Headed into the start of SEC spring meetings, the Big Ten believed it had a partner in its push to transform the College Football Playoff into something more akin to the NFL. The Big Ten and SEC have grown significantly closer over the last year, having orchestrated a takeover of the College Football Playoff that […]
Headed into the start of SEC spring meetings, the Big Ten believed it had a partner in its push to transform the College Football Playoff into something more akin to the NFL.
The Big Ten and SEC have grown significantly closer over the last year, having orchestrated a takeover of the College Football Playoff that gives them say over whether and how the format will change for 2026 and beyond.
The two conferences strengthened the bond with historic conference meetups — first in Nashville in October 2024 and then in New Orleans in February. At those meetings, the Big Ten’s preference to move to more automatic qualifiers — four each for the Big Ten and SEC, two each for the ACC and Big 12 — began to resonate with an SEC contingent that had previously resisted.
Those involved in the discussions and participants in the meetings say once Big Ten leaders laid out the reasoning for a move to more automatic qualifiers — chief among them taking away power from a perceived inconsistent selection committee process and allowing for better non-conference scheduling — it gained traction within the SEC. The Big Ten believed a move to more automatic bids would lessen the selection committee “conflicting itself week-to-week,” according to one source familiar with the discussions, and allow for consistency that it didn’t think was possible for a 13-person group that changed its membership year-over-year.
“Make it about how you compete against your conference and take out any sort of perceived bias or politicking and campaigning and let it play out how each conference thinks is best for them,” is how one Big Ten source explained the pitch.
Still undecided, SEC holds the key to College Football Playoff as 5+11 format gains steam
Brandon Marcello
It helped that the Big Ten caught the SEC in a perfect storm during that February meeting after the conference experienced three schools (Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina) just miss the playoff cut in a process SEC leaders felt didn’t properly weigh the challenge of playing in the conference. The idea of dramatically lessening the selection committee’s power didn’t sound so bad now after the SEC only got three teams into the first year of the 12-team CFP.
Big Ten sources described those shared meetings with the SEC, which featured both commissioners and athletic directors from all member schools, as “critical” in garnering support for a move to a 16-team playoff with more automatic qualifiers. At Big Ten meetings in late May in California, multiple Big Ten sources were bullish about where things stood between the two conferences in their push for playoff expansion. The concern wasn’t what the SEC would do but instead trying to build a consensus with the ACC and Big 12, which had both opposed the 4-4-2-2-1-3 model despite a firmly held belief that they didn’t need either to ultimately achieve their goals.
The key, then and now, was the SEC.
And as the SEC kicked off its annual meetings down in Sandestin, Florida, last week, there was no reason for concern. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was careful with his wording in describing the idea but didn’t exactly hide his support of it, either. He said the SEC was “interested but not committed,” a typical Sankey move to nod at what he wanted but give himself cover.
Yet as the week at the beach closed, the SEC was trending away from the 4-4-2-2-1-3 model and instead was rallying around the Big 12’s preferred 5 + 11 model that featured the top five-ranked conference champions receiving automatic bids and the other 11 going to the top ranked at-large teams. It was a stunning reversal that caught multiple Big Ten sources off guard and could set up a potentially fascinating heavyweight battle between the two most powerful conferences if the SEC becomes entrenched on the 5+11 idea.
How did we get there? It begins with a powerful group that is often overlooked in these discussions.
SEC coaches forcefully against AQs, 9 conference games
Six of the 10 highest-paid football coaches in America reside in the SEC, including the game’s highest-paid coach, Georgia‘s Kirby Smart. National championship-winning coaches like Smart are almost demigods in their community, revered for their success on Saturdays and their ability to bring in millions of dollars in revenue when everything is going well.
But when it comes time to making big decisions that could shape their everyday reality, even the powerful, outspoken coaches like Smart and Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin rarely get what they want. Just look at Smart’s impassioned speech about the transfer portal last week and why nothing has changed despite overwhelming support at the FBS head coach level.
What one must remember is that what’s most important to a football coach could be just one of the many issues their athletic director is dealing with at any given time. Go up another level and think about everything a university president or chancellor must contend with daily. The higher up the food chain you go, the more attractive extra revenue that an expanded CFP and a move to nine SEC conference games might look.
This time was different, though.
The SEC football coaches coming out so strongly against AQs, both publicly and privately, caught SEC leaders by surprise, according to multiple sources. The joint conversation between athletic directors and football coaches became heated at times, as some ADs, banking on the extra $5 million or so in revenue a ninth SEC game would bring, became frustrated over the tides turning against their preferred outcomes. The majority of the coaches vehemently opposed the idea of a play-in weekend, believing it would diminish the importance of the SEC Championship Game. The play-in playoff concept, a key component of Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti’s playoff plan, is another potentially sizable source of new revenue that some ADs would like to get their hands on.
“Having football coaches in the room was really good,” Mississippi State AD Zac Selmon told CBS Sports. “We’re considering all options and what’s best for our institutions and the SEC.”
Selmon said his position on automatic qualifiers “evolved a lot” after the joint meetings with the Big Ten but that he still wrestled with whether that was the best path for the SEC, a notion only amplified down in Sandestin after discussing with his colleagues.
“I grew up in sports, and if you want to win a championship, you have to go earn it, and I still think that’s exactly how it is in the SEC,” Selmon said. “If you get into the CFP, you’ve earned your way there, and you should.
“In some years, we could have a model where there’s seven SEC teams in the expanded CFP. Is that good for the game? I don’t know, but it shows the strength of our league. There’s still work to be done on what options, but I always feel comfort knowing Commissioner Sankey has done an unbelievable job carrying the load. The same for us at Mississippi State with Mark Keenum, the chair of the (CFP) Board of Managers. I still think there’s work to be done on the entire ecosystem just because of the disparity in our league is a gauntlet.”
How will selection process change?
From the start of the SEC’s week on the Gulf Coast, it felt like a targeted attack on the current CFP selection process.
Multiple coaches came out against a process that led to more Big Ten (4) than SEC (3) teams in the playoff.
“There’s no outcry, saying it’s unfair when the SEC gets 13 of 16 teams in (the NCAA) basketball tournament by using RPI,” Smart said. “I have a hard time thinking Ole Miss, South Carolina and Alabama were not part of the best teams in the country.”
Lane Kiffin, who advocated for simply taking the 16 best teams and getting rid of automatic bids altogether, wanted the selection process tweaked.
“Somehow, the formula of how they figure out the teams has to change,” Kiffin said. “I’m not just saying that because we lost three games and didn’t make it; I’m saying that because other sports do a much better job of figuring out the quality of the team over just the losses, figuring out the quality of wins that they have, their strength of schedule that they play.”
When pressed on what specifically he’d like to see done to emphasize those things, including from an analytics or formula standpoint, Kiffin admitted he didn’t really have an answer.
“You got to use some of the indexes,” he said. “I’m not going to pretend I understand them all and which ones are the best, but I know other sports have figured that out better than us.”
Therein lies part of the problem moving forward. The SEC doesn’t like how the selection committee handled last year’s playoff field. Guess what? The Big Ten has similar concerns, which is why it is trying to deemphasize the committee’s impact with the introduction of more automatic qualifiers. In the Big Ten’s plan, the committee would primarily focus on seeding. It would only have to select three at-large teams — if it expands to 16 teams — rather than the seven teams it currently picks.
Conversely, if a 5 +11 model is adopted, it’d give the committee more power — and put even more pressure to get it right — in picking 11 of the field’s teams.
The limited amount of data points available in football makes it challenging to come up with college football’s version of NET or RPI. Still, it is clear that changes can — and likely will — be made to an ambiguous process to find the best teams that doesn’t officially take strength of schedule into account. As former Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese, a member of the inaugural CFP selection committee, told CBS Sports in December: “They said, ‘We want to get the best teams.’ But no one told us how to find the best teams.”
Florida AD Scott Stricklin, another former member of the selection committee, was even more forceful in his rebuke of a system he once willingly participated in, saying, “A committee is not ideal to choose a postseason. I question whether it is appropriate for college football.”
Selmon wants “more clearly defined metrics” and to make the selection process less subjective. He doesn’t know the exact formula to fix the problems but is confident it can be done.
“I can pick up my phone and have food delivered here in five minutes. I could probably buy a house in about 10 minutes. We’ve got super computers that can look at things that are going on in Vegas with odds. They can be pretty dialed in,” Selmon said. “So I think we need some more objective metrics to say this is what the pathway looks like before we can fully get to a system everybody feels good about regardless of what seat you’re sitting in, what league you’re in, and think this is for the good of college football.”
At the conclusion of the SEC spring meetings, the conference handed out a seven-page packet entitled, “A Regular Season Gauntlet,” that highlighted “no other conference has a regular season as grueling as the SEC’s.” Within the packet, the SEC pointed out different metrics used, whether the metrics were objective or predictive and where the conference ranked. The intent was obvious: The SEC, using a variety of metrics, believes it has been the clear best conference over the last decade and that more of those metrics need to be factored into the selection process.
As Sankey put it,” “I do think there’s a need for change. How do you explain some of the decisions that have been made?”
The Big Ten and SEC may not be as aligned as they once were when it comes to future CFP formatting.
Imagn Images
What now?
On Monday, Sankey reiterated his long-held belief that the SEC doesn’t need automatic qualifiers. Appearing on the “Dan Patrick Show,” the SEC commissioner, who has been the unwitting face of the automatic qualifiers debate, made clear that’s not his preference.
“I’d give no allocations,” Sankey said. “This whole 5-7 thing that exists now, I’d just make it the 12 best teams. I was clear on that. When we get into rooms, we make political compromises, if you will.”
Sankey and the other conference commissioners are expected to have a call Tuesday to further discuss the latest CFP discussions. They’ll meet in person on June 18 in Asheville, North Carolina. Sankey told the SEC presidents and chancellors last week it was important to collaborate with the other conferences and that the SEC couldn’t “bulldog” a format on the others, as one SEC president told CBS Sports.
A week ago, expansion to 16 teams with multiple AQs per power conference felt increasingly like a foregone conclusion. With it came a possible Big Ten-SEC scheduling alliance and a play-in weekend where the conferences could create additional must-see television programming.
Now, the 5 + 11 model has more steam than ever. It seems more and more doubtful that the SEC will move to a nine-game conference schedule in 2026. (The Big Ten, according to Yahoo Sports, has already voiced private displeasure over moving to 5+11 if the SEC sticks to eight conference games.) SEC football coaches harshly rejected the play-in championship weekend idea.
Will the SEC maintain this stance and throw cold water on its burgeoning relationship with the Big Ten? Or, as time passes and decisions get made without coaches in the room, will the SEC eventually make its way back to a model that guarantees it four spots in the playoff?
Only time will tell, but the industry is already grappling with the aftershocks of the SEC’s week in Sandestin that could be the most impactful spring meetings in a long time.
Kai Trump teams up with Olivia Dunne after scoring first NIL deal
The president’s granddaughter has already secured her first partnership despite not yet becoming a college athlete, having signed with a renowned energy drinks brand alongside some famous faces Kai Trump has secured her first major NIL deal with energy drink brand Accelerator Active Energy(Image: Instagram – Kai Trump) Kai Trump has secured her first NIL […]
The president’s granddaughter has already secured her first partnership despite not yet becoming a college athlete, having signed with a renowned energy drinks brand alongside some famous faces
Kai Trump has secured her first major NIL deal with energy drink brand Accelerator Active Energy(Image: Instagram – Kai Trump)
Kai Trump has secured her first NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) partnership ahead of playing golf at the University of Miami next year after joining forces with energy drinks brand Accelerator Active Energy.
The 18-year-old aspiring golfer doesn’t begin her scholarship with the Hurricanes until 2026 but is already making the most of her popularity by linking up with the company, which is renowned for launching “The Livvy Fund” with former LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne to support women’s college athletes.
Earlier this year, it emerged that U.S. President Donald Trump’s granddaughter could become one of the highest paid female athletes ever having developed a growing NIL stock since taking up golf. The teenager’s substantial social media following also significantly contributes to her valuation, as does her highly-popular YouTube channel.
READ MORE: Jordan Spieth reveals major family update on eve of The Open ChampionshipREAD MORE: Mike Tyson wastes no time calling out Jake Paul after Katie Taylor result
In January, Trump actually sealed an NIL deal with Dallas-based Leaf Trading Cards, which sells autographed cards for $200 a pack, but it would appear that her recent announcement involving Accelerator Active Energy has blown that out of the water.
Taking to Instagram on Tuesday, Trump used a presidential-themed announcement to reveal her big news, in which she made a speech at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, telling all “fellow Americans and content creators” that she’s partnered and invested in Accelerator.
“My fellow Americans and content creators. After months of reflection, I made a decision. I’ll be running, no stepping into a new role,” Trump began. “One with great responsibilities and 100% natural caffeine. I’ve partnered with Accelerator. No sugar. No crash. Cheers.”
Content cannot be displayed without consent
In the post’s caption, she added: “Not running for office… just running on Rocket Pop. Proud to partner with @drinkaccelerator — check out my favorite energy drink on Amazon and select retailers near you!”
In the comments section, the official Drink Accelerator account posted: “Welcome to the team, Kai”, while former college gymnastics champion Dunne wrote: “Welcome to the fam!!!”
Also on the energy drink’s roster as an equity partner is Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who has helped to highlight the drink’s key features, such as its natural caffeine, lack of added sugar and preservatives, in previous campaigns.
“It’s pretty cool, especially being partners with such great athletes and being up there with him,” Trump told FOX Business about what it’s like to be part of a star-studded team.
Former LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne is also part of the
Accelerator Active Energy team(Image: Photo by Georgia Jones/LSU/University Images via Getty Images)
The aspiring golfer added how Accelerator is “so important to ensuring I stay focused and have extra energy when I’m in the gym, on the golf course, studying, traveling or as part of my daily routine.”
Trump’s arrival has been welcomed with open arms by Accelerator Active Energy CEO Andrew Wilkinson, who said in a statement: “Kai has a very busy schedule including golf, content creation, travel and much more and Accelerator is the perfect solution to providing her the sustained energy without sugar while she’s on the go.
“We are excited to see all she is going to accomplish in the years ahead as she becomes a leading voice in NIL and beyond.”
Morning Edition July 16, 2025 Texas enters the SEC football season as the favorite, backed by one of college football’s most expensive rosters. Lucrative NIL deals and a $20.5 million revenue-sharing plan could push total player compensation to $40 million, but how the Longhorns navigate this new era remains uncertain. —David Rumsey, Eric Fisher, and […]
Texas enters the SEC football season as the favorite, backed by one of college football’s most expensive rosters. Lucrative NIL deals and a $20.5 million revenue-sharing plan could push total player compensation to $40 million, but how the Longhorns navigate this new era remains uncertain.
—David Rumsey, Eric Fisher, and Colin Salao
Austin American-Statesman
ATLANTA — Texas is the betting favorite to win the SEC this season, and there’s serious momentum around the Longhorns not only taking over the conference between the lines—but off the field, too.
“The popularity of the Texas Longhorns is at an all-time high,” coach Steve Sarkisian said Tuesday at SEC media days, quickly pointing out metrics like eight million average TV viewers per game last season, average home attendance of 102,000 fans, and selling out season tickets for a fourth straight year.
Last season, Texas lost to Georgia in the SEC championship game, but it was the last team standing from the conference in the College Football Playoff, losing to eventual champion Ohio State in the semifinals.
This season, the Longhorns will have one of the most expensive rosters in college football, thanks to lucrative NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals signed before a July 1 shift in regulating said contracts—on top of the athletic department planning to pay football players roughly 75% of its $20.5 million revenue-sharing budget. The total sum, including revenue-sharing and NIL (name, image, and likeness), could reach $40 million, the Houston Chronicle previously reported.
Additionally, Texas’s five road games this season—at Ohio State, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi State, and Georgia—will see the Longhorns travel over 9,000 miles, more than any other team in the SEC.
Manning Mania
The most important player for Texas (and almost certainly the highest-paid) will be quarterback Arch Manning, who has taken over the starting job after Quinn Ewers was drafted by the Dolphins.
Manning said he’s excited to compete in “a big-time conference” in the SEC, but he is blocking out the intense media interest around his debut season. “I’m here to play ball,” he said in front of dozens of reporters Tuesday. “This is very much so secondary.”
Sarkisian is confident Manning, who comes from one of the most famous families in football, is ready for the moment. “He grew up in this era of seeing high-level football,” Sarkisan said. “He’s watched Super Bowls. He’s watched gold jackets getting put on.”
Cash Flow
Sarkisian echoed thoughts from many other coaches in expressing uncertainty about how the newly created College Sports Commission will regulate revenue-sharing and NIL deals.
“Honestly, I have no idea,” he said. “I don’t know. We’re in such the beginning stages of this thing. I think that everybody is operating differently. Everybody is trying to navigate this differently, and what are exactly the rules and are they going to be enforced? Nobody really knows.”
When it comes to paying players, Sarkisian believes Texas takes a different approach than many other schools. “When kids come on our campus, we don’t talk about NIL or revenue-sharing or publicity rights until the very end,” he said. “And that may hurt us on some kids, but if a kid is coming to Texas for that reason, we don’t want him anyway.”
Sarkisan added, “If you’re coming for the other reason, he’s probably going to be the guy in 18 months that’s back in the portal going somewhere else where they’re going to offer him more money.”
ATLANTA — History was made late Tuesday at Truist Park as the National League prevailed in the MLB All-Star Game, thanks to the first-time use of a little-known home run tiebreaker.
The game was settled with a home-run swing-off instead of extra innings, with the tiebreaker format created by MLB and the MLB Players Association in 2022 as part of the labor deal struck that year, but not needed until now.
Three players per team each had three swings to amass as many homers as possible—with the unique structure designed to avoid player injury and overuse and aid in each manager’s roster deployment during the All-Star Game.
The American League’s trio of hitters—Brent Rooker of the Athletics, and Randy Arozarena and Jonathan Aranda of the Rays—amassed a total of three home runs. The NL crew of the Marlins’ Kyle Sowers, Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber, and Mets’ Pete Alonso countered with four.
Schwarber in particular provided the key heroics, homering in all three of his swings en route to winning Most Valuable Player honors for the All-Star Game.
The late drama to the game, in which the AL rebounded from a 6–0 deficit to tie the game and then the unprecedented swing-off, could be a boon for viewership of the Fox Sports broadcast. The swing-off, however, did not start until after 11:30 p.m. ET.
The swing-off tiebreaker for the All-Star Game will remain at least through the current collective bargaining agreement between the league and union, expiring in December 2026.
Jordan Godfree-Imagn Images
ATLANTA — As the 2025 MLB All-Star Game at Truist Park is now history, with the National League winning in unprecedented fashion, the focus in baseball now turns to the second half of the season, and there is no shortage of major storylines and pressing issues. Among them:
What’s next for Cal Raleigh? The Mariners catcher is baseball’s man of the moment, dominating the sport like few before him and winning the MLB Home Run Derby on Monday. Several records are quite reachable for him, including the single-season home run mark for a switch-hitter, the most by a catcher, and the Mariners’ single-season record. More importantly, the Mariners are also looking for just their second playoff berth since 2001.
How much will attendance and viewership grow? Entering the All-Star break, the league was essentially flat in attendance after a prior gain of 2% earlier in the season. The league, however, remains on track to post its best year-end total since 2017, and perhaps earlier. Each of the league’s national-rights holders, meanwhile, is posting even stronger seasons, and MLB streaming is setting numerous records on local and national levels. ESPN, particularly, is in the midst of a renaissance with Sunday Night Baseball viewership, up 11% and also at its best level in eight years, despite the network’s intent to leave the package after the season.
What happens with MLB’s national media rights? The league is still looking to resell the national rights being abandoned by ESPN. A prior hope of completing new deals by the All-Star Game, however, has passed. The pacts will be a bridge to 2028, when a much larger reconstruction of MLB’s media rights is planned.
Can there be any improvement in MLB’s worsening labor situation? With 17 months to go before the expiration of the current labor pact, the situation already looks grim, and the prospect of the first missed games due to labor since 1995 is growing. The MLB Players Association is accusing the league of pursuing a salary cap long hated by the union, and it says it would disrupt the sport’s current run of growth. The league, conversely, is heightening its call for systemic change to baseball’s economics.
Will the Dodgers repeat as World Series champions? Early on, Los Angeles looked like a juggernaut in its title defense, winning its first 8 games and 21 of the first 31. The Dodgers, however, are just 5–7 this month, and despite a $406 million luxury-tax payroll that is a league record, have been much more beatable over the last two months as injuries have mounted. Amid heightened competition across the National League, a return to the Fall Classic is far from assured. Aiding the Dodgers, however, is Shohei Ohtani’s continued return to pitching.
Will there be baseball joy in New York? The Yankees are trying to win their first World Series in 16 years, and the Mets are seeking their first title in 39 years. Both teams are spending aggressively, posting the No. 2 and No. 3 luxury-tax payrolls in the league, and both are drawing well at the gate, helping to make the Big Apple one of the sport’s epicenters. Each club, however, has battled midseason swoons and is looking up at rivals leading their divisions.
Does anybody beat The Miz? Brewers rookie phenom Jacob Misiorowski, who gained an All-Star nod after just five starts, continues to electrify the sport, even as his appearance in Atlanta drew rebukes in some corners. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, however, came to his defense.
“Do I understand five starts is short? Yeah, I do. And do I want to make that the norm? No, I don’t,” Manfred said. “But I think it was the right decision given where we were.”
ATLANTA — The 2025 MLB Home Run Derby came down to less than an inch at one point of Cal Raleigh’s march to victory. The event’s viewership, however, had a clearer margin of growth.
ESPN said its coverage of the Derby averaged 5.73 million viewers, spanning its primary coverage on ESPN itself and an alternate, Statcast-driven presentation on ESPN2. The figure is up 5% from the average of 5.45 million last year.
The network had a cleaner window in which to operate compared to last year, when the Derby competed for viewers with the 2024 Republican National Convention.
Even as the network is opting out of its rights deal with MLB after this season, absent a renegotiation, the network sought to pull out all the stops on its presentation. It brought in top on-air personality Pat McAfee to do a live episode of his show from The Battery and introduce the eight competitors at Truist Park. ESPN also deployed drone cameras, similar to what is used in golf coverage, to help track ball flight.
“Got a chance to do something new with a different sport,” McAfee said in a social media post. “I really enjoyed it and think it went exactly how all parties envisioned it.”
ESPN’s broadcast, however, still generated some complaints from fans. Most at issue was a split-screen presentation showing the contact batters made with pitches and where balls ultimately landed, but in some cases, it omitted the action in between.
The traditional presentation of the Derby on ESPN averaged 5.23 million viewers, while the alternate Statcast feed averaged 499,000.
Sunday’s coverage of the start of the MLB draft, meanwhile, averaged 776,000 viewers across ESPN and MLB Network, down 10% from a year ago, but still slightly above marks from 2023.
Netflix brings its sports storytelling to the heart of SEC football.
One expert is skeptical that the measurement could be that precise.
It could be the first bill of its kind to make it to the House floor.
Do you think Texas will win the SEC in football this season?
Tuesday’s result: 41% of respondents watched the Home Run Derby.
Perrault training hard in offseason with eye on Rangers’ opening night roster
Perreault started to get a fresh look in front of the new coaching staff led by Mike Sullivan in New York’s three-day development camp from June 30-July 2. But from their homework on him, it’s likely that they already know what he is capable of, and that they saw what Boston College coach Greg Brown […]
Perreault started to get a fresh look in front of the new coaching staff led by Mike Sullivan in New York’s three-day development camp from June 30-July 2.
But from their homework on him, it’s likely that they already know what he is capable of, and that they saw what Boston College coach Greg Brown saw in Perreault’s five-game NHL stint at the end of last season.
He didn’t look out of place. He wasn’t overwhelmed.
“I think one of the biggest things going from college to pro is the adjustment to the speed of the game, and it looked at least on TV (last season) that Gabe was processing at that speed, which is the hardest thing to adjust to,” Brown told NHL.com. “He was a brilliant high IQ player here (at BC) and you just wonder how long it will take to adjust, but he looked comfortable out there. It wasn’t too fast for him mentally. That’s a great sign for him going forward.”
To make it, though, Perreault has to show the Rangers he is physically ready too.
“The stuff that he has is the stuff that is hard to find, and really hard to teach,” Brown said. “If the Rangers felt he wasn’t ready it would just be those things, trying to get a little stronger and a little faster so you can be ready for the wear and tear of an NHL season.”
To that end, Perreault said his focus this summer has been on adding some weight to his 5-foot-11, 178-pound frame along with improving his skating. He realized the importance of physical strength and skating in his five-game run with the Rangers at the end of last season.
“You hear about it, but you don’t really know until you’re in it,” Perreault said. “I wouldn’t say it’s more than I expected, but you don’t really know until you’re part of it and you experience it.”
Provided Perreault can withstand the physical rigors, David Carle, the head coach at Denver University, explained why he would be able to excel quickly as a point-producer in the NHL.
Carle knows Perreault from coaching him in the past two IIHF World Junior Championships. Together, they helped the United States win gold both times.
“Gabe is very cerebral,” Carle told NHL.com. “His knack for being able to find open ice himself, get the puck to his teammates in open ice, anticipate and read offense with a great defensive stick as well, it’s really uncanny. He hasn’t been the biggest player coming up, so he’s had to do it in different ways and I think his sense is outstanding and really gives him a chance to be a difference maker at any level.”
The Rangers expect that from Perreault eventually.
It’s also reasonable to expect his experience at the end of last season, and the summer skates with Kane and others, are enough to put Perreault on a fast track to the NHL, giving him an advantage going into training camp, potentially enough to turn him into an NHL player by Oct. 7.
“Now he can understand what the expectations are and what the League demands,” New York director of player development Jed Ortmeyer said. “I think it adds a little extra motivation and working harder. He’s definitely doing that.”
Johnny Manziel believes NFL would have been ‘pay cut’ if NIL available – Field Level Media – Professional sports content solutions
Johnny Manziel believes he would have put the NFL off longer if Name, Image, and Likeness had been available during his career at Texas A&M. Manziel declared for the 2014 NFL Draft after his redshirt sophomore season with the Aggies. He went on to sign a four-year, $8.2 million rookie contract with the Cleveland Browns, […]
Johnny Manziel believes he would have put the NFL off longer if Name, Image, and Likeness had been available during his career at Texas A&M.
Manziel declared for the 2014 NFL Draft after his redshirt sophomore season with the Aggies. He went on to sign a four-year, $8.2 million rookie contract with the Cleveland Browns, who selected the polarizing quarterback with the 22nd overall pick.
Dubbed “Johnny Football,” Manziel believes he would have stood to earn considerably more in NIL over his final two years of eligibility than going to the NFL.
After becoming the first-ever freshman to win the Heisman Trophy, the Manning Award and the Davey O’Brien Award while throwing for 3,706 yards and 26 touchdowns as a freshman, Manziel threw for 4,114 yards and 37 touchdowns the next season.
“I tell people this all the time, and they asked me this, I really feel like I would have taken a pay cut had I gone to the NFL,” Manziel said on Always College Football, per On3.com. “I mean, that’s really what it would have been. I mean, it is crazy times that we’re living, and I think, you know, in a lot of areas, still figuring out exactly how to make it work the right way, where it’s not just the biggest boosters and the richest schools. If you look at A&M, you know, I feel like we’ve put a ton of money in it to our NIL, and it hasn’t necessarily translated onto the field.
“So, you know, I feel guys who are playing at a high level, who are really noticeable and really marketable, are making a great amount of money off the field, to the point where guys have the opportunity to stay in school rather than having to go to the NFL early.”
Following two controversy-laden seasons, Manziel was released by the Browns and did not throw another pass in the NFL. After being out of football for two years, he played for Hamilton and Montreal in the Canadian Football League in 2018 and spent time with the AAF’s Memphis express in 2019.
Manziel later played two seasons in the Fan Controlled Football League from 2021-22.
Gadowsky Talks McKenna, Taking Advantage of New College Hockey Landscape : College Hockey News
July 15, 2025 PRINT by Adam Wodon/Managing Editor (@chn-adam-wodon) Related Articles Penn State Penn State’s spotlight brightened after it made the Frozen Four last season for the first time. It’s going to be even hotter now after Gavin McKenna, the projected No. 1 overall pick in next year’s NHL Draft, decided to take his talents to […]
Penn State’s spotlight brightened after it made the Frozen Four last season for the first time. It’s going to be even hotter now after Gavin McKenna, the projected No. 1 overall pick in next year’s NHL Draft, decided to take his talents to State College for the coming season.
Knowing players like this are “one-and-done” has not deterred the likes of Michigan, Boston University and Boston College from taking them. It was just one year ago that BU’s Macklin Celebrini went No. 1 overall. BU lost in the Frozen Four semifinals that year. This past season, the Terriers defeated Penn State in the national semis, before losing to Western Michigan in the title game.
Penn State has taken additional advantage of the new rules allowing former Major Junior players to participate in the NCAA, bringing in numerous key players beyond just McKenna. Jackson Smith, a first-round defenseman, is also on board, as are a few others of note. That will push some players down the lineup, and others who have been committed for a while, may never wind up at Penn State.
“You’re talking about team and player management, but that’s something this staff has talked a lot about,” Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky said Tuesday. “We’re excited and eager to tackle those challenges. Those are great challenges to have.
“There’s a lot of changes going on in college athletics, especially in NCAA hockey. We want to embrace those changes and do what you can for the best of our program. As long as you have your values on straight, everybody understands that. We’re absolutely going to take advantage of the new rules and changes to recruit the very best student-athlete that fits Penn State. But that doesn’t mean we’ll switch our philosophy.”
“It boils down to, do everything for the team. For those guys who have those attitudes, you don’t just do that one year and check the box that you’re done. Culture is really important. Some people think it’s a buzzword but it’s really important. We learned a lot of lessons in the past and specifically last year that makes us feel confident to embrace the challenges. The leadership group will have a lot of work to do. They’re largely responsible for the success last year, and I suspect will be responsible for the success this season.”
Another thing that has changed in college hockey is the ability for players to earn money. Gadowsky understandably didn’t want to address that aspect of it at all, though it’s been reported McKenna will make $700,000 in his NIL/revenue-share deal, by far more than anyone else in college hockey.
McKenna has yet to speak in depth on the reasons for choosing Penn State, but Gadowsky said it was about many things.
“He’s done well in the CHL, I think he’s looking for a new challenge,” Gadowsky said.
“It’s the same for every hockey player that we bring in. A lot of things make Penn State hockey attractive. How we develop players, our facilities, our personnel, the philosophy of our administration, the support of the student body … a lot of things.”
He added that his staff didn’t reach out until his junior season was over and he started to explore NCAA opportunities.
“We feel really good about what Penn State has to offer any student-athlete,” Gadowsky said. “This is a huge thing for Penn State and Penn State hockey — and a huge thing for college hockey as well. So you’re nervous until it’s done. But once it was on Sportscenter and done, you felt good. And I’m pumped for the Penn Staters to watch this guy.
“He’s very humble and extremely polite. He has excellent manners. His mind always goes first to the whole, to the team, the atmosphere of the team. That’s how he is.”
Gadowsky said that every player, even someone of McKenna’s caliber, will have a transition to college hockey. After piling up points in the WHL last season for Medicine Hat, if history is any indication, playing against bigger, older players will translate to lower point output. A 60-point season would be great, and in line with other recent high-end one-and-done players.
“It’s not just to college hockey, it’s a transition to college, albeit an exciting and fun one to State College,” Gadowsky said. “We have good people. They’re looking forward to helping him navigate it. We can be a little patient. We can’t expect anyone to just come in and pick things up. It takes some time, I think it’s something he’s lookng forward to.”
But mainly, Gadowsky wants to get out of McKenna’s way on the ice.
“I was fortunate enough to grow up watching Wayne Gretzky play, and the one thing that makes him so special is that he’s so creative. He’s very different. There’s no way that I or anyone else on our staff thinks like Gavin does. He’s a very special, special, special athlete that thinks differently. By no means am I going to talk to him about how his mind creates. And that goes for all of our athletes as well. Part of what makes Penn State hockey fun is we encourage creativity.”
Gadowsky has been there since the beginning of Penn State hockey 14 years ago, helping see the original vision through. He said he is grateful for all that has gone along with the ride, all the people that helped along the way, and embraces the expectations that will be ahead.
“Penn State has very high expectations of all its athletic programs and puts a lot of resources into that,” Gadowksy said. “So that’s not like it’s a new thing. We did not have these expectations when you start from a club program. I can tell you it’s better to have those expectations than not.”
In these wild news times in college hockey, it’s mid-July and rosters aren’t still necessarily set. There are players recently drafted who still may get pushed to play NCAA for one year, and will be looking for teams, like perhaps Michael Misa or Porter Martone, or others. Some of them may want to see if they make the NHL roster first, but NHL training camp is not until September, well after admissions deadlines, typically.
It may be a bit difficult to make it work in some cases, but Gadowsky, while not naming names in particular, didn’t rule anything out.
“It’s always fluid because of eligibility, injuries, et cetera,” Gadowsky said. “I don’t think it’s fair to say we’re absolutely done or not done, because there’s too many factors that can happen. … It’s something we think about every day.”
Vandal Soccer to Host WSU, BSU as Part of 2025 Schedule
Story Links Schedule Season Tickets MOSCOW, Idaho – Idaho Vandal soccer plays host to Washington State, Boise State, South Dakota, and UTEP in non-conference play while traveling to Washington, Grand Canyon, Bakersfield and making an East Coast swing to face UMass Lowell and Stonehill College. In Big Sky play, Idaho welcomes Montana, Eastern Washington, Northern Colorado […]
MOSCOW, Idaho – Idaho Vandal soccer plays host to Washington State, Boise State, South Dakota, and UTEP in non-conference play while traveling to Washington, Grand Canyon, Bakersfield and making an East Coast swing to face UMass Lowell and Stonehill College.
In Big Sky play, Idaho welcomes Montana, Eastern Washington, Northern Colorado and Northern Arizona to the dome while traveling to Idaho State, Weber State, Sacramento State and Portland State.
The schedule is among the best in program history and includes some of the Northwest’s top programs.
Idaho opens the season with a pair of exhibition games in early August. The Vandals welcome in West Coast Conference team Gonzaga on Monday, Aug. 4 before traveling to Oregon to play the Big Ten member Ducks on Friday, Aug. 8.
The regular season opens in the dome with a contest against UC Riverside on Aug. 14 before closing out the week against Big Ten Washington on Sunday, Aug. 17 in Seattle.
The Vandals have a Northeast swing with games against UMass Lowell on Aug. 21 before playing Stonehill College (Mass.) on Aug. 23.
Idaho hosts Washington State on Aug. 28, South Dakota on Aug. 31 and UTEP on Sept. 4 before heading road to play at Grand Canyon on Sept. 11 and CSU Bakersfield on Sept. 14.
The Vandals host Boise State on Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. to close out non-conference play.
Idaho hits the road for games against Idaho State (Sept. 25), Weber State (Sept. 28) and Sacramento State (Oct. 2) to open Big Sky Conference action.
Montana comes to the dome on Oct. 5 followed by Eastern Washington on Oct. 12.
The Vandals’ final road game will be at Portland State on Oct. 19 before closing the season with home games against Northern Colorado (Oct. 24) and Northern Arizona (Oct. 26).
Idaho has played in the Big Sky Championship match each of the last three seasons, winning the title in 2023.
