#10: Stanford’s $40.9B investment fund, which includes the Cardinal’s $36B endowment, returned 4.4% during FY23, outpacing the returns from some of the nation’s other wealthiest universities, including Yale (+1.8%), Penn (+1.3%) and Duke (-1%). (link); Looks like some schools have posted returns, obviously including the four aforementioned, but they’ll all come out over the next 7-10 days. If you wanna take a look on Friday, P&I will have what’s been updated here. (link)
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#9: UMass Men’s Basketball HC Frank Martin on close friend & former West Virginia HC Bob Huggins during a convo with the Field of 64 crew: “He hasn’t had a drink since that day. One day he’ll speak about what transpired. It’s more complicated than the story that got out. And it’s sad. But he’s in great spirits. He’s lost weight… He’s in a great place right now.” (link)
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#8: The total attendance for this weekend’s Crossover at Kinnick Iowa women’s basketball exhibition against DePaul was an NCAA women’s hoops record of 55,646, and Hawkeyes HC Lisa Bluder tells The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman: “It reminded you of the Final Four. It brought those memories back where Hawk fans were there. Our band was there. That’s when I got my first of many emotional minutes today at the Hawk Walk.” Overall, the event raised around $250K for UI Stead Children’s Hospital. (link, link); Have a look at the on-field hoops setup. (link, link)
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#7: Ohio State announces it will work with Collegiate Sports Associates on its AD search. A 14-person AD search advisory committee has been formed & will be chaired by SVP for Advancement/OSU Foundation President Michael C. Eicher. Notably part of the committee: Senior Deputy AD & SWA Janine Oman & Women’s Hockey HC Nadine Muzerall, plus high-profile alums & former student-athletes Clark Kellogg & Archie Griffin. (link)
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#6: UCLA announces the “Fours Up” five-year strategic plan designed to lead the Bruins into the Big Ten & beyond. New mission: UCLA Athletics develops champions through academic excellence, competitive greatness and social responsibility. The plan is based on the following four pillars: world-class academic excellence; an innovative career development and NIL program; an exceptional student-athlete health, performance and wellness program; and a people-first culture and community. With that foundation, the Bruins aim to achieve two goals over the course of the plan’s implementation: winning the most combined national and conference championships in the country and every student-athlete graduating or going pro. More. (link)
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#5: “It’s a fairly radical notion, but if we could find a way to reach binding agreements with our student-athletes, most of this goes away. We don’t have a mechanism to [collectively bargain] without them becoming employees. It would require a new mechanism that would recognize the rights of student-athletes to negotiate for the terms and conditions of their participation as athletes without being employees. I think it’s worth considering.” That’s Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick to Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger after this week's NIL hearing on Capitol Hill. Ohio State AD Gene Smith follows up with Dellenger on how the model could work: “We give room, board, tuition, cost of attendance and Alston money. What you’d do is add to the scholarship model an amount of dollars for NIL.” More Swarbrick: “There is no disagreement between us and our student-athletes when we talk to them about these things. That’s the frustration here. All the same things we are talking about here they are concerned about. I’d love to be able to reach an agreement with them and some [entity] say, ‘We’re going to enforce that agreement.’” More. (link)
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#4: Virginia Tech offensive linemen Kaden Moore and Parker Clements wore Scientifically Advanced Force Reduction (SAFR) ProTech football helmet covers in their recent game against Pittsburgh, the first time multiple DI players have done so, SBJ’s Rob Schaefer reports, adding: “A study released by the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab in January showed evidence of reducing concussion risk by as much as 77%. Virginia Tech ordered 110 of the polyurethane foam attachments for the 2023 season earlier this year but had only used them in practices. … Last season, USFL players began wearing SAFR helmet covers during practices. SAFR ProTech has also been approved for game play by the National Federation of State High Schools Association; it is used by programs at the DII, DIII and high school levels.” (link)
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#3: Title IX complaints have been filed against five Michigan universities, including Michigan, Michigan State, Eastern Michigan, Grand Valley State (DII) and Saginaw Valley State (DII) regarding their support for women’s sports. MLive.com’s Matthew Miller notes that Michigan awarded male student-athletes $15.7M in scholarships in the 2021-22 school year while female student-athletes received less than $12M. Additionally, UM spent nearly $3.4M recruiting for men’s sports that year and less than $772K recruiting for women’s sports. (link)
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#2: You’ve never seen an AD wear a jacket like Colorado boss Rick George last Friday night. Coach Prime’s face on the inside & “Prime” embroidered under a popped collar. (link) |
#1: South Alabama Football HC Kane Wommack, who is a Southern Miss alum, took exception to a series of billboards that were placed in Mobile in recent weeks leading up to the Golden Eagles game against the Jaguars Tuesday night. Following the 55-3 Jags’ win, Wommack let the media know how he felt about the messages on the billboards: “Whoever the administrator is that made a decision to put billboards that were disrespectful for the City of Mobile and disrespectful to the University of South Alabama just needs to know that sometimes those things are great in a board meeting, but it’ll get your ass kicked on the playground. So let’s make sure that we do things the right way. And my alma mater, I think, should hold themselves to a different standard than that.” (link)
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