#10: Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde ranks the Most Intriguing People in Suits ahead of the 2023 football season and starts with ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, who Forde notes has “his hands full navigating the next year.” Phillips is followed by Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark, Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti, Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff, U.S. Integrity CEO Matt Holt, NCAA President Charlie Baker, ESPN President of Content Burke Magnus and Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks, Florida State AD Michael Alford and several others. Lots more. (link)
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#9: TrojansWire’s Matt Wadleigh writes on the intersection of USC’s & Ohio State’s AD searches, gets this from an insider close to the Trojans’ situation: “Are we seeing a situation in which USC and Ohio State have the same No. 1 choice, especially with [AD Jeremiah] Donati of TCU out of the running? Ohio State is probably the favorite to land [Washington State AD Pat] Chun as its next athletic director, but if USC wants to make a run at Chun, the time is now.” (link)
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#8: Mississippi State taps Arkansas Senior Assoc. AD for Athlete Brand Development and Inclusive Excellence Terry Prentice to take over as Deputy AD/GM of Student-Athlete Brand Services & Business Development. (link)
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#7: North Carolina Women’s Soccer HC Anson Dorrance acknowledges that adding Stanford and Cal to the ACC would be a “wonderful feather in the cap of our commissioner, but for us, with boots on the ground, no. This is going to be horrible for us. Our budgets aren’t extraordinary as it is, and now we would try to add in flights across the country to play these two schools, which will be incredibly expensive and then the fact that now we're exposing the whole country – not that Stanford and Cal don't have a national recruiting platform, of course they do – but if you put those two schools in the ACC, it's going to be so easy for them to recruit nationally. So, it'll just benefit them in my opinion, not us. We've built the best women's soccer conference in the country, and there's no way I want to share the glory of our conference with two schools that could do a very good job recruiting against us, and so basically I want Cal and Stanford to die on the vine. I look forward to seeing Stanford, which is a very difficult school to recruit against, I would look forward to them basically having it be so difficult for them to recruit the elite soccer player and then we would be in a position to obviously gain those kids and put the ACC in an even stronger position.” (link)
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#6: Oregon QB Bo Nix’s Heisman campaign has reached Dallas, where a BO-Dacious billboard graces two buildings for a 3-D effect. Pretty slick. (link) |
#5: Washington Deputy AD/SWA Erin O’Connell will take over as the Huskies’ interim AD. UW President Ana Mari Cauce says a national search for a new AD will launch promptly. (link) |
#4: USC has named Washington AD Jen Cohen as its next AD, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel and other outlets. The Athletic’s Antonio Morales observes: “USC’s athletic department has dealt with several controversies over the past decade-plus so keeping the department out of the news cycles will likely be a point of emphasis. This is Folt’s second AD hire as USC’s president and the second time she has gone out of the Trojan family, so it’s clear she wants an outside perspective.” (link, link)
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#3: INFLCR Founder Jim Cavale and former Penn/NFL linebacker Brandon Copeland have launched Athlete.org, a free membership organization open to all student-athletes that provides on-demand support as they navigate college experience. The platform also serves as a way to discuss the future of college sports. On3’s Pete Nakos explains that student-athletes who join “will have access to ask any question to the app, interact with a pro bono expert and view a registry of AO-verified agents and collectives. While AO is not a union, it does aim to educate athletes on the current issues facing college sports and create chapters based on sports and conferences. Cavale: “There are a lot of things happening in college sports. NIL and the transfer portal are only the beginning of where we are headed. There have been associations for the colleges, coaches and even the athletic directors for a long time. It’s a time where athletes need to finally have their own association.” Cavale also points out that AO is a nonprofit entity and is funded by a group of strategic partners. Cavale declined to identify any partners other than On3. Lots more. (link, link)
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#2: Stanford told Cal, Oregon State and Washington State that it has informed the ACC it would be open to joining the conference at a reduced rate, or potentially no media rights fees for several years, according to the AP’s Ralph Russo. (link)
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#1: Davidson unveils its new logo, which features an interlocked D and C. From the release: “Davidson has expressed its identity in many ways over the years, including school colors that once were pink and blue, and a variety of logos and wildcat images that have spanned the cartoonish to the fierce. Dozens of other colleges and universities also display a D logo, including the red Ds of Davidson, Dayton and Duquesne, just within the Atlantic 10 conference.” The new DC monogram harkens back to logos and architectural engravings used in the 1920s. (link)
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