Oakland men's basketball coach Greg Kampe recalls exactly when he realized that mid-majors had become a farm system for power-conference programs. It was when Kampe lost a standout player who grew up minutes from campus, who attended dozens of Oakland games as a kid and who always hoped to play for the Golden Grizzlies just like both his mom and dad once did. Trey Towsend blossomed from unwanted recruit to Horizon League player of the year during his time at Oakland. The 6-foot-6 forward saved his best for the NCAA tournament stage, piling up 47 points and 25 rebounds in two games last March as the 14th-seeded Golden Grizzlies waylaid talent-laden Kentucky and took NC State to overtime. On the eve of that run, Towsend described playing for Oakland as "a dream come true." Two weeks later, he put his name in the transfer portal. The temptation was too strong with no penalty for transferring and with heavyweight programs offering hundreds of thousands in NIL money if he spent his final college season playing for them. "He's making 20 times what I could give him this season," Kampe told Yahoo Sports of Townsend, who has started 29 games this season for Arizona — a Sweet 16 team. "What do you do? You wish him well. Many of these guys are being told you're not going to be in the NBA, so get your money now and you've got a chance to start your life with a little bit of a bankroll. That's a hard thing to argue against. I can't argue against that with my players." Stories like that exemplify why there's concern in college basketball circles that the absence of upsets in this year's NCAA tournament may be the start of a trend rather than just an anomaly. The modern landscape of college basketball has made it more challenging than ever for the likes of Oakland to compete against deep-pocketed power-conference programs.