How the NCAA settlement affects Ohio State basketball

The Ohio State basketball program is stepping into a new era this year. It’s now Jake Diebler’s time to take over the program and see what he can do. Chris Holtmann is gone and is now coaching DePaul. Diebler has already remade the roster in a significant way and the roster will be a lot different than it was a year ago.

Those roster changes are only going to get more significant in the next few years. The Buckeyes have to now start paying players directly thanks to the new NCAA settlement. That means players will be negotiating contracts with programs once they commit to play for them. What does that mean for the Buckeyes?

What the NCAA settlement means for the Ohio State basketball program

Now that schools will be paying players directly, things are going to change. It’s going to be a lot harder for the non-blue bloods to get quality players. It’s going to become a bidding war for the best prospects in the country. Both new recruits and transfer players are going to be hard to get once the traditional powers are done deciding on who they want.

Ohio State is not a traditional power in basketball. They have some problems getting elite recruits, although Diebler did get a commitment from a five-star recruit this offseason. That commitment doesn’t mean a whole lot right now though now that these new rules have come into effect. Recruits have a lot more power than they did even just a week ago.

How Diebler is able to navigate this new world is going to be interesting. This is his first season as a head coach. He doesn’t have experience doing much, let alone navigating a world of players negotiating contracts. He’s going to be learning just like everyone else.