenue sharing with the university.

Meanwhile, Barnes enters her first season in the Big 12 with a roster that lost three players to the transfer portal and brought in three transfers, one of which is coming in from South Carolina.