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Athletes express concern over NCAA settlement's impact on non

Associated Press Sydney Moore and Sabrina Ootsburg were surrounded by hundreds of college athletes at AthleteCon when news broke that the $2.8 billion NCAA settlement had been approved by a federal judge. In a room full of college athletes, they felt like the only two people who understood the gravity of the situation. “I’m about […]

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2 weeks ago

June 8, 2025

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Athletes express concern over NCAA settlement's impact on non

Associated Press

Sydney Moore and Sabrina Ootsburg were surrounded by hundreds of college athletes at AthleteCon when news broke that the $2.8 billion NCAA settlement had been approved by a federal judge. In a room full of college athletes, they felt like the only two people who understood the gravity of the situation.

“I’m about to get paid,” Moore said a Division I football player told her.

“Yes, you are about to get paid, and a lot of your women athlete friends are about to get cut,” she responded.

Moore acknowledged that her response might be a stretch, but the sprawling House settlement clears the way for college athletes to get a share of revenue directly from their schools and provides a lucky few a shot at long-term financial stability, it raises genuine concerns for others.

Schools that opt int will be able to share up to $20.5 million with their athletes over the next year starting July 1. The majority is expected to be spent on high-revenue generating sports, with most projections estimating 75% of funds will go toward football.

So what happens to the non-revenue-generating sports which, outside of football and basketball, is pretty much all of them?

It’s a query that’s top of mind for Ootsburg as she enters her senior year at Belmont, where she competes on track and field team.

“My initial thought was, is this good or bad? What does this mean for me? How does this affect me? But more importantly, in the bigger picture, how does it affect athletes as a whole?” Ootsburg said.

“You look at the numbers where it says most of the revenue, up to 75% to 85%, will go toward football players. You understand it’s coming from the TV deals, but then it’s like, how does that affect you on the back end?” Ootsburg asked. “Let’s say 800k goes toward other athletes. Will they be able to afford other things like care, facilities, resources or even just snacks?”

Moore has similar concerns. She says most female athletes aren’t worried about how much – if any – money they’ll receive. They fear how changes could impact the student-athlete experience.

“A lot of us would much rather know that our resources and our experience as a student-athlete is going to stay the same, or possibly get better, rather than be given 3,000 dollars, but now I have to cover my meals, I have to pay for my insurance, I have to buy ankle braces because we don’t have any, and the athletic training room isn’t stocked,” Moore said over the weekend as news of Friday night’s settlement approval spread.

One of the biggest problems, Ootsburg and Moore said, is that athletes aren’t familiar with the changes. At AthleteCon in Charlotte, North Carolina, they said, perhaps the biggest change in college sports history was a push notification generally shrugged off by those directly impacted.

“Athletes do not know what’s happening,” Ootsburg said. “Talking to my teammates, it’s so new, and they see the headlines and they’re like, ‘Ok, cool, but is someone going to explain this?’ because they can read it, but then there’s so many underlying factors that go into this. This is a complex problem that you have to understand the nuances behind, and not every athlete truly does.”

Some coaches, too, are still trying to understand what’s coming.

Mike White, coach of the national champion Texas softball team, called it “the great unknown right now.”

“My athletic director, Chris Del Conte, said it’s like sailing out on a flat world and coming off the edge; we just don’t know what’s going to be out there yet, especially the way the landscape is changing,” he said at the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City. “Who knows what it’s going to be?”

What about the walk-ons?

Jake Rimmel got a crash course on the settlement in the fall of 2024, when he said he was cut from the Virginia Tech cross-country team alongside several other walk-ons. The topic held up the House case for weeks as the judge basically forced schools to give athletes cut in anticipation of approval a chance to play — they have to earn the spot, no guarantees — without counting against roster limits.

Rimmel packed up and moved back to his parents’ house in Purcellville, Virginia. For the past six months, he’s held on to a glimmer of hope that maybe he could return.

“The past six months have been very tough,” he said. “I’ve felt so alone through this, even though I wasn’t. I just felt like the whole world was out there – I would see teammates of mine and other people I knew just doing all of these things and still being part of a team. I felt like I was sidelined and on pause, while they’re continuing to do all these things.”

News that the settlement had been approved sent Rimmel looking for details.

“I didn’t see much about roster limits,” he said. “Everyone wants to talk about NIL and the revenue-sharing and I mean, that’s definitely a big piece of it, but I just didn’t see anything about the roster limits, and that’s obviously my biggest concern.”

The answer only presents more questions for Rimmel.

“We were hoping for more of a forced decision with the grandfathering, which now it’s only voluntary, so I’m a little skeptical of things because I have zero clue how schools are going to react to that,” Rimmel told The Associated Press.

Rimmel is still deciding what’s best for him, but echoed Moore and Ootsburg in saying that answers are not obvious: “I’m just hoping the schools can make the right decisions with things and have the best interest of the people who were cut.”

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AP Sports Writer Cliff Brunt contributed.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

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Nick Mingione Shares Process for Finding Right Transfer Portal Players

Finding the right players within the chaos of the transfer portal is the key to success in almost every college sports program. It has fueled Nick Mingione’s turnaround at Kentucky, where the baseball program appeared to be in a rut, only to be rejuvenated with unprecedented success over the past three seasons. Kentucky won back-to-back […]

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June 21, 2025

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Kentucky won back-to-back regional championships, culminating with a run to the 2024 College World Series. The Wildcats followed that up with an appearance in the 2025 Regional Championship, the first time the program has ever advanced to three straight NCAA Tournaments.

Advanced Metrics in the Transfer Portal

Kentucky is looking to build on that momentum this offseason by adding talented players from the transfer portal. It’s a vast space with over 5,000 players. The Bat Cats’ 2026 roster is not a finished product, but they currently have a top-five transfer portal class, according to 64Analytics. Mingione shared with BBN Tonight how his staff navigates the talent pool in the transfer portal.

“There is so much video. There’s also so much data that we can capture,” said Mingione. “We’ve created our own little system that we just plug in and crunch the numbers and see how these people do against all of these different things and metrics that we feel are important.”

Kentucky isn’t just looking for players with a good batting average. They’re examining how well players hit the ball against the fastest pitches they faced and how well they hit against certain types of pitches. Additionally, they are just looking at the highlights. They want to see where mistakes were made and if they’re correctable.

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How Players Fit In at Kentucky

That’s just one part of the equation. You heard Mark Stoops talk about finding “the right fit.” Mingione wants players who fit the Kentucky baseball culture and are willing to buy in.

“We put a ton of stock into the phone conversations. It’s one thing to be able to watch the video, to be able to see that they meet the metrics, but are they who we are? Are they going to thrive in this environment? And do they value the things we value, like being a family? Are they committed to winning in all areas of life? Are they into the development piece? There’s so many levels to this, so we put a lot of stock into phone calls. If things go well, then the background checks.”

This isn’t a background check where they run a name through a system. Mingione and his staff are calling coaches and scouts who have been around these players to get a feel for how they are in the clubhouse.

“It takes a lot of phone calls, because it’s one thing to figure out what someone can do skill-wise, but it’s hard to find out what’s in their heart. How do we find that? That’s where I feel like we’ve done a good job of not only having talented players, but the right players,” said the Kentucky baseball coach.

Kentucky Baseball 2026 Transfer Class

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Urban Meyer believes the death sentence in college football no longer serves a purpose

The death penalty in college athletics refers to the NCAA’s power to ban a school from a specific sport for one or more years. There have been multiple instances of this occurring throughout the NCAA’s history. In 1952, the Kentucky men’s basketball team was handed down the death penalty for allegedly shaving points. Southwestern Louisiana […]

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1 hour ago

June 21, 2025

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In 1952, the Kentucky men’s basketball team was handed down the death penalty for allegedly shaving points. Southwestern Louisiana was slapped with it in 1973. While several other instances have taking place over the years, the death penalty is most often connected to SMU‘s football program and how in 1987 the program was found out to have been paying its players.

Decades later, institutes may now pay their athletes directly and outside NIL earnings can help compensate them even further. With this in mind, former college football coach Urban Meyer explained the death penalty would be hard to impose within the current state of college athletics.

“No, not with the litigation, the amount of money that’s — think about the 70s. Now, you didn’t litigate back then,” Meyer said. “I don’t believe you did. Once again, I’m not an expert. I wasn’t around much, certainly not to the level of now. Back in the 70s, I mean, team could barely, you didn’t have a training table. Now, you’re talking about NIL and budgets and coaches making millions of dollars, players making money. So it was a much different animal back then.”

While Meyer believes it is much more difficult for imposing a death penalty in the modern age, it’s not impossible. Over 70 years later, the 1952 UK basketball team’s point shaving scandal is still worthy of such a punishment. With gambling becoming a commonplace among sports fans in recent years, there have been several instances of college and professional athletes getting suspended, dismissed or released due to their ties to gambling.

So far, there has been one instance of the death penalty being handed down to a school in the NIL era. In 2024, Notre Dame suspended its men’s swimming team for the entire athletic year for allegedly placing wagers among themselves regarding the results from their competitions. Athletes only bet in-house and only during their swimming meets. In addition, a group chat containing derogatory messages saw members fail to “treat one another with dignity and respect.”

There has been speculation that college athletics may move away from the NCAA in favor of adopting a governing body more equipped to handle its current landscape. What that means for the death penalty in college athletics, just like almost everything else in the ever-changing industry, remains to be seen.

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NIL Gold Rush? College-Style Revenue Sharing and Direct Payments Are Still Off Limits for High School Athletes

Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rights for athletes are on the rise and have forever blurred the lines between amateurism and professionalism in sports. What began as a fight to compensate college athletes for their contributions to the enormous revenues their schools and conferences were generating from massive media rights and sponsorship deals, merchandise sales […]

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1 hour ago

June 21, 2025

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Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rights for athletes are on the rise and have forever blurred the lines between amateurism and professionalism in sports.

What began as a fight to compensate college athletes for their contributions to the enormous revenues their schools and conferences were generating from massive media rights and sponsorship deals, merchandise sales and licensing agreements, and sold out venues, has evolved into direct payments to athletes, fueled by all-out bidding wars for recruits and transfers who enjoy virtual and perpetual free agency.

How NIL will be administered on the college level has been resolved, at least for now, following the final approval of a settlement, earlier this month, between the NCAA and lawyers representing members of three different class action lawsuits. The settlement allows schools to share as much as $20.5 million of their revenue with athletes and offer unlimited scholarships. It even set aside $2.8 billion to compensate eligible former college athletes, who did not have the benefit of NIL during their days as a student-athlete.

NIL rights have not stopped at the college level. The last four years have seen a steady movement towards NIL rights for high school athletes with 38 states and the District of Columbia establishing guidelines for high school athletes to benefit financially from their name, image and likeness. Four states – Indiana, Michigan, Montana and Ohio – are actively considering adopting similar guidelines, while only seven states prohibit NIL deals on the high school level.

Those states include Alabama, Hawaii, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Texas, however, recently enacted legislation that would allow high school athletes as young as 17 to sign NIL deals with colleges recruiting their services, but those benefits cannot begin until after the athlete completes his/her high school career.

Some envision a day when financial rights, similar to those granted in the NCAA settlement, will reach the high school level.

Former California high school athlete Dominik Calhoun — now at Boise State — filed a federal class-action lawsuit (Calhoun v. CIF) in Northern California, late last month. He alleges that the California Interscholastic Federation and several media companies, including SBLive Sports, have unlawfully restricted high school athletes from profiting off their name, image, and likeness. The lawsuit claims CIF’s policies violate antitrust laws by barring athletes from receiving compensation tied to broadcast rights, sponsorships, and ticket sales. It also challenges CIF’s transfer rules, which limit athlete mobility and earning potential.

One could never say never in the realm of sports and money, but it is unlikely high school athletes will ever receive the same NIL rewards of their college counterparts. For sure, some prep stars have inked endorsement deals for themselves but not one state has yet come close to allowing student-athletes to be paid directly by high schools or even be compensated for agreeing to attend a specific school.

In a recent article for the National Law Review, Professor Robert J. Romano, JD, LL.M explained some of the restrictions that are generally part of guidelines in every state where NIL benefits for high school athletes are allowed.

“With no national standards regarding NIL, most of the states that do allow for monetization rest upon their high school athletics governing bodies to formulate any and all rules and regulations,” wrote Professor Romano, who is an Associate Professor in the Division of Legal Studies at St. John’s University, where he has taught courses in Sport Law, Sport History, Current Topics in Sport, and Public Policy Issues in the Sport Industry.. “This leads to a variation of standards between states, but there are a few key restrictions present in most of these rules that high school athletes should be aware of.”

Romano cited the following points as being most common:

“In those states where NIL opportunities are allowed, high school athletes have a chance for a significant financial windfall,” added Romano, who played college football at Springfield College and, as a contract attorney, has negotiated employment contracts, public appearances, endorsement and sponsorship agreements for U.S. and international coaches, professional athletes, entertainers, broadcasters, and front office personnel. “However, athletes, their parents, and those advising them must ensure that any NIL agreement is in accordance with the applicable rules of their state, since non-compliance could lead to loss of eligibility to participate in athletic competition, which will certainly jeopardize any future athletic and financial opportunities.”

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Kentucky baseball adds another high-profile transfer prospect

Nick Mingione has landed another high-profile prospect out of the transfer portal. On Thursday afternoon, On3’s Pete Nakos reported USC Upstate transfer outfielder Scott Campbell has committed to play for the Bat Cats. Campbell, who was named First-Team Big South in 2025, becomes the 10th portal addition — and third position player — for Kentucky […]

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1 hour ago

June 21, 2025

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Nick Mingione has landed another high-profile prospect out of the transfer portal.

On Thursday afternoon, On3’s Pete Nakos reported USC Upstate transfer outfielder Scott Campbell has committed to play for the Bat Cats. Campbell, who was named First-Team Big South in 2025, becomes the 10th portal addition — and third position player — for Kentucky so far this offseason as Mingione reloads his roster ahead of the 2026 campaign.

“I think Kentucky plays a very gritty, fast-paced style of baseball,” Campbell told Derek Terry of Bat Cats Central. “They like guys that can do it all, whether that’s speed, defense, little bit of power, but that’s right up my alley. I think it gives me the best opportunity to not only fit in a program, but a program and coaching staff that kinda fits to what I need to be coached to.”

Campbell began his post-high school career at Chattanooga State Community College (2022-23) before moving to Charleston Southern in 2024 and then USC Upstate in 2025. The Macon, GA native started 45 games for the Spartans this past season, hitting for a .388 batting average with 11 doubles, 11 home runs, 54 RBI, a .622 SLG%, and a .498 OBP%.

Campbell is familiar with the Wildcats, having faced Kentucky during USC Upstate’s two-game run in the 2025 Clemson Regional earlier this month. He hit just 1-8 across his pair of NCAA tournament games, but the lone hit did come against UK in USC Upstate’s season-ending 7-3 loss. Campbell will have one year of college eligibility remaining.

Kentucky baseball’s 2026 transfer class

Despite losing 14 players to the portal from last season’s team (only one being ranked among 64Analytics’ top 250 transfers), Mingione is bringing in a 13-man high school class and still returns a key group of core pieces from 2025, headlined by Freshman All-American Tyler Bell. The likes of RF Ryan Schwartz, RHP Nate Harris, and LHP Ben Cleaver will also come back to Lexington for next season. Several more Wildcats, such as 2B Luke Lawrence and OF Carson Hansen, are eligible for the 2025 MLB Draft but can return for another college season.

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Olympic Gold Medalist Ahmed Hafnaoui Transfers To Florida, Returning To College Swimming

Ahmed Hafnaoui, the 2020 Olympic gold medalist in the 400 freestyle, is set to return to collegiate swimming. The 22-year-old, who entered the transfer portal in early December, confirmed to SwimSwam early this morning that he will transfer from Indiana to Florida and hopes to begin competing next season. Hafnaoui shared that he chose Florida […]

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June 21, 2025

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Olympic Gold Medalist Ahmed Hafnaoui Transfers To Florida, Returning To College Swimming

Ahmed Hafnaoui, the 2020 Olympic gold medalist in the 400 freestyle, is set to return to collegiate swimming. The 22-year-old, who entered the transfer portal in early December, confirmed to SwimSwam early this morning that he will transfer from Indiana to Florida and hopes to begin competing next season.

Hafnaoui shared that he chose Florida because “they hold both world records in the men’s and women’s distance events,” referring to Katie Ledecky, who holds the women’s 800 and 1500 world records, and Bobby Finke, who holds the men’s 1500 standard.

The future Gator is in the midst of serving a 21-month suspension for an anti-doping violation issued by the International Testing Agency (ITA). The suspension is effective from April 11, 2024, until January 10, 2026, and stems from missing three out-of-competition drug tests within a 12-month period.

Sources told SwimSwam last December that two of the missed tests occurred while Hafnaoui was training in the United States, and the third after he returned to Tunisia due to visa complications.

Because the NCAA is not a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code, it follows its own testing policies and is not necessarily bound by suspensions issued by the ITA or World Aquatics. In the past, athletes suspended by international bodies have been allowed to continue competing at the collegiate level. However, NCAA coaches who are also USA Swimming members face restrictions on working with suspended athletes, which could present administrative challenges.

Hafnaoui’s Best Times:

200 SCY free: 1:38.69
500 SCY free: 4:18.62
1000 SCY free: 8:55.74
400 LCM free: 3:40.70
800 LCM free: 7:37.00
1500 LCM free: 14:31.54

Hafnaoui swam part of the 2023-24 season at Indiana, after sitting out the 2022-2023 season due to eligibility issues, but he only competed in two meets in October for the Hoosiers before moving to California to train with The Swim Team (TST) and Mark Schubert. He ended up going back to Tunisia due to visa issues and went on to compete at the World Championships in February of last year.

At those Worlds in Doha, he didn’t final in any of his events, placing 17th in the 400 and 1500 and 18th in the 800.

Hafnaoui also swam the 400, 800, and 1500 at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka in July, where he won world titles in the 800 and 1500 while training with Indiana. His performances at that meet, reflected in his best times listed above, rank him third all-time in the 800 and 1500 and sixth all-time in the 400.

He said he decided not to compete at the 2024 Olympic Games due to his disappointing performance in Qatar and ongoing struggles with an undisclosed injury.

Between February and December of last year, before being handed the suspension, Hafnaoui began training under the guidance of Phillipe Lucas’ storied distance squad in France, where Lucas also coaches rising stars Ahmed Jaouadi and Rami Rahmouni. Hafnaoui told SwimSwam that he is currently training alone at a public pool in Tunisia.

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Will McEntire posts heartfelt goodbye to Arkansas baseball

After six seasons at Arkansas, Will McEntire‘s time as a Razorback has come to a close. On Friday, the redshirt senior posted a heartfelt goodbye to Arkansas fans. “Arkansas, I’m not sure where to begin. You have forever changed my life,” McEntire wrote. “I got to do things that I never thought were possible as […]

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2 hours ago

June 21, 2025

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After six seasons at Arkansas, Will McEntire‘s time as a Razorback has come to a close. On Friday, the redshirt senior posted a heartfelt goodbye to Arkansas fans.

“Arkansas, I’m not sure where to begin. You have forever changed my life,” McEntire wrote. “I got to do things that I never thought were possible as a kid. Growing up a Razorback fan, this was always the dream. I never took it for granted, and I am forever grateful that I got to represent this great state. Being a Razorback has meant the world to me and has forever changed me.

“I met my soon-to-be wife, played under some of the greatest coaches, played with the absolute best teammates-who I consider my brothers-and, lastly, got to play for the most passionate fanbase in the country.

“Through ups and downs, I never wavered in my love for this school. I will proudly call myself a Razorback for life and appreciate every single one of you for what you have done in this journey of mine. Forever and always, Wooo Pig.”

McEntire made 17 appearances this season, totaling 25.1 innings on the mound. He posted a 2.84 ERA and 29 strikeouts compared to just four walks.

In his six years with the program, McEntire amassed 82 appearances and a 17-5 record. He collected 233 career strikeouts and a 4.08 ERA. It’s worth noting that McEntire didn’t play during his second season in Fayetteville and redshirted instead.

McEntire’s final appearance at Arkansas was in the Razorbacks’ 7-3 win over UCLA in the College World Series. McEntire held down the mound for one inning but was taken out of the game after giving up two hits and three runs.

Just one day later, Arkansas’ season ended in devastating fashion. The Razorbacks led LSU 5-3 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. However, the pressure was on Arkansas, with two LSU runners on base.

The Razorbacks collapsed in the clutch. Arkansas left fielder Charles Davalan misjudged a line drive and failed to make the game-winning catch, allowing LSU to score two runs and tie the game.

On the next at-bat, LSU’s Jared Jones hit a laser toward center field. The ball bounced off the top of Arkansas’ Cam Kozeal‘s glove, and LSU ultimately escaped with the win. After the game, Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn reflected on the team’s season.

“It’s hard to say goodbye,” Van Horn said. “I’m not good at saying goodbyes anyway. Great team, fun team, hard-working team. And probably just ‘team.’ Man, they were a team. You could tell by how emotional they were after the game.

“It was a lot of heartbreak, maybe because we lost the game, but honestly, probably because the season’s over and they don’t get to be around each other every day. So proud of them. Proud of the University of Arkansas.”

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