NIL

NIL is changing college sports; for better or worse?

HUNT VALLEY, Md. (TNND) — It’s been nearly four years since the NCAA enacted a new policy allowing college athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness, and just a few weeks since a federal judge opened the door for college athletic departments to pay athletes directly. Much of the details are still being […]

Published

1 month ago

May 5, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Much of the details are still being worked out in the courts. Key components like roster limits, scholarship limits and payment pools are still up in the air.

As is a governing body to oversee all of these new rules, since most current regulation is a patchwork of state laws, legal settlements and NCAA rules.

But, we are starting to see the impacts of college athletes getting paid – and what it means for the enterprise as a whole.

Depending on who you ask, the historical shift is: long overdue for athletes who’ve spent thousands of hours grinding for their craft; late to the party in terms of global sports; the official death certificate for amateurism and the “student” side of “student-athlete”; or, an inevitable reality that has to run wild before it gets reined in and regulated.

To the league itself, it’s a positive step.

When a judge granted preliminary approval for a framework for schools to pay athletes, NCAA President Charlie Baker said it would “help bring stability and sustainability to college athletics while delivering increased benefits to student athletes for years to come.”

The push for college athletes to get paid spans decades, with legal challenges and legislative efforts dating back to at least the early 2000s. Which is surprising, considering the NCAA has been a multi-million dollar industry for several decades, and a multi-billion dollar industry for about a decade.

That disparity is due to the idea of “amateurism,” a word many experts and analysts use when they cite concerns about completely commercializing college sports. That idea goes back more than a century, to 1800s England, where sports were only for the wealthy, and the working class didn’t want them to be able to pay their way to victory.

“I don’t want to say [amateurism] is going to die, but it will certainly be the commercial aspects that are going to permeate,” said David Hedlund, the chairman of the Division of Sport Management at St. John’s University. “I think we’re going to see and hear less and less about amateurism, and college sports are going to look more like professional sports, or a training ground for professional sports.”

The idea that sports are for enjoyment and the love of the game rather than money is a noble one. And players can love the game and make money off their talents at the same time.

But many experts say amateurism has long been dead; the NCAA was just, for whatever reason, the last organization behind the International Olympic Committee to let it die. It’s part of an effort to keep pace with the rest of the world. Overseas soccer and basketball players are spotted when they’re 12 to 14 years old, and go pro when they turn 18.

“We’re in a global marketplace,” said Matt Winkler, a professor and program director of sports analytics and management at American University. “We sort of have to keep up with the other nations if we want to strive and have those great moments in sports for our Olympic teams and our World Cup teams and so forth.”

Coaches have long been compensated, and universities have long profited off their sports teams.

“The money has always been there. It’s just a lot more front-facing now, I think, than it’s been in the past,” Hedlund said.

Some sports analysts say it was quite front-facing in this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

March Madness was devoid of any significant upsets or Cinderella teams. For the first time in five decades, every team that made it to the Sweet 16 came from a power conference, including all four No. 1 seeds and all but one No. 2 seed.

And, every team that made it to the Final Four was a No. 1 seed.

ESPN analyst Stephen Smith said NIL deals and the now no-limits transfer portal are to blame for why mid-major programs didn’t see much success, and top-tier schools prevailed.

“If there was no NIL, if there was no portal and you have the mid-majors go 0-6 in the second round, please, we ain’t sweating that,” Smith said. “But when you’re able to point to rules that have been implemented that ultimately shows itself to have inflicted upon the game itself, that’s dangerous.

“College basketball as we knew it – which, to me, is all about March Madness – will cease to exist. Because there’s no madness.”

Experts say there is a serious question mark about the current state of how much colleges can pay to entice players, and how many times players can be enticed enough to transfer.

But not all believe it has to be the death of March Madness or competition in college sports. After all, there’s still Division 2 and 3 universities.

Richard Paulsen, a sports economist and professor at the University of Michigan, said it’s hard to gauge the impact of NIL deals and the transfer portal on competition. Because while the top ten or so power schools may be able to offer the most money to the elite players, there’s still a lot of talent out there.

“The top schools have an advantage in getting the A-level talent, but some of the players that might have sat on the bench at a top school previously could be enticed away with NIL money coming from a second tier school,” Paulsen said. “So I think the impact on competitive balance is maybe a little bit less clear.”

Paulsen says, as a professor, he is worried about the impact NIL deals – particularly million-dollar ones – can have on the students themselves, some 18, 19, 20 years old. It raises the question, does a teenager or young adult need this much money?

Shedeur Sanders is 23 years old, and his NIL valuation at the University of Colorado was roughly $6.5 million. Granted, he’s the son of NFL Hall of Famer and head coach for Colorado Deion Sanders.

But, his 2024 stats were top five in completion percentage, passing touchdowns and yards. Several analysts had him as the top prospect in the 2025 NFL draft, but he slid down to the fifth round, shocking much of the sports world.

Various reports place blame on other reasons – maybe he took more sacks than he should have, maybe NFL executives see traits we can’t see, maybe he bombed interviews with the managers, maybe it had to do with his Hall of Famer dad. And he certainly wouldn’t be the first prospect to get picked later than expected and prove all the teams that passed over him wrong.

But, he’s also losing money by going pro. The iced out, custom “Legendary” chain he wore on Draft Day reportedly cost $1 million.

“It is at least worth noting that five years ago, he wouldn’t have had the online presence that he had, and that could have turned off some NFL teams,” Paulsen said. “Without being in the rooms, I don’t know if it did, but that is possible, and it’s not something that would have been possible even five years ago.”

It begs the question, is it even worth going pro for these top-tier college athletes with insane NIL deals?

In the NBA, new data shows it may not be. The league announced last week just 106 players declared early for the 2025 draft. It’s the fewest since 2015. The number typically hovers around 300.

The drop in early entrants could be lingering effects of the extra COVID year.

But, next year, ten schools will pay their rosters somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 million, including several million dollars per top player. That’s far more than the players would make if they were a second-round draft pick in the NBA.

Winkler said the combination of competitive rosters and the scope of these NIL deals has more to do with this drop in early declarations.

“These deals are getting so big that unless you’re going to be a first round draft choice, maybe if you’re going to be kind of a lottery pick or a top 10, 15 pick, it would be better for you to exhaust your eligibility on a major team, because you’re going to make more,” he said.

So, it might be financially advantageous for athletes to wait on the pros. Some announcers were even suggesting Sanders should go back to college if the NFL didn’t deem him ready for the show. (NCAA rules prohibit him from doing so anyway; he declared for the draft and signed with an agent).

But what about the fact that these players, who become millionaires, are still students?

Schools are working to provide resources for these athletes so they can get advice on what to do with their wealth, so that they don’t spend it irresponsibly. Which is not to assume all of them would; it goes without saying this money could greatly benefit an athlete who grew up in poverty and change the trajectory for his/her family.

But Paulsen says he worries about the “student” side of “student-athlete” when we start talking about millions upon millions of dollars and students transferring to whichever school offers them the most. Sometimes credits don’t transfer; sometimes players could feel pressure to fulfill their NIL commitments over their studies, when the stakes are that high.

At a young age, these players are under an unprecedented amount of pressure, from their coach, from their family, from their financial adviser, from social media, from broadcast exposure, from stakeholders, from the tens of millions of people who can now legally bet on them.

“Players should be able to leave bad situations, absolutely, and I certainly support players’ autonomy and chasing financial benefit from their athletic talents,” Paulsen said. “But if we’re going to call them student athletes, we should have some emphasis on the student part of that too. Some of these rules that are helping the athlete are hurting the student.”

One of those rules, he says, is the transfer portal. But in addition to harming the students’ academic careers, experts say this also takes a toll on teams and fans of those teams.

Take Nico Iamaleava for example. The star quarterback abruptly parted ways with Tennessee over an alleged compensation dispute with the school’s collective. He demanded an NIL readjustment to $4 million to keep playing for the Vols, and when they said no, he transferred to UCLA, though it’s unclear if they met his demands.

The exit shocked his teammates in Knoxville, with one of his receivers and defensive backs, Boo Carter, telling reporters, “He left his brothers behind.”

But the new pay-to-play system does also beg the question of school loyalty, not just for the players, but the fans too.

Paulsen says roster continuity, players spending all four years playing for one team, has been an endearing feature of sports like women’s college basketball, when you look at the legacies, for example, Caitlin Clark built at the University of Iowa, or Paige Bueckers at the University of Connecticut.

“I do think there’s definitely some extent to which all this player movement can have negative consequences,” he said.

But, some experts doubt fans of teams need to see the same or similar team year to year.

After all, this past NCAA Men’s March Madness Championship between Florida and Houston – the one ESPN’s Smith said featured no madness at all – scored 18.1 million viewers on CBS. That’s up 22% from last year’s championship, and the biggest audience since 2019.

The Final Four games, featuring all No. 1 seeds, ranked as the most-watched games in eight years.

In other words, so far, so good when it comes to college sports fandom.

One thing broadly agreed upon among experts is that competition must remain intact. The Florida-Houston matchup was a nailbiter.

“The biggest thing that would kill sports is if there is no competitive balance,” Hedlund said. “It is known when you have a really great team being a not-so-great team, if the great team probably will win, people don’t want to watch.”

People still appear to be watching. If they stop, one could assume the NCAA would change its course, or it’d be out of all its money too.

Plus, these experts expect regulation soon – possible measures like transfer restrictions, collectively bargained salary caps, conference realignment to avoid concentration, turning athletic departments into LLCs, putting degree completion into bylaws and evening out the number of roster spots, among other rules.

Experts say: be patient, wait for the legal fights to run their course, and wait for the brightest minds in sports – and Congress – to come up with a solution that pleases the players, teams, coaches, schools and fans.

“This is fundamental to the success of sports, so we just need to figure out what rules, what regulations, what governing bodies, how do we facilitate this?” Hedlund said. “We don’t want to ruin sports. That’s what’s at stake here.”

Winkler says it all comes down to the most “hardcore” stakeholders: fans and alumni. If the SEC and Big 10 just ganged up and created their own Premier League and college sports turned into checkbook sports, it could threaten that school pride.

“This year, we definitely saw cracks in the system,” Winkler said. “If the best athletes just go to the top, are [fans] rooting for an inferior product? Are they still going to have that affinity for their school, their team, their degrees, and people that are doing it? This is really going to test that.

“[Schools] have two key pressure points: keep getting a lot of money from TV so you can fund your athletic department, and keep alumni, fans and donors still feeling as engagedThere’s a lot to be worked out in the next several months and probably the next year to really get a boiler plate idea of what the rules and regulations need to be.”

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John Calipari gets real on lucrative NIL ‘expectations’

The NIL era has accelerated recruiting into becoming a bidding war on what schools offer the most money in NIL. The numbers circulating in college basketball recently have been massive, and one of the game’s best recruiters, Arkansas’ John Calipari, recently spoke up about how that shapes the expectations for transfers and recruits who come […]

Published

4 minutes ago

June 12, 2025

Your Sports Nation

As one of the best recruiters in college basketball and potentially all college sports, Calipari has firsthand experience with NIL. While NIL has not changed Calipari’s status as an elite recruiter, it has emboldened him even more, bringing in top recruits at Kentucky and Arkansas. However, big-time players come with big-time money, and Calipari admitted that he and his staff tread lightly even more now due to that aspect of recruiting.

Calipari was on an episode of Golic & Golic on FanDuel Sports Network this week and elaborated on how they navigate this new landscape.

“Did you see the interview with the Kansas State player (Coleman Hawkins) after last year’s season, where he cried? Cried. ‘They paid me $2 million and I couldn’t live up to it.’ There’s one thing about being the star on any team,” Calipari said. “You guys did it, that star makes the most and, wow, but the most is expected from them. So, some guys in college basketball this year are making between $ 3 million and $5 million. Teams are spending 20 million on rosters. Now there’s an expectation. You better win a national title, or you better be a guy, Calipari said.

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“If one of you paid a college player four million, would you expect that $4 million player to drag us to the Final Four?”

In some cases, the risk might not outweigh the reward when programs like Arkansas basketball offer millions of dollars to recruits. Calipari continued to elaborate on how this is impacting the current recruiting landscape.

“That’s different than a seasoned professional dealing with it. So, trying to keep that away from what we do, but social media brings it right back,” Calipari said. “This guy’s making $3 million, and this is the best he is. So, you know, it’s — I think we gotta protect our kids, but some of it, you can’t. You want to be paid a lot. You’re now a professional. You need to perform.”

Thanks to the House settlement being approved, some NIL numbers should be curbed, and at least the field in college sports should be leveled. However, this new era of recruiting is a bidding war, and Calipari and other coaches need to adapt to navigating the potential expectations that come with that.

Jake Faigus graduated from the University of Arizona in 2022 and has had stops at Catena Media, Playmaker, DraftKings, USA Today, Spike Up, and Spotlight Sports Group. He also writes for Sporting News and works at iHeartMedia in Phoenix.

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Jay Jacobs on Auburn facilities, NIL pressure and what still sets the Tigers apart

Former Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs joined The Auburn Undercover Podcast for his biweekly show for a deep dive into how Auburn built some of the SEC’s best facilities—and why staying competitive now requires more than just bricks and mortar. Jacobs, who led Auburn Athletics from 2005 to 2018, said the evolution of facilities is a story […]

Published

17 minutes ago

June 12, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Jacobs, who led Auburn Athletics from 2005 to 2018, said the evolution of facilities is a story of constant adaptation. “Auburn was the first school in the SEC to have a football building,” he said. “We built that athletic complex in 1989, and at the time nobody else had one. That set the tone for how we’d separate ourselves.”

But in today’s NIL-driven world, Jacobs believes facilities still play a crucial role. “There may be a mindset at some schools that you don’t need to build anymore, just pay NIL and figure it out. But if everyone’s paying NIL, you still need something to separate yourself. That’s where facilities matter.”

Jacobs said recent improvements—from Plainsman Park to Neville Arena—are about more than recruiting athletes. “We’ve all turned our attention to fans. If the fans aren’t there, it’s an empty, hollow place. That atmosphere has to be there for everyone.”

Still, progress isn’t easy. Jacobs recalled pushing for a north end zone project that didn’t gain traction during his tenure. “Obviously I didn’t do a good enough job painting the vision. But thank goodness they’re moving forward with it now.”

When asked about the pressures of NIL, Jacobs didn’t mince words. “I’ve never had a student-athlete demand more money. It’s always been a parent, guardian, or handler. I’ve seen cases where the student-athlete didn’t even know someone was negotiating on their behalf.”

Despite the financial changes in college sports, Jacobs says the Auburn spirit still shines through. “These kids still act like kids. They’re having fun, they’re dancing in the dugout, hanging off the bench. They’re not thinking, ‘How can I get $25,000 more?’ They just love to play.”

Looking ahead, Jacobs acknowledged the challenge of funding athletics once schools begin paying athletes directly as part of the expected House v. NCAA settlement. “Every school is going to have to come up with $20.5 million more, and then it goes up from there. That’s real.”

Yet Jacobs remains optimistic about Auburn’s donor base and approach. “We may not have one mega-donor, but we have a lot of people who care. That’s the Auburn way. Everyone pitches in.”

He closed with a recommendation: a book that’s helped him stay grounded. “It’s called Don’t Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table by Louie Giglio. Whether you’re a Christian or not, it helps you catch those negative thoughts and think clearly.”

Listen to this episode elsewhere using these links.

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The House v. NCAA settlement explained

For the first 115 years of the NCAA’s existence, college athletes weren’t allowed to earn money from their athletic abilities. The first opportunity arose in the State of California when Governor Gavin Newsom signed a statute into law on September 30, 2019, allowing colleges to refrain from denying student-athletes the opportunity to profit from their […]

Published

27 minutes ago

June 12, 2025

Your Sports Nation

However, it wasn’t until the summer of 2021 that the NCAA changed rules to allow students to profit from their name, image, and likeness — otherwise known as NIL — after the Supreme Court ruled against the governing body.

A combination of school policies and state laws dictates what deals athletes can make. The NCAA has allowed universities to establish guidelines for their athletes in states that do not have laws outlining the parameters for designing NIL deals. Athletes only earned NIL benefits through outside parties, not through universities.

That changed last week on June 6 when Federal Judge Claudia Wilken approved the House v. NCAA settlement, which resolves multiple federal antitrust lawsuits, pays out thousands of former college athletes $2.8 billion in backpay from lost NIL compensation, and establishes a framework for athletic departments to directly pay college athletes for the first time.

Effective July 1, 2025, the agreement establishes a 10-year revenue-sharing model, which will allow schools to distribute up to $20.5 million in name, image, and likeness (NIL) to athletes during the 2025-26 season. This amount is expected to increase over time, potentially reaching up to $32.9 million per school by the 2034–35 academic year.

The men’s basketball roster size increases from 13 to 15 scholarships to be awarded. An equivalency system also allows coaches to award scholarships to more athletes by offering partial awards instead of full ones. For example, rather than 10 players each getting a full basketball scholarship, a team might divide 10 scholarship equivalents among 15 athletes.

Scholarships, which cover tuition, room and board, and other educational expenses, are not included in this cap. Schools can still offer full or partial scholarships to athletes without counting them toward the NIL compensation limit. In fact, the settlement allows schools to allocate up to $2.5 million of their NIL compensation pool toward increasing scholarships and providing additional support to athletes.

NIL payments can still be paid by outside supportive organizations, but if the payment is over $600, it must be justified by submission to a digital clearinghouse managed by Deloitte known as NIL Go in order to establish that third-party deals reflect what the clearinghouse deems is “fair” market value.

St. John’s and the rest of the Big East conference enter this new era of college athletics in an advantageous position over power conferences that prioritize competing in football programs. Most power conference schools are expected to pay out 75% of their revenue-sharing cap to football, with men’s basketball receiving 15%, women’s basketball receiving 5%, and the remaining sports receiving the final 5%.

This will not be a problem for the ten Big East member schools, which either have no football program or an FCS football program that is less costly than their FBS counterparts. Even UConn, which is the only Big East member with an FBS football program, shouldn’t feel pressure to divert much of its cap from its premier basketball programs in order to support football since they aren’t in a power conference and compete independently.

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SEC, ESPN announce more kickoff times, broadcast windows for 2025 college football season

The SEC and ESPN have released several more kickoff times and TV network assignments for the 2025 football season. Several games were held back with “window” designations for kickoff and to-be-determined television assignments — Early, Afternoon, Night or Flex. “Early” means 11 a.m.-noon Central start, “Afternoon” means 2:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. start, “Night” means 5 p.m.-7 […]

Published

1 hour ago

June 12, 2025

Your Sports Nation

The SEC and ESPN have released several more kickoff times and TV network assignments for the 2025 football season.

Several games were held back with “window” designations for kickoff and to-be-determined television assignments — Early, Afternoon, Night or Flex. “Early” means 11 a.m.-noon Central start, “Afternoon” means 2:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. start, “Night” means 5 p.m.-7 p.m. start and “Flex” can be either Afternoon or Night.

Full kickoff times and television assignments will be announced on a week-to-week basis once the season begins.

Here’s the updated list (all times Central):

Thursday, Aug. 28

Central Arkansas at Missouri, 6:30 p.m., SEC Network

Friday, Aug. 29

Auburn at Baylor, 7 p.m., Fox

Saturday, Aug. 30

Syracuse vs. Tennessee (Atlanta), 11 a.m., ABC

Texas at Ohio State, 11 a.m., Fox

Mississippi State at Southern Miss, 11 a.m., ESPN

Toledo at Kentucky, 11:45 a.m., SEC Network

Alabama at Florida State, 2:30 p.m., ABC

Marshall at Georgia, 2:30 p.m., ESPN

Alabama A&M at Arkansas, 3:15 p.m., SEC Network

Illinois State at Oklahoma, 5 p.m., ESPN+/SECN+

Texas-San Antonio at Texas A&M, 6 p.m., ESPN

Long Island at Florida, 6 p.m., ESPN+/SECN+

Charleston Southern at Vanderbilt, 6 p.m., ESPN+/SECN+

LSU at Clemson, 6:30 p.m., ABC

Georgia State at Ole Miss, 6:45 p.m., SEC Network

Sunday, Aug. 31

Virginia Tech vs. South Carolina (Atlanta), 2 p.m., ESPN

Saturday, Sept. 6

San Jose State at Texas, 11 a.m., ABC or ESPN

Utah State at Texas A&M, 11:45 a.m., SEC Network

Ole Miss at Kentucky, 2:30 p.m., ABC

Kansas at Missouri, 2:30 p.m., ESPN2

East Tennessee State at Tennessee, 2:30 p.m., ESPN+/SECN+

Austin Peay at Georgia, 2:30 p.m., ESPN+/SECN+

South Florida at Florida, 3:15 p.m., SEC Network

Arkansas State at Arkansas (Little Rock), 4 p.m., ESPN+/SECN+

South Carolina State at South Carolina, 6 p.m., ESPN+/SECN+

Michigan at Oklahoma, 6:30 p.m., ABC

Arizona State at Mississippi State, 6:30 p.m., ESPN2

Vanderbilt at Virginia Tech, 6:30 p.m., ACC Network

Ball State at Auburn, 6:30 p.m., ESPNU

Louisiana Tech at LSU, 6:30 p.m., ESPN+/SECN+

Louisiana-Monroe at Alabama, 6:45 p.m., SEC Network

Saturday, Sept. 13

Wisconsin at Alabama, 11 a.m., ABC or ESPN

Oklahoma at Temple, 11 a.m., ABC or ESPN

South Alabama at Auburn, 11:45 a.m., SEC Network

Georgia at Tennessee, 2:30 p.m., ABC

Louisiana at Missouri, 3 p.m., ESPN+/SECN+

UTEP at Texas, 3:15 p.m., SEC Network

Alcorn State at Mississippi State, 5 p.m., ESPN+/SECN+

Florida at LSU, 6:30 p.m., ABC

Texas A&M at Notre Dame, 6:30 p.m., NBC

Eastern Michigan at Kentucky, 6:30 p.m., ESPNU

Arkansas at Ole Miss, 6 p.m. or 6:45 p.m., ESPN or SEC Network

Vanderbilt at South Carolina, 6 p.m. or 6:45 p.m., ESPN or SEC Network

Saturday, Sept. 20

UAB at Tennessee, 11:45 a.m., SEC Network

Northern Illinois at Mississippi State, 3:15 p.m., SEC Network

Georgia State at Vanderbilt, 6:30 p.m., ESPN2 or ESPNU

Southeastern Louisiana at LSU, 6:45 p.m., SEC Network

Arkansas at Memphis, TBA

Florida at Miami, TBA

Tulane at Ole Miss, Flex

South Carolina at Missouri, Flex

Auburn at Oklahoma, Flex

OPEN: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Texas, Texas A&M

Saturday, Sept. 27

Notre Dame at Arkansas, 11 a.m., ABC

Utah State at Vanderbilt, 11:45 a.m., SEC Network

Alabama at Georgia, 6:30 p.m., ABC

Sam Houston at Texas, 7 p.m., ESPN+/SECN+

Auburn at Texas A&M, Afternoon

Massachusetts at Missouri, Night

LSU at Ole Miss, Flex

Tennessee at Mississippi State, Flex

Kentucky at South Carolina, Flex

OPEN: Florida, Oklahoma

Saturday, Oct. 4

Kentucky at Georgia, 11 a.m., ABC or ESPN

Kent State at Oklahoma, 3 p.m., SEC Network

Mississippi State at Texas A&M, Night

Vanderbilt at Alabama, Flex

Texas at Florida, Flex

OPEN: Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee

Saturday, Oct. 11

Alabama at Missouri, 11 a.m., ABC or ESPN

Washington State at Ole Miss, 11:45 a.m., SEC Network

Oklahoma vs. Texas (Dallas), 2:30 p.m., ABC or ESPN

Georgia at Auburn, Night

South Carolina at LSU, Flex

Arkansas at Tennessee, Flex

Florida at Texas A&M, Flex

OPEN: Kentucky, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt

Saturday, Oct. 18

Oklahoma at South Carolina, Early

LSU at Vanderbilt, Early

Mississippi State at Florida, Afternoon

Texas at Kentucky, Night

Tennessee at Alabama, Flex

Texas A&M at Arkansas, Flex

Missouri at Auburn, Flex

Ole Miss at Georgia, Flex

Saturday, Oct. 25

Auburn at Arkansas, Early

Ole Miss at Oklahoma, Early

Tennessee at Kentucky, Night

Texas A&M at LSU, Flex

Texas at Mississippi State, Flex

Alabama at South Carolina, Flex

Missouri at Vanderbilt, Flex

OPEN: Florida, Georgia

Saturday, Nov. 1

Vanderbilt at Texas, 11 a.m., ABC or ESPN

Georgia vs. Florida (Jacksonville), 2:30 p.m., ABC

Mississippi State at Arkansas, Afternoon

Kentucky at Auburn, Flex

South Carolina at Ole Miss, Flex

Oklahoma at Tennessee, Flex

OPEN: Alabama, LSU, Missouri, Texas A&M

Saturday, Nov. 8

Georgia at Mississippi State, 11 a.m., ABC or ESPN

The Citadel at Ole Miss, noon, ESPN+/SECN+

Auburn at Vanderbilt, Afternoon

LSU at Alabama, Night

Florida at Kentucky, Flex

Texas A&M at Missouri, Flex

OPEN: Arkansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas

Saturday, Nov. 15

Tennessee Tech at Kentucky, 12:30 p.m., ESPN+/SECN+

New Mexico State at Tennessee, 3:15 p.m., SEC Network

Arkansas at LSU, Early

South Carolina at Texas A&M, Early

Mississippi State at Missouri, Night

Oklahoma at Alabama, Flex

Texas at Georgia, Flex

Florida at Ole Miss, Flex

OPEN: Auburn, Vanderbilt

Saturday, Nov. 22

Missouri at Oklahoma, 11 a.m., ABC or ESPN

Samford at Texas A&M, 11 a.m., ESPN+/SECN+

Charlotte at Georgia, 11:45 a.m., SEC Network

Eastern Illinois at Alabama, 1 p.m., ESPN+/SECN+

Mercer at Auburn, 1 p.m., ESPN+/SECN+

Coastal Carolina at South Carolina, Afternoon

Kentucky at Vanderbilt, Afternoon

Western Kentucky at LSU, Night

Tennessee at Florida, Flex

Arkansas at Texas, Flex

OPEN: Ole Miss, Mississippi State

Friday, Nov. 28

Ole Miss at Mississippi State, 11 a.m., ABC or ESPN

Texas A&M at Texas, 6:30 p.m., ABC

Saturday, Nov. 29

Clemson at South Carolina, 11 a.m., ABC or ESPN

Georgia at Georgia Tech, 2:30 p.m., ABC

Vanderbilt at Tennessee, Afternoon

Missouri at Arkansas, Night

Alabama at Auburn, Flex

Florida State at Florida, Flex

LSU at Oklahoma, Flex

Saturday, Dec. 6

SEC championship game (Atlanta), 3 p.m., ABC

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Oregon State Men's Basketball

It’s been a rough off-season for Oregon State Men’s Basketball, with the transfer portal decimating the team and leaving Wayne Tinkle the task of completely rebuilding his starting five. The rebuild is now complete, and now we have an idea of what next year’s team will look like. Here’s the state of the Beavers. RELATED: […]

Published

1 hour ago

June 12, 2025

Your Sports Nation

So this is rough. Michael Rataj, Parsa Fallah, Nate Kingz, Damarco Minor and Liutauras Lelevicius were the Beavers primary starting five and their five top scorers. Maxim Logue and Matthew Marsh were also key contributors off the bench. Next year’s team is going to be a completely different one. So where does the rebuild get started?

There’s a couple names to highlight here, with Josiah Lake II being one of the most important. Lake picked up a handful of starts for the Beavers last season, finishing the year with 228 points in 772 minutes played. Isaiah Sy also picked up some starts for Oregon State, with 607 minutes and 187 points. That gives the Beavers a guard/forward pair they can start to develop around.

Johan Munch and Ja’Quavis Williford also got significant minutes, and Gavin Marrs, Thomas Ndong and Kaan Yarkut got a decent amount of reps off the bench. We’ll have to wait until training camp to see if any are ready for a larger role.

While they lost a lot in the transfer portal, some big names came the Beavers way. The biggest in the most literal sense is Noah Amenhauser, a 7’2″ center who comes to Corvallis from Coastal Carolina, where he was a full time starter who averaged 10.8 points per game and 6.0 rebounds per game.

Amenhauser isn’t the only big body who will be joining Oregon State. Yaak Yaak, a 6’11” center who most recently played for Colorado Mesa has joined the Beavers, as has Jorge Diaz Graham, a 6’11” forward who last played for Pitt. Diaz Graham brings a pretty good three point shot to the team, giving him some versatility on the floor. STephen Olowoniyi, a 6’8″ forward, was a full time starter for Southern Indiana last season and gives the Beavers another strong option at that position.

At the guard position the Beavers added one of their most veteran transfers. Malcolm Christie is a senior who last played for Oakland, and was one of the Horizon League’s best three point shooters. The Beavers have seen Christie in action before, in last year’s Diamond Head Classic Oregon State faced the Golden Grizzlies and Christie scored 18 against them. Dez White, a consistent scorer for Missouri State last season, gives the Beavers another veteran presence at guard.

Lastly, Oregon State has added two freshmen to next year’s squad. Olavi Suutela is a 6’10” forward from Finland who played at the Helsinki Basketball Academy, and Keziah Ekissi is a 6’3″ guard from France who was a junior college transfer from Howard College.

While we have an roster, we won’t really know what the team looks like until fall practices get started. Lake and Sy can be expected to have large roles, but no starting spot is guaranteed, and they’ll be challenged by arriving talent like Amenhauser, Christie, Diaz Graham and White. How this team comes together is going to be an ongoing question for the rest of the year.

NIL

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June 12, 2025

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