NIL

SGA in NBA Finals 2025 shows one-and-done impact

Published

3 months ago

June 5, 2025

The rest of the country is just now catching up to what Kentucky basketball figured out during John Calipari’s tenure. One year on campus doesn’t allow for much of a connection.

I’m reminded of that watching Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the first former Wildcat player to win the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award, lead the Oklahoma City Thunder into the NBA Finals as the overwhelming favorite over the Indiana Pacers.

An accomplishment like that in the past would have been trumpeted and Gilgeous-Alexander revered as one of the best to ever play for the Cats. Instead, the reaction has largely been, meh.

Sure, there’s some pride knowing he briefly wore Kentucky blue. But the attachment? Gilgeous-Alexander doesn’t feel that much more tethered to UK than a seldom-used walk-on whose success came outside of basketball.

This isn’t to pick on UK or even to lament on days past — it’s only going to get worse as the new reality of college basketball ushers into the transfer if you wanna, pay-for-play, name, image and likeness era.

Players don’t have to turn pro to move like In and Out Burger through a program. And the ties that bind a former player to a particular program last about as long as fast food.

Travis Perry’s celebrated arrival after winning Mr. Basketball in 2024 and becoming the all-time leading scorer in Kentucky high school history turned into an unceremonious departure when he opted to transfer in April to Mississippi. Although Perry wasn’t viewed as a game-changing player, as a native of the commonwealth fulfilling a dream to play at UK, he had a feel-good story that doesn’t feel so good anymore.

Player movement isn’t ruining college basketball, but it has created a different culture. Programs have become like franchises and it is certainly all about business.

Calipari was ahead of the game during the one-and-done era with the large scale, annual flipping of his roster. Just the sheer volume of players who were gone after a single season got everyone used to the assembly line movement of players.

Gilgeous-Alexander played during such a nondescript season, it’s really hard to recall his year at UK. I’d gather many fans can’t do it without looking it up. His 2017-18 team did win the SEC Tournament, which is notable because the Cats haven’t won it since.

But that was the high point.

Despite an easy path to the Final Four — the top four seeds in the South bracket all lost in the first or second round, including No. 1 seed Virginia’s historic loss to No. 16 seed UMBC — UK lost to ninth-seeded Kansas State in Atlanta.

The “free-throw merchant” moniker some NBA pundits have tagged on Gilgeous-Alexander was far from being created, but he did score 11 of his 15 points in that final game from the free-throw line.

Gilgeous-Alexander’s post-UK career has included some examples of him staying attached to the program as recently as Calipari’s last season.

The Ontario native visited with the Cats and attended some games when they played in the GLOBL Jam in Toronto the summer of 2023. He also gifted them pairs of an unreleased version of his signature Converse shoes before the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

Those are the kinds of actions that nurture a real connection. But those actions have to be multiplied.

What forms lasting bonds with a program are things like returning to campus during the summer to workout. Or making an effort to visit with the newest team. Or holding a skills camp or an event that reaches out into the community.

This new age of players that have played for multiple schools might not even have clarity on where they should anchor themselves.

Where does someone like Tre Mitchell consider his home? He played at Massachusetts, Texas and West Virginia before finishing at UK. Is he enamored with one program above all? Does he return to Lexington knowing his former coach is in Arkansas?

There’s no wrong choice here, but the fact that there are options speaks to why there will be a growing disconnect between programs and the former players who were only there for a season.

Short of winning a national championship or accomplishing something extraordinary, there’s just not many reasons to hold on.

Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.

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NIL

Georgia’s Gunner Stockton is latest SEC quarterback to star in milk NIL campaign

Published

5 minutes ago

September 10, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Following in the footsteps of Carson Beck – both on and off the field – Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton now stars in a NIL campaign that has previously featured some big-name former SEC signal callers.

Stockton is featured in The Dairy Alliance’s latest college football initiative to showcase how milk powers athletes’ performance in and out of the stadium. The nonprofit funded by dairy farm families in the Southeast has now updated their NIL roster, adding to past SEC partners such as now-Miami quarterback Beck, Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart, Tennessee’s Nico Iamaleava and Kentucky’s Brock Vandagriff.

Georgia’s current QB1 Stockton – who has thrown for 417 yards and two touchdowns so far this season – is joined by teammate Talyn Taylor and this weekend’s rival Jake Merklinger of Tennessee in The Dairy Alliance’s “Milk’s Got Game” program. The latest campaign – launching ahead of No. 6 Georgia taking on No. 15 Tennessee – also stars the trio of athletes’ mothers, celebrating the connection between family, nutrition and performance.

MORE: Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia earns ownership stake with NIL partnership

“Growing up, my mom always made sure milk was part of my everyday routine,” Stockton said. “It gave me the nutrition needed for practice and helped me push harder on the field. Even now, dairy milk plays a central role in my life, keeping me fueled and hydrated through every game.”

“Since his first steps, it’s always been real dairy – high-quality protein and real hydration,” adds Stockton’s mom, Sherrie.

Stockton and Taylor face off against Merklinger on Sept. 13 when Georgia visits Tennessee in a battle of undefeated SEC powers.

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NIL

Mizzou Football: New Beau Pribula NIL collection drops today

Published

58 minutes ago

September 10, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Mizzou has a new quarterback. He looks really good. That quarterback has some new NIL merch on the market. It also looks really good.

Look, I’m going to be honest, I’m not always the biggest fan of these athlete NIL collections. Just because a kid is good at sports doesn’t mean they have anything approaching a keen design sense.

But I have to say… this ain’t too bad. That “Beau Knows” shirt is super clean in the Nike font and has the hint of nostalgia that calls back to one of the great athlete marketing runs of all time. I’ll be copping that for sure.

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NIL

RON HART: SEC Football In The Age Of NIL Money

Published

2 hours ago

September 10, 2025

Your Sports Nation

The news cycle finally slowed down when Trump took an unusual three days off over the Labor Day weekend. The media speculated (aka hoped) he died. When Trump returned to do a press conference, the media had angry questions like, “Why do you continue to refuse to admit that you died?”

The good news is that this allows me to write about one of my favorite things: college football.

If you drive south in the fall, about the time you start seeing Elvis artwork, Trump merchandise stores and shot glasses with the Confederate flags on them, folks will be watching SEC football. That pastime stretches from Kentucky south to Orlando. If you drive south of Tampa, then you are back in New York.

Seventeen of the top twenty-five ranked college football teams are from the South, but the Southern advantage has waned in the last couple of years. Gone are the days college kids pridefully played for their home state. NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) money has, predictably, made them mobile mercenaries. (RELATED: Here We Go: Student-Athletes Slap NCAA With Lawsuit To Change ‘Redshirt Rule’)

Rest assured, the South’s historic dominance of the North in football is rooted in far deeper issues than an amateur athletic contest. And it bothers the blue Northern states that Southern football might just be maneuvers in preparation for secession.

College football is uber competitive now as legendary 74-year-old ex-NFL coach Bill Belichick is finding out. His UNC team got demolished by TCU 48 to 14. The only way it could have been more embarrassing is if the spread was 74 to 24.

It got worse from there. Upon seeing his debut loss, Belichick’s 24-year-old fiancée hit the transfer portal and has now narrowed her dating options to Lee Corso, Barry Switzer or Jimmy Johnson.

Thus, with NIL corporate money advantaging the North, college football will start coming down to the Big Ten versus the SEC. Remember, college football came of age shortly after the Civil War. It was a safer way for Southern and Northern states to keep fighting. (RELATED: New Chapter Of College Sports Begins As ‘House Settlement’ Goes Into Effect)

We Southerners take pride in football like Northerners do in corrupt politicians, high taxes, cold weather, rampant crime and potholes. It is an article of faith here in the “Bible Belt” that SEC football is holy. You are to have no other gods before it, not even NASCAR or the lottery. Ladies, if you have something to say to your man, say it before kickoff.

Drug companies market stiffy pills to football’s male audience. That could end under RFK Jr.’s goal to make drug companies advertise more warning labels in their relentless ads. Now, if after taking Cialis or Viagra, your erection lasts more than 4 hours, you will be advised to look at Rosie O’Donnell’s Instagram feed.

Northeastern elites resent Southern football. To be fair to the people of New York and New Jersey, if I lived in a state that smelled like bong water and never had any real college football, I’d be mad too. You are just left with hockey — which is its own punishment.

Football is the modern-day “bread and circuses” meant to placate citizens. Psychiatrists will tell you football satisfies the primal human thirst for war. But Washington, D.C. politicians go ahead and get us in a bunch of wars, too, just to be on the safe side.

On the bright side, with Trump in office, sex and sports are back. He was at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York last weekend and was met with applause. It was the first time Trump was near a court in New York where he was not facing charges from a liberal judge.

American Eagle jeans have leveraged the cleavage of the sexy Floridian Sydney Sweeney and will have her commercials on football games. It’s groundbreaking; boobs remain the only proof that men can concentrate on two things at the same time.

Even though I live in Tennessee, I have never been a big UT fan. Bama, UGA, Vandy and Memphis are my teams. But to my Tennessee fans I must remind you that you last won a national title in 1998. Those who remember that are likely dead by natural causes by now or certainly need to be reminded to get their second colonoscopy.

I wanted to attend the Tennessee versus Georgia game in Knoxville, but tickets are going for up to $2,000. I love drinking bourbon, eating BBQ, betting and watching an SEC game. It is sad that everything I love is expensive, calorific, illegal or won’t return my phone calls.

A libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author, Ron does commentary on radio and TV. He can be contacted at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

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NIL

Big NIL boost for Carson Beck after Miami’s dominant Week 2 win

Published

3 hours ago

September 10, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Carson Beck’s stock is more volatile than GameStop’s. Beck earned huge acclaim in his first season as the Georgia quarterback before disappointing expectations a tad bit in his second season with the Dawgs last fall. Now, after a change of scenery and stepping in the shoes of the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, Beck looks like an acclaimed prospect once again.

Through two starts as the Miami QB1 for Beck, the Hurricanes are 2-0 and have their eye locked on the College Football Playoff after narrowly missing the dance a year ago thanks to a late-season collapse. Even without key losses late in last year’s schedule, the ‘Canes hadn’t built a resume full of quality wins. But this season, they’re already on the board with the Notre Dame victory over the reigning national runner-ups.

Then, in Week 2, Miami crushed Bethune-Cookman to the tune of a 45-3 win, which only further boosted Beck’s profile. Always one of the most valuable players in the country according to On3’s NIL valuations, Beck is rising even higher right now.

According to On3’s data, Carson Beck is the second-highest-valued college athlete in the country, only trailing Arch Manning. On3 had Beck’s value jump 9% this week, adding roughly $400,000 to make it a $4.7 million NIL valuation for the Miami starting quarterback.

Beck’s NIL value held steady around $4.3 million heading into the year and remained there through the first week of the 2025 college football season. But after stringing together two strong performances to open the season, On3 saw fit to bump Beck up by nearly half-a-million bucks.

Carson Beck has a chance to harpoon that value or raise it even higher as the ‘Canes face a South Florida club that’s heading down to Miami at 2-0 and ranked No. 18 in the country by the latest AP Top 25 poll. This very well could be a preview matchup between a pair of teams that wind up making the College Football Playoff come wintertime.

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NIL

Why college football’s biggest battles are now political

Published

4 hours ago

September 10, 2025

Your Sports Nation

On this week’s episode of Tying it Together, host Tim Boyum talks with Matt Brown from Extra Points.

As the college football season heats up, we are talking about the politics of college athletics, from NIL and conference realignment to even video games. Will politicians intervene?

We tackle it all with the founder and publisher of Extra Points, which tackles all things college sports off the field.

About the Podcast

With the speed of the local news cycle, it’s easy to forget that the politicians who represent us and the influencers in our communities are more than just a sound bite. North Carolina’s veteran reporter and anchor, Tim Boyum, loosens his signature bow tie to give listeners a glimpse behind the curtain, showing us who these power players really are and why they do what they do. Through Tim’s candid conversations on “Tying It Together,” his guests reveal their most fascinating life stories, passions, and help all of us get a better grasp on the issues affecting our communities.

Listen and Subscribe

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Join the Conversation

Do you have any thoughts or questions for Tim? Weigh in on X with the hashtag #TyingItTogetherNC. Afterward, rate the podcast and leave a review to tell us what you think!

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