Are NCAA schools ‘looting’ players from leagues in France? KU’s Goff offers his take
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- French league president criticizes NIL deals for luring 15 top prospects to U.S.
- KU AD Travis Goff defends college system as offering strong support and structure.
- Analyst Jay Bilas says competition, not regulation, should guide athlete decisions.
Tired of losing elite players to U.S. colleges, Philippe Ausseur, president of France’s National Basketball League (LNB), recently accused schools of “looting” their top young prospects through NIL deals.
He said the list of LNB athletes to sign aid agreements with American schools stands at 15 players for the upcoming 2025-26 season, including Kansas freshman-to-be Paul Mbiya and Mississippi freshman Ilias Kamardine, who is a FIBA U20 Eurobasket MVP.
“Given the number of players approached — 15 have already signed — we can call it ‘looting.’ Colleges are casting a wide net, even in Pro B, and dispossessing us of key players without any way to respond,” Ausseur said as quoted by basketnews.com.
There have been reports of some of the French pro players receiving NIL deals worth up to $2 million.
“We were expecting big contracts worth $350,000,” Ausseur said. “But it’s $2 million. We thought six players would be targeted — it’s more than triple that. We’re seeing agents ask clubs to sign off on paperwork to prove players are still amateurs. It’s unclear, messy, and accelerating,” he added.
Incoming KU freshman Mbiya, a 6-foot-11, 260-pound center from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, who played for ASVEL in France’s Pro A Under 21 league in 2024-25, withdrew a commitment to North Carolina State before ultimately committing to KU on June 25.
Before playing for ASVEL, Mbiya was part of the NBA Academy Africa. He was a Basketball Without Borders All-Star Selection in 2022.
KU athletic director Travis Goff after Monday’s news conference to introduce new Jayhawk rowing coach Andrew Derrick to the media, told The Star he had not seen the French basketball president’s comments.
“I don’t know that I’d see it that way,” Goff said, not agreeing with the notion there’s a raid of sorts occurring for players from the French pro leagues. “I think I’m kind of probably not super well-versed. I know there’s a great pipeline from the African continent to Europe, and it has given young people awesome opportunities to grow in the game, change them generationally. I think that’s amazing. And if that pipeline, in that case, comes from the continent of Africa into the continent of Europe, and then those young people are afforded a chance to earn a degree, who doesn’t love that? Yes sign me up for that every day of the week,” Goff added.
“And I think there are probably going to be cases, I mean there already have been cases where it’s better for those elite players to stay in Europe versus playing the college game and jumping to a different professional opportunity from Europe, versus those that need the development that the college game provides or the support and structure,” Goff noted.
Goff stated that U.S. colleges “provide as good a structure around our student-athletes as anybody, and I’d be willing to wager it’s far greater than any professional operation out there in Europe or otherwise.
“So I get it,” Goff continued, referring to the concern of French officials, “but hey, what’s best for the young people that are playing the game? And I think that answer in a lot of cases becomes college.”
KU’s men’s basketball roster includes Mbiya as well as Flory Bidunga (also from Congo) and Samis Calderon (Brazil). KU’s women’s roster includes Laia Conesa (Spain). KU’s volleyball team has international players in Selena Leban (Slovenia), Jovana Zelenovic (Serbia) and Aurora Papac (Croatia).
“Any elite athlete who wants to add to the student side to it, this is a great place to do it,” Goff said, indicating KU remains receptive to recruiting international student-athletes.
“We’ll see how it all plays out. Most of them are going to get a degree when it’s all said and done, maybe not all of them. Think about basketball. We know that if you get that chance to make that jump to the NBA, you’ve got to do it. But these volleyball kids are going to get a degree from the University of Kansas. They’ll still play professional volleyball. But I’m willing to wager, almost all of them will have a degree, and volleyball is going to dry up (eventually and players will need to earn a living outside that sport), whether it be here or Europe or anywhere in between.”
France’s pro leagues, in the meantime, may need to think of ways to keep their top players. The NCAA schools provide no money to European clubs that developed these players and that doesn’t figure to change.
“We need alignment at the European level — laws are different everywhere — FIBA, ULEB, even the NBA and USA Basketball are in talks. NIL needs a clear legal framework,” Ausseur told basketnews.com.
ESPN.com analyst Jay Bilas, who is an attorney, offered his reaction to France’s concern in a recent interview with Pro Football and Sports Network (PFSN).
“Well, I mean, if an international athlete decides to come to the United States to pursue an education and pursue basketball and get paid at the same time, I don’t see how that’s anybody else’s business but the NCAA’s and the colleges,” Bilas said.
“You wouldn’t hear that in another industry that somehow French workers are coming to the United States for more opportunity as being negative,” he added, citing this situation creates “more competition in the marketplace.”
Bilas’ advice to the French president?
“The answer is to make a better offer to your players, and maybe they’ll stay. I don’t know what else to say with regard to that,” Bilas told PFSN, adding, “the implication is that American colleges should not pay their athletes or not allow pay to their athletes because it may affect players in France. That, to me, is a nonstarter.”
Ausseur is hopeful basketball in France will continue to thrive. Perhaps the most recent phenom to come from France is Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs, who headed to the NBA without a stopover at a U.S. college.
“The ball’s been fired,” Ausseur said. “But I’m optimistic. I sense a general awakening. We’re no longer watching this happen passively.”
This story was originally published July 16, 2025 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Are NCAA schools ‘looting’ players from leagues in France? KU’s Goff offers his take."
