South Dakota State pitcher Jake Goble and outfielder Bryce Ronken were honored Tuesday as members of the 2025 College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Baseball Team. The nation’s top student-athletes for their combined performances on the diamond and in the classroom are recognized across four divisions: NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA.

A senior from Rapid City, Goble maintained a 3.59 GPA as a business economics major to earn a repeat selection to the CSC Academic All-District Team. He was an honorable mention selection to the all-Summit League Team for the second time in his career during the 2025 campaign and led the Jackrabbit pitching staff with 53 2/3 innings pitched and 51 strikeouts in 14 appearances.

Ronken, a sophomore from Sioux Falls, has compiled a 3.64 GPA while majoring in business economics and finished as the team leader with 13 doubles in 2025. He also contributed a .314 batting average and 36 runs batted in to go along with a team-best .448 on-base percentage.

To be nominated for CSC academic honors, student-athletes must be at least a sophomore in athletic and academic standing, maintain at least a 3.5 cumulative grade-point average and be a starter or key reserve.

-GoJacks.com-

After a riveting round of regional action, there was more than a bit of controversy. And at least one prominent voice in the sport, Chipper Jones, is speaking up.

Jones called out some aberrant behavior that he believes is bad for the sport, pledging only to view teams that play the right way going forward. He won’t be a party to some of the nonsense he saw from various teams over the weekend.

“Spent quite a bit of time watching college baseball this weekend,” Jones wrote on Twitter. “I will only watch a select few teams from here on out. Reason? They have coaches that respect the game and their opponents and demand the same of their players.”

Chipper Jones would delve further into his reasoning, but he’s clearly advocating for a cleaner version of the sport. One in which things are done the correct way.

He outlined what he meant a bit more thoroughly. He explained.

“Any team that doesn’t wear the uni correctly, taunts the other team, and has a coach that condones this behavior, is a disgrace to the game,” Chipper Jones said.

He did, however, have one team that certainly fit his criteria for doing things the right way. That was one of the 16 regional host teams.

“Big fan of coach (Kevin) Schnall at Coastal Carolina!” Chipper Jones wrote. “Him and his team represent what college baseball should be like. Well done, sir! U stand for proper behavior.”

That, in and of itself, is interesting, because Schall was adjacent to arguably the biggest controversy of the week. That came when Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan was caught on camera multiple times berating NCAA Tournament staffers and Coastal Carolina officials over a game time being moved.

Schnall went off on O’Sullivan, though he didn’t call him out by name. He did note that the behavior was “absolutely unacceptable,” likely the exact kind of thing Chipper Jones was referring to.

“I believe in standing up for what’s right, and what transpired this morning on our field, another coach disrespected our associate AD, who works as hard as anybody in our entire program,” Schnall said. “He disrespected our field crew, who are the salt of the earth. These guys would do anything for our program. It’s not OK. And this needs to be brought up.

“Absolutely disrespectful. As a coach it’s our job to mentor young kids,” Schnall said. “And the way he treated the two site reps, the way he treated our associate AD, the way he treated our field crew is absolutely unacceptable. And I’m really, that’s what I’m most disappointed about.

“This is a national champion coach who thinks he can come in here and try to bully people around. Disappointed. Disappointed somebody that a lot of coaches look up to, for him to act that way, really disappointed. He disrespected a Hall of Fame coach who’s the site rep here. That’s all I’ve got to say.”

Coastal Carolina will certainly have a viewer in Chipper Jones. And if his message gets through, hopefully the sport will see fewer antics in the Super Regional round.

Nebraska set to pay student-athletes over $20 million next year in NIL contracts, Troy Dannen says

Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen says UNL is set to pay student-athletes over $20 million next year.

Updated: 4:29 PM CDT Jun 3, 2025

Nebraska Athletic Director Troy Dannen says they are walking into a completely different world over the next few years. However, he feels like Nebraska has done enough leading up to now to compete in the world of name, image and likeness licensing. The roars in Memorial Stadium have been heard for years, but behind the scenes what happens off the field will see a major shift this upcoming year.”The greatest change of all is we’re going to be paying our athletes $20.5 million this year,” Dannen said.Dannen says that to support the payroll, the university has had to change its business model.READ MORE: Nebraska athletic director says Memorial Stadium will no longer offer stadium re-entry because of alcohol sales”Our coaches will tell you the most important dollar that gets spent is to recruit and retain good quality student-athletes,” Dannen said.Despite the settlement not even being passed yet, Dannen says the third-party collective NIL works is changing, as well as roster limits. No matter what happens in the settlement, Dannen says there are contingency plans in place for whatever the outcome.”Nebraska is very fortunate in that I think because of the wisdom of all of my predecessors in athletics, we’re in an extraordinarily strong financial position and we didn’t have to do anything draconian to get to the point where we’re able to support the athletes to the fullest,” Dannen said.Athletes will not be employees of the university, according to Dannen. These will be NIL rights contracts, meaning the university is providing a fee to utilize athletes’ rights to their name, image and likeness.”It talks about if you violate academic standards, if you become ineligible because of your conduct, things like that, these contracts become void,” Dannen said.Most of the deals will be one-year contracts, so if an athlete chooses to leave, there should be no issues. Dannen added that there will be a few exceptions for multiyear contracts, but the hope is the deals will make it attractive enough for athletes to want to stay at UNL.”We’ve seen a lot of movement related to rev share and NIL,” Dannen said. “If the settlement works as intended, you will see a lot less player movement because of that, because there is a finite amount of money among all the institutions.”That $2.8 billion NIL settlement is still caught up in the courts. The original deadline was set for June 6, but a federal judge granted an extension, and the new date is June 27. That deadline also pushes the timeline for a potential resolution even closer to the expected start of revenue-sharing payments to athletes on July 1.NAVIGATE: Home | Weather | Local News | National | Sports | Newscasts on demand |

Anthony Davis has mixed feelings about NIL deals.

What Is NIL?

In June 2021, NCAA college athletes were given the opportunity to benefit financially from their name, image, and likeness (NIL) for the first time. This change came after governance bodies across all three NCAA divisions suspended NIL restrictions for current and incoming student-athletes in all sports, according to the NCAA.

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However, it was clarified that despite the changes to the NIL landscape, “pay-for-play” arrangements and improper inducements would still not be permitted.

“This is an important day for college athletes since they all are now able to take advantage of name, image and likeness opportunities,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said at the time, per the NCAA. “With the variety of state laws adopted across the country, we will continue to work with Congress to develop a solution that will provide clarity on a national level. The current environment — both legal and legislative — prevents us from providing a more permanent solution and the level of detail student-athletes deserve.”

Anthony Davis’ Concerns Around NIL Deals Explained

The NCAA’s point about clarity was also recently flagged by Davis, a current Dallas Mavericks forward who believes NIL deals have impacted the sport in ways that are not all positive.

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“It’s tough, because obviously they didn’t have that when I was in college,” Davis told Sports Illustrated. “It kinda takes away from the game a little bit because of—and I’m not hating—it takes away from the integrity in the sense of players are only going to certain schools because of the money.”

Recently PJ Haggerty transferred to Kansas State University after playing for the University of Memphis and withdrawing from the 2025 NBA Draft. He will now be receiving an NIL deal valued at $2.5 million, securing a $2 million base salary and $500,000 in performance incentives, notes Athlon Sports. Haggerty was reportedly seeking at least $4 million in NIL deals for the 2025–26 season after entering the transfer portal in April and was looking to play point guard rather than shooting guard, per Commercial Appeal.

This move led University of Memphis Head Coach Penny Hardaway to rebuild the team’s roster signing 12 new players. This reinforces additional concerns Davis had about NIL deals and their influence over the transfer portal, whether intentional or not.

“College basketball is still competitive, but the recruitment of it has kinda gotten a little wacky, especially when player can leave and enter the (transfer) portal and go anywhere. It just gets a little tricky,” Davis said, according to Sports Illustrated. “The coaches either a) have to be more strategic with their recruiting, or b) if you don’t have a lot of money for NIL, that kind of takes away your school, your program, as far as being a top recruiter for some of these players.”

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He added, “Because one guy can leave the next year, transfer—it gets tough, when you start talking about culture. That kind of goes out the window, in my opinion.”

The post NIL Deals Led To A Lot Of Business Opportunities For College Players, But Anthony Davis Says ‘It Takes Away From The Integrity’ appeared first on AfroTech.

The post NIL Deals Led To A Lot Of Business Opportunities For College Players, But Anthony Davis Says ‘It Takes Away From The Integrity’ appeared first on AfroTech.