The best college basketball player in America will stay in school for his senior season and get paid for doing so—thanks to some recent changes to National Collegiate Atheltic Association (NCAA) rules that have opened up markets and opportunities for student-athletes.
Oscar Tshiebwe (a Congolese immigrant) is able to make millions of dollars without ever going professional.
Tshiebwe said Thursday that he will forgo the National Basketball Association draft in order to complete his Kentucky college basketball career. The John R. Wooden award winner, given annually to the nation’s best college basketball players, declined to leave immediately to join the NBA for the first time since 2008.
However, outstanding student-athletes in the past may not have had the same opportunity as Tshiebwe. This is due to NCAA’s decision to allow players to cash in on endorsement deals that use their image, name and likeness. While college players don’t get paid directly for their skills, NIL deals are available to them in the same manner that they benefitted from scholarship funds. Tshiebwe is one example of a player who can make a lot from these deals. StadiumJeff Goodman is a writer about basketball.
According to a source, Oscar Tshiebwe could earn close to $2 million in this season’s NIL. @Stadium. https://t.co/MHlbaJa7RO
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) April 20, 2022
NIL deals were illegalized before college basketball players who had the ability to play pro basketball could make that leap. Returning to school for a second season meant that they had to work hard and could be injured, which might affect their ability or potential success in the NBA.
Tshiebwe is one of many players who have seen the NCAA lose its cartelized control of student-athletic revenues. Though he was undeniably the best player in college basketball this year—in 34 games, he recorded 28 double-doubles (basketball lingo for games in which a player scores at least 10 points and at least 10 rebounds), including 16 in a row at one point—most experts projected Tshiebwe to be a second-round draft pick, largely due to the different skill sets required to excel in the college and professional versions of the sport.
Tshiebwe can stay in school and get paid for it. This will allow him to continue his skills development in hopes of getting a bigger payday next year in the draft. After Kentucky’s shocking exit from “March Madness”, Saint Peter’s College was the Cinderella story, it means Tshiebwe will have another chance to win a national championship.
Tshiebwe stated to ESPN that this was not the way he had envisioned it ending. It’s my best motivator.”
He’s not the only student-athlete getting what they deserve from the NCAA’s new rules—which have created some weird and wonderful results. Doug Edert was the main star in Saint Peter’s March upset win. He landed an award. endorsement deal with Buffalo Wild Wings. An Arkansas University wide receiver was awarded a contract for his dog, Blue. A lineman from Ohio State’s offensive team is paid to hawk. scented candles. Olivia Dunne, a Louisiana State gymnast, reportedly used her huge social media following to secure NIL deals in excess of $1 million.
Even the NCAA—which for years fought the idea of letting players profit off NIL deals as it sold players’ likenesses to video game companies and sold jerseys with players’ numbers on them—is a winner here. Tshiebwe’s decision to stay in school gives college basketball “a rare victory for the sport in its talent tug-of war with the NBA,” says the writer. Sports IllustratedPat Forde, a member of the’s. It’s a win-win situation for all college basketball and Tshiebwe specifically. His marketability has been established in an area that is passionate about its college basketball players. You can see his face at billboards along New Circle Road, Lexington. At Keeneland Race Course, let him sign autographs. He might endorse Malone’s steaks if he loves them. For being the Wildcat star he is, pay the man.
This is mostly a story about the benefits of opening markets to everyone. Everyone, except maybe the college teams who will be facing Tshiebwe’s revenge tour.