As one of the most experienced coaches in college basketball, Steve Alford is the latest to criticize the way NIL ruling has affected the sport. Following Nevada’s season-ending loss to Colorado State, Alford held nothing back in his frustrations with NIL and the college basketball transfer portal.
Alford was most critical of how NIL money has altered the recruiting process. The 60-year-old claimed he has always been supportive of college athletes earning an income but called the current trajectory of the sport “ridiculous” in his post-game presser.
“As the game has evolved and changed, I’ve never been one who said student-athletes shouldn’t be paid,” Alford said, via Shannon Kelly of Nevada Sports Net. “But the way it is now is ridiculous; it’s utterly ridiculous. It’s changed our game… It used to be, ‘What’s my degree look like? What’s your facilities look like?’… You might as well throw all that stuff out, cause the only question they’re concerned about is what they’re getting paid in the portal.”
“I’ve never been one that said I don’t believe student-athletes shouldn’t be paid. But the way it is now is ridiculous. It’s utterly ridiculous”
Steve Alford was asked if there’s anything he & his staff need to do to help navigate this new landscape of college basketball & here… pic.twitter.com/SPvZl0EPts
— Shannon Kelly (@shannonkelly_tv) March 14, 2025
Alford further complained about the large sums of money schools give to incoming freshmen. He claimed that most so-called NIL deals are not truly based on “name, image and likeness” as they were intended. Alford called paying players before they ever step on a college basketball court a “bad lesson.”
“Truth be told, a lot of 18, 19-year-olds are raising family members now,” Alford said. “That’s not what you go off to college for… I don’t like our current model because it’s not name, image and likeness. There’s not that many college players that have that eval of a name, image and likeness. Most of them are getting what they’re getting before they ever produce. It’s a bad lesson.”
Nevada basketball’s Steve Alford joins growing list of NIL critics
Though he is just in his sixth season with Nevada, Alford has been a college basketball head coach for 30 years. Before his current stint with the Wolfpack, Alford was the head coach of UCLA, New Mexico, Iowa and Southwest Missouri State.
As he has watched the game develop, Alford is one of a handful of longtime head coaches openly frustrated with the modern era. While he expressed no desire to leave Nevada, the NIL and college basketball transfer portal have chased away other veteran coaches. Longtime head coaches Tony Bennett and Jim Larrañaga stepped away from Virginia and Miami, respectively, due to their resentment of the changes.
Regardless of his opinions, Alford is set to enter one of his toughest offseasons since joining Nevada. The Wolfpack regressed in 2024-2025, going just 17-16 after back-to-back 20-win seasons and NCAA Tournament appearances in 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.
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