New face, new place, big wins: Here were the best Year 1 coaches in college basketball for the 2024-25 season
A year ago, college basketball had its busiest cycle of coaching turnover ever. There were 68 job changes, a record high over the sport’s 100-plus year history. Inevitably, there were going to be some big hits and big misses right off the bat. The ones that hit really did make a mark, in effect defining […]
A year ago, college basketball had its busiest cycle of coaching turnover ever. There were 68 job changes, a record high over the sport’s 100-plus year history.
Inevitably, there were going to be some big hits and big misses right off the bat. The ones that hit really did make a mark, in effect defining a lot of the good aspects of the 2024-25 spell.
So today, I’m taking one more look back at the season and handing out some quick dap for the coaches who were able to take a new job and earn some instant credibility. Which schools made a coaching switch and found success without having to wait until Year 2 or Year 3? I’ve got an even dozen detailed below.
At the high-major level, the bar to clear is obvious and non-negotiable: Did you make the NCAA Tournament? If the answer is yes, you are listed here today. Mid-major hirings are judged a bit differently, but we also had a few of those who qualified for March Madness right away with a new coach as well.
None of these coaches are guaranteed to be as good next year as they were last season, but it sure does help in this hyper-transfer era. A number of the coaches/schools listed below have done quite well for themselves in the portal over the past month.
2024-25’s most immediately successful high-major hires
Kentucky: Mark Pope
Pope brought in an eclectic group of transfers and freshmen and produced something historic in Lexington. The Wildcats beat eight top-15 teams last season, the most in program history and one of the most ever in a season by any team. UK wound up involved in some of the most entertaining games of the season, most notably its 106-100 win on Jan. 4 over eventual national champ Florida. Kentucky finished 24-12, earned a No. 3 seed and lost in the Sweet 16 to intra-conference rival Tennessee, but within those 24 wins, conquests over the likes of Duke, Gonzaga, Louisville, Florida, Tennessee (twice) and Illinois were all included.
The Wildcats are immediately losing Andrew Carr, Lamont Butler, Amari Williams, Koby Brea and Jaxson Robinson, but the foundation they built will be looked back on fondly. Kentucky finished sixth in the deepest conference in college basketball history, doing so amid a brand overhaul in the post-John Calipari era. It could’ve been better, but not by much. Pope did a really good job in Year 1 and he’s got a team that could be preseason top 10 heading into Year 2.
Michigan: Dusty May
May didn’t need much time to regain Michigan’s prestige in college hoops. The Wolverines went from eight wins under Juwan Howard to 27 in May’s first season, which included a Sweet 16 run as an under-seeded No. 5 in the South Region, ultimately falling to No. 1 overall seed Auburn. Michigan’s 19-win turnaround ranks among the five largest in power-conference history.
May worked it well in the portal in 2024, most notably making a twin-tower starting duo of 7-footers play well off each other in a way no other team was doing. Vlad Goldin followed May from FAU, while Danny Wolf made the Ivy League jump from Yale and turned himself into a probable top-20 pick. Wolf was also one of the five best transfers last season. The Wolverines finished second in the Big Ten and have taken that momentum and built up arguably the best 2025 portal class to this point, led by UAB transfer Yaxel Lendeborg.
BYU: Kevin Young
Like Pope and May, Young got his team to a quality NCAA seed and a Sweet 16 showing right away. A big win for a program that last made it to the second weekend of March Madness back during the days of Jimmer. (Who just retired!) BYU got ahead of the pace this past season after going 26-10, ranking top-10 in offensive efficiency and earning a No. 6 seed.
Young’s Cougars finished fourth in the Big 12, going 15-7 against league foes and hitting a hot streak in the final six weeks of the season that put them among the sport’s best by mid-March. BYU ultimately bowed out of the tournament against Alabama, which needed a tournament-record 25 triples to kill off the Cougars. Young’s team next season should be even better. The Cougars are poised to be one of the “It” programs of 2025-26 due to AJ Dybantsa: He’s the potential No. 1 overall NBA pick come 2026.
Pat Kelsey inherited a broken program and immediately restored Louisville to respectability.
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Louisville: Pat Kelsey
Most of it was good until the very end, when Kelsey’s team got a gift. Despite being oddly under-seeded (as a No. 8) in the NCAAs, they were afforded a travel break by only having to drive Lexington for the first round. There, Creighton brought the wood and quickly ended U of L’s season with an 89-75 outcome in the first game of the first round. Other than that? Kelsey did a really good job in a mediocre ACC. But the conference’s quality is not on Louisville. Like Michigan, Louisville had a 19-game swing, one of the biggest ever by a high-major. The Cards went 27-8, including a 20-3 record vs. ACC opponents and tying Clemson for second in the league. Louisville matters again. A very good thing for college basketball.
Kelsey wasn’t Louisville’s first, second, third or fourth choice, but that didn’t stop him from making the most of a terrible situation he was inheriting. The program sunk to unthinkable depths under Kenny Payne, winning just 12 games the past two seasons. Kelsey matched that by Jan. 11 — doing so despite losing multiple players to injury. Now he’s brought back some good pieces and had a huge NIL budget to work with again, putting the Cards in position to be a top-10 roster heading into the fall.
Arkansas: John Calipari
As I wrote in March, it was a turbulent season for the Razorbacks under their new leader. But any season that ends with a Sweet 16 appearance for the Hogs has to be assessed a success. This is a program, after all, that had a Sweet 16 drought from 1997-2021. Calipari finished with a 22-14 mark, including a win at Kentucky on Feb. 1 (when few gave a lagging Arkansas team any shot) and an ugly-but-we’ll-take-it upset win over No. 2 St. John’s i in the second round of the NCAAs (with Arkansas as a 10).
The Hogs did it in spite of injury issues for much of the season. They did it in spite of an offense that resembled some of Calipari’s most frustrating schemes in the back half of his Kentucky era. Winning in March cures many ills, and so it was the case for Arkansas. Year 1 in Fayetteville was tumultuous for many weeks, but by the end (even with that cringey loss to Texas Tech in the Sweet 16), it’s fair to call it a success.
Vanderbilt: Mark Byington
The Commodores brought on Byington, who oversaw a mid-major powerhouse James Madison team go 32-4 after beating Wisconsin and making the second round of the NCAAs in 2024. He arrived in Nashville, underwent a grueling roster flip, and managed to more than merely tread water in the treacherous SEC. The league was historically elite thanks to teams like Vandy just as much as the Floridas, Auburns, Alabamas and Tennessees.
Under Byington, the ‘Dores broke on through with a 15-3 start, ultimately finishing 20-13 and with a 59-56 loss to Saint Mary’s in a 7/10 first round matchup. Sustaining relevance at Vanderbilt is historically one of the most challenging asks of any program at the power-conference level. But if he keeps it up, Byington will be a hot name on the coaching carousel once again.
Mark Byington had the Commodores enjoying their best season since 2016-17.
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Mid-major noisemakers in Year 1
When it comes to mid-majors, I don’t require an NCAA Tournament trip in order to receive some recognition. That said, making it to the Dance is reason for automatic inclusion. There were three places with first-year coaches that broke through on Selection Sunday. I’ve also included three more mid-major coaches who hit the 20-win threshold in their first tours at their new digs.
Drake: Ben McCollum
Quite clearly the biggest mid-major winner of last season. Only three teams finished the season with as few as four losses: national champion Florida, Duke (finished No. 1 at KenPom) and McCollum’s team. The Bulldogs went 31-4, won an NCAA Tournament game and earned a too-low 11-seed after owning the Missouri Valley. McCollum took the Iowa job in short order after obliterating the bar for success at that level. In winning nearly 89% of his games, McCollum is off to one of the best starts by a D-I coach ever. That’s why Drake’s the only school listed in this story to lose its coach less than 12 months after hiring him.
Utah State: Jerrod Calhoun
Something about this program enables almost anyone to come in and produce good results. Calhoun got his chance and posted an impressive 26-8 record, which included a No. 10 seed in the Big Dance. Utah State was summarily bounced by UCLA in the first round, but still: 26 wins and a 16-6 record against Mountain West teams is a sweet follow-up to Danny Sprinkle going 28-7 and making the second round of the NCAAs the year before.
Mount St. Mary’s:Donny Lind
Imagine getting your first chance at being a head coach and taking a mid-major to the NCAAs right away. Not easy. But it’s what Lind did in the MAAC. The Mountaineers went 23-13 and even earned some NCAA Tournament cash by beating American in the First Four, earning the right to get walloped by Duke two days later. That’s good living!
Charleston: Chris Mack
To the surprise of nobody, Mack was as good as advertised: a 24-9 debut season in the CAA, including a one-point semifinal loss in the league tournament. No NCAA Tournament, but a quality first year. The 55-year-old has an envious NIL budget at that level and figures to have a squad that ranks among the 10-15 best mid-majors in the sport next season. Standard is high here and it’s unlikely to drop with Mack around.
James Madison: Preston Spradlin
Spradlin arrived here after taking Morehead State to a pair of NCAA Tournaments. The Dukes were part of a four-way tie atop the Sun Belt (13-5) and ultimately finished 20-12. A good foundation — after having to do some major roster reworking. It would be no surprise if Spradlin had the Dukes back in the Big Dance in 2026 or 2027.
Marshall: Cornelius Jackson
I can’t list JMU and not include Marshall. Under Jackson, the Thundering Herd — in the same conference as JMU — finished just one game behind the Dukes (12-6) and ultimately matched with 20 wins in the Sun Belt. A nice introduction at a program with just one NCAA Tournament this century.
Schools Allowed to Pay NCAA Athletes Directly After Judge Approves Settlement
Division I athletes will soon be able to receive direct payments from their schools for the first time in NCAA history. California judge Claudia Wilken granted final approval to the House v. NCAA settlement around 9 p.m. ET Friday night, according to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger. The approval ended three federal antitrust lawsuits and paved […]
Division I athletes will soon be able to receive direct payments from their schools for the first time in NCAA history.
California judge Claudia Wilken granted final approval to the House v. NCAA settlement around 9 p.m. ET Friday night, according to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger.
The approval ended three federal antitrust lawsuits and paved the way for schools to begin directly paying athletes starting July 1.
NCAA president Charlie Baker called revenue sharing “a tremendously positive change and one that was long overdue” in a letter shared on Friday night.
The settlement approves a total of $2.8 billion in compensation over a span of 10 years to past NCAA athletes seeking recompense for their previous inability to seek NIL deals.
The deal also imposes roster limits for sports such as football (105 roster players), men’s basketball (15 roster players) and baseball (34 roster players), per Dellenger.
Dellenger previously reported in April the new limits were expected to eliminate 5,000 power conference roster spots, and added that the changes were expectedly to particularly impact “walk-ons and partial scholarship earners in swimming, football, track and cross country.”
The settlement also puts into motion the College Sports Commission, an LLC established by the Power 5 conferences.
Schools are set to be able to share revenue under an annual cap, which will start out at $20.5 million for the 2025-26 season. Dellenger reported it could escalate as high as $33 million by 2035.
Dellenger previously described the College Sports Commission as “a new enforcement arm to police violators of the industry’s new salary cap,” which “is expected to feature revenue-sharing policies and a corresponding penalty structure for violators.”
The first revenue sharing contracts may be completed just hours after the settlement.
On3’s Pete Nakos reported that “multiple schools” are sending over contracts so deals can be signed “as early as midnight” on Friday.
“Many schools have front-loaded contracts ahead of the settlement’s approval, taking advantage of contracts not being vetted by the newly formed NIL clearinghouse,” Nakos wrote.
The settlement will also begin giving responsibility to NIL Go, a clearinghouse run by the consulting firm Deloitte which is set to review any NIL deals worth over $600.
NIL Go is expected to begin processing contracts three days after the approval of the settlement, Dellenger reported in May.
These new governance bodies for revenue-sharing and NIL contracts won’t be the only changes to NCAA governance in the near future.
Baker wrote that the NCAA and DI leaders “are designing a new governance system that reduces the number of committees and streamlines the process to set rules governing competition, championships, eligibility and academic standards.”
“While there will be more to come on the Division I structure, it is clear it must be far simpler with far fewer layers, and student-athletes must have more votes on the committees that deal with issues that impact them,” Baker wrote.
Baker added that the NCAA’s next steps involve working with Congress to enforce the settlement with legislate that would block states from “challenging” the organization’s rulemaking.
The first steps for that legislation could already be in motion. Dellenger reported in April that five U.S. Senators had held recently held “serious negotiations over drafting a federal bill to regulate college sports compensation.”
Millions of dollars available to college athletes after House v. NCAA settlement approved
A US District Judge settled the House vs NCAA settlement to allow college athletes to paid directly from schools and effectively end the era of college sports as amateur 22:07 ET, 06 Jun 2025Updated 23:17 ET, 06 Jun 2025 College athletics may forever look dirfferent after Friday’s landmark ruling(Image: Getty Images) College athletes are set […]
A US District Judge settled the House vs NCAA settlement to allow college athletes to paid directly from schools and effectively end the era of college sports as amateur
22:07 ET, 06 Jun 2025Updated 23:17 ET, 06 Jun 2025
College athletics may forever look dirfferent after Friday’s landmark ruling(Image: Getty Images)
College athletes are set to receive money directly from schools in a momentous change to the collegiate revenue model.
U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ended three separate antitrust lawsuits on Thursday — including the House vs NCAA — as colleges will back-pay athletes $2.8 billion for those who competed from 2016 to 2025.
Starting on July 1, a tentative model will exist where schools can pay athletes up to $20.5 million a year starting in 2025-26—this is expected to increase by a certain percentage year over year.
Effectively, college sports will no longer be treated as amateur. Athletes will be compensated more than through the previous NIL program started in 2021; they will be compensated directly by universities.
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NCAA President Charlie Baker penned a later shortly after the news chronicling his reaction. “We can now turn toward what most agree is our primary function: providing a world-class academic and athletics experience,” he explained.
“With these changes in place, including release from future litigation on these subjects for the next decade, the foundation of college sports is stronger than at any point in years.”
“The NCAA can increase focus on reforming clunky governance structures and, most importantly, prioritizing fair competition, academics and student-athlete well-being.”
TCU’s Sedona Prince (L) helped launch the House vs NCAA back in 2020 (Image: Getty Images)
Wilken’s ruling put an end to three ongoing rulings: Carter v. NCAA, House v. NCAA and Hubbard v. NCAA. The House vs NCAA lawsuit was originally made in 2020 by a pair of Arizona State college athletes: women’s college basketball player Sedona Prince and men’s swimmer Grant House.
Prince, 25, just completed her NCAA career with TCU after transferring ahead of the 2024-25 season. She was a First-team Big 12 member in 2025 and will be eligible for backpay by the NCAA.
With the Horned Frogs, Prince teamed up with current Chicago Sky rookie Hailey van Lith and reached the Elite Eight for the first time in school history.
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Baker also added that there’s more work to be done.
“Significant challenges remain, including attempts to force student-athletes to be classified as employees despite their leadership at all levels opposing this,” he stated.
“In addition, attacks persist on college sports’ ability to set national rules regarding years of eligibility — the policies that enable the next generation of young people to access educational and athletic opportunities.
“And states continue to undercut one another in a race to the bottom by challenging the ability of the NCAA and conferences to establish and enforce rules that maintain level playing fields. “
Judge approves House settlement, paving the way for schools to pay athletes
Big changes are coming to college sports. A judge has approved the NCAA’s “House settlement,” allowing schools to start paying athletes directly for the first time. Starting July 1st, schools can share up to $20.5 million a year with players, mainly in football and men’s basketball. That number could grow each year. The NCAA and […]
Big changes are coming to college sports. A judge has approved the NCAA’s “House settlement,” allowing schools to start paying athletes directly for the first time.
Starting July 1st, schools can share up to $20.5 million a year with players, mainly in football and men’s basketball. That number could grow each year.
The NCAA and power conferences (SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC) also agreed to pay nearly $2.8 billion to athletes who played between 2016 and 2024 for past lost earnings from name, image, and likeness (NIL) opportunities.
To make sure the money is handled fairly, a new group called the College Sports Commission will oversee all payments and rules. It’s separate from the NCAA and will enforce new limits, like a salary cap and roster sizes.
This means that any new agreement between an athlete and a third party — such as a business, brand, booster, or collective — must be reviewed and approved by the Deloitte-managed NIL clearinghouse.
Known as “NIL Go,” this clearinghouse will evaluate all NIL deals worth over $600 to ensure they meet fair market value standards. Deals that don’t meet these standards may be rejected, and athletes who accept unapproved offers could risk losing their eligibility.
This marks a major shift from the past when athletes were not paid directly and NIL rules were loosely enforced.
Lawmakers are now working on a federal law to protect the NCAA and schools from future lawsuits as a result of the settlement.
A new era of college sports is finally here.
Some things to know for college baseball:
1) Any NIL deals $600 or more MUST be approved by a clearinghouse
2) College baseball rosters will trim from 40 to 34 in 2026.
3) Schools are now allowed other offer unlimited scholarships (34) in D1 Baseball.
What House vs. NCAA settlement approval means for Alabama athletics
A look at Alabama football’s Walk of Champions at Bryant-Denny Stadium VIDEO: A brief tour of the Walk of Champions at Alabama football’s Bryant-Denny Stadium: Statues, commemorating championships and more. The House vs. NCAA settlement allows schools to share revenue with athletes and provides damages for past NIL inequities. Alabama athletics will operate under a […]
A look at Alabama football’s Walk of Champions at Bryant-Denny Stadium
VIDEO: A brief tour of the Walk of Champions at Alabama football’s Bryant-Denny Stadium: Statues, commemorating championships and more.
The House vs. NCAA settlement allows schools to share revenue with athletes and provides damages for past NIL inequities.
Alabama athletics will operate under a salary cap, starting at over $20 million annually, with most going to football and men’s basketball.
Athletes can still pursue NIL deals, but a new commission will increase oversight and enforcement.
Roster limits will be implemented, but current athletes won’t be immediately affected.
Change has officially come for collegiate athletics.
After the House vs. NCAA settlement was approved on Friday, June 6, ending three antitrust lawsuits which addressed compensation for collegiate athletes, schools are now permitted to share revenue with their athletes directly while also issuing $2.8 billion in damages for former and current athletes who were not able to capitalize on NIL − name, image and likeness − deals.
Starting July 1, when these changes officially come into effect, Alabama athletics will be forced to navigate immense change, one that includes roster limits, salary caps and a new enforcement agency.
Here’s what the settlement means for Alabama athletics.
What is Alabama athletics salary cap?
According to the settlement, the initial annual allotment is expected to start at more than $20 million per school in 2025-26 and grow to $32.9 million in 2034-35.
The cap sits at 22% of the combined total of certain revenues like ticket sales, television deals and sponsorships.
Most power conferences plan to give 90% of that allotment to football and men’s basketball programs, according to Yahoo Sports. The rest would be shared amongst the other sports like women’s basketball, baseball and softball.
Will Alabama still have third-party NIL deals?
Yes, Alabama athletes will still have the ability to collect income from partnerships with third parties for NIL deals like businesses, boosters and collectives.
But those deals will come under more scrutiny moving forward.
The newly-formed College Sports Commission will oversee, implement and enforce the settlement, making “determinations regarding potential rules violations and penalties, provide notice and opportunity to be heard, participate in the arbitration process and ultimately administer penalties for violations of these rules,” their announcement said.
What roster limits does Alabama face under House vs. NCAA settlement?
The House vs. NCAA settlement will bring roster limits to collegiate athletics. However, that change could come more slowly than instantaneous.
According to a modification in the final settlement, all class members whose roster spots were taken away or would have been taken away will be exempt from roster limits for the duration of their careers.
However, with the settlement, a roster cap for each sport will be imposed with schools permitted to provide scholarships for each member of the roster, but doesn’t have to.
This past November, Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne told The Tuscaloosa News “there will be value that we’re playing on a similar playing field when it comes to scholarships.”
“What I am hopeful for is we can have a model that gives us the opportunity to have strong, broad-based programming and the ability to be competitive from a revenue-sharing standpoint and give as many young people as possible the opportunity to go to school and compete as a college athlete,” Byrne said.
According to Yahoo Sports, the SEC plans to issue 85 football scholarships even with a roster limit of 105 slots, giving teams the ability to keep walk-on athletes.
Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter.
NCAA football news: Gamers can help their team earn NIL money on College Football 26
The post NCAA football news: Gamers can help their team earn NIL money on College Football 26 appeared first on ClutchPoints. Already, EA Sports College Football 26 is generating plenty of buzz a month before release. Speculation about Bill Belichick’s appearance is certainly palpable. Advertisement In addition, players will be paid $ 1,500 for appearing […]
The post NCAA football news: Gamers can help their team earn NIL money on College Football 26 appeared first on ClutchPoints.
Already, EA Sports College Football 26 is generating plenty of buzz a month before release. Speculation about Bill Belichick’s appearance is certainly palpable.
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In addition, players will be paid $ 1,500 for appearing in the game, an increase from $600 in the previous year’s game. Those same players could receive NIL money thanks to the gamers themselves, per Darren Rovell of CLLCT media.
Schools featured in the game could get paid based on how frequently gamers play with their team—a radically innovative approach in the era of NIL for college athletes.
Athletes will be able to showcase their talents broadly through the game. The players’ exposure could land them sponsorship deals as well as grow their fan bases.
Furthermore, the players will have their name, image, and likeness on full display throughout the game. Before the NIL era, gamers would solely have to come up with names for players.
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The players also have the option to opt in or opt out of this deal, allowing them to maintain control over how they utilize their NIL. From a gaming perspective, this sparks a significant shift from the way things were prior to NIL.
The evolution of gaming and NIL
Before the NIL era, college athletes were barred from earning money from their name, image, and likeness. That included appearances on EA Sports games.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was the historic O’Bannon vs. NCAA case. In 2009, former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon filed a lawsuit against the NCAA
He claimed its amateurism rules illegally prevented college athletes from being compensated for their name, image, and likeness. This derived after seeing his image featured on EA Sports’ NCAA Basketball 09 without his consent, nor did he receive any compensation.
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The outcome resulted in schools being allowed to offer athletic scholarships covering full cost of attendance. In addition, the case ruled that schools could place up to $5,000 into a trust for each athlete to use their NIL.
Thus paving the way for where we are now regarding video games.
Related: Former MLB exec to be new head of College Sports Commission
Related: Judge approves NCAA House Settlement allowing schools to pay players
House vs NCAA settlement approval: Louisville, Kentucky next steps
The revenue-sharing era of college sports has finally arrived. How will Louisville and Kentucky respond? About five years after its filing, the seminal House v. NCAA lawsuit has reached a resolution. Its settlement received final approval from Judge Claudia Wilken Friday. The agreement will provide $2.8 billion in back damages to athletes who could not […]
The revenue-sharing era of college sports has finally arrived. How will Louisville and Kentucky respond?
About five years after its filing, the seminal House v. NCAA lawsuit has reached a resolution. Its settlement received final approval from Judge Claudia Wilken Friday.
The agreement will provide $2.8 billion in back damages to athletes who could not profit off their name, image and likeness between 2016 and Sept. 15, 2024. It also does away with scholarship limits, instead imposing roster caps (with an optional grandfathering-in model to protect athletes in possession of spots from being cut), and establishes a revenue-sharing system in which athletics departments pay players directly. The projected revenue-sharing cap for 2025-26 is $20.5 million and will increase annually by 4%.
During a University of Louisville Athletics Association meeting in April, athletics director Josh Heird called the settlement “the most transformative shift this industry has ever seen.” In that same meeting, Heird outlined two main questions the department is considering when it comes to the settlement:
“How we’re gonna implement it, and how we’re gonna fund it.”
Heird declined to share how Louisville will split the $20.5 million among its varsity sports when asked by The Courier Journal at ACC spring meetings. Front Office Sports reported that power conference schools are expected to dedicate 75% of the $20.5 million toward their football programs. Texas Tech’s reported breakdown gives 74% to football, 17% to 18% to men’s basketball, 2% to women’s basketball, 1.8% to baseball and the rest to other sports. That’s $15.17 million for football, $3.69 million for men’s basketball and $410,000 for women’s basketball.
Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart told The Courier Journal at SEC spring meetings that rather than establishing firm percentages for each program, UK will take a less rigid approach to meet each sport’s needs year in and year out.
“The beauty of the cap space is that it is relatively fluid,” Barnhart said. “There may be years where different programs need more than the other, so I think that the management of that will be really, really important through our compliance folks.”
Meanwhile, NIL agreements via collectives will still be in play. Many collectives will transition into more of a marketing agency structure to help negotiate contracts and expand athlete earning potential beyond revenue-sharing contracts. This is what Louisville will do with 502Circle, President Dan Furman told The Courier Journal.
Furman said he will still be involved in roster construction and day-to-day negotiations between athletes, local businesses and U of L. Once an agreement is reached, Louisville’s legal team (counseled by former Green Bay Packers Vice President Andrew Brandt) will draw up a deal. Meanwhile, 502Circle will continue to lean into promotional content as it has over the last 18 months or so with Floyd Street Media to help grow athletes’ profiles and endear them to the local community.
“We’re built for longevity,” Furman told The Courier Journal. “We’re built for what’s next. We’re not just pay-for-play.”
The collective reportedly worked with a transfer portal budget of $8 million to $10 million for men’s basketball this offseason. That fund helped coach Pat Kelsey land one of the nation’s top portal classes. But starting June 11, all NIL deals exceeding $600 will have to be reported to and pass through a clearinghouse called “NIL go,” operated by Deloitte with the purpose of assessing athletes’ fair market value.
Officials from the clearinghouse have been sharing data about past deals with athletics directors and coaches over the last several weeks, including
Those numbers are a far cry from the millions collectives have reportedly spent on athletes over the last four years or so. Constricting compensation in this way feels, to some, like a bit of a step backward.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey spoke about the clearinghouse at spring meetings. When asked directly if he had confidence in these guardrails, Sankey said yes.
“People are going to have opinions,” he continued. “Nothing ever worked when people sat around and said, ‘Well, this won’t work.’ We’re adults, we’re leaders, and I think I communicated this yesterday, we have a responsibility to make this work.”
Barnhart is one of 10 athletics directors on the House Settlement Implementation Committee, which helped come up with the idea for the clearinghouse. He is the second-longest-tenured Power Four athletics director, having worked at UK since 2002. Barnhart views his responsibility as follows:
“I think it’s real important that the decisions we make on the House Implementation Committee are what’s in the best interest of college athletics as a whole,” Barnhart told The Courier Journal. “… I would say, probably, there’s been 10 to 15 years worth of work that’s been done in eight to 12 months. So a lot of work has been channeled into a pipeline, and a lot of folks have worked awfully hard to get ready for this change in college athletics.”
Reach college sports enterprise reporter Payton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com, and follow her on X @petitus.
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