Hall of Fame broadcaster Dick Vitale is already fired up for college basketball season, and he’s high on the defending national champions from Gainesville.

• Cayden Baker is a social media intern for Tennessee Mojo, making regular posts and announcements, and giving top players advice on recruiting and name, image and likeness financial deals.
• The former Powell High softball player also is a UT student, owns a business and works part time as a receptionist.

As if owning a business wasn’t enough … or working a second job … or having a time-consuming internship … or carrying a full class load at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville … Cayden Baker’s days — and nights — are full, even without the game of softball that she once loved so much.

The future of the College Football Playoff has been widely discussed throughout the offseason. This comes as expansion appears to be on the horizon, while there are also questions about the current 12-team model in the short term.

One of the public-facing figures of this move to expand the Playoff has been SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. He recently appeared on The Dan Patrick Show. There, he addressed and shut down one idea that many have pushed, which is to reseed teams after the first round.

“Not really, reseeding,” Sankey said. “Because almost, what, a week and a half ago, for the ’25 season, the College Football Playoff management committee, which is the commissioners and the Notre Dame athletic director, agreed to just go to straight seeding by ranking. So, the movement of teams outside of the top four, into the top four, that won’t happen anymore in 2025. You’re going to get what you earn. Same for home games.”

In essence, reseeding a Playoff would take the teams who are still in the field after the opening round and re-rank them. That would be to create better matchups down the line and prevent certain teams from being rewarded for an easier path.

Last season, the Playoff model gave byes to the top four seeds. Those top four seeds were taken as the top four ranked conference champions, which gave lower-ranked teams byes. That had been a major reason for the reseeding push to begin with.

“We’ve not gone back into the reseeding question. If you go back to June of ’21, which was like ancient history in college sports when the 12-team model was introduced, and we went back through this about a month ago with everybody involved on that management committee. One of the questions was, ‘Should we be reseeding?’ We never really got back to that because, you remember, the SEC had this little expansion to 16 [teams]. Great disruption in the force. Then we had ’22 and expansion of the Big Ten. So, we waited around for a year,” Sankey said.

“Now, we’ve been in hurry-up mode ever since. We haven’t talked so much about reseeding as we did about honoring the rankings in the bracket.”

As Sankey pointed out, the College Football Playoff is now going through some rapid changes. Depending on how those changes and potential expansion work out, it’s possible that reseeding becomes a topic again soon. For now, though, there’s not likely going to be more discussion in the short term.

College sports are not exactly amateur anymore.

Over the last few years, there has been a shift at the college level: players are now allowed to earn money from their own image and likeness, commonly known as NIL.

No longer are schools and corporations the only ones making millions of dollars while players are left with no guarantees for their future.

Is the system perfect? Of course not. But it’s only been a few years, so there’s no question that more regulation will be coming in the future.

Plus, America is a free market, so let the kids get paid what they’re worth. And that’s exactly what’s happening.

This includes Newport, Maine native Cooper Flagg, who just finished his career at Duke University. Flagg is projected to be the No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft, which will make him one rich dude. However, it’s safe to say he’s already there.

How Much Money did Cooper Flagg Make in NIL Money?

According to sports reporter Howard Bryant, Flagg made a whopping $28 million in NIL money. Bryant, speaking on a recent podcast with Bob Costas, said the money came from two major sources: a $15 million shoe deal with New Balance and a $13 million deal with the brand Fanatics.

Now, it’s likely those deals were structured for a potential four-year college career, but since Flagg only played one season, well, it turned out to be a very lucrative year.

This is simply staggering to read. When the idea of NIL first emerged, I’m not sure anyone expected it to reach this scale. However, it makes sense from a company’s  perspective. One would imagine that both New Balance and Fanatics have positioned themselves well to be long-term partners with Flagg, which is a smart move, considering he’s a generational talent.

But still, $28 million is wild. That’s more than double what the best NHL player, Connor McDavid, made last season. It’s $10 million more than the entire 2024 payroll of the New England Revolution. He made $8 million more than Derrick White of the Boston Celtics. It’s more money than Tom Brady ever made in a single year with the New England Patriots. I think you get the point.

Did Cooper Flagg Actually Make More than $28 Million in NIL Money?

I wonder if it’s actually more than $28 million. As incredible as that number is, I would imagine he got some sort of deal from Duke boosters to choose the Blue Devils. As great as the other deals are, I doubt either company stipulated that he had to play for Duke. So, I’d guess he took home over $30 million to play just one year at Duke. Again, pure speculation, but it would make sense if he had some sort of financial support connected to the university.

READ MORE: Mainer Files Noise Complaint After Hearts of Pine Soccer Game

These are mind-blowing numbers, but we’re talking about professional sports. And make no mistake about it: big-time college sports have been professional from a revenue perspective for decades. For example, CBS Sports paid $8.8 BILLION for the exclusive rights to broadcast the NCAA Tournament.

I, for one, love seeing the kids get paid. Good for you, Cooper.

Sam Landry spent just one season at Oklahoma, transferring in from Louisiana. Her coach there was on the opposite side in this year’s Women’s College World Series semifinal, Texas Tech‘s Gerry Glasco. He maintains a special relationship with Landry, extending further than just softball.

On Landry’s glove, you will find the name Geri Ann, Glasco’s late daughter. The ESPN broadcast spoke on the matter during Monday’s game between Oklahoma and Texas Tech. But during her postgame press conference, Landry expanded on the matter and explained why she decided to honor Geri Ann throughout the 2025 season.

“I met Gerri Ann a few times while she was a volunteer coach at Louisiana under Coach Glasco,” Landry said. “I got to know her a little bit before she passed away but I was very close with Coach Glasco all those years. Just seeing how he was dealing with, wearing No. 12, in my opinion, kept him going. So that’s why it was so important to me and carrying on her legacy. She was an amazing person.

“When I got here, No. 12 was taken. I knew I had to figure out somehow to keep her going. So, I got it on my glove.”

Maya Bland wore No. 12 this season for the Sooners. Landry did not stray too far away, just flipping the two numbers for No. 21. Still, not exactly what Landry was going for as she felt like something else was needed. And although Glasco was not there on a daily basis, everything came full circle in Oklahoma City.

Glasco was originally going to recruit Landry with him to Texas Tech, hoping to coach her for a fourth season. There was only one team he knew was worthy of playing for, instead of going to Lubbock. Once Oklahoma made the call, Glasco actually advised Landry to go to Norman.

“She first met Coach Glasco in eighth grade and then played for him for three seasons at Louisiana,” ESPN’s Taylor McGregor said during the broadcast. “Last summer, when he decided to take the Tech job, he originally told her to come with him. But then Oklahoma came in with an offer and he said ‘You have to go there.’”

No matter where Landry landed, finding a way to remember Geri Ann was going to happen. And when the jersey number was not a possibility, the next best thing took place with her glove.

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