MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee softball shut out the UTEP Miners for the second consecutive night, cruising to a 7-0 win on Saturday, May 3.

The Blue Raiders (25-27, 12-14 CUSA) got off to a quick start vs. the Miners (22-27, 10-16 CUSA). Mary Martinez struck out the first batter of the game and closed out a scoreless first inning. In the bottom half, Addy Edgmon led off with a walk before Macie Harter ripped a triple to center field, driving in Edgmon. The triple was Harter’s sixth of the season, tying the program’s single-season record.

Immediately after Harter’s triple, Jana Want drove a double over the center fielder’s head to extend the lead to 2-0. In the fourth inning, senior Ava Tepe launched a home run over the right field wall, making her presence felt on Senior Day and pushing the lead to 4-0.

The scoring continued in the fifth. Ansley Blevins hit her 13th home run of the season, a solo shot to right-center field. Just two batters later, graduate student Julia Garcia added her own blast, this time over the left field wall. The Blue Raiders wrapped up the scoring there, finishing with seven runs on the night.

Complementing the offensive firepower, Mary Martinez was dominant in the circle, throwing a complete game shutout. The junior set a new career-high with eight strikeouts while allowing just four hits, one walk, and one hit batter. The win improved her record to 6-5, and her ERA dropped to an impressive 3.30.

“It was extra special to come out and pitch for my seniors tonight,” Martinez said after the game. “My job was made easier thanks to the great defense behind me and the productive offense. All glory to God.”

By the Numbers

• 2: When allowing two runs or less, the Blue Raiders improve to a 14-1 record.
• 3: Tonight marked the eighth time Middle Tennessee has hit three or more home runs in a game.
• 8: Mary Martinez set a career-high in strikeouts with eight on the night.
• 6: Macie Harter tied the program record with six triples in a single season.

Up next
The Blue Raiders will be back out tomorrow vs. the Miners for the series finale with first pitch set for 12:00 pm. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ and live stats will be available at Stat Broadcast.

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President Donald Trump and legendary college football head coach Nick Saban reportedly had a serious conversation about NIL deals.

Nick Saban retired from coaching after Alabama’s 2023 season. Saban coached Toledo (1990), Michigan State (1995 to 1999), LSU (2000 to 2004) and Alabama (2007 to 2023), plus a two-year tenure with the NFL’s Miami Dolphins (2005 to 2006).

Saban has been vocal about his concerns with NIL deals for college athletes. It wasn’t until 2021 that the NCAA altered its rules, which allowed athletes to make money off their name, likeness and image.

According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal , Saban met with Donald Trump in Tuscaloosa and expressed his concern about NIL deals. The outlet reports that Trump is pondering the idea of signing an executive order that would limit NIL:

“The Trump administration is considering an executive order that could increase scrutiny of the explosion in payments to college athletes since 2021, after the president met with former Alabama coach Nick Saban, White House officials said.

Trump met with Saban on Thursday night when he was in Tuscaloosa to deliver the University of Alabama’s commencement address. Saban talked about “NIL” deals with Trump, telling the president how he believed the influx of money had damaged college sports…

Trump said he agreed with Saban and would look at crafting an executive order, people familiar with the meeting said. Trump told aides to begin studying what an order could say, the people said.

Saban didn’t propose ending NIL but “reforming” it, according to a person with direct knowledge of the meeting. He described how it was causing an uneven playing field, the people said, with an arms race among powerhouse schools.”

Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning and former Georgia QB Carson Beck, who transferred to Miami after the 2024 season, have all signed lucrative NIL deals with several million dollars.

Nico Iamaleava left the Tennessee Volunteers last month after the two sides failed to agree on a restructured NIL deal. He wound up transferring to the UCLA Bruins, and Iamaleava certainly won’t be the last big-named NCAA quarterback to transfer because of money.

So, will Donald Trump and his administration make a change to NIL deals? Stay tuned.

Donald Trump Loves Trying To Get Involved In Sports

During his first year as President, Donald Trump called for NFL teams to “fire” whichever players refused to stand for the national anthem before games. Trump has also been vocal about his disagreement with the NFL’s new kickoff rules and suggested that they don’t ban the Philadelphia Eagles’ “Tush Push” play.

So nobody should be surprised that Trump is reportedly trying to get involved in NIL deals now.

The post President Donald Trump Reportedly Considering Bizarre Executive Order For NIL After Meeting With Nick Saban originally published on Total Pro Sports .

President Donald Trump is reportedly weighing the issuance of an executive order that would attempt to place restrictions on college athlete compensation. The president’s interest follows conversations with two former coaches: Nick Saban and U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.).

Any executive order that restricts athletes, schools, conferences or the NCAA would encounter a bevy of problems since it would interact, and possibly conflict, with multiple areas of federal and state laws. It could also pose problems for the NCAA as it waits for U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken to grant or deny final approval of the House, Carter and Hubbard antitrust litigations. 

An executive order would likely be pitched as providing stable and predictable rules for compensating college athletes. For instance, an order that says college athletes cannot be recognized as employees would sound simple enough. 

Except in the law, nothing is simple and that certainly is true of employment.  

For starters, an executive order can’t conflict with a federal statute. If a court finds that college athletes are employees within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act or the Fair Labor Standards Act, they will be employees. If a court finds they aren’t employees under those laws, then they aren’t employees.

Then there are state laws governing labor and employment. An executive order can’t compel a state to interpret its own laws a certain way. In Johnson v. NCAA, for example, the athletes argue they are employees within the meaning of the FLSA and applicable state laws, such as the New York Labor Law, the North Carolina Wage and Hour Act, the Connecticut Minimum Wage Act and the Arizona Minimum Wage Act. Or take whether athletes at public universities are employees who can unionize. That’s a question for state law, not federal law. An executive order can’t cast away state claims or accompanying states’ rights.

The same goes for the prospect of Trump issuing an edict on name, image and likeness. 

NIL, as its typically called, is often portrayed as a new legal right for college athletes, but that’s an erroneous depiction. NIL is a subset of the right of publicity, which is a matter of state laws (there is no federal right of publicity) and which forbids the commercial use of another person’s identity—be it their NIL or perhaps their voice, mannerisms, signature or other characteristics that make them unique—without their consent. In the college sports parlance, “NIL” is best understood as removing an NCAA eligibility restraint on college athletes to use a right they already had (the right of publicity) under applicable state law.

To be sure, NIL has morphed into a different creature than its early billing. Some NIL collectives, at the behest of schools, have offered recruits what are labeled NIL deals but are better understood as pay-for-play arrangements. Those arrangements substantively violate NCAA rules. The NCAA has tried to curb that practice, but last year a federal judge in Tennessee and Virginia v. NCAA issued a ruling to block the NCAA. 

But if approved, the House settlement would create an independent review system for NIL deals that exceed $600. The system would try to ensure these deals are not disguising pay-for-play arrangements. An order by Trump on NIL that is interpretable as conflicting with this independent review model could upend a key settlement term. 

Trump could also weigh in on the new horizon of NCAA antitrust litigation: college athletes suing to remain in school so they can earn NIL money and, if the House settlement is approved, a share of media, ticket and sponsorship revenue. Those lawsuits have led to conflicting rulings in different states. Trump might decree that antitrust law be interpreted a certain way in relation to eligibility claims. That type of decree would impact how the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission and other federal agencies interpret antitrust law in the context of college sports, but it wouldn’t stop athletes from continuing to bring private antitrust actions against the NCAA.

It’s been suggested that Congress or Trump needs to intervene to prevent college sports from morphing into pro sports. Often that viewpoint erroneously blames the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in NCAA v. Alston. Remember, Alston had nothing to do with NIL or paying college athletes to play sports. It concerned the peripheral issue of NCAA rules restricting how colleges compensate athletes for education-related expenses. Many of the justices who voted against the NCAA in Alston expressed worry about the commercialization of college sports. That could foretell how the justices would rule on antitrust cases regarding NIL or paying athletes to play sports. Alston is not an especially persuasive reason for Trump to intervene. 

There are also potential constitutional problems with a Trump executive order on college sports. It could run afoul of Equal Protection if college athletes are denied the same rights, including for employment and other economic opportunities, that their classmates enjoy. An executive order might also run afoul of the First Amendment to the extent it limits how college athletes express themselves.

Trump might be well served by meeting with other stakeholders, including those whose opinions and viewpoints aren’t necessarily aligned with retired college coaches.

Paul McDonald, who is counsel to the plaintiff athletes in Johnson, told Sportico he’d “welcome the opportunity to speak with the President about NCAA reform.” A graduate of Princeton University and NYU School of Law, McDonald believes Trump would listen to him and find his athlete-focused viewpoint persuasive.  

“I believe the President–and any reasonable Republican or Democrat–would support college athletes having the same, limited student employee status as classmates selling popcorn at NCAA games,” McDonald said. “Equal treatment to classmates in Work Study-style student employment, including student employees on academic scholarship, is consistent with Equal Protection, easy to implement using NCAA-mandated timesheets, and affordable on hourly, minimum wage scales–particularly if colleges stop overpaying some coaches. Colleges have never explained why they oppose this easy, and equitable, solution.”

(The quote in the final paragraph from Paul McDonald was incorrectly attributed in an earlier version of the story.)

After his second year with the Texas Longhorns in 2023, Quinn Ewers seemed like one of the top QB prospects in his class. He led Texas to a 10-2 record, including a win in the Big 12 championship and a big performance in a losing effort in the semifinal of the College Football Playoff. He earned Second-Team All-Big 12 honors with nearly 3,500 yards, 22 TDs, and just six picks.

However, with Arch Manning breathing down his neck in 2024, Ewers seemed to regress. That was seen most notably in his decision-making, as he led the SEC in interceptions last year, with 12. Ewers’ INT rate nearly doubled too.

He also lost the SEC championship and didn’t perform as well in another semifinal loss in the CFP. That caused his draft stock to take a major hit, which led to questions about staying in college another year.

Ewers decided to forego his final year of college eligibility and declare for the draft instead. He was the 13th and final QB selected, going 231st overall in the seventh round to the Miami Dolphins. He’s set to play on a rookie contract worth four years and about $4.3 million.

That entire contract represents about half of his supposed NIL earning potential in 2025, which was $8 million. However, Cam Newton thinks people are using hindsight to say Ewers should have stayed in college.

“But if he went in the first two or three rounds, everybody would’ve said you made the right decision,” argued the former QB.

“But the NIL money will never compare to what the NFL money is. And that $8 million is only a projection. There’s no contracts that we can show to date that says these people who are projected to have a $10 million NIL evaluation. It’s just an evaluation,” added Newton.

On top of the fact that the $8 million was more of an estimate than any deal Ewers had waiting for him, there’s also the Arch Manning factor. He arrived at Texas in 2023 and redshirted his freshman year, but he was much more involved in 2024. It was clear they were moving on to Manning, so Ewers didn’t have a place at Texas past 2024.

“I don’t think Quinn Ewers could stay. … I don’t think it was in his best interest to stay at Texas. I don’t think he could stay at Texas. That hourglass had no sand at the top. Okay [hitting the transfer portal], cool, he should’ve pulled a Carson Beck. That’s subjective. “

Ewers could have transferred like Carson Beck did, but, as Newton said, NIL is just temporary money. The former Heisman Trophy winner also rightly pointed out that NIL money is not supposed to be akin to salary, but rather money to make the lives of student-athletes comfortable.

“I’ve said it time and time again, the NIL was just a tool for athletes in college to have a comfortable college experience. This is not forever money.”

At the end of the day, Quinn Ewers didn’t land in the worst situation in the NFL. A lot of guys have played QB for the Dolphins over the last few years. They’ve had six guys take snaps since the 2022 season. That’s because the starter, Tua Tagovailoa, has been very injury-prone.

That means if Ewers can get that backup role, he could very well see significant playing time as a rookie. He just has to beat out Zach Wilson for that QB2 spot. But even if he doesn’t and Wilson gets in there as the backup at some point and stinks it up (which is possible, if not likely), calls for Ewers will start coming sooner rather than later on South Beach.

The 2024-25 Southeastern Conference was arguably the deepest, most talented league in the history of men’s college basketball. 14 of the SEC’s 16 teams ended up making the 2025 NCAA Tournament, the most ever by a single conference. Seven of them reached the Sweet 16, four went to the Elite 8, two made the Final Four, and the Florida Gators were crowned national champions.

Eight SEC teams finished among the AP Poll’s Top 25, including Kentucky at No. 12.

The fact that the Wildcats finished 10-8 in the SEC in what was Mark Pope‘s first season as head coach was nothing short of an all-around success. According to KenPom, the SEC’s combined Net Rating of 22.09 in 2025-26 was the highest in the site’s history, which tracks data back to the 1996-97 season. It marked just the third time ever a single conference broke the 20-point Net Rating mark (1997 ACC and 2004 ACC) in KenPom’s system.

It was certainly a challenging stretch for Pope and his Wildcats, only made more difficult by non-stop injuries, but it was an experience he fully embraced — and one he’s excited to learn from moving forward.

“It was the greatest experience of my basketball coaching career, by far,” Pope told Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports in an interview from earlier this week about his first year coaching in the SEC. “You know, last year, I was really blessed to coach in the Big 12, BYU’s first year in the Big 12, and that was an incredible experience. And it was a great league. I don’t think college basketball has ever seen a league like we saw last year in the SEC. Not just 14 teams in, but seven teams in the Sweet 16.

“I used to brag about my ’96 (Kentucky) team. The league was so good. We had four teams in the Sweet 16 and two teams in the Final Four. We had double that (in 2024-25), almost. Unfortunately for us, we got run out of the NCAA tournament by another SEC team. It’s what you live for as a competitor, is to be in a league like that. Hopefully we’ll run it back bigger and better next year as a league. The venues are incredible, the fan bases are incredible, the coaches are really humbling to go against these guys. I’ll treasure that experience last year forever.”

The SEC isn’t expected to be as deep in 2025-26, but there will still be plenty of talent from top to bottom and plenty of nationally ranked teams. After sticking in the middle of the pack last season, Kentucky will be among the favorites to win the league thanks to an upgraded roster and a better understanding from Pope of what it takes to succeed at this level of ball.

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Nick Saban meets with President Trump to change NIL for College Football Nick Saban had a private meeting with President Trump on the current state of the NIL inside of College Football right now, and President Trump is now considering of creating an executive order to put new NIL policies & procedures in place. – Join The Bama Standard Membership Community: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxamLUbaBb7t7Jod7bbXXFA/join – 🆂🅲🅸🅻 🅼🅴🅳🅸 Twitter: https://bit.ly/3yhJFwU Instagram: https://bit.ly/3Ic8XAW Facebook: https://bit.ly/3R9znY3 – Subscribe Now: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxamLUbaBb7t7Jod7bbXXFA?sub_confirmation=1 – Bama Standard Network Shows The Bama Standard: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVZZ12gkh961jA7apAXd5tGDu8KrRceXz&si=tiXXNjrVEM7K_GC7 The Final Whistle: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVZZ12gkh963di18J8Pb0_Tpg4m21pKcF&si=FRXlPfkaF45STth- Crimson Dynasty: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVZZ12gkh961shaBXZXp71MpRdfbL_jFY&si=AIivhtBWtdoE486J Teagues Take:…