NIL
NCAA transfer portal has been boon for UWGB women, coach Kayla Karius
AI-assisted summaryUWGB women’s basketball coach Kayla Karius rebuilt her roster primarily through the transfer portal after losing seven players to graduation.The Phoenix added several key players, including local standouts Carley Duffney and Gracie Grzesk, as well as Horizon League star Maddy Skorupski.UWGB is one of only five women’s programs in the nation without a player entering the transfer portal in the past two years.Karius expressed some reservations about the transfer portal’s impact on player development, despite her success using it.Expectations remain high for the Phoenix in the upcoming season, with the team likely to be favored to win the Horizon League.University of Wisconsin-Green Bay women’s basketball coach Kayla Karius and her staff didn’t have much time to relax after the season ended in March with a loss to Alabama in the NCAA Tournament.
UWGB was set to lose seven players to graduation, including all five starters.
The game plan was simple.
“We just knew we needed a lot of people,” said Karius, who led her team to a 29-6 record in her first season at UWGB. “And it covered really every position. I guess the focus really was on guards. We lost (senior forward) Jas (Kondrakiewicz), but we have (senior forward-center) Jenna (Guyer) and (sophomore forward-center) Meghan Schultz who are really excited to fill in behind her. So, more of an emphasis on guards and the fact that we have got to turn around and find people who are going to fill up the scoring and the minutes part of it.
“We certainly want to aim high. We talked about that early. But we also want to stick to our philosophy of trying to find the best local kids.”
The roster is all but complete after a flurry of signings the past couple of months, with just one scholarship remaining but no guarantee it will be used.
UWGB aimed high. It aimed for the best local players.
It appears to have won on both fronts.
It started with South Dakota senior forward and former Green Bay Preble standout Carley Duffney and continued with University of Wisconsin sophomore forward and former Green Bay Notre Dame star Gracie Grzesk.
That would have been a good offseason for some Horizon League teams.
UWGB followed by adding one of the best players in the Horizon in senior guard Maddy Skorupski from Oakland, landed Iowa State senior guard and former Appleton East star Lily Hansford and capped it with the UW-Milwaukee and former Hortonville sister duo of senior guard Kamy Peppler and sophomore guard Kallie Peppler.
The only local talent the Phoenix missed out on was former De Pere guard Jordan Meulemans, who entered the transfer portal after two seasons at Butler and signed with Marquette.
Karius didn’t waste time going after players the team was interested in.
Grzesk said her new coach called just minutes after her name hit the portal. UWGB was the first school to reach out to Kamy Peppler. Duffney already knew Karius well considering she played for her at South Dakota for two seasons before Karius was hired at UWGB.
Karius started using a software program after she arrived in Green Bay that helps filter through more than a thousand names in the portal.
It was a huge improvement from the past, when a person on staff would hit the refresh button over and over to see if a new name was entered.
It was, to say the least, not efficient.
She and her staff now just plug in whatever filters they desire. Perhaps all players from Wisconsin or anybody who averaged more than 4 assists per game.You name it, they can find it. Fast. “As soon as we see names that are in the local area, I do want to be their first call,” Karius said. “Sometimes, I don’t know what direction we are going to go with them yet. Sometimes, it’s a conversation of, ‘What are you looking for?’ We really want people who want to be here. There were kids I felt like I was twisting their arm a little bit to come here.“A lot of them were outside the region. They didn’t have a background of this place. That gets really difficult, because you are like, you don’t know how special this place is. But the majority of kids from the state have been to camp, have been to games. We have always done a really good job of getting young kids in the door.”UWGB has a winning tradition to sell. It has 48 consecutive winning seasons — the second-longest streak in the nation behind only Tennessee — and has been to the NCAA Tournament 20 times.But could it really have expected this type of offseason, filled with so many notable local names and all-conference talent?“I had no idea what to expect,” Karius said, laughing. “You feel this pressure is a privilege feel. You don’t want this to end on your watch. Certainly, we didn’t have to refill a lot of players last year when we got here.“Now, being really the first big amount of kids that our staff is responsible to bring in, it was difficult at times. You are moving really quickly and working really long hours and trying your best to fill this roster with kids that are the right fit. There is some pressure with that. Same we always deal with, but you want to keep this going with the right people. There are 1,500, I think, names in the women’s portal. There is a ton of talent out there. That doesn’t mean that talent fits here at Green Bay. That doesn’t mean that talent fits in our culture of team-first basketball.”
Former guard-forward Lyndsey Robson transferred to the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2021 after starting 48 games during her career for UWGB.
But the Phoenix has been on the other side far more often, from getting Sydney Levy from UWM to Natalie McNeal from St. Louis.
Not one player has entered the portal since Karius was hired in April 2024, even when it would have made sense for a few to leave after former coach Kevin Borseth announced his retirement.
UWGB is one of only five women’s programs in the nation not to have a player enter the portal the last two years, joining Harvard, Army, Air Force and Kent State.
Perhaps even more impressive is that of the six returning players from 2024-25, only Guyer played significant minutes, although reserve guard Maren Westin was averaging 14.5 minutes the first 11 games before tearing an anterior cruciate ligament in a knee.
It would have been easy for others to look elsewhere, but none did.
Not even guard Ellie Buzzelle, who was a full-time starter at Eastern Illinois as a sophomore and played 155 minutes her first season at UWGB.
Karius speaks individually to each player at the end of the year to see if they were happy with their role and the season. She wants to know if they will be OK if transfers arrive and play over them.She believes in being honest. Players appreciate that more than anything.“I think that is even more a sense of pride,” Karius said. “That those players found that they were valued. We celebrated them. We showed their bench celebrations and highlighted that in front of everybody. Just make sure everybody is given the attention and the value that they deserve.“My staff, we all are really intentional about checking in on our players and taking care of them. In turn, they stay. They tell us point blank, ‘I love it here.’”It would seem Karius should love the portal, although it’s not the goal to find six or seven players every season but instead just a few to plug holes.But despite having success adding and not losing players both at UWGB and South Dakota, there is a part of the portal process that doesn’t sit well.“I don’t love the lesson that it teaches kids,” said Karius, who played at UWGB from 2007 to 2011 and is one of the program’s all-time greats. “I would really rather see kids stick it out. I had a tough freshman year. I played, but it was tough for a lot of reasons. But at the time, you had to sit out a year (if you transferred). And then where are you going to go? There was definitely a stigma around it, like, you don’t do that.“Now, the whole perception has changed. I don’t love that lesson, like you don’t have to stick it out anymore. There is a free out that we are teaching kids for the rest of life. It doesn’t just work like that. There is a beauty in fighting through adversity and maybe not getting what you want right now but knowing a year from now if you keep working hard, you are going to get that.”She can’t say what the younger version of herself would have done after her freshman season if it was easier to leave.Karius does know she’s incredibly grateful she didn’t, that instead a veteran teammate like Lavesa Glover spent time with her and encouraged her to keep working hard and that she’d be fine.“I’m just really glad that I stayed,” Karius said.
“We have a lot of really good pieces in place,” Karius said. “You see we are able to bring in the local talent, so they love this place. But let’s talk about them as players. You have three players coming in that have already had success in our league. Then you’ve had a couple players playing up at the higher level, didn’t play that much this year, but practiced against a high level every day and are capable of being really good here. Then you have Carley, who was a double-digit scorer in a comparable league.
“Then you’ve got returners. You’ve got Marty (Westin) who is getting healthy. You’ve got Jenna who had a breakout year, and then Meghan is right behind her. There are a couple shining stars that are waiting their turn. If you just look at all the pieces, we are all really, really excited.”
Indiana enters the College Football Playoff national championship game on January 19, riding one of the most improbable runs in modern college football.
The Hoosiers finished the regular season unbeaten, captured the Big Ten title, and earned the No. 1 seed in the expanded playoff before dismantling No. 9 Alabama (38–3) and No. 5 Oregon (56–22) in the first two rounds of the postseason.
Indiana’s dominant Peach Bowl victory over the Ducks cemented the Hoosiers’ place in the national title game, marking the program’s first appearance in a national championship and representing the pinnacle of head coach Curt Cignetti’s rapid rebuild.
At the center of Indiana’s historic 2025 campaign is quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the Cal transfer who arrived in Bloomington after spending his first two seasons with the Golden Bears.
In his lone season at Indiana, Mendoza has delivered elite efficiency and command of the offense, throwing for 3,349 yards with a nation-best 41 touchdowns against just six interceptions, while completing 73% of his passes across 15 games.
That breakout campaign helped guide Indiana to a 15–0 record, earning Mendoza widespread national recognition, becoming Indiana’s first Heisman Trophy winner, adding AP Player of the Year honors, and sweeping the major national quarterback awards.
With Mendoza widely expected to declare for the NFL Draft following the season, speculation has intensified regarding his draft position and potential landing spot.
ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. added fuel to that conversation on Monday by placing Mendoza No. 1 overall on his latest 2026 NFL Draft Big Board following the CFP semifinals.
“Mendoza transferred to Indiana after playing two seasons at Cal, and his game has taken off,” Kiper wrote. “The key? He has cut down on sacks, with 22 so far this season after taking 41 in 2024.”
“Mendoza is getting the ball out quicker. And while he doesn’t have a huge arm, he can make all the necessary NFL-level throws. His ball placement is fantastic. I wouldn’t consider him a dual threat, but Mendoza also has enough mobility to pick up first downs as a scrambler.”
Kiper’s Big Board places Mendoza ahead of other highly regarded quarterbacks expected to headline the 2026 NFL Draft class, including Oregon’s Dante Moore and Alabama’s Ty Simpson.
While those passers bring different physical profiles, Mendoza’s combination of efficiency, decision-making, and a proven winning resume has increasingly separated him from the pack in early evaluations.
He has also emerged as one of the sport’s most marketable stars, ranking eighth nationally in NIL valuation at an estimated $2.6 million, a figure that reflects both his on-field success and national profile.
Indiana’s season is not yet complete, as a national title win over Miami would cement the Hoosiers’ campaign as one of the most memorable in college football history and further strengthen Mendoza’s case as the top overall prospect.
Regardless of the outcome, his ascent from transfer addition to Heisman Trophy winner and projected No. 1 pick stands as one of the most notable quarterback rises in recent college football history.
The 2026 NFL Draft is scheduled for April 23–25 in Pittsburgh, but Mendoza’s trajectory suggests the conversation surrounding the first overall selection may already be taking shape.
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A college football champion will be crowned on Jan. 19 after the No. 10-seed Miami Hurricanes and No. 1-seed Indiana Hoosiers face off at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.
As many fans have noticed and have thoroughly enjoyed pointing out online, the SEC does not have a representative in the title game for the third consecutive year. Many in the sport have attributed this to NIL and the transfer portal, which allow non-traditional programs like Texas Tech or Indiana to contend, while programs like Georgia or Alabama no longer have significant talent advantages.
When it comes to the Bulldogs, Fox’s Joel Klatt revealed on a recent episode of “The Next Round” that Georgia can’t even say they have the best coach in college football anymore, going as far as to say that Indiana’s Curt Cignetti has surpassed him.
“It leads into this idea of Kirby (Smart) is the best coach in college football,” Klatt said in reference to the SEC being the best conference narrative. “Well no he’s not. He hasn’t even played in the final four in the last three years with good teams by the way. And in some cases based on the composite, the most talented team.
“So Curt Cignetti is doing more with less than anybody,” Klatt said. “And he’s doing it on a stage and at a pace right now that is fairly unprecedented. He did it at Indiana. Guys Indiana is likely to win the national championship. That blows my mind. It just does.”
While it seemed extremely brash or arrogant at the time when Cignetti told college football fans to Google him at his introductory press conference, that appears to have been a legitimate warning that no one was really ready for.
In his four years as an FBS head coach, which include his final two seasons at James Madison, Cignetti has compiled a 45-6 record. At Indiana alone, he has put together a record of 26-2, leading the Hoosiers to the program’s first outright Big Ten title since 1945, the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff and also helped Fernando Mendoza have a breakout year that saw him win the Heisman trophy.
Arguably the most interesting part about Cignetti’s success outside of his one-liners and otherworldly confidence is the fact that he isn’t chasing someone else’s legacy at another program, he is working to build his own.
Despite being the hottest coach on the market this coaching cycle, Cignetti inked an 8-year extension worth around $93 million that will keep him in Bloomington.
So, for those college football traditionalists who are struggling to accept the new reality of what this sport has become, it appears that accepting Indiana as a powerhouse is another thing they’ll have to add to the list.
Pat McAfee remains one of the more polarizing voices in the college football media landscape, and it appears the College GameDay personality is losing some of his base of support among fans, according to a new survey.
McAfee’s approval ratings among college football fans have fallen to an all-time low coming out of the 2025 season, according to a poll taken by The Athletic this week.
How do you feel about Pat McAfee?
Fans were asked a simple question: “How do you feel about Pat McAfee on College GameDay?” And the answers definitely tilted one way.
Nearly half of those who answered the question said they “Don’t like it,” with 49.5 percent of fans who took part saying they didn’t approve of McAfee’s contribution to the weekly College GameDay program.
That contribution has been noteworthy from the beginning, capped off by his bombastic (and often shirtless) game predictions that helped give the program a transition from Lee Corso’s famous headgear picks as a method of closing out each show on Saturday.
The field-goal kicking contest that McAfee hosts on GameDay, which includes him paying out serious money to the winners, is also highly-regarded among fans who watch.
Those who do like what McAfee brings to the table? That number is down to 31.6 percent of those who were surveyed by The Athletic.
Just under 20 percent of those asked, 18.9 percent, said they had no opinion of him.
Previous polls agree on McAfee
This marked the third year that The Athletic polled fans on McAfee, but this edition of the vote saw the highest mark among those who answered negatively about him.
Last year, 42.5 percent of respondents said they didn’t like McAfee, and in 2023, that number swelled to 48.9 percent.
Two seasons ago, the negative conversation around McAfee’s performance on College GameDay even resulted in viral speculation that he considered leaving the program.
Last offseason, it was revealed that McAfee did not have a contract to appear on College GameDay that fall and it was an open question for a time whether or not he would return.
Those rumors were put to bed about a month later, when McAfee revealed that he signed a new deal with ESPN to appear on the show that season.
College GameDay is still very popular
Whatever fans may think of McAfee, they are very clear on the College GameDay program overall: they love it.
The overwhelming majority of those fans polled, 83.6 percent of them, said they prefer College GameDay to the Fox pre-game program Big Noon Kickoff.
That confidence was expressed in the TV ratings this season, as College GameDay established viewership records in the 2025 season averaging 2.7 million viewers per show, up 22 percent from last year.
(Athletic)
Read more from College Football HQ
Is this the new normal? The new Bloomington? The new Big Ten?
Good afternoon, and happy Monday. Three-quarters of the MNW household are struggling with some form or residuals of the flu, and the other one is me. That, of course, has led to no resentment of the fact that I am healthy other than a little cough, no sir.
Indiana feels inevitable at this point, do they not? The Hoosiers have, through Curt Cignetti’s shrewd use of the transfer portal and quality coaching, turned college football completely on its ear.
Well, a deep-pocketed donor by any other name is…a deep-pocketed donor, still. Add to that Mark Cuban’s money for 2026? We might be dealing with the Hoosiers until Curt Cignetti gets bored.
Of course, there have been flashes in the pan before: the wisconsin Rose Bowls, the Peak Weather Machine years of Michigan State, that one time Minnesota won ten games or whatever—but it’s undeniable that none of those programs ever made a national championship and that none of them did it in the style that Indiana is doing it right now.
Watching Indiana do it—or, indeed, the entire SEC going belly-up in the postseason—is certainly cathartic. It’s better than the usual suspects doing it over and over again, and it’s at least more above-board than the standard SEC model of used car dealers buying themselves a championship. I take little solace in knowing that there’s less program-building, less connection to a campus, less-anything that feels “authentically” college football, but it’s incredibly possible that my feelings of “authenticity” always relied on a lie—the lie that it was possible to square “belonging” or “identity” of a college campus with athletes being fairly treated.
Congratulations, of course, to Indiana on their seemingly inevitable championship. It is truly exciting for the Hoosiers and their fans, as well as those coming back to football to join the thousand or so of their long-suffering brethren. Glad you’ve finally left the tailgate lots and headed in. Enjoy Miami.
Of course, you might have questions or comments about completely different things—basketball, wrestling, the best episode of Magic School Bus, the worst way to cook cod. We in the OTE Hive were recently discussing our careers as Quiz Bowl contestants (MNW, AlmaOtter, LPW), speech wannabes (LPW, Kind of…, Dead Read), or speech titans (BRT, Jesse, et al). Ask us what you’d like, and we’ll answer how we’d like.
This is a Mailbag call, and I hope you’ll treat it as such.
Elite running back Hollywood Smothers flipped from Alabama to Texas in the 2026 college football transfer portal on Sunday, signaling deeper issues within the Crimson Tide program.
On the field, Alabama has fallen short of sustaining the elite standard set by Nick Saban, losing as many games in two seasons under Kalen DeBoer (eight) as it did across the previous five seasons under the seven-time national championship-winning coach.
Coaching deserves its fair share of blame for Alabama’s slight fall from grace, but deeper issues may lie within the Crimson Tide’s NIL operation, which has lagged behind many of its peers this cycle.
Alabama has lost six players ranked inside Cooper Petagna‘s top 100 of the college football transfer portal rankings this offseason, while adding just one: defensive lineman Devan Thompkins.
National college football and transfer portal analyst Chris Hummer went inside Alabama’s NIL struggles, offering insights into what’s gone wrong in Tuscaloosa and what the future may hold for one of college football’s most storied programs.
“A decade ago, Alabama could land everyone they wanted,” Hummer said on CBS Sports HQ. “They could be like a dragon sitting on a chest of gold. There’s nothing you could do about it.
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