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Former Utah State star Great Osobor is transferring to Washington for his final college basketball season thanks to $2 million in NIL deals.
Yes, you read that right. His first name is Great, and he will be making a reported record $2 million in NIL deals.
According to Jonathan Givony, an NBA Draft analyst at ESPN, Osobor, as his agent George Langberg of GSL Sports Group confirmed, will be the highest-paid known player in college basketball.
Osobor, the Mountain West Player of the Year, had also received interest from Kentucky, but ended up following his Utah State head coach, Danny Sprinkle, who will be taking over the Huskies basketball program in 2024 after going 28–7 with the Aggies last season.
Great Osobor averaged 17.7 points and 9.0 rebounds for Utah State last year after transferring from Montana State, where he also played for two seasons under Danny Sprinkle.
Interestingly, earlier this month center Clifford Omoruyi transferred from Rutgers to Alabama after four seasons with the Scarlett Knights.
Omoruyi, who was named to the Big Ten All-Defense team in each of the past two seasons, reportedly turned down a NIL offer of $2 million from an unnamed college to join new Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats.
He also had received interest from Georgetown, North Carolina, and Kansas State.
It is NIL deals like those reportedly offered to Great Osobor and Clifford Omoruyi that has people like Urban Meyer comparing the current system to cheating and has drawn criticism from coaches like Nick Saban, Brian Kelly, Lane Kiffin and Rick Pitino.
With the National Labor Relations Board ruling that Dartmouth College basketball players are employees and the state of Virginia passing a law that permits its colleges and universities to directly pay athletes, major college sports have essentially been turned into professional sports.