STILLWATER – Oklahoma State’s Isaac Becroft was named as the 2025 Central Region Intercollegiate Tennis Association Senior Player of the Year it was announced by the ITA Tuesday morning.
 
The award honors the senior student-athlete who had the best year among all student-athletes in his/her class in his/her region. Becroft takes home a regional ITA Award for the second-straight year, last year picking up the ITA Most Improved Player for the Central Region.
 
On the court, Becroft leaves OSU with All-America status in doubles, All-Big 12 first-team distinctions in singles (2025) and doubles (2024) and All-Big 12 second-team honors in singles in 2024. Additionally, he was named the 2024 ITA Central Region Most Improved Player and was named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year in 2023. 
 
In his final season with the Cowboys, Becroft tallied a trio of ranked wins, taking down UCSB’s Gianluka Brunkow, UCF’s Yassine Dlimi and Baylor’s Devin Badenhorst. Becroft totaled an 11-8 record on the season, playing all his matches on court one. The captain went 5-3 in Big 12 play. 
 
Becroft’s accomplishments haven’t been just on the court, but also in the classroom. The recent graduate earned CSA Academic All-American status for the third straight year last week, an accomplishment only achieved by six other OSU student-athletes.
 
For season-long coverage of Oklahoma State men’s tennis, visit okstate.com and follow @CowboyTennis on Instagram and X.

The portion of the House vs. NCAA settlement that is getting the most attention is the $20.5 million that universities can spend themselves on NIL payments for their athletes. However, there is a part of the settlement that you will be hearing much more about if you have not already.

There is a stipulation in the agreement that states any third-party NIL deals (e.g. anything that does not come directly from the university) worth $600 or more must be approved by a “clearinghouse” called “NIL Go.” The clearinghouse would be managed by an accounting firm called Deloitte and they would seemingly have the power of rejecting deals that they deemed were above market value and/or did not serve any actual business purpose.

Sounds good, right?

Well, there is absolutely zero chance that any NIL deal rejected by Deloitte would hold up in a court of law. Apparently, whoever added this ridiculous stipulation in the recent House settlement – and the parties that agreed to it – were not aware that the nation’s highest court has already spoken on this matter. Perhaps not directly, but the Supreme Court’s ruling in the 2021 NCAA vs. Alston case spoke volumes and set a strict precedent. In short, good luck getting a court to agree that an athlete’s NIL deal is “above market value” and therefore voided. There is not one judge in the country that would do that after NCAA vs. Alston. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the “NCAA attempting to restrict athletes from collecting benefits beyond full-ride scholarships violated antitrust law.” That is precisely what this clearinghouse would be doing.

Furthermore, how is Deloitte going to determine what is “above market value?” Here’s the thing in a capitalist society: Your market value is whatever someone is willing to pay you. We have what I would consider above-average college quarterbacks who will be making $4 million this season. Like it or not, that is literally their market value.

And get this, at a recent conference, Deloitte stated that “70 percent” of previous NIL deals across college athletics would have been denied by them (per Yahoo’s Ross Dellinger). Oh, that’s rich.  Seventy percent, eh? Well, 100 percent of those cases would have been thrown out in court. Imagine the first time a local car dealer gives a kid seven figures and the agreement is voided by Deloitte. That kid would eventually get every penny because the NCAA — even using a third party — cannot restrict athletes from collecting benefits beyond full-ride scholarships. There is no gray area here. NIL — which really should be called PTP (pay to play) — gives athletes benefits beyond scholarships and therefore cannot be restricted. This is what makes the “NIL Go clearinghouse” one of the most absurd things I’ve ever seen. How could anyone think preventing an athlete from making a certain amount of money would hold up in court, after the country’s highest court already ruled unanimously on this issue?

Justin Williams from The Athletic quoted college football coaches and administrators who are convinced “the bagman” will return in full force because of this settlement. They also believe athletes won’t even use the NIL Go system to declare what they are making through their various NIL deals. Here is an excerpt from his piece:

In candid conversations, coaches and staffers have serious doubts that athletes will declare those deals, or do so accurately. Some have suggested that players are being encouraged not to declare deals at all, but to simply take the money and keep quiet rather than risk the clearinghouse flagging it. And if that’s the case, where do we suspect that money might be coming from?

 “I guess it would just be the same as the way things used to work,” lamented an athletic director, frustrated by those already angling to undermine the settlement. “We’d be right back where we started.”

Before NIL, “bag men” were the not-so-invisible hands of big-time college sports, boosters who secretly funneled cash to top players and recruits. It was cheating in the same way that driving over the speed limit is a crime: If it wasn’t flagrant or egregious, you probably weren’t getting caught.

Keep it locked to Bucknuts for full coverage of all things Ohio State football. Athletic director Ross Bjork will meet with the media on Thursday to discuss the changing NIL landscape.

LUBBOCK, Texas – Following its historic run in the Women’s College World Series, Texas Tech softball came in at No. 2 in the final polls of the 2025 NCAA Softball season. The Red Raiders finished the season with a 54-14 record and were national runners-up in the programs first trip to the WCWS.

D1Softball, Softball America, NFCA and USA Softball polls all tabbed the Red Raiders as the No. 2 team to close out the season. This is Tech’s highest ever ranking and adds to a long list of historic accomplishments by the 2025 roster.

The Red Raiders won their first Big 12 regular season and tournament titles, hosted their first NCAA Regional, advanced to their first NCAA Super Regional and eventually made it to the promise land of college softball in Oklahoma City for the WCWS.

 

The push from the NCAA and Power Five conferences to enact federal legislation around college sports is intensifying. U.S. Representatives Lisa McClain (R-Mich.)and Janelle Bynum (D-Ore.) introduced the “College Student-Athlete Protections and Opportunities through Rights, Transparency and Safety Act” on Tuesday morning, dubbed the College SPORTS Act.

The bipartisan legislation includes many of the provisions the NCAA has repeatedly requested, such as federal preemption of state laws and codification that college athletes are not employees. The bill would also allow athletes to use their scholarships to complete a degree within 10 years, even if they leave school early, and establish agent registration and disclosure requirements.

“I don’t think this is about drawing lines between Democrats and Republicans or the House and Senate,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey told reporters on Monday. “I think this is an opportunity for our governmental leaders, our political leaders, to come together around solutions to support our Olympic development program, to support college football and every one of our sports that flows off of that, including those that are labeled as non-revenue sports, to provide additional support for women’s sports.”

Meanwhile, a discussion draft has been circulating college athletics. The proposal under the House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce would also codify much of what the NCAA has pushed lawmakers to enact in recent years. The House subcommittee is scheduled to discuss the draft at a legislative hearing on Thursday.

“This discussion draft comes at a time of historic transition for college athletics,” the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC said in a joint statement on Tuesday morning. “In the absence of federal standards, student-athletes and schools have been forced to navigate a fractured regulatory framework for too long. Following the historic House settlement, this draft legislation represents a very encouraging step toward delivering the national clarity and accountability that college athletics desperately needs. We urge lawmakers to build on this momentum and deliver the national solution that athletes, coaches, and schools deserve.”

The renewed push for federal legislation comes days after the House v. NCAA settlement was approved. Since the NCAA was founded in 1906, institutions have never directly paid athletes. That will now change with the settlement ushering in the revenue-sharing era of college sports.

For the new College Sports Commission entity to be successful in enforcing the settlement, many around college sports believe it needs federal backing. The commission appointed Major League Baseball executive Bryan Seeley as CEO on Friday night.

“For too long, college athletes have generated enormous value for their schools and athletic programs without being allowed to share in the success they help create,” McClain said in a release announcing the College SPORTS Act. “We’re protecting the values that make college athletics great while modernizing the system to reflect today’s reality. This bill preserves the student-athlete model while offering real protections, real opportunity, and real fairness. I appreciate Congresswoman Bynum for partnering with me to get this bipartisan legislation moving forward.”

In the shadows of the NCAA Women’s College World Series, where powerhouse programs grab headlines and trophies, a deeper issue is unfolding.

One that’s quietly unraveling the foundation of mid-major programs across the country.

Coaches are speaking out and they are not whispering.

Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) was meant to empower athletes. And in many ways, it has. Just like anything that involves money and ego, it’s gotten messy—fast. What we’re seeing now isn’t just athletes cashing in on their brands. We’re seeing tampering. Flat-out poaching. And mid-major coaches have had enough.

These are programs that build players from the ground up. They don’t always have the flashiest facilities or the deepest pockets, but they’ve got grit, heart, and a culture of development. Yet now, with one standout season, these athletes are getting calls. Not from agents. From other coaches.

Let’s call it what it is, tampering.

While it might be happening behind the scenes, it’s becoming bolder by the day. Mid-major athletes are being lured with the promise of NIL deals, bigger stages, and exposure they “deserve.” But at what cost?

Ashley Waters of Boston University recently stated in a tweet:

Was the intention of the NIL to buy people off rosters? What has happened to our sport… the rich are getting richer, yet they preach “grow the game.” Allow people to thrive where they are… if they are unhappy or want more they’ll go in the portal on their own.

— Ashley Waters (@ashley3waters) June 9, 2025

It’s a harsh reality, and it’s reshaping recruiting. Development isn’t just about cultivating talent anymore, it’s reall about protecting it.

Let’s not forget the mental toll this takes on athletes. They’re 18–22 years old, getting offers that would make most adults question their loyalties. When money enters the equation, relationships change. Trust gets murky. And team dynamics? They suffer.

So where do we go from here?

There has to be accountability. Guidelines. Enforcement. While NIL isn’t going anywhere, the wild west of unregulated backdoor deals is tearing at the fabric of the sport.

Everyone should ask the college coaches they encounter this summer to tell them their worst story of tampering. https://t.co/mOyDI2ZGi1

— Laura Matthews (@LauraMatthews12) June 9, 2025

The transfer portal combined with NIL power plays is no longer just about player mobility, it’s about power imbalance. Until we address tampering with real consequences, mid-major programs will keep bleeding talent while pretending everything’s fine.

But it’s not fine.

This isn’t about being anti-NIL. It’s about being pro-integrity. Because without it, the very spirit of college softball, the development, the loyalty, the grind…starts to fade.

And that’s a loss no amount of money can fix.

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