Saint Francis Red Flash head coach Rob Krimmel. Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

Saint Francis proving NIL isn't actually everything in college sports

By Austen Bundy | Last updated Mar 15, 2025 3:43 PM ET

While it often feels like college athletics are evolving into a minor-league system for professional sports, some glimmers of amateurism's past glory appear from time to time. One of them is currently shining brightest in Loretto, Pennsylvania.

The Saint Francis Red Flash men's basketball team earned an automatic bid to the 2025 NCAA Tournament on Tuesday, knocking off the Northeast Conference's top seed, Central Connecticut State, for its second title all-time.

What's even more surprising is that the team will be just the 27th team in March Madness history to participate with a .500 or worse record (15-17).

No team qualifying under those circumstances has ever won a tournament game, but perhaps the scrappy Red Storm will shock the college basketball world in 2025.

They certainly have the motivation. Head coach Rob Krimmel is a Saint Francis alum and finally got his team to the promised land after coming up short in the NEC championship game in three previous tries (2017, 2019 and 2020).

Enjoy the moment, coach. You deserve it #BELIEVE⚡️ pic.twitter.com/uVIQsrxLsz
— Saint Francis Men’s Basketball (@RedFlashMBB) March 12, 2025

"The thing that's kept me there so long is the people are special," Krimmel told CBS Sports. "I believe the college experience is a four-year experience, but it's about developing people. And that's at the heart of what Saint Francis is."

And develop people he has, with exactly zero dollars in NIL money to help him.

That's right. Per CBS Sports' Matt Norlander, Saint Francis "has an NIL budget of precisely $0." Krimmel doesn't see that as a hindrance, nor something to brag about, either.

"There's a purity to that. I wasn't going to sell my soul just to try to win a game or try to win a championship," he said. "I was going to try to do it the way I thought was the right way. And if it didn't work, I'll give the keys to someone else and they can drive the bus and do it a different way."

Well, Krimmel's bus is chugging along just fine. The Red Flash were 10-17 just a month ago but pulled together to rattle off six consecutive victories at exactly the right time.

"This is the team that has embraced the journey the best," Krimmel said. "Even in our darkest moments, maybe some of our most embarrassing losses, they were able to come in the next day and try to move the needle and just be a little bit better."

Saint Francis is ranked 311th out of 364 teams in the sport, according to KenPom.com.

If there was ever a Cinderella story to follow in all of college sports, this is the one.

Austen Bundy

Austen Bundy is a journalist and sports junkie from the Washington, D. C. area

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