FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The No. 24 Oklahoma State softball team lost in eight innings to No. 4 national seed Arkansas, 6-5, at Bogle Park Saturday.  
 
The Cowgirls dropped to 34-19, while the Razorbacks improved to 42-12. With the loss, OSU faces an elimination game against either Indiana or Saint Louis later this evening, with the winner advancing to tomorrow’s regional final against the Hogs. 
 
The Cowgirls held a 3-1 lead after four innings and a 5-1 lead after five, but the Razorbacks scored one in the sixth, three in the seventh and one in the eighth to win. 
 
OSU opened the scoring in the third inning when Amanda Hasler singled in Megan Delgadillo, but Arkansas tied the game in the bottom of the third with an RBI single.  
 
Oklahoma State took a two-run lead in the fourth thanks to an RBI triple from Tia Warsop and a double from Rachael Hathoot which brought Warsop home.  
 
The Cowgirls added two more in the fifth inning with an RBI double from Hasler and an RBI groundout from Karli Godwin to score pinch runner Macy Graf.  
 
Arkansas’ Atalyia Rijo cut the deficit to three with a solo home run in the sixth, and the Razorbacks plated three more runs in the seventh to send the contest into extra innings.  
 
Oklahoma State failed to get a base runner on in the eighth, setting the stage for Arkansas to win it on a bases-loaded single up the middle from Courtney Day. 
 
Ruby Meylan took the loss for OSU to dip to 21-9 on the year. Arkansas’ Payton Burnham improved to 15-2 with the win. 
 
Offensive standouts for OSU included Hasler (3-for-4 with a double and two RBIs), Delgadillo (three runs scored) and Hathoot (1-for-4 with a double and an RBI.)  
 
For season-long coverage of Oklahoma State Softball, visit okstate.com and follow @CowgirlSB on X and @osusoftball on Instagram. For tickets, visit okstate.com/tickets  
or call 877-ALL-4-OSU. 
 
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8   R H E 
Oklahoma State 0 0 1 2 2 0 0 0   5 7 1 
Arkansas 0 0 1 0 0 1 3 1   6 11 0 
 
WP: P. Burnham (15-2); LP: R. Meylan (21-9); SV: None 
HR: OSU – None 
HR: UA – Rijo (6) 
Duration: 2:56; Attendance: 3,041  

Top five-star recruit Jackson Cantwell recently announced his college football commitment to the Miami Hurricanes, and his reported NIL deal is under the spotlight.

Cantwell chose the Hurricanes over the Georgia Bulldogs, and one of the reasons was said to be a landmark NIL package for the high school offensive tackle, reportedly upwards of $2 million per year.

It led to Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart sharing his recruiting philosophy while licking the wounds of losing out on Cantwell, declaring that he doesn’t want to be in a landscape where a freshman recruit comes on campus making more than a senior.

Although Cantwell has stated that the name, image, and likeness deal was not the primary reason for his commitment to Miami football, as reported by the Springfield News-Leader, the value of his deal remains a central topic of debate among college football personnel.

Chris Hummer of 247Sports (subscription required) sought the opinions of Power Four personnel and coaching staff on the Hurricane’s NIL strategy of spending top dollars on star targets, including quarterbacks Cam Ward and Carson Beck.

Those moves were made in an unrestricted NIL era that is set to change upon approval of the House settlement.

The revenue-sharing structure will have a cap, and that’s what’s causing pause among personnel in the sport regarding Cantwell’s NIL deal.

“If it’s coming out of the rev share, there’s no [expletive] way,” the same SEC director of player personnel said. “That’s a quarterback or a starting left tackle. Cantwell is going to start his career and be at best a quality starter. Not a great one. Not an elite one.”

Cantwell’s NIL lawyer, Darren Heitner, told 247Sports that it’s fair to assume that payment won’t come until he enrolls, which would seem to be in the revenue-sharing era.

The details are not public, and some wonder if the deal could be under the “old rules” of NIL if signed before the settlement’s July 1 effective date.

Regardless of whether it falls under cap compliance or not, the deal is sparking more debates around positional value and the fact that much of the salary cap is being spent on a high school offensive lineman who has yet to take a college snap.

The majority answered no, with an ACC director of player personnel giving a bit more open-minded perspective.

“Yeah, but you can only have one of them,” they said. “You have to invest up front, and that’s what the market is around.”

Of course schools want premier left tackles, but the cap will require more thoughtful divvying of resources.

Despite acknowledging the positional value, the majority of those surveyed contend that they would be better off allocating their resources elsewhere, particularly at the quarterback position.

Some, ultimately, shared Smart’s philosophy on not wanting to pay that much to an incoming freshman. In Cantwell’s case, he’d stand to make more than 95% of the roster.

The position is intricately linked with the starting quarterback. In going all out to land Beck in the transfer portal, the move might be of value if Cantwell can make the jump to starter.

If he hits, no one will be looking back on this move with much criticism at all.

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Just be present. That’s what Quinn Ewers has to say.

Miami Dolphins rookie quarterback Quinn Ewers offered advice to aspiring college football players during this week’s NFLPA Rookie Premiere, emphasizing the importance of consistency and presence amid the pressures of recruiting and the ever-evolving landscape of NIL deals.

Ewers, a former Texas Longhorns standout and the No. 1 overall recruit in the Class of 2021, spoke with On3 about his journey and the lessons he hopes to impart to the next generation of athletes.

“Just be present, especially if you’re in high school and you’re not receiving as many offers or whatever it is-coaches aren’t recognizing you as much,” Ewers said. “Just remain present and continue to be consistent. As long as you stay consistent, you’re going to end up where you want to be, at the end of the day. That’s just how it goes.”

Ewers, who began his collegiate career at Ohio State before transferring to Texas, acknowledged his own privileged position as a highly recruited player. “I was lucky enough to be a highly recruited guy, but I just tried to stay as consistent as I could as long as I could, which, at the end of the day, helped me a ton,” he said. “That’s all it is about-remaining present and taking care of business and letting all the other stuff fall in line, because it will if you really put the work in.”

His message comes at a time when young athletes face unprecedented opportunities and distractions, from social media attention to lucrative NIL deals. Ewers’ advice to “take care of business” and trust the process is a reminder of the fundamentals that underpin long-term success.

After leading Texas to back-to-back College Football Playoff appearances, Ewers chose to enter the 2025 NFL Draft, forgoing his final season of eligibility and a reported $8 million in potential NIL earnings. Despite sliding to the seventh round, he signed with the Dolphins and is expected to make his professional debut in the preseason. The four-year deal Ewers accepted will reportedly be worth $4.3 million. For Ewers, the next step is clear: stay present, work hard, and let the results speak for themselves.

President Donald Trump can be seen at college football games, UFC events, and even NASCAR races. Trump enjoys appearing at sporting events, and recently has entered himself into the college athletics space, attempting to create order in a wild west that is college sports.

It was inevitable that the NIL system currently in place was going to cause issues. This spring marked the first player to sit out of practice over money disputes. The players currently have all the power and there are no guardrails on how much schools can pay players, making it unfair in some sense.

NIL hasn’t been used like it’s intended so far. Originally, NIL was put in place so players could make money off autographs and jerseys with their name on them. But now, it’s used by boosters to pay players to play for their alma mater.

Trump is stepping in. Trump is reportedly creating a College Sports Commission, which will reportedly be led by former West Virginian and college football legend Nick Saban and Texas businessman Cody Campbell. The commission will regulate the transfer portal, boosters and college athlete employment.
This would be the first leader of college sports and potentially create a system that has structure.
Saban might not be the only West Virginian on the commission. In a recent interview with Sirius XM, Rich Rodriguez showed interest in helping his friend, Saban.

“I’m going to give him my cell number if they want an active coach on the deal,” Rodriguez said. “I’ll be on that sucker. I’ve got some experience. I can help from a current standpoint. I don’t know if they need me, though.

Like Saban, Rodriguez has been coaching for a long time, not as long as Saban and a lot fewer championships, but he’s seen the change and evolution of the sport.

All spring, Rodriguez voiced his problems with the NCAA. Rodriguez didn’t like the roster limit to 105, how there’s a spring portal, where a player you coached all spring can just leave, and how there are no limitations to how much a player can be paid.

Rodriguez has the background to be a candidate for the commission.

So far, it sounds like Saban will lead. Rodriguez agrees it should be the greatest college football coach of all time as the leader.

“He is the greatest college football coach of all time,” Rodriguez said. “He has a great grasp of the game in general… He’s truly about college football.”

Almost all professional sports leagues have a commissioner who settles issues throughout the league. College football doesn’t because it’s governed by the NCAA. After NIL was passed, the NCAA lost all its power, leaving it to the schools and players, creating chaos.

There’s no movement to create guardrails, and it’s starting to get out of hand. So much, that Trump felt the need to step in.

College sports, and more specifically college football, is a billion-dollar entertainment business. There needs to be structure before it falls apart even further. Saban’s the favorite to lead the next generation of college athletics, and West Virginia’s very own, Rodriguez, could be helping out, too.

“College football is such a great entity, it’s hard to screw it up,” Rodriguez said. “You can do whatever you want. There’s still going to be that passion for your school and that level of athletes. We’ve done enough things to screw it up in the last couple of years.”

Mark Pope plucked a pair of highly valuable transfers right from within his own conference.

One, Alabama’s Mo Dioubate, made it to the Final Four two seasons ago and then an Elite Eight this past season, while the other, Florida’s Denzel Aberdeen, helped the Gators win a national championship just a little over a month ago. When it comes to bringing in talented transfers with a winning pedigree from a power conference, you won’t do much better than what Kentucky did in the portal than these two.

And considering the SEC is expected to take a step backward in 2025-26, Pope having two seasoned intranconference veterans on his second roster at Kentucky is no small note — especially after they battled and thrived in what was labeled as one of the best single season runs (2024-25) we’ve ever seen from a conefence in recent memory.

“The SEC guys know the league and they know the physicality,” Pope said of his two incoming SEC transfers during his Tuesday press conference. “And they know the talent, and they kind of know the flow and venues are going to be familiar to them, and all those things are advantageous, but mostly I’m just excited about the guys that we got.”

Dioubate and Aberdeen are both a bit different than the caliber of player Pope targeted in the portal last offseason. They’re defensive-minded athletes with specific offensive skills. But more importantly, they have SEC experience using those traits. Together, they’ve played 75 games against SEC opponents across five total seasons. Dioubate, in particular, went 3-0 against Kentucky last season.

But as Pope has harped on since taking over as Kentucky men’s basketball head coach, it’s not only about basketball when it comes to playing for the Wildcats.

“This Mo Dioubate, man, I think he’s a special person,” Pope said. “Like, I don’t know, his second or third conversation, we were talking about his family and his history and his faith and his commitment to all three of those things… And he wasn’t talking about that, he was talking about his life and how he thought about the world and his decision-making, but it was so clear and transparent that it’s all built on those three foundations.

“I think he’s special. I think he’s special. And then his skill set fits us in a brilliant way. I just can’t wait to see what he can do for us on the court. He’s coming from an incredible program and incredible coaching staff and we’re going to get to enjoy some of the fruit of all the labors that have come with him and by him before he got here. But really excited about him.”

Pope continued by sharing similar thoughts about Aberdeen.

“And this Denzel Aberdeen. I mean, he’s coming here wearing a big, fat, giant ring,” Pope said, referring to Florida’s 2025 national championship run where Aberdeen was a key backcourt piece. “And there’s no way to replace that type of experience. And he’s a beautiful kid, man, like spending time with his parents was really special. Comes from a military family background, and he cares about people, and he’s an incredibly talented basketball player.”

High-level basketball players? Check. High-level people? Another check. And now they get to see what it’s like to bring those traits to a Blue Blood.

“Specifically, those two guys, I can’t wait to get them here,” Pope added. “And I can’t wait for them to come experience basketball at the University of Kentucky, because it’s just different. And even being in this league, I’m excited for those guys, because they get to walk in the doors and then learn how this is so different here.”

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