Yea, this tournament has been a bit underwhelming in that regard. Seeing the number of players portal-ing in from other schools has changed the landscape. I mean, making out my bracket I had Duke, Auburn, Florida, and Tennessee (had them beating Houston) so I picked all #1s and it was hard not to.
It takes some of the luster off of the tournament.
I can affirm that there is a lot of money out there. A former player of mine is going from a lower-mid major program to a lower-tier Power 5 school and got $200k. Another stands to make more than double that, on the lower end of offers.
There are elements of the NIL I like, but the Wild West approach (because the NCAA dragged their feet and kept their hands in the sand for so long) has resulted in so many unseen, unfortunate dynamics.