NIL Drives Miami Hurricanes Legend Jim Larranaga To Resign From Coaching Position

Miami Hurricanes legendary head coach Jim Larranaga resigned from his position, citing NIL as a major reason why.

Mar 26, 2023; Kansas City, MO, USA; Miami (Fl) Hurricanes head coach Jim Larranaga reacts during the second half of an Elite 8 college basketball game in the Midwest Regional of the 2023 NCAA Tournament against the Texas Longhorns at T-Mobile Center. / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

The Miami Hurricanes men’s basketball team has fallen woefully short of expectations since making a run to the Final Four during the 2022 NCAA Tournament as a 5-seed.

It was the peak of Jim Larranaga’s run with the program, which began during the 2011-2012 campaign as he took over from Frank Haith. He coached the team for 448 games before abruptly stepping down from the job.

Miami has been struggling since that shocking March Madness run, as they went a disappointing 15-17 last season before getting off to a 4-8 start this campaign.

Larranaga, who is 75 years old, cited one of the major reasons that he is stepping away is the ever-changing landscape of collegiate sports, which includes NIL deals. The necessary requirements to juggle that while coaching the program just became too much for him, as he couldn’t give the kind of effort it deserves.

"There's one thing you've got to constantly ask yourself: Are you going to give everything you have -- the commitment it deserves, 100% of yourself physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually?" Larranaga said, via Kyle Boone of CBS Sports. "Quite frankly, I've tried to do that through my life and my time here. But I'm exhausted. I've tried every which way to keep this going."

His surprising decision comes the day after Christmas and only five days after another awful loss to the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Losing buy-games of that caliber is certainly a sign that something is awry with the program and changes need to be made. It is only the latest in what has been a stretch of just head-scratching defeats,

This season alone the Hurricanes had already suffered loss to the Drake Bulldogs, VCU Rams and Charleston Southern Buccaneers out of the Missouri Valley Conference, Atlantic-10 and Big South.

The 2023-24 campaign ended in a 10-game losing streak, as their struggles carried into the new basketball year.

Turnover on the roster, despite an incredible amount of success, is something that Larranaga was unable to truly wrap his head around.

"What shocked me was after we made it to the Final Four, just 18 months ago, the very first time I met with the players, eight of them decided they were going to put their name in the portal and leave," Larrangaga said. "I said, 'Don't you like it here?' They said, 'No, I like it here, it's great.' But the opportunity to make money someplace else created a situation that you have to begin to ask yourself, as a coach, what is this all about? The answer is that it's become professional."

He is just one of many legendary head coaches that have found this era of college basketball impossible to navigate, deciding to step away instead of putting more and more effort into fruitless endeavors.

Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Jay Wright and Tony Bennett are just a few of the incredible head coaches the sport has seen walk away for various reasons, including NIL, in recent years.