NIL

College Teams’ Foreign Travel Stalls as Post-COVID Surge Fades

In years past, early May was when Austin Freese’s phone would light up with calls from university athletic departments. Lately, though, it’s been unusually quiet. Freese is the international tour coordinator for Sport Tours International, a Milwaukee-based travel company that organizes college basketball tournaments in the U.S. and oversees international trips for NCAA teams—excursions permitted […]

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4 weeks ago

May 13, 2025

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In years past, early May was when Austin Freese’s phone would light up with calls from university athletic departments. Lately, though, it’s been unusually quiet.

Freese is the international tour coordinator for Sport Tours International, a Milwaukee-based travel company that organizes college basketball tournaments in the U.S. and oversees international trips for NCAA teams—excursions permitted by the governing body once every four years.

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But as of last week, Sport Tours International had only three foreign tours booked for this coming summer, and Freese thinks he’ll be “lucky” to end up with five. That would mark a steep drop from prior years. Heading into the summer of 2020, for instance, the company had lined up 18 college trips before the COVID-19 pandemic brought them, and most everything else, to a halt.

In the years immediately following the pandemic, there was a surge in demand, fueling a wave of summer college team travel over three consecutive offseasons. But that momentum now appears to be tapering off.

Among other factors, a mix of shifting player priorities and growing financial constraints within athletic departments has contributed to the decline in foreign travel plans—particularly among Division I basketball teams. Industry insiders are now wondering whether this is more than a temporary pause.

Since college athlete NIL compensation was permitted in July 2021, athlete payments have become increasingly embedded in athletic department budgets, culminating in the revenue-sharing provisions outlined in the House v. NCAA settlement. If the settlement is approved, schools will be incentivized to reallocate funds previously earmarked for indirect benefits, like team trips, into direct payments to players.

This financial rebalancing has also altered the culture of team trips.

“The power dynamic has shifted when it comes to team travel—suddenly, the players have money,” Freese said. “It used to be that the itinerary was set, and everyone followed it. Now, much of it is optional. Players want to hit Gucci and luxury boutiques instead of touring historical sites.”

Freese declined to name specific programs that have leaned into this model, but he’s not alone in noticing the shift.

Nels Hawkinson, co-founder and executive director of Basketball Travelers Inc., said his company has coordinated a handful of what he calls “NIL trips” in recent years. These tours focus on luxury experiences rather than the educational or cultural elements that once defined international basketball travel—more Louis Vuitton, less Louvre. Hawkinson also declined to identify participating teams.

Hawkinson and his partner, Neal Holden—both former basketball coaches—launched Basketball Travelers in 1986. In addition to organizing team tours to all six livable continents, the company hosts an online schedule board and runs the men’s and women’s Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands and the World University Games.

“We have seen a lot of things,” said Hawkinson, who is now in his 40th year.

Still, the new financial pressures on athletic departments—from revenue-sharing to conference exit fees—have changed the game in profound ways. At one point, just before COVID, Hawkinson said Basketball Travelers was doing around 30 summer tours a year; last year, they did seven.

The shifting dynamics have similarly confronted the Battle 4 Atlantis, the only NCAA-sanctioned basketball multi-team event (MTE) held outside the United States. Since its founding in 2011, the men’s tournament has consistently drawn elite programs; last year’s field featured Arizona, Gonzaga, Indiana and Louisville. But the recently announced lineup for the 2025 event includes no traditional powerhouses and only one team—Saint Mary’s—that finished in the AP or Coaches Top 25 last season.

“Why spend $150,000 on a tour or a Caribbean MTE when you can give that money directly to the players?” said sports agent Daniel Poneman, who represents scores of college athletes. “Programs used to use these trips as recruiting tools, but now the most powerful tool is cash.”

The Battle 4 Atlantis now faces competition from in-season tournaments like the Las Vegas-based Players Era Festival, which distributed over $8 million in NIL monies to the participating teams of its inaugural event last year.

Further complicating matters is new uncertainty around international students. The Trump administration’s punitive approach toward student visa-holders has introduced new risks for programs planning to take foreign players through customs.

The latest Battle 4 Atlantis event agreements—which provide schools with $25,000 for team travel and $10,000 for meals—now include expanded force majeure language covering “any law, regulation or order either prohibiting travel to or from or entry of the team into the Commonwealth of The Bahamas issued by any government or regulatory agency of the United States or the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.”

What remains unclear is whether U.S. laws or executive orders that restrict international player travel would qualify as acts of God.

Under the terms, the Battle 4 Atlantis’ host, Island Company Hotel Limited, reserves the right to cancel for any reason with a total liability capped at $50,000. Schools, however, face steeper liquidated damages if they are found to have breached the agreement by withdrawing or otherwise failing to participate—$100,000 for South Florida and $500,000 for Western Kentucky, according to copies of their game contracts obtained by Sportico.

“We are certainly monitoring the landscape and will make that determination much closer to the November date,” a WKU athletics spokesperson told Sportico, when asked about international athlete travel. “It was not a factor, though, in deciding to accept the invitation to the Battle 4 Atlantis, as we did not know how our roster makeup would turn out when we did accept that invitation.”

The 2025 Battle 4 Atlantis will also feature Colorado State, Virginia Commonwealth, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech and Wichita State.

VCU athletic director Ed McLaughlin, in a statement, said it was his school’s understanding that “the visa issue would not trigger a force majeure event.”

“We have a long history of participation in Atlantis and various MTEs,” McLaughlin said. “We signed this contract more than a year ago and agreed to participate years before that.”

The other participating schools, as well as representatives from the Battle 4 Atlantis, did not respond to email inquiries. A spokesperson for KemperSports, which is handling event operations for the event, declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Players Era has its sights set on global expansion.

Co-founder Seth Berger told Sportico that his group is looking to host an MTE in Abu Dhabi during the 2026–27 season. Previous attempts to bring NCAA basketball games to the Middle East have failed to gain traction, but Players Era has a foothold in the region through its partnership with EverWonder Studio, the media company backed by RedBird IMI—the joint venture between Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital and UAE-based International Media Investments.

John Anthony, founder and CEO of Anthony Travel, remains confident in the long-term future of international travel for college athletic programs.

According to Anthony, his company—which partners with over 90 athletic departments—saw a surge in overseas team trips last summer, though that momentum has slowed this year. He attributes the dip not to and long-term waning interest, but to the NCAA’s once-in-four rule, which has been on the books since the 1970s. As more programs become eligible again, Anthony expects international travel to rebound.

In fact, he believes recent shifts in college athletics are increasing demand for overseas trips, especially as schools look for opportunities to develop chemistry for teams increasingly composed of new transfers. The junkets can also help to cultivate donors.

Last year, Anthony Travel organized trips for Michigan State men’s basketball to Spain and Maryland women’s basketball to Croatia. Anthony said both coaching staffs praised the tours, highlighting their value on and off the court.

Recently, Anthony visited North Carolina to announce that UNC will face TCU in the 2026 Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin, Ireland. While on campus, he conducted an informal poll, asking Tar Heels football players how many had ever been to Europe—few hands went up. But when he asked how many currently had passports, more than half the team responded affirmatively.

“That number has gone up because of NIL money,” Anthony said, adding that most players likely got their passports to vacation in places like Mexico.

Shortly after his hiring in March, new Indiana Hoosiers men’s basketball head coach Darian DeVries told the Indianapolis Star he was eagerly anticipating an overseas trip ahead of his debut season. In each of the past two summers, DeVries had taken his former West Virginia and Drake teams to Italy and Spain, positive experiences he hoped to replicate at IU. (When asked last week, an Indiana athletic department spokesperson said no trips had yet been booked.)

Still, Freese and others believe the prevailing jet streams have shifted directions, and that the smartest move for companies like his is to recalibrate accordingly. While Sport Tours International has lined up two Division I men’s basketball teams for this summer—IU Indy and Northern Colorado—Freese sees a more sustainable future in serving non-revenue sports and lower-division schools.

“The women are always more curious, (and) the D-III schools are more normal, more interested—they travel better,” Freese said. “The players expect to carry their own luggage.”

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Can women’s basketball teams catch up to UConn or South Carolina in a changing era?

For decades, women’s basketball was dominated almost exclusively by UConn and Tennessee, and then, for many years, only UConn’s dynasty thrived. In recent years, other contenders have emerged periodically, but none have challenged the crown quite as well as South Carolina. Advertisement Until this past season, the Gamecocks and Dawn Staley had arguably taken the […]

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14 minutes ago

June 10, 2025

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For decades, women’s basketball was dominated almost exclusively by UConn and Tennessee, and then, for many years, only UConn’s dynasty thrived.

In recent years, other contenders have emerged periodically, but none have challenged the crown quite as well as South Carolina.

Until this past season, the Gamecocks and Dawn Staley had arguably taken the mantle from the Huskies and Geno Auriemma. Then, UConn returned to the top of the ladder and cut down the nets for the 12th time in program history, keeping this rivalry and battle for the top of the sport in flux.

Slice it anyway, though, and it’s obvious: No. 1 might be up for grabs, but it’s these two heavyweights that everyone is chasing. NIL, the transfer portal and the recent House v. NCAA settlement, which established revenue sharing in college sports, have upended the landscape. However, due to their rich traditions and coaching acumen, UConn and South Carolina have remained mostly unscathed by the upheaval — and even benefited from it.

The Gamecocks and Huskies signed two of the most highly pursued portal players, as Ta’Niya Latson, the nation’s leading scorer, left Florida State for South Carolina, and Serah Williams, arguably the best big in the portal, left Wisconsin to choose UConn.

This leaves every other coach in the nation strategizing and wondering what it will take to truly and consistently usurp perennial powerhouses UConn and South Carolina on the recruiting trail, the hardwood, or in March. Like much of the rest of big-money NCAA sports, women’s basketball coaches are no longer prioritizing only building four-year players but winning with transfers who can be lured with lucrative NIL promises.

As complicated as the modern era of college athletics has become — a record 1,450 Division I players entered the transfer portal after last season — coaches understand they must work within the confines of this new system, which involves the portal acting as a faster on-ramp for roster building. NIL and revenue share are becoming additional incentives for players to consider other programs if they want to succeed.

Fourteen power conference coaches interviewed by said they’ve completely altered how they build rosters, recruit and develop talent.

“Coaches are questioning, obviously: Is it even worth it to be in this business? What are we doing? What are we doing if we can’t build a program and you’re starting from scratch every year to build a team without any rules around it?” one power conference coach said. “What are we doing? And why are we doing it?”

“I have to change. I have to pivot and plan for 50 percent attrition,” another power conference coach added. “Time will tell if you can build a program (in this era). If I can’t build a program, I’m not going to be doing it very long.”

Playing time, star roles and scholarships are no longer enough for coaches to retain players. Notable star players like Latson, Olivia Miles (Notre Dame to TCU) and Cotie McMahon (Ohio State to Ole Miss) switched programs.

They were among roughly 300 power conference players who transferred this offseason — an average of about four players per power conference team. More than 20 percent of the transfer pool had already changed schools at least once. Among the 40 returning starters off Sweet 16 rosters, 10 transferred.

Many coaches said this season’s top portal players signed deals of upward of $700,000, and some unheralded underclassmen, due to their longer eligibility, were seeking deals of $ 300,000 or more. By comparison, the WNBA supermax this season is less than $250,000, with only four players receiving it.

Meanwhile, less than a quarter of the league makes $200,000 or more. Yet, at the college level with limited post players in the portal, many coaches said programs needed to offer a premium of that kind to sign even a marginal big.

“If you were a post player in the portal a month ago and you averaged three points a game at the Power 4, most of them were asking for $200,000 plus,” one power conference coach said. “And you’re like, ‘You averaged 2.5 points per game.’ ”

Even highly successful programs are learning they might need to reset expectations after every season, given the uncertainty of attrition and what those defections mean for their own needs from the portal.

Look no further than UCLA. The Bruins appeared in their first Final Four of the modern era and, in a previous era of the sport, would have been considered a prime contender in the 2025-26 season due to the experience returning players gained. Yet, after the Bruins’ successful run, the entire freshman class, as well as Londynn Jones, a 31-game starter, and Janiah Barker, the Big Ten’s Sixth Player of the Year, decided to transfer.

It means UCLA coach Cori Close will be starting essentially from scratch after this core’s graduation, rather than steadily building a program, with backups becoming role players and then starters, that is capable of taking down UConn or South Carolina in the Final Four.

Notre Dame was ranked No. 1 during the season, and despite a late collapse, seemed poised for a strong upcoming season. But after the Irish lost Miles to TCU, freshman key contributor Kate Koval to LSU and two other players, they dropped out of ’s post-transfer top 25. USC seemingly has prime minutes up for grabs after losing star JuJu Watkins to an ACL tear. Still, Kayleigh Heckle and Avery Howell, two freshmen who figured to be centerpieces next season, entered the transfer portal.

“You had to think about sitting out a year, you had to think about the perception,” one power conference coach said about previous transfer implications. “Now it’s just normalized. If you lost two or three kids in a year, it used to be like, ‘Oh my gosh, what’s wrong at that school?’ And that’s just not the notion anymore.”

Some coaches likened the roster turnover to coaching at the junior college level.

“If I can keep the kid for two years,” one said, “I feel like I’ve won the lottery.”

Although most coaches are frustrated with the lack of oversight and guardrails in place from the NCAA over the past few seasons, they understand that it’s also a shifting reality for them. In this era of limited regulation and hazy guidance, coaches and universities that are quick to adapt have had the upper hand, whether that means getting their collectives more involved (generally seen as acceptable among all coaches) or tampering with athletes (seen as illegal, but not currently regulated as such).

Now, with the settlement finalized over the weekend, actual regulation is taking effect.

As of last Saturday, college athletes were required to report NIL deals worth more than $600 to the newly established College Sports Commission for approval. On July 1, universities can begin making revenue share payments to athletes. The impact of these regulations on athletes’ deals is currently unknown. Still, the NCAA has been clear that the NIL-specific regulation is intended to protect athletes from false deals, not to hinder their earning power.

However, because the settlement had been pushed back — a decision was expected two months ago — universities and collectives were able to front-load deals, which created an arms race across conferences, which drove up the total “cost” of rosters.

asked 12 coaches what they expect it would cost, between revenue share and NIL, to build a roster that could contend for their respective conference title. Multiple Big Ten and SEC coaches estimated the cost between $2.5 million and $3.5 million. Multiple ACC and Big 12 coaches said that building a championship roster costs between $1.5 million and $2.5 million. Most of those numbers exceed even the WNBA’s team salary cap of just under $1.51 million.

However, this number is a moving target. With impending legislation, coaches are uncertain about how it may change in the coming seasons, particularly with the establishment of revenue sharing and the creation of the College Sports Commission.

Coaches said that while the leverage has shifted almost entirely to players, there are no safeguards in place for the programs or the collectives that act on their behalf. This movement leaves many coaches working on a year-to-year basis, unsure of what their rosters will look like or how much money they will have to fill potential holes.

“In true professional sports, I know I have this player under contract for four years and I can prepare for that player to go into free agency, or I know I have $200,000 coming off the books ahead of next year. Here, it’s free agency every single year, and the tampering is out of control,” one coach said. “So, please tell me how I do this. Tell me how to manage a roster when we don’t know the rules.”

Regulation around NIL, collectives and revenue share could provide some stability, but even so, coaches expect both tampering and transfer numbers to remain high every season.

From the 2020 high school recruiting class, 17 of the top 25 (and seven of the top 10) players transferred before the end of their college careers, including Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso and Hailey Van Lith. In the 2021 class, 13 of the top 25 players transferred, and 18 of the top 25 players in the 2022 class, now rising seniors, transferred.

This attrition has had a ripple effect on how college coaches prioritize high school recruiting. Many staff chose not to send multiple (or any) coaches on the road this offseason for the first high school recruiting evaluation period, valuing hosting immediate impact players over seeing talent who wouldn’t be on campus for a few years.

That signals a significant shift in the overall recruiting philosophy. Five years ago, the lifeblood of almost every program was high school recruiting. Now, the portal offers another option. Multiple coaches said that their focus on high school recruits has decreased from 95-100 percent of their recruiting efforts to somewhere between 50-70 percent. Nearly 80 power conference freshmen transferred this offseason, so coaches also realize that bringing in a freshman doesn’t necessarily mean stability.

As coaches prepare for summer workouts before the 2025-26 season and make plans to attend high school recruiting events, they recognize that their priorities might look different a year from now. Regulations from the House settlement could remove some of the challenges of the past few seasons. Still, coaches will have to navigate a landscape that once seemed unimaginable in college sports.

However, one challenge remains the same: UConn and South Carolina are the hunted.

“The job is just different now,” one coach said. “You just have to make up your mind if you want to deal with the other stuff.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

South Carolina Gamecocks, Connecticut Huskies, Sports Business, Women’s College Basketball

2025 The Athletic Media Company

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Documentary series on USC Player of the Year returns to follow injury recovery

USC National Player of the Year JuJu Watkins has been a superstar since her high school days at Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth, CA), signing breakthrough NIL partnerships that put her in the spotlight before she even arrived on the college basketball stage. Now, as a rising junior and the face of the sport with a prolific […]

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30 minutes ago

June 10, 2025

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Now, as a rising junior and the face of the sport with a prolific on and off-court resume, her story continues with a greenlit second season of NBC’s “On the Rise: JuJu Watkins” docuseries, that premiered last year.

Sponsored by State Farm and executive produced by Watkins, LeBron James, Maverick Carter and Rich Paul, among others, “On the Rise: JuJu Watkins” aired on NBC and Peacock in November and can be streamed now on Peacock. The first season included Watkins’ family and celebrity fans such as 2 Chainz, Candace Parker, The Game and Tina Thompson, among others.

The latest edition will likely follow Watkins as she recovers from a knee injury after another record-breaking season for the Women of Troy, where she led them to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament while earning every All-American and Player of the Year honor.

While she continued her immense success on the hardwood – averaging 23.9 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game – Watkins also diversified her NIL brand portfolio, that includes the likes of Nike, State Farm, Gatorade, Fanatics, Pottery Barn and Funko, among many others.

“JuJu can set the standard for excellence on and off the court, and it’s amazing to see her begin to maximize the opportunities in front of her with strategy and expertise, even at this young age,” Paul, the Founder and CEO of KLUTCH Sports Group – who represents Watkins – said last year. “This documentary series captures her incredible journey to this point, showcasing her extraordinary talent, unwavering work ethic, and the vital role of community in her success.”

With nearly 1.5 million followers across her Instagram and TikTok accounts, Watkins currently boasts a 94 “O2W Score” from Out2Win, the leading AI-powered athlete marketing intelligence platform – among the highest in all of college basketball.

Likely sidelined for the 2025-25 season, Watkins will remain the face of college athletics – showcasing both on and off-court success – even if she isn’t active for USC.

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New NIL Rules Will Allow The Ohio State Buckeyes To Build A College Football Dynasty

Year in and year out, the Ohio State Buckeyes feature one of the nation’s premier college football teams. Despite consistent turnover on the roster, the Buckeyes are one of the few teams that has been able to find consistent success. Since Ryan Day fully took over as head coach in 2019, the Buckeyes have peaked […]

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52 minutes ago

June 10, 2025

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Since Ryan Day fully took over as head coach in 2019, the Buckeyes have peaked inside the top five of the College Football Playoffs each season. They’ve made their way to the CFP four times under Day and finally broke through to win a national championship last season in the inaugural 12-team CFP format.

The national championship victory was the Buckeyes’ first in a decade and likely saved Day from losing his job. The team and the fanbase celebrated the championship for weeks after their victory over Notre Dame, but all attention has now been turned to running it back and securing another ring in 2025.

With new developments in the NCAA and the world of college football, it appears that not only will Ohio State have the opportunity to contend in 2025, but they could have the potential to build the next great dynasty in college football.

The Ohio State Buckeyes Are Building College Football’s Next Dynasty

Over the last handful of years, NIL has changed the landscape of collegiate sports forever. Some would argue, myself included, that it’s gone too far, but the reality of the situation is that collegiate athletes are now going to be paid for their services.

Ahead of the 2025 school year, there are new developments when it comes to how collegiate players are being compensated. TWSN’s Andrew Little broke down the key impacts of the House v. NCAA settlement and how it will affect college sports.

“Moving forward, schools can choose to opt into revenue sharing and allocate a portion of their athletic department funds to pay players directly. The cap will start at $20.5 million in 2025-26 and increase by at least 4% annually for the next decade,” wrote Little.

The Buckeyes will be using $18 million of the $20.5 million cap for direct player payment. The ability to pay players to this degree immediately gives Ohio State a leg up over schools that don’t generate enough revenue to be able to pay players millions and millions of dollars.

Outside of the developments that allow schools to directly pay players, we’re seeing changes to how NIL funding is collected from external donors.

For the last few years, a group called THE Foundation was the primary NIL collective at Ohio State. In 2025 and beyond, the primary NIL group will be Buckeye Sports Group, an in-house entity that is run in part by the athletic department.

This might not sound like much, but the transition to an in-house entity now means that OSU’s NIL group will now have access to the school’s alumni database, something THE Foundation could not utilize. The ability to directly contact members of one of the nation’s largest alumni networks will be game-changing for Ohio State’s ability to raise NIL money.

In 2025, money drives almost everything in college football. An elite coaching staff and strong structure within your program is what pushes you over the edge, but money is what gets you a seat at the table.

Ohio State is already an established school with an unbelievable ability to recruit the top talents in the nation. With even more money now flowing through the football program, the rest of the nation better watch out because there’s a dynasty in the making in Columbus, Ohio.

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ESPN’s Jay Bilas predicts NIL settlement will end transfers: ‘Players aren’t going to go anywhere’

Most people attached to the NCAA are celebrating a judge’s approval of a $2.8 billion antitrust lawsuit settlement they hope will eliminate much of the uncertainty that has plagued the name, image and likeness issue. ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas — one of the loudest critics of the NCAA and the highest-profile celebrity who […]

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53 minutes ago

June 10, 2025

Your Sports Nation

ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas — one of the loudest critics of the NCAA and the highest-profile celebrity who long has demanded money for college athletes — says the new deal will allow players to get their money and schools to lock them down.

To start, colleges will be able to spend up to $20.5 million on players, with the amount likely rising each year as revenues increase. It’s a cap: The schools aren’t forced to spend that amount, and players still can earn “fair-market” additional money from endorsements and other endeavors.

But with the new arrangements will come contracts — with buyout clauses that probably will lock them down, said Bilas, a former Duke basketball player.

“The biggest I think thing for me in this is now schools can sign players to contracts,” he said. “So when you sign a player to a multi-year contract with this $20.5 million amount annually, that going to keep going up because revenues keep going up in those arm lengths negotiations. You can also put buyouts in those contracts. And when you put a buyout in, these players aren’t going to go anywhere.”

Bilas said other revenue streams for players will be policed.

“Any contract for your name, image and likeness in the marketplace is going to be subject to review by [accounting and auditing firm] Deloitte for fair-market value,” he said.

“If there’s a local car dealership in Ann Arbor that wants to pay the third-string quarterback $4 million a year to do commercials for a dealership that grosses only a million dollars per year, Deloitte’s likely to say that’s not a fair-market value deal.”

Bilas addressed the concerns that allotting big money to revenue sports like football and basketball will squeeze out athletes who compete in Olympic sports, which normally lose money.

“I’ve heard administrators over the years say, ‘Boy, if we start paying athletes, it’s going to really hurt the United States Olympic movement. Because college sports is the breeding ground for our Olympic athletes and Olympic movement.’

“And I’m going, ‘Oh, so now the college athletes must pay for our Olympic movement, too? They have to remain unpaid so we can win medals?’

“If we really care about our Olympic movement, the government should deal with that, not college athletes,” Bilas added. “I don’t see coaches anywhere taking a discount so we can win more medals, or facilities not being built so we can win more medals. We’ve got to get out of this idea that the players have to take a discount so we can do all these other things. Those days are over.”

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Softball Adds Wilson to Staff as Assistant Coach

AMHERST, Mass. — Massachusetts softball head coach Danielle Henderson has announced the addition of Roger Wilson to the coaching staff as an assistant coach on Tuesday afternoon. Roger Wilson is coming off his second season with the Boston College softball coaching staff, overseeing hitting, player development, and recruiting. During Wilson’s first season with the program (2024) […]

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55 minutes ago

June 10, 2025

Your Sports Nation

AMHERST, Mass. — Massachusetts softball head coach Danielle Henderson has announced the addition of Roger Wilson to the coaching staff as an assistant coach on Tuesday afternoon.

Roger Wilson is coming off his second season with the Boston College softball coaching staff, overseeing hitting, player development, and recruiting. During Wilson’s first season with the program (2024) coaching defense, the team recorded the fewest number of errors since 2014 (not counting the shortened 2020 season).

Before joining the Eagles, Wilson spent the past six years working at all levels of the game, developing players’ individual skills. Wilson also coached within the Concord Raiders and New Jersey Pride organizations, assisting in the college prep program with player development and on-field management.

Serving as a player development analyst with the Baltimore Orioles (2017-19) and Philadelphia Phillies (2019-22), Wilson performed advanced statistical analysis for player evaluation, built integrated performance tracking systems, and delivered player development plans and reports.

As an athlete, Wilson played baseball at the California University of Pennsylvania where he captained the team and earned a bachelor’s degree in pre-law.

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WVU Aide Pushing His Players On the Field and Pushing Himself Off It

Story Links MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – How many marathon runners are currently working on major college football staffs? That unlikely question is more apt to pop up on The Onion than it is Phil Steele’s 2025 College Football Preview, which about to hit newsstands any day now, according to my X feed. Well, […]

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56 minutes ago

June 10, 2025

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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – How many marathon runners are currently working on major college football staffs?

That unlikely question is more apt to pop up on The Onion than it is Phil Steele’s 2025 College Football Preview, which about to hit newsstands any day now, according to my X feed.

Well, there’s at least one marathoner for sure, and he’s working for coach Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia University.

Ryan Nehlen and family Assistant wide receivers coach Ryan Nehlen recently competed in the Buffalo Marathon, and get this, he ran a time fast enough to qualify for next year’s Boston Marathon.

The 130th Boston Marathon will take place on Monday, April 20, 2026, and Nehlen believes he might be able to fit that into his busy football schedule.

The qualifying window for the 2026 race opened on Sept. 1, 2024, and it closes this fall in mid-September. According to the Boston Marathon website, runners can submit their qualifying times for race approval prior to the formal registration period.

Nehlen needed to cover the 26.2-mile distance in less than three hours to earn a qualifying time for the Boston Marathon. He said his time this year was a 20-minute improvement over his previous best clocking.

“The Boston Marathon basically has 30,000 slots, and it depends on the year,” Nehlen said last week. “Some years, not all those people will qualify and other years there might be a little bit more than 30,000 who qualify, and they have to make the time a little tougher, but I should be okay because I got the time by about four minutes.”

Since his days playing for coaches Bill Stewart and Dana Holgorsen at West Virginia University, the former receiver has always kept himself in great shape at the various places he’s worked during his climb up the coaching ladder.

Those stops included stints at Marshall, Glenville State, Akron, Michigan, West Virginia, McNeese State and now back to West Virginia when he rejoined Neal Brown’s staff in 2024 as a senior offensive assistant/pass game specialist.

When Rodriguez took over for Brown last December, he kept Nehlen on board and reassigned him to wide receivers, where he works with Ryan Garrett and Logan Bradley.

Back in 2020, during his first stint on Brown’s staff as an analyst, Nehlen said he really began taking running seriously when COVID shut down the country.

“Everything was shut down, and I kind of just got into running, went online and registered for (a marathon) and ran it,” he shrugged. “When you research it, sub-three hours is really a standard that a lot of (recreational) marathoners try to achieve.”

Nehlen said running was born out of a desire to maintain a healthy lifestyle and to remain competitive in some manner or form.

“I’ve always wanted to stay in shape ever since I played here,” he explained. “Between (WVU strength and conditioning coach) Mike Joseph, Darl Bauer, Kevin McCadam and Bryan Fitzpatrick, all of them are doing great now. Darl is head strength coach at Troy; Bryan is the head guy at Navy and Kevin is at Houston. Those guys instilled a work ethic in me, and I kept it going.

“I’m done with football, but I still miss the actual physical part of it and running is obviously a physical component,” Nehlen continued. “I can compete with myself or other people, and I can get better as I age. As you get older, you really can get better at it.”

As a college football player, Nehlen endured the wear and tear of a four-year playing career but not necessarily the wear and tear of a lifelong runner, so his knees and joints have remained relatively unscathed.

He’s also got outstanding upper body and core strength because of his years preparing for grueling college football seasons, which can be helpful in running. It’s just not very common to see 200-pounders out there running marathons.

“I’m a bigger runner, but me having a good strength foundation with lifting all those years has made my legs, knees and tendons strong,” he noted. “For the most part, I’ve been able to stay away from the nicks that can happen to longtime runners.”

Nehlen, the son of WVU equipment manager Danny and Janie Nehlen and the grandson of Hall of Fame Mountaineer coach Don Nehlen, said distance running can be therapeutic. He doesn’t wear headphones when he’s out running the streets early in the morning before activity begins in the Milan Puskar Center.

His preferred course takes him from the Puskar Center parking lot up and around the WVU Law School and over to the Engineering Building on the Evansdale campus. He continues to the WVU Coliseum complex where he makes the loop and continues through Suncrest back to the Puskar Center.

He estimates the length of the course he runs is about six miles, which he does daily.

“I just get out there in the mornings and try and avoid all the potholes as much as I can,” he laughed.

Nehlen admits it will become a challenge remaining in peak shape during football season. In the meantime, he said this summer he is focusing on speed training. His University High friend Matt Schiffbauer was an NCAA qualifier at Marshall and has been giving Nehlen some helpful pointers on distance running.

“He was really close to qualifying for the Olympics, and he actually lives in the Boston area now,” Nehlen said.

Nehlen indicated his plan is to continue running marathons and see how much he can improve.

“I’m going to push my limits,” he said. “I definitely think there is room for improvement. I am still new to it and I’m still getting better. The nice thing about it is I can get better as I get older.”

Of course, coaching football pays the bills, and that remains his No. 1 priority.

“I’m a football coach, and that is my main focus, along with my family (which includes wife Micah and their daughters Penelope and Stella),” he said. “(Marathoning) is kind of my next love.”

Nehlen believes the coaching profession sometimes gets a bad rap for not always promoting healthy lifestyles.

“I’m an example of being a football coach and still choosing to live a healthy lifestyle and being in shape,” he pointed out. “In my opinion, the better shape I’m in the more energy I’m going to have to coach my players. If you lead by example, they are going to look at that and say, ‘Man, my coach is working his butt off, and I’m going to work my butt off as well.'”

Once Nehlen knows for sure that he’s qualified for the Boston Marathon, he will then begin the planning process and his training schedule to correspond with his coaching responsibilities. Fortunately, Nehlen said the spring practice calendar Rodriguez established last year should fit in nicely with the Boston Marathon.

“If we work off the same schedule as last year, we’ll be done with spring ball in early April, so it should work out for me to get up there,” he said.

When Nehlen prepared to run the Buffalo Marathon, he said he averaged about 55 miles per week.

It’s not a race you can run in its entirety while preparing for it.

“I just try and shut it off as much as I can, miles one through 13 or 14, and then between miles 14 and 20, you’ve got to lock in a little bit because that’s when it’s going to start getting tough,” Nehlen said. “Those last miles are all about finishing and having some grit and a hard-edge about yourself.”

A “hard-edge” about yourself?

That sounds awful familiar, doesn’t it?

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