NIL

Super Football Conference and Accelerate Sports Ventures Launch SFC Network

The Super Football Conference—the largest high school football conference in the country—in collaboration with Accelerate Sports Ventures, one of the leading NIL strategy, revenue generation and, innovation advisory firms for colleges and high schools, announced the launch of the SFC Network, the official streaming home for premier high school football starting in New Jersey. Recognized […]

Published

4 weeks ago

June 13, 2025

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Recognized as one of the top high school football conferences in the nation, The SFC Network will stream coverage of New Jersey’s top-tier programs including, Bergen Catholic, Delbarton, Paramus Catholic, St. Joseph Regional, Don Bosco, Seton Hall Prep, St. Peter’s Prep, Pope John, DePaul, and others.

“We know how important New Jersey high school football is in our communities and can’t wait for our student-athletes, coaches, parents, alumni, and fans to experience the SFC Network,” says SFC President Tom Mullahey.

In partnership with the new venture with the Super Football Conference, Accelerate Sports Ventures will strategically advise the league by creating the operational engine behind the streaming platform. This includes securing corporate partnerships and investing capital as well as executing strategic branding and marketing efforts for the platform. In addition, Accelerate will also work with technology and production partners to deliver the highest quality production and customer experience.

“Now is absolutely the perfect time to launch the SFC Network,” says Doug Fillis, CEO of Accelerate Sports Ventures. “With the evolution of NIL and college football programs on the verge of revenue sharing, we must deliver a high-quality production so student-athletes in the SFC can take advantage of these new opportunities. The SFC Network and the high-quality content will not only help athletes find opportunities with NIL and revenue-sharing at the next level but also help players begin building their personal brands.”

The SFC and Accelerate have partnered with Varsity Media, a leading high school sports production company based in Long Island to produce each game. Hudl, the industry leader in sports technology, will act as the technology backbone of the platform for subscribers to watch on SuperFootballConferenceNetwork.com.

“The game production that Varsity Media will deliver for SFC athletes will be outstanding. They bring a first-class reputation from the work they’ve done in Long Island and beyond,” the conference says. “Each game will feature professional announcers, multiple camera operators, a scoreboard, graphics, and a sideline reporter.”

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NIL

MLB Draft could send OU star to a doomed destination

There are 29 other better options for Kyson Witherspoon. ESPN on Friday released its third mock draft just days ahead of the 2025 MLB Draft and had Witherspoon, Oklahoma’s right-handed ace, going 11th overall to the Athletics, who don’t even have a real home right now. The Athletics are in shambles as an organization while […]

Published

2 minutes ago

July 12, 2025

Your Sports Nation

There are 29 other better options for Kyson Witherspoon.

ESPN on Friday released its third mock draft just days ahead of the 2025 MLB Draft and had Witherspoon, Oklahoma’s right-handed ace, going 11th overall to the Athletics, who don’t even have a real home right now.

The Athletics are in shambles as an organization while currently playing their home games at a minor league park in Sacramento, California. The Athletics left Oakland after last season and will eventually move to Las Vegas, but that won’t happen until the 2028 season, leaving the Athletics without an actual home until then.

Latest mock has Kyson Witherspoon to Oakland Athletics

As for Witherspoon, his recent fall in mock drafts has put him in this spot. In ESPN’s previous mock draft last month, the outlet had Witherspoon going No. 13 to the San Francisco Giants. It was a drop outside the top-10 after being the projected eighth pick in ESPN’s first mock. However, two spots later to the Giants would still be better than going a little earlier to the Athletics.

Witherspoon was one of the best pitchers in college baseball this past season. He finished as a First-Team All-American by Perfect Game and NCBWA Second-Team All-American. He was also an All-SEC First-Team honoree.

He led the SEC with a 2.65 ERA, which also ranked 23rd in the country. He was also first in the conference with 10 wins and fourth with 124 strikeouts. He had a 10-4 record in 16 starts. In his two-year career at OU after transferring from Northwest Florida State College, Witherspoon posted a 3.16 ERA and 18-6 record.

MLB.com has also recently dropped Witherspoon in its draft prospect rankings from No. 8 to 10th, meaning he’ll likely get selected outside the top-10 come draft day. All this decline in stock has come while Witherspoon hasn’t even taken the mound to pitch in a game.

The 2025 MLB Draft will start at 5 p.m. CT on Sunday.

Read more about the Oklahoma Sooners

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NIL

The new college sports agency is rejecting some athlete NIL deals with donor-backed collectives

FILE – Camp Randall Stadium is seen during an NCAA college football game between Wisconsin and Miami of Ohio, Sept. 12, 2015, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash, File) The new agency in charge of regulating name, image, likeness deals in college sports sent a letter to schools Thursday saying it had rejected deals between […]

Published

38 minutes ago

July 12, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Wisconsin Miami NIL Lawsuit — FILE – Camp Randall Stadium is seen during an NCAA college football game between Wisconsin and Miami of Ohio, Sept. 12, 2015, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash, File)

The new agency in charge of regulating name, image, likeness deals in college sports sent a letter to schools Thursday saying it had rejected deals between players and donor-backed collectives formed over the past several years to funnel money to athletes or their schools.

Those arrangements hold no “valid business purpose,” the memo said, and don’t adhere to rules that call for outside NIL deals to be between players and companies that provide goods or services to the general public for profit.

The letter to Division I athletic directors could be the next step in shuttering today’s version of the collective, groups that are closely affiliated with schools and that, in the early days of NIL after July 2021, proved the most efficient way for schools to indirectly cut deals with players.

Since then, the landscape has changed yet again with the $2.8 billion House settlementthat allows schools to pay the players directly as of July 1.

Already, collectives affiliated with Colorado, Alabama, Notre Dame, Georgia and others have announced they’re shutting down. Georgia, Ohio State and Illinois are among those that have announced plans with Learfield, a media and technology company with decades of licensing and other experience across college athletics, to help arrange NIL deals.

Outside deals between athlete and sponsor are still permitted, but any worth $600 or more have to be vetted by a clearinghouse called NIL Go that was established with the help of auditing giant Deloitte and run by the new College Sports Commission.

In its letter to the ADs, the CSC said more than 1,500 deals have been cleared since NIL Go launched on June 11, “ranging in value from three figures to seven figures.” More than 12,000 athletes and 1,100 institutional users have registered to use the system.

But the bulk of the letter explained that many deals could not be cleared because they did not conform to an NCAA rule that sets a “valid business purpose” standard for deals to be approved.

The letter explained that if a collective reaches a deal with an athlete to appear on behalf of the collective, which charges an admission fee, the standard is not met 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.

The same would apply to a deal an athlete makes to sell merchandise to raise money to pay that player because 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” according to the NCAA rule.

Sports attorney Darren Heitner, who deals in NIL, said the guidance “could disproportionately burden collectives that are already committed to spending money on players for multiple years to come.”

“If a pattern of rejections results from collective deals submitted to Deloitte, it may invite legal scrutiny under antitrust principles,” he said.

On a separate track, some college sports leaders, including the NCAA, are seeking a limited form of antitrust protection from Congress.

The letter said a NIL deal could be approved if, for instance, the businesses paying the players had a broader purpose than simply acting as a collective. The letter uses a golf course or apparel company as examples.

“In other words, NIL collectives may act as marketing agencies that match student-athletes with businesses that have a valid business purpose and seek to use the student’s NIL to promote their businesses,” the letter said.