NIL
NCAA tourney twist
In the past couple of years, six Oklahoma softball players have left the program for another team and are now competing in the NCAA Softball Championship this postseason. During the regular season, OU played four teams featuring former Sooners in SEC series. Sooner softball head coach Patty Gasso has had little trouble over the past […]


In the past couple of years, six Oklahoma softball players have left the program for another team and are now competing in the NCAA Softball Championship this postseason. During the regular season, OU played four teams featuring former Sooners in SEC series.
Sooner softball head coach Patty Gasso has had little trouble over the past dozen years recruiting some of the best talent in the country to come play for Oklahoma. When you win eight national championships, including the last four straight, it’s easy to understand why the top prospects would want to come to play for you.
It’s a problem every head coach in America would love to have. The problem is, when you are able to assemble that many quality players on the same roster, not everyone is going to get as much playing time as they think they deserve. And now with the double-edged sword that is the transfer portal readily available, players are able to try their luck elsewhere if they are unhappy with their present situation.
In spite of Oklahoma’s record-setting recent success in the world of college softball, and perhaps even because of it, the Sooners have experienced their share of outgoing transfers.
Former Sooners participating in 2025 NCAA Softball Championship
Jordy Bahl, pitcher, Nebraska Cornhuskers
It’s not always about seeking greater opportunity that is motivation for leaving one program for another. Former Oklahoma All-American and Most Outstanding Player of the 2023 Women’s College World Series Jordy Bahl is the classic example of that situation.
The two-time Big 12 Pitcher of the Year won 42 games and lost just twice in her two seasons at Oklahoma and helped lead the Sooners to back-to-back national championships in 2022 and 2023. Despite all of that success, the former No. 1 recruit in the 2021 national class decided to transfer back to her home state of Nebraska to be closer to home.
Bahl has continued her outstanding collegiate career at Nebraska, where this season she not only led the pitching staff, but is also the Cornhuskers’ most prolific hitter with team highs in batting average, home runs (19) and runs batted in (59). Her .465 batting average ranks eighth in the country, and her 23 wins in the circle are tied for 11th-best in the country.
In major part due to Bahl, Nebraska is making its third NCAA tournament appearance in the last nine years. The senior All-American hit two home runs and pitched three hitless innings in a 10-2 win over UConn in the Baton Rouge Regional on Friday.
Jocelyn Erickson, catcher, Florida Gators
Jocelyn Erickson, a junior from Phoenix, Arizona, played her freshman year at Oklahoma, where she batted .337 in 57 games with seven home runs and 32 RBI. At OU, she played mainly first base or as the designated player.
In two seasons at Florida, she is the starting catcher. Her sophomore season as a Gator, she led the SEC with 86 RBI and ranked fourth in the conference with a .382 batting average. She was named the 2024 NFCA Division I Player of the Year.
This season, Erickson is hitting .309 in 57 games with 14 home runs and 32 RBI. In a three-game conference series against Oklahoma this season, the former Sooner drew five walks in eight official plate appearances and scored four times after earning a free pass.
SJ Geurin, pitcher, Auburn Tigers
SJ Geurin is a redshirt sophomore from Leander, Texas, a suburb north of Austin. Ranked No. 20 overall in the 2022 recruiting class, the left-hander played one full season at Oklahoma, where she posted a 2-0 record in nine games and a 0.70 ERA as a redshirt freshman in 2024.
This season, Geurin has seen action in 45 games with 11 starts coming into the NCAA tournament and has posted a team-best record of 20-10 with a 3.06 ERA.
Avery Hodge, infielder, LSU Tigers
Hodge is a junior from Richmond, Texas, in the Houston area. She played on two national championship teams at Oklahoma 2023 and 2024, hitting .278 in 109 games for the Sooners. She had four hits and scored four runs in the 2024 Women’s College World Series.
This season, as the starting shortstop at LSU, Hodge is hitting .328 as one of eight Tiger players with at least 40 starts to hit above .300, along with a home run and 30 RBI in 55 games.
Quincee Lilio, outfielder, South Carolina Gamecocks
Quincee Lilio is a redshit junior this season from Oceanside, California. She was rated as a top-15 recruit by both Softball America and Extra Inning Softball in the class of 2022. She redshirted at OU in 2022 and played two seasons for the Sooners in 2023-24, batting .202 in 88 games with two home runs and 14 RBI.
Lilio leads off and is the starting center fielder for South Carolina this season and leads the Gamecocks with a career-high .383 batting average in 55 games.
Sophia Nugent, catcher, Tennessee Volunteers
Sophia Nugent is a senior from Seal Beach, California. She was the No. 3 player in the 2021 class and played two seasons at Oklahoma. She made 19 starts at catcher and appeared in 73 games for the Sooners. Nugent averaged .284 at the plate while at OU with eight home runs an 28 RBI.
In her one season at Tennessee, Nugent is hitting .303 with 14 home runs and 51 RBI. She had started 51 of 52 games heading into Knoxville Regional. Against the Sooners this season, Nugent hit a game-winning two-run home run in a 5-2 win over Oklahoma.
Read more about OU softball
NIL
Kendrick joins softball coaching staff
Marc Kendrick is here, a new softball assistant coach at Montana, because after three seasons working at Tennessee Tech, the lure of moving to and coaching in a true college town was too good of an opportunity to pass up. That’s the trouble with coaching in Cookeville, with the Volunteers 100 miles to the […]

That’s the trouble with coaching in Cookeville, with the Volunteers 100 miles to the east, the Commodores 80 miles to the west. The shadows loom large from both directions.
“We’re the only thing in town, but since it’s Tennessee, people are either a University of Tennessee fan or a Vanderbilt fan,” Kendrick said. “We never had that true atmosphere. That’s something I’m excited about, being where there is only one team that matters, where the expectation is to win.
“Stef said, once you get out here and visit, you’ll understand. When I got out there, I was like, okay, I understand.”
He’s also here because of head coach Stef Ewing, who has a reputation as a program builder, who told Kendrick during the interview process: The defense? It would be yours, all yours. Make us great.
“I’m a defense-oriented person. Stef giving me the reins of the defense, that’s my strong suit. Let me go at it,” he said. “I’m constantly thinking, how do I defend this or how do I defend that? I’m always looking for that little edge.”
He’s been in this position before as an assistant coach, Tennessee Tech going 6-44 in his first season with the program in 2023, nearly mirroring Montana’s record of 8-42 this past spring.
The Golden Eagles bettered their record to 23-24 in Kendrick’s second year at the school, making Tennessee Tech the nation’s most-improved program in 2024, going in the right direction by 18.5 additional wins, topping D1Softball.com’s list of “Quick-Change Artists.”
“I know a little bit about Stef’s history, how she took (Cal State) San Marcos, which wasn’t very good, and got them to the World Series and winning 40 games in a season,” he said. “I know her track record is to take programs and turn them around in a short period of time.
“Overall, the environment, the vibe, the way Stef and (pitching coach Megan Casper) and I got together, it was, how do I not say yes to this?”
He’s here, in the world of softball, this coach who was once a baseball-loving kid in Southern California, who dreamed of one day breaking Cal Ripken Jr.’s consecutive-games-played record, who played at Long Beach Polytechnic High, who spent weekends at his grandma’s side, going to Angels games before settling into a 9-to-5 job in Orange County, because how could he say no to family?
“I got talked into it by my cousin, who asked me to come out and help coach softball. Um, no,” he told her. But it was his god-daughter’s team, she told him. You’re really going to say no to that face? “She pulled that card on me.”
That led to a rec championship, which led to a high school job – wait, I can get paid for this? – which led to getting his foot in the door of travel ball, with Batbusters. “Okay, this is something I’m passionate about and love doing. At first it was something I did, then it was God saying, go be a coach.”
If the brass ring was the college game, he knew he needed to go back to school and get his degree to become marketable, an AA coming from Santiago Canyon College in 2018, a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from Cal State Fullerton in 2020, a master’s degree from Cal Baptist in 2022, where he was a graduate assistant for the softball team.
Was it too much to pack into a single day, all he was trying to do? Not for this son of the military, born in San Diego, then coming of age in Long Beach, then San Pedro, the Navy keeping the family moving but never out of Southern California.
“I didn’t move around a lot, but I definitely have those military aspects in my blood, if you will, that mentality of how to go about things a certain way,” he said.
All that time in and around softball in Southern California, and he never did cross paths with Ewing, who was at San Marcos from 2019 to ’24.
“We were probably three levels of separation,” Ewing says. “When I saw the people on his list of references, I said, I know all these people. It was hard for me to believe we’d never met.”
She read through his resume, his list of references, then started reading through his letters of recommendation, starting with the usual voices, the coaches with whom he’d worked, then getting into the unusual, written testaments from former players.
“It was one of the most impressive things I’ve seen from an assistant coach, these letters from previous players stating why they liked him so much, not just letters from professionals,” Ewing said.
Done as a GA at Cal Baptist, he got on with first-year coach Danielle Penner at Tennessee Tech prior to the 2023 season, rode out the 6-44 first year before being part of the nation’s best turnaround in 2024, doing the less-visible work of solidifying the team’s defense, all aspects of the sport right in his wheelhouse.
“You can tell when someone has the softball sickness if it’s all they talk about,” Ewing said. “He has it. It’s exciting for me to bring someone in to bounce ideas off of, not hire a yes-man. I want him to push me as a head coach and bring me his ideas.
“Let’s brainstorm, let’s get to the drawing board. Let’s figure out what’s best for the team, how we are going to make it better. He was looking for that in his next role, to have his voice heard and to be able to bring ideas.”
Was he ever. “The fact she’s very open-minded, okay, let’s figure this out, I love that,” Kendrick said. “One day when I’m a head coach, that’s how I want to be. I want to have a bunch of coaches around me who go back and forth and figure out the best way. That’s something that drew me to Stef.”
Kendrick replaces Tyler Jeske on Ewing’s staff, Jeske departing his position at season’s end, right when Kendrick was beginning his own search in earnest. He never would have guessed Montana but he’ll be in Missoula next month, coaching his new team shortly after the fall semester commences.
“When Stef brought me up for my interview, with everything the University of Montana has to offer, it was, how do I not say yes to this offer?” Kendrick said.
Ewing will move to the offensive side of the ball full-time come the fall, with Kendrick taking over a defense that ranked 232nd nationally last season with a fielding percentage of .952. Casper will have an improved pitching staff to work with, and Makena Strong goes from player to graduate assistant coach.
“On the field, he’ll be another source of energy for us,” said Ewing of Kendrick. “With Makena, all of a sudden we’re four people strong and will be able to do a lot more at practices.
“I loved a lot of the things he had to say. He’s a worker. He can throw batting practice, he loves to do camps, he comes from a military family, so he’s on top of things and very organized. He checks a lot of boxes. I think he’s going to bring a lot to the program.”
And he opens up a new recruiting area, with Montana looking to expand its reach beyond the West. “More and more young women reach out to us from the Midwest, Texas, the South,” says Ewing. “He brings knowledge of a different region of the country. It allows us to cast a wider net.
“He’s passionate about recruiting, which will be huge for us. That’s the name of the game. It doesn’t matter how good of a coach you are if you can’t find good kids.” Or good assistant coaches.
NIL
Colton Book Selected in Ninth Round of MLB Draft by Chicago Cubs
Story Links ATLANTA – Saint Joseph’s lefthander Colton Book was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the ninth round of the 2025 Major League Baseball Draft on Monday. Book was chosen with the 271st overall selection. “We are very excited for Colton on being selected by the Cubs,” head coach Fritz Hamburg […]

ATLANTA – Saint Joseph’s lefthander Colton Book was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the ninth round of the 2025 Major League Baseball Draft on Monday. Book was chosen with the 271st overall selection.
“We are very excited for Colton on being selected by the Cubs,” head coach Fritz Hamburg said. “I know he has been looking forward to this day for some time, but it happened because of his commitment, focus, and hard work toward furthering his game each and every day. He lived true to being consistent and he dedicated himself to being the very best; what he accomplished this season was truly outstanding.”
Book was named the Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Year and earned a spot on the ABCA All-East Region First Team after turning in one of the most outstanding seasons by a hurler in SJU history. The native of Manheim, Pennsylvania, was a four-time Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Week on the way to First Team All-Conference accolades; he was also named the College Baseball Foundation’s National Pitcher of the Week on February 25.
The southpaw is the first pitcher in Saint Joseph’s history to strike out 100 batters in a season, setting a new program record with 122 punchouts for the year, and fanned 13 or more on four different occasions. He spent the season ranked among the top three in Division I in strikeouts before finishing the regular season fifth in the nation. Also ranking in the top 12 in the country in both WHIP and strikeouts-per-nine-innings at the end of the regular season, Book showed his durability by throwing at least six innings in 10 of his starts, with five starts of seven frames or more.
“On behalf of our program here on Hawk Hill, we thank him for all that he did to help our program, but most importantly, we congratulate him on a job well done,” Hamburg said. “We look forward to following his journey in professional baseball!”
Book is the 14th Hawk to hear his name called in the draft during Hamburg’s tenure and the 34th overall in program history.
NIL
Argument over ‘valid buisiness purpose’ for NIL collectives threatens college sports settlement
“This process is undermined when the CSC goes off the reservation and issues directions to the schools that are not consistent with the Settlement Agreement terms,” attorney Jeffrey Kessler wrote to NCAA outside counsel Rakesh Kilaru in a letter obtained by The Associated Press. Yahoo Sports first reported details of the letter, in which Kessler […]

“This process is undermined when the CSC goes off the reservation and issues directions to the schools that are not consistent with the Settlement Agreement terms,” attorney Jeffrey Kessler wrote to NCAA outside counsel Rakesh Kilaru in a letter obtained by The Associated Press.
Yahoo Sports first reported details of the letter, in which Kessler threatens to take the issue to a judge assigned with resolving disputes involved in the settlement.
Kessler told AP his firm was not commenting on the contents of the letter, and Kilaru did not immediately respond to AP’s request for a comment.
Yahoo quoted a CSC spokesman as saying the parties are working to resolve differences and that “the guidance issued by the College Sports Commission … is entirely consistent with the House settlement and the rules that have been agreed upon with class counsel.”
When NIL payments became allowed in 2021, boosters formed so-called “collectives” that were closely tied to universities to work out contracts with the players, who still weren’t allowed to be paid directly by the schools.
Terms of the House settlement allow schools to make the payments now, but keep the idea of outside payments from collectives, which have to be approved by the CSC if they are worth $600 or more.
The CSC, in its letter last week, explained that if a collective reaches a deal, for instance, for an athlete to appear on behalf of the collective, which charges an admission fee, that collective does not have a “valid business purpose” because the purpose of the event is to raise money to pay athletes, not to provide goods or services available to the general public for profit.
Another example of a disallowed deal was one an athlete makes to sell merchandise to raise money to pay that player because, the CSC guidance said, the purpose of “selling merchandise is to raise money to pay that student-athlete and potentially other student-athletes at a particular school or schools, which is not a valid business purpose.”
Kessler’s letter notes that the “valid business purpose” rule was designed to ensure athletes were not simply being paid to play, and did not prohibit NIL collectives from paying athletes for the type of deals described above.
To prevent those payments “would be to create a new prohibition on payments by a NIL collective that is not provided for or contemplated by the Settlement Agreement, causing injury to the class members who should be free to receive those payments,” Kessler wrote.
___
AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
NIL
Haugh & Knapp Taken On Day 2 Of 2025 MLB Draft
ATLANTA, Ga. – Diamond Heels starting pitchers Aidan Haugh and Jake Knapp were both selected on the second day of the 2025 Major League Baseball Draft. Haugh, a sixth round pick by the Tampa Bay Rays, and Knapp, an eight round pick by the Chicago Cubs, round out the draft for North Carolina with […]

Haugh, a sixth round pick by the Tampa Bay Rays, and Knapp, an eight round pick by the Chicago Cubs, round out the draft for North Carolina with four total selections. UNC has now had 21 players drafted under head coach Scott Forbes, including 10 pitchers. It is the most Tar Heels taken in the first eight rounds of a draft since 2015.
Haugh had been in this spot before. He was chosen by the Minnesota Twins in the 16th round of the 2024 draft, but chose to come back to Carolina and bet on himself to improve his stock. He can now say mission accomplished, as he jumped 10 rounds up to the sixth with the Rays this year.
One the regular starters for a Carolina arm barn that had the third best ERA in the country, Haugh made 17 appearances with 14 starts for the Tar Heels in 2025. He logged a 5-4 record with a 3.72 ERA in 75.0 innings. His was the 9th best ERA in the ACC.
The Cubs drafted the National Pitcher of the Year Knapp in the eighth round, pairing him with fellow Tar Heel Kane Kepley whom they selected in the second round. Knapp, who is a consensus first team All-American and 2025 ACC Pitcher of the Year, finished the season with a 2.02 ERA in 102.1 innings with 88 strikeouts on just 16 walks.
The Greensboro, N.C., native racked up the best record of any pitcher in the country at 14-0. It is the most wins in a single-season without defeat and tied for the most victories overall in program history.
MLB teams have until July 28 to sign their new draftees.
NIL
New agency to enforce legitimacy of NIL deals in college sports
For several years now, the world of NIL in college sports has essentially been the Wild West. Under the current system, every player is essentially a free agent after each season, and there is no salary cap for how much money schools can spend on players. However, that is reportedly about to change. With the […]

For several years now, the world of NIL in college sports has essentially been the Wild West. Under the current system, every player is essentially a free agent after each season, and there is no salary cap for how much money schools can spend on players.
However, that is reportedly about to change. With the dawn of the revenue sharing era, a new agency is reportedly going to enforce whether or not deals done outside of the revenue sharing system are legitimate endorsement contracts.
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A report last week from Stewart Mandel of The Athletic detailed plans for the new enforcement agency.
“The recently approved House settlement, which took effect on July 1, established a clearinghouse, called NIL Go, that must approve all third-party deals for more than $600,” Mandel wrote. “The two main requirements for those deals are that they’re for a ‘valid business purpose’ and within a fair-market ‘range of compensation.’
“The goal is to prevent schools from utilizing booster-driven entities to funnel payments to recruits and transfers as a workaround to the $20.5 million revenue-sharing cap.
“Guidance issued Thursday by the College Sports Commission said that ‘an entity with a business purpose of providing payments or benefits to student-athletes or institutions, rather than providing goods or services to the general public for profit, does not satisfy the valid business purpose requirement set forth in NCAA Rule 22.1.3.’
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“It then cited as an example a collective that ‘reach(es) a deal with a student-athlete to make an appearance on behalf of the collective at an event, even if that event is open to the general public, and the collective charges an admission fee (e.g., a golf tournament).’ And, ‘The same collective’s deal with a student-athlete to promote the collective’s sale of merchandise to the public would not satisfy the valid business purpose requirement for the same reason.’”
If the new system works as intended, programs will not be able to simply pay as much as they want for players. The goal is to put all schools on more of an equal playing field, rather than giving a massive advantage to the ones with the biggest collectives. It will be interesting to see if this effort is successful, or if schools continue to find new ways to get around the rules.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: New college sports agency to enforce legitimacy of NIL deals
NIL
1889 Collective seeks donations to support Idaho athletes through NIL deals
LEWISTON, ID – The 1889 Collective is looking for donations to support University athletes. The collective was launched by three Vandal boosters, Greg Kimberling, Dave Tester, and Bill Kearns, to help get Idaho athletes paid through name-image-and likeness deals. The 1889 Collective is not an affiliate of the University of Idaho but rather its own […]


LEWISTON, ID – The 1889 Collective is looking for donations to support University athletes.
The collective was launched by three Vandal boosters, Greg Kimberling, Dave Tester, and Bill Kearns, to help get Idaho athletes paid through name-image-and likeness deals.
The 1889 Collective is not an affiliate of the University of Idaho but rather its own company.
On the collective’s website, you can give with a built-in donation of 18.89$ or enter a specific amount.
You can submit a one-time payment or sign up for regular donations, and can also donate to a general fund or a specific athletic program or team.
You can donate here.
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