Normal Times At Memphis - Tyreek Smith Announced He's Transferring Hours Before Their First Game Because Of 'Uncertainty Regarding His NIL Deal'

[Source] - Smith made coach Penny Hardaway aware of his decision to leave the program Saturday morning, citing the uncertainty regarding his NIL package, a source with direct knowledge of Smith's communication with Hardaway told The Commercial Appeal. The source requested anonymity because of the nature of the information.

Hold on, gotta use the Trilly (not Mark Titus. Please do not call him Mark Titus.) tweet real fast here: 

Can we really be surprised that Memphis is the first college basketball team to experience something like this? They are always surrounded by some absurd story or controversy. This time it's Tyreek Smith, who transferred into the program earlier this year, left for a couple days a couple weeks ago and then transferred for good hours before their first game yesterday. Now this is where no one really knows the story:

- Tyreek Smith's agent/mentor hinted at it being over NIL payments

- Reports came out saying Memphis have lived up to the deal so far

- Now it's reported that he's worried about the uncertainty of the deal. 

This is the new era. I don't care about NIL, that's not the problem in college sports. Unlimited free transfers is for sure the bigger problem. Getting paid isn't new, this isn't some sort of 2024 problem. The fact is now it's just way more public even though numbers reported tend to be a lie. We saw it with UNLV's quarterback and now we see it with Tyreek Smith. At least Memphis won yesterday, so they got them going. 

There's no real answer as to how to fix this. This is what the NCAA did to themselves. They waited far too long to implement an NIL package and now it's all craziness. Numbers that we see on Twitter are rarely the real number. Guys are trying to make sure things are in writing vs verbal agreements. All I know is we couldn't go 1 night without NIL talk, so congrats, Memphis.