Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim issued an apology Monday morning for remarks he made over the weekend accusing three teams of buying players.
The apology came 36 hours after Boeheim told ESPN that Pitt, Wake Forest and Miami “bought” their teams through Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals.
“I would like to clarify remarks I made in a conversation I had with a media member following our game on Saturday evening,” Boeheim said in a statement. “I apologize to the schools I mentioned. I believe the ACC member institutions are in compliance with NCAA rules governing Name, Image and Likeness (NIL). It was not my intention to imply otherwise.”
Statement from Coach Boeheim pic.twitter.com/MPwig9m6eu
— Syracuse Men’s Basketball (@Cuse_MBB) February 6, 2023
Boeheim made the original comments Saturday night after a win over Boston College while discussing retirement speculation and whether he plans to return next season. He went off on the transfer portal and NIL deals.
“This is an awful place we’re in in college basketball,” the 78-year-old Boeheim told ESPN on Saturday. “Pittsburgh bought a team. OK, fine. My [big donor] talks about it, but he doesn’t give anyone any money. Nothing. Not one guy. Our guys make like $20,000. Wake Forest bought a team. Miami bought a team. … It’s like, ‘Really, this is where we are?’ That’s really where we are, and it’s only going to get worse.
“It’s crazy. That’s why those guys got out — that’s why Jay [Wright] got out, Mike [Krzyzewski] got out. That’s the reason they got out. The transfer portal and everything is nuts.”
Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes told ESPN that Boeheim was “one thousand percent wrong,” adding he didn’t have one player “that got NIL money to come here.”
Pitt coach Jeff Capel had no comment but former Panthers player and current Rutgers assistant coach Brandin Knight took to Twitter to rip Boeheim.
“This sounds like sour grapes. Next time ask [Jim Boeheim] how many teams he bought before NIL was legal. Don’t throw stones in a glass house. Remember you’ve been coaching a lot of years and a lot of us know who got paid,” Knight tweeted.
Boeheim tried to walk back his Pitt and Wake comments to ESPN on Sunday, saying he “absolutely misspoke” about those two schools.
Boeheim’s comments — and apology — followed a similar script to Alabama coach Nick Saban, who called out Miami – as well as Texas A&M – about NIL deals being the wild west in football.
Since becoming the coach at Syracuse in 1976-77, Boeheim has compiled an official record of 1,012-437 with 35 NCAA tournament appearances, including the 2003 national championship.
Boeheim was suspended for nine games in the 2015-16 season and the program lost 12 scholarships in penalties handed down by the NCAA for violations that were committed from 2001-09. Syracuse was forced to vacate wins in which ineligible players were used from the 2004-07 and 2010-12 seasons.
–Field Level Media