Big backing and even bigger bucks have turned Villanova basketball into a professional team

The lobby of Villanova’s men’s basketball office was busy to the point of near gridlock one afternoon in August, with extra staff deployed there for a specific mission.

The trophies needed some cleaning.

History can get dusty quickly. That Kris Jenkins jumper in Houston that clinched an NCAA championship? That moment that seems like yesterday? Villanova’s current freshmen were fifth graders then.

Who knows if they even watched it?

An era of ‘Nova excellence is now in the history books for other reasons. As the business of college basketball has so radically changed in recent years, Villanova is trying to pull off a neat trick, changing with the times while keeping the culture that won the 2016 and 2018 NCAA titles — and reached the 2022 Final Four.

Just realize this: Villanova’s men’s basketball team operates like a professional outfit now.

A name, image, and likeness collective has been designed to keep up with the modern landscape and compete for titles. According to three sources with direct knowledge of the Villanova collective’s coffers, this season’s total payout to the men’s team is roughly $3 million, with scholarship players receiving at least roughly $75,000 apiece — in addition to those scholarships.

If you’re outraged by the thought of this, you’re longing for a model that no longer exists. Players don’t deserve their cut? Most polls say college sports fans think otherwise. Realize that Villanova’s head coach, Kyle Neptune, still makes more than all of his players combined.

The money is nothing new. Just the players can now in their own way partake in it.”

Take it out further, would all of those dorm rooms have been built along Lancaster Avenue without the basketball success achieved by players of this recent era? Don’t you see people wearing ‘Nova gear now, more than ever?

On the subject of a collective, there was a need to achieve “alignment” to the top of the administration and the board of trustees. That has been achieved, according to one Villanova source involved in those discussions, adding how it helps that this collective effort is a very small percentage of university donations.

Villanova is ahead of the curve in creating a position new to college hoops: general manager. In August, Baker Dunleavy was still moving into his office in the men’s basketball suite. The former Villanova player and assistant coach had left his job as Quinnipiac’s head coach to take this new role. Duke already had this setup. Others are now following, including St. Joseph’s and Georgetown.

As the Villanova trophies were cleaned, Dunleavy sat in the team meeting space and talked about this new landscape he was brought in to oversee.

Dunleavy describes his role as evolving, and “very macro-thinking, big-picture. Honestly, I think the main value I hope I can provide here is to allow our coaching staff to be specialists and really dive into the relationships with the players, coach the team hard, recruit at a high level — be able to take some of these external things off their plate.”

Even within the Big East, to not have a well-funded collective is to be left behind. Dunleavy compared it to not building a practice facility in the early 2000s. The arms race has changed in the particulars, but “I think players want to know that they’re going to a school that cares, that’s motivated, that’s invested — their alumni base is into it.”

That label, however … a pro team.

“Pro almost sounds jarring,” said Dunleavy, who wouldn’t comment on specific collective funds, although he confirmed he is aware of the numbers from the collective, which must be independent of the university. Villanova’s collective is run by former Wildcat great Randy Foye. Ashley Howard had been co-director, but he has returned to the basketball staff as an assistant coach.

Maybe he doesn’t want to say they’re professionals, but Dunleavy continued his thought: “Amateur five years ago would have sounded silly, with all the money coming into big-time college athletics. There is a lot of money being paid for live television sports. That’s been going on for a long time. The money is nothing new. Just the players can now in their own way partake in it.”

» READ MORE: Baker Dunleavy as Villanova’s basketball ‘general manager’ shows importance of NIL

Coaches at schools with much less in collective resources can be quick to point out that the playing surface has never been less level.

So recruiting is easier when there is a collective? (Note that NCAA rules currently say that schools can’t directly offer deals to recruit or retain players.) Insiders will tell you that the landscape is far more complex now. A school such as Villanova could target a player who seems like a fit, with other top schools also making their pitch. Now, however, another school with a collective can get involved and make a more serious run at a recruit when maybe it wouldn’t have even been a finalist in the pre-collective era.

Imagine way back when Mikal Bridges was being recruited. He could be sold by Villanova that he might redshirt his first season and it would all work out — and it did, for Villanova and for Bridges. But if another school had come in with immediate playing time plus the bonus of a strong collective, who knows if that may have changed the equation.

Or imagine this scenario. Josh Hart, committed to returning after Villanova’s 2016 title, went to then-head coach Jay Wright and said he needed to be a “three and D” player as a senior, to show the NBA he could fill that role. Wright explained later that he told Hart he’d keep doing all the things he was doing and the NBA would take notice. No big role change.

Imagine if there was another factor in play. What if Hart heard through the grapevine that Blueblood State would let him be its “three and D” guy and Blueblood State also had a big-time collective, with the possibility of, say, doubling his money?

Every conversation, in recruiting and retaining, suddenly seems different. At Villanova, they consider retention to be the most important piece, their secret sauce.

Except, it’s all more complex now.

Yes, these are rich-program issues. Still, issues. If the NIL world didn’t exist at all, would Justin Moore still be in college right now or would the Villanova fifth-year player be a pro?

“That’s the toughest question,” said Moore, sitting inside Finneran Pavilion one recent day, explaining that after coming back from his 2022 Achilles surgery, not being at full strength when he did return late last season — “I wanted to finish out the right way, play a full season, get where I want to be. NIL also is an add-on to that. Being compensated at school, to be able to play, I think, is a bonus.”

What if Villanova didn’t have a collective? What are the odds he’d be at a different school? Moore laughed.

“No, I love Villanova,” Moore said. “They’ve been so great over the four years I’ve been here. So it would be hard just to leave.”

But there were strong rumors this offseason that Moore and former high school teammate Hunter Dickinson were interested in playing together.

“Yeah, we tried to get him to come here,” Moore said of the star big man who ultimately transferred from Michigan to Kansas.

But there were other places trying to get both of them, right?

“Nah, I never entered the portal or anything,” Moore said.

» READ MORE: The huge significance of Justin Moore’s return to Villanova

How important was it to Moore that other transfers were coming in, and that Villanova’s 2023-24 roster looks fully stocked? Four transfers eventually signed on: Hakim Hart from Maryland, TJ Bamba from Washington State, Lance Ware from Kentucky, and Tyler Burton from Richmond.

“You want to have a great team,” Moore said. “Being able to go and get great guys who compete at a high level in college, and [if] they can help us, that’s big for me.”

The goal, the Villanova folks all said, was to find the right fit.

“We’ve always recruited a specific way,” Neptune said in a recent telephone interview. “We still try to find people who find value in what Villanova is.”

Not just on campus, but in the gym.

“Real good players want to be coached,” Neptune said. “They don’t want to be left alone.”

Villanova alumni already are grousing these days about not getting top-tier high school players. Is NIL a factor here? It would be naive to deny the obvious. Jalil Bethea from Archbishop Wood recently chose Miami over Villanova. That’s happened before. Lonnie Walker and Isaiah Wong chose the Hurricanes over ‘Nova. Still, it would be naive to think NIL isn’t part of any high-level recruiting now.

Still, Villanova is set up pretty well for this NIL era. Not just by winning titles. Over the years, Wright also would take his players to New York a couple of times a year, to meet with alumni, many of whom now work on Wall Street.

There’s more generational change at work here, one Villanova source said, as donors move on from folks raised on Palestra doubleheaders to boosters raised on the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden.

“In their minds, this has always been big business,” the source said of this generation. “It’s almost like they’ve got part ownership. They’ll never own a pro franchise.”

One group that Villanova goes easy on expecting too much in the way of NIL donations from are the recent ‘Nova stars, some now making big money in the NBA.

“I think early on in a player’s career, when you’re talking about fundraising in general, our players — what we really ask for is their time,” Dunleavy said. “They are really generous in coming back and appearing at events and giving us that time.”

“We have conversations about all the new challenges with NIL because they ask me about it, how it affects team chemistry and how it affects recruiting and obviously a lot of joking about, ‘Wish we had that,’” said Wright, adding the same thought about their time being literally valuable, to the players for sure, but also beyond: “Their presence generates giving from our alumni. Our alumni love that they all stay a part of the culture.”

Over at the Friends of Nova collective, Foye obviously has standing to talk to current NBA players about the current landscape, since he was in their shoes both at Villanova and in the NBA. Foye said his conversations with ex-players are similar to those with other alumni.

“Our guys are always on board with helping out any way they can,” said Foye, noting the $1 million contribution Kyle Lowry gave Villanova in 2018. Of his NIL conversations, “Our guys understand it. This is the direction we have to go.”

Foye added, “I don’t ask anyone for money,” explaining that he presents what they’re doing, then it’s up to the individual to decide.

» READ MORE: Former Villanova star Josh Hart received $81 million extension with Knicks

For those alumni who lament that this new era isn’t their idea of college ball, and some absolutely do, Dunleavy said, “This is the same reaction when we started this one-and-done trend, ‘Oh, the best players are going to leave college, it’s not going to be what it used to be.’ Well, it never is going to be what it used to be. It only can be what it is now.”

Now, alumni might get to the next tee at an athletic department golf outing on the Main Line and find Justin Moore there to shoot the breeze. Does Moore play golf?

“Nah, I don’t,” Moore said.

But this wasn’t heavy lifting, he made clear.

“I think Baker does a great job as our GM, not making us do anything too extreme,” Moore said. “But things that are giving back to the community, like going to high schools … signing events, different ‘Nova events with alumni.”

His overall payment from the collective?

“Nah, I’m not allowed to tell you any of that,” Moore said.

Away from the collective, Moore said he has had a little clothing deal, his own brand, and “some small stuff, like with Wawa … just show up, do different advertisements, post it on Instagram, of me going in there, picking out my sandwich. I had them come and cater for the whole team. I think they were in two or three times.”

“Being able to go and get great guys who compete at a high level in college, and [if] they can help us, that’s big for me.”

He doesn’t get too caught up, Moore said, on things like jersey sales.

“The main thing here is to play basketball,” Moore said.

How will it all play out on the Main Line this season? Neptune and Dunleavy talk about playing the right way and operating the right way. Players just choosing Villanova based on NIL, Dunleavy said, “I think that’s shortchanging Villanova. I think Villanova has way too many things to offer.”

Those donors might, however, be looking for a specific return on investment. That pressure, Neptune and all his predecessors said, was there all along. The new GM gets to feel some heat, too. You can’t simply polish past trophies.

“Obviously, we won’t know if it went well until the season happens,” Dunleavy said. “We have to produce as a program. We have to win as a program.”