By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Former Missouri Western State University basketball coach Tom Smith says it could be coincidence the four top seeds of the NCAA tournament made the final four
Or it could be the way that college basketball is changing
Smith says like how coaches used to leave schools for better money, now that power is also in the hands of the college athlete, which makes coaching harder
"Because now you have players, not only because of the NIL money that they're getting, but also because of the transfer portal and leave at any time, and in a sense, it takes a little bit of the power away from coaches," Smith tells KFEQ News.
Smith says with it being a more difficult job, you see coaches walk away not being able to handle the evolving situation of college athletics.
Name, Image, and Likeness, or NIL has shifted the world of college athletics, and Smith believes there is still a lot of figuring out to do. Smith says he is of the opinion that some sort of cap needs to be put on all the schools to even things out in some way
"Because right now there's no question that the rich are going to get richer and whoever has the most backing," Smith explains. "For example, right now, Arkansas is probably the number one NIL money school in the country."
Smith says he's not of the belief though that there needs to be a cap of how many people you can have on your team, especially when it comes to football.
Smith believes that the development of NIL, and the transfer portal has really evolved the game, and has also made coaching more difficult.
Smith says the question becomes how many coaches can deal with their roster changing yearly, saying teams could have a good year and still lose a player to the transfer portal
"It's going to be difficult for coaches in general to put together all new rosters maybe once every two or three years, it's going to be difficult," Smith says.
Smith says a coach like Ben McCollum may not handle the portal well because he's a coach who needs to have his people with him over the course of four to five years to develop them.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.