The co-founders of the Siena-endorsed name, image and likeness collective said they tried for about two months to sign men’s basketball sophomore guard Javian McCollum to an NIL deal that would have kept him a Saint next season.
The efforts of Saints March On appear to have come up short. McCollum announced Friday he is entering the NCAA transfer portal, though he said he is keeping open the option of returning to Loudonville.
“We had really good conversations with Javian and his support team (his family),” said Siena alumnus Frank Ambrose, who started the collective in January with his wife, Sheila, and former Siena baseball player Matt Moberg.
“There was a whole infrastructure we tried to put behind him, but as Sheila would tell me, sometimes it does come down to money,” Frank Ambrose said Saturday in a phone interview. “And in (McCollum’s) case, there were probably some pretty big numbers thrown around that came out of his performance down in the Orlando tournament.”
McCollum, a Fort Myers, Fla., native, had 18 points and eight assists in a win over Florida State and 24 points and eight assists in a loss to Ole Miss over Thanksgiving weekend in the ESPN Events Invitational in Kissimmee, Fla.
Florida State and Ole Miss are among many schools that have already reached out to McCollum, according to a list that he reweeted on Friday.
Frank Ambrose said Saints March On offered an NIL deal that would have paid McCollum “significantly better” than $5,000 to $8,000, which Ambrose said is the average for a mid-major program, according to his research. He said Saints March On also wanted to provide an offseason training program with nutritionists to help the 6-foot-2, 155-pound McCollum get stronger physically for the NBA.
However, McCollum said he believed he could get $65,000 if he hit the open market, according to Ambrose. Ambrose…
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