#10: What would a news cycle be these days without at least one realignment nugget? This one from JohnCanzano.com’s namesake: “I think the best case for the Pac-2 is a reverse merger with the Mountain West, which already has CBS Sports Network and FOX as partners. This Pac-2 ‘rebuild’ may have semantics play on a lot of levels. Keep the brand. Keep the assets. Keep the Pac-12 Network in some form. The MWC media deal is up in 2026. At that point, you renegotiate.” (link)
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#9: West Georgia (DII) is seeking to reclassify to DI and the Atlantic Sun starting with the 2024-25 season, Extra Points publisher Matt Brown reports. Per Brown, the University System of Georgia Board of Regents is scheduled to meet tomorrow to “review a request from the University of West Georgia to enter into a new agreement regarding its athletic conference affiliation and the expansion of its athletics program offerings.” While UWG will not be immediately eligible for NCAA postseason events, ASUN Commissioner Jeff Bacon tells Brown the Wolves will be immediately eligible for ASUN tournaments, consistent with a league policy established under former Commissioner Ted Gumbart. UWG currently sponsors 14 sports and would need to expand its portfolio as part of the reclassification process, and Brown is told that even if the USG Board of Regents does not allow UWG to reclassify, the school still intends to bring back men’s indoor and outdoor track and may add additional women’s sports. Also from Brown: “Sources familiar with the ASUN’s thinking have told me that the conference does not have immediate plans to expand further, although industry sources outside of the ASUN have told me that the league has had, with varying degrees of formality and seriousness, conversations with multiple other DII programs, including football and non-football playing institutions.” (link)
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#8: Stephen F. Austin unveils renovations to its indoor golf facility. Men’s and Women’s Golf Head Coach Trey Schroeder: “I really built it so they could live in here... At night, in the mornings, rough weather days, i want them to hang out in here... build some family friendships. This is their facility that we've never had during my time here.” Have a look. (link)
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#7: Forbes’ Tim Newcomb takes a look at TendedBar’s debut at Texas’ Darrell K Royal - Texas Memorial Stadium and Texas A&M’s Kyle Field this fall. Each TendedBar location, which can be mobile, is 10 feet long and can hold up to 10 different liquors or wines at 20 liters each, a total of 200 liters of beverage, all mixable on site, and CEO Justin Honeysuckle tells Newcomb: “The NCAA is an untapped market. It is a perfect fit to wheel a mobile machine in and take an area that was unutilized before and transform it with liquor. … Others have tried to dispense cocktails before, but nobody has done it the way we are doing it on the technology side. Using a keg-based system, there’s no changing out of bottles, and Honeysuckle notes that in the event you do have to “restock Tito’s because you went through 20 liters of Tito’s, that is a good problem for one bar to have.” The ability to do in-bar mixing also allows teams to create specialty drinks for events, as Newcomb points out that during a recent Jacksonville Jaguars preseason game, the team created the Teal Lemonade that offered a mix of blue curacao, ginger ale, lemonade and vodka together in a teal-colored lemonade drink.” Additionally, each bar can get wrapped by a sponsor, either physically or digitally. Texas A&M’s debut will include sponsored bars with Twisted Tea, Madam Pelata, Archer Roose Wine and TX Whiskey. (link)
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#6: 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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#5: Tulsa introduces to the world its new mascot: Gus T, the Golden Hurricane. (link) |
#4: Here’s the new ESPN College GameDay intro. (link) |
#3: Kansas State Women’s Volleyball played its first matches in the new Morgan Family Arena, which also includes the Morris Olympic Training Center. Check out the new digs in Manhattan. Pretty dang sharp. (link - scroll to bottom for pictures; link - video)
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#2: Women Leaders in College Sports is evolving to Women Leaders in Sports. Pittsburgh AD/Women Leaders President and Board Chair Heather Lyke: "This is more than a mere name change. It is a brand evolution that reflects the impressive growth and impact our organization continues to have on women leaders beyond the collegiate athletics space. The advancement of women’s sports in terms of participation, investment, and attention is at historic highs. The time is right for our organization to broaden our impact to engage, inspire, and develop women in leadership at all levels of sports and society at large.” (link)
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#1: As a part of a longer piece on the future of the NFL, SBJ’s Ben Fischer catches up with several sources about the following possibility: “The top 50 teams in college football signing a grant of rights to NewCo., a tripartite partnership of Fox, Disney and the NFL. In one fell swoop, the second most popular sport in America is forever divorced from the mishmash of NCAA, conference, government and university oversight that has led to today’s campus crisis. The NFL’s decades of excellence running football operations and big-ticket events could unlock more value, with extraordinary upside revenue potential.” (link)
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