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Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991. H. Darr Beiser / USA TODAY NETWORK

Would Bob Knight Succeed In Modern College Basketball?

Originally posted on Indiana Hoosiers on SI
By Jack Ankony | Last updated Oct 23, 2025 2:25 PM ET

College basketball has changed drastically since Bob Knight's run of national championships in 1976, 1981 and 1987 with the Indiana Hoosiers.

Immediate eligibility for transfers, coupled with players making money off their name, image and likeness, has essentially created free agency every offseason.

Going into the 2025-26 college basketball season, 11 of 18 Big Ten schools brought in at least eight new players. Kentucky reportedly spent $22 million in NIL money for its roster this season, when just a few years ago that figure was zero –– legally, at least.

Former Indiana basketball player Steve Alford has experienced the changes from era to era firsthand. The two-time consensus All-American point guard helped the Hoosiers win the 1981 national championship under Knight, and he's since been the head coach of Missouri State, Iowa, New Mexico, UCLA and Nevada from 1995-2025.

Alford now enters his seventh season at Nevada, where he reached the NCAA Tournament in 2023 and 2024. In an interview with The Field of 68 during Mountain West Conference media day on Thursday, he was somewhat jokingly introduced as a player who would be a multi-billionaire if NIL existed during his college days.

Alford was also asked an interesting question by Rob Dauster in regard to the changes in college basketball over the years. What would Bob Knight have done if a player in the transfer portal asked him for $1 million to play at Indiana?

"I really think he would have left college basketball to become an NBA coach," Alford told The Field of 68. "Yeah, I don't think he would be –– in this climate, I don't see it working."

I tend to think Knight would have still been an elite coach in modern college basketball from an X's and O's standpoint, but Alford raises an interesting point regarding Knight's desire to deal with everything else.

We've already seen factors like the transfer portal and NIL contribute to the early retirement of national champion coaches Tony Bennett and Jay Wright in recent years, and perhaps Knight would have fallen into that category.

Some coaches just want to coach, but now their job description has expanded. The transfer portal opens during the NCAA Tournament, which requires coaches to worry about the most important games of their season while also scouting potential players for next season's roster.

They also have to worry about whether their school will have enough money to get these new players, and if their current players will leave after the season. All of this adds more time dedicated to recruiting, fundraising, player evaluation and roster building than ever before.

We'll never know exactly how Knight's coaching style would have translated to 2025, but it's an interesting scenario to consider. Perhaps things would be different if transfer rules and NIL came to college basketball earlier, but Knight's three national championship banners certainly aren't going anywhere now.

(To watch the full Field of 68 interview with Steve Alford, CLICK HERE)

This article first appeared on Indiana Hoosiers on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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