Dear reader,
It has been a painful season to be a Syracuse basketball fan. In Adrian Autry’s second season as head coach, SU is 12-18 with at least two more games left to play. The last time SU lost more games in the regular season was in 1962. In the past few weeks, reporters Mike Waters and Chris Carlson have done an excellent job explaining how the changing landscape of college athletics, specifically NIL and the transfer portal, helped contribute to this awful season. With Athletic Director John Wildhack this week confirming Autry’s return for next season, I asked Nate Mink, Syracuse.com | Post-Standard sports editor, to give readers some insight into what’s next for SU athletics.
“There’s always a chance to acquire better players when your staunchest supporters are inspired to donate and motivated to win now. SU is expected to have more money to pay players this year, but it’s hard to know how it stacks up against the competition with no centralized entity that publicly discloses the value of these contracts,” Nate said. “Having more money won’t necessarily correlate to more success if the basketball staff spends wastefully or has an errant read on what the market will be to add the crucial pieces it needs. Playing time, role and team culture still factor into a player’s decision to sign with a school. Work ethic, coachability, health and skill level need to be carefully scouted.”
Nate added that SU is likely to continue to struggle to compete financially against bigger schools with deeper pockets. “Think large state or land-grant schools with huge alumni bases,” he said. “There are corporate sponsorship dollars to mine and games with guaranteed payouts that can be scheduled to drive revenue. SU really needs to keep pace in the ACC, where much of the competition must make similar choices about its commitment to basketball at a time the long-term stability of the athletic coffers is tied to football. Still, the possibility to compete any given year exists with the right budget, right mix of players and coaches, and, sure, a little bit of good fortune.”
While NIL money and good transfer portal moves are big factors now in a team’s success, there was a lot of fan chatter this season about whether Autry is the right person for the job.
“I could point to a brilliant coaching decision to play zone in a win at Cal earlier this season and also identify several miscues in a poorly executed end-of-regulation sequence during a triple-overtime win vs. Boston College. Communication, motivation, preparation and staffing, all the way down to the art of working the officials on gameday, factor into coaching. And yet, even Bill Belichick struggled to win without the Hall of Fame quarterback,” said Nate, who believes Autry is likely to be given more time beyond next season.
“SU, as an institution, has rarely, if ever, bought out multiple years of a coach’s contract in one of the major revenue-making sports. As long as Autry runs a clean program and avoids further decline and fan apathy in 2025-26, I don’t see the school pulling out after three seasons. If it goes a lot like this season, and SU deems it can take the financial hit, all bets are off.”
For the football program, head coach Fran Brown has done well so far, but Nate says there’s year-to-year volatility when it comes to NIL and the portal and fans should be aware of that. “I think Brown has a forceful way he goes about his work that SU will be in the mix to (have a big year) more often than his predecessors,” he said. “Brown also came from a national championship-winning program and hired assistant coaches with connections to SEC schools that have spoils of talent.”
This shift in college sports to a more professional business model is complex and often confusing for fans to follow. Nate said our readers can expect more coverage of these topics and how they impact SU. If you have specific questions, tips or ideas, you can reach Nate directly at: nmink@syracuse.com
