It's really odd that programs that should be NIL powerhouses like KU, Kentucky and even Duke are lacking depth. While schools like ISU and BYU have won big games without their star players this year.
KU’s depth excuse is laughable. Fran should be honest by saying--“Bill is kind of limited this year as he doesn’t have his usual allotment of McD All-Americans”
I saw a stat the other day that said the winning % of unranked teams playing top-10 opponents at home is something like 53% this year, where it's normally something like 15-35%. Here's what's going on if you ask me:
Portal+NIL has lead to more parity than ever before. Good players want to play, they can't all get 30 minutes/game and 15 FGAs/game on the same ~20 teams, and if you want a big bag you can get it from basically anyone now, don't have to go to a blue blood and get it underwater. It is not coincidental that a few years into everyone being able to pay their players above-water, suddenly all of KU/UK/Duke/UNC are not so deep and dominant anymore. When you can get that playing time and that $$$ from lots of places in lots of good leagues, the selling point of "Come to KU and be a role-player at best for three years then maybe in your 4th year if you're still here and you beat out a fleet of other five-stars while we recruit over you the whole time, then you can be The Guy, here's a bag from Adidas" isn't as much of a draw.
Along with this, COVID Year has lead to lots of teams having 23-24+ year-old full-grown men playing against teenagers, not just BYU.