Jim Larrañaga reveals 'ridiculous' conversations about NIL led him to retirement

Jim Larrañaga‘s shocking decision Thursday to retire after more than five decades in college basketball might have caught many by surprise.

But it’s a move the 75-year-old now-former Miami Hurricanes coach can trace back to one “ridiculous” conversation he had surrounding name, image and likeness (NIL).

During his retirement press conference Thursday afternoon, Larrañaga repeatedly cited the ever-evolving challenges of building a successful roster in the age of NIL and the transfer portal. But it was one particularly stunning request from an agent representing a player Miami was recruiting that ultimately started the ball rolling toward Larrañaga’s retirement.

“It’s the system now, or the lack of a system. I didn’t know how to navigate through this,” Larrañaga said during Thursday’s press conference. “In order to win, you’ve got to be totally committed. And at this point, after 53 years, I just didn’t feel like I could successfully navigate this whole new world I was dealing with. Because my conversations were ridiculous, with an agent saying to me: ‘Well, you can get involved if you’re willing to go to $1.1 million.’

“Like, what?! A million dollars? And that be the norm. That was the norm! You’re talking to people that are expect a million dollars for playing college basketball,” Larrañaga continued. “And for those guys, God bless them, that can handle that, work through it. The schools that can figure out a way to either put so much money to it or figure out a way to live with less. But I talked to a lot of my friends and they’re having a lot of the same problems I’m having. How long they will last is anyone’s guess.”

Larrañaga is just the latest in a string of aging college basketball and football coaches opting to step away from the game rather then continue to engage in the further professionalization of collegiate athletics. In college basketball alone, Larrañaga follows legends like Virginia‘s Tony Bennett, Syracuse‘s Jim Boeheim, Notre Dame‘s Mike Brey, Duke‘s Mike Krzyzewski, North Carolina‘s Roy Williams, and Villanova‘s Jay Wright to retire in the last several years, many directly pointing to the sport’s changing landscape.

“This was solely his decision and, while I will let Jim share his thoughts about stepping aside, I do know that the past months have worn on him,” Miami AD Dan Radakovich said in the press conference. “Like all of us in intercollegiate athletics, there is so much uncertainty – changing rules, name, image, and likeness demands from agents, unlimited transfers, etcetera. It can go on and on in these changing times. All of which takes so much time, effort, and energy away from actually coaching and it becomes a challenge to create a team atmosphere.”

Jim Larrañaga admits retirement stems from introduction of NIL

Larrañaga leaves Miami after compiling a 448-274 (.612) record over 13 1/2 seasons in Coral Gables, representing the Canes’ winningest and most accomplished coach in school history. That includes three conference titles, six berths in the NCAA Tournament, and the program’s first-ever Final Four appearance in 2022.

But it was in the weeks after that Final Four run that Larrañaga first started questioning his place in the NIL era of college basketball.

“We had talked about it when the kids starting asking for NIL after the Final Four,” Larrañaga recalled Thursday. “I said, ‘This is bizarre.’ Eight guys off a Final Four team and let’s take it one step further, four of the key players on that Final Four run could still be here now, playing. The world has changed. College athletics has changed. And it’s much more complicated and difficult to navigate it.”

In the following season — 2023-24 — the Hurricanes cratered, going 15-17 and missing the NCAA Tournament entirely. But that result, Larrañaga said, actually had him motivated to make this current season go differently. But with a 4-8 start to the campaign in 2024 and the Hurricanes looking listless, Larrañaga came back to an unfortunate consideration.

Andrew Graham and Sam Gillenwater contributed to this report.