NCAA Tournament Coaches Weigh-In On Transfer Portal, NIL Impact Ahead Of Sweet 16

One of the biggest talking points following the first weekend of the 2025 Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament surrounds all remaining teams hailing from Power 5 Conferences.

The entire Sweet 16 comprises four conferences: the SEC (seven teams), Big Ten (four), Big 12 (four), and ACC (Duke). That's led many people to ask: is the transfer portal and NIL killing the opportunity for "Cinderella teams" to make runs in the NCAA Tournament? 

That was a major topic of conversation in Newark when the four coaches remaining in the East region – Duke's Jon Scheyer, Arizona's Tommy Lloyd, Alabama's Nate Oats and BYU's Kevin Young – addressed the media ahead of their Thursday night Sweet 16 matchups. 

Duke head coach Jon Scheyer and Alabama head coach Nate Oats are preparing their teams for the East Region Sweet 16 with a trip to the Final Four in the 2025 NCAA Tournament on the line.

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Oats, who previously coached at Buffalo (from 2015-19), talked about the difficulty for a mid-major team – like his former school, a member of the MAC – to keep talented players on their rosters, with Power 5 schools having the ability to offer more opportunities through NIL. 

"There's still obviously room for upsets… But I did see somebody make the point [that] anybody that gets really good at mid-major level… there's just a lot more [revenue] share, NIL money up at the higher levels," Oats said. 

"I don't know that I would have been able to keep my whole team together at Buffalo in today's day and age… Those mid-major schools, they're going to have to do a really good job of evaluating talent coming out of high school. Then you're just going to have to do it with some younger guys, I think." 

Jon Scheyer didn't address the difficulties that the smaller schools face, but he did talk about the struggles for coaches at big schools to coach new players almost every year, rather than having as many kids come in as freshmen and stay their entire careers. 

"I think the fact that since transfer portal is entered where you can leave at any time without any penalty, you have to deal with a new group almost every year. And I think that's the biggest challenge where you feel like you can skip steps when you really can't. You have to start from ground zero every summer," Scheyer said. 

Tommy Lloyd is very familiar with the transfer portal. The entire Arizona starting lineup began their careers at other schools, one of three teams remaining in the NCAA Tournament for which that's the case.

Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd has his team ready to go for a Sweet 16 matchup against #1 Duke in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

(Zachary BonDurant/Imagn Images)

However, Lloyd attributed the all-Power 5 Sweet 16 to a one-off and said it doesn't necessarily reflect the future of college basketball. 

"The tournament, it feels like it's just kind of a little bit different every year. One year, there's three or four teams from maybe non-power conferences that break through, and then this year there doesn't happen to really be any," Lloyd said.

"I don't know if there's enough sample size yet to say this is NIL-driven or just how it broke this year. I don't know why there would be so much difference from last year to this year and I don't know how many teams made it from last year." 

While BYU coach Kevin Young admitted that it's more difficult for the mid-majors to win in the current structure, he shared an optimistic view of their ability to compete for NCAA Tournament championships in the future. 

BYU head coach Kevin Young has his team ready to go for a Sweet 16 matchup against Alabama in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

(Vincent Carchietta/Imagn Images)

"I definitely think it speaks to how hard mid-majors have it because… kids are smart; they see what's out there, and they think that they can better their situation by going in the portal and maybe going to a bigger school that can offer more to them," BYU head coach Kevin Young said. 

"People learn whatever the rules of engagement are, people are going to learn how to play them to their advantage, and I'm sure the mid-majors will figure out how to work around the way things currently are [so] no, I don't think the Cinderella idea is done."