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“Outside of Ohio State and maybe Alabama (at least until the next loss), every one of the [college football’s] traditional blue bloods wakes up today in some stage of an existential crisis,” according to Yahoo’s Dan Wolken, who adds: “Meanwhile, Indiana is the nation’s No. 2 team, Georgia Tech is looking increasingly like a favorite to make the CFP and ESPN’s College GameDay is rightfully headed to Missouri at Vanderbilt next weekend. … Welcome to the new era of college football. We’ve known it and we’ve seen it, but as we reach the second half of the 2025 season, the impact of movement through the transfer portal, player compensation and an expanded playoff field have changed the sport in previously inconceivable ways.” Wolken goes on to observe that the “handful of programs that hoarded all the high-end talent can no longer keep players on their roster with the goal of developing them into starters by their third year on campus. Coaches can’t get by just being elite recruiters. The margins have contracted to the point where, everywhere you look, it seems like games are coming down to the fourth quarter and a coaching decision here or one individual play there becomes the separator on a given day. In other words, it’s starting to look a lot like the NFL.” Arizona State AD Graham Rossini favors the new paradigm: “There’s a parity now where new programs can enter the conversation. Let’s empower great leadership and coaches and see what we can do.” (link)

Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua comes out firmly against the formation of a super league, telling The Dan Patrick Show’s eponym: “I think that’s a horrible mistake. College football is not the NFL. We shouldn’t be the NFL. We’re something different. We’re something that’s special. The crowds, the alumni bases, the fact that these are 18- to 21-year olds that change and graduate. There’s a power to that, and I think in trying to replicate the NFL model – where there might be some more revenue there, particularly from a media standpoint – I think we’ll ruin what’s special. We won’t look like the NFL. We’ll look like a small version, a compromised version of the NFL.” Bevacqua also insists that both Notre Dame and USC are “committed to keeping this series alive. We’ve had a lot of positive conversations with USC. They’re continuing literally around the clock. … I’ll be the first to admit it’s great for Notre Dame, it’s great for USC and, maybe most importantly, I think it’s great for college football. This is one of those rivalries that defined college football, defined the sport, the greatest intersectional rivalry that there is.” (link, link)

North Dakota State AD Matt Larsen sat down with AthleticDirectorU’s Tai M. Brown and offered insight into the department’s ability to continuously cultivate alumni, community and corporate supporters, noting that without the presence of professional sports or teams in the state, NDSU serves as a lifeblood for the region. Larsen notes that an important part of establishing and maintaining a culture is “understanding the tradition and history at North Dakota State and making sure we value that. But also how do we grow and evolve and build upon an unbelievable foundation? … At our place, it’s bigger than a coach, it’s bigger than a star player – it really goes to our community and the level of support and really high expectations they have. The expectations are through the roof.” Larsen also points out that NDSU doesn’t get involved in bidding wars for players: “I would put us up against 85% of the institutions at the Division I level. We know that if a student-athlete has an opportunity to go somewhere for a large dollar figure, we’re not going to match that. It’s not good for our locker room, it’s not good for our program. We think we’re going to put something together really well, and if they choose to leave, they choose to leave. The fact that we win a national championship, we have a five-day portal window open and didn’t lose anybody – and there were folks reaching out to our players – says it’s not always about the dollar figure.” More on ADU. (link)

Florida has parted ways with Football HC Billy Napier. UF owes Napier $21M, “which is 85% of the salary owed on his seven-year, $51.8 million contract,” according to ESPN’s Chris Low, who adds: “Napier will receive $10.7M within 30 days and $2.7M every July 15 from 2026-29.” (link, link); ESPN’s Pete Thamel adds that Napier’s deal is not subject to offset or mitigation. (link)

Colorado State has relieved Football HC Jay Norvell of his duties. He is owed a $1.5M buyout that will be subject to offsets, according to Extra Points’ Matt Brown. (link, link)

Tennessee Baseball HC Tony Vitello was at Lindsey Nelson Stadium for the Vols’ practice yesterday, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel’s Mike Wilson, who also reports that Vitello addressed the team following the scrimmage and “openly discussed reports that he is set to be the San Francisco Giants' next manager. He told his players they would hear it from him if he was leaving for another job. Vitello’s current contract includes a $3M buyout. (link)

With the season quickly approaching, basketball continues to lead the way in number of coaching staff updates, but check out the movement across all sports in this morning’s edition of Coaches.wire. (link)

SBJ’s Austin Karp reports TNT Sports will venture into its first season of new deals covering Big East and Big 12 Men’s Basketball by adding recently retired Auburn Men’s Basketball HC Bruce Pearl and former NBA standouts Jalen Rose and Jamal Mashburn to its studio coverage. The trio will also join NCAA March Madness coverage for TNT and CBS, while Pearl will perform studio work for CBS during the regular season. In addition, TNT also plans to bring back Hall of Famer Chris Webber for select games, including the Players Era Tournament during Thanksgiving week. (link) 

The Wall Street Journal’s Rachel Bachman profiles Championship Analytics Inc. (CAI) Founder Michael McRoberts, a Northwestern-trained engineer who once optimized debt collection, and The Game Book, an 87-page binder that prescribes an array of choices by situation for football coaches. The book is customized weekly (63 pages refreshed) for opponent, kicker form, and more, and coaches say following it means attacking. Ole Miss HC Lane Kiffin: “If you really follow it, you’re going to be much more aggressive than the old way of thinking, the one we were all raised around or watched.” McRoberts’ tells Bachman his motivation was simple: “Why isn’t someone giving them that information to at least let them know what that math would recommend?” CAI’s reach is broad – more than 76% of FBS teams subscribe, and one public invoice shows $20K for a season. The book extends beyond game day with postgame audits of fourth-down calls, clock use, and penalties; however, as the book’s popularity grows, some worry the edge it offers is shrinking. To those who reject the product for that or any other reason, McRoberts accepts that coaches still have to own the moment: “Hey, you’re the one that’s got to stand up there at the press conference.” (link)

ESPN College GameDay is headed to Nashville, where Vanderbilt will host Missouri on Saturday. (link); Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff will be a few hours north on I-65, setting up shop in Bloomington, where Indiana will take on UCLA. (link)

Wanna see BYU President Shane Reese crowdsurfing after the Cougars’ win over Utah? Of course you do. (link)

Michigan set a program and state attendance record for volleyball, welcoming 12,707 fans for the weekend’s match against Nebraska. (link) 

Kentucky Lead Producer for Men’s Basketball Davis Kirk shares a look behind the scenes at what goes into the player intros for Big Blue Madness. Come for John Wall, stay for You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive. (link)

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver sat down with Puck’s John Ourand at Puck’s inaugural In the Arena event to discuss the league’s $76B rights deal and how AI will transform the business, noting of the latter: “My hunch is AI is going to change the sports experience. It’s going to happen fairly quickly. We’re going to see as much change in the next few years as you and I have seen—with maybe the exception of high-definition—in our television experience in our adult years. It’s going to be amazingly more engaging, and I think it’s one of the reasons that you’re seeing these valuations. The marketplace is saying there’s nothing like this premium, live content that people can experience. And as a result of AI, people may have more leisure time, too, to engage in these activities.” In discussing the NBA’s overall tech stack, Silver explains it provides optionality to fans. “Let’s just use betting. I think 60% of the United States can place a legal bet on a basketball game. So it means that, number one, if you want to bet—on your phone, you can be following particular fields of information or multiple games at once. It also means if you don’t want anything to do with sports betting, if you have a youngster in your home and you don’t want them to see those fields, it could be password-protected. Click, click, all those fields are gone, and you don’t have to experience any sports betting ads or an announcer commenting on probabilities. If you’re watching Shai Gilgeous-Alexander—he’s known for his taste in fashion—and you see his outfit as he’s walking in the arena, and say, I like that tie, you can get that. Or if you like his shoes, or you want to learn more about him: He’s from Canada, where in Canada is he from? How did he end up in Oklahoma City? Oh, it turns out he was traded from the Clippers. Ways to better understand the players.” (link)

Colorado AD Rick George says “so far, so good” on the revenue share front for Buffs: “I think (the student-athlete response) has been really positive, it really has. I think it’s been positive because we were prepared. We planned really hard for this to come into fruition, so I think it’s gone really well and, again, we’re just three or four months into it.” More: “It’s really challenging, if you think about it, to have a budget that goes from $130M to $150M in one year and it’s mostly on the expense side. When you’ve got an $18-20M number that you’ve got to figure out in one year, it’s challenging, it’s difficult, but we’ve had great support from our president, our chancellor, our regents and we’re going to continue to find ways to fund that moving forward. [...] I think nationally some people interpret rules a little bit different than others and I think we’re going through that first year of that phase. I think a year from now, things will smooth out and it’ll provide some really good guardrails for athletic departments across the country. I think you’ll have a better idea of what fair market value is and what that looks like. A year from now it’ll settle down a lot.” A bit more from the Daily Camera. (link)

Michigan regent & outspoken critic of the proposed $2B+ Big Ten-UC Investments deal Jordan Acker indicates via X that UC Investments could sell its stake in the league to a private equity firm after a 15-year hold provision. Acker notes that 15 years from now would be “6 years before the proposed Grant of Rights expiration.” (link)

Sacramento State President Luke Wood’s football program (4-3, 2-1) hosts unbeaten Montana this coming Friday & Wood provided some bulletin board material for the Grizzlies: “We're looking forward to playing the Montana Pandas. I'm sorry, Montana Grizzlies. I think that's their name, right? They’re certainly a great team. But they haven't played nobody this season. I mean, let's just be real. I like to stir it up. In all fairness, we all appreciate Sacred Heart, but that was their last game and they didn’t do very good against them. So how they going to come here, into our territory, on the Hornet turf and play us on a night that we're going to have some of our biggest turnout ever? I'm looking forward to that game. I feel bad for their fans that have to experience a loss like that on the road. But, you know, we'll see.” (link)

NC State has extended its current deal with Adidas through June 30, 2032. The two sides have been partners since 2012. No financial details disclosed on the new pact. (link)

Florida State Deputy AD/CFO Josh Turner visits with CSA/Connect’s Steph Garcia Cichosz on the latest edition of The Career Hustle to offer his insight and candid advice about the future of the CFO position and the importance of strategic thinking and business acumen for aspiring leaders. On where he thinks the CFO role is headed, Turner remarks: “From my vantage point, if you’re thinking futuristically, you’re thinking about the business of where it’s headed. … My personal opinion is that business acumen is going to be the number one quality of leaders over the next five years in college athletics. That’s finance, that’s accounting, that’s analytics, that’s business savviness, that’s understanding front and backload contracts. … I think that’s why we’re seeing a little bit of this pro sports CEO movement as well. … If you have someone who is an athletics person, who also happens to be good at business and finance, they may have an opportunity to take on additional measures to help move the business forward. That might be rev share, that might be NIL, that might be MMR, something of that nature in that external realm. If you have someone who is more of an accounting, CPA, finance background that happens to work in athletics, that’s a clear delineation between someone who’s an athletics person versus someone who is more a specific skill set who happens to work in the industry. … From my point of view, I think having CFOs at the table, that are strategic, that bring a level of commitment, that bring a level of understanding, that don’t necessarily maybe have that traditional CFO/CPA background, but also bring some strategy and forecasting with it. I see that being kind of the superlative CFO role of the future and potentially stepping into those AD roles at some point.” More from Turner. (link)    

“From my perspective, we’re going to do anything and everything it takes to keep Rick Pitino here. Whatever it takes, you have my word, we’re keeping Rick Pitino here. We are committed to Rick Pitino ending his career here. At the end of the day, it’s his terms, his timeline, but we are fully committed that this is his last stop.” That’s St. John’s AD Ed Kull on his intentions to keep Men’s Basketball HC Rick Pitino with the Red Storm. Pitino is entering his third year of a six-year contract, which is paying him roughly $20M in total. (link)

North Carolina has urged a state court to deny an ex-Provost’s request to expedite discovery in an open meetings lawsuit that implicated the hiring of UNC Football HC Bill Belichick, panning the request as a mere “fishing expedition.” More behind the Law360 paywall. (link)

People & Places…

➤ ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports: “The decision on whether Tennessee coach Tony Vitello will be the next manager of the San Francisco Giants is expected to come in the next 24 to 72 hours. … Should a deal between Vitello and the Giants come together, he would be the first manager in MLB history hired directly from the college ranks with no professional baseball experience. The buyout on Vitello’s contract at Tennessee is $3 million, according to sources.” (link)

➤ Tonia Jones, Global VP & GM of Jordan Brand - Women, announces her retirement from Nike after 36 years at the Swoosh. (link) 

We offer our deepest condolences to the friends, family and colleagues of Terry Wymer, Coordinator of Officials for the Big Ten and Mountain West, who passed away yesterday at the age of 66. Wymer officiated 21 straight tournaments, five Final Fours, and three national title games in his career. (link)

Georgia drew 8,719 fans for its volleyball showdown with Alabama, a new program and state NCAA attendance record. (link)

Another outside investment possibility for a notable sports brand as Real Madrid is considering accepting outside capital for the first time in club history. The 15x Champions League-winning side has been owned by their club members (socios) since being founded in 1902 and any adjustments to that model would require them to approve it in a vote. Only three other clubs have the same structure in Spanish football – Athletic Club, Osasuna and Barcelona. Real Madrid President Florentino Pérez plans to bring detailed proposals to the 2025 general assembly, with options on the table that include splitting the football and business arms so socios legally retain club ownership as investors take stakes in commercial operations. Club leadership is adamant that football decisions will remain board-controlled and ultimately answerable to socios. The team also promises that any new capital would fund team competitiveness and Bernabéu redevelopment – not enrich insiders. (link)

TCG, an investment firm focused on sports and emerging media, has decided not to raise a new fund and will instead transition to a holding company structure with permanent capital, Axios’ Dan Primack reports, adding: “This reflects how media is rearchitecting around creators and new conglomerates, with TCG believing that traditional GP/LP funds can be too restrictive on deal sizes, structures, frequency, and hold times. It's also a return to the Los Angeles-based firm's structural roots, when it still was known as The Chernin Group and did such deals as Barstool Sports, Hello Sunshine, Action Network, and Scopely. … The bottom line: TCG still has dry powder for a couple investments in the $2B fund it closed in 2022, and will continue to manage its existing portfolio.” (link)

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Assistant Director of Community Engagement and Physical Education (University of California – Santa Cruz / Santa Cruz, CA): (DIII) More details HERE. 

 

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Director, Athletics Communications (Florida Gulf Coast University / Fort Myers, FL): More details HERE.

 

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