Does Arizona State have NIL problems with its college basketball program? The father of five-star freshman Jayden Quaintance says no, despite contradictory murmurs out of Tempe.
Money is not necessarily an issue in this current moment but there are signs of potential problems to come down the road.
This entire saga began during the college basketball offseason back in April. Head coach Bobby Hurley tried to increase the Sun Devils’ visibility with a made-for-tv docuseries. He was supposedly in talks with “major Hollywood producers” and various streaming platforms.
It was going to provide viewers a behind-the-scenes look at a college basketball program that is currently on the brink of disaster after finishing below .500 in four of the last five years. The series would also provide the program with an opportunity to forge brand partnerships that would pay athletes for their Names, Images and Likenesses. NIL has been a struggle for Hurley and Arizona State over the last few years. Amazon was supposedly interested in buying rights to the show but the deal never happened.
With that in mind, there are ongoing rumors about failed promises and unmet payments. The Sun Angel Collective vehemently denies any financial issues. It claims that all financial commitments have been met.
According to Chris Karpman of 247 Sports, the issue is less about the current deals that are already in place. Players are going to get paid but there is not an excess of funds like previously expected.
The real issue isn’t whether the collective will pay the players what they were promised. The real issue is, that money would have been able to go elsewhere if the funds Hurley expected to be delivered for the docuseries had been fully delivered. That did not happen. Most of that money has to come from elsewhere now and that will be mostly or partly from fans/boosters/business interests. The deal was always fairly speculative IMO. It was a Canadian-based fledging operation called Segi TV. If you google it and search for it on various social media platforms, you’ll see what I mean.
— Chris Karpman or Sun Devil Source
Quaintance is one of the highest-paid players on Arizona State’s roster, if not the highest-paid player. The five-star, top-10 recruit committed to Hurley over 21 other offers from schools like Kentucky, Florida, Kansas, Memphis, Alabama, Baylor, Ohio State, and Louisville.
His father dispelled the concerns about Hurley’s NIL operation.
Fake News. Hurley and the AD has kept their word and went above and beyond. pic.twitter.com/LkbYApkm0Z
— Haminn Quaintance (@UptQ4life) January 6, 2025
There you have it! Jayden Quaintance has not had a check bounce at this point. The problem is more so the future.