Big 12 Notes

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Big 12 Notes – Spring/Summer

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August 2nd

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Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell gets a pay raise; sets aside funds for assistants and revenue sharing

From CBS Sports … Three-time Big 12 Coach of the Year Matt Campbell is locked in with Iowa State. The school finalized a contract extension with the winningest coach in program history, keeping him on board through the 2032 season, ESPN’s Max Olson reports. Campbell will make $5 million per year and reportedly agreed to take a discount on his new deal to pave the way for an increased assistant salary pool and to allow Iowa State to set aside an additional $1 million in revenue sharing money.

According to USA Today’s coach salary database, the $5 million figure would have made Campbell the 42nd-highest paid coach in college football last season, tied with ex-North Carolina coach Mack Brown. It is a substantial bump from the $4 million Campbell made last year, which ranked 53rd nationally.

The extension and pay raise is a timely one. It capitalizes on the success Campbell delivered last fall in what was by far the best season in Iowa State history. The 11 wins marked the first time the Cyclones ever cracked the double-digit win mark, they returned to the Big 12 Championship Game for the first time since 2020 and their No. 15 ranking in the final AP Top 25 was their second-highest finish to date.

Campbell has been a reported candidate for numerous jobs throughout his Iowa State career but each time stayed with his program in Ames. Most recently, he drew interest from the Chicago Bears this offseason before the franchise hired Ben Johnson.

… Continue reading story here …

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August 1st

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ESPN: Only two teams have as much as a ten percent chance to make the College Football Playoff

From ESPN …The 12-team College Football Playoff will again include the five highest-ranked conference champions — a guarantee that expands the pool of candidates to include any team that has a shot at winning its conference.

According to the Allstate Playoff Predictor, there are 32 teams — the most in the CFP era — with at least a 10% chance of reaching the playoff. They come from the Power 4 conferences, the American and the Mountain West, but how many of them can actually win the national title?

“Four or five,” Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said.

“I’d say there’s eight,” Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer said.

This list will shrink by November, but below it starts with 32 teams ranked in order of their percentage chance to make the playoff. You’ll also see their chance to win the national title, according to the Allstate Playoff Predictor.

The CFP selection committee doesn’t always agree with the computers, though. Here’s a look at how they will view the 32 teams with at least a 10% chance to make the playoff.

From the Big 12 … 

17. Kansas State Wildcats

Last year: 9-4
ESPN BET odds to win national title: +15000
CFP ranking history: 24 appearances, highest at No. 7

ESPN Analytics
Make playoff: 22.2% | Win national title: .4%

Agree or disagree with ESPN Analytics: Agree. The reality is the Big 12 is once again the most wide-open race in the FBS, but with quarterback Avery Johnson returning for his second season as the starter, expectations are high. According to ESPN’s FPI, K-State has a 19.9% chance to win the Big 12, a slight edge over defending champ Arizona State (13%). It’s not impossible for the Big 12 to get two playoff teams in, but the most likely scenario for the second team is as the league runner-up in a close loss — similar to what happened with SMU last year in the ACC.

Toughest test: Oct. 25 at Kansas. An in-state rival on the road during the heart of the season will have implications on the Big 12 standings and, in turn, the CFP race. ESPN’s FPI gives K-State a 52.1% chance to win. The Wildcats escaped with a two-point win last year.

What the committee will like: A season-opening win against Iowa State in Dublin. The Cyclones are capable of winning the Big 12, and if K-State can knock them off in the season opener, it could help alleviate the blow of a loss in the Big 12 title game if they meet again. K-State would be able to claim a regular-season win against the conference champs. That’s a résumé booster that has helped teams before in the committee meeting room.

What the committee won’t like: No statement wins. If K-State doesn’t beat Iowa State, it might not have a win against a ranked team on its résumé. The Wildcats don’t face Arizona State or BYU during the regular season. Texas Tech could play its way into the top 25 and even make a run at the Big 12 title, and Kansas could as well, but there’s no headliner in the lineup to help separate K-State from another comparable contender.

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24. Arizona State Sun Devils

Last year: 11-3, CFP quarterfinal
ESPN BET odds to win national title: +15000
CFP ranking history: 10 appearances, highest at No. 6

ESPN Analytics
Make playoff: 16.1% | Win national title: .2%

Agree or disagree with ESPN Analytics: Disagree. Where’s the computer love for the defending Big 12 champs?! The Sun Devils return 79% of last year’s production, according to ESPN’s Bill Connelly. This is a team that should start the season on the bubble of the bracket — not the top 25. Quarterback Sam Leavitt and receiver Jordyn Tyson are potential first-round NFL draft picks, and 10 starters return from a defense that led the league in run defense (112.9 yards) and was No. 3 in scoring defense (22.6 points).

Toughest test: Nov. 1 at Iowa State. Ames is a notoriously tricky place to win, and this game will be important for both Big 12 and CFP standings. Last year, ASU beat Iowa State 45-10 to win the Big 12 title and earn the league’s lone CFP spot.

What the committee will like: A Big 12 title. It’s going to be difficult (again) for the Big 12 runner-up to secure a second CFP spot unless it’s a lights-out, no-brainer pick, and it’s going to be difficult for ASU to prove that with the nation’s No. 73 schedule strength — especially when so many SEC teams’ schedules are ranked among the top 15. Arizona State will have some opponents sneak into the CFP top 25, and the committee respects wins against good teams — even if they’re not ranked — but it will also give the edge to contenders that have better statement wins against a more rigorous schedule.

What the committee won’t like: A loss to Mississippi State. Don’t let the SEC label fool you. ASU beat the 2-10 Bulldogs last year and should do it again if it’s a true playoff team. A loss would mean no Power 4 nonconference wins, as the rest of the schedule includes Northern Arizona and Texas State. There’s also upset potential at Baylor to end September, and that would be a devastating start for a program aiming for history.

… Read full story here …

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College Sports Commission (NCAA) already backing down on NIL restrictions

… “Will wealthy teams and their boosters be able to game the system designed to create competitive balance?” (Hint: “Yes”) … 

From ESPN … The College Sports Commission has loosened its blanket prohibition on athletes receiving payments from NIL collectives, according to a memo the new enforcement agency sent to athletic directors Thursday morning.

The collectives, an evolving industry built to funnel money to athletes at a particular school, will still face significantly more scrutiny when trying to sign deals with players than they had in past years.

Thursday’s memo from the CSC, which revises guidance it issued three weeks ago, ends the first notable scuffle under the industry’s new enforcement structure without needing to return to a courtroom. However, it provides more of a punt than a definitive answer to an essential question for the future of how major college sports will function: Will wealthy teams and their boosters be able to game the system designed to create competitive balance?

The new rules say athletes and collectives will have to show that each deal they sign requires the athlete to promote a product or service that is being sold to make a profit rather than just being a vehicle to channel money from boosters to athletes. Collectives might need to show documentation of “the entity’s effort to profit from the deal,” according to the memo.

College athletes can now make money in two ways: via direct payments from their school and through endorsement contracts with third parties. As part of a landmark legal agreement known as the House settlement, which was finalized in June, lawyers for the athletes and the schools agreed to put a cap on direct payments starting at $20.5 million per school in the coming academic year.

During the previous four years, when only NIL payments were permitted, a cottage industry of collectives evolved to provide their teams with a de facto payroll. Many of those groups gathered money from fans and wealthy boosters to give to athletes in exchange for some minimal endorsement. Some collectives also acted as marketing agencies — pairing athletes with local companies for endorsements — or launched subscription-based businesses to help fans connect with the players on their favorite team.

In an effort to keep teams from using their collectives to circumvent the $20.5 million spending cap, the terms of the House settlement state that all deals with “associated entities” (essentially collectives and boosters) have to be for a “valid business purpose” and fall within a reasonable range of compensation. A $1 million deal for a player to make a few social media posts, for example, won’t be allowed.

“Pay-for-play will not be permitted, and every NIL deal done with a student-athlete must be a legitimate deal, not pay-for-play in disguise,” CSC CEO Bryan Seeley said Thursday.

The CSC is a new organization in charge of vetting all third-party deals to make sure they comply with the terms of the settlement. The conferences and CSC are using a platform called NIL Go, operated by Deloitte, to vet those third-party deals. The new guidelines mean that each deal will need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis with subjective analysis rather than running them through an algorithm, which will likely require more manpower than the fledgling enforcement group with only three employees thus far initially planned.

The CSC issued its initial ban on collectives July 10, less than two weeks after opening its doors. Several collectives told ESPN they felt the ban painted with too broad of a brush and unfairly outlawed their industry.

… Continue reading story here …

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July 30th

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CBS headline grabber: CU faces “gauntlet” of a schedule

… Headline: “Big 12 strength of schedule rankings 2025: Texas Tech set up for success, Colorado faces gauntlet” … 

From CBS Sports … Only three short years ago, Big 12 teams played a perfect round robin schedule. Every school vied against every other, and so schedules frankly rarely paid much relevance. As the conference exploded from 10 to 16 teams, though, schedules have never been more important.

In this era, getting a good draw can make all the difference. Reigning Big 12 champ Arizona State was able to ramp up in the middle of last season to prepare for top contenders Kansas State and BYU in the second half of the year. Iowa State played six teams in conference that missed bowl games. Chances are, the teams with the easiest schedule this year will also have a huge advantage to reaching the postseason.

Now granted, here’s the thing: In the Big 12, the strength of schedules are somewhat unpredictable. Two years ago, West Virginia appeared to be facing one of the hardest schedules in the league, but ended up with the easiest. Additionally, every team in the conference has FanDuel win totals between 5.5 and 8.5. The teams are, frankly, just not far enough apart that there can be free rides.

That said, getting a good draw can make all the difference in flying through the schedule, picking up tiebreakers and earning a trip to AT&T Stadium to play for a Big 12 title. With that in mind, here’s how we rank the toughest schedules in the conference in 2025.

Most difficult to easiest …

• 1. Baylor
• 2. TCU
• 3. Utah
• 4. Kansas State
• 5. Colorado … The Buffaloes have a fun one to open the year against Georgia Tech in Boulder, but it’s the conference schedule where things get tough. Colorado gets BYU, TCU, Iowa State and Utah all in a row, before ending with Arizona State and Kansas State, the top two teams in the conference. Five of CU’s Big 12 wins last year came against teams that missed a bowl. There are only three such teams on the schedule this year.
• 6. West Virginia
• 7. Arizona State
• 8. Iowa State
• 9. Arizona
• 10. Cincinnati
• 11. Oklahoma State
• 12. UCF
• 13. Kansas
• 14. Texas Tech
• 15. Houston
• 16. BYU

… Read full story here …

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July 29th

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Coach Prime’s announcement a victory for college football; silences haters

From andscape.com … When Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders played in the NFL, it was widely understood that every time he touched the football he could end up in the end zone. On Monday in Boulder, we might have seen the best return of Prime Time’s career.

Dressed in denim overalls, a white crewneck T-shirt and a cowboy hat, Sanders took to the podium for arguably the most important news conference of his life. He told the world that he was cancer-free after having his bladder removed after doctors discovered a tumor. He encouraged people to get checked, detailed the specific data points of his health journey and urged folks to take their lives seriously.

Just when everyone thought and speculated that the hater hype machine that has had multiple attacks was going to go up by a score or two, Prime took it the other way with a flourish — not dissimilar to when he once went 93 yards to the house as a member of the San Francisco 49ers against the Atlanta Falcons, dancing and jawing all the way to the end zone. Except this time, his walk is a limp and his words are the words of Jesus.

“But this wasn’t easy, men; everybody get checked out, because if it wasn’t for me getting tested for something else, they wouldn’t have stumbled up on this,” Sanders said. “And make sure you go to get the right care. Because without wonderful people like this, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here today because it grew so expeditiously, I could say.”

The same crowd who said Prime would skip from Colorado to the pros with his sons? Still wrong and there were many.

The folks who said that once his sons were done in Boulder there was no way Sanders would still want to be involved? Incorrect, again.

And once he took a leave of absence from team activities in the spring, the vultures started circling Folsom Field, presuming that after he retired both his son Shedeur and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter’s jersey numbers for the Buffaloes, Prime would have a convenient out to leave. Nope.

His commitment to faith, never mind his program, effectively saved his life. On an Instagram post from Sunday, in a decidedly emotional tone, he talked about having to draw up a will, something he was doing for the first time. After that, it was clear to me that this was far more serious than whether or not a Big 12 title would be in Colorado’s near future, or who the coach was.

… Continue reading story here …

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July 25th 

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Iowa State athletics facing $147 million budget deficit over next six years

From the Cedar Rapids Gazette …  Iowa State University Athletics — facing a $147 million budget deficit through 2031, or just under $25 million annually over the next six years — is rolling out painful concessions, including indefinitely postponing construction of a new wrestling practice facility and a $25 million Hilton Coliseum renovation.

“In the past two years, there have been several transformational changes in college athletics that will result in $30 million in recurring annual financial repercussions to the athletics department beginning this year,” ISU athletics reported in its 2026 budget report to the Board of Regents, made public this week.

Although it has identified about $8.7 million in annual budget savings, the $24.5 million annual funding gap is expected to culminate in a $147 million net deficit by 2031 — putting the Cyclones in an all-hands-on-deck situation.

“ISU is engaging with the Big 12 Conference, ISU Foundation, sponsors, donors and other partners to explore additional opportunities to create growth in revenue sufficient to overcome future anticipated revenue shortfalls and to otherwise support the continued success and viability of the ISU athletics program,” department officials reported.

“ISU views this effort as one of the top priorities and challenges facing the university.”

Changes threatening ISU Athletics include realignment of the Big 12 Conference from 10 to 16 teams; the House vs. NCAA settlement allowing revenue sharing with student athletes; and adjustment of the distribution model for College Football Playoff revenue, which Iowa State describes as “negatively impacting the Big 12 Conference.”

Given the challenges, Iowa State told the board it has made several tough budget decisions, including:

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July 24th 

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One final collegiate accolade: Travis Hunter named Big 12 Male Athlete of the Year

Press release from the Big 12 …

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July 23rd

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Which retread Big 12 coach will have the most success: Scott Frost or Rich Rodriguez?

From Stewart Mandel at The Athletic …

Which Big 12 second act do you think is more likely to be a success: Scott Frost at UCF or Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia? — Kevin J.

You must have missed my coaching hire grades from this past cycle. I gave West Virginia my only “A” and UCF my only “D.” And I’m starting to wonder whether the Frost grade was too high.

If you missed Frost’s comments to Chris Vannini at Big 12 media days, the coach feels his 16-31 record at Nebraska was entirely the fault of Nebraska for being a “bad job” and not his for having no discernible offensive identity, inexcusable special teams play and failure to instill any confidence in his teams to win close games.

With Frost having learned nothing, I don’t know why anyone would expect his UCF sequel to be any different. This is a Big 12 job now, not an AAC — er, American — job. The week-in, week-out competition level will be closer to Nebraska’s than 2017 UCF’s.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez has had two redemptive head coaching jobs since bombing at Michigan, taking Arizona to its only Pac-12 championship game and leading Jacksonville State to a Conference USA title in just its second FBS season. West Virginia is in a much different place than it was 18 years ago.

I don’t expect a repeat of his three straight top-10 seasons from 2005 to ’07. I also wouldn’t expect any instant returns in the first year. However, I fully expect him to have the Mountaineers in Big 12 championship contention within three years. Even if not, they will at least be far more entertaining.

… Read full story here …

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July 22nd 

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Coach Prime: “You know I’m still going through something. I ain’t all the way recovered”

From The Athletic … Colorado coach Deion Sanders said he is still recovering from his undisclosed health issue ahead of reporting to campus in Boulder for preseason football practice.

“You know I’m still going through something,” Sanders said in a YouTube video posted by his son Deion Sanders Jr. on Monday. “I ain’t all the way recovered.”

The video showed Sanders and his daughter Shelomi preparing to step into an ice bath. Sanders’ quotes were featured in a voiceover added to the video, which also showcased his active lifestyle. It featured Sanders taking a tennis lesson, shooting hoops and walking/running 1.3 miles with Shelomi.

At Big 12 media days nearly two weeks ago, Sanders took the stage in his first public appearance since April and refused to discuss his health issue. He hasn’t publicly stated the nature of the problem that’s kept him away from campus.

“I’m not here to talk about my health,” Sanders said. “I’m here to talk about my team.”

Sanders also participated in a coaches roundtable and did two on-air interviews with ESPN at Big 12 media days.

“Average day? I’m looking good,” he said when asked what his day-to-day life looked like during his time away from campus. “I’m living lovely. God has truly blessed me. Not a care in the world. Not a want or desire in the world.”

Sanders hosted an NFL Draft party at his home for his son Shedeur in April, but hadn’t made any public appearances since the Buffaloes’ spring game on April 19. Shedeur was projected by some to be a top pick in the draft, but slid to the fifth round, where the Cleveland Browns selected him.

Colorado athletic director Rick George told The Athletic at Big 12 media days that he expected Sanders to return to campus “in a week or two, probably.” George said the two had been in constant contact since Sanders left campus to deal with his health and recover at his ranch in Canton, Texas, in late April.

… Read full story here …

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July 21st

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Report: Memphis offers Big 12 $200 million to join the conference

From YahooSports.com … Memphis has proposed to the Big 12 a lucrative membership proposal — a serious enough endeavor that league presidents met Monday to discuss the offer — but the proposition is not believed to have the necessary support, for now.

The proposal from Memphis — one of the most aggressive membership propositions in college athletics history — features hundreds of millions of dollars in sponsorship commitments to the Big 12 from UM-affiliated corporate partners, as well as the school eschewing revenue distribution from the league for at least five years.

Multiple sources spoke to Yahoo Sports under condition of anonymity about the proposal, which is the latest and most serious chapter in the school’s effort to move out of the American and into one of the four power leagues.

This particular effort began more than a year ago. Memphis president Bill Hardgrave has spent at least 14 months visiting with the presidents and top athletic administrators of many Big 12 schools in individual, on-campus meetings that have culminated in a membership offer to the league that is expected to be as high as $200 million over the next five years.

Big 12 officials are in the midst of exploring the proposal, but league-wide support is not there, multiple conference officials told Yahoo Sports. Any expansion move needs the support of a super majority of the league’s presidents and chancellors, or 12 of the 16. A more finalized copy of the Memphis proposal was disseminated among conference athletic administrators in the past few days.

Over the past 18 months, the conference seriously explored two expansion proposals, from Gonzaga and UConn, only for each to fail to gain the necessary support. This effort is much more lucrative, but hurdles remain.

“I’m not certain it has enough support,” one Big 12 leader told Yahoo Sports over the weekend.

“We vetted Memphis when we added the other four [Cincinnati, UCF, Houston and BYU] and chose not to add them,” another Big 12 administrator said. “What’s changed now?”

… Continue reading story here …

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Buying your favorite team: The Athletic has CU 7th in the Big 12; 47th nationally

From The Athletic … How much would it take to buy your favorite college football program?

As much as college football has drifted toward professionalization, one major difference remains: NCAA teams are not for sale. Not yet, at least. But private equity explorations by schools like Florida State and Boise State led The Athletic to consider a future where the Seminoles and Broncos could be bought and sold, just like the Boston Celtics or Tampa Bay Rays.

We approached the hypothetical question with a methodology that was part art, part science. We used real-life pro transactions to gauge purchase prices relative to a team’s revenue over the past three available years of data. NFL and NBA sales guided our ratios in the SEC and Big Ten, while the MLB and NHL were our rough benchmarks in the ACC and Big 12. For each school in a Power 4 conference (plus Notre Dame), we factored in everything from prestige and championships to facility renovations, population trends and realignment scenarios. That means treating Notre Dame more like the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston College more like the Kansas City Royals.

Because athletic departments isolate and report football revenue differently, our numbers are squishy. Actual transactions are much more complicated than what we did with a spreadsheet or what you see on “Shark Tank.” But the process is imperfect in the real world, too. What a team sells for (our objective with this story) is not the same as a team’s actual value (a story for another day). Buyers routinely pay a premium because there are only so many opportunities to own a sports team.

That sentiment would be even stronger in college football, where pre-established allegiances and irrational decisions already run deeper. Though Texas A&M just missed our $1 billion club, it’s easy to envision a few Aggies boosters artificially boosting the price to brag about spending 10 figures on their team. Or some Michigan fan paying extra to make sure the Wolverines out-priced Ohio State.

Do not take our numbers to the bank, literally or metaphorically. Instead, consider this a fun attempt at blending back-of-the-envelope math with common sense to price college programs like their professional peers — an exercise that’s theoretical for now … but might not be much longer.

From the Big 12 … Colorado is ranked 7th in the conference, 47th in the nation. CU is ranked above only two Big Ten teams (Maryland and Rutgers), and ahead of only two SEC teams (Mississippi State and Vanderbilt) …

29. Utah: $539 million

Average football revenue: $77.0 million

30. TCU: $523 million

Average football revenue: $74.7 million

33. Texas Tech: $440 million

Average football revenue: $67.7 million

39. Oklahoma State: $373 million

Average football revenue: $57.3 million

40. Arizona State: $372 million

Average football revenue: $53.1 million

45. Iowa State: $331 million

Average football revenue: $55.2 million

47. Colorado: $328 million

Average football revenue: $54.6 million

49. Kansas State: $321 million

Average football revenue: $53.6 million

50. BYU: $306 million

Average football revenue: $43.7 million

53. West Virginia: $284 million

Average football revenue: $47.4 million

54. Arizona: $282 million

Average football revenue: $46.9 million

55. Baylor: $276 million

Average football revenue: $46.0 million

59. UCF: $210 million

Average football revenue: $35.0 million

61. Kansas: $197 million

Average football revenue: $39.3 million

67. Cincinnati:  $106 million

Average football revenue: $26.4 million

68. Houston: $91 million

Average football revenue: $22.7 million

… Read full story here …

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July 14th 

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Big Ten/SEC still at odds on how to revise playoff – 12-team playoff back on the table

From ESPN … As the clock ticks on a Dec. 1 deadline to determine a format for the College Football Playoff in 2026 and beyond, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey reiterated the possibility it could stay at 12 teams if his league and the Big Ten can’t agree on what model would be best.

Sankey said he and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti spoke four out of five days last week and acknowledged the SEC’s “different view” coming out of its spring meetings in Destin, Florida. While the Big Ten has favored a model that rewards conferences with guaranteed spots and play-in games to determine them, the SEC coaches most recently said they would now prefer a 16-team format that includes the five highest-ranked conference champions and 11 at-large bids.

“The Big Ten has a different view,” Sankey said following his opening remarks on the first day of SEC media days at the College Football Hall of Fame. “That’s fine. We have a 12-team playoff, five conference champions. That can stay if we can’t agree.”

Before agreeing to a new media rights deal with ESPN in March 2024, the nine FBS commissioners and Notre Dame leadership had to first sign a memorandum of understanding that outlined in broad terms what the next contract would look like. Sankey said the document gives the Big Ten and the SEC the bulk of control over the playoff’s future format. It’s an agreement some have privately questioned, but Sankey emphasized the role the Big Ten and SEC have in the room.

“Unless you’re going to tear up the MOU — which maybe other people want to do because of their concerns about the decision-making authority,” Sankey said, “but very clearly in that memorandum of understanding is [the authority] granted to the combination of the SEC and Big Ten ultimately we have to use that authority with great wisdom and discretion.”

That doesn’t mean they will agree.

… Continue reading story here …

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July 11th

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Big 12 Coaches on Texas Tech: “They’ve built the best team money can buy”

From The Athletic … Texas Tech has become one of the splashiest stories of the college football offseason thanks to the money poured into its 2025 roster. And opposing Big 12 coaches have taken notice.

“They’ve built the best team money can buy,” one conference head coach told The Athletic. “But if they don’t win the Big 12, holy cow.”

He was among a dozen Big 12 head coaches The Athletic interviewed about Texas Tech’s spending spree at the league’s media days this week, offering anonymity in exchange for their candor. The responses ranged from good-natured to cynical, with at least a touch of jealousy.

“Good for them. Hell, if I had Cody Campbell, I’d be doing sleepovers at his house,” said one coach of the Texas Tech billionaire booster who has become a significant figure in college sports. “‘Hey, best buddy. How can I help you?’ You sh—in’ me? I don’t blame them. If you’re gonna buy a player, buy the right one. And they bought some good ones.”

The program, which has benefited from an influx of name, image and likeness spending in recent years, doubled down this offseason. Texas Tech athletes will earn roughly $55 million in NIL across all sports in 2025-26, including $20.5 million in direct revenue sharing under the recently approved House settlement. Tech star softball pitcher NiJaree Canady is entering her second year with a seven-figure deal, and men’s basketball standout JT Toppin is back on a deal worth more than $3 million. But a large chunk of that money is invested in a football roster that added 20-plus transfers — many highly coveted — and retained a number of core players with the help of frontloaded NIL deals from the Matador Club collective, co-founded by Campbell and fellow alum and oil magnate John Sellers.

It’s a massive investment for any school, particularly a Big 12 program that is not a traditional blue blood. But Tech, coming off an 8-5 record in 2024, isn’t shying from it.

“I do think people feel a little threatened,” Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire said in an interview with The Athletic. “The last box (to check) is, Texas Tech has never won the Big 12, never played in the Big 12 championship. That’s why this year is so critical.”

The players are embracing it as well. “I love the bull’s-eye we got on our back,” senior quarterback Behren Morton said.

Count Colorado coach Deion Sanders, a longtime admirer of McGuire from their high school coaching days, among those paying attention.

“Yeah, Joey got some money! Spending that money! I love it,” Sanders said Wednesday from the Big 12 event’s main stage. “Can you send a few of those dollars to us so we can get some of those players, too?”

… Continue reading story here …

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July 10th

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CBS Sports: “The Best and the Worst from Coach Prime’s Press Conference”

From CBS Sports … Big 12 Media Days are underway in Frisco, Texas, and Colorado took center stage on Day 2. Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders always commands a crowd when he steps up to the microphone, and this year’s session came with its usual batch of fireworks. From the insightful breakdown of his quarterback competition to his reluctance to answer a question about his personal health — bashing a media outlet for its so-called “bulljunk” in the process — Sanders was in rare form on the dais.

The ability to bounce between thoughtful, detailed football-specific responses and off-the-wall quips has long made Sanders a wild card in media availability settings. Wednesday’s highlights and lowlights were another demonstration of his range.

Here, we take a play-by-play dive into the moments that stood out the most from Sanders’ appearance on the Big 12 Media Days main stage as he enters his third season at Colorado.

Sanders dodges question about health

It has been a largely quiet offseason from Sanders as he stayed out of the public space for much of the spring and summer amid health concerns. He reportedly missed a speaking engagement and said in May that he lost about 14 pounds during his break from the spotlight.

Sanders, who in the past battled blood clots, had emergency surgery in 2023 and had two toes amputated in 2021, previously said he would provide an update upon his return to Boulder, Colo (he has been recovering from the unspecified health issues at his home in Texas). But when asked about his situation at Big 12 Media Days, he shot down the question from The Athletic’s David Ubben.

“Athletic, sometimes y’all be on that bulljunk, so I’m really not gonna tell you much,” Sanders said. “You know that. But I’m not gonna talk about my health. I’m here to talk about my team.”

Later, Colorado athletic director Rick George told Ubben that he expects Sanders on campus “in a week or two, probably.”

Update on Colorado’s QB competition

Colorado, coming off a 9-4 record in 2024, sent two quarterbacks to Frisco, and that was by design. Sanders noted that he brought both Julian Lewis and Kaidon Salter with him because he does not know which of the two will start — taking the reins from Deion’s son, Shedeur, in the process — when the season arrives.

Lewis arrived on campus earlier this year and represented a key high school recruiting victory for the Buffaloes as a four-star prospect and the No. 10 quarterback in the 2025 class. He flipped his commitment from USC in a splashy move to become Colorado’s projected signal-caller of the future. Salter is the more veteran option, though, and transferred in from Liberty with four years under his belt, including one when led Conference USA with 32 touchdowns and quarterback rating (176.6).

“As long as they’re doing their jobs and we’re winning, we definitely want to continue to develop JuJu, but Kaidon is unbelievable,” said Sanders. “Kaidon is off the chain. He’s been there, done that. He can get the job done. I wouldn’t have brought him here if I didn’t trust him. But JuJu is coming on around the mountain when he comes. I love him. I love what he brings to the table. I don’t know how it’s going to play out, as long as it plays out. We can’t lose either way with either of those two.”

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July 9th

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BYU without Jake Retzlaff falls from 7:1 to 19:1 odds to win Big 12 title

From CBS Sports … BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff wasn’t one of the top quarterbacks in the Big 12. He ranked eighth in passing yards, 12th in completion percentage, seventh in passer rating and tied for last in the conference with 12 interceptions. However, his impact went beyond the box score for a Cougars team that finished 11-2 and was prepared to enter 2025 as a serious Big 12 contender.

Retzlaff was accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit that was dismissed on June 30. Still, he faces a potential lengthy suspension for violating the BYU honor code. Rather than sit through the punishment, many expect the Cougars quarterback to hit the transfer portal soon. A complication could be exactly how Retzlaff logistically transfers as the transfer portal remains closed to traditional players.

While Retzlaff’s name is not yet in the transfer portal, BYU coach Kalani Sitake’s comments at Big 12 Media Days Tuesday morning did little quell the speculation around his star quarterback.

“We love Jake, and I love what he’s done for our program and we want what’s best for him,” Sitake told CBS Sports. “I think it’d be more appropriate if I allow Jake to speak for himself and make the first statement on his situation rather than for me to do it. I respect his privacy.”

If Retzlaff does indeed transfer, McCae Hillstead and Treyson Bourguet are the favorites to win the starting job. Class of 2025 prospects Bear Bachmeier and Nolan Keeney both joined the program over the summer as well. But while there are talented options in the room, the loss of Retzlaff dramatically shapes the Big 12 race.

The Cougars were one of a handful of teams to hover around 7- or 8-to-1 odds to win the Big 12. According to FanDuel, BYU now sits at 19-to-1 odds, behind Kansas and narrowly ahead of Cincinnati. Their win total also slipped from 7.5 to 6.5, signaling a team going from potential contention to fighting for bowl eligibility.

BYU was led by its defense during a breakout season, but much was asked of Retzlaff. The former junior college transfer was directly responsible for 66% of BYU’s total offense between his arm and legs, and scored 26 of the Cougars’ 41 offensive touchdowns. Running backs LJ Martin and Hinckley Ropati both missed several games with injuries, making his role more vital.

… Continue reading story here …

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July 8th

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Hot seat rankings: Three Big 12 coaches in the “Now or Never” category

From CBS Sports …

2025 Hot Seat: Now or Never

Mike Gundy … Oklahoma State … 4.33 … What a bizarre situation for one of the greatest college football coaches of the 21st Century. The wheels finally fell off at Oklahoma State last season, culminating in a disastrous 3-9 campaign. The offseason didn’t inspire much optimism and the coordinator hires are mediocre. But can Oklahoma State really fire Gundy, the face of the program? I’d prefer not to find out.

Brent Brennan … Arizona … 4.22 … Brennan was hired to keep the trains running, and instead it fell off the track. All the top playmakers that Arizona hoped to retain are gone, meaning that this new roster is fully on Brennan’s shoulders. It’s unclear if he’s ready for the moment, but the Wildcats have to find some success.

Scott Satterfield … Cincinnati … 4.00 … Satterfield was a head-scratching hire and he’s delivered a head-scratching tenure. The Bearcats have seen bright spots from quarterback Brendan Sorsby, defensive tackle Dontay Corleone and running back Corey Kiner. They’ve also leveraged it into almost zero success with an 8-16 record in two years. This fanbase should expect more than that.

The rest of the Big 12 (with last season’s grade) … 

• Arizona State … Kenny Dillingham … 0.22 (2)
• Baylor … Dave Aranda … 2.22 (4)
• BYU … Kalani Sitake … 1.11 (4)
• Colorado … Deion Sanders … 0.33 (2)
• Houston … Willie Fritz … 1.33 (1)
• Iowa State … Matt Campbell … 0.44 (1)
• Kansas … Lance Leipold … 1.00 (0)
• Kansas State … Chris Klieman … 0.78 (0)
• TCU … Sonny Dykes … 2.67 (1)
• Texas Tech … Joey McGuire … 2.33 (2)
• UCF … Scott Frost … 2.00 (N/A)
• Utah … Kyle Whittingham … 0.67 (0)
• West Virginia … Rich Rodriguez … 1.44 (N/A)

… Read full story here …

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Big 12 Commissioner doubles down on 5+11 format

From ESPN … Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark is “doubling down” on the so-called 5+11 future College Football Playoff format, while acknowledging that it might benefit his league more in the future than currently.

The Big 12 and ACC have pushed the model, which would award automatic bids to the five highest-rated conference champions, plus 11 at-large bids determined by the CFP selection committee. The 5+11 model gained some support at the SEC’s spring meetings, while the Big Ten has focused more on a model that would award four automatic bids to Big Ten teams and to SEC teams, plus two apiece to the Big 12 and the ACC.

Yormark, his fellow commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua must determine the CFP format for 2026 and beyond by Dec. 1.

The Big 12 had only one representative, champion Arizona State, in the inaugural 12-team CFP last year. Arizona State lost to Texas in two overtimes in a CFP quarterfinal matchup at the Peach Bowl.

“Five-11 is fair,” Yormark said Tuesday in his opening address at Big 12 media days at The Star. “We want to earn it on the field. It might not be the best solution today for the Big 12 … but long-term, knowing the progress we’re making, the investments we’re making, it’s the right format for us. And I’m doubling down today on 5-11.”

Yormark added that he expects ACC commissioner Jim Phillips to take the same position when that league holds its media days this month in Charlotte, North Carolina. The ACC sent two teams, champion Clemson and runner-up SMU, to the 12-team playoff last year. Yormark touted the Big 12 as the “deepest football conference in America” and said he believes the league will have multiple CFP entries this season.

“I have a lot of faith in the selection process,” Yormark said. “They are doing a full audit of the selection process to figure out how they can modernize and contemporize and how they use data and how certain metrics can be more heavily weighted.”

Yormark told ESPN that he’s “relatively confident” that the CFP will go to 16 teams in 2026 and laid out the next steps to making it happen.

… Continue reading story here …

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July 7th

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Two CU hires among the Top 25 worst hires of the 21st century

From CBS Sports … If there are 25 best hires, we believe there must be 25 worst ones, too. These are the hires that still make you shudder if you’re a fan of the program. The coaches who delivered lows you didn’t even believe were possible.

This isn’t simply about win-loss record, though. While that obviously factored into our rankings, there’s much more that goes into why a hire failed than just the on-field results. Other things we took into account:

• Did the hire make sense in the first place?
• Did the coach’s predecessor have success?
• Does the program have the resources to win?
• Why didn’t it work?

With all those things in mind, we came up with the worst of the worst: The 25 worst coaching hires this century.

Notable … 

24. Steve Addazio, Colorado State

Record: 4-12

This hire made zero sense from the start. Addazio had success at Boston College, going to six bowls in seven seasons, but wouldn’t have been a serious candidate for another head coaching job had his former boss at Florida, Urban Meyer, not recommended him to Colorado State AD Joe Parker. The definitive Addazio moment: Getting ejected in the second quarter of his final game as CSU’s coach, a 52-10 blowout loss to Nevada.

23. Mike Riley, Nebraska

Record: 19-19

The record itself isn’t as bad as another Nebraska coach (Scott Frost) who just missed making this list. But when you fire a coach in Bo Pelini who won at least nine games seven consecutive years, you better nail the replacement. Nebraska decided the guy to improve the program was one who had won nine games only once in the preceding five years and had a 12-13 record over the previous two seasons. It wasn’t the slam dunk hire Nebraska needed to justify dumping Pelini, and the lackluster results shouldn’t have surprised anyone. Riley had one nine-win season in 2016 but he started the Cornhuskers’ decline that led to an improbable eight-year bowl drought for a program that won three national titles in the 1990s.

18. Karl Dorrell, Colorado

Record: 8-15

Dorrell hadn’t coached in college in six years and had spent almost all of the previous decade in the NFL when Colorado hired him to replace Mel Tucker. The timing of the hire was tough, but it was still a head-shaking decision that predictably didn’t work. Dorrell fared well with Tucker’s players in Year 1, even winning Pac-12 Coach of the Year in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, before the wheels fell off with a 4-8 2021 and 0-5 start in 2022 before he was fired.

17. Kevin Sumlin, Arizona

Record: 9-20

In hindsight Sumlin needed at least a year off from leading a program after the stress of coaching Johnny Manziel at Texas A&M. Instead, Arizona quickly gave him a second opportunity as Rich Rodriguez’s replacement that was a mess from the start. Sumlin never had a winning season in Tucson, with a final indignity of a 70-7 blowout loss to Arizona State enough to end his time in 2020. Sumlin is part of a recurring theme here: The big name retread rarely works out at a lesser school than one he was already fired from.

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July 5th

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Over/under on Big 12 wins: CU down to 6.0 (from 6.5)

From Circa Sports … Current Big 12 regular season over/under win totals via @CircaSports

• Arizona State 8½
• Kansas State 8½
• Texas Tech 8½
• Baylor 7½
• Iowa State 7½
• Utah 7½
• Kansas 7
• BYU 6½
• Houston 6½
• TCU 6½
• Cincinnati 6
• Colorado 6
• Arizona 5½
• Oklahoma State 5½
• UCF 5½
• West Virginia 5

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June 30th 

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Pac-8/Texas State make it official: Bobcats to join conference in 2026

From ESPN … Texas State has officially joined the Pac-12, the conference announced Monday, becoming the league’s ninth member ahead of its relaunch in 2026.

“We are extremely excited to welcome Texas State as a foundational member of the new Pac-12,” commissioner Teresa Gould said in a statement. “It is a new day in college sports and the most opportune time to launch a new league that is positioned to succeed in today’s landscape with student-athletes in mind.”

Texas State’s board of regents voted to authorize a $5 million buyout to the Sun Belt Conference early Monday. The Bobcats will remain in the Sun Belt through the 2025-26 season before joining the Pac-12 in all sports for the 2026-27 school year.

The Pac-12 needed to reach eight football-playing schools to meet the NCAA minimum for an FBS conference prior to the 2026 season.

The conference’s board of directors, which includes representatives from all current and future members, voted unanimously to admit Texas State following the university’s formal application. Texas State joins Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Gonzaga, Oregon State, San Diego State, Utah State and Washington State as members of the rebuilt league.

Texas State president Kelly Damphousse called the move “a historic moment” for the university.

“Joining the Pac-12 is more than an athletic move — it is a declaration of our rising national profile, our commitment to excellence, and our readiness to compete and collaborate with some of the most respected institutions in the country,” Damphousse said.

… Continue reading story here …

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June 29th

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BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff anticipating seven-game suspension, may leave team

From the Salt Lake City Tribune … BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff is anticipating a seven-game suspension for violating the school’s Honor Code, multiple sources told The Salt Lake Tribune.

Facing the prospect of missing more than half the 2025 season, Retzlaff has begun telling his coaches and teammates he is likely to leave the program, a source close to the situation said.

The sources are not being named because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

BYU did not immediately respond Sunday to a request for comment.

In a civil lawsuit filed in May, Retzlaff was accused of sexually assaulting a woman, identified in court documents as Jane Doe A.G., at his Provo home in November 2023.

Through his attorney, Retzlaff immediately denied the sexual assault allegations. In his legal response filed Friday, he said that he had “consensual” sex with the woman who has accused him of assaulting her.

Retzlaff has asked for the case to be dismissed. But the filing in Utah’s 3rd District Court would inevitably be considered by officials at BYU. The school is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and enforces an Honor Code that sets guidelines that employees and students are expected to follow.

Among other things, the code prohibits premarital sex and instructs students to “live a chaste and virtuous life.”

… Read full story here …

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June 28th

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Utah and Kansas the Big 12’s “mystery” teams

From CBS Sports … College football’s margins have only grown slimmer following the latest wave of conference realignment. The reshaped landscape has flattened the competitive curve, turning every conference schedule into a week-to-week grind. The difference between a playoff contender and a team scrapping for bowl eligibility can come down to a few untimely injuries or bad breaks in one-score games. As a result, several teams enter the 2025 season with floors and ceilings that are miles apart.

Last season, several programs shattered expectations — for better or worse. Few predicted Arizona State’s colossal breakthrough, nor did many expect Indiana to post the best season in school history. On the other side, it would’ve taken a psychic to foresee Florida State’s collapse into a two-win disaster.

Surprises are baked into the fabric of college football. Identifying them before they happen is, by nature, an extreme challenge. But reading the tea leaves on some of the sport’s biggest mystery teams offers a glimpse into their potential to either overachieve or disappoint.

Here are college football’s biggest wild cards heading into the 2025 season.

Utah 

Odds to reach CFP: +520

The five wins Utah posted last season matched the fewest of its power conference era and snapped a bowl streak that dated back to 2014. Long story short: that’s probably not happening again. There would be ample shock value in seeing a team go from below .500 to the playoff in the span of one year, but that is an attainable feat for a program that promises a major offensive upgrade with tantalizing dual-threat weapon Devon Dampier arriving to solve the Utes’ devastating quarterback issues. The entire starting offensive line is back, too. Would anyone be surprised if the Utes dangled around the bowl eligibility threshold again? Probably not. But it’s hard to bet against Kyle Whittingham when he has this many tools at his disposal.

Kansas

Odds to reach CFP: +1200

With Jalon Daniels finally healthy, last season was supposed to be Kansas’ opportunity to finally put everything together and shock the college football world. Instead, a 1-5 start stopped the Jayhawks from even reaching a bowl game. But something changed down the stretch when Lance Leipold’s squad rattled off three straight wins over ranked opponents. It is impossible to predict which version of Kansas shows up in 2025. If it is the former, this could be one of the best seasons in program history. If it is the latter, it will be ‘just another year of Kansas football” in the bottom of the Big 12.

… Read full story here …

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June 27th

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Big 12 and Big Ten partner with PayPal to manage payments to athletes (worth $1M per year to CU)

From SportsPro.com … Digital payments provider PayPal is working with the Big Ten and Big 12 college sports conferences to help them manage payments to student athletes now permitted under National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules.

For more than a century, US colleges were prohibited from directly or indirectly paying students to reward their involvement with official sports programmes despite NCAA members generating billions of dollars in broadcast, matchday and commercial income.

However, since 2018, student athletes have been allowed to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) and last month a US$2.8 billion settlement paved the way for direct payments through revenue sharing agreements. This settlement compensates past athletes for their efforts and permits NCAA Division I schools to distribute up to US$20.5 million to student athletes each year.

The Big Ten and Big 12’s deals with PayPal will both facilitate and commercialise this new reality. Under the terms of the five-year deals, payments will begin on 1st July 2025, with funds will be distributed directly to student PayPal accounts.

PayPal will also become the preferred payment partner at selected schools while the company’s Venmo social payments platform will serve as the presenting partner for the Big Ten Rivalry Series. Venmo will also serve as the official partner for the Big 12 Conference across football, basketball and Olympic sports championships for both men and women.

“We are thrilled to enter into this landmark partnership with PayPal and Venmo,” said Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark. “As we embark on a new era of college athletics, aligning with a global leader like PayPal will unlock a wealth of opportunities for the Big 12. This partnership will also empower our student-athletes to receive payments through a secure, trusted platform they already know and use.”

“We look forward to partnering with PayPal to ensure a secure, rapid and reliable way for student-athletes to receive institutional payments as we welcome in this new era in college athletics,” added Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti.

Financial terms have not been disclosed, but PayPal’s deal with the Big 12 is believed to be worth nine figures, while PayPal has confirmed it is in discussions about similar arrangements with other conferences. CBS Sports reports that the Big 12 and PayPal had previously been in discussions over title sponsorship.

“We’re proud to help lead this transformation in college athletics by making it easier and faster for student-athletes to receive funds and continue to bring trusted and innovative commerce solutions to the heart of campus life,” said Alex Chriss, PayPal chief executive. “From receiving institutional payments to making everyday purchases, we’re helping student-athletes, families, and schools engage in new ways that are modern, secure, and built for the future.”

… Continue reading story here …

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June 22nd

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Pac-12 announces television contract extension with CBS (grand total of three national broadcasts)

From CBS Sports … CBS Sports and the Pac-12 Conference today announced an extension of their partnership which is set to begin with the 2025 football season. The extended partnership will continue with the league’s transformation and begin with the new Pac-12’s launch ahead of the 2026-27 season and carry through the 2030-31 season. The new agreement establishes CBS Sports as the primary long-term media partner for the new Pac-12, with additional partners to be announced at a later date. As part of the extended partnership, football and men’s basketball games for the new Pac-12 will air throughout each season on The CBS Television Network (and streaming on Paramount+) as well as CBS Sports Network.

Octagon, the Pac-12’s exclusive media rights advisor, served as advisor for both the 2025 partnership and subsequent long-term extension.

Highlights of the extended partnership between CBS Sports and the new Pac-12 include:

New Pac-12 & CBS Sports Partnership Highlights

• Annual football championship game on CBS and streamed live on Paramount+.
• Annual men’s basketball tournament championship game on CBS and Paramount+.
• A minimum of three regular season football games on CBS and Paramount+ each season.
• A minimum of three regular season men’s basketball games on CBS and Paramount+ each season.
• Football and men’s basketball games throughout the regular season on CBS Sports Network, with details to be announced at a later date.

“Our goal with this process was to find transformational partnerships for the new Pac-12, and throughout our discussions and time together it became more and more clear that a partnership with CBS Sports would be just that,” said Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould. “I am thankful to the team at CBS Sports for seeing our vision and investing in our shared future as we build, launch and realize a new Pac-12 together.”

“As the new Pac-12’s primary media partner, CBS Sports’ top-tier coverage will showcase the best of the conference’s football and men’s basketball games annually across our platforms, including the championship game for both sports,” said Dan Weinberg, Executive Vice President, Programming, CBS Sports. “Extending this partnership strengthens our multiplatform college football and basketball schedule and, at a pivotal moment for the new Pac-12, allows us to collaborate, grow the conference and expand its reach.”

… Continue reading story here …

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June 21st 

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Wisconsin sues Miami over player tampering

From ESPN … The University of Wisconsin filed a lawsuit Friday claiming that the Miami football team broke the law by tampering with a Badgers player, a first-of-its-kind legal attempt to enforce the terms of a financial contract between a football player and his school.

The lawsuit refers to the athlete in question as “Student Athlete A,” but details from the complaint line up with the offseason transfer of freshman defensive back Xavier Lucas. Lucas left Wisconsin and enrolled at Miami in January after saying the Badgers staff refused to enter his name in the transfer portal in December.

In the complaint filed Friday, Wisconsin claims that a Miami staff member and a prominent alumnus met with Lucas and his family at a relative’s home in Florida and offered him money to transfer shortly after Lucas signed a two-year contract with the Badgers in December. The lawsuit states that Miami committed tortious interference by knowingly compelling a player to break the terms of his deal with Wisconsin.

“While we reluctantly bring this case, we stand by our position that respecting and enforcing contractual obligations is essential to maintaining a level playing field,” Wisconsin said in a statement to ESPN on Friday.

According to the complaint, Wisconsin decided to file suit in hopes that “during this watershed time for college athletics, this case will advance the overall integrity of the game by holding programs legally accountable when they wrongfully interfere with contractual commitments.”

Miami representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The pending case promises to be an interesting test of whether schools can use name, image and likeness deals to keep athletes from transferring even though the players aren’t technically employees. Starting July 1, schools will begin paying their athletes directly via NIL deals.

… Continue reading story here …

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June 20th

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CFP meetings end with no resolution: “Everything is still on the table”

From ESPN … Leaders of the College Football Playoff are still “mulling over” what the format should look like in 2026 and beyond, CFP executive director Rich Clark said Wednesday following the conclusion of two days of meetings in Asheville, North Carolina.

“Pretty much everything’s on the table, and they’re taking a good look at it all of it,” Clark said. “So, I wouldn’t say there’s a leading contender right now for them, but they’re taking a fresh look at it.”

Last month, at the SEC’s spring meetings in Destin, Florida, there was new support from the head football coaches for a 16-team model that would include the five highest-ranked conference champions and 11 at-large teams. That quickly gained traction and public support from other leagues, but it also surprised many leaders in the Big Ten Conference.

Many athletic directors in both leagues had been aligned in their desire to have automatic qualifiers that would guarantee both conferences four spots each in the playoff, with play-in games to determine whom the third and fourth playoff participants would be. Following the SEC’s spring meetings, many sources in the Big Ten have indicated that they wouldn’t even consider a 5+11 model unless the SEC and the ACC both go to nine conference games.

The Big Ten and the SEC have the bulk of control of the next iteration of the playoff, but the two conferences haven’t been on the same page recently in terms of what that should look like.

“They’re obligated to come to an agreement on what the format is,” Clark said.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has said repeatedly that he wanted more clarity on the selection process before determining if the league should move to a nine-game schedule, and much of this week’s meetings were spent studying metrics, including strength of schedule. Clark said the CFP brought in a mathematician from Google to help the group, which included all 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua.

“I would say a lot of it is refreshing our metrics,” Clark said. “Some of these metrics were put into place with a whole different look at the way college football was laid out and the conferences were structured.

“I wouldn’t say it’s dramatic, but it’s a refresh. We looked at some of our processes and how we do things within the selection committee meeting room. Some of the things we brought up to the table for them to consider, but just things to help us get better.”

… Continue reading story here …

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June 19th

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Louisiana to tax sports betting to give to schools to off-set revenue sharing

From On3Sports … Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has signed a bill to raise the state’s sports betting tax. A portion of the revenue will go to the state’s colleges to help offset revenue-sharing costs upon House v. NCAA settlement implementation.

HB 639 was proposed in April and went through the state House of Representatives and Senate before heading to Landry’s desk June 10. It features a provision to raise Louisiana’s tax on sports betting from 15% to 21.5%. The law also states 25% of the dollars – an estimated $24 million – collected under the tax increase will be split equally among 11 of the state’s public universities to go toward revenue-sharing. It will take effect Aug. 1.

“Monies in the fund shall be appropriated to the Board of Regents for distribution to athletic departments at public universities that are members of conferences that compete in NCAA Division One athletics at the Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision levels in Louisiana for the benefit of student athletes,” the law states.

“For the purposes of this Section, ‘benefit’ means scholarships, insurance, medical coverage, facility enhancements, litigation settlement fees, and Alston awards. Each university shall establish eligibility criteria for benefits awarded pursuant to the provisions of this Section.”

‘Without the athletes, we wouldn’t have the revenue’

At most schools, football is expected to receive 75%, followed by men’s basketball (15%), women’s basketball (5%) and the remainder of sports (5%) after Judge Claudia Wilken approved the House v. NCAA settlement earlier this month. LSU is expected to follow a similar model, The Advocate reported.

According to bill co-sponsor Neil Riser (R), the law is a way for the state to support its schools and athletics programs. The athletes and revenue go hand-in-hand, in his eyes, and Louisiana will now help play a role in making sure there’s success on both fronts.

… Continue reading story here …

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June 18th

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Illinois head coach Bret Bielema: Can’t do a 16-team playoff if SEC won’t agree to nine conference games

From ESPN … Illinois coach Bret Bielema wants to see the College Football Playoff expand to 16 teams in 2026, but only if all the major conferences, including the SEC, play nine league games per season.

Speaking Tuesday before Illini Night at Wrigley Field, Bielema said the 16-team model doesn’t necessarily need to include four automatic spots for Big Ten teams, as Ohio State coach Ryan Day advocated for earlier this month. But Bielema, who coached in the SEC at Arkansas and has spent most of his career in the Big Ten, said both leagues need to be aligned in the number of conference games. The Big Ten currently plays nine, while the SEC has remained at eight.

“I don’t think there’s any way we can do a 16-team playoff if they’re not at nine,” Bielema said.

He also referred to conversations coming out of the SEC spring meetings in Florida, where LSU coach Brian Kelly suggested in SEC-Big Ten nonleague challenge.

“We voted unanimously as Big Ten coaches to stay at nine league games and actually maybe have an SEC challenge,” Bielema said. “I was told that they voted unanimously to stay at eight and not play the Big Ten. But then some people pop off and say what they want to say because they want to look a certain way.

“I get it, but like, I think until you get to nine for everybody, I don’t think it could work.”

The 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua are meeting this week in Asheville, North Carolina, to discuss the future format and other issues.

… Continue reading story here …

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June 17th

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SEC/Big Ten remain at odds over strength of schedule in deciding CFP participants

From CBS Sports … Since negotiating control over the future of the CFP format and a bigger cut of the money (29% to each conference), the Big Ten and SEC have largely been in lockstep on the major issues. Sankey and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti developed a strong working relationship — one Sankey never had with Petitti’s predecessor, Kevin Warren — and brought the two conferences closer together with historic joint meetings in Nashville and New Orleans over the last eight months.

Those shared sensibilities include momentum behind the Big Ten’s preferred revamping of the playoff to a model that would award four automatic bids each to the Big Ten and SEC, two each to the ACC and Big 12, one to the top Group of 6 team and the remainder to at-large teams. The SEC had seemingly rallied around the idea, with Sankey saying last month the conference was “interested but not committed.” That changed after significant backlash from the conference’s football coaches, leading multiple SEC sources to predict that the conference would stick with eight conference games and side with the ACC and Big 12’s preferred 5+11 model, which awards five automatic bids to conference champions and the rest to the top 11 teams.

The SEC appears open to continuing with a selection committee but one that tweaks the currently used metrics and weighs the strength of schedule more heavily than it has in the past. Such a development wouldn’t require a move to an AQ-heavy format. The key, for SEC leaders, is that they want to be rewarded for how difficult they believe it is to win in the conference.

“The human element is great, but there’s got to be some more clearly defined metrics,” Mississippi State AD Zac Selmon recently told CBS Sports. “I’ve worked in different conferences before — two different power conferences (ACC, Big 12) — and when you look at the depth from top to bottom of our league, it’s night and day compared to what other people say.”

Interestingly, the SOS metrics often favored the SEC over the committee’s rankings last season. The conference usually had the highest-ranked one-, two- and three-loss teams.

“Adding any new data points in is not going to necessarily cure what’s been a pretty dominant thought (process),” a Big Ten source said. “It’s always going to come back to this subjective mindset.”

The SEC’s regular season gauntlet memo signaled to Big Ten leaders that the conference just wants a formula that proclaims it is the best, rather than any real changes. The Big Ten is more convinced than ever that more AQs are the only way to fix the problems, not a tweaked SOS metric, according to Big Ten sources with direct knowledge of the situation. At the heart of the Big Ten’s argument, they say, is the belief that more automatic qualifiers (and a potential play-in championship weekend) would keep more program fanbases invested later into the season, which ultimately leads to better fan attendance and television ratings.

“In a model where it’s 5-11, there’s no amount of data you can pour through to figure out who’s better between the fourth-place Big Ten team, the fourth-place SEC team and the second-place Big 12 team,” said a Big Ten source. “I recognize people think there are solutions. We’ve studied it a whole lot and there’s not a whole lot that you can do to tweak it.”

… Continue reading story here …

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June 16th

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Texas State the heavy favorite to become the eighth team in the new “Pac-8”

From ESPN … In the cloak-and-dagger world of conference realignment, clues to potential moves can manifest in strange places.

One emerged last week via an X account with 313 followers promoting Texas State tailback Lincoln Pare for the Heisman Trophy.

The account included a picture, cribbed from the Instagram story of the Texas State president, of two beavers floating in the San Marcos River. And it noted the potential realignment ramifications — “Beavers in the San Marcos River” — by including a scratching chin emoji that hinted at the possibility of Texas State joining Oregon State in the Pac-12. (OSU’s nickname is, of course, the Beavers, and the San Marcos River runs through the bustling town south of Austin where Texas State resides.)

This likely would have faded into the background of the social-media-sphere if Texas State president Kelly Damphousse hadn’t reposted it on June 10. That set off a spark in the wake of a regularly scheduled Pac-12 meeting earlier in the week when Texas State’s candidacy was a focus of discussion. (The Pac-12 declined comment for this story.)

So what’s next for the Pac-12? And what ripples could buzz through the kinetic realignment landscape? Here’s what could be coming in the next wave of realignment, which is expected to occur outside of the power conferences.

What’s next for the Pac-12?

Texas State is the heavy favorite, per ESPN sources, to be issued a formal Pac-12 invitation. The league is still engaged with other schools, per sources, but Texas State has clearly emerged at the forefront of that group.

On July 1, the buyout for Texas State to leave the Sun Belt for the 2026-27 season will rise from $5 million to $10 million. This is obviously a bigger motivator for Texas State than the Pac-12, but it’s seemingly a significant enough deadline to trigger action.

For the Pac-12 to bring in a new partner in a time of financial uncertainty for the league, it would make sense to offer Texas State prior to July 1. After all, the Pac-12 needs an eighth football member for 2026, so they have their own deadline looming.

In realignment, of course, nothing is official until it’s signed. And nothing is formal until it’s completed. So with Texas State and the Pac-12, sources said the best way to explain the courtship is that the league is currently exploring making an offer in the upcoming weeks.

Texas State has loomed for months as the favorite to join the league and was prominently discussed in the Pac-12’s virtual meeting earlier this week. It has been the league’s top target for months and is expected to have voting support, as the league’s presidents are enamored with a foothold in the state and Damphousse’s leadership.

Texas State is booming as a university with an enrollment of more than 40,000, and it boasts a lot of tenets of football potential, with a rich local talent base and a rising young coach, G.J. Kinne, at the helm.

The league’s presidents won’t vote on Texas State until they are ready for the process to unfold in rapid-fire succession. That’s expected to come before July 1. Texas State turned down a verbal offer from the Mountain West last fall, which athletic director Don Coryell called “preliminary discussions with an interested conference.”

Texas State, if the Pac-12 process unfolds as expected, would be the league’s ninth member overall and eighth football member. Part of the feeling of inevitability of the invitation is tied to necessity. The league needs to grow to eight football members in order to qualify as an FBS conference. (Gonzaga is the non-football member.) Internally at the Pac-12, Texas State has long been viewed as the best readily available option for that eighth spot.

… Continue reading story here …

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June 13th

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Report: Texas Tech to spend $55 million on athletes this year

From Sports Illustrated … There’s no question that we have entered into a new era of college athletics with NIL and revenue sharing. While paying college athletes has been part of the landscape for quite some time, it has only become legal to do so over the last few years. And while the original intent was to allow players to profit from their name, image, and likeness in more practical ways, NIL morphed into something far beyond “practical” fairly quickly.

Some college football coaches estimate that it will soon cost nearly $40 million or more to construct a roster capable of competing for championships, something that would have been unimaginable just five years ago. Although many are unhappy with the current lack of guardrails within college athletics, the reality is that schools need to find a way to compete under the current format, regardless of how crazy it may be.

The good news for the folks in Lubbock is that Texas Tech is going all in on capitalizing on the current state of college athletics, and it could completely transform the trajectory of its athletic programs.

According to a recent report by Brandon Marcello of CBS Sports, Texas Tech is set to pay out a whopping $55 million to its student athletes in 2025. That number, according to the sources who spoke with Marcello, is believed to be the highest in the nation.

Texas Tech’s multi-million dollar investment into star softball pitcher NiJaree Canady has received plenty of attention, and it’s estimated that men’s basketball standout JT Toppin landed a $4 million deal to remain in Lubbock. The Red Raiders’ estimated $20-30 million investment into the 2025 football roster is believed to be one of the highest (if not the highest) in the country.

Put simply, Texas Tech is doing everything it can to take advantage of the current state of college athletics, with the ultimate goal of delivering championships to the university.

… Read full story here …

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June 12th

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25 Top Stories of the past 25 years includes three CU stories

From The Athletic … No sport has a longer offseason than college football, and it’s nearly inarguable that the sport has as much drama off the field during that eight-month layoff — and during the regular season itself — as it does on Saturdays in the fall.

As The Athletic continues its look back at the last two-plus decades of college football, we examined 25 college football stories whose influences extended beyond the gridiron over the last 25 years, from conference expansion, NCAA power struggles, coaching hires and postseason changes to players whose star power impacted the game in ways the box score did not always measure.

17. Rocky Mountain Prime

Deion Sanders commanded the spotlight during his Hall of Fame playing career, but nothing could prepare college football for his 2023 debut as an FBS head coach in Colorado. Sanders took over a 1-11 squad, flipped the roster and became the sport’s most compelling story as the Buffaloes upset defending national runner-up TCU, then beat rivals Nebraska and Colorado State to start 3-0. Each of Sanders’ first five games drew more than 7.2 million viewers.

With multiple football programs hiring former NFL superstars like Michael Vick (Norfolk State) and Desean Jackson (Delaware State) in the ensuing years, Sanders’ emergence has helped usher in a new level of celebrity to the coaching carousel. His past exploits, charisma and cultural status have helped him connect to potential recruits and fans in a way few coaches can attain. And the five-year contract extension he signed this spring implies he’s not going anywhere.

9. Expansion chaos 2010-11

The zero-sum expansion spat between the ACC and Big East from 2003 to ’05 had little impact on the rest of college football. That was not the case in 2009 when Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany announced his league was exploring expansion on an 18-to-24-month timetable. That forced other leagues to expedite expansion plans, and the Pac-10 launched the first salvo when it pursued six Big 12 schools, including Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma.

Colorado became the first Big 12 school to jump to the Pac-10, and Nebraska left for the Big Ten a day later. The remaining schools waited on Texas, which opted to stay in the Big 12. The Pac-10 then added Utah to become a 12-team conference.

But the 10-member Big 12 was far from a happy family. The holdovers allowed Texas to form the Longhorn Network, but the financial and recruiting boost was too much for Texas A&M, so it bolted for the SEC in 2011. That earthquake started another round of aftershocks, and by the time it subsided, Missouri joined Texas A&M in the SEC and the Big 12 added TCU and West Virginia in their stead.

This round of realignment allowed an unvarnished reality to override the platitudes of college athletics: Football is king without exceptions, and brand power trumps on-field excellence.

3. The Pac-12’s demise

Long known as “The Conference of Champions,” the Pac-12 (previously the Pac-10 and Pac-8) enjoyed a proud tradition as a model academic-athletic conference. But financially it had fallen well behind its long-time partner — the Big Ten — and other power conferences. The league failed to secure distribution of its Pac-12 Network, and inept leadership turned a problem into a crisis.

A cascading departure of members followed USC and UCLA’s jump to the Big Ten, including Washington and Oregon (Big Ten), Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado (Big 12) and Stanford and California (ACC). Oregon State and Washington State remained as the Pac-12’s only members during the 2024 football season. The duo have mostly reconstituted the Pac-12, grabbing Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State, Fresno State and Utah State from the Mountain West for 2026. But it is not the same, not even close.

… Read full story here …

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This post, about the Spring/Summer game, from the 2025 Season, is filed under Article.
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