Hunter Dickinson shares honest thoughts about NIL and college basketball's future

While Hunter Dickinson’s college basketball career has officially wrapped up, the former Kansas basketball big man is not going away any time soon. After the Jayhawks’ stunning first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Arkansas, Dickinson has stayed busy appearing on CBS Sports and the Field of 68 podcast as a college basketball analyst.

Known for his honesty and loud personality, Dickinson has never shied away from saying exactly what is on his mind. During his time at Michigan and Kansas, Dickinson was believed to be one of the highest NIL earners in the country. And with the transfer portal turning into complete madness over the past few years, Dickinson decided to speak out.

Hunter Dickinson has an interesting proposition for the NCAA

Dickinson has lived through the NIL era. He knows exactly what it looks like behind the scenes, so he gave a perspective that many fans might actually agree with.

Instead of the current system where players can jump from school to school every year, Dickinson believes it is time for real structure. Just take a look at Meechie Johnson, who transferred from Ohio State to South Carolina, back to Ohio State, and again to South Carolina.

“Multi-year contracts, I think it would benefit the mid-majors the most because if you get a guy on a three-year contract for $1.2 [million], paying him $400,000 a year,” Dickinson said via The Field of 68. “And after the first year, he wants to leave to another school and the school wants to commit to him, they’ve got to pay that buyout of $800 [thousand] so that they can bring that back into their collective and use for other people.

“I think that’s the easiest way to try to do that. But until they make any real changes … you see it with coaching,” he continued. “The only reason why I don’t feel bad for mid-major coaching staffs now is look, if they go in there and win their conference – go to the tournament, win three games – they’re going to leave for a job that pays them double, triple what they do. The only reason why they’re mad is because they’re not able to make that jump where their players are.”

“It’s hard to tell a kid who’s making $200 grand at a mid-major, ‘Don’t leave and make $1.5 million,’” Dickinson said. “Because the numbers are freaking nuts. … I’m looking at these big men now who are not even averaging double-digits, and they’re making more than double what I made this year.

“I gave up money. I gave up six figures to help our team get better because obviously, everybody thinks Kansas has all this money. We weren’t even in the Top 15. We probably weren’t even in the Top 25 in spending. But they came off the rumor that we spent $5 million last year, and we were all on the bus like, ‘S***, who got the $5 million?’”

As frustrating as he was to watch, it says a lot about Dickinson's character knowing that he took a "pay cut" to allow Bill Self and Co. to spend money elsewhere. It simply did not work out in 2024-25. Dickinson may be done playing in Lawrence, but he clearly has more to say.