#10: Mississippi State makes it official, naming Oklahoma Deputy AD for External Engagement and Advancement Selmon as the Bulldogs’ next AD. President Keenum during Selmon's introductory press conference remarked: “In seeking a new Director of Athletics, we talked with some of the nation's very best athletics department administrators. After an extensive review of those outstanding candidates, I am convinced that in Zac Selmon we found an outstanding leader with a servant's heart – a leader who has extensive experience at two Power Five universities and who understands and shares our relentless commitment to achieving and maintaining excellence in our Bulldog athletics programs – all of them." (link)
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#9: California Assemblyman Holden (D-41) introduced the College Athlete Protection Act, which would require the state’s colleges and universities to share a percentage of revenue with athletes participating in FB, MBB and WBB. Sports Illustrated’s Dellenger reports that payment amounts would be based on how much revenue the programs earn each year. The bill also, per Dellenger, “tethers a portion of an athlete’s pay to graduation; does not consider athletes employees of their universities; requires schools to provide medical care and scholarships for athletes after their eligibility; and, in a severe penalty, calls for the suspension of athletic directors for at least three years if they cut roster spots, reduce scholarship amounts or discontinue sports programs. … According to the bill, athletes are capped at $25K a year in payments, but any excess money—it could be hundreds of thousands—would be placed into a trust so players can earn the funds upon completion of their degree. From the time they are college eligible, they’d have six years to graduate or forfeit the funds.” Lots more. (link)
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#8: Orlando Sentinel headliner Bianchi sounds off on the roller coaster NIL ride for Florida & high-profile prospective QB Rashada, who as of Friday still hadn’t enrolled in Gainesville: “...we in the media need to stop referring to this stuff as ‘NIL’ and call it what it is — ‘pay for play.’ Let’s be honest, this has little to do with Name, Image and Likeness. This is simply what everybody knew it would become with boosters paying players (or, at least, promising to pay players) for signing with their team. [...] Who in the Gator Collective thought it would be OK to sign a unproven high school player to a $13 million contract? Would Napier, who often talks about building chemistry, camaraderie and culture in the locker room, actually put his stamp of approval on such a crazy, culture-eroding contract? If Napier did know about the offer to Rashada, then why didn’t he stop it? And if he didn’t know, then why didn’t he know?” (link)
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#7: Alabama Executive Deputy AD/COO/former West Virginia AD Lyons cites disagreement with WVU President Gee about how the athletic department should interact with Country Roads Trust as another reason for his departure from Morgantown. “I tried to explain to him we’re as aggressive as we can be without crossing the line in order to protect ourselves in getting involved in Title IX issues. … We’re involved as much as we can be as a department without crossing the line of saying ‘dollar for dollar, for male and female student athletes and person to person, the number of male and female.’” Former Indiana Assoc. General Counsel Nussbaum explains universities could incur Title IX liability when they provide significant assistance to an NIL collective that does not equally support men’s and women’s sports. Lyons adds: “That’s why there’s a separation, an arm’s length, between what the department can do and what they can do. As long as they’re doing it, we don’t have Title IX issues.” (link)
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#6: LSU will increase security at gymnastics meets after fans of Tigers gymnast Dunne interrupted a meet at Utah last week. LSU HC Clark: “We will have security detail with us now when we go on the road and we will be working to create a perimeter around where we get on the bus, where we load.” Additionally, Clark says the student-athletes will no longer go into the stands following a meet. “We've always allowed them to go up there post-meet with their families and interact with them. We want to make sure we still provide them with that time with their families, but there won't be any more going into the stands and there will be a limited amount of time that they can interact with the fans in the stands over the rail and that will be monitored closely." (link)
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#5: UNLV paid $2.174M to use Allegiant Stadium for six home football games this past season. Additional context from LVSportsBiz.com: “The UNLV football team used to play at Sam Boyd Stadium about seven miles from campus near the Las Vegas Wash. Sam Boyd Stadium is permanently closed. UNLV does receive compensation of up to $3.5 million annually for shuttering Sam Boyd Stadium.” A per game breakdown of the total is included in the piece. (link)
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#4: Alabama MBB HC Oats addressed the media for the first time since former Crimson Tide student-athlete Miles was charged with murder and explained he gathered the team for a meeting Sunday night. “I thought it was important that we were all here and around to support one another through this situation. With this being a pending investigation, there’s nothing more I can add that hasn’t already been shared. … They didn’t really have too many questions. Really, it’s more of a grieving process. They understand the severity of the situation with Jamea. And they also understand the severity of the situation with Darius and there are both sides of dealing with it. Yeah, it’s not something you go through often as a coach but we have the services around the program to help us handle the situation.” Oats also explained he spoke with Miles’ mother on “multiple” occasions Sunday. “It’s a very hard situation on both accounts.” (link)
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#3: Wisconsin football is rolling out a series of billboards throughout the state and in Chicago featuring new Badgers HC Fickell, plus UW student-athletes from the respective areas, to coincide with the start of the recruiting contact period. Surprisingly, use of 10 billboards Friday through Sunday will only cost a touch over $7K. Click through to check out marketing creative for the boards. (link)
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#2: Michigan has placed FB Co-OC Weiss on leave as campus police investigate a "report of computer access crimes” alleged to have occurred in December in Schembechler Hall. Weiss in a statement to ESPN: “I am aware of the ongoing investigation by the University of Michigan Police Department and fully cooperating with investigators. I look forward to the matter being resolved. Out of respect for the integrity of the investigation, I will not have any further comment." (link)
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#1: SBJ’s Smith reports Stanford Deputy AD/Chief of Staff Gray is leaving Palo Alto to become Chief Strategy Officer at Altius Sports Partners. Gray: “When change this disruptive comes along, where you have a multitude of state laws, no federal laws and there’s a lot of confusion, it’s still hard to tell where all of this is going to land.” (link)
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