Will Coaches Continue to Enter Transfer Portal in Search of NIL Money?

In this era of NIL payments and athletes entering the transfer portal, will coaches also enter the portal, not for better jobs, but for increased NIL funding?

David Roloff | Apr 1, 2025

March 26, 2025; San Francisco, CA, USA; Maryland Terrapins head coach Kevin Willard addresses the media in a press conference during NCAA Tournament West Regional Practice at Chase Center. / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

The news was actually two weeks old, but when Kevin Willard officially accepted the offer to be the next head coach of Villanova basketball, it struck a nerve — or maybe just caused a shake of the head.

He isn’t the first coach who left a school for a better offer from another institution. But at a closer look, is this the first coach who proclaimed that his school doesn’t improve its NIL game, then he is out of here? As players are entering the transfer portal by the thousands, was it ever expected that coaches would enter their same sort of portal?

This question gets asked because, at first glance, a move from Maryland to Villanova isn’t exactly a promotion. So, what was the problem? After Willard realized his own boss, athletic director Damon Evans, was leaving for greener pastures and cash-rich SMU, he must have felt like a dead man walking.

Prior to his first-round game in the NCAA tournament, Willard sounded the sirens as he was asked about his contract status with the Terrapins, per CBS Sports.

"I need to make fundamental changes to the program," he said. "That's what I'm focused on right now. That's why probably a deal hasn't got done because I want to see — I need to see fundamental changes done. I want this program to be great. I want it to be the best in the country. I want to win a national championship, but there's things that need to change. When you're at a place for three years and you put your heart and soul into it, you kind of sit there and say, okay, wait a second, for us to be really successful, X, Y, and Z need to change, first and foremost. I need to make sure that we are where we are with NIL and rev share is not where we've been with NIL over the past two years. We've been one of the worst, if not lowest, in NIL in the last two years. So that's first and foremost."

Willard didn't indicate if his rankings were within the Big Ten or nationally. But, CBS Sports cited Maryland's own collective as having paid $3 million in NIL to basketball this past season, which was around the middle of the conference.

Looking deeper into this situation, Willard left for a place in Villanova where basketball is king. The Big East is quietly collecting a great list of coaches flocking to programs where basketball is the main attraction because only one, Connecticut, fields an FBS football team.

In terms of moving conferences, it is a step down from the Big Ten. But not having to fight the football coach for funding or the spotlight is a great attraction.

The constellation of coaching stars in this conference is first-class — St. John's Rick Pitino, Marquette's Shaka Smart, Butler's Thad Matta, Georgetown's Ed Cooley and UConn's Dan Hurley, who led that program to back-to-back NCAA championships. UConn seem to have a good idea where their football team should be next to their men’s and women’s basketball programs.

Yes, money is the answer to all questions, but Maryland has mortgaged its athletic department by joining the Big Ten. Is it more money for the program? Yes, unquestionably. But unless Maryland transforms into a football powerhouse, this move is a complete disaster. It also creates the question: If Maryland is getting the windfall from the Big Ten and its football national champion Ohio State Buckeyes, then why is Willard begging for NIL money for his basketball team?

An outsider's view on this topic is that Maryland has always been a basketball school. Lefty Driesell proclaimed Maryland as the UCLA of the East. John Lucas, Len Bias, Joe Smith, Juan Dixon, and Gary Williams’ sweat-soaked suit. You could say the same thing about many schools in the era of college sports.

Maryland is in the wrong conference. It belong in the ACC, where it actually have rivalries. The ACC also has football, but the athletic department could also save the money they spend on travel and spend it on NIL.

Who can blame Willard? He is heading to a campus with, potentially, a better basketball tradition than Maryland. Villanova has Rollie Massimino and his run in 1985, and then the recent run of the dapper Jay Wright. Yes, he left the talent pool of the DMV, but they play basketball in Philly as well.

Will this be a trend for coaches searching for larger NIL budgets before they can be regulated? We shall see.

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