I would argue that is 100% false.
Taking Euro league pro soccer for example...
When a player is sold to another team, often times, the selling club gets a "sell-on" clause in the transfer contract (a set amount of money paid back the the selling club if the player is transferred again to a like league team within a specified amount of time - say 3 years.) ... If the player get's sold twice in 3 years, the original club gets a cut.
Why?
Because the club has invested time and $$$ in developing the player that is being sold and it's an accepted business practice that some of that development cost is returned to the club on a player that is moving on to bigger/better.
In this case, do you think Syracuse invested time and money into developing Pena into the player he is today?
Obviously, the answer is yes.
Now you could argue that's just the cost of doing business - ok... but there are precedents in other pro sports to recoup the value of player development.