Connect with us

NIL

NiJaree Canady makes history with record-breaking $1M NIL deal at Texas Tech | Sports

NiJaree Canady, a 22-year-old African American softball phenom, has become the first college softball player to sign a Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deal worth more than $1 million, a historic moment in collegiate sports. The former Stanford ace transferred to Texas Tech, where she secured a groundbreaking $1,050,024 one-year contract through the Matador Club, […]

Published

on


NiJaree Canady, a 22-year-old African American softball phenom, has become the first college softball player to sign a Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deal worth more than $1 million, a historic moment in collegiate sports. The former Stanford ace transferred to Texas Tech, where she secured a groundbreaking $1,050,024 one-year contract through the Matador Club, an NIL collective affiliated with the university. The deal includes a $1 million direct payment, $50,000 for living expenses, and an additional $24 in honor of her jersey number. According to BlackNews.com, Canady, who was named the 2024 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, entered the transfer portal shortly before Texas Tech hired Coach Gerry Glasco. He acted quickly to bring her to Lubbock—with backing from NFL quarterback and Red Raider alum Patrick Mahomes—and offered her not just a starting role but an expanded opportunity to develop her offensive skills. “The coaching staff and their vision were a major reason I made this decision,” Canady told ESPN. She described her transition from Stanford’s Palo Alto campus to West Texas as smooth, noting that the environment reminds her more of her hometown of Topeka, Kansas.

USA Today noted that Canady’s impact on the field was immediate and unmatched. Despite suffering a minor injury, she helped lead Texas Tech to its first Big 12 regular-season and conference titles, finishing the season with a 26-5 record and a nation-leading ERA of 0.86. She also threw a two-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts to deliver the program’s first-ever win at the Women’s College World Series. Coach Glasco called Canady the best pitcher he’s ever coached and said he believes she can lead Texas Tech to a national championship. Her resume is as stacked as her fastball is deadly. In addition to her 2024 USA Softball Player of the Year honor, Canady received the Honda Sport Award, was a two-time Women’s College World Series All-Tournament Team selection and dominated at Stanford with a 41-10 record and a 0.67 ERA over two seasons. She also represented Team USA in the 2024 Japan All-Star Series.

Before college, Canady was a standout at Topeka High School, where she was a two-time Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year and led her team to back-to-back state championships. She graduated in 2022 and was ranked as the No. 11 softball recruit in the nation by Extra Innings Softball. Off the field, she’s equally grounded—an academic All-American who enjoys reading and spending time with her dog. She is the daughter of Bruce and Katherine Canady, and her brother Bruce Jr. plays football at Cal. Canady’s NIL deal not only sets a new benchmark for college softball but also signals a shift in opportunities for Black female athletes in a space that other demographics have long dominated. “She’s changing the game—literally and financially,” Coach Glasco said.



Link

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

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

NIL

The Only Question That Matters For The Future Of College Sports

College athletics currently lives in the same world as a middle aged man with fantastic genetics and horrible habits. The naive optimist in him is quick to remind himself that no doctor has ever seen a problem with him, and that was true for his father and his father before him. Meanwhile, in addition to […]

Published

on


College athletics currently lives in the same world as a middle aged man with fantastic genetics and horrible habits. The naive optimist in him is quick to remind himself that no doctor has ever seen a problem with him, and that was true for his father and his father before him. Meanwhile, in addition to poor diet and lack of exercise, he just went from occasionally smoking in secret to firing up multiple packs a week out in the open.

The strong as steel relationship between fans and their alma mater, local school or childhood favorite team has never wavered for well over 99% of fans in the lifetime of college sports. It’s a bond that in many parts of the country is stronger than the connection to a professional team, religion, or even a spouse. And even for the most pessimistic of fans, they will still come crawling back after walking away a few times before they can truly cut out the addictive connection. Try as you will, there are legendary, joyful, and painful moments that will always stay with you. From the Kick Six to Kemba Walker’s ankle-breaker, Kris Jenkins’ shot to Ezequiel Elliot’s run.

As the current landscape stands in 2025, it remains a relatively favorable situation. The twelve-team playoff in college football revived my rapidly dissolving passion, thanks to 2024 being the most compelling season in well over a decade. The game-to-game tension of the thirty-one-game college basketball regular season has easily surpassed the NBA’s eighty-two-game snoozer in this century. The talent may be better, but the clearly lessened effort and player absences can’t compete with the life or death feeling swirling around every game in the conferences capable of getting at-large bids, but not just by waltzing to a .500ish record (ACC, Big East, A-10, Mountain West and PAC-12 again soon).

Traditionally smaller sports are growing in fan engagement as well, especially volleyball, baseball and softball.

Meanwhile, problems that threaten to destroy the very essence of college athletics are creeping in with a Dementor’s darkness and speed. Fans have made it clear that much more than a super majority does not want athletes playing for four schools in four years, or a college football playoff with a certain number of auto bids for certain conferences, or seeing more teams with losing records in conference play in the NCAA Tournament.

The old world of paying players under the table at the biggest schools was the secret cigarette of athletics. Everyone knows it’s going on, but the need to hide kept it under reasonable control. All of the boundaries are gone now and while that short term rush is hitting everyone, something awful is silently building up beneath the surface.

Blotting out of those issues is the constant whisper of a threat that twenty to forty of the biggest schools could always form their own league with the unlimited ability to pay players who likely wouldn’t even enroll in the school. While the massive fanbases of these teams would support them in any format, the big schools seem to underestimate that becoming an independent minor league would quickly place them a lot closer to the UFL than the NFL.

There is nothing in America that social media loudmouths are more united on than a desire for college athletics to refrain from continuing down a path of completely unregulated and unlimited payments to players, all the while those players have absolutely nothing preventing them from leaving their current team just a few minutes after arriving. Yet, everyone is resigned that this is how it will be. A giant wall of water is bearing down, and their foot is stuck right in its path.

That powerless feeling stems from the one unanswerable question in college sports that encompasses all of the other problems. You can better regulate NIL, begin to restrict transfer rules again and maybe even get conferences realigned closer to geographic reasonability. None of that will matter without a fundamental shift in responsibility.

Is there a future in which the major stakeholders in college athletics begin to care about the medium-to-long term again?

One great year is all that is needed now to get a promotion. Players get bigger paychecks to transfer. Coaches get hired for higher-profile jobs. Athletic directors and school presidents get promoted to bigger and richer institutions. Even conference commissioners can step up to higher-regarded leagues, or find a high-paying private sector job.

All of this constant movement has created a singular pressure for success in each year. Plans for future development, whether it’s a player growing his skills or a coach building a program, are now moot. Take new Iowa basketball coach Ben McCollum, for example. He was a four time National Champion at Division II who couldn’t generate any interest from Division I programs until Drake took a chance on him. One singular 31-4 season at the top level was enough for him to land a power conference gig. That would have been preposterous just a few years ago.**

Athletic directors are basically running legal Ponzi schemes now. If they can bring in a lot of money in one to three years at the helm, they get to carry a big bag of cash with them on the way out. Who cares if that short-term gain is a long-term detriment? The person who’s signature is on the document will long gone by the time that ramifications come.

It runs entirely counter to what happens in professional leagues, where owners desire to continue building up their franchise values, rather than just maximizing their single-year income. The NFL and NBA make decisions with the next ten years in mind. Many in college couldn’t care less about the end of the next twelve months.

Some of the lack of foresight in college athletics comes with greed, some comes from teenagers not having their priorities straight, but it all has the same damaging effect. How to fix it is a multi-billion-dollar question, one that I will pose without much of an idea of the right answer. How do we bring the importance of long-term building back into the minds of the major stakeholders of college athletics?

**Do not put it on the record that I slandered Ben McCollum. It was an extremely aggressive hire by Iowa, but I’d bet that he is a good enough coach that they will get away with it.



Link

Continue Reading

NIL

College Baseball Coaches Support Changes To MLB Draft, Transfer Portal

Image credit: (Photo by Jay Biggerstaff/Getty Images) In May 2020, with the world paused during a global pandemic and college baseball frozen in uncertainty, a group of coaches led by then-Michigan head coach and current Clemson skipper Erik Bakich saw opportunity in the stillness.  They called it the New Baseball Model—a sweeping, data-backed plan to […]

Published

on

College Baseball Coaches Support Changes To MLB Draft, Transfer Portal


Image credit:

(Photo by Jay Biggerstaff/Getty Images)

In May 2020, with the world paused during a global pandemic and college baseball frozen in uncertainty, a group of coaches led by then-Michigan head coach and current Clemson skipper Erik Bakich saw opportunity in the stillness. 

They called it the New Baseball Model—a sweeping, data-backed plan to overhaul the sport’s calendar. They believed it would not only bolster the sport’s financial viability but also enhance player safety, academic balance and long-term sustainability.

At its core, the proposal—which has been reviewed by Baseball America—sought a four-week shift in the college season’s start date, moving Opening Day from early February to early March. That change, the proposal argued, would do more than just warm the weather. It would give cold-climate teams a chance to schedule regional games instead of shelling out thousands of dollars on southern travel they’d never recoup. It would also increase fan engagement by avoiding direct overlap with the college basketball postseason and extend the preseason ramp-up period, thereby reducing early-season pitching injuries, which had become a growing concern across the sport.

The plan drew wide interest, particularly from the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC. The SEC’s reaction was more divided, and the Pac-12 approached with caution. 

Ultimately, any perceived momentum never materialized. Shortly after the proposal began circulating, the NCAA froze all legislative activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The New Baseball Model was shelved. It was never formally revisited.

Now, more than five years later and in an unrecognizable college athletics landscape, those same core ideas are quietly resurfacing. 

As frustrations mount around the sport’s chaotic and compressed calendar, a growing number of Division I leaders are again calling for change. Baseball America spoke with 20 current head coaches across the country who, granted anonymity, outlined the changes they believe college baseball needs most. Some responses were lightly edited for clarity.

The Draft

No single event has had a bigger ripple effect on the college baseball calendar than the MLB Draft. And in the transfer portal era—where roster construction is equal parts evaluation and survival—its current placement has become a pain point for coaches across all levels.

Seventeen of the 20 Division I head coaches surveyed by Baseball America advocated for a shift in the draft’s timing, which since 2021 has landed in mid July, roughly two weeks after the transfer portal closes. That gap, coaches say, is a logistical choke point. It freezes roster planning at a time when scholarship decisions, fall practice rosters and financial aid agreements are due.

“The MLB Draft currently takes place in mid July, but roster and scholarship decisions for fall need to happen much earlier,” one prominent mid-major coach said. “Move the MLB Draft back to June, closer to the end of the College World Series, as it was pre-2021. Coaches would know by early summer which players are signing professionally and could plan fall rosters better and more confidently.”

Another Power 4 coach offered a more coordinated timeline: “I would like the draft to happen the weekend after Omaha with the portal closing two days after the draft. Doesn’t solve everything but would work together a little better.”

While coaches voiced their frustrations, most acknowledged the reality: The draft isn’t moving. 

Multiple MLB sources told Baseball America that the league has no plans to return to a June draft, and recent changes—shrinking to 20 rounds in 2021 and switching to a two-day event starting in 2025—suggest even more streamlining could come in future years. In short, MLB has modernized its developmental pipeline and is unlikely to reorient it around college baseball’s convenience.

Which is why, for many coaches, the more realistic solution isn’t changing the draft—it’s adjusting their own calendar to better fit around it.

“Moving the season back two weeks gets us closer to the draft, which is not changing anymore,” one high-major coach said. “MLB has overhauled the draft and MiLB, already contracting rounds, eliminating short-season leagues and affiliate teams, which makes sense on their part. College baseball is a great MLB farm system with over 50% of MLB rosters made up of former college players.”

Some coaches also floated a more symbolic fix: Align amateur baseball’s biggest event with the sport’s biggest professional milestone. 

“Do the draft in Omaha during the CWS,” one coach suggested. “The College World Series would be a couple weeks later than it is now anyway with a March 1 start.”

Still, symbolic or structural, every solution shared by coaches points back to the same underlying frustration: College baseball’s postseason and its most consequential roster decisions are fundamentally out of sync.

In the transfer portal era, when roster construction requires clarity more than ever, the current system feels like it was built for a different time. And increasingly, coaches are saying that time has passed.

The Portal

If there was consensus among coaches that the current transfer portal window doesn’t work, there was far less agreement about what should replace it.

This year, the portal opened for non-graduate transfers on June 2 and closed on July 1. Graduate transfers can enter at any time, and players whose programs experience a coaching change receive their own 30-day window regardless of the season. For everyone else, the parameters are fixed—and increasingly seen as flawed.

Two major issues surfaced in conversations with the 20 Division I head coaches who spoke with Baseball America. The first is timing. The portal opens during the postseason, creating a dynamic in which coaches must simultaneously prepare for elimination games and construct their next roster.

“You’re trying to scout your super regional opponent while hosting transfers on campus and figuring out NIL packages,” one coach said. “It’s not sustainable.”

The second issue is its disconnect from the draft. Because the draft occurs after the portal closes, teams often lose players to pro ball after they’ve already finalized transfer decisions—an unpredictable and often destabilizing sequence.

“It would give us a couple weeks after the draft for rosters to start to settle,” one coach said of a potential fix. 

Another was less diplomatic: “The portal ending before the draft is stupid.”

That idea—shifting the portal to open after the final out of the College World Series and extending it beyond the draft—was one of the most popular suggestions. Coaches argued that it would create a more logical progression by allowing programs to finish the season, navigate the draft and then fill roster holes.

Others pushed in the opposite direction. A group of high- and mid-major coaches advocated for a shorter window overall, believing that extending it post-draft only encourages reactive poaching.

“Shorten the portal window by two weeks,” one Power 4 coach said. “Have to find a school or sign a pro contract by July 15.”

Echoed a mid-major coach: “Extending the portal period beyond the draft brings zero benefit. It just allows people who do a bad job forecasting to steal other peoples’ players.”

The sentiment that a longer window rewards the opportunistic and penalizes the under-resourced was shared by several coaches from smaller programs. One admitted the system is flawed no matter how it’s drawn up.

“I think we’re exposed either way,” he said. “I guess the current model does protect the mid-major a little, but I’d leave the window open for a week or so after the draft so we could all know exactly what our needs are.”

The good news for coaches? Change might be on the way. Speaking at the State of College Baseball press conference in Omaha on June 12, NCAA senior vice president of championships Anthony Holman acknowledged that transfer window reform is under active discussion.

“There’s oversight committees for each sport, and they may establish their own [windows],” Holman said. “That probably makes the most sense.”

For now, though, the portal remains both a lifeline and a landmine—an indispensable tool built on an increasingly incoherent timeline.

“It’s not right in my opinion for players to flood the portal when the NCAA tournament is starting,” a mid-major coach said. “We all go through this mess in the summer to build/rebuild the rosters for what? Get to the postseason and have players leaving and coaches distracted with the portal?

“I don’t want to carry a tone of complaining, but it’s a mess.”

Postseason Format

Though only four coaches raised the topic unprompted, all were aligned in their support for expanding the NCAA Tournament field.

Their proposed fixes varied, but the vision was clear. One idea suggested shortening the regular season from 56 to 52 games in order to trade a week of regular season play for a longer, more inclusive postseason. In that model, the tournament would expand from 64 to 72 teams, with teams seeded 65–72 playing into the main field against seeds 57–64. Winners of those best-of-three series would then face the top eight national seeds in a newly-structured regional round. From there, 32 teams would remain and play a second best-of-three weekend at 16 sites, followed by the traditional super regionals and a trip to Omaha.

Beyond access, coaches argued that the structure makes financial sense. Hosting more early-round series at more campuses—especially in place of low-attendance midweek games late in the season—could generate more revenue and energy while reducing travel strain.

Still, enthusiasm hasn’t translated into momentum.

“You are asking if we should expand the field,” said Southland Conference commissioner and former Southeastern Louisiana head coach Jay Artigues on June 12 in Omaha, “there’s always discussion about that.”

Artigues, who spent years in the mid-major ranks, didn’t hesitate to voice his support.

“I love expanding it coming from a mid-major school,” he said. “If you see the success of the Murray States and some other mid-majors, it shows they can play with the big boys.”

But while the heart may say yes, the wallet—and the calendar—say no.

“I don’t know what the value proposition is to that,” Holman said. “We lose money on regionals. The proposition of not garnering additional revenue and just adding expenses, in this day’s economic landscape, doesn’t make a whole lot of business sense.”

By The Numbers

Below are breakdowns of how the coaches who spoke with Baseball America aligned on each topic.

Draft

Suggested Change Total Supporters
Return To Early June Draft 17
Keep Draft As Is 1
Lack of Belief That Change is Possible 2

Portal

Suggested Change Total Supporters
Extend Window Beyond Draft, Maintain 30-Day Length 12
Extend Window Beyond Draft, Shorten Length 5
No Comment 2
No Change To Portal Window 1

Fall Portal Window

Suggested Change Total Supporters
Create Fall Window 1
Do Not Create Fall Window 14
No Comment/Unsure 5
Continue Reading

NIL

Colorado football’s Deion Sanders blasts NCAAF’s current NIL situation

The post Colorado football’s Deion Sanders blasts NCAAF’s current NIL situation appeared first on ClutchPoints. With Deion Sanders and the Colorado football team working the recruiting trail, a wide-ranging topic in the grander scope of college football has been around name, image, and likeness (NIL). Though there have been some major wins on the recruiting […]

Published

on


The post Colorado football’s Deion Sanders blasts NCAAF’s current NIL situation appeared first on ClutchPoints.

With Deion Sanders and the Colorado football team working the recruiting trail, a wide-ranging topic in the grander scope of college football has been around name, image, and likeness (NIL). Though there have been some major wins on the recruiting trail for Sanders and the Colorado football team, he would speak on Wednesday about the issue with NIL and the transfer portal.

Advertisement

Sanders would be present at Big 12 media days with other head coaches in the conference and would be asked about his thoughts on NIL and how it should be regulated. The former NFL great would say there should be a “cap” with NIL and the amount of money given to players, mostly from the vantage point of some teams not being able to match the bigger programs.

“I wish it was a cap, you know, like the top-of-the-line player makes this, and if you’re not that type of guy, you know, you’re not gonna make that,” Sanders said. “That’s what the NFL does. So the problem is, you got a guy that’s not that darn good, but he could go to another school, and it gave them a half a million dollars. You can’t compete with that. It don’t make sense. And you’re talking about equality, and all you have to do is look at the playoffs and see what those teams spent.”

Colorado football’s Deion Sanders on NIL

Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

Even with the criticisms around the topic, the Colorado football team and Sanders have utilized the transfer portal and NIL, but only because they have to to get the players they desire. It still doesn’t take away from the fact that Sanders has many issues with the system, saying that it is “hard to compete” with teams that can shell out an immense amount of money for top players.

Advertisement

“And you understand why they made the playoffs, it’s kind of hard to compete with somebody who’s given 25, 30 million dollars to a darn freshman class. It’s crazy,” Sanders said. “We’re not complaining, because all these coaches up here could coach their butts off and given the right opportunity with the right players and play here and there, you’ll be there, but it’s what’s going on right now, don’t make sense. And we want to say stuff, but we’re trying to be professional, but you’re going to see the same teams during the end, and with somebody who sneaks up in there, but if the team that pays them more, that pays the most, will be in.”

The Buffaloes open next season against Georgia Tech on August 29.

Related: Volunteers land 2026 DB recruit over SEC foes Georgia, South Carolina

Related: Why coaching is ‘easier’ for Deion Sanders without Shedeur, Shilo



Link

Continue Reading

NIL

2025 College Football Odds: Chris ‘The Bear’ Fallica’s Expert Picks, Best Bets

Chris Fallica FOX Sports Wagering Expert There are less than two months left until kickoff, which means it’s almost time for fans to switch their focus back to college football.  And with that, sportsbooks have released win totals, game lines and so much more for the regular season.  Let’s dive into my favorite picks for […]

Published

on


There are less than two months left until kickoff, which means it’s almost time for fans to switch their focus back to college football

And with that, sportsbooks have released win totals, game lines and so much more for the regular season. 

Let’s dive into my favorite picks for how a few teams will perform this upcoming season. 

Illinois Under 8.5 wins

There is also an Under 7.5 (+135) available out there, but as I’ve said in the past, I do not mind playing for an extra game buffer. 

The Illini are a super-trendy team this season, and while I don’t expect a losing season, the roster does have questions. 

Will the losses of Zakhari Franklin and Pat Bryant affect Luke Altmeyer’s production? The defensive line boasts three newcomers and can the running back room of Aiden Laughery and Kaden Feagin stay healthy? 

Illinois went 9-3 last year, but thrown in there were OT wins against Nebraska and a dreadful Purdue team, as well as a Kansas turnover-implosion early in the season, and a miracle win at Rutgers. So we’re talking about close to 5-7. 

There are five games that immediately appear like possible losses on the schedule — at Duke, at Indiana, USC, Ohio State and at Washington. Heck, maybe the game in Madison late in the year turns into a “let’s beat our old coach” rally. 

Put aside the discussion of this being a playoff team, nine wins in itself will be quite a feat.

PICK: Illinois (-150) Under 8.5 wins

Joel Klatt believes Illinois, Ole Miss could make first CFP appearances

Joel Klatt believes Illinois, Ole Miss could make first CFP appearances

Houston Over 6.5 wins

The Cougars offense was one of the worst in the country a year ago, as Houston was shut out twice and held to 10 points or fewer in three other instances. 

Enter Texas A&M transfer Conner Weigman at quarterback, along with multiple wide receiver and tight end imports via the portal. 

Willie Fritz has a knack for quick fixes and in this league, where we saw the team picked last in 2024 win the league, it’s quite possible another major turnaround happens here. 

Nobody should be surprised if the Cougars bring a 4-0 mark into the home game with Texas Tech and with four of the teams expected to be the worst in the league — Oklahoma State, Arizona, West Virginia and UCF — on the schedule, there’s a definite path to a big Year 2 turnaround here.

PICK: Houston (+120) Over 6.5 wins

Joel Klatt’s objectives for the College Football Playoff

Joel Klatt’s objectives for the College Football Playoff

Miami to make College Football Playoff

A poor defense kept the Canes out of the College Football Playoff last year, but new defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman was brought in from Minnesota to fix as many issues as there are. 

The good news for Hetherman is he will have a full year of Rueben Bain to work with, as well as a secondary which could be open of the best in the country, which is saying something after the unit struggled mightily last year. 

Carson Beck will look to return to 2023 form after an elbow injury, and to help him do that, he will have one of the best offensive lines in the country and the deepest running back groups around. 

The Canes’ schedule has two huge non-conference skins on it — a season-opener against Notre Dame and a date with rival Florida — and both are at Hard Rock Stadium. Win one or both of those and Miami will have two premier non-conference wins. This will basically mean it just has to avoid completely throwing up on itself in ACC play to reach the CFP for the first time, as was the case with SMU last year, a team that didn’t have near the same non-conference slate as this and was able to make the Playoff despite a loss in the ACC title game. 

The avenues to make the Playoff are many — winning the ACC, beating Notre Dame and/or Florida and losing the ACC title game. Or, even beat both ND and Florida, happen to lose out on a spot in the ACC title game and make the Playoff at 10-2.

PICK: Miami (+200) to make College Football Playoff

Chris “The Bear” Fallica has covered sports for nearly three decades. While college football has been his focus, he also enjoys the NFL, Soccer, Golf, Tennis, MLB, NHL and Horse Racing, with an “occasional” wager on such events. Chris recently won the inaugural Circa Football Invitational and finished in the Top 10 of the Golden Nugget Football Contest. He’s a multiple-time qualifier for the NHC Handicapping Championship. Remember, “The less you bet, the more you lose when you win!” Follow him on Twitter @chrisfallica.

Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily!



Get more from the College Football Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more






Link

Continue Reading

NIL

Eleven Grizzlies named Scholar Athlete

Eleven players from the 2025 Montana softball team have been named Easton/NFCA All-America Scholar Athletes, the National Fastpitch Coaches Association announced this week.   The players honored all recorded a GPA of at least 3.5 for the 2024 fall and 2025 spring semesters.   This year’s honorees: Hailey Boer (Biology), Anna Cockhill (Business Administration), Grace […]

Published

on


Eleven players from the 2025 Montana softball team have been named Easton/NFCA All-America Scholar Athletes, the National Fastpitch Coaches Association announced this week.
 
The players honored all recorded a GPA of at least 3.5 for the 2024 fall and 2025 spring semesters.
 
This year’s honorees: Hailey Boer (Biology), Anna Cockhill (Business Administration), Grace Haegele (Elementary Education), Siona Halwani (Communication Studies), Grace Hardy (Management and Entrepreneurship), Hannah Jablonski (Math Education), Grace Lopez (Psychology), Cameryn Ortega (Communication Studies), Makena Strong (Communication Studies), Sveva Sweeney (Business Administration), Madison Tarrant (Journalism).
 
Haegele, Hardy and Strong become three-time All-America Scholar Athlete, while Jablonski and Tarrant were recognized for the second time.
 
Haegele, Strong and Tarrant were named Academic All-District last month by College Sports Communicators.



Link

Continue Reading

NIL

College athletics the way it was meant to be still exists at Barton

When he was named head football coach at the University of North Carolina, seven-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick proudly proclaimed that the Tar Heels would become the “NFL’s 33rd team.” It’s been reported that former Duke basketball star Cooper Flagg earned upwards of $28 million in Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) compensation and endorsements […]

Published

on


When he was named head football coach at the University of North Carolina, seven-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick proudly proclaimed that the Tar Heels would become the “NFL’s 33rd team.”

It’s been reported that former Duke basketball star Cooper Flagg earned upwards of $28 million in Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) compensation and endorsements during his one year with the Blue Devils.

And new N.C. State basketball coach Will Wade was investigated and subsequently fired for allegedly paying players during his time at LSU. With no trace of irony, his ability to pay players and construct a winning roster, primarily through the transfer portal, was cited as the primary reason for his hire by the Wolfpack.

To quote the famous line from Bob Dylan: “The times they are a-changin’.”

The NCAA that most of us know is virtually unrecognizable now. Terms like NIL, transfer portal, conference realignment and House settlement have forever altered the landscape of college sports. There is no question that we are looking at the professionalization of college football and basketball at the Division I level. The term “student-athlete” is nothing but a quaint reminder from the past, and the reality is that most football and basketball players are now more employees than students, and the whole enterprise has become transactional.

NIL legislation started with good intentions a few years ago. Student-athletes should be compensated for their name, image and likeness, especially now that college athletics has become a multi-billion-dollar business. However, NIL is a misnomer, as there were few guardrails put in place by the NCAA, and it quickly evolved into a recruiting inducement and pay-for-play system. To be clear, I don’t begrudge the athletes who are capitalizing; I wish NIL had been around in the 80’s when I played basketball at William & Mary. Back then, I was thrilled with an occasional post-game sandwich and maybe a pitcher of beer!

This new era of college sports is still wildly popular. Stadiums remain full, TV ratings go up every year and donors are spending millions to help build championship-caliber rosters. There is a never-ending chase for more money, and increased spending. And like many of you, I remain a fan and am still captivated by the College Football Playoff and March Madness (both of which are looking to expand, by the way).

I believe strongly in the power of sports to lift people up, to teach valuable lessons and forge lasting relationships. I know it because I lived it as a college basketball player and coach, and now as an athletic director. I know that coaches are educators, leaders, role models and mentors. I know the incredible value that a college degree holds, and the way it can impact a family for generations.

At Barton College, we approach athletics from a transformational standpoint, not a transactional one. We offer life-changing opportunities to our 700 student-athletes, and our focus is guiding them down the path of resilience and growth. You’ll see them not only on the field or court, but also serving as orientation leaders, resident assistants and research associates. While we play to win — and we do it a lot — the biggest “game” on the schedule is always graduation day. Athletics supports the mission and business model of the college, providing a positive and nurturing student-athlete experience, and competing to win in the classroom, in competition and in the Wilson community.

You can root for the Heels, Devils, Pack, or Pirates, but we are Wilson’s hometown college team, and we have no doubt you’ll root for the Bulldogs.

We have great coaches and staff, beautiful facilities, and talented student-athletes who compete at a high level. You know what we are? We’re what college athletics used to be, and what it was meant to be. We may have some navigate the transfer portal and a few Bulldogs dipping their toes into the NIL waters, but most of our student-athletes, including football and basketball players, are here to get a first-class education and to learn and grow as people.

Our games are affordable and many are free, and you can bring your kids onto the field or court after the game for a photo, no problem.

I look forward to seeing how Belichick and Wade do, and I’ll be rooting for Cooper Flagg.

But mostly, I’m proud to be part of the team, Wilson’s hometown team, at Barton College, where we still do it the right way.

Ken Tyler is Vice President and Director of Athletics at Barton College. A former NCAA Division I basketball player and coach in Divisions I, II and III, Tyler has spent over 30 years in college athletics. Prior to Barton, he served as Director of Athletics at the University of Mary Washington and West Virginia Wesleyan College. Tyler resides in Wilson with his wife Dr. Leona Ba Tyler.



Link

Continue Reading

Most Viewed Posts

Trending