#10: San Diego State has informed the Mountain West it "intends to resign," even though the Aztecs do not have an invitation to another league at this time, per ESPN's Thamel. The letter filed earlier this week is not the official resignation from the league and asks for a "one-month extension given unforeseen delays involving other collegiate athletic conferences beyond our control," and options for paying the MWC exit fee via a four-year installment plan. Per Thamel, the conference's response informed SDSU they have begun withdrawal processes, with a subsequent letter from SDSU clarifying the request is for a one month extension and for the upcoming ~$6M payment to not be withheld. One source tells Thamel: "They're trying to find out what we're willing to do. They want to see if the Mountain West Conference is going to handle this nicely. Well, that's not going to happen. Everyone wants to find the best financial path for themselves, and it's clunky." (link)
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#9: The Athletic's Auerbach identifies several potential candidates to succeed College Football Playoff boss Hancock, including outgoing Notre Dame AD Swarbrick, Ohio State AD Smith, former Big 12 Commissioner Bowlsby and USF AD Kelly, who previously served as the CFP’s COO. Auerbach adds: “Perhaps the CFP opts to follow recent hiring trends at the Power 5 commissioner level and go outside of college sports for someone with experience in pro sports or as a media executive. Or someone with more of a traditional events or operations background, since the role is heavy on that.” (link)
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#8: Wake Forest Men’s Basketball HC Forbes scheduled a Friday morning press conference to specifically address the situation surrounding former Demon Deacons MBB student-athlete Klintman: “I felt for quite some time the disrespectful behavior by Bobi Klintman’s agent towards me, my staff and Wake Forest University. It is something our fans and college coaches need to be aware of. I’ve discussed this situation with several of my peers in college basketball, agents in the United States and all over the world and with NBA personnel to get their advice regarding what took place with Bobi and his agent. … I was very upfront and honest about the disingenuous facade of this agent signing him to an NIL deal with no intentions of helping him generate any NIL income. Instead his only intention was to control Bobi’s draft decision and shop him to other college coaches. … What my staff and I experienced trying to work with Bobi Klintman’s agent was by far and away the worst experience I have ever been a part of attempting to work with one of my player’s agents. He was deceitful, he was conniving and he was underhanded. His agent did everything in his power to undermine me, my staff and Wake Forest University regarding the future of Bobi Klintman, leading to his decision to not return to college.” Klintman has withdrawn from the draft and will compete in Australia next year. The agent in question is Michael Tellem of Excel Sports Agency. (link)
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#7: Sticking in Starkville, the oft-creative Mississippi State social media team strikes again, this time with the release of the Bulldogs’ 2024 conference football schedule. Using AI, MSU created a video and a graphic of its eight opponents’ mascots, and the results were, as The Athletic’s Vannini puts it, “bizarre.” He explains: “Every animal was bipedal. There was a big orange head for Tennessee, jorts on a Florida Gator and a big thumbs-up for Texas A&M, images that were immediately screenshotted and saved by fans for future meme purposes this fall.” Bulldogs Director of Creative Design Swinney says the first step was to find a base player with pads before submitting some “pretty in-depth” prompts using Adobe’s new AI beta app. From there, the team added some of its own touches. Swinney: “Florida, I did, ‘Orange and blue gator,’ it gave me that, and I was like, what makes Florida a little more Florida? People say stuff about the jean shorts, so I added a pair of jorts on top of it. With Texas A&M, their mascot is a human and AI is terrible with humans. So that one actually isn’t AI. I had to find a thumb and make it a person.” On Tennessee’s “big orange,” the Gator with jean shorts and the Texas A&M thumb, Swinney notes: “When I saw those, I knew they’d be big hits. The reaction we got was exactly what we were hoping for.” More on the Bulldogs’ creative process. (link)
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#6: Have a look at a conceptual design for Delaware’s north end zone renovation that was presented to football alumni. HERO Sports FCS’ Steenkamer: “The illustration matches a source’s description of a revamp that would create more flexible fan gathering options as part of enclosing/bowling in the NEZ.” (link)
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#5: Interesting nugget: Alabama AD Byrne during the introduction of Baseball HC Vaughn noted that “academically, athletically, socially, medically across the board, we spend $187K a year per [student-athlete].” (link) |
#4: Looks like East Tennessee State AD Sander has added multi-stop administrator Burton to his team as COO. (link) |
#3: Conference USA unveils its new-look logo and will go by the hyphenless abbreviation CUSA. The league has also adopted the tagline/hashtag #NoLimitsOnUs. (link) |
#2: USC has released renderings of its new football performance center, which will include three levels dedicated to team operations, a rooftop hospitality deck, player lounge and a second full-length practice field. The complex will also feature student-athlete-centric spaces, including a new locker room, multiple player lounges, recovery hub, nutritional support, sports science services, weight room, training room, equipment room, team auditorium, position meeting rooms, recruiting areas, staff offices and flexible space for future growth. (link)
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#1: Arkansas has reportedly named Kansas Senior Assoc. AD for Development White as Executive Director of the Razorback Foundation. (link) |
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