(Editor’s note: The following is the second in a two-part series relating to a recent on-campus panel discussion, featuring Mark Schmidt and Jim Satalin, on the upheaval that has taken place in college basketball. Today: Schmidt’s thoughts on the by-products of the current NCAA climate.)

ST. BONAVENTURE — Mark Schmidt provided a needed voice to a seemingly voiceless argument in the athlete compensation saga.

Division I basketball players, he noted, referencing what he’s heard from “older fans” especially, are given full scholarships. They eat and travel for free. They’re given access to the best coaches, trainers, athletic facilities, medicine and strength and conditioning programs. They’re given all sorts of sneakers, apparel and other free gear. And that’s to say nothing of the alumni network in which they’re admitted, which often connects these guys to quality jobs after their playing careers have ended.

Together, over four years, that likely amounts to over $1 million in compensation.

So, no, despite arguments to the contrary, these players aren’t being taken advantage of to some appalling degree.

Still, if they need to be paid for their obviously critical roles in making the NCAA a multi-billion-dollar industry, that’s understandable. Perhaps not understandable to some, but Mark Schmidt has at least accepted it.

If you don’t adjust, you’re going to die, the St. Bonaventure coach has often noted.

The issue is that three years after NIL legislation first went into effect, and about two years after the rule’s spirit devolved into pay-for-play, it’s predictably the only thing players care about … and, in many cases, to his or a program’s detriment.

“We do these Zooms and I go through the whole (interview),” Schmidt said of the spring recruiting process during a recent panel discussion on the upheaval that has taken place in college athletics, “the academics, the way we play, how you’re gonna fit, all that stuff, and then I open it up to questions at the end.

“And what do you think the first question is? … ‘What am I gonna get paid?’ It’s not about the fit, the academics; it’s about what am I gonna get paid? And if we don’t have the money (alluding to the necessity of having a healthy NIL collective), we’re not gonna be where we need to be.”

GIVEN THE need to find this next, bigger, payday, guys will continue to come and go.

According to The Athletic, more than 1,000 D-I players entered the transfer portal this spring. (In another seemingly under-publicized verity, 43.7% of those who entered the portal have yet to find a new home, meaning they might well have lost their scholarship for next season).

The reality isn’t lost on Schmidt: With most guys, “we’re probably only going to have him for a year or so.” And from this is born an interesting irony: On the heels of graduating one of the most celebrated four-year classes in program history, Bona will likely never have another four-year class again.

“Which is a shame,” Schmidt agreed, “but that’s where we’re headed to.”

“Either they’re gonna leave because they’re not playing enough or they’re gonna leave because they’re playing well and they’re gonna get more money.”

THERE ARE, of course, several unfortunate by-products of the current NCAA climate.

Can you name the last four-year player who both began AND ended his career in a Bona uniform? Shockingly, it’s Amadi Ikpeze, who graduated in 2020.

A couple of weeks ago, St. Bonaventure posted to its social media accounts a photo of Bonnies legend Glenn Price with members of the current team at an alumni reunion function. It was a cool picture, and it was nobody’s fault, but most would have needed an accompanying caption to know who any of the players were. That’s what happens when, for the second time in three years, the roster is almost entirely new.

Still filed away in my closet, all these years later, is an original schedule poster for the 1999-00 Bona basketball team. This squad, co-captained by Tim Winn, Caswell Cyrus and David Capers, will forever be my favorite due to what it accomplished — returning Bona to the Tournament for the first time in 22 years — and when: I was 14 years old and viewed these guys as heroes. There’s a strong chance, however, that if the bulk of this year’s team ends up transferring to, nobody’s keeping that schedule poster 25 years later.

There’s also room for some needed brevity.

“There’s never gonna be 1,000-point scorers anymore,” Schmidt said with a laugh. “I think the guys that are in the record books now, they don’t have to worry about it. Because it’s not gonna happen. We’re not gonna have guys for four years any longer.”

And there’s also this hard truth: It’s difficult to blame a kid for choosing to move on, for looking to get his, when all of this falls within the loosely-defined (read: non-existent) rules of today’s game.

“When these kids leave, it’s not like you’re upset with them,” Schmidt maintained. “When Osun (Osunniyi) left and that whole class (of 2022) … where these kids are from; Osun was offered $400,000. He made $400,000 at Iowa State. How can you tell a kid not to do that? You can’t. Four-hundred thousand dollars may be the most money his family has ever seen.

“So you can’t not have them go. It would be like malpractice if I told them to stay. We can’t be upset at these kids, because they’re just following the rules. You can’t stop them from earning a living.”

THE 18TH-YEAR Bona coach would like to see some parameters put in place, though he doesn’t know what those might be. He’d be in favor of appointing a college basketball “czar,” but only if that person “looked at the best for everybody, and not just what’s best for those top four leagues.” He also thinks there should be a salary cap of, say, $1 million. “At least we’d know what we have and we can disburse the money that way.”

Until any of those things are instituted, he’ll continue to work hard: At putting a quality Atlantic 10 roster on the floor, at continuing to find “Bona guys,” at turning teams from nothing into something, at attempting to maintain his sanity.

What keeps him coming back to the Reilly Center in the face of such drastic changes and daunting challenges. He is, and will always be, a coach. A basketball junkie. A teacher. He’s still someone who does what he loves and loves what he does.

“I enjoy being on the court,” he said. “I don’t enjoy the portal and doing the Zooms; I like practice. I love from 3-6 p.m., that’s the best time of my day. I love coaching, putting teams together. It’s more difficult now, because you’re putting a different team together every single year. Rather than adding two or three pieces to the puzzle, now you’re putting the whole puzzle together every year.

“But I enjoy it. I enjoy being with the young guys. It’s still fun; it’s probably not as fun, because you don’t build the relationships that you built with an Andrew Nicholson or (those four-year guys), but it’s still fun.”