Brad Brownell emphasizes importance of NIL in college basketball success

Clemson Tigers college football head coach Dabo Swinney has made plenty of headlines surrounding his thoughts and opinions on the transfer portal and NIL. Recently, Tigers head basketball coach Brad Brownell shared his thoughts on the use of NIL in college basketball.

“It’s everybody’s toolbox, men’s basketball. And it’s not just men’s basketball; it’s other sports too,” opened Brownell.

NIL has been the subject of much controversy in college sports since athletes won the right to their name, image, and likeness back in 2021. And while many head coaches throughout the college sports landscape have scoffed at NIL, Brownell is not one of them. In fact, when addressing his stance on it, the Clemson head coach made it known that he’s been a part of the ‘fundraising’ bandwagon for quite some time.

“I’m doing a ton of fundraising folks, and I have been for 14 years,” he said. “One of the reasons why we were in the Elite Eight is because of all the fundraising, friendraising, whatever you wanna call it for 14 years; it’s one of the reasons why we have a facility that’s much nicer.

“It’s filling those premium seats; it doesn’t just happen within NIL, it happens with improving your facilities, with donor retention, with getting folks to buy into your program enough that when this was new that our people were involved and engaged to be able to support the guys on our team [and] to be able to be ready for this opportunity when it did show up. We were there to meet it.”

While Brownell took a moment to highlight the importance of fundraising for his program, not just for the players but also for the facility and other needs for Clemson basketball to close; he also gave himself a pat on the back for all of his fundraising efforts.

“You know, I do deserve a lot of credit for that,” he continued. “A lot because it’s been a 14-year journey, and had we had a different coach or new or young coach at the time, it wouldn’t have happened. There would have been no chance.

“That’s obviously been a little bit of a sore spot at times because I think that that’s gone not as noticed as I would like. And obviously, it’s vital in college basketball right now; NIL is a major factor in it.”

Brownell has consistently kept Clemson a serious competitor on the hardwood in the ACC. Last season, the outspoken Tigers coach garnered a ton of attention when scrutinizing the NET — a metric used to decide ranking and strength of schedule in college basketball. However, he did more than back that up as he took down one of the programs he called out, the Baylor Bears in the round of 32 during Clemson’s run to the Elite Eight this year.