Devils advocate on the scholarship piece : why not pocket one or two a year to have more NIL to spend on each used slot? I get all the on court benefits of using them all, but if you tighten the belt on the roster and up the pay or each player it might work out in your benefit. Just spit ballin here
I see where you are going with that... however here's the issue with that strategy.....
You never know when an injury will happen.... you never know when a player's eligibility might change (academics or something criminal happens)..... you never know when a player might change his mind & de-commit / walk out on the team.
Look at this year.....
That Jacob Patrick (I think that was the players name?) committed came over.... and in short order quickly got "homesick" and jumped ship & left.... so there's 1 scholly gone unused & one less player on the bench.
You had Okafor get hurt/have surgery in the offseason again.... there's another player not available on the bench.
Sean Bairstow.... gets hurt or had surgery (i dont remember exactly) that kept him out of practice & the first 9 (?) games.... so that's another player not available on the bench.
Then you had Joe B..... ruled ineligible because of multiple transfers early on, had several appeals denied that kept him out the first 10(?) games.... so again.... that's another player not available on the bench.
And while not a scholarship player.... then you had Connor Odom a walk on, who was "on & off" the bench this year at games at different times, dealing with his own life issues (no clue as to what).
Thats 4 scholarship guys, 5 in total that weren't available for at least part, if not a majority of the season.
And how many times during & after the season did someone on these boards say "If only we had Bam and/or Bairstow for a whole season... how things might've been different"
So when you only get 13 scholarship players, and
most walk ons never play except in blowouts (I forgot the one A10 team that a walk on was actually playing a pivotal roll.... Duquesne maybe?) ......
If you hold scholarships from being used to give more NIL to other pieces..... What happens when your key pieces get hurt?
You wanna know what happens? You'll end up like Davidson's WBB team did this year..... and you'll end up having to do one of 2 things....
1. hold midseason walk on tryouts.... and picking up most likely practice squad players from the MBB or WBB teams or kids from Cary St. Gym
OR.... worse
2. You'll have to start forfeiting games because you won't have enough players to safely field a team for a game.
Davidson WBB had to do both this year.... after like 5 or 6 of their players went down with ACL / Knee injuries.
And they started the year 12-1... finished it 18-8 with 3 forfeits (Woulda technically been 4, if the A10 didn't change the tournament bracket back to the old one to avoid giving a team a "free pass" to the next round.)
So as for your idea..... I don't think that's a smart idea.