Connect with us
https://yoursportsnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/call-to-1.png

NIL

Greg Sankey reveals NCAA Tournament expansion lasted ‘maybe lasted five minutes’ at SEC meetings

Last week, NCAA president Charlie Baker told reporters that the NCAA Tournament could expand to 72 or 76 teams by 2026. During an appearance on the “Dan Patrick Show,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey revealed how his conference coaches reacted when he brought up tournament expansion. “I introduced the issue to our men’s basketball coaches, which […]

Published

on


Last week, NCAA president Charlie Baker told reporters that the NCAA Tournament could expand to 72 or 76 teams by 2026. During an appearance on the “Dan Patrick Show,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey revealed how his conference coaches reacted when he brought up tournament expansion.

“I introduced the issue to our men’s basketball coaches, which I think we’ve talked about with that group before. I would guess then, given the other issues we had on our plate, that conversation maybe lasted five minutes,” Sankey said. “My points to them were, this is still a work in progress.

“I didn’t know that there was going to be kind of a press gathering. This is not a criticism. Charlie Baker spoke about tournament expansion, I think, the day after our basketball coaches gathered. I mentioned it to our women’s basketball coaches as well briefly. It didn’t really go anywhere.”

The announcement from Baker has divided the college basketball landscape. Some fans are excited to see more teams have the chance to participate in March Madness. Meanwhile, others claim that adding teams to the historic tournament, dilutes the importance of the event.

Of course, from the NCAA’s perspective, tournament expansion is mostly about finances. More games equals more money. The NCAA Tournament last expanded in 2011 when it changed from including 64 teams to 68, with the addition of the First Four round of games.

Prior to that, the format of March Madness had remained unchanged since the 64-team field was first adopted in 1985. Greg Sankey still doesn’t know if expanding the tournament is the best move.

“We should be exploring tournament expansion. Whether or not it happens, is actually another point of evaluation,” Sankey said. “So have the conversation, deep dive, figure out if it works, practically, competitively, economically.

“I think the one issue for us is, if it is expanded, let’s pick the number of 76 and I’ll do quick math for you. So 52 of the 76 teams would be like in that traditional first round. The other 24 would play in 12 games. The 12 winners meet up with the 52. There’s your 64-team bracket, right? That’s like from my intramural director days at Utica. So I know how brackets work. What I’m really interested in, we’re interested in, is who fills those 12 games, those other 24 teams?”

Only time will tell. However, judging from Baker’s latest statements, college basketball fans might be learning more about an expanded NCAA Tournament sooner than they’d previously expected.



Link

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

NIL

Argument over ‘valid business purpose’ for NIL collectives threatens college sports settlement

Associated Press Less than two weeks after terms of a multibillion-dollar college sports settlement went into effect, friction erupted over the definition of a “valid business purpose” that collectives making name, image and likeness payments to players are supposed to have. The new College Sports Commission sent a letter to athletic directors last week saying […]

Published

on


Associated Press

Less than two weeks after terms of a multibillion-dollar college sports settlement went into effect, friction erupted over the definition of a “valid business purpose” that collectives making name, image and likeness payments to players are supposed to have.

The new College Sports Commission sent a letter to athletic directors last week saying it was rejecting deals in which players were receiving money from collectives that were created solely to pay them and don’t provide goods or services to the general public for profit.

A lead attorney for the players responded by saying those instructions went against settlement terms and asking the CSC to rescind the guidance.

“This process is undermined when the CSC goes off the reservation and issues directions to the schools that are not consistent with the Settlement Agreement terms,” attorney Jeffrey Kessler wrote to NCAA outside counsel Rakesh Kilaru in a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

Yahoo Sports first reported details of the letter, in which Kessler threatens to take the issue to a judge assigned with resolving disputes involved in the settlement.

Kessler told the AP that his firm was not commenting on the contents of the letter, and Kilaru did not immediately respond to the AP’s request for comment.

Yahoo quoted a CSC spokesman as saying the parties are working to resolve differences and that “the guidance issued by the College Sports Commission … is entirely consistent with the House settlement and the rules that have been agreed upon with class counsel.”

When NIL payments became allowed in 2021, boosters formed so-called collectives that were closely tied to universities to work out contracts with the players, who still weren’t allowed to be paid directly by the schools.

Terms of the House settlement allow schools to make the payments now but keep the idea of outside payments from collectives, which have to be approved by the CSC if they are worth $600 or more.

The CSC, in its letter last week, explained that if a collective reaches a deal, for instance, for an athlete to appear on behalf of the collective, which charges an admission fee, that collective does not have a “valid business purpose” because the purpose of the event is to raise money to pay athletes, not to provide goods or services available to the general public for profit.

Another example of a disallowed deal was one an athlete makes to sell merchandise to raise money to pay that player because, the CSC guidance said, the purpose of “selling merchandise is to raise money to pay that student-athlete and potentially other student-athletes at a particular school or schools, which is not a valid business purpose.”

Kessler’s letter notes that the “valid business purpose” rule was designed to ensure athletes were not simply being paid to play, and did not prohibit NIL collectives from paying athletes for the type of deals described above.

To prevent those payments “would be to create a new prohibition on payments by a NIL collective that is not provided for or contemplated by the Settlement Agreement, causing injury to the class members who should be free to receive those payments,” Kessler wrote.

___

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports




Link

Continue Reading

NIL

Boise State Athletics Partners with Opendorse to Secure NIL Opportunities for Student …

BOISE, Idaho – Boise State Athletics today announced an innovative partnership with Opendorse to round out its comprehensive Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) program. Through this relationship, Bronco student-athletes will see the direct benefits of strategic sales support around commercial deals, tools to help athletes develop their personal brand, and a Boise State branded marketplace […]

Published

on

Boise State Athletics Partners with Opendorse to Secure NIL Opportunities for Student ...

BOISE, Idaho – Boise State Athletics today announced an innovative partnership with Opendorse to round out its comprehensive Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) program. Through this relationship, Bronco student-athletes will see the direct benefits of strategic sales support around commercial deals, tools to help athletes develop their personal brand, and a Boise State branded marketplace to enhance accessibility.
 
Boise State becomes the first NCAA Division I athletic department to leverage the Opendorse Sales Plan™, putting a dedicated team to work to deliver a guaranteed minimum amount of NIL dollars to Bronco student-athletes. This Opendorse Sales team is responsible for sourcing, presenting, and facilitating real NIL opportunities with national, regional, and local brands.
 
“We appreciate Opendorse for helping us continue to be innovative as we build out a comprehensive experience for our student-athletes with NIL and BroncoPRO,” said Jeramiah Dickey, Boise State Director of Athletics. “Opendorse has a lot of experience in the NIL space, working not only with college and pro athletes but brands and partners as well. We’re ready to work alongside them and set up our student-athletes for success!”
 
This partnership reflects Boise State’s broader commitment to the student-athlete experience. The department’s mission from the beginning of the NIL era has been to build the most student-athlete friendly NIL program in the country centered around advocacy, content, and education. By expanding its resources with Opendorse, Boise State is ensuring that every Bronco has the opportunity to build their brand, explore new opportunities, monetize their moment, and thrive during their time on campus—and beyond.
 
“Boise State is setting the standard for how athletic departments can take a proactive, strategic approach to NIL,” said Blake Lawrence, Co-Founder & President, Collegiate Operations at Opendorse. “By combining technology, data, and dedicated commercial support, they’re ensuring Bronco student-athletes have access to real NIL opportunities, and the resources to maximize it.”

About BroncoPRO
In November 2024, Boise State announced the formation of BroncoPRO (Professional Resources Organization). The unit within the Boise State Athletics department will provide turnkey NIL and revenue-sharing services for Bronco student-athletes. The focus of BroncoPRO will be recruiting and retaining student-athletes while providing custom brand development services. It will also provide NIL and BroncoLife programming for all Boise State student-athletes to better equip the Broncos for life after graduation. Visit BroncoSports.com to learn more.

About Opendorse
Opendorse is The Real NIL Company powering the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) industry for brands, colleges, collectives, and fans. More than 150,000 athlete influencers use Opendorse to build, promote, and monetize their personal brand through the largest athlete media network.

Continue Reading

NIL

Goodman: The blood-lusting American Dream is back for college football and the SEC

This is an opinion column. _____________________ There are blood-lusting winners in the SEC, and then there are losers soon to be sucked dry and without jobs. There are no saints. There are no Boy Scouts. There are no values other than money. There are no morals when it comes to chasing a championship in this […]

Published

on


This is an opinion column.

_____________________

There are blood-lusting winners in the SEC, and then there are losers soon to be sucked dry and without jobs. There are no saints.

There are no Boy Scouts.

There are no values other than money.

There are no morals when it comes to chasing a championship in this league of leagues. It’s a business, and the business, according to commissioner Greg Sankey’s sword-swinging remarks on Monday, is pretty good.

And dripping with the blood of the innocent.

I’m here at SEC Media Days 2025 in Atlanta, and it seems like some of these coaches need a refresher course on the unspoken, unscrupulous rules of engagement.

Oblige, I will.

Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss gets it. So does Tennessee’s governor, Bill Lee.

LSU’s Brian Kelly?

Auburn’s Hugh Freeze?

They’re either preening and posturing about the evolution of cheating in the SEC, or they’re positioning themselves this summer to join Nick Saban in retirement.

Auburn coach Freeze interrupts his summertime golf schedule on Tuesday for a visit with reporters at Media Days. Freeze wants everyone to know that he and Auburn are suddenly playing by the rules and are holier than they’re rivals.

On Monday, LSU’s Kelly turned the stage inside Atlanta’s College Football Hall of Fame into a pulpit after being asked about the latest attempt at governance for our beautiful Southern sport of legalized corruption.

“If we start with transparency, and start with the clear communication necessary, and consistency, and approach … look, I know this might not be what you were asking, but it’s got to start with coaches.

“It’s got to start with us.

“I mean, we have to be the stewards of this. There has to be a moral high ground — ethics in this. It starts with us. It starts with coaches.

“I was at a speaking engagement a few weeks back, and every question about the NIL was trying to find a way around it, trying to find a way to bring in revenue in some other way. Sooner or later, we have to take the stand that transparency, consistency, ethics, and morality are at the core of this.”

Spoken like a man who sounds like he wants to be replaced before the start of fall camp. Would Saban consider making his comeback at LSU?

Saban is the coaching GOAT of college football, but he got out because he didn’t want to play this new game of paying players every season. Kelly is the active wins leader (313) among college coaches, but he sounds like the game is passing him by.

Last time we checked, there’s no such thing as moral high ground down in the bayou. In fact, LSU’s football stadium, the highest point above sea level in Baton Rouge, was built thanks to public corruption.

Former LSU governor and U.S. senator Huey P. Long was a man of the people, loved LSU football and found creative ways to funnel money into the program. Long, and all the Kingfisher’s men, would have loved this new SEC, too, and they would have considered it a personal challenge that Tennessee’s state government is playing the game better than anyone.

Earlier this summer, Tennessee governor Lee signed into law legislation that gives the Volunteers and Vanderbilt Commodores a license to operate beyond the latest attempt at rules for college football.

Legalized cheating, in other words.

Under the law, college athletes in the state of Tennessee have no limits on the amount of money they can earn through NIL payments until the federal government says otherwise. Is the new College Football Commission already a joke? We’ll see.

The new commission was set up to govern college football, but I’m guessing that the CFC swung and missed by hiring a former Ivy League-educated baseball executive to run enforcement. Should they have hired someone like Sankey instead?

Sankey isn’t very good at controlling the coaches in the SEC, but at least the SEC’s commissioner understands the game. On Monday, he described the sport as “messy,” said it was backsliding into the “early 1900s” and all but called out Vanderbilt for bringing back quarterback Diego Pavia after successfully suing the NCAA for an extra year of eligibility.

“Literally,” Sankey said, “if you go to the first quarter century, and look at some of the practices around college sports, you start to see the same things that we are seeing today — an older group of college athletes, constant movement without a lot of oversight and questions about whether there are real academic standards that apply.

“As the world changes throughout college sports, we have to hold on to some values that are at the center of what we do on our academic campuses.”

Back at the turn of the 1800s, when college football was an unregulated portrait of the American Dream, football players would go from school to school for the highest dollar. Some of the players were given jobs as teachers. Some of the players were 28 and 30 years old, and everyone called them “scabs.”

There were no rules, which means there was no concept of phony, manufactured morality.

It was football without pretense. It was a juicy, bloody, rare steak of possibility just waiting to be consumed by the masses. Here we are again. The American Dream is alive and well in this new age of college football, and I only have one question.

Why didn’t Auburn pay for Pavia to transfer?

BE HEARD

Got a question for Joe? Want to get something off your chest? Send Joe an email about what’s on your mind. Let your voice be heard. Ask him anything.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the book “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s Ultimate Team.”

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.



Link

Continue Reading

NIL

‘I think it’s obvious people aren’t staying within the cap’

ATLANTA, Georgia – It probably should come as no surprise that Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin was the most outspoken coach on the SEC Media Days podium when he was asked about the controversy and confusion surrounding revenue sharing and NIL. “I think it’s obvious people aren’t staying within the cap, so I think the […]

Published

on


ATLANTA, Georgia – It probably should come as no surprise that Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin was the most outspoken coach on the SEC Media Days podium when he was asked about the controversy and confusion surrounding revenue sharing and NIL.

“I think it’s obvious people aren’t staying within the cap, so I think the whole thing will be, ‘What does that look like?’ That’s what we don’t know. What does it look like when you don’t and what are the punishments for that? Do you win and that comes later?”

On a hard salary cap

“I think that’s what we attempted. Doesn’t seem like that’s working very well. So yeah, I mean, stating the obvious. That was the intention of what was going on because there were so many complaints when NIL started about, OK, everybody has different advantages, and different payrolls. Saw those a couple years ago.

“I was up here at one of these joking about a luxury tax based on A&M’s spending or whatever it was. So that was supposed to be being fix, and now it’s not.”

On getting an early start

“If you go back to retention of last year’s players and the portal guys December, January, we went into that operating under this cap because we were told the settlement was most likely going to get approved and how that would work,” Kiffin said.

“We get a lot of questions like, ‘What’s it like now?’ We’ve been operating – we have – under these cap guidelines of what was coming and what it was going to look like. I think we’ve done a really good job of that.”

Hovering over every coach at SEC Media Days are questions about revenue-sharing and NIL. It is the front and center in every discussion about football.

SOUTH CAROLINA’S SHANE BEAMER

On what he wants to see

“That what we say is going to happen. That what we say is going to be enforced. For all the talk out there, if there is no teeth to it, it doesn’t matter. What is being implemented with rev share and the clearinghouse, I see other conferences talking about it, saying it’s not going to work and this and that.”

On how it can work

“Something that has some teeth to it and is what it is supposed to be and if somebody is not doing what they are supposed to be doing, there are going to be repercussions. Let it be what it is supposed to be and let ‘s see what happens.”

LSU’S BRIAN KELLY

On the process

“We are early on in the process,” Kelly said. “This is the first step in what we are trying to build. I am excited about college football. I am excited we have something in place in terms of revenue-sharing. NIL is still something we have to navigate. I think we still have to be thinking about how we continue to build or support for NIL. It’s not going away. Nor should it.”

On what is important going forward

“Transparency and consistency. Those two words are probably the most important things as we continue to move forward. … If we start with transparency and start with the clear communication necessary and consistency and approach. It’s got to start with coaches.

:It’s got to start with us. I mean, we have to be the stewards of this. There has to be a moral high ground. Ethics in this. It starts with us. It starts with coaches. I was at a speaking engagement a few weeks back, and every question about NIL was trying to find a way around it, trying to find a way to bring in revenue in some other way.

“Sooner or later we have to take the stand that transparency, consistency, ethics, and morality are at the core of this. If that’s where we are we’re going to be able to move to the next step and be able to continue to make progress.”

This story will be updated.



Link

Continue Reading

NIL

Doron Lamb would’ve stayed all four years at Kentucky with NIL – with untouchable shooting records

Kentucky does not win the national championship in 2012 without Doron Lamb, the former Wildcat sharpshooter going for a game-high 22 points in the 67-59 victory over Kansas to hang banner No. 8. It was the perfect way to finish a near-perfect postseason run, the Queens native scoring in double figures all six games with […]

Published

on


Kentucky does not win the national championship in 2012 without Doron Lamb, the former Wildcat sharpshooter going for a game-high 22 points in the 67-59 victory over Kansas to hang banner No. 8. It was the perfect way to finish a near-perfect postseason run, the Queens native scoring in double figures all six games with 16-plus in four of six and two 20-point outings.

Lamb was consistent, just as he was his entire career in Lexington. He averaged 12.3 points per contest in year one, 13.7 points in year two with shooting splits of 49/48/81 in 78 total games. Until Reed Sheppard came along in 2023-24, he held the all-time shooting record at Kentucky, knocking down 47.5 percent of his three-pointers on 303 attempts with 144 makes.

Thing is, he only averaged 3.9 attempts per game — 3.7 as a freshman, 4.1 as a sophomore. He was a coin-flip shooter, but didn’t get many opportunities with 1.8 conversions each time out. Keep that in mind, he says, when talking about the all-time greats in the blue and white.

“Let me tell y’all real quick. Look, y’all. Listen,” Lamb told KSR, clearly needing to get something off his chest. “Back in my era, back in my time playing basketball, I only averaged four attempts at the three-point line — but I averaged two makes. These kids now are shooting 10 threes, eight threes a game. If I would’ve done that back then, I would have averaged 20-plus. So that’s all I need to say.”

He’s got a good point. Take college basketball’s leading three-point shooter from a year ago, Belmont’s Tyler Lundblade. He knocked down 48.1 percent of his attempts — worse than Lamb’s year-one average as a Wildcat of 48.6 percent — but took 6.5 threes per game. Koby Brea may be the better example for BBN, finishing No. 9 nationally shooting 43.5 percent from deep on 5.9 attempts per contest in Lexington. Houston’s L.J. Cryer got up 7.3 three-pointers each night on 42.4 percent shooting to finish at No. 16 on his way to the national title game. Remember Lamar Wilkerson, who turned down Kentucky for Indiana in the transfer portal? 44.5 percent on 7.7 attempts at Sam Houston State, No. 7 nationally.

Could the efficiency match the volume? Lamb is almost offended by the question. Of course it would, because that’s what he does.

“For sure. If I get more shots, I’m making more shots. I’m a shot-maker,” he told KSR. “You gotta make shots to play in Coach Cal’s system because there are too many guys on the team. You only get eight, nine shots a game. That’s what I was, a shot-maker. If I’m gonna get 10 threes per night, I’m gonna make six easily.”

Lamb playing in today’s game with more shots opens the door to the dream of NIL potentially keeping him in Lexington longer than the two years he stayed, leaving as a second-round pick after the title in 2012. He was taken with the No. 42 pick as a sophomore, but would’ve happily stuck around if the price was right.

What would that price be, exactly? Considering his status as a top-30 recruit making the McDonald’s All-American Game and Jordan Brand Classic, along with the obvious shooting efficiency that put him in the Kentucky record books, it’s safe to call him a seven-figure player.

His price tag would’ve certainly gone up after scoring 22 points in the championship game, too, making the opportunity too good to pass up. The two years we saw of Lamb in Lexington would have been four.

“Me coming in as a McDonald’s All-American? I would have needed a million dollars, minimum,” he said. “These kids are getting a million dollars to average three points; it’s crazy. I would’ve been a millionaire easily. I would have stayed, I ain’t gonna lie. After one championship, I would have stayed because I would have gotten a big bag. I would have stayed in college.”

Knowing what it would have meant to his legacy as a hooper, he wishes that’s how things unfolded.

“I would’ve still had records today — three-point records, points. I would have had a lot of records,” Lamb told KSR. “I wish I had done four years.”

D-Lamb could’ve been eating a whole lot more and sleeping a whole lot less in blue and white.





Link

Continue Reading

NIL

Argument over ‘valid business purpose’ for NIL collectives threatens college sports settlement

Terms of the House settlement allow schools to make the payments now but keep the idea of outside payments from collectives, which have to be approved by the CSC if they are worth $600 or more. The CSC, in its letter last week, explained that if a collective reaches a deal, for instance, for an […]

Published

on


Terms of the House settlement allow schools to make the payments now but keep the idea of outside payments from collectives, which have to be approved by the CSC if they are worth $600 or more.

The CSC, in its letter last week, explained that if a collective reaches a deal, for instance, for an athlete to appear on behalf of the collective, which charges an admission fee, that collective does not have a ”valid business purpose” because the purpose of the event is to raise money to pay athletes, not to provide goods or services available to the general public for profit.

Another example of a disallowed deal was one an athlete makes to sell merchandise to raise money to pay that player because, the CSC guidance said, the purpose of ”selling merchandise is to raise money to pay that student-athlete and potentially other student-athletes at a particular school or schools, which is not a valid business purpose.”

Kessler’s letter notes that the ”valid business purpose” rule was designed to ensure athletes were not simply being paid to play, and did not prohibit NIL collectives from paying athletes for the type of deals described above.

To prevent those payments ”would be to create a new prohibition on payments by a NIL collective that is not provided for or contemplated by the Settlement Agreement, causing injury to the class members who should be free to receive those payments,” Kessler wrote.



Link

Continue Reading

Most Viewed Posts

Trending