UConn's Geno Auriemma Says NIL Spending in College Sports Is 'Out of Hand'

UConn's Geno Auriemma won 11 championships before the NIL era, and now he's won his first of the NIL era.

But even after downing South Carolina to win his first title since 2016, the Huskies' head coach voiced his frustration with the current landscape of college athletics.

"What makes it hard is, in the NBA, they have a free agency period of time. This is when you can talk to free agents, this is when you can sign them," he said on the Dan Patrick Show. "Our free agency is the whole year and every kid... Every kid's a free agent, every day, the whole year... And then the portal opens during the NCAA tournament. Can you imagine the NBA playoffs and free agency is going on during the playoffs? It's insanity... Don't even get me started on the money. Some of the money I hear that programs have to spend... It's out of hand, man. It's out of hand."

College football sees the highest NIL deals with top players like Texas' Arch Manning, Miami's Carson Beck and Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith having NIL valuations of more than $4 million, per On3. Still, basketball has some high earners as well. On3 gives Duke's Cooper Flagg a valuation of $4.8 million and LSU's Flau'jae Johnson a $1.5 million valuation.

The NIL era has its positives, as players are finally being rewarded for the money they generate for their respective schools, but there have been some consequences as a result.

One such consequence is that bigger schools have an advantage over smaller schools with lower NIL budgets. Before the Final Four, Auriemma suggested NIL that directly paying players would result in less parity in college basketball.

"It will ruin parity," Auriemma told reporters. "That's number one. I'm for revenue sharing. (But) there will be less parity in the game of basketball."

There was already little parity in this year's NCAA tournament on both the men's and women's sides. The men's tournament saw an all-No. 1 seed Final Four for the first time since 2008, while the women's Final Four included three No. 1 seeds and one No. 2 seed in UConn.

With universities on the brink of winning a settlement against the NCAA that would allow them to pay athletes directly, Auriemma's warning about a lack of parity could become reality.