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The NCAA transfer portal is officially open to men’s and women’s basketball players, and Gophers coaches Dawn Plitzuweit and Niko Medved already are knee deep in the process.
Asked Tuesday whether she has enough financial flexibility to sign the kinds of transfers she hopes to get on campus, Plitzuweit said, “I believe so.”
It was a similar response to the one Medved gave in March when asked the same question: “Let’s hope.”
Part of the issue for Division I coaches is that five full seasons after the NCAA allowed student-athletes to profit off name, image and likeness (NIL), there is no transparency about what players are actually making.
That’s because while there is a cap on revenue schools can divvy up among their athletes — it was $20.5 million in 2025-26 — there is no cap, or even a broad suggestion, on how much official Name, Image and Likeness money athletes can be paid.
And none of the official data is public. Should it be?
Plitzuweit said she’s still holding onto a “Utopian” idea of college athletics, and at heart she doesn’t want those numbers — essentially salaries — to be made public. Being a high profile college athlete is difficult enough, she said.
On the other hand, as coach of a program that just made its first Sweet 16 NCAA tournament appearance in eight years, and has a chance to go back in 2026-27, Plitzuweit longs for transparency that making revenue/NIL payments public would bring.
“What’s challenging now is that in the world of college athletics,“ Plitzuweit said, “there is no transparency of what the numbers are.”
She still believes those numbers shouldn’t be made public, but added, “I’m teetering to the side of understanding the value of making the information public.”
When navigating what to offer a player, coaches rely on agents, player representatives and media reports. According to college basketball site On3.com, Brigham Young’s AJ Dybantsa was the highest paid men’s player last year with an NIL valuation of $4.2 million, followed by Texas Tech’s JT Toppin ($2.7 million). On3 had LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson leading women’s players at $1.5 million.
“The challenging part,” Plitzuweit said, “is you still want your young ladies to have a college experience versus, you know, anything other than that. It’s really challenging, but there are benefits.”
Medved has fewer issues with making players’ pay public.
“I do think transparency benefits everybody, so yes, overall I’m in favor of it,” he said. “But I do think it’s tricky until there is some sort of real cap, or collective bargaining of sorts, with the athletes. That’s tricky to do. And while, yeah, as a whole I think everybody wants it, I think they still have their head in the sand a little bit. There need to be some radical changes made.”
Most NIL compensation is taxable, and under NCAA rules athletes are required to report any deal that earns them more than $600. As for what it all might add up to be, there is no limit. That’s where big-time student-athletes are making most of their money, which gives schools with the biggest NIL collectives an advantage.
As Medved said Tuesday, for programs at the highest level of college athletics, a team’s budget at the highest level “is more than double the revenue sharing.”
The Gophers have made some good additions through the portal, most notably Sophie Hart, a 6-foot-5 post who transferred from N.C. State and became post the starter on all three of Plitzuweit’s Gophers teams. She and backup Finau Tonga, a graduate transfer last season, are out of eligibility.
The Gophers have three starters returning from a team that went 24-9 overall, 13-5 in the Big Ten, and made the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2005. They could be good again, but Plitzuweit acknowledged they need a post.
How good that post is will go a long way toward determining how good the Gophers will be next season. Zoey Bershers, a 6-3 sophomore, is expected to play a larger role next season, but is most likely a backup. A chance to be the starting center on an NCAA tournament team is a good pitch for a transfer, and there are good and/or intriguing posts available.
Six-foot-3 Audi Crooks is in the portal after leading the nation in scoring last season (25.7 ppg.) as a junior at Iowa State, as is 6-2 classmate Addy Brown (11.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists a game).
Tilda Trygger, a 6-6 post who averaged 10.6 points and 7.0 rebounds as a sophomore at N.C. State last season, is an intriguing candidate to develop over two years in Dinkytown, as is Mia Woolfolk, a 6-3 forward from Georgia. Lara Somfai, a 6-3 forward, averaged 10.8 points and 9.1 rebounds at Stanford as a freshman.
Asked if the Gophers would be aiming for big names or hidden gems in the portal, Plitzuweit said, “A combination of both: Young ladies you know have done it, are documented as capable of doing it at this level, then players that the staff watches and identifies.”
“We talk to them and get a feeling about them,” the coach added. “We talk to them, learn what their makeup is, see if they’re coachable. Then we make a decision and maybe identify a player that flew under the radar a little bit.”
A firm grasp on the market would help, but that remains maybe the murkiest part of what has been a murky transition to the NCAA’s pay-for-play model.
Medved believes the system needs immediate alterations.
“I think Tony Batitti, the Big Ten commissioner, said it eloquently when he said, ‘Right now, the universities have leadership that takes three years to make a decision, and we need leadership that takes three months to make a decision.”
“I fear that we’re on a similar path, where people are still relying on Congress, or someone else,” Medved added. “We’re kicking the can down the road on a problem that we really need a lot of smart people to understand. It’s professional sports, but a different kind of professional sports. There’s still is an education piece, and not everybody is a star player.
“We need to be a lot more nimble than we are. We need to act fast and put some committees together to discuss this. It’s like AI, it’s all happening so fast and we don’t really understand it.”
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Asked Tuesday whether she has enough financial flexibility to sign the kinds of transfers she hopes to get on campus, Plitzuweit said, “I believe so.”
It was a similar response to the one Medved gave in March when asked the same question: “Let’s hope.”
Part of the issue for Division I coaches is that five full seasons after the NCAA allowed student-athletes to profit off name, image and likeness (NIL), there is no transparency about what players are actually making.
That’s because while there is a cap on revenue schools can divvy up among their athletes — it was $20.5 million in 2025-26 — there is no cap, or even a broad suggestion, on how much official Name, Image and Likeness money athletes can be paid.
And none of the official data is public. Should it be?
Plitzuweit said she’s still holding onto a “Utopian” idea of college athletics, and at heart she doesn’t want those numbers — essentially salaries — to be made public. Being a high profile college athlete is difficult enough, she said.
On the other hand, as coach of a program that just made its first Sweet 16 NCAA tournament appearance in eight years, and has a chance to go back in 2026-27, Plitzuweit longs for transparency that making revenue/NIL payments public would bring.
“What’s challenging now is that in the world of college athletics,“ Plitzuweit said, “there is no transparency of what the numbers are.”
She still believes those numbers shouldn’t be made public, but added, “I’m teetering to the side of understanding the value of making the information public.”
When navigating what to offer a player, coaches rely on agents, player representatives and media reports. According to college basketball site On3.com, Brigham Young’s AJ Dybantsa was the highest paid men’s player last year with an NIL valuation of $4.2 million, followed by Texas Tech’s JT Toppin ($2.7 million). On3 had LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson leading women’s players at $1.5 million.
“The challenging part,” Plitzuweit said, “is you still want your young ladies to have a college experience versus, you know, anything other than that. It’s really challenging, but there are benefits.”
Medved has fewer issues with making players’ pay public.
“I do think transparency benefits everybody, so yes, overall I’m in favor of it,” he said. “But I do think it’s tricky until there is some sort of real cap, or collective bargaining of sorts, with the athletes. That’s tricky to do. And while, yeah, as a whole I think everybody wants it, I think they still have their head in the sand a little bit. There need to be some radical changes made.”
Most NIL compensation is taxable, and under NCAA rules athletes are required to report any deal that earns them more than $600. As for what it all might add up to be, there is no limit. That’s where big-time student-athletes are making most of their money, which gives schools with the biggest NIL collectives an advantage.
As Medved said Tuesday, for programs at the highest level of college athletics, a team’s budget at the highest level “is more than double the revenue sharing.”
The Gophers have made some good additions through the portal, most notably Sophie Hart, a 6-foot-5 post who transferred from N.C. State and became post the starter on all three of Plitzuweit’s Gophers teams. She and backup Finau Tonga, a graduate transfer last season, are out of eligibility.
The Gophers have three starters returning from a team that went 24-9 overall, 13-5 in the Big Ten, and made the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2005. They could be good again, but Plitzuweit acknowledged they need a post.
How good that post is will go a long way toward determining how good the Gophers will be next season. Zoey Bershers, a 6-3 sophomore, is expected to play a larger role next season, but is most likely a backup. A chance to be the starting center on an NCAA tournament team is a good pitch for a transfer, and there are good and/or intriguing posts available.
Six-foot-3 Audi Crooks is in the portal after leading the nation in scoring last season (25.7 ppg.) as a junior at Iowa State, as is 6-2 classmate Addy Brown (11.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists a game).
Tilda Trygger, a 6-6 post who averaged 10.6 points and 7.0 rebounds as a sophomore at N.C. State last season, is an intriguing candidate to develop over two years in Dinkytown, as is Mia Woolfolk, a 6-3 forward from Georgia. Lara Somfai, a 6-3 forward, averaged 10.8 points and 9.1 rebounds at Stanford as a freshman.
Asked if the Gophers would be aiming for big names or hidden gems in the portal, Plitzuweit said, “A combination of both: Young ladies you know have done it, are documented as capable of doing it at this level, then players that the staff watches and identifies.”
“We talk to them and get a feeling about them,” the coach added. “We talk to them, learn what their makeup is, see if they’re coachable. Then we make a decision and maybe identify a player that flew under the radar a little bit.”
A firm grasp on the market would help, but that remains maybe the murkiest part of what has been a murky transition to the NCAA’s pay-for-play model.
Medved believes the system needs immediate alterations.
“I think Tony Batitti, the Big Ten commissioner, said it eloquently when he said, ‘Right now, the universities have leadership that takes three years to make a decision, and we need leadership that takes three months to make a decision.”
“I fear that we’re on a similar path, where people are still relying on Congress, or someone else,” Medved added. “We’re kicking the can down the road on a problem that we really need a lot of smart people to understand. It’s professional sports, but a different kind of professional sports. There’s still is an education piece, and not everybody is a star player.
“We need to be a lot more nimble than we are. We need to act fast and put some committees together to discuss this. It’s like AI, it’s all happening so fast and we don’t really understand it.”
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