Few players have been as polarizing and have taken over College Football quite like Johnny Manziel did during his time at Texas A&M. As a Redshirt Freshman, Johnny Manziel went from a relative unknown to a household name with electrifying plays that had everyone dying to watch his next game. During his time in College Station, Johnny Manziel made Texas A&M the best show in the sport bringing never before seen attention to Texas A&M.

If Johnny Manziel played in the NIL and Revenue Sharing era, there may not have been a bigger star as “Money Manziel” was a walking highlight reel constantly finding himself at the top of ESPN shows and all over social media.

This week, Johnny Manziel appeared on Always College Football with Greg McElroy talking about his takeover of College Football. During the interview, Johnny Manziel talked about the current era of College Football and how he feels he would’ve been taking a pay cut to leave for the NFL.

“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, 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. “

Johnny Manziel

At a program like Texas A&M, there’s no doubt that Johnny Manziel could’ve made ridiculous amounts of money especially when you see some of the current NIL deals made for unproven players. The Aggies have famously been one of the biggest spenders when it comes to NIL as Jimbo Fisher and his staff landed one of the most loaded recruiting classes of All-Time.

Johnny Manziel was the Golden Goose for Texas A&M and his play on the field was thanked specifically for helping raise the money to pay for Texas A&M’s renovation of Kyle Field.

“The stars came together. We talked about this project for a long, long time. But none of us were sure how quick we could pay for this project. And because of a young man by the name of Johnny Manziel, we were able to raise all the money in two months. My vision is someday, I hope, the Aggie Nation will come together and decide that we can revise the name of Kyle Field to Kyle Field, the House That Johnny Built.”

Jim Schwertner

While Texas A&M was able to raise enough money to undergo a $450 Million renovation, Johnny Manziel wasn’t able to be paid according to the NCAA’s rules at the time. If Manziel was able to earn NIL money at that time rather than going into the NFL Draft he could’ve earned a jaw-dropping figure to stick in College Station one more year.

Unfortunately for Johnny Manziel, he was ahead of his time but, in this new era of College Football, the next star to transform a program will be able to get his piece of the pie.

More Texas A&M Aggies News:

Image credit:
Tennessee coach Tony Vitello (Photo by Eddie Kelly/ProLook Photos)

The MLB Draft is always a reshuffling of power in college baseball—some programs win big, others lose cornerstone talent and a few do both.

The 2025 edition was no different. From top-heavy draft classes to surprising returns and transfer-class coups, this year’s draft left a clear mark on the college landscape. Here’s a look at which teams (and the sport itself) came out ahead—and which didn’t.

Winners

Tennessee

It felt inevitable that the Volunteers would end up on this list one way or another thanks to having a good chunk of their recruiting class—both high school and transfer—eligible for selection. To say head coach Tony Vitello’s program made out well would be an understatement. 

Relief workhorse and expected 2026 rotation member Brandon Arvidson opted to return for another season. Virginia transfer Henry Ford (Baseball America’s No. 8 overall transfer) went undrafted, a surprising outcome for the draft-eligible sophomore who was widely expected to end up with a pro team this summer. Virginia transfer lefty Evan Blanco went unselected, as well. High schoolers Cameron Appenzeller and Trent Grindlinger are also expected to arrive in Knoxville. Those four alone give a massive boost to a program eyeing a second national title in three years.

Tennessee also had eight players taken in the first three rounds—a testament to the program’s elite development under Vitello and a gleaming pitch to future transfers and recruits.

Looking ahead to 2026, Tennessee once again looks every bit the part of a national title contender.

Texas

Texas had already positioned itself as a draft winner before the first pick was even made. Pitchers Luke Harrison, Ruger Riojas and Max Grubbs all announced their intentions to return in 2026, giving the Longhorns one of the most experienced rotations in the SEC. The program also brings back key 2025 relievers Dylan Volantis and Thomas Burns, further solidifying a pitching staff that looks formidable on paper.

Between those returners, a strong freshman class and impact transfers, Texas has assembled a staff with elite tools. It’s an ideal sandbox for pitching coach Max Weiner, who’s widely regarded as one of the game’s best young minds. His unique approach to pitch calling and shape manipulation has quickly become a hallmark of the program.

The Longhorns also did well on the position player front, with Temo Becerra (Stanford), Josh Livingston (Wichita State) and Cal Higgins (Western Kentucky) all going unselected. While any of them could still sign as undrafted free agents, the odds of them reaching campus improved significantly the moment the draft ended.

Butler transfer Jack Moroknek is expected to sign. Mississippi State transfer Luke Dotson and Georgia State transfer Kaleb Freeman might, too. But Texas is loaded nonetheless.

Georgia

No team had more roster capital at stake in the 2025 draft than Georgia. Between draft-eligible returners, high-profile transfers and high school signees, the Bulldogs had a sizable chunk of their projected roster available for selection. The results broke in their favor.

Draft-eligible sophomore Tre Phelps, who’s hit 22 home runs in just under 100 games as a Bulldog, elected to return. So did Jack Arcamone, a data-friendly catching prospect from Richmond who was widely expected to sign a pro deal. Georgia also secured Matt Scott, a former Stanford righthander whose arm talent is undeniable but who needs refinement to unlock early-round upside.

New Orleans transfer Bryce Calloway, USC transfer Caden Aoki, West Georgia transfer Lane Pearson and others also went unselected and are expected to reach campus barring a significant free agent offer.

After being eliminated in its own regional in 2025, Georgia is eyeing its first trip to Omaha since 2008. The outcome of this year’s draft only strengthens that pursuit.

Arizona State

Arizona State is less a winner for what it retained—though its impressive transfer haul remains almost entirely intact barring undrafted free agent signings—and more for what it lost. All nine of the Sun Devils’ draftees came off the board in the top 10 rounds, tying Arkansas for the most of any program in the country. That total also matched the mark set by ASU’s 1981 team, which went on to win the national title.

This year’s result was a bit more complicated. Unlike in ’81, the Sun Devils failed to host a regional and were eliminated in the opening round. The contrast is sharp, and while it’s tougher to win now than it was four decades ago, the expectation at a program with ASU’s draft pedigree should be more than just sending players to pro ball.

Still, the foundation for a turnaround is in place. Arizona State brought in a strong and deep transfer class, including PJ Moutziridis (Cal), and it also returns Cole Carlon and Landon Hairston—three players with top-of-the-draft upside. Talent will return to Tempe en masse. In 2026, the Sun Devils will have every reason to expect results to match.

College Baseball

It’s a broad category—especially given that this entire exercise is built around college baseball winners and losers—but it’s hard to come away from the 2025 draft without feeling like the sport itself came out ahead.

While the total number of college players selected in the top 10 rounds didn’t quite match last year’s all-time high of 254, this year still marked the fourth-most in the bonus pool era (since 2012) with 247. More notably, three of the four most college-heavy top-10 rounds have now occurred in the last four drafts, solidifying a clear and continued shift in MLB’s preferences.

The trend echoes a belief shared widely by coaches across the country: MLB increasingly sees college as a premium development pipeline. That’s reflected not just in draft behavior but in debut timelines, too. More players are reaching the majors within two years of their draft season than ever before—and the overwhelming majority of them played college baseball.

No matter which programs won or lost the most, college baseball itself remains sharply on the rise.

Losers

LSU

Calling LSU a draft “loser” feels like a stretch for a program coming off its second national title in three years, led by arguably the best coach in the sport, with a strong transfer class and a notable portion of its championship roster returning. The Tigers will be elite again, and their draft outcomes don’t change that.

But in a vacuum, the toll on their recruiting class was severe—enough to land them on this side of the ledger.

Eight signees were drafted and are expected to sign: Brady Ebel (No. 42 on the BA 500), Briggs McKenzie (No. 46), Jaden Fauske (No. 54), Quentin Young (No. 56), Miguel Sime Jr. (No. 88), Dean Moss (No. 97), Landon Hodge (No. 131) and River Hamilton (No. 171). Most weren’t expected to make it to campus, but the sheer volume is hard to ignore.

LSU did hold on to key names like William Patrick, Marcos Paz, Reagen Ricken and Omar Serna, and it returns Zac Cowan, Chris Stanfield and Jaden Noot, none of whom were drafted. 

The Tigers will be fine. But their recruiting class took a hit few others could withstand.

Clemson

Clemson didn’t bring in a particularly deep transfer class, nor was its high school crop loaded with top-end draft talent. But the Tigers still took two significant hits—one from each group.

Ryan Wideman, a dynamic outfielder from Western Kentucky, was selected in the third round and is now unlikely to reach campus. So is Dax Kilby, Clemson’s top high school commit, who was taken 39th overall.

It wasn’t a catastrophic draft, but it stung in the two places that mattered most.

Florida State

No program lost more to the 2025 draft than Florida State. The Seminoles had a nation-leading 11 players selected—Jamie Arnold, Alex Lodise, Cam Leiter, Max Williams, Drew Faurot, Peyton Prescott, Joey Volini, Evan Chrest, Gage Harrelson, Jaxson West and Maison Martinez—and nearly all are expected to sign. Even if a few return, FSU is still likely to lose the bulk of its starting lineup, two-thirds of its weekend rotation and several key bullpen arms.

Replacing that kind of production is a monumental task. The Seminoles will lean on a solid transfer class headlined by former FAU lefthander Trey Beard, but many of their incoming pieces are stepping up significantly in level of competition—a gamble for a team with so much to replace.

Head coach Link Jarrett has brought stability and national relevance back to the program he once played for. But given how much just walked out the door, 2026 may present his toughest challenge since he inherited the storied program.

Arkansas

Coming off a run to the national semifinals, Arkansas is now staring down one of the most significant roster overhauls in the country. The Razorbacks lost Gage Wood, Wehiwa Aloy, Zach Root, Charles Davalan, Christian Foutch, Aiden Jimenez, Landon Beidelschies, Brent Iredale, Ben Bybee, Justin Thomas and Parker Coil to the draft. That’s the entire weekend rotation, a Golden Spikes Award-winning shortstop, multiple key lineup bats and much of the bullpen.

All gone.

To their credit, the Razorbacks have reloaded with an impressive transfer class and remain one of the best-coached teams in the country under head coach Dave Van Horn. But like Florida State, they face a massive rebuild and are still chasing that elusive first national title.

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.

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

This is an opinion column.

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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.”

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.