No sport has a longer offseason than college football, and it’s nearly inarguable that the sport has as much drama off the field during that eight-month layoff — and during the regular season itself — as it does on Saturdays in the fall.

As The Athletic continues its look back at the last two-plus decades of college football, we examined 25 college football stories whose influences extended beyond the gridiron over the last 25 years, from conference expansion, NCAA power struggles, coaching hires and postseason changes to players whose star power impacted the game in ways the box score did not always measure.

Editor’s note: For more of The Athletic’s look back at the first 25 years of the 2000s in college football, check out our rankings of the top 25 teams, top 25 players, top 25 coaches and top 25 games.

25. Johnny Football

Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel captured the nation’s attention as a thrill-seeking redshirt freshman in 2012, but his celebrity status hit a level rarely seen even for Heisman Trophy winners, thanks in part to a brush with the NCAA. An investigation into allegations that he was paid to sign memorabilia sidetracked his celebratory post-Heisman offseason and led to a half-game suspension. Manziel still became a Heisman finalist in ‘13 but entered the NFL Draft the following spring. His professional fall is a story for a different list.

24. Food deregulation

The NCAA once micromanaged how much food its member institutions could serve on campus. Outside of competitions, schools were allowed to provide one meal per day to athletes. A cracker was considered a snack; a cracker with cream cheese was considered a meal. The rules were so rigid that Oklahoma self-reported violations when three football players ate too much pasta at a graduation buffet in early 2014. The school forced the players to pay $3.83 apiece for the extra food or face ineligibility.

Under increased scrutiny to loosen their grip on the benefits permitted for college athletes, the NCAA lifted all food restrictions on Aug. 1, 2014. The change added significant costs for schools — LSU spent $6.2 million on meals during the 2024 fiscal year — but it restored some common sense to the bottom line.

23. Rise of the recruiting websites

Fans had few one-stop outlets to share their joy, vent their frustration and find nuggets of information on their favorite teams until Rivals debuted in 1998. After Shannon Terry bought the site in 2001, its focus narrowed to recruiting and team message boards, which enabled fans to interact, argue and share content every day of the year.

Scout joined Rivals as a fan fixture in the mid-2000s, before Terry created 247Sports and then On3 that ultimately overtook the earlier fan site models. But the intent remains intact, which is to provide fans with an interactive experience far from the stadium.

22. Bowled over

The bowl system held a much different place in college football at the turn of the century. Outside of the BCS and its four bowls that rotated as title game hosts were 21 other bowl games that held immense power over the selection process. Teams were required to stay on location for a week or more, schools were often saddled with large ticket allotments, including many of the worst seats in the stadium, and programs bid against each other for bowl invitations.

Fast-forward 25 years, and conferences and schools have pushed back on unreasonable trip lengths and ticket requirements. With player opt-outs and the transfer portal lessening the importance of non-College Football Playoff postseason games, many bowls are reinventing themselves as preview exhibitions for next season. Sponsors like Pop-Tarts and Duke’s Mayo have established tongue-in-cheek entertainment products that show a less serious side of the game, which could prolong their relevance in college football’s new era.

21. A 12th game

The number of games in a Football Bowl Subdivision season once fluctuated based on the number of weeks between Labor Day and Thanksgiving weekend. In 2006, the NCAA and its institutions shifted to a consistent 12-game schedule each year, enabling FBS power-conference programs to rake in millions of dollars from an additional home game, leagues to squeeze more from media rights contracts and non-power programs to receive guarantee game payouts that currently range from $500,000 to $2 million or more. The extra game also coincided with leaps in coaching salaries.

It all prompted players to start questioning why they weren’t receiving anything extra despite putting their bodies on the line for another game. From this moment onward, the whispers about fairly compensating athletes ratcheted up in volume.

20. QBs and NIL collide

In September 2024, quarterback Matthew Sluka left UNLV three games into the season while claiming his team’s collective failed to meet its financial obligations. Sluka preserved his redshirt and later signed with James Madison. In April 2025, Tennessee’s Spyre Sports Group rebuffed starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava’s attempt to renegotiate his name, image and likeness deal. Iamaleava sat out the end of spring football practice, entered the transfer portal and landed at UCLA.

Both cases lay the groundwork for future battles between players and management over NIL. Will in-season holdouts become a more regular occurrence? Will the industry move toward increased compensation transparency or binding contracts? Until then, it’s likely a quarterback will one day push even farther than Sluka and Iamaleava.

19. 2003 Big East-ACC war

The ACC and Big East were on equal footing in the early 2000s, but neither conference had the required 12 members to stage a championship game, setting the stage for one to poach from the other. The ACC struck first in 2003, landing Miami and Virginia Tech after about two months of courtship and later adding Boston College as its 12th member.

The Big East sued the ACC and the departing schools, accusing them of conspiracy to defraud the conference. The sides settled in 2005, with the ACC paying $5 million and agreeing to schedule games against Big East teams, and the conferences coexisted for about six years despite the Big East’s waning football influence. Then in 2011, the ACC invited Pittsburgh and Syracuse, which bolstered its ranks and killed the Big East as a football entity.

18. Northwestern’s unionization movement

In 2014, former Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter spearheaded an effort to certify the Wildcats football team as a union and be declared employees, firing a warning shot to the NCAA that athletes were done with complicit silence. The Chicago branch of the National Labor Relations Board ruled that football players are employees, but Northwestern appealed and the full NLRB overturned the decision.

In response to Colter’s efforts, the Big Ten instituted multi-year scholarships and improved its medical insurance. But the NCAA and its membership stubbornly resisted issues raised by Colter regarding practice hours and pay, which led to bigger fights — and losses — for the organization down the road.

17. Rocky Mountain Prime

Deion Sanders commanded the spotlight during his Hall of Fame playing career, but nothing could prepare college football for his 2023 debut as an FBS head coach in Colorado. Sanders took over a 1-11 squad, flipped the roster and became the sport’s most compelling story as the Buffaloes upset defending national runner-up TCU, then beat rivals Nebraska and Colorado State to start 3-0. Each of Sanders’ first five games drew more than 7.2 million viewers.

With multiple football programs hiring former NFL superstars like Michael Vick (Norfolk State) and Desean Jackson (Delaware State) in the ensuing years, Sanders’ emergence has helped usher in a new level of celebrity to the coaching carousel. His past exploits, charisma and cultural status have helped him connect to potential recruits and fans in a way few coaches can attain. And the five-year contract extension he signed this spring implies he’s not going anywhere.

16. Tebowmania

With his fiery leadership, bruising playing style and public expressions of his Christian faith, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow became one of college football’s most popular and polarizing athletes on Gators teams that won national titles in 2006 and 2008. Between those championships, Tebow was the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy. His willingness to take his faith everywhere helped Tebow become one of the sport’s transcendent figures, and his popularity more than 15 years later as a media personality and speaker has extended far beyond his long list of accomplishments on the field.

15. College football’s video game, lost and resurrected

EA Sports’ NCAA Football franchise had players arguing over their ratings and fans leading their favorite teams to championships from the late 1990s through 2014, but NCAA rules prevented players from profiting off of video game characters with suspiciously similar physical attributes to their own. After former UCLA men’s basketball player Ed O’Bannon and other athletes sued the NCAA and EA Sports over the use of his likeness, the game was put on hiatus for a decade and left a void for both fans and athletes.

With players now receiving payment for NIL, NCAA Football returned in 2024 and resumed its role as a cultural phenomenon, bringing fans closer to the sport with realistic graphics and sounds. According to industry tracker Circana, College Football 25 has become the best-selling sports video game of all time in total dollars.

14. Cam Newton

No player was more electrifying over the last 25 years than Auburn quarterback Cam Newton, who lifted the Tigers to the 2010 BCS title without much NFL-bound help around him. But Newton’s lone season of stardom sparked a firestorm when reports surfaced that his father had sought payment for the quarterback’s services while Newton was in junior college.

Lingering questions led Auburn to declare Newton ineligible just days before the SEC Championship Game, then immediately request his reinstatement. The NCAA allowed him to compete during its investigation, which concluded Newton’s father did seek payment but could not find proof the quarterback knew about it. With financial negotiations now an unavoidable part of the player acquisition market, the matter seems trivial in today’s world. But this was the first time the obvious player of the year faced such strong allegations during a Heisman Trophy campaign.

13. Connor Stalions

Michigan staffer Connor Stalions conducted an advanced sign-stealing operation by buying tickets at more than 30 games of future Wolverines opponents over a three-year period and compiling videos of opposing coaches’ signs. Deciphering signals in-game, and modifying your own to avoid detection, had been a cat-and-mouse game common across college football, but the lengths Stalions went to and the fact that the scheme coincided with Michigan’s return to national contention — Stalions even received a game ball after one victory — sent fans and rivals into a frenzy and prompted an NCAA investigation.

The equal parts complex and juvenile scheme, which may have included sideline disguises, brought weekly controversies as Michigan was building a national championship resume. The Wolverines rallied around the scandal and its accompanying suspensions (including three games for coach Jim Harbaugh) on their way to the 2023-24 national championship.

With current coach Sherrone Moore serving a two-game suspension this fall for deleting texts with Stalions sought by investigators, the fallout remains incomplete. However, distrust for Michigan football remains high in Big Ten circles.

12. Reggie Bush’s lost trophy

Reggie Bush’s dazzling runs helped lead the Trojans to a share of the 2003 national title and the undisputed crown in 2004, then won him the Heisman Trophy in 2005. A year later, the NCAA opened an investigation into Bush, who was accused of receiving improper gifts and cash during his USC career. In 2010, the NCAA stripped the Trojans’ 2004 national title, and Bush became the first Heisman winner to forfeit his trophy.

What Bush and his family received was considered improper during his playing days. Today, it’s standard operating procedure. As the rules of college athlete compensation loosened, public pressure mounted on the Heisman Trust to resume honoring the running back. On April 24, 2024, Bush had his trophy returned.

11. The 12-team Playoff

College Football Playoff expansion was a subject of national fascination for years, but it still felt like a surprise in June 2021 when leaders announced the tournament would grow from four teams to 12. But as with most things in college football, even simple processes become complicated.

After the SEC added Texas and Oklahoma later that summer, other leagues put up CFP expansion roadblocks that took years to untangle. All parties eventually agreed to a plan of the six highest-ranked conference champions and the six highest-ranked at-large teams. That template needed to change when the Pac-12 broke apart after the 2023 season.

The full plan for a 12-team CFP was finally approved in February 2024, but the saga has not stopped there. The CFP Board of Managers voted to change the seeding format to a straight ranking after one year and are in ongoing discussions to expand from 12 teams to 14 or even 16 for the 2026 season.

10. Meyer vs. Harbaugh

The Ohio State-Michigan feud matters every day, and two hirings brought red meat to the rivalry and sizzle back to the Big Ten. Urban Meyer took over the Buckeyes in 2012 and promptly called out his fellow Big Ten coaches for their recruiting woes, which was not well received. But Ohio State’s instant success, including a 2014 College Football Playoff title, forced the league to improve quickly or fall further behind.

Tired of floundering against its rival, Michigan hired former quarterback Jim Harbaugh as head coach in 2015. Despite never beating Meyer, Harbaugh brought instant credibility and focus to college football’s winningest program. Like Meyer, Harbaugh won his own national title in 2023.

Their collective success turned the burners up on one of sports’ greatest rivalries, and it remains red hot well after their tenure, courtesy of how Meyer and Harbaugh elevated the Big Ten’s flagship programs.

9. Expansion chaos 2010-11

The zero-sum expansion spat between the ACC and Big East from 2003 to ’05 had little impact on the rest of college football. That was not the case in 2009 when Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany announced his league was exploring expansion on an 18-to-24-month timetable. That forced other leagues to expedite expansion plans, and the Pac-10 launched the first salvo when it pursued six Big 12 schools, including Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma.

Colorado became the first Big 12 school to jump to the Pac-10, and Nebraska left for the Big Ten a day later. The remaining schools waited on Texas, which opted to stay in the Big 12. The Pac-10 then added Utah to become a 12-team conference.

But the 10-member Big 12 was far from a happy family. The holdovers allowed Texas to form the Longhorn Network, but the financial and recruiting boost was too much for Texas A&M, so it bolted for the SEC in 2011. That earthquake started another round of aftershocks, and by the time it subsided, Missouri joined Texas A&M in the SEC and the Big 12 added TCU and West Virginia in their stead.

This round of realignment allowed an unvarnished reality to override the platitudes of college athletics: Football is king without exceptions, and brand power trumps on-field excellence.

8. College football’s first playoff

Oklahoma State’s double-overtime loss at Iowa State in November 2011 opened the door for an all-SEC matchup in the BCS Championship Game, clinching a sixth consecutive title for the nation’s premier football conference and roiling the rest of college football.

The Big Ten and Pac-12, which historically had stood in the way of a playoff, finally relented in the face of the SEC’s title wave. Commissioners agreed to the four-team College Football Playoff to begin play in 2014 with a neutral-site national championship game.

Controversy swirled the very first year when Ohio State jumped TCU and Baylor for the final spot, then claimed the first CFP title by upsetting Alabama and Oregon. Eventually, bracket creep became too hot to ignore, and the four-team model was shelved 10 years later. But considering the decades of obstinance in the face of a playoff, it was the single biggest competitive change in college football history.

7. Big Ten Network

Frustrated after a low-ball offer from ESPN in 2004, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany sat on a Miami beach with Fox executive Larry Jones and sketched on a napkin plans for a new venture: a network dedicated solely to the conference’s sports. The Big Ten Network debuted on Aug. 30, 2007, and once it received full distribution, it became a reliable source of cash and exposure. The league initially owned 51 percent of the network but now owns just 39 percent after selling equity shares to Fox.

The joint venture led to Fox taking a larger stake in college athletics. The network began airing the Big Ten Championship Game in 2011 and picked up the Big Ten’s first-tier rights in 2017.

BTN’s success also spawned similar successful conference networks for the SEC and ACC — which are owned and operated by ESPN, ironically — as well as ill-fated channels like the Longhorn Network and Pac-12 Network.

6. 2020

The first American pandemic in a century had far more pressing consequences than disruption to the sports calendar, but COVID-19’s impact on college athletics was profound. With little guidance from public officials or the NCAA, the conferences were left to decide whether or not they’d play football as the 2020 season approached. After a heated debate, the Big Ten voted 11-3 to shut down football on Aug. 11, and the Pac-12 followed the same day. The SEC, ACC and Big 12 chose to play. After intense public pressure, the Big Ten changed course in mid-September and returned to action in late October, while the Pac-12 started play in November.

The result was an uneven season with no fans at Big Ten and Pac-12 stadiums and limited attendance elsewhere. Several bowl games were canceled, and the Rose Bowl moved to Arlington, Texas. Alabama dominated the season and claimed the national title over Ohio State, which played just eight games. Nearly every athletic department lost millions of dollars, and some are on multi-year repayment plans, are replenishing their reserves that were emptied that year or are still otherwise digging out of the hole those months without games created.

5. Alabama hires Nick Saban

Mal Moore would not take no for an answer. The former Alabama athletic director pestered Nick Saban repeatedly following the Miami Dolphins coach’s second season. Despite multiple denials, Saban relented and turned Alabama into the sport’s signature program.

Hired in 2007, Saban became the college football’s greatest coach of this generation and perhaps of all time. In 17 seasons, Saban won 206 games, nine SEC titles and six national championships. He propelled the SEC into the sport’s dominant conference and forced rivals to improve their staffs to catch up. But his impact stretches beyond his individual leadership qualities.

His coaching tree includes national champions (Kirby Smart, Jimbo Fisher), hall-of-famer Mark Dantonio, CFP semifinalist Steve Sarkisian and dozens of other SEC, FBS and NFL head coaches. Saban has become the authoritative voice for the sport, from his role on ESPN’s “College GameDay” to discussions with President Donald Trump on the future of college football.

4. Expansion and “The Alliance”

The most impactful expansion cycle in college sports history took place in 2021-22, just as the industry reemerged from the pandemic. After Oklahoma and Texas’ shocking plan to leave for the SEC went public, the Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC formed “The Alliance,” which sought to protect their interests in the face of expansionist SEC aggression. But it was a short-lived, non-binding arrangement. On June 30, 2022, the Big Ten figuratively torched The Alliance and significantly wounded the Pac-12 by luring away USC and UCLA.

Before this expansion, the Big Ten and SEC long were considered first among equals. By taking the major brands from the Pac-12 and Big 12, the leagues rocked an uneasy competitive balance among the five power conferences and set them apart as the sport’s undisputed heavyweights.

3. The Pac-12’s demise

Long known as “The Conference of Champions,” the Pac-12 (previously the Pac-10 and Pac-8) enjoyed a proud tradition as a model academic-athletic conference. But financially it had fallen well behind its long-time partner — the Big Ten — and other power conferences. The league failed to secure distribution of its Pac-12 Network, and inept leadership turned a problem into a crisis.

A cascading departure of members followed USC and UCLA’s jump to the Big Ten, including Washington and Oregon (Big Ten), Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado (Big 12) and Stanford and California (ACC). Oregon State and Washington State remained as the Pac-12’s only members during the 2024 football season. The duo have mostly reconstituted the Pac-12, grabbing Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State, Fresno State and Utah State from the Mountain West for 2026. But it is not the same, not even close.

2. Wide open transfers

A decade ago, if athletes wanted to transfer and compete for another institution, they had to sit out for a year. Schools often restricted where athletes could attend on scholarship, and conferences also had rigid rules within their leagues. As rules relaxed, the transfer portal’s arrival in 2018 compelled schools to enter transferring athletes into a database within two days, and players are now eligible to play right away without restriction.

Thousands of athletes hit the transfer portal each year, which has reshaped each sport and remade championship programs in immeasurable ways. Freedom of movement has double-edged pluses and minuses for both coaches and players. Teams get an offseason opportunity for instant improvement, but the fear of losing talent is equally pervasive. Likewise, players have more power to leverage their talent than ever before, but they run the risk of making a wrong move that torpedoes their career.

New coaches often face massive personnel exits, but they also can select players who fit their program more easily than at any time in history. Buoyed by 29 new players through the portal in 2024, Indiana set the program’s wins record (11). Cross-state rival Purdue, conversely, has lost 87 players in the portal the last two seasons.

1. ‘The NCAA is not above the law’

For generations, college athletes signed an annual student-athlete statement that forfeited their rights to earn money based on their name, image and likeness (NIL). No matter how much revenue the NCAA and its member institutions gained from television contracts, the entities stood firm on their bedrock principle of amateurism. It was the barrier the NCAA reinforced at all costs, and it ultimately cost the organization and its member schools billions of dollars.

Lawsuits and law changes punched holes in the NCAA’s definition of amateur athletics, but the status quo was shattered when the United States Supreme Court’s opinion in Alston v. NCAA was delivered on June 21, 2021.

The court ruled 9-0 that the NCAA could not cap “education-related” financial benefits that athletes received from institutions. The landmark decision, though limited in scope, offered signals for how the Supreme Court would rule against the NCAA in other cases regarding players’ ability to make money.

“Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a scathing opinion. “And under ordinary principles of antitrust law, it is not evident why college sports should be any different.

“The NCAA is not above the law.”

The House v. NCAA settlement, which received formal approval late last week, permits athletic departments to pay athletes directly while providing billions of dollars to former athletes who were prevented from earning revenue while in college. The ability for athletes to generate income at the height of their marketability is not only the most important development of college sports’ last 25 years, it’s the greatest reversal in American amateur sports history.

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Kevin C. Cox, Carmen Mandato, Christian Petersen / Getty Images, iStock)

A seismic shift in the college sports landscape is underway following the final approval of a landmark settlement of three antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA.

While the settlement requires the association to pay nearly $2.8 million in back damages to current and former athletes over 10 years, it also allows schools to compensate athletes through direct payments and offer more scholarships after limits on financial aid had been in place for decades.

How will the settlement impact the Ohio State athletic department? Here is everything we know:

How much is Ohio State paying athletes?

The university is set to make $18 million in direct payments to athletes over the 2025-26 academic year, athletic director Ross Bjork said.

The payments in this model are in exchange for use of the athletes’ name, image and likeness and begin on July 1.

Which sports are benefiting from the direct compensation?

Athletes participating in four of the 36 varsity sports at Ohio State are due to be paid directly by the school.

An announcement revealing the sports is expected later this week, and Bjork is scheduled to hold a news conference on June 12. It’s likely a bulk of the payments will go to football and men’s basketball players. The Buckeyes are prioritizing the sports with the highest market value.  

Is there a limit to the spending?There is an annual cap on revenue sharing, and it is estimated to be $20.5 million in the first year with increases following over the next decade.The Buckeyes are spending $18 million on direct payments as the remaining $2.5 million that counts against the cap is for the funding 91 additional scholarships.How does Title IX apply?The U.S. Department of Education rolled back guidance in February that required schools to follow the federal gender equity law when sharing revenue with their athletes.Financial aid through athletic scholarships continues to be subject to Title IX, which dates back to 1972.Will Ohio State keep all sports?Though revenue sharing adds a sizable expense to the athletic department’s annual operating budget, Ohio State has pledged not to subject any to cuts.“We remain committed to maintaining the student-athlete model, offering 36 intercollegiate sports and providing scholarships to all 36,” Bjork said in a statement on June 9.No other major conference athletic department sponsors more sports than Ohio State.How will Ohio State handle higher expenses?The Buckeyes are looking at more revenue to help offset the additional expenses brought on by the settlement.Not only are revenues from the expansion of the College Football Playoff and media rights fees increasing, but they are anticipating new streams to help with the costs.For instance, Ohio State announced last week that it plans to install field-level suites at Ohio Stadium next year in order to add more premium seating at football games, a feature that allows it to bring in more money from ticket sales.

As Bjork prepared to take over for Gene Smith at the helm of the athletic department last summer, he said, ““Every piece has to be looked at: How do you monetize that?”

Buy Ohio State books, posters, gear from CFP title win

Does revenue sharing replace NIL pay?

Not entirely. Athletes are allowed to reach endorsement deals with various brands or third-party entities outside of the athletic department.

Bjork said their arrangements with athletes will not have them grant exclusive rights to Ohio State.

But NIL contracts will face tighter scrutiny. Any deal exceeding $600 is subject to approval through a clearinghouse known as NIL Go that analyzes whether it is for a valid business purpose and does not exceed a reasonable range of compensation.

It’s unlikely that previous contracts between athletes and donor-funded groups known as collectives would be rubber-stamped by this new platform.

The clearinghouse, which was set up by Deloitte, took effect on June 7.

What happens to the collectives?

Ohio State is folding THE Foundation and The 1870 Society, the two primary collectives supporting the Buckeyes, into the athletic department.

The school on June 9 announced the collectives’ founding members would serve in advisory roles for the department and work with a newly formed Buckeye Sports Group that will help to facilitate deals for athletes.

“What we want from folks who have been involved in our collectives is their support and connections in the business community,” Bjork said. “Even though the mechanism of a collective will not exist, the relationships will.”

Who maintains compliance with the settlement’s terms?

The enforcement arm is not the NCAA, but a new group called the College Sports Commission led by Major League Baseball executive Bryan Seeley.

The commission is to investigate alleged breaches and hand out punishment if schools are found to have violated policies.  

Bjork said Ohio State will sign an institutional commitment letter to be part of the new governance.

“We have to have our staff follow the rules,” Bjork said, “and when people violate the rules there has to be enforcement and accountability.”

What else does the settlement do?

The settlement caps the maximum size of rosters in each of the sports. So rather than scholarship limits being in place, there are now roster limits.

Take football. Instead of Ohio State maintaining around 121 players on the roster, including 85 scholarship players and three dozen walk-ons, it will now have 105 players. About 90 will be on scholarship, coach Ryan Day said in April, leaving a smaller pool of walk-ons.

Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Email him atjkaufman@dispatch.com and follow along onBluesky,Instagram andX for more.

Get more Ohio State football news by listening to our podcasts

Ex-Georgia QB Carson Beck’s Massive NIL Deal With Miami Revealed originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

In the NIL era of college football, quarterbacks don’t have to make the NFL to become millionaires. Signal-callers are reaching paydays in the multi-millions per season at the college level.

Advertisement

There’s few better examples of that than former Georgia Bulldogs quarterback Carson Beck.

On3’s Pete Nakos reported Sunday that Beck will make in excess of $4 million to play for the Miami Hurricanes this fall.

“One thing is clear: The price of an elite quarterback is not dropping,” Nakos wrote. “In this year’s college football transfer portal, jaw-dropping quarterback numbers included a $3 million offer from Duke for Darian Mensah.

“Georgia’s Carson Beck transferred to Miami and stands to make more than $4 million. Missouri agreed to terms on a $1.5 million deal with Penn State transfer Beau Pribula in December, too.”

The Bobby Carpenter Show host Anthony Schlegel said during the first week of June that Beck was going to make $4.3 million with his NIL deal in 2025.

Advertisement

Schlegel said that is ranked second-highest in college football behind only Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning.

Beck announced his decision to transfer from Georgia to Miami on January 10, which was just a little more than a week after the Bulldogs suffered their playoff defeat to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Beck didn’t play in that game because of an elbow injury, which he sustained in the SEC Championship Game versus Texas.

During his final season with the Bulldogs, Beck completed 64.7% of his passes for 3,485 passing yards with 28 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. The quarterback posted significantly better statistics during 2023.

Advertisement

In Miami, Beck will replace quarterback Cam Ward, who became the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Related: Coveted Playmaker Sends Clear Message on Future With Historic College Football Program

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 9, 2025, where it first appeared.

Link

Gamecocks Athletic Director Hesitates to Reveal NIL Budget for Football vs Basketball, Others originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

South Carolina’s Director of Athletics, Jeremiah Donati, gave a cryptic answer when a reporter asked how the NIL salary budget is going to be split among different sports teams like football and basketball. The response comes months after women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley mentioned that new players shouldn’t join her team if they wanted to make a lot of NIL money.

Advertisement

Following a federal judge’s approval of the landmark House vs. NCAA settlement, universities will be able to distribute up to $20.5 million directly to student athletes this year. In a letter posted online, Donati said they planned to give the maximum to students this year.

But when The State previously asked Donati how the Gamecocks will be splitting the budget up among different sports teams, like football or basketball, he wouldn’t give specifics, citing competition.

“Well, one, (the settlement) needs to be approved, but we know what those budgets will be and we’ve already communicated that with coaches,” Donati said in late May, before the judge’s final approval. “All those budgets are set (but) that’s not something we’ll reveal publicly, just for competitive purposes. It’s proprietary, but all that stuff has been baked.”

The response came after Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks had initially said that 75% of their money would go to football players, 15% to men’s basketball, 5% to women’s basketball, and 5% to other teams. Brooks later walked back those comments and said distributions were evolving, The State reported.

Advertisement

In late March during a postgame press conference, when talking about how upcoming NIL shifts might impact recruiting, Staley said she wasn’t sure that NIL payments were fair.

“I don’t think we’re paying the most in the NIL space,” she said. “But I don’t even know if it’s fair, to be quite honest. It’s what it is.”

Staley added that players shouldn’t join her team if they wanted to make a lot of money.

“You either have it or you don’t in the NIL space, and then you just have to communicate that to agents, to parents and give them a choice…” she said. “You got non-negotiables, you got priorities. What are your priorities? Is it NIL? If it’s NIL, I’m quick to say, ‘Go get the money. Put it away.’ … If you want something different, a different experience, then we’ve been the five straight final fours. We know what that looks like and feels like and sounds like and what goes into that. We’re gonna give you a different experience, you know, that’s gonna cost you a few dollars.”

Related: Gamecocks Star Football Player Ranks in Nation’s Top 10 for NIL Valuation

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 9, 2025, where it first appeared.

Link

Link

With final approval being granted on Friday, the House settlement brings several new elements to the NCAA beginning next season, highlighted by the revenue sharing cap and the implementation of roster limits.

One of the controversial aspects of the settlement is the clearinghouse procedure for reviewing NIL deals that exceed $600.

The accounting firm Deloitte has established a clearinghouse, known as NIL Go,  that will audit and manage NIL deals, verifying whether or not agreements between athletes and boosters are for a valid business purpose rather than a recruiting incentive.

According to Sportico, “the clearinghouse will use a fair market algorithm to assess if an NIL deal has a plausible relationship to the value of the athlete’s right of publicity in the context of a proposed deal.”

The process of what happens once NIL Go evaluates a deal was recently reported by The Athletic‘s Chris Vannini:

Here’s the process of how NIL deals will be evaluated by the clearinghouse, and what happens if a deal is not approved.

(There will probably be lawsuits) pic.twitter.com/7FfB8eOuDg

— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) June 7, 2025

Although there is a concern that the denial of NIL deals will lead athletes and businesses to file lawsuits against the clearinghouse, the presence of arbitration will likely “deter attorneys who would otherwise jump at the chance to bring a lawsuit that would attract media attention,” Sportico‘s Michael McCann reports.

Once a case is taken to arbitration, things are conducted outside of public view, and the arbiter’s decision is final.

The College Sports Commission, which is reportedly looking to hire a lead investigator who would be the arbiter of NIL deals, recently announced MLB executive Bryan Seeley as its CEO.