#10: Alabama FB HC Saban last week reportedly revealed during the Alabama Football Coaches Association (ALFCA) Luncheon that "someone with one of the best corners in the nation (in high school) came to me and asked if we’d pay them $800K for the player to sign here. I told him he can find another place to play. I’m not paying a kid a bunch of NIL money before he earns it." Saban also revealed that a current player “wanted $500K and for us to get his girlfriend into law school at Alabama and pay for it. I showed him the door.” (link)
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#9: NCAA VP of Enforcement Duncan sits down with Connect/MB Sports' Banker from the NCAA Convention to discuss pressing enforcement matters across the NCAA including NIL, cooperation from members, sports gambling and more. Duncan offers some best practices as they relate to athletic departments dealing with collectives, telling Banker: "We would always rather present a violation than process one, and so to the extent that we can, we're happy to work with schools, collectives, with some of the third parties involved in this environment, to share our understanding of what we're seeing, the bylaws as we understand them, in an effort to help schools [and] collectives not commit violations. But also to collect information because we know there are violations occurring, we know there are behaviors out there that are inconsistent with NCAA rules, and those relationships not only help us to prevent violations before they occur, but detect ones on other campuses after they occur. So, the other thing we can share with institutions and with collectives is types of behaviors that we would see that could raise an eyebrow in enforcement: "When a collective is announced, here's what we might be looking at. When we hear about collective behaviors, these are things that might cause a question or cause some correspondence with the enforcement staff, and we're always happy to share those things with schools, yet without giving interpretive guidance, which we won't do." More. (link)
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#8: NACDA’s Mid-Winter Meetings were in full swing down in Marco Island as Chief Executive Officer Emeritus Vecchione was honored for his decades-long stewarding of the organization & its commitment to administrators far & wide. Also in pictures: SMU AD Hart, who addressed attendees during the opening reception, LEARFIELD EVP Hamilton, Anthony Travel SVP of Event Services Wurzberger, an N4A contingent, plus more. Check them all out. (link)
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#7: A former NC State men’s soccer student-athlete has become the second former Wolfpack player to file a lawsuit alleging the university created a hostile educational environment and enabled sexual abuse by former Director of Sports Medicine Murphy. Specifically, the suit argues NC State failed to take action after a former soccer coach reported in early 2016 concerns that Murphy was grooming students for sexual contact. (link)
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#6: Get out your readers to see this, but SkullSparks has put together a list of the top 150 college athletic departments ranked by interactions generated on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook from the last four years. USC led the way in 2022 with 7,010,406 total interactions, an increase of 45% YOY. Kansas was second with 5,974,134 but saw the largest jump, improving 523% from 2021. Looks like the leader in 2021 was Texas with 5,488,918 and the Longhorns claimed the top spot in 2020, as well, with 4,942,019 total interactions. The Trojans took the top spot in 2019 with 5,680,652. (link)
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#5: Former Texas MBB HC Beard’s Austin home is on the market for $4.95M. (link)
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#4: Track this week's industry transactions, including moves at the likes of Ohio State, Iowa, Mississippi State, Central Arkansas & Columbia, Taymar Sales U. at LSU, Kentucky, Illinois State, Purdue, Ohio State, Fordham, Kent State, Mississippi State, Georgia Southern, Houston, Bowling Green, SMU and Washington State via The Wire at Collegiate Sports Connect. (link)
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#3: SoCon Commissioner Schaus will retire at the end of the academic year. Schaus: “I came to this decision several months ago but felt this was the right time to announce. I have been very blessed during my career in athletics and have absolutely loved my years as SoCon commissioner. I believe we made many impactful improvements in a variety of areas over the years thanks to a great team of people who made it happen." (link)
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#2: Illinois has changed its orange to a new shade. College Sports Logos notes the hue is identical to that used in the Morgan State, UTRGV and Bucknell logos while the previous color was used exclusively by the Illini. (link)
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#1: North Carolina has named recent student-athlete Matson, the most decorated player in UNC history, as its next Field Hockey HC. Matson is 22 years old. (link) |
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