In today’s era of college sports, one question has to come up as any candidate interviews for a coaching job.
What does the NIL investment look like?
Success in recruiting and maintaining a talented roster, and thus being able to produce a quality team, comes from the investment a school is willing to make in any singular program.
And as the Missouri Tigers looked for a new women’s basketball coach, the question had to be asked.
What is the athletic department willing to invest to put a good team on the floor after it wouldn’t pay the money to get a different coach a year or two earlier?
“With every conversation we have with a candidate these days, that’s a part of it,” Athletic director Laird Veatch said. “Talking to them not only about what our NIL commitment currently looks like, what the revenue share is kind of projected to be, where we see that playing out … and them feeling confident they can come in here and build a roster at a high level in this league and at this time. It was really important, but it was also such a selling point to us that we’ve got such a good infrastructure here.”
And that investment has become more clear as the Tigers brought in one of the more highly-sout candidates on the coaching market in former Tennessee coach Kellie Harper. And not only did the school bring in a top candidate, it will pay her nearly twice as much per year in her first five seasons as it paid Robin Pingeton in her 15th.
“I don’t know if it’s fortunate or unfortunately, (NIL) is a big part,” Harper said. “Because that’s where we’re at in athletics and so I had to feel and know that the support was going to be there for women’s basketball. And support not just in being here and showing up, but the support financially that gives us an opportunity to be competitive in not just our league, but our region and nationally.”
There has been talent on the roster the past couple of seasons, led by Grace Slaughter, who was the top prospect in the state of Missouri coming out of high school and Ashton Judd, who was the Class 5 Player of the Year in Missouri her senior year.
But adding high-level talent through the transfer portal or bringing in highly-sought players from outside the state was tough for the Tigers in the final years of Pingeton’s tenure.
And with four players already out the door and in the transfer portal, and four more having run out of eligibility, Harper will have to focus on bringing in new faces quickly. Who she’s able to bring in will be a telling look at what the NIL commitment really is alongside the coaching financial commitment.
“We’ve got to address some needs on the court and we’re going to do that through the transfer portal,” Harper said. “... We’re really excited about who we think we can bring in, in terms of talent.”
So far, Harper has maintained the core of Tigers who could return for next year with both Slaughter and Judd as well as Averi ...
