What is fair market value for a recruit like Zion.

Cam was 250, basketball one player means a lot more so I'd say around 400

I upvoted FWIW but where does this dough come from? Coach isn't going to pull it out of his own account... Slush funds from boosters are way too easy to trace... but that's the only place it could come from... whether you're right on the amount or it's $50K...

A million dollars.

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upvoted FWIW but where does this dough come from?

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Lots of places. Shoe companies, agents who want to sign them to represent them in NBA, local greaseballs who want to feel important or curry favor with the coaches, alumni, etc

I can handle a textured piece of leather with great dexterity and skill, give me millions of dollars. Lol such a strange concept, but I would partake if didn't lack the ability.

Great question and one I love to think about. The NCAA is a system that’s popularity is based on the guise of amateurism.

If NCAA basketball went away and Zion would have gone to the AND1, the G-League, or Europe, what would his “fair market value” be? Less or more than what it is at Duke? Less. Why? Because the idea of a “fair” market value implies that one system demanding less money for him isn’t being fair and implying his fair market value is only the highest bidder in a hypothetical system that ignores reality. Instead, eliminate the term fair. What is his market value?

His market value isn’t based solely on his inherent athletic ability, basketball IQ, and coach-ability. His market value is based on the value he can contribute to his industry. His industry is entertainment. If he can get butts in the seat and eyeballs on television, his value goes up, regardless of his ability and skill changed at all.

Yet what does this mean for a college program, that’s only allowed “salary” is a full ride, and everything is under the table? Not all programs are paying players hundreds of thousands cash and getting their mom a brand new house. Some might just be ancillary benefits like a shitty used car or hundred dollar handshakes. The smaller the program, the smaller the benefits.

Everything is on margin.

So what does it all mean? I heard from some of my fellow Aggy friends about DeAndre Jordan who was a freshman when I was a freshman. I heard he got a house and a couple hundred thousand. Ricky Seals-Jones’ dad said in that book the system that LSU offered him like $400,000, but that was football. The added wrinkle for basketball is that the shoe companies have soooo much money involved. Hell, there is a Charles Barkley interview at some charity game about Dirk, and Chuck said he wanted Dirk to go to Auburn and he said he called up Nike to give Dirk anything he wanted. Not the boosters, bagman, or coach... Nike. It’s all on YouTube. It’s an open secret.

I’d say it’s close to a million dollars in value with however they have to do it without making it straight cash. Guaranteed endorsements, insurance policies, cars, clothes, etc.

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Chris Webber got $250K and that was 30 years ago.

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Damn!

I heard his stepdad was shopping him to KU for 100k and housing...must be wrong...or why Duke got him

Any parent star player at kU will get a job with one of the boosters. I’m not sure they actually have to work.

Could’ve been $100k cash. And then the bennies.

Zion turned down $300k from Kansas, so more than $300k

Basketball makes football numbers look chumpish. Wilt Chamberlain got $100k and a new Cadillac to go to Kansas in the mid-50s. That’s be nearly $1 million in modern money. Not saying anyone is paying a one and done croot seven figures, but Zion almost certainly got more than Auburn paid Cam considering they’re both one season mercenaries