The Ohio State football program has been trying to beef up its 2026 recruiting class as the summer continues. They continue to try to land some of the biggest recruits left on the board, despite some lacking NIL plans. The Buckeyes had the fifth-best recruiting class heading into Sunday.

Five-star linebacker Xavier Griffin made his recruiting decision on Sunday afternoon. He was choosing between the Buckeyes, Texas, Alabama, and Florida State. Heading into the day, he was an Alabama lean, but Ohio State was hoping they did enough late to grab him.

Griffin is listed as the second-best linebacker in the country. He stands at 6’3 and 200 pounds and is from Gainesville, Georgia. Ohio State was the only northern team that he had in his final list of schools. That was always going to be hard to overcome. In the end, it was too much to overcome.

The Ohio State football team loses out on five-star linebacker Xavier Griffin

Instead of picking the Buckeyes, Griffin decided to commit to Alabama. The Crimson Tide were the favorites to land him, so they ended up with him anyway. Ohio State would have loved to have gotten Griffin, but they weren’t expecting to land him, nonetheless.

If the Buckeyes are going to land another five-star recruit in this class, they would prefer it to be Felix Ojo, the second-ranked tackle in the country. Even though he had a bad day during a recent Rivals camp, he is still good enough that he could start day one if they needed him to.

James Laurinaitis has done enough recruiting in the last couple of years to know that he certainly can recruit at an elite level. Losing out on one recruit isn’t the worst thing in the world. He landed a five-star recruit just last year.

Throughout the college basketball offseason, one major storyline to watch has been the NCAA’s waiver process for select players. Just a few days ago, the NCAA denied a waiver for Memphis center Dain Dainja to get another year, which forced him to move on to the pros.

Earlier this offseason, the NCAA had already denied a waiver to Louisville forward Aly Khalifa. This was originally a surprise, as he had redshirted this past season after transferring from BYU. However, reportedly, having already taken a redshirt year at Charlotte previously caused issues with his eligibility. 

The good news for the Cardinals is that, following an appeal of the original denial, the NCAA reversed its decision.

Louisville is a consensus preseason top-25 team, thanks in part to a great transfer portal haul that includes Isaac McKneely and Ryan Conwell. 5-star prospect Mikel Brown Jr. is set to run the offense, while Kasean Pryor returns after suffering a season-ending injury. 

The hope is that Khalifa will be the missing link to make the offense as good as possible. He’s one of the best passing big men in the country, and when he was at BYU, he played a key role in their elite offense, averaging 4.0 assists per game as a big man.

Khalifa and Pryor are the leading bigs for the Cardinals next season. Joining them in the frontcourt are a trio of international prospects, including Vanglis Zougris, Sanada Fru, and Mouhamaed Camara. If any of them break out into key contributors, then this team will be a contender to compete for another ACC title.

Khalifa’s stats don’t scream “all-league” on paper, but that won’t be his role. He gives the team another facilitator and takes pressure off the freshman Brown on the offense, which may be the biggest beneficiary. This news caps off what has been a great offseason for Coach Pat Kelsey and the Cardinals.

More changes are coming to men’s and women’s college basketball. Over the past few months, multiple changes have occurred in college basketball, including the landmark revenue-sharing programs that will begin in July.

Federal Judge Claudia Wilken approved the House v. NCAA settlement at the beginning of June. It allows schools to directly pay athletes from a revenue-sharing pool capped at $20.5 million for the 2025-2026 season.

The bulk of the money will be divided among men’s and women’s basketball, football, and wrestling, with the cap projected to increase every year.

In response, the four major sports formed “Flight Funds” programs as a charitable avenue for donors to give directly to the programs or a general fund.

In addition to the revenue-sharing programs, an NCAA oversight committee made multiple changes to men’s college basketball, focusing on the pace of play.

The rule changes that were put in place include adding a coach’s challenge that can be used at any point during the game in response to an out-of-bounds call, basket interference, goaltending, or a player in the restricted area.

After the new rules were put in place, the NCAA Division I Council also approved a regular season game expansion.

CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander reports that a committee approved expanding the regular season from 31 to 32 games, beginning in the 2026-2027 season. The move was made to encourage teams to schedule better non-conference games later in the season.

The expansion ends a 19-year span of a 31-game maximum for the regular season.

Starting in the 2026-2027 season, teams can schedule an extra game, but they will not be forced to do so. Most teams are expected to increase their schedule to the new 32-game maximum.

The extra game allows teams to play a better opponent later in the season and potentially add more highly-ranked Quad wins to their NCAA Tournament resume.

Norlander notes that money is a big driving factor for the 32-game maximum. With more games comes more revenue, which can be used to pay athletes.

More Hawkeyes News:

Here’s the latest of what I’m hearing on Trenton Henderson:

LSU has put together a significant NIL package that—to be as transparent as possible—the competitors weren’t willing to match.

This is a fluid situation and lots can still happen. LSU feels confident in where it stands with Henderson in the final days, but it looks as if LSU will likely be the destination if this ages consistently.

Would be a massive blow.

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The Michigan football team is hot on the recruiting trail as the month of June comes to a close. The Wolverines have racked up more than a half-dozen commitments over the last week.

Coincidentally, they received a massive $6 million pledge from big time booster Matt Lester amid the heater. The program continues to flaunt its deep pockets while cashing in on the recruiting trail.

The donation came as a way to cover costs associated with the newly renovated and expanded football locker room. It was made as a way of recognizing the 2023 national championship team.

More on the gift and donor from MGoBlue.com:

Through Princeton Management, a real estate property management and development company, Matt [Lester] offers a summer internship program for U-M football student-athletes. He is also a founding member of the Champions Circle NIL collective specifically for football, and supports men’s and women’s basketball, swimming and diving, and women’s gymnastics through NIL.

Lester is a major donor. He’s also a founding member of the NIL collective that funds the football team’s payroll.

The Wolverines have been known to pay for top talent in the past. We’ll get to see an example of that investment in the 2025 college football season when freshman Bryce Underwood takes the field.

The school reportedly offered $12 million to land his commitment. It’ll hope to see it pay off with another title. More help is on the way in the 2026 recruiting class.

Michigan football is on a recruiting heater.

BREAKING: Five-Star EDGE Carter Meadows has Committed to Michigan, he tells me for @on3recruits

The 6’6 235 EDGE chose the Wolverines over Ohio State, Penn State, & South Carolina

“I thank God for guiding me through it all. I’M HOME. Go Blue!!”https://t.co/vP9hIvX9sb pic.twitter.com/TaK4mGP9J6

— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) June 29, 2025

Seven new players have committed to the program this week, headlined by five-star defensive pass rusher Carter Meadows. The Wolverines beat out the rival Buckeyes for that pledge.

The other six players include the top prospect in the state of Hawaii, the second-ranked players in Missouri and Massachusetts, and four-star Texas wideout Zion Robinson.

Michigan now holds commits from the:

-No. 1 recruit in Hawaii
-No. 1 recruit in Montana
-No. 2 recruit in Missouri
– No. 2 recruit in Massachusetts
– No. 4 recruit in Illinois

Meet the commits: https://t.co/S7Md7GZ3Eg pic.twitter.com/WKPAoUnHNy

— TheWolverine.com (@TheWolverineOn3) June 28, 2025

With the newest group in the bag, the Michigan ’26 class ranks ninth in all of college football. The investment into players and facilities is paying off in the recruiting rankings. They’ll hope to see similar results on the field.