Legendary coach Mike Leach tragically passed away at the age of 61 back in 2022, his death coming ahead of Mississippi State’s appearance in the ReliaQuest Bowl vs. Illinois. That game, won by the Bulldogs with interim coach Zach Arnett leading the team to a 19-10 victory in Leach’s honor, proved to be the difference in his eligibility for the NFF College Football Hall of Fame.

Leach finished his career with a record of 158-106, good for a win rate of 59.8 percent. The cutoff for the Hall of Fame? 60 percent — one victory separating the Pirate from consideration.

That was the case, at least, leading to understandable outrage from the football community following his unexpected death. He may not have won a conference or regular season championship across stops at Texas Tech, Washington State or Mississippi State, but his status as an offensive mastermind and impact on the game popularizing the Air Raid alongside Hal Mumme — including a two-year stint at Kentucky from 1997-98 to help Tim Couch become the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft — made him more than deserving.

The College Football Hall of Fame obviously agrees, altering its eligibility requirements to lower the minimum win percentage to 59.5 percent, opening the door for Leach as a potential inductee.

“The NFF is committed to preserving the integrity and prestige of the NFF College Football Hall of Fame,” NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell said in a statement. “This adjustment reflects thoughtful dialogue with leaders across the sport and allows us to better recognize coaches whose contributions to the game extend beyond a narrow statistical threshold.”

Going into effect beginning with the 2027 NFF College Football Hall of Fame Ballot, coaches with win rates of 59.5 percent must have served as a head coach for a minimum of 10 seasons with at least 100 games and will be eligible for consideration three full seasons after retirement or immediately following retirement if they are at least 70 years of age. Active coaches will be eligible upon reaching the age of 75.

In two seasons at Kentucky, Leach helped the Wildcats set six NCAA records, 41 Southeastern Conference records and 116 school records in 22 games. UK went 12-10 in that span while earning an Outback Bowl bid in 1998. From there, he became Bob Stoops’ first offensive coordinator at Oklahoma and the rest was history, getting his first head coaching shot at Texas Tech a year later in 2000.

Now, thanks to some eligibility adjustments, he’s on his way to the College Football Hall of Fame.

We’ll be calling it the Pirate Rule until further notice. Time for the late, great Mike Leach to receive the recognition he deserves in Atlanta in 2027.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) – There’s a lot that high school athletes have to deal with: schoolwork, practice, maybe going after a college scholarship.

And now with the changes to Rule 19, transferring to a school that offers better opportunities

“If I’m a good athlete and I want to be a part of a winning team, I may be the best player in a local suburb, and I want to win,” says Kirk Butler, talent president for 90 Ninety One Sports Agency. “If I’m going to want to win, I may have to go to another high school to do so.”

RELATED: What is Rule 19?: A breakdown of Indiana’s new transfer rule for high school athletes

Butler is a high school sports agent that works with over 80 athletes across the country. He helps them connect with specialized trainers and interact with college coaches. Now, it’s also about connecting with high school coaches

“We can facilitate some of those connections and relationships,” Butler says. “We have a platform tool where an athlete at the high school level can upload videos and send them to prep schools, send them to colleges, send them to junior colleges, community colleges. Because they might not necessarily be able to reach a coach and say, ‘Hey, please take a look at my video.’”

With transferring comes questions about Name Image and Likeness payments. It’s not allowed right now in Indiana, but it could always change.

I asked the IHSAA’s commissioner on how they’re approaching this.

“Our philosophy is this: you can’t sell what you don’t own. You don’t own a school’s uniform. You don’t own their facility. You don’t own their name,” says IHSAA Commissioner Paul Neidig. “If a student wants to teach somebody how to shoot a basketball or hit a baseball, or a softball, with their own name and they do it on their own, that’s not necessarily something we’re going to get involved in in the future.”

RELATED: What impact could Indiana’s new transfer rule have on high school sports?

Academics sometimes feel lost in these conversations, but not for Butler.

“Having the trust in parents to say, ‘Hey listen, we know what your athlete wants,’” Butler explains. “But at the end of the day, the first word in that is student-athlete. I care about your grades first, athletics can go after.”

Because while high school athletes do have a lot to handle, school is the thing that makes everything else possible.

Refresher on Indiana’s Rule 19

Previously if a student transferred schools, they would have to sit out one calendar year and miss all three sports seasons.

Now for a first-time transfer, as long as the student isn’t a senior, they will be immediately eligible to play sports at their new school. Think of it like the transfer portal in college sports.

This rule goes into effect this Sunday, June 1, so we’ll be seeing the first students use it heading into next school year’s fall season.

There are still many moving parts within Rule 19. Our WNDU 16 Sports team will have more breakdowns and explainers throughout the week on WNDU 16 News Now and WNDU.com.

Copyright 2025 WNDU. All rights reserved.

Tennessee softball rallied after a Game 1 loss to Nebraska in the super regionals, winning Games 2 and 3 to advance to the Women’s College World Series.

The No. 7 Lady Vols wore their all-blue uniforms for the series-clinching win on Sunday, setting up a first-round WCWS matchup with No. 2 Oklahoma. Tennessee might bring back the all-blue uniforms again in Oklahoma City, which might be unusual for some college softball fans not aware of the Lady Vols’ history.

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WCWS bracket 2025: Full schedule, matchups for NCAA softball tournament

All of Tennessee’s women’s sports programs wear “Summitt Blue” uniforms in honor of Pat Summitt, the legendary Lady Vols basketball coach.

Here’s everything to know about Tennessee softball’s blue uniforms, and how they came about:

Why does Tennessee softball wear blue?

Tennessee softball started wearing blue jerseys in 2022, as part of the “Summitt Legacy” collection of uniforms for Vols women’s sports. Lady Vols soccer, volleyball, softball and basketball all have blue uniform options.

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Lady Vols softball stepped it up in 2025, however, introducing a full blue uniform for the first time. Previously, the team wore white or orange pants with their blue jerseys.

The “Summitt Blue” collection launched in 2022 as part of the 50th anniversary of Title IX. It was then when Tennessee officially renamed the blue accents that are part of the school’s colors in honor of Summitt.

“Well, I think I finally got over the idea that we’d look like North Carolina if we wore all Summitt Blue,” Lady Vols softball coach Karen Weekly told the Knoxville News-Sentinel earlier this year. “The little touches to it, like the Summitt legacy patch on it, because Pat Summitt is a big part of our program, a big part of me and Ralph (Weekly). We wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t have the success we’ve had here if it wasn’t for Pat Summitt.”

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Summitt coached at Tennessee from 1974-2012 and won eight national championships and went to 18 Final Fours. She was gifted the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama and was a part of the inaugural Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame class in 1999.

Summitt retired from coaching in 2012 after being diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. She died in 2016 at the age of 64.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why does Tennessee wear blue? ‘Summitt Blue’ uniforms, explained

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Texas Tech softball team’s Women’s College World Series game against Ole Miss has been affected by weather.

Pull up your Google Calendars because we’ve got kickoff times for Kentucky’s first three games of the season.

The SEC dropped the entire TV schedule for the first three games of the 2025 campaign. Kentucky will open the season vs. Toledo at 12:45 p.m. ET on Saturday, August 30, on the SEC Network. The next week (September 6), the Cats will host Ole Miss at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC. On September 13, Kentucky vs. Eastern Michigan will kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPNU. The Cats have their first bye week of the season after that.

We’ll find the rest of the kickoff times out as the season goes on, typically two Mondays before each game. Here is the schedule as we know it:

• Aug. 30, 12:45 PM: vs. Toledo | Kroger Field (Lexington, KY) | SEC Network
• Sept 6, 3:30 PM: vs. Ole Miss | Kroger Field (Lexington, KY) | ABC
• Sep. 13, 7:30 PM: vs. Eastern Michigan | Kroger Field (Lexington, KY) | ESPNU
• Sept. 20: OPEN
• Sept. 27: at South Carolina | Williams-Brice Stadium (Columbia, SC)
• Oct. 4: at Georgia | Sanford Stadium (Athens, GA)
• Oct. 11: OPEN
• Oct. 18: vs. Texas | Kroger Field (Lexington, KY)
• Oct. 25: vs. Tennessee | Kroger Field (Lexington, KY)
• Nov. 1: at Auburn | Jordan-Hare Stadium (Auburn, AL)
• Nov. 8: vs. Florida | Kroger Field (Lexington, KY)
• Nov. 15: vs. Tennessee Tech | Kroger Field (Lexington, KY)
• Nov. 22: at Vanderbilt | FirstBank Stadium (Nashville, TN)
• Nov. 29: at Louisville | L&N Stadium (Louisville, KY)

And all of the SEC kickoff times for the first three weeks, along with a few big games later in the season, if you want to go ahead and plan your Saturdays.

Week 1: Aug. 28–31

Week 2: Sept. 6

Week 3: Sept. 13

Week 7: Oct. 11

Week 10: Nov. 1

Week 14: Nov. 28