The Purdue Boilermakers are going through a really rough phase at the moment. While they might not have a lot of concerns with their performance, things outside of the court are plaguing them significantly. Now, it is a well-known fact that the NIL has changed the entire landscape of the NCAA. Players can now cash in on their talents and get paid duly by landing big brand endorsements. Now, while such a prospect does sound great, not everything is as rosy as it looks. 

There are a few downsides of NIL too. With the huge amount of money coming in, it is very easy for the players to get clouded by the finances. To them, money often becomes more important than focusing on their athletic growth. Speculations went off that it would be lucrative for Caitlyn Clark to bypass the WNBA for a year to stay at the NCAA. The reason? Well, a huge amount of NIL money! Sadly, the exact same problem has now probably trickled down to affect the Purdue Boilermakers. 

In a shocking update, Eva Hudson and Chloe Chicoine have reportedly registered themselves in the transfer portal. And if that was not enough, their starting middle, Lourdes Myers too, has followed the same path. This was a significant setback for the Boilermakers as the team heavily relied upon these athletes. Them leaving will create a gaping hole in the squad. Interestingly, there are a couple of reasons coming up as the probable cause for them drifting away.

In a recent X update from ‘BoilerMuse’, the lack of NIL opportunities in Purdue might be a key factor. “Hearing rumors it comes down to:1. NIL 2. Lack of championship contention Both very fixable problems… the Athletic Department needs to get it together…” read the post. As a matter of fact, with both Hudson and Chicoine growing in stature, they might have wanted to land some big NIL deals. At the moment, the exposure they were getting at Purdue might not have been enough.

Well, to give a context of how important these players were, Eva Hudson was the Player of the Year for the Midwest Season in the past season. Talking about Chicoine, she too, had a magnificent season for the Boilermakers. Averaging 3.08 kills and 2.95 digs per set, Chicoine became a second-team All-Big Ten selection in 2024. Sadly, all these will be dearly missed as now, Purdue will have to find some really good alternatives. Meanwhile, as per the X report, apart from trying to land a lucrative financial deal, Purdue’s star trio might have got their ambitions a bit high in terms of team performance as well. 

Purdue’s 4th place finish might not have been enough for the star trio

The Purdue Boilermakers had quite a decent season if not an electric one. At the end of the season, they were able to notch up 27 victories and 7 defeats to end up in the 4th position. Their performance in the Big Ten was impressive as well. Taking home 16 wins and 4 losses, things really looked to be turning good for the Boilermakers. After all, this was only the second occasion in Dave Shondell’s 22 years of coaching at Purdue that the team registered 27 victories. Thanks to the help from Hudson and Chicoine, Purdue had a hitting percentage of .280. This was the third-best in the program’s history. 

One of their most remarkable victories came against Loyola Chicago. The Boilermakers made a clean sweep to win 25-20, 25-21, 25-12. What’s more? Hudson and Chicoine’s performance had the Boilermakers register a record attendance too! Back on October 19, the Boilermakers garnered an all-time high Big Ten regular season attendance of 14,876 people! 

Unfortunately, despite all the shining lights, Hudson and Chicoine might have felt that a large chunk of Purdue’s success had to do with them. After all, the team’s previous records do not speak very highly of their NCAA title ambitions. Thus, this might have triggered an urge to switch to a team with better exposure and NIL prospects. All in all, the current situation of the Purdue women’s volleyball program is sad, to say the least. It will now be interesting to see how things pan out in the future.