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Wisconsin-River Falls football takes home its first national championship in program history in the Falcons’ first playoff appearance since 1996. HC Matt Walker: “It took 15 years to get here. I had teams that won no games, won one. Everyone stayed committed to this vision. I’m speechless. … I told our team we were going to be unapologetically aggressive. A lot of teams lose to them before the game starts because of the logo on that helmet. I said we might get beat 100-0, but we were going to be aggressive.” (link); En route to the win, Gagliardi Trophy winner Kaleb Blaha broke former LSU (DI)/current Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow’s single-season record for 6,039 total yards. (link)

NCAA President Charlie Baker recently sat down with SI’s Pat Forde at the FCS Championship in Nashville for a wide-ranging Q&A on the myriad issues college sports is confronting. Here are some of Baker’s most notable comments…

➤ On getting everyone to coalesce around the idea of a uniform set of rules and meaningful enforcement: “Well, most people [want rules]. … The mere fact that we got the [House] settlement done, and admittedly that came with some outside pressure, I mean, that was an agreement around a set of rules. No one wants [College Sports Commission CEO] Bryan Seeley and his team to succeed more than I do, but they have a way to go there. And the other thing I would say here is that group dynamic decision making is always more complicated than one individual authority or two. Most of the college presidents, most of the ADs and most of the coaches I talk to say they would like clarity on this stuff. We’re setting up a mechanism to create clarity, and it’s based in many cases on some of the key elements that people said were important to them that should be part of it. And now we’re just going to have to see if people can get there.”

➤ On the potential for the SCORE Act passing: “I thought in August we had it for sure. But we got tied up in a lot of other stuff the second time. The first time, some of that was our own issues. We had unity and then we didn’t, and then we had to go get it back. And I thought a lot of the modifications they made to the bill to get certain people back on board were appropriate, and by then we were part of a much bigger set of trades. … In politics, you never say never because windows open, they close, they open, they close. For all kinds of reasons. I think we’re going to have a lot of work to do when they come back, especially if they don’t land the plane on the Jan. 30 [government funding deadline]. I mean, if we go back into another environment where they’re not in session for any extended period of time, I think it gets a lot harder.” More from Baker. (link)

Lawrence partners with Collegiate Consulting to assist with its AD search. (link)

Objectors to the House settlement approval between the NCAA and former Division I student-athletes represented by the House, Hubbard and Carter antitrust litigations “have raised unpersuasive and unsupported arguments,” per a brief filed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit by the NCAA and power leagues, according to Sportico’s Michael McCann, who notes Association attorneys hope to persuade the Ninth Circuit that it should affirm the House ruling. McCann: “Don’t expect a swift response from the Ninth Circuit, which sometimes takes around two years to decide an appeal. The loser … could also petition the U.S. Supreme Court, which, if it agreed to review, could push the litigation clock back another year or two. The stakes couldn’t be larger in college sports: If the settlement is ultimately rejected, House, Carter and Hubbard would return to the litigation docket and the various new rules governing college sports and athletes’ rights could be removed.” More. (link)  

The American Rivers will move its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments behind the paywall as part of its partnership with Hudl. The A-R-C will charge $10 for a one-game pass or $20 for the whole tournament. (link)

The Athletic’s Alex Valdes profiles the Oberlin football program and chats with AD Natalie Winkelfoos and HC John Pont about the state of the program. With a roster of less than 40 student-athletes this season, Pont on the roster size: “The fit is so much more important than just having the number. I’d rather have the right 38 than 100 kids and 62 of them are not great fits for who we are and what we believe.” Winkelfoos on the program: “It’s a team that fights above their weight class. I think about what defines this team and it’s one word for me — persistence. They don’t just show up, they are working hard. They’re pushing boundaries, not just even programmatically on the field. Oberlin is a high academic institution. The rigor is hard. Everything that they’re doing is hard, but you would never know it because of the amount of joy that they’re showing up with. There’s never any hanging of the heads. I’m so proud of these scars that we’ve gotten to earn this year. Scars can be beautiful, right? Success belongs with the people that persist. That’s Oberlin College football.” (link)

Football Files…
➤ Nebraska Wesleyan names Coe OC Jacob Donohoe as its next Football HC. (link)
➤ Wisconsin-La Crosse Football HC Matt Janus departs for the same role at Northern Michigan (DII). (link)

Coaches.wire…
➤ Ripon names Kenyon Women’s Volleyball HC Madison Schweitzer for the same role leading the Red Hawks. (link)
➤ Coaches.wire is your one-stop-shop to keep up with all of the coaching staff changes, across all sports at the collegiate level. From Division I through NJCAA, we track all the movements and compile them in one email for your convenience. Check out this morning’s edition. (link)

Mississippi University for Women President Nora Miller will retire at the end of the academic year after leading the institution since 2018. (link)

Comcast officially announces the separation of the majority of its cable networks into a separate entity called Versant Media Group, according to The Hollywood Reporter’s Georg Szalai, who notes CEO Mark Lazarus and his staff will “lead the development of an independent strategy,” while also establishing the firm as a potential partner and acquirer of complementary media businesses. Cable channel Bravo, NBC and streaming service Peacock will remain part of Comcast’s entertainment arm NBCUniversal. Lazarus, who has been overseeing most of Comcast entertainment arm NBCUniversal’s TV operations as chairman of the NBCUniversal Media Group, remarks: ‘As a standalone company, we enter the market with the scale, strategy and leadership to grow and evolve our business model.” Szalai: “Media, entertainment and tech giant Comcast said on Monday that ‘Versant will commence regular-way trading today on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol VSNT.’ … The deal was structured as a tax-free spinoff to Comcast shareholders. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and PJT Partners served as financial advisors to Comcast, with Davis Polk & Wardwell serving as legal counsel.” (link)