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D1.dossiers... Hawaii is now available, for those interested in the island life. Dossiers for seven other Athletic Director openings are also ready for you. $249 for an entire year of subscription. Stay tuned for the dossier for Southern Utah’s Senior Assoc. AD for Administration opening. (link)

Fresno State AD Tumey agrees to a two-year contract extension. Terms of extension were not immediately available, but a university source tells the Fresno Bee it includes a raise in pay. (link)

New Mexico State has now shut down its MBB program for the rest of the season as university police have released a redacted report detailing allegations of false imprisonment, harassment and criminal sexual contact made against three members of the MBB team. In the report, the victim states that on February 6, 2023, three members of the MBB team allegedly “held him down with him facing down, removed his clothing exposing his buttocks and began to ‘slap his ass.’ He also went on to state that they also touched his scrotum.” The victim also alleges that the inappropriate behavior had been ongoing issues inside the locker room at both the Pan American Center and on road and claims the incidents would usually happen in front of the entire team and that no one ever intervened. Furthermore, the police report also states there could be another member of the team that was subjected to the inappropriate conduct. More from KTSM’s Deaver. (link); CBS’ Norlander reacts to the decision to suspend the season: “Super Bowl is about to engulf everything (timing of this is both logical and not coincidental), but needs to be noted just how shocking/traumatic/inappropriate everything at NMSU's been since Greg Heiar got the job. To pull the plug on a team is extreme—but this had to be done.” (link); WAC Commissioner Thornton: “My heart aches for the young man tied to these hazing allegations. The final decision is in the best interest of our conference as well as providing New Mexico State with an opportunity to heal and determine the future direction of their Men’s Basketball program.” (link)

Unlike the last round of conference realignment, which happened in “fits and starts,” per The Athletic’s Staples, the current round is set to happen mostly at once, as Staples points to all the changes on deck for 2024 & observes: “In less than 19 months, college football will feel like an entirely new sport.” As for what’s still left on the ledger, Staples writes on the Pac-12 & notes that ESPN still needs to fill its 10:30 PM Saturday night slot as well as a Friday night slot for roughly the same time. “But ESPN also would want a handful of premium games to broadcast in its 3:30 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. ET windows. … If the Big 12 wants to put pressure on the Four Corners schools in the Pac-12, it could suggest that a move to that league would allow ESPN to fill that needed time slot, and the revenue from additional inventory probably would be enough to give those schools more than they stand to make from the Pac-12 deal. And if those schools broke away, Oregon and Washington probably would need to find a new home as well.” Lots more on how the landscape will look different in 2024 and beyond. (link)

Texas A&M AD Bjork on Friday remarked during a town hall that "nothing has changed" as it relates to the Aggies’ first SEC matchup with Texas. Sports Illustrated’s Thompson notes that since TAMU joined the SEC, LSU has essentially replaced the Longhorns as the Aggies’ annual Thanksgiving rivalry. Bjork: “The (SEC members) have not decided on the exact football scheduling format, and we anticipate that decision being made this spring. And since we don’t know the exact football scheduling model, it’s too early to analyze the LSU-UT, home-away concept, until we see some models.” (link)

Appalachian State is the newest institutional partner for Collegiate Sports Connect as the Mountaineers will use the talent platform to identify & hire talent for athletics administrative openings in Boone. App State becomes the fourth Sun Belt member to ink with Connect, joining Troy, Georgia Southern & Old Dominion. (link)

Saturday night’s UC Davis-UC Santa Barbara MBB contest was marred by a fight that broke out between the two squads & spilled into the courtside seating, knocking some patrons back in their chairs. The Big West has suspended Aggies AC Metzger-Jones & student-athlete Johnson, along with UCSB student-athlete Kelly for one game each. (link)

Longtime Butler Women’s Volleyball HC Clark announced her retirement last week. Clark led the Bulldogs for 23 seasons, which included seven that concluded with 20-plus wins. Butler will do a full national search for Clark’s successor. (link)

Colorado FB HC Sanders and his family, including Buffs QB Sanders, starred in an Oikos commercial that aired during last night’s Super Bowl. Is this the first student-athlete to participate in a Super Bowl ad in the NIL era? (link)

Meanwhile, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has sent a letter to Colorado Chancellor DiStefano taking issue with Buffs FB HC Sanders “engaging in religious exercises with players and staff members.” From the letter: “It is our understanding that on Dec. 20, a staff member led other staff members in a Christian prayer to start an official meeting. More egregiously, on Jan. 16, Coach Sanders directed a staff member to lead players and coaches in Christian prayer before a team meeting.” CU has since responded to the FFRF, stating that Sanders received training and guidance on boundaries of religious expression and adding that he was “very receptive to this training and came away from it with a better understanding of the University of Colorado’s policies.” (link)

Following this weekend’s Duke-Virginia MBB officiating snafu, The News & Observer’s DeCock posits the “reality is this: ACC officiating isn’t any worse than it is anywhere else, and it’s as good as it is anywhere else in the Power 5.” That said, DeCock maintains the ACC must take steps to “restore order” and suggests “centralizing instant-replay reviews in Greensboro and giving officials access to the public-address system for explanations like the NHL or NBA” along with the following: “The ACC needs to adopt the NCAA’s pool-reporter policy immediately, forcing its officials to explain calls like Saturday’s directly to the public. If the NCAA can designate a member of the United States Basketball Writers Association — full disclosure: I’m currently the president of the USBWA — to speak to the officials and distribute a report when needed at every NCAA tournament game, as it has for years, there’s no reason the ACC can’t do the same.” (link)

On3 CEO Terry from the NIL frontlines: “On3 OS team spent the past few wks traveling, speaking w/ coaches, admins & collectives. Across the board, Collectives/Schools are becoming more efficient and staunch in Value and boundaries. Funding will be lower than the Collectives previously communicated goals. There's no such thing as the term being floated ‘infinite salary cap’ in NIL. Every Collective/School has a pain threshold. We see the majority of the elite programs somewhere in the $4-$6M deployed range next 12 [months].” (link)

NYU Professor/bestselling author Galloway observes that he was wrong about his 2022 prediction that inflation would come down as quickly it accelerated. “It’s going down faster. Our thinking: Inflation is a supply/demand imbalance — too many dollars chasing too few goods — filtered through our expectations of the future. And as we said six months ago, when inflation was a front-page bonfire, these factors would swiftly realign. And they subsequently have. Inflation is in fact receding, for the same basket of reasons it went up — not math, but markets. Specifically, the market of money (interest rates), the market of goods (supply chains), and the market of labor (employment). Plus, an unexpected chaser: the disruptive potential of AI.” Lots more. (link)

Also Noticed…

+ Sports Illustrated’s Forde observed that several players slipped on the playing surface during last night’s Super Bowl. “It's really an issue to have a stadium with recurring turf footing issues regularly in the Super Bowl/College Football Playoff rotation.” (link)

+ Do handwarmers = points? If you’re UNLV MBB student-athlete Harkless they do, as the Runnin’ Rebels guard put up 24 points against San Diego State on Saturday. Check out the newest uniform accessory in this edition of “Awesome or Weird?” (link)

+ U.S. Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY) says a national TikTok ban “should be looked at,” telling ABC’s Stephanopoulos: “We do know there’s Chinese ownership of the company that owns TikTok. And there are some people in the Commerce Committee that are looking into that right now. We’ll see…where they come out.” (link)

In case you missed Sunday's email...

New Mexico State System Chancellor Arvizu on his decision to pause the MBB program: “The most important job I have as Chancellor of the NMSU System is to ensure our students are safe and protected from harm. That's why I was so heartbroken and sickened to hear about these hazing allegations. Hazing is a despicable act. It humiliates and degrades someone and has the potential to cause physical and emotional harm, or even death. Sadly, hazing can become part of an organization's culture, if left unchecked. NMSU policy strictly prohibits hazing, in all forms, and it's something we simply will not tolerate.” The announcement of the program’s suspension came a few hours after MBB student-athletes Lazar (preferred walk-on) and Olewiler (RS Freshman) announced on social media that they were leaving the team. Lazar indicated his departure was because “I don’t think the program that I originally committed to aligns with my beliefs and core values.” The WAC said it is “monitoring” the situation. (link)

Santa Fe New Mexican columnist Webber on the situation in Las Cruces: “In a matter of months, NMSU has become the very definition of a renegade program, its glaring lack of leadership becoming the focal point. Video of Heiar stumbling his way through a conversation with a state police officer the morning of Peake’s shooting hints of a man who is in over his head, one who is either woefully ignorant of his players’ actions or complicit in them. It’s unclear if these latest findings are worthy of a self-imposed death penalty for the rest of the season, but the fact the school was willing to pull the plug and suspend the coaches before the details came out is an indication of how ugly things are about to become.” (link)

Alabama AD Byrne on the future of a new basketball arena as his Crimson Tide MBB program continues to run through the SEC: “I wanted our fans to know that we have not sat still. We continue to work on it. We work on it every single day. We have a fiduciary responsibility where I can’t jeopardize the rest of our department based off of one facility.” (link)

Boise State has landed its 10th gift of $1M+ since December of 2020, another of the anonymous variety that will go toward future capital projects. Broncos AD Dickey: “You are sending a message to current and future student-athletes that Boise State is the right choice. Everything counts. Everything matters.” (link)

It has been two weeks since South Carolina announced its WBB tip with LSU this afternoon was sold out at the 18,600-seat Colonial Life Arena. The secondary market prices are soaring, with one seller on SeatGeek asking more than $4,200 for a front row seat to watch the last two unbeaten teams in WBB square off. The highest price on Stubhub is $1,050. The average ticket is going for $300. (link)

The ACC released a statement about the “incorrect adjudication” on the final play of regulation in the MBB contest between Duke and Virginia yesterday. With 1.2 seconds left in a tied game, Duke student-athlete Proctor inbounded the ball to teammate Filipowski, who drove to the rim and attempted a contested finish over Virginia's Beekman and Dunn as time expired. The officials called a foul, awarding Filipowski two free throws. However, after an official review, they overturned the foul call, saying it came after the buzzer and the game went to overtime, where Virginia pulled away for a 69-62 win. Citing Rule 5, Section 7, Article 3c of the NCAA Rule Book, the league’s statement said: “The play should have resulted in two free throws for Duke.” Blue Devils MBB HC Scheyer: “You can see the ball left his hands before point-zero. So I don't know exactly what the rule is. I'd like to get some clarification, understand. But the call was made, so I don't know how the call can be taken away.” (link)

Ironically, Georgia Tech MBB HC Pastner said ACC Commissioner Phillips sent a notice this past week to the league’s MBB and WBB coaches and administrators telling them not to comment on officiating. When asked about the officiating in his Yellow Jackets one-point loss to Wake Forest yesterday, Pastner’s response was to repeat Phillips’ edict over and over again. (link)

Oregon State will no longer allow fans to leave and reenter Reser Stadium at halftime of FB games, and Beavers Senior Assoc. AD for External Operations Elcano tells The Oregonian’s Daschel the exit policy was changed because Reser Stadium now has enough amenities — including ample concessions and restrooms — to comfortably handle everyone inside the stadium during halftime. “To be honest, this is long overdue. There were conversations for years, and we knew this hung on our ability to get this [$162M stadium renovation] done.” (link)

On3’s Maisel observes that “when the deadline to declare early for the 2023 NFL Draft came in mid-January, 82 players had submitted their names. That’s 18% fewer than the 100 who did so in 2022. That’s nearly 40% fewer than the 135 who did so in 2019.” Maisel points to the cause-and-effect relationship NIL has had by allowing some college stars whose games might not translate to the NFL to stay in college and cites Michigan RB Corum and Wake Forest-to-Notre Dame QB Hartman, among others. In Hartman’s case, Maisel writes: “The draftniks think Hartman would have been a late-round pick had he chosen to move up to the NFL. Instead, Hartman decided to move up to Notre Dame, and that’s ‘move up’ as in the intersection of athletic achievement and public attention, which is the same corner where NIL resides. … And, in NIL terms, it’s Notre Dame, still among the bulliest of American sports pulpits.” Maisel adds: “There may come a time when NIL money outstrips what the NFL pays its top four picks (about $40M last year), but not until Tim Tebow has a son (or daughter) who wins a Heisman.” (link)

Leadership Ledes…

+ Temple Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Jordan has been appointed to the Committee on Infractions. Jordan, who is also the Owls’ FAR, will begin serving immediately, and his term runs through August 31, 2025. (link)

+ Bethune-Cookman AD Theus goes with Embry-Riddle (DII) AC Wollett as the next Women’s Tennis HC in Daytona Beach. (link)

Also Noticed…

+ You won’t see a better buzzer-beater all year as Portland State MBB threw it the length of the court with 0.4 seconds left & hit a contested-fade-away-all-in-one-motion jumper to beat Northern Arizona. (link)

+ An estimated one in five Americans will place a bet on this weekend’s Super Bowl, according to an industry trade group, which predicts wagers on the game could total up to $16B, twice as much as last year. Meanwhile, Eilers & Krejcik Gaming Research, an independent analytics firm in California, estimates that just over $1B of this year's Super Bowl bets will be made legally. Of that, the firm expects 10% to 15% would be wagered live after the game begins while another 15% to 20% would come in the form of same-game parlays. (link)

+ Two sports gambling legalization bills in Missouri – House Bill 556 and HB 581 – include provisions that would allow residents to be a part of a “self-exclusionary” program that would aid in recovery efforts for those who are addicted to gambling. If someone who has “self-excluded” is found to have placed a bet, they would forfeit their winnings to the Compulsive Gamblers Fund. (link)

+ An effort to legalize online sports betting in Hawaii failed in the state legislature, and lawmakers say that was likely the first and last play for legalized gaming this year. (link)