Throughout the offseason, one of the biggest storylines surrounding Syracuse basketball has been the belief that Gerry McNamara has a growing NIL war chest, something Syracuse has lacked in previous years. The Orange are finally turning the wheels of revenue and spending.
But it can’t rank with the top of the ACC elite, right? There was so much ground to make up, right?
During its ACC preseason preview, the Field of 68 crew found itself in unexpected waters—over whether Syracuse has more money than most realize and if the Orange roster actually reflects it.
Jeff Goodman placed Syracuse among the ACC’s financial heavyweights, grouping the Orange with programs he believes are spending between roughly $14-18 million annually on basketball. He put the Orange on the “second tier” behind the top level of Duke, North Carolina, Louisville and Virginia.
Tier 1 ($18M+): Duke, North Carolina, Louisville, Virginia
Tier 2 ($14-18M): NC State, Miami, SMU, Syracuse
Tier 3: Virginia Tech, Cal, Georgia Tech, Clemson, Pitt
Tier 4: Stanford, Notre Dame, Florida State, Wake Forest, Boston College
That immediately caught the attention of his co-hosts.
“My surprise would be that you had Syracuse as a second,” former Wake Forest star Randolph Childress said.
Terrence Oglesby was also surpised.
“Yeah, Syracuse would be mine too,” Oglesby added, saying he’d probably rank the Orange closer to the middle of the conference financially.
If Syracuse indeed has the resources of a top 5-8 in the ACC, that would be a pleasant surprise for many Orange fans. It would mean the new energy of Bryan Blair, Greg Fahey and Gerry McNamara would have immediately paid dividends.
The conversation then turned to Syracuse’s spending in McNamara’s first season.
If the Orange truly possess one of the ACC’s biggest NIL budgets…
Does the roster actually look like it?
Goodman admitted that’s where even he has questions.
“There was a lot of conversation about that,” Goodman said. “That was the big thing about Syracuse was the money.”
He has his doubts.
“Their roster doesn’t scream $10 million.”
Goodman clarified that he still believes Syracuse has substantial financial backing, but expected an even more eye-popping portal haul considering the amount of buzz surrounding the program’s NIL resources this spring.
It’s an interesting debate because both things can be true.
McNamara inherited a roster that needed a complete rebuild. Syracuse landed several highly regarded additions while keeping enough financial flexibility for future portal cycles, and targeting Siena players that G-Mac already was familiar with. At the same time, this wasn’t the type of offseason where the Orange signed multiple household-name transfers commanding seven-figure NIL deals.
That leaves Syracuse in an unusual position nationally.
The belief from Goodman is that the Orange have become one of the ACC’s better-funded programs. That’s the most important part.
The perception is also that the roster still resembles a middle-of-the-pack ACC team. That remains to be seen on the court.
When Goodman projected the conference standings later in the show, he slotted Syracuse around 10th in the league, right in the middle of a tightly packed group that included SMU, Virginia Tech, Clemson, NC State, Cal, Pitt and Florida State.
The questions Field of 68 are interesting ones.
Does Syracuse have more funds than fans realize? And does this roster actually look like a $10+ million basketball team?
