Charlie Ward is smiling somewhere, seeing Florida State’s newest commitment as 4-star WR and two-sport athlete, Jasen Lopez, committed to Florida State on Thursday in a post from On3’s Hayes Fawcett. Lopez will also play basketball, he announced in his commitment, which would make him the second two-sport athlete on Florida State’s football team, along with BJ Gibson, who played baseball last spring.

Lopez plays high school football at South Florida powerhouse Chaminade-Madonna and won Broward County Player of the Year after playing football and basketball in his junior season.

Miami was thought to be the favorite for Lopez as the Hurricanes received his final official visit, but Mike Norvell, head basketball coach Luke Loucks and wide receiver coach Tim Harris Jr. found a way to bring him to Tallahassee. The athletic department has not been afraid of bringing in multi-sport athletes and Lopez joins a long list of Seminoles to play two in two different vocations.

According to 247Sports, is 5’10’’ 165 pounds and the 252nd player in the country in their composite rankings.

NIL has changed the way college football is being played. The Ohio State football program has tried to navigate the changes the best that it can, but they are still going through some growing pains as well. That has only intensified after the House Settlement.

Now that there is an actual budget set for athletic departments, the Buckeyes have to be very selective on who they use their NIL money on. So far, a lot of their money has been used to retain players who have been on the roster already. They decided to use the money to keep Jeremiah Smith, Caleb Downs, and others.

The Ohio State Buckeyes might be going a little cheap when it comes to using NIL on recruits, but this is something that Ohio State football fans are going to have to get used to, bexcause this is clearly a philsophy that Ryan Day is going to keep moving forward.

The Ohio State football team will keep using NIL on players who are already on the roster

There are very few recruits that come out of the high school ranks every year that the Buckeyes will look to use large sums of NIL money on. Smith was one of them a couple of years ago. Felix Ojo might be one this season. Those kinds of recruits are far and few to be found.

Ohio State believes that the best approach to NIL is to keep the guys they have on the roster happy and playing well. The top priority for a recruit can’t be the amount of NIL money they are going to get. If that is their top priority, Day won’t pursue them any further.

This is something fans are going to have to get used to moving forward. Once a couple of years of the new rules have passed, fans will be used to it.

D1Baseball released its 2025 All-American teams following the conclusion of the Men’s College World Series, giving us first through third teams across all positions. There are big names across the board, including Golden Spikes Award winner Wehiwa Aloy who, surprisingly, appears on the Second Team.

Sixteen of the All-Americans played in this year’s College World Series. National champion LSU leads the way with four selections, with runner-up Coastal Carolina and Oregon State totaling three.

Without further ado, let’s dive into the All-American teams. First up, well, the first team.

First-Team All-American, Catcher

Caden Bodine, Coastal Carolina

The junior catcher was an anchor for the College World Series runner-ups, as he hit for a .318 average with 18 doubles, five home runs, 42 RBI, a .461 SLG% and a .454 OBP% this season. He was also named a 2025 Division I ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove Award winner.

First Base

Andrew Fischer, Tennessee

Fischer excelled in his first season in Knoxville, hitting for a .341 average with 16 doubles, 25 home runs, 65 RBI, a .760 SLG% and a .497 OBP%. After being named a Second Team All-SEC selection in 2024 at Ole Miss, he was named a First Team All-SEC selection this season.

Second Base

Kaleb Freeman, Georgia State

The 2025 Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year burst onto the college baseball scene this season, hitting for a .358 average with 16 home runs, 45 RBI, a .758 SLG% and a .512 OBP%. Freeman, who set Georgia State single-season records with 28 doubles and 61 walks, announced his transfer to Texas on June 14.

Third Base

Daniel Cuvet, Miami

Cuvet was instrumental in Miami‘s first trip to a Super Regional since 2016, hitting for a .372 average with 20 doubles, 18 home runs, 84 RBI, a .708 SLG% and a .450 OBP% this season. He was named First Team All-ACC.

Shortstop

Roch Cholowsky, UCLA

Cholowsky, who remains the early favorite to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft, hit for a .353 average with 19 doubles, 23 home runs and 74 RBI this season. The Big 10 Player of the Year made 120 putouts and 187 assists with just seven errors (.978%) at shortstop, earning an ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove Award.

Outfielder

Drew Burress, Georgia Tech

After earning D1Baseball Second Team All-American honors in 2024, Burress elevated himself to First Team in 2025. The Houston County, GA native hit for a .333 average with 23 doubles, 19 home runs, 62 RBI, a .693 SLG% and a .469 OBP% this season.

Outfielder

Ike Irish, Auburn

Irish seamlessly made the switch from catcher to outfield this season, earning First Team All-American honors and All-SEC First Team honors for the second consecutive season. He hit for a .364 average with 13 doubles, 19 home runs, 58 RBI, a .710 SLG% and a .469 OBP% this season.

Outfielder

James Quinn-Irons, George Mason

Quinn-Irons was one of the most underrated players in all of college baseball this season, hitting for a .419 average with 24 doubles, 16 home runs, 85 RBI, a .734 SLG% and a .523 OBP% this season for a George Mason team that fell just short of the NCAA Tournament. He was a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award.

Designated Hitter

Alex Lodise, Florida State

Lodise had a phenomenal junior season for the Seminoles, earning ACC Player of the Year honors along with being named a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award. While leading a Super Regional Seminole squad, Lodise hit for a .394 average with 18 doubles, 17 home runs, 68 RBI, a .705 SLG% and a .462 OBP% this season.

Utility

Evan Dempsey, Florida Gulf Coast

Dempsey did it all for FGCU this season, hitting for a .315 average with 19 doubles and 30 RBI, along with pitching to a 1.97 ERA with 75 strikeouts in 68 2/3 innings. He was named the 2025 John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year by the College Baseball Foundation.

Pitchers

SP Kade Anderson, LSU
SP Liam Doyle, Tennessee
SP Jake Knapp, North Carolina
SP Jacob Morrison, Coastal Carolina
SP Kyson Witherspoon, Oklahoma
RP Antoine Jean, Houston
RP Dylan Volantis, Texas

Second-Team All-American

C Boston Smith, Wright State
1B Jared Jones, LSU
2B Nick Monistere, Southern Miss
3B Kerrington Cross, Cincinnati
SS Wehiwa Aloy, Arkansas
OF Lucas Moore, Louisville
OF Devin Taylor, Indiana
OF Gavin Turley, Oregon State
DH Ace Reese, Mississippi State
UT Ethan Hedges, USC
SP Jamie Arnold, Florida State
SP Anthony Eyanson, LSU
SP Blake Gillespie, Charlotte
SP JB Middleton, Southern Miss
SP Zane Taylor, UNC Wilmington
RP Gabe Craig, Baylor
RP Tony Pluta, Arizona

Third-Team All-American

C Carson Tinney, Notre Dame
1B Brady Ballinger, Kansas
2B Mitch Voit, Michigan
3B Anthony DePino, Rhode Island
SS Aiva Arquette, Oregon State
OF Jonathan Hogart, Murray State
OF Mason Neville, Oregon
OF Cameron Nickens, Austin Peay
DH Mason White, Arizona
UT Bryce Calloway, New Orleans
SP Joseph Dzierwa, Michigan State
SP Cameron Flukey, Coastal Carolina
SP Jonathan Gonzalez, Stetson
SP Jack Ohman, Yale
SP Dax Whitney, Oregon State
RP Casan Evans, LSU
RP Sawyer Hawks, Vanderbilt

The number is $28 million.

According to a report that surfaced earlier this month, that is the amount of money that Cooper Flagg earned in NIL deals during his one year at Duke. 

Fast-forward to Wednesday night, when Flagg was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft by the Dallas Mavericks. The 2025 Naismith Award winner, which is given to the top player in college basketball, is projected to make upwards of $62 million on his rookie deal over the next four years. If Flagg lives up to his billing as a generational talent, it’s possible his second contract could be more than $350 million, while that figure for his third contract might be north of $500 million, according to projections from Spotrac.

Those are staggering numbers, and it could result in Flagg becoming the first North American athlete to earn $1 billion in on-court earnings. So, what is Flagg’s plan to manage that type of money?

On Thursday afternoon, less than 24 hours after he was selected at the top pick in the draft, Flagg announced a new partnership with Chime, kicking off a long-term collaboration rooted in financial success. To kick off the partnership, Flagg and his mother, Kelly, will star in the latest episode of “Mama, I Made It” — an original YouTube series that highlights the real stories behind success through the lens of the moms who helped shape it.

We caught up with Flagg ahead of his announcement to discuss his new partnership, as well as his experience as a high-profile athlete in the new-look NIL world of college athletics.

Tell me about your new partnership with Chime and what led to your decision to enter this partnership?

“It’s big for me. Obviously, I’ve been making money for a little while now. It started when I got to college and I think the partnership just really makes sense. I’m trying to learn about money, and Chime is a great tool that I can use to help teach me about finances.”

This partnership with debut in the “Mama I Made It” series. After talking with you, I know that your mom plays a big role in your life. Can you talk about the role she has played in your career as a role model and beyond that?

“My mom has been a huge role model. She was one of my first influences of everything and anything, specifically basketball. She played Division I herself at the University of Maine and she put a ball in my hands early. 

As far as finances, as I started to get more and more attention, she’s been really important when it comes to handling everything and putting a good system in place. She’s been there every step of the way and that has helped me navigate everything.”

How involved are you personally with some of your financial decisions when it comes to NIL dollars (and now NBA dollars) and how much of a role do your mom, family and advisors play in that?

“I have a team that helps me out with everything as far as finances. My mom is the main person that it all goes through. As far as myself, it’s kind of up to me what I want to know and what I want to learn. I’ve learned a lot from my mom as I’ve gone through this because of how important she’s been with handling everything and putting important systems in place. It’s been a learning curve for both of us.”

Let’s go back to the “Mama, I Made It” series where this partnership will debut. We talked about your mom, but what does the phrase “I Made It” mean to you?

“For me, it’s about being in a place where I’m in a very good spot financially. I’ve been blessed with a lot of good opportunities, but it’s about being prepared for the moment and having systems in place and being ready to handle everything that’s being thrown my way.”

What’s been the most eye-opening thing for you when it comes to navigating this new-age NIL world of college athletics?

“The biggest part is just trying to balance it all. It can demand a lot of time, and you can get lost and focused on that. But having systems in place and a team that is around to help me go through everything and make everything easier for me has been huge and just lets me focus on basketball.”

One thing that really stands out in the NIL space is how many big dollar numbers and arbitrary reports are thrown out there when it comes to NIL earnings. Do you pay attention to that stuff?

“A lot of basketball players and athletes deal with it … it’s really just something that you have to learn to deal with in your own certain ways. For me, it’s about ignoring it and not really reading into it. I know what the truth is and what’s going on. It’s about focusing on the people around me that are in my circle.”

Is that something that you’ve had to really learn and work with people that you’re close to? I have to imagine that it has to be really challenging to ignore all of that.

“It does come with challenges, and you learn over time how you deal with it personally. I think just having a support system around me – people that you’re really close with – has really helped with blocking out all the outside stuff.”

What advice would you give to an incoming highly touted freshman about navigating the NIL space?

“The biggest thing is getting educated and learning about it yourself so you know what’s going on. You have to have people around you that you trust and know are all about the right things so they can help lead you in the right direction and make things easier on you. You want to be able to focus on just playing and be able to do what you love to do.”

How is this new partnership with Chime going to help you navigate your finances?

“It’s going to help me learn and educate me on the financial aspects of everything. It’s a really great tool. It’s going to help educate me and continue to grow and learn about finances as it becomes more and more important in my life.”

Let’s close it out with a really fun question. If you could pick one guy in the NBA, a current player or incoming player, who you can’t wait to go up against, who is that player and why?

“I would say Khaman [Maluach]. He’s one of my former teammates. I love him, and he’s one of my best friends. That would be really cool.”

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Apologies to any teams hoping to unearth the next Draymond Green, Jalen Brunson or Nikola Jokić in the second round of this year’s NBA draft.

Overlooked gems could be unusually scarce Thursday night with so many prospects returning to college to take advantage of the skyrocketing NIL market.

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In the pre-NIL era, college basketball underclassmen routinely entered the NBA Draft even if they were projected to slip to the second round or go unselected. They earned more money chasing an NBA two-way contract or an overseas payday than they could returning to a college model where the only payouts came under the table.

The calculus began to change in 2021 when a series of court rulings forced the NCAA to allow athletes to benefit financially from their name, image and likeness without fear of penalty. This spring, underclassmen who were fringe NBA prospects returned to college in record numbers because deep-pocketed college programs were willing to pay them as much as $3 million to $4 million per year.

Only 106 players entered the 2025 NBA Draft as early entry candidates, the lowest number since 2015 and down from a peak of 353 in 2021. More than half those 106 early entrants then withdrew from the draft before the NBA’s deadline — even some who might have been selected in the 20-45 range this week.

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Texas Tech’s JT Toppin, Florida’s Thomas Haugh, UConn’s Alex Karaban, Duke’s Isaiah Evans and Purdue’s Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn were among the prominent college stars who did not even test the waters this spring. Alabama’s Labaron Philon, Kentucky’s Otega Oweh and Auburn’s Tahaad Pettiford withdrew from the draft just before the May 28 deadline for underclassmen to make their decisions. So did Houston’s Milos Uzan, Florida’s Alex Condon, Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg and San Diego State’s Miles Byrd.

“This year’s draft class, more than any ever, has been affected by the NIL and affected by the new pay-for-play,” Boston Celtics general manager Brad Stevens told NBC Sports Boston last month. Stevens added that the absence of the prospects who returned to college would be felt in “the back end of the draft and even into the late first.”

That much was apparent from the lists of best available players entering Thursday night’s second round. Many were college seniors, from Stanford’s Maxime Raynaud, to Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner, to Auburn’s Johni Broome. Others were international prospects like Noah Penda and Bogoljub Marković.

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Among the players listed as potential second-round picks by Yahoo Sports NBA Draft expert Kevin O’Connor are undersized guards like West Virginia’s Javon Small, catch-and-shoot specialists like Kentucky’s Koby Brea and athletically limited big men like Villanova’s Eric Dixon. Those are the types of players who likely wouldn’t be selected in previous deeper drafts.

The good news for NBA teams is that the dearth of second-round talent could be a short-term problem. Some prospects who returned to college this year will exhaust their eligibility by 2026. Others could have more incentive to chase NBA money in the future.

The House vs. NCAA settlement puts a cap on how much colleges are allowed to pay athletes via revenue sharing and calls for the establishment of a new enforcement entity responsible for stamping out the pay-for-play deals that have dominated the NIL era of college sports. Athletes are required to submit to the new NIL Go clearinghouse all third-party NIL deals that exceed $600. The clearinghouse then must determine which deals are for a valid business purpose and are within a “reasonable range of compensation” and which are simply a recruiting incentive.

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How will the clearinghouse determine which deals are circumventing NIL rules and which are legitimate? Nobody knows. Nor does anyone know whether the clearinghouse’s decisions will hold up in court against a legal challenge.

The answers to those questions will determine whether future fringe NBA prospects turn pro as quickly as possible or keep returning to college in record numbers.

That trend will only continue if the seven-figure NIL money is still available.