#10: Barstool will lay off nearly 25% of its employees, The New York Post’s Andrew Marchand and Michael Rosenstein report, noting the layoffs will impact roughly 100 workers. The company added around 300 people after its partnership with Penn Entertainment, and Founder/CEO Dave Portnoy says: “I’ve been very clear. Anybody that’s paid attention, we are going to have layoffs and cuts, and they’ve started and it sucks. … Having said that, we’re in a position it’s a no-brainer. It’s not like I have that moral — well you can’t do it because nobody will have jobs. We’ll all not have jobs. So we have to get back to a break-even thing. We’re losing a lot and it sucks.” (link)
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#9: The ACC has hired former Coastal Carolina Assoc. AD for Communications Kevin Davis as its new Senior Assoc. Commissioner for Strategic Communications. (link) |
#8: West Virginia faculty members will hold a vote of no confidence in President Gordon Gee next week in response to significant cuts that have been proposed across the enterprise. The no-confidence proposal reads, in part: “President E. Gordon Gee has mismanaged the university’s finances – while also refusing to accept responsibility for the current financial situation of the university.” (link)
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#7: The ACC opened its new HQ in Charlotte by raising the flags of all 15 members. Commissioner Jim Phillips: “It is a historical day for the ACC as we are welcomed to the Queen City. This has been a journey over the last 18 months, and we are thrilled to be joining the Charlotte community. We are honored and proud to call Charlotte the home of the ACC.” (link - release, link - photos)
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#6: St. Joe’s unveils a new look for its famous Hawk mascot following the 20-year run of the previous style. The Hawk Will Never Die! (link) |
#5: Texas AD Chris Del Conte believes the educational component continues to be lost in the conversation regarding NIL and tells 105.3 The Fan: “We're talking about a $1T student debt and they're saying we’re going to forgive that student debt. I'm like wait a minute, I chose to take that loan out to get that education. Why should it be forgiven? What’s getting lost is that in intercollegiate athletics the majority of our student-athletes graduate college with no debt. It’s the largest free education program in the country outside of the GI Bill. We provide opportunities for every student across all walks of life to get a free education while performing athletics, and only 2% of those go pro…so it just boggles my mind that we forget that, especially in a time and place where we're talking about forgiveness of a debt that I voluntarily chose. I had $53K in student loans. It took me 17 years to pay it off, and I enjoyed paying it off every single month because it knew it changed my life, and I was going to work my tail off to pay that loan off.” More from Del Conte. (link)
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#4: Looks like Ohio State Senior Assoc. AD Carey Hoyt has been promoted to Executive Associate AD, Sport Administration, Student-Athlete Development, NIL. (link) |
#3: College football is on an inexorable march toward two 20-team megaconferences “that are fully weaponized versions of the Big Ten and SEC and are aligned with the highest broadcast bidders,” according to Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde and Richard Johnson, who share their proposal for creating the “Professional Amateur Non-Employee Football League, or PANE-FL for short.” In compiling the 40-team conglomeration, Forde and Johnson describe their methodology as follows: “We ranked our top 50, then averaged them and threw out those that didn’t make the cut. What happens to those cast aside? In the true spirit of college athletics, we don’t care. Fend for yourselves while we’re over here counting our money.” In March Madness terms, Forde and Johnson identify Kentucky, North Carolina, Ole Miss and Arkansas as the Last Four In the field and NC State, Iowa State, Louisville and Cincinnati as the First Four Out. Boise State is the lone Group of 5 inclusion. Full breakdown of the five divisions of four in each league. (link)
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#2: Volleyball Day in Nebraska set a new record attendance for a women’s sporting event with 92,003 fans inside Memorial Stadium. (link); Huskers AD Trev Alberts: "There's a great business case and strategy around women's athletics long-term that maybe college athletics hasn't embraced. And we think here in Nebraska, long before I became the athletic director, we've significantly invested in women's athletics, and you're seeing the result of that by seeing the success of the volleyball program and the fan base surrounding it." (link); Have a look at the atmosphere inside the stadium. Incredible. (link, link)
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#1: The ACC will expand and add Stanford, Cal and SMU for the 2024-25 academic year, per ESPN's Pete Thamel, who adds: "Cal, Stanford and SMU will come at a significant discount, which will help create a revenue pool to be shared among ACC members. SMU is expected to come in for seven years with no broadcast media revenue and both Cal and Stanford were expected to receive 30-percent shares of ACC payouts. That money being withheld is expected to create an annual pot of revenue between $55 and $60 million. Some of the revenue will be divided up proportionally among the 14 full-time members and Notre Dame, while another portion will be put in a pool designated for success initiatives that rewards programs that win." (link)
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