Isaiah Wong issues NIL ultimatum to Miami Hurricanes, plans to transfer if not met
Miami Hurricanes’ star Isaiah Wong issued a NIL ultimatum to his team on Thursday night. The electrifying star wants his NIL compensation increased or he said he plans to hit the transfer portal and possibly go to another school, according to Jonathan Givony and Jeff Borzello of ESPN. His family also stated that Wong will maintain his eligibility in the 2022 NBA Draft and go through the draft process.
It should be noted that the transfer portal deadline is May 1st if the Hurricanes’ star wants to enter the portal and still maintain his eligibility, per current NCAA guidelines. Another important note to mention is that the state of Florida’s current NIL laws prohibit school employees at Miami from arranging NIL deals for athletes.
Wong has a current NIL deal with LifeWallet. He’s looking for a raise after watching Nijel Pack sign with the ‘Canes. The former Kansas State star recently announced a two-year, $800,000 deal with LifeWallet and that likely caught Wong’s attention. Pack was also given a car in his deal with LifeWallet. The majority of Miami’s NIL deals have been done by John Ruiz, the billionaire lawyer and founder of LifeWallet. He also signed Tyler Van Dyke, the Hurricanes’ promising young quarterback, to a NIL deal in the past few months.
Wong was an integral piece to the Hurricanes remarkable run in the 2022 NCAA Tournament all the way to the Elite Eight. He averaged 15.3 points per game, 4.3 rebounds per game, and 2.0 assists per game last season for Miami and if he were to leave the team, it would be a huge loss.
Not only was the gifted shooting guard a dominant all-around player, but he had one of the best dunks of the 2022 NCAA Tournament, when he posterized Jabari Smith of the Auburn Tigers. A few days ago, Wong officially declared for the 2022 NBA Draft.
For all the latest information and updates on where college basketball prospects are headed this offseason, keep it locked to the 2022 On3 Transfer Portal Wire.
More on the NCAA Transfer Portal
The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.
The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.
Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.
The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.
A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.
The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.