LSU Baseball Player’s NIL Deal With Crocs Turns Heads originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

Some athletes wear lucky socks. Jake Brown? He wears Crocs. And now, the LSU Tigers star has turned his off-field fashion statement into a full-fledged NIL win by partnering with Crocs in a move that has fans buzzing and teammates styling.

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The deal didn’t start with an agent or a contract, it started with Brown’s love for quirky, customized Crocs, from Star Wars-themed Jibbitz to Pizza Planet prints. After Brown mentioned his passion for the iconic slip-ons in an interview during the Tigers’ 2025 College World Series run, Crocs came calling.

“They reached out and they said, ‘Hey, we’re looking forward to sending you a little bit of stuff. Just send us your address,’” Brown told Hurrdat Sports.

“They messaged back right away saying, ‘We actually want to hook up all the guys… we can overnight ship them to the hotel.’ I was like, ‘Absolutely. Yes. Please do that.’”

What followed was pure NIL magic. LSU’s team strolled into Game 1 of the CWS final against Coastal Carolina decked out in fresh Crocs, with Brown at the center of it all. His message to the team group chat, “Everyone send me your Croc size.”

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The Tigers went on to win 1-0, led by a dominant shutout from pitcher Kade Anderson, who struck out 10 across nine innings. Confidence? Style? Luck? Whatever it was, it worked.

“I didn’t think they thought it was going to happen,” Anderson said. “In about five minutes, the group chat just, boom, boom, boom. It was blowing up.”

A few days later, LSU clinched its second national title in three years with a 5-3 win in the Men’s College World Series finals. Brown may not have thrown the final pitch, but his NIL savvy helped unify a locker room and earned him one of the most unique deals in college baseball.

The Crocs origin story? Even better.

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Brown used some of his NIL cash to grab themed pairs and design ideas for a custom LSU-inspired version.

“I have Pizza Planet-Toy Story Crocs that I bought with per diem money thanks to Champ Artigues, our baseball ops guy… I love my Crocs,” he said.

He even pitched Crocs a Louisiana-style collab: gator and pelican Jibbitz, purple and gold themes, and of course, a Tiger or two.

In a crowded NIL landscape where logos and car deals often dominate the headlines, Jake Brown’s Crocs moment feels fresh, authentic, and fun. It’s a reminder that NIL isn’t just about the money. Sometimes, it’s about the magic of being seen, being yourself, and sharing it with your team.

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So, what’s next?

If Crocs and Brown roll out that LSU-themed pair, fans, and maybe future recruits will be lining up to walk in his shoes.

Related: Oregon QB Turns NIL Into Detroit Dreams

Related: NIL Struggles Far From Over After NCAA’s House Settlement

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 23, 2025, where it first appeared.

The Gamecocks are officially in the Hall. Two of the most iconic figures in South Carolina baseball history, Kip Bouknight and Ray Tanner, have officially been selected for induction into the College Baseball Hall of Fame. The honor is a testament to their impact not just on the diamond, but on the culture of South Carolina baseball. The pair are part of the 2025 induction class announced Monday by the College Baseball Foundation, marking the first time that the Gamecocks have ever been enshrined in the Hall.

They are part of a group of 21 inductees who will be honored at the 2026 Night of Champions presented by Prariefire in Overland Park, Kansas, on February 12, 2026, the ceremonial kickoff to the 2026 college baseball season.

Kip Bouknight: South Carolina’s All-Time Ace

Bouknight is the most decorated pitcher in South Carolina history, and his stats speak for themselves.

• Career record: 45-12, the winningest pitcher to ever wear garnet and black

• School record 482 innings pitched and 66 career starts

• 457 career strikeouts, the most in program history

• 2000 SEC Pitcher of the Year and SEC Champion

During his best season in the year 2000, Bouknight went 17-1, leading South Carolina to a 55-10 record, an SEC title, and back-to-back Super Regionals in 2000 and 2001. He was also named a consensus All-American and the Golden Spikes Award. Bouknight is only one of five Golden Spikes winners in this year’s Hall of Fame class.

Ray Tanner: A Baseball Empire

Tanner’s coaching resume is second to none in college baseball, and now his accolades will include a Hall of Fame nod. In his 16 years as head coach of the Gamecocks, he turned South Carolina into a national powerhouse.

• 738 wins at South Carolina, 1,133 career wins overall

• Back-to-back national titles in 2010 and 2011

• Runner-up finishes in 2002 and 2012

• Six College World Series appearances

• Three SEC Championships, six SEC East titles, and 10 NCAA Super Regional appearances

From 2010 to 2012, Tanner’s team posted an NCAA record of 22 straight postseason wins and 12 straight wins in Omaha. South Carolina set the standard for college baseball during that time. Tanner coached a star-studded lineup of Gamecock greats as well, including two National Players of the Year (Bouknight and Michael Roth), two SEC Players of the Year, and two SEC Scholar-Athletes of the Year. Last season, the field at Founders Park was officially renamed Ray Tanner Field in his honor.

Following his coaching tenure, Tanner serced as South Carolina’s Athletic Director from 2012-2024. In that time, he oversaw four national championships (2015 equestrian, 2017, 2022, 2024 women’s basketball), 21 SEC titles, and several of South Carolina’s best season.

History and Legacy

Bouknight and Tanner, whose numbers are both retired at South Carolina, will now forever be etched in college baseball history. It’s a statement for South Carolina baseball.

In late June 2025, a rumor spread on social media that Olympic gold medal gymnast Simone Biles lost a $22 million endorsement deal with athletic apparel company New Balance after publicly criticizing former NCAA swimmer and conservative activist Riley Gaines. The claim emerged after Biles, earlier in the month, called Gaines “truly sick” and a “sore loser” on X for mocking a transgender high school softball player.

One Facebook post (archived) with the rumor reached more than 35,000 reactions and 7,300 comments as of this writing. It read:

In a stunning fallout, Olympic icon Simone Biles has reportedly been dropped by New Balance after her viral takedown of women’s sports advocate Riley Gaines. The move—described as a “body slam” on social media—ignited outrage from critics who say Biles abandoned female athletes. The price? A staggering $22 million. Was taking sides in the trans sports debate worth it?

The claim spread across social media platforms including Facebook and Threads in the form of copy-paste posts — often alongside authentic images of Gaines speaking and Biles crying — many of which redirected users to nearly identical articles titled, “BRAND BACKLASH: Simone Biles LOSES $22 MILLION New Balance Deal After “Body Slamming” Riley Gaines on X—Was It Worth Her Anti-Woman Stance?” 

The articles started:

Olympic gymnastics legend Simone Biles is facing a tidal wave of backlash — and the cost may be her biggest brand deal yet. New Balance has reportedly cut ties with the decorated athlete after a heated exchange on social media, where Biles publicly criticized former NCAA swimmer and women’s rights advocate Riley Gaines. The fallout? A staggering $22 million endorsement deal now reportedly off the table.

Some social media users seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events.

However, there was no evidence that New Balance ever ended its relationship with Biles, or that a $22 million endorsement deal even existed in the first place. The claim appeared to be entirely fabricated. No reputable news outlet has reported on such an endorsement being terminated, and neither Biles nor New Balance has issued any public statements confirming the claim.

Instead, the rumor that Biles lost an endorsement deal originated with a social media page that calls its content satirical. 

In mid-June 2025, fact-checking organization LeadStories also debunked the claim that Biles lost a $22 million contract with New Balance and found that it originated from the satirical Facebook account America’s Last Line of Defense. The Facebook page posted (archived) a reel on June 9 containing four slides that read:

Simone Biles “went way too far” when she body-shamed Riley Gaines, which will cost her a $22 million contract with New Balance. A company source says they immediately severed ties with Biles when her comments went public and made national news. “We’ve always stood on the side of women’s rights,” said a New Balance rep. “It’s time for Ms. Biles to move on.” 

The Facebook page’s intro reads: “The flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery and propaganda for cash. Nothing on this page is real.”

That claim appears to have been slightly altered and circulated again through non-satirical websites and social media posts without any satire disclaimer, leading many additional users to believe it was real.

We’ve reached out to New Balance and representatives for Biles for comment and will update this article if we receive a response.

In June 2025, we investigated a similar rumor that Biles was suspended from Team USA over online comments she made to Gaines.

For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources calling their output humorous or satirical.

Sources

Tustin (Calif.) Mission Viejo wide receiver Vance Spafford committed to Georgia over seven months ago, but the four-star is not committed to the Bulldogs any longer. He has flipped his commitment to Miami.

UCLA and Washington received official visits and other schools were still in pursuit, but he has decided to be a Hurricane.

“Miami has been on my mind pretty heavily for a while,” Spafford told On3. “I have been down there a few times and when I was there for three days in the spring, they made a big impression on me. It is one of my few visits where it was nothing but smiles. It was all positivity down there. That feeling stayed with me.”

Spafford was scheduled to take his official visit to Miami this past weekend, but was unable to make it because of the flu. That didn’t stop him from making the call.

“When I told Miami the news, coach Cristobal was yelling a lot, KB (Kevin Beard) was jumping around and coach Dawson was throwing up the U. I felt the love. That is how they have always made me feel.”

Spafford is excited about the staff he will play for and where the Miami program is going

Spafford had great relationships with coaches at Georgia. He was in Athens multiple times and he has nothing but respect for the staff there, but he is all in with the program in Coral Gables.

“Miami just kept that relationship going,” Spafford said. “Coach Cristobal, coach Dawson, KB – they hit me up all the time. KB is amazing. He knows what he is doing. He develops receivers, he is fun to talk to and we have a great relationship.

“Coach Dawson runs a great offense. He has a history of receivers being productive and I like my fit. I see a great opportunity to come in and make an impact in his offense. Coach Cristobal is great too. He has won everything he has been and Miami is on that track.”

Spafford is planning to take his official visit to Miami when it hosts Notre Dame in the fall. He is expecting big things out of the Hurricanes.

“Miami is going to be a contending team for sure in the coming years. Back in the day, they were killing it. Miami was dominant and they are starting to have that again. Miami had a great showing last year and it is going to get better.

“I am very excited about my future at Miami.”

According to On3’s Pete Nakos, Virginia second baseman Henry Godbout has entered the NCAA transfer portal. Godbout goes in there with a ‘Do Not Contact’ tag attached to his name as well. He might already have a destination in mind after spending the past three seasons in Charlottesville.

Godbout was one of the best players in the ACC last season, earning second-team all-conference honors. In 50 games played, 48 of those were at second base. Virginia called upon Godbout to man the hot corner on two occasions, potentially showing a little versatility.

Teams are going to love the offensive production Godbout produces, though. He finished with a .309 batting average in 191 at-bats during the 2025 season. His OPS finished at .894 due to eight home runs, 10 doubles, and a triple. Godbout got a base via walks on 26 occasions and is not prone to a strikeout, only having 19 on the stat sheet.

Playing a position such as second base means defense is just as important. Luckily, Godbout put up good numbers there too. He recorded just five errors on the season for a fielding percentage of 0.974.

Virginia has seen plenty of turnover inside the program since Brian O’Connor left in favor of the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Plenty of talented players have decided to leave, with Godbout being the latest example.

Virginia retains shortstop Eric Becker for 2026 season

Virginia SS Eric Becker was one of the top names in the NCAA Transfer Portal after entering following the coaching change for the Cavaliers. Becker is expected to withdraw his name from the portal and return to Charlottesville, sources tell On3’s Pete Nakos.

During his recruitment, schools like Mississippi State and Texas as well as Florida were reportedly involved per Nakos. However, in the end, Becker will back up right where he started at UVA.

Becker just finished his sophomore season, with 95 appearances made over two seasons, with Virginia. He has batted .366 while slugging .637, hitting 17 home runs with 98 RBI. He would bat at .368 while slugging at .617 as a sophomore, hitting nine of his homers and posting 52 of the RBI as the team’s best hitter in his second year in college.

Then, defensively at shortstop, Becker would put out 95 with a fielding percentage of .925 as an underclassman. With that, Becker would be a selection to the All-ACC Third Team this past season in 2025.

On3’s Sam Gillenwater contributed to this report

Click here to view Trev Alberts’ Monday press conference.

Trev Alberts’ job title is Texas A&M’s Director of Athletics. In some ways, tailor maybe should be added.

That’s a reaction to how Alberts described the task he and A&M face in navigating the changing future of college athletics.

“(It’s) how to thread the needle between tradition and modernization,” Alberts said in a Monday meeting with local reporters inside a third-floor conference room at Kyle Field.

Maintaining traditions at A&M won’t be a problem. Successfully modernizing A&M’s athletic department to excel in the new era of Name, Imagine & Likeness (NIL) and revenue sharing projects to be much more challenging.

Reacting to the recent House v. NCAA settlement, which allows NCAA member schools to directly pay student-athletes, Alberts announced that A&M will distribute $18 million to football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball.

A popular national template suggests directing 75 percent of funds to football, 15 percent to basketball, five percent to baseball and five percent to women’s sports.

“Some institutions have chosen to use that (75-15-5-5 model) as a template for their institution,” Alberts said. “Our percentages don’t reflect that. We’ve chosen to make market-based decisions based on revenue.”

The distribution could cause derision within athletic programs. Coaches in different programs could be competing against each other to get more funding.

Alberts said that hasn’t been a problem at A&M, but he has heard that has been an issue for other colleagues.

Alberts declined to reveal the percentages to be shared with A&M’s athletes for competitive reasons. But football is the only revenue-producing sport at Texas A&M, so it stands to reason that the majority of A&M’s shared revenue will go to football players.

“I’m not going to run out and tell you exactly what the numbers are and what the percentages are because there’s a competitive piece to that, right?” he said. “But I think you’re going to start to figure out where the numbers lie.”

He said in a year there may be more data available that provides at least guidelines how players perhaps should be compensated not only by sport, but by position.

Alberts acknowledged that some programs could be at a disadvantage to conference opponents.

For example, Kentucky, which puts great emphasis on basketball, figures to share a greater percentage of revenue with its basketball players than many other SEC programs.

“You’re not going to knowingly put any of your programs at a competitive disadvantage,” Alberts said. “But I think it’s absolutely true you could find yourselves in a situation — based on the priorities of the investments — that some of your programs will have less rev share than some of their competitors.”

Some of the differences, at least, could potentially be offset by greater NIL opportunities.

Alberts said if a program, like football, has players earning substantial money though fair-market NIL deals then some funds could be redirected to other sports.

To enhance those NIL possibilities, Alberts said a new position is being created to help locate NIL opportunities and ensure they meet the standard “fair market value” as determined by Deloitte, which will act as a third-party clearinghouse for NIL deals.

“We’re not ready to announce a name, but we are hiring a new position that will be an associate AD reporting directly to me that is an attorney,” Alberts said. “It’s basically, what is our strategy and how do we leverage every one of our assets?

“If we’re able to get fair market value NIL deals at a certain level, we may not need as much rev share there. We can put the rev share over at this sport because they’re not as successful. So, that’s why I think that fair market value NIL strategy is going to be really important to our future.”

Alberts later added: “We have to be better than our peers. To me, that’s the differentiator in the game. That’s why we’re going to throw a lot of energy and effort in making sure we have a good strategy there (NIL).”

Alberts is hopeful that a sound, effective strategy could launch A&M to great competitive success.

“This is our time,” he said. “If we have the courage to make tough decisions and act and modernize in some areas, I think Texas A&M can separate and do things we’ve never done here before.

“That’s why we’re all here. The opportunities are here at Texas A&M to do things that most people can’t do because of scale, because of resources and other things.”