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#10: UCLA’s baseball program will be locked out of its stadium on veterans’ land west of the campus pursuant to an order issued by U.S. Federal Court Judge David O. Carter “enjoining UCLA from accessing the Jackie Robinson Stadium and an adjacent practice field until it produces a plan that meets his satisfaction to ensure that service to veterans is the predominant focus of 10-acre facility leased from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs,” the Los Angeles Times’ Doug Smith reports. Carter: “The VA is ordered by noon tomorrow to cordon off and prevent any use of the UCLA baseball stadium and practice field until further notice from the court.” Carter declared the UCLA lease illegal because its focus was not predominantly service to veterans. (link)
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#9: After rumblings of a move to the Pac-12, Memphis, Tulane, USF and UTSA will remain in the AAC, stating: "Together, we are committed to continuing to build the American brand, exploring new opportunities for exposure and value, and developing innovative economic resources–all in service of our student-athletes. While we acknowledge receiving interest in our institutions from other conferences, we firmly believe that it is in our individual and collective best interests to uphold our commitment to each other." Yahoo's Ross Dellenger reports: "The schools — as a group — decided to remain in their current conference, where AAC commissioner Tim Pernetti is exploring avenues for revenue enhancement, including private-equity involvement, new distribution models and further expansion of the league footprint. The four AAC programs received on Monday proposed terms from the Pac-12 that included projected annual revenue numbers ($10-15M), a five-year grant of rights and only partial coverage of an AAC exit fee that is believed to be around $25 million per school." (link, link)
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#8: Kentucky’s Big Blue Madness will be the first ever college basketball event to take place on an ASB GlassFloor surface. ASB GlassFloor Managing Director Christof Babinsky: “Participating in Big Blue Madness signifies a pivotal moment for ASB GlassFloor and underscores our commitment to innovation in collegiate sports. This event is not just a showcase; it’s an opportunity to demonstrate how our sports floors can transform the game for athletes while creating an unparalleled experience for fans. Our partnership here will set a new standard for the future of collegiate sports events.” (link)
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#7: According to the MOU signed by all seven Mountain West members, the league will distribute revenue utilizing the following formulas: Air Force and UNLV will receive 24.5%, Nevada, New Mexico, San José State and Wyoming 11.5%, and Hawaiʻi 5%.” The conference and member institutions have also agreed on a GOR from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2032. (link); UNLV will also receive a lump sum of $10-14M from the Mountain West next year and $1.5-1.8M annually over six years starting in 2026. According to a statement from the school, those payments are in addition to the “current revenue streams from existing contracts and media assets.” Additionally, the Rebels “have the flexibility to explore future membership” in a Power 4 conference “without penalty should the opportunity become available.” (link)
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#6: UNLV running back Michael Allen announces he will also redshirt and enter the transfer portal: “I'm grateful for UNLV & wish them nothing but success. Expectations for opportunities unfortunately were not met & I am excited to continue my football career.” (link)
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#5: Former Colorado Football AC Trevor Reilly talks with Front Office Sports’ Jill Painter Lopez and A.J. Perez about his outreach to Saudi Arabia, where he visited and proposed an investment of $10M from the PIF in CU’s collective. Reilly says the Saudis hope to bring 500M more visitors to the country over the next 10 years and potentially host a college football game there. “I said, ‘Let’s get together a formal proposal.’ This is totally rough. Here is me showing up here and trying to make some s*** happen. And they understood it. They were like, ‘Yeah, let’s go.’” When he returned to Colorado, Reilly says he spoke with some coaches – although not HC Deion Sanders – and athletic department officials about his trip, and that’s when “things got weird.” Reilly: “I didn’t say Deion was going to do this, but I did say that he might be open to a conversation. So that’s something that I told them. I said, before we even go down any road with the collective, you guys need to decide if you want [the] Deion Sanders brand to be involved with that.” The Buffs eventually partnered with Blueprint Sports and Reilly says he became frustrated with the lack of movement on the NIL front. He was further perturbed by CU officials informing him his children, ages 9, 11, and 13, could no longer have access to the facility unless they were supervised the entire time. Reilly ultimately issued CU an ultimatum: show some progress on the NIL deals and allow his children to have the same access they had before or he would leave. Following his resignation, Reilly returned to the CU facility to retrieve some belongings and got into a physical altercation with graduate assistant Jordan Jynes, of which FOS has obtained video. CU says it has addressed the incident internally. More from FOS. (link)
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#4: UNLV starting quarterback Matthew Sluka has decided to use his redshirt year, announcing that he is done playing for the year. Sluka: “I have decided to utilize my redshirt year and will not be playing in any additional games this season. I committed to UNLV based on certain representations that were made to me, which were not upheld after I enrolled. Despite discussions, it became clear that these commitments would not be fulfilled in the future. I wish my teammates the best of luck this season and hope for the continued success of the program.” He is a fifth-year senior and has one year of eligibility remaining. (link)
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#3: Tennessee Football HC Josh Heupel, QB Nico Iamaleava, WR Bru McCoy and former Vol QB/NFL Hall of Famer Peyton Manning – wearing his old UT uniform – escorted country music singer Morgan Wallen to the stage for his second concert at Neyland Stadium. Check out the video. Wallen was accompanied by the Vols’ baseball team at the Saturday show. (link, link)
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#2: U.S. News has released its Best Colleges rankings for 2025. Princeton tops the list nationally and among all schools with DI athletics, followed by Harvard (3), Stanford (4), Yale (5), Duke, Johns Hopkins and Northwestern (6), Penn (10), Cornell (11), Brown and Columbia (13), Dartmouth and UCLA (15), Cal (17), Rice, Notre Dame and Vanderbilt (18), Michigan (21), Georgetown and Virginia (24), North Carolina and USC (27), UC San Diego (29), Florida and Texas (30), Georgia Tech, UC Davis, UC Irvine and Illinois (33), Boston College (37), UC Santa Barbara and Wisconsin (39), Boston University, Ohio State and Rutgers (41), Maryland (44), and Lehigh, Purdue, Georgia, Washington and Wake Forest (46) in the top 50. Full list. (link)
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#1: Utah State will join the Pac-12 as the reconstituted league’s seventh member, according to multiple reports, and Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger notes: “Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez set a 5 p.m. MT Monday deadline for schools to sign a deal as the Pac-12 raced to poach more members. That deadline passed without a signing from UNLV.” The Athletic’s Chris Vannini points out that the addition of Utah State “increases the Pac-12’s poaching fees owed to the Mountain West to $55M, while adding another Mountain West school would raise that again to $67.5M, on top of the about $18M owed by each departing Mountain West school in exit fees. That’s nearly $150M to recreate almost the exact same league they were just in.” Also from Vannini: “There have been some hard feelings between Mountain West schools after the initial four defected two weeks ago, blindsiding the others. One reason the remaining eight hoped to stay together was to stick it to them, either through receiving the tens of millions of dollars in exit fees or to get invited in as a group. But Utah State’s move may torpedo those hopes.” (link, link)
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