Hunter Dickinson ballparks amount of NIL money made at Michigan last year
Former Michigan Wolverines basketball center Hunter Dickinson, a two-time first-team All-Big Ten selection and 2021 second-team All-American, became the most decorated player to ever enter the NCAA transfer portal March 31. After a month and three days, which included visits to five schools, Dickinson announced a public commitment to Kansas.
NIL rules being passed in the summer of 2021 played a part in Dickinson returning to Michigan for the 2022 and 2023 seasons, he’s said, and it surely had an impact on his decision to transfer to Kansas, which has long paid players illegally, per FBI wiretaps and NCAA allegations, and is seen as highly competitive with NIL.
“Kansas allegedly drew up a contract for a two-year deal,” On3’s Pete Nakos wrote.
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On his podcast, Roundball, Dickinson alluded to the fact that he’d be paid more at Kansas than he was at Michigan. NIL is meant for college athletes to make money on their own, using their own name, image and likeness, but collectives and schools getting involved have changed the game, regardless of what the rules say.
Fair or not, Dickinson has heard from Michigan fans disappointed in his decision to leave the program after three seasons. However, he said it’s his time to be “selfish” and do what’s best for himself.
“The people hating on me would leave their job right now for a $10,000 increase,” Dickinson said. “At Michigan, I got less than six figures [over the last year].”
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Still, it pained Dickinson to leave Michigan, he said. He was one of the faces of the program for three seasons, especially the last two, and had previously stated his desire to have his jersey hanging in the Crisler Center rafters one day. This choice likely eliminates any chance of that happening, though as time passes Wolverines fans will likely look back at Dickinson’s time in Ann Arbor fondly.
“I won’t say anything bad about the basketball program and stuff like that, because I still do love Michigan,” Dickinson said. “I still love the school and everything, love the program. That’s why it was so hard to leave, because I really didn’t want to leave. I didn’t. But I just felt like, man, it was the best decision for me, and it took a lot of courage.
“I feel like people don’t realize how much courage it took for a guy who was there for three years, was an All-American for the team … I did have a legacy there, and I basically gave that up to try to be selfish and do what’s best for me and my career, not what’s best for anybody else’s career.”
Dickinson joins a Kansas program that won the national championship in 2022 and was a No. 1 seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. The Jayhawks were upset by No. 8 seed Arkansas in the second round.
