The Big Ten boasts a boatload of talent at quarterback entering the 2025 campaign. However, ESPN’s Greg McElroy isn’t convinced the conference will have the best QBs in the country next season. Last week, McElroy explained his hesitation to name the Big Ten the conference of the QB in the upcoming season.

“I like the potential at a few places for sure,” McElroy said. “We’re kind of hinging our expectations on the potential of a handful of guys like Dante Moore at Oregon. Obviously, really highly-regarded, highly-touted player, but you don’t know for sure until they run out there and take the first snap.

“You don’t really know what you have until the guy goes out there and passes that test. The same can be said with Julian Sayin, assuming he gets the job at Ohio State. I think he’s probably the guy to beat, really highly-touted guy, clearly incredible skill set, great potential, but we don’t know just yet.”

Moore and Sayin are far from the only pieces in the Big Ten that McElroy isn’t all in on yet. While Michigan‘s Bryce Underwood was the No. 1 player in the 2025 recruiting cycle, there’s no way to know for sure how he will perform against collegiate competition until the season begins.

McElroy really likes pre-existing standouts like Penn State‘s Drew Allar and Illinois‘ Luke Altmyer, but he also needs to see them to continue to progress next season. McElroy is more than willing to admit the Big Ten could ultimately have the best quarterbacks, but he wouldn’t bet on it going into the season.

“I can’t, at this point, tell you that without a shadow of a doubt it’s the best group collectively,” McElroy said. “Are we going based on what they’ve done at the college level so far? Are we going based on upside? Because I gave you the three big names that could really alter the perception of the quarterback position in the Big Ten.

“That’s Dante Moore, Julian Sayin and Bryce Underwood. Those three guys all knock it out of the park, completely different conversation. But at this point, there’s a few more known commodities in other places.”

McElroy believes the Big 12 might have the best claim for quarterback talent ahead of the 2025 campaign. With Arizona State‘s Sam Leavitt, Baylor‘s Sawyer Robertson, TCU‘s Josh Hoover and other returning starters taking the stage, the Big 12 will have a loaded slate of talent behind center next season.

McElroy also mentioned the ACC and the SEC as potentially having better QB rosters than the Big Ten. Fans won’t have to wait long to see which quarterbacks step up this fall. College football kickoff is officially just over a month away, and McElroy can’t wait to see how the season pans out.

The newly approved NCAA vs. House settlement has created implications throughout college sports. Now, the state of Michigan is getting involved. Michigan has seen a bill introduced that could potentially target part of the agreement regarding NIL and reporting deals with the NCAA and investigate them.

Reps first introduced House Bill No. 4643. Tate, Herzberg, and Rheingans last week. This bill would completely ban reporting incoming deals to the NCAA. On top of that, it would also stop schools from assisting in any investigation and ban athletic associations from penalizing athletes or schools for non-compliance.

Michigan Goes Back At NCAA With New Bill To Block NIL Crackdown

While the settlement between the NCAA and the House was known for allowing revenue sharing, there’s so much more to it than just that. Among other agreements to try and shape the future of college athletics was that NIL deals above $600 will need third-party approval.

To make this happen, the deals will be sent to a new clearinghouse called “NIL Go.” Deloitte is set to oversee the fair compensation ranges in that regard. From there, the House settlement will also establish a new enforcement agency called the College Sports Commission. It’s going to be their job to handle investigations into improper deals done outside the system that the settlement is seeking to establish.

For the state of Michigan, they fired back at the NCAA with a new bill. In their proposed bill, the third-party approval and the latest enforcement agency would be directly affected if this bill were to be signed into law.

Michigan has five FBS programs, including its two Big Ten schools, Michigan and Michigan State. The Wolverines have been a powerhouse in college football and won a national championship as recently as the 2023 season.

A new Michigan bill introduced would ban schools from complying with NIL investigations and prohibit requiring the reporting of NIL deals to the College Sports Commission and Deloitte. https://t.co/ce5kXhS21j pic.twitter.com/fZ2UhySHD8

— On3 NIL (@On3NIL) June 19, 2025

Earlier in the year, the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, and SEC each presented their member institutions with affiliation agreements. These agreements would prevent universities from using state laws to violate new enforcement rules. The price for not signing on to these agreements could also be very steep.

In layman’s terms, a school risks losing conference membership and participation against other power league programs. Conference administrators have used this tactic to, hopefully, enforce the House settlement regardless of the laws in place.
KEEP READING: Analysts Expose Harsh Truth About House v. NCAA’s Effect On NIL Deals and College Football Bluebloods
This is similar to a bill passed in Tennessee back in May. This was considered to be a very athlete-friendly law and shares some unique similarities with the one being brought forward by representatives in Michigan.

Tennessee law states that Tennessee schools can receive dollars from collectives unless told otherwise by federal law, a valid court order, or antitrust laws. This law also prevents the NCAA from creating anticompetitive restrictions and seeks to protect Tennessee schools from any potential further legal disputes.

Like the bill in Michigan, it was a pushback to the House settlement. In particular, they both appear to seek to stop all of the House settlement’s limits on NIL payments. They are both creating protections for schools from outside investigators.

What will come next from this proposed bill in Michigan remains to be seen. It must be passed and signed into law before the fallout begins to be felt. It should also be interesting to see if any other states follow Tennessee and Michigan’s lead.

Elon Butler played three seasons at Cal on a squad that made the NCAA Tournament all three times, a power-hitting utility player from San Jose, California who started games for the Bears at second base, shortstop and right field.

In three seasons she hit 37 home runs with 112 RBI, a career .328 hitter with a .621 slugging percentage. On Wednesday she transferred to the Ducks.

NFCA named her a Second Team All-American in 2024, Second Team All-PAC-12 in her sophomore season. That year she led the Bears with 17 circuit clouts and 44 RBIs. As a junior she hit a career-high .361.

In a statement, Oregon coach Melyssa Lombardi said,
“I am impressed with Elon’s power at the plate. She can change the game with one swing. She has faced elite pitching her entire career and has excelled. “

She can turn a single into a double with her ability to run. I also like her athleticism and versatility on defense. Elon’s a competitor and will be a great addition to Version 8.”

She’ll help the Ducks in replacing clutch-hitting Dez Patmon and shortstop Paige Sinicki, the glue for Version 7, the 54-10 squad that made it all to Softball World Series in Oklahoma City.

That tells you the softball part of the story, but Butler is far more than a gifted, versatile power hitter. The daughter of LaDonna and Howard Butler majored in data science at Cal Berkeley, considering medical school after her undergrad. She enjoys drawing, painting and writing.

While at Cal she led a group of Bear players in a protest for social justice, kneeling during the national anthem to draw attention to ongoing police brutality.

She told Marisa Ingemi of the San Francisco Chronicle, “At the end of the day, I’m going to stand on what I believe in. That was just the biggest thing, that I was proud of myself. I’m proud of my teammates for that we still stand on what we believe.”

At a tournament in Louisiana she heard boos and catcalls, epithets about “woke nonsense” and keeping politics out of sports.

Seventy-six years after Jackie Robinson, the politics still aren’t out of sports. Because athletes are people too. And Elon Butler is an intelligent young woman with a conscience as well as an exceptional ability to hit a softball.

In a game against Oregon in March of 2024 she erupted for six RBI. Now she’s a Duck.

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GHSA

It was a pretty good year for Cherokee Bluff sophomore athlete Bristol Kersh.

She spent the winter guiding the Bears to their first-ever championship after upending Baldwin 66-58 in the 3A finals. That playoff run included a game-winner in the 56-55 victory against Jenkins in the semifinals.

Then, once on the soccer pitch, Kersh scored 45 goals with 15 assists to help the Bears to a semifinals appearance and a 14-7 record. She missed the first eight games of the season, which overlapped with the basketball playoff run. Cherokee Bluff lost to Jefferson 5-2 in the semifinals but with Kersh returning for her junior campaign, there’s a lot to look forward to for Cherokee Bluff’s girls basketball and soccer programs.

Kersh has been impactful not only on the court or the pitch, she has volunteered locally in the special education department at the school as a youth soccer and basketball coach and donated time to multiple community service initiatives through her church while maintaining a 3.61 GPA in the classroom.