Former Ivy League Player of the Year Caden Pierce created a headline this week by announcing he intends to redshirt next season, graduate in May and eventually enter the transfer portal to spend his final year of eligibility playing college basketball somewhere else.
Interesting situation.
Let me walk you through it.
Here’s the math and data that prove why the NCAA Tournament doesn’t need to expand
Matt Norlander
Pierce was raised in the suburbs of Chicago, the son of a couple of Northwestern graduates, each of whom was a Division I athlete. Smart young man. Great family genes. So, unsurprisingly, Pierce flourished in high school, both in the classroom and on the basketball court. He eventually committed to Princeton.
And who could blame him?
But a lot has changed since Pierce enrolled at the Ivy League institution. First off, lucrative NIL deals have become normalized (even if many are starting to be denied under new rules adopted earlier this month). Secondly, revenue sharing is now a reality that allows any Division I school that wants to make direct payments to athletes for the first time in college athletics history.
Are you a fan of a power-conference school? If so, your favorite football and/or men’s basketball player likely made six or seven figures last season. Are you Caiden Pierce? If so, one of your former teammates, a guard named Xaivian Lee, just secured a deal worth millions of dollars when he agreed to transfer from Princeton and use his final year of eligibility at Florida, a decision partly motivated by the…
..
