For as long as anyone can remember the two dominant teams in the ACC were Duke and North Carolina. It didn’t necessarily mean that the programs would finish at the top of the conference, but each team was the standard that everyone tried to match.

However, while the Blue Devils have thrived in the new landscape of college basketball while navigating NIL and the transfer portal in addition to still landing impact high school recruits, the Tar Heels have struggled to adjust.

North Carolina only hired a general manager for its program this offseason and despite landing a 5-star recruit in Caleb Wilson, Hubert Davis’ team had a relatively quiet offseason as others in the ACC made major moves.

No program sent more shockwaves through the league than NC State and the Wolfpack have proven that it will not be long before it is consistently battling for ACC championships after hiring head coach Will Wade.

The same can be said for Louisville, who returned to the NCAA Tournament in the first season under head coach Pat Kelsey after a miserable short tenure with Kenny Payne at the helm.

It begs the question that if Duke stays as a contender in the ACC, which is has shown no signs of dropping off anytime soon, can North Carolina still compete at the top of a conference that has not been generating much success over the last two seasons.

Many believed that the Tar Heels should not have made the NCAA Tournament this season, squeezing in as a Last Four In, which would have made two missed postseasons in the last three years.

Now, despite a contract extension there is massive pressure on the shoulders of Hubert Davis to succeed this season and get North Carolina back in the conversation with Duke or risk being passed by Louisville, NC State, and others.

The time has come for many questions to be answered this week with Big 12 meetings taking place in Orlando, Florida at the Waldorf Astoria. These spring meetings are held every year to discuss topics that will affect every team’s sport.

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark and head football and basketball coaches from the Big 12 are typically in attendance to discuss their league and other topics that have been circling around college sports.

Here’s what could be discussed during these meetings that could affect Tech, as well as the rest of the Big 12.

House Settlement – House v. NCAA

– Lots of national media will be surrounding this ongoing settlement during the week. If this passes, revenue-sharing with college athletes will begin on July 1. How will this affect the future of college athletics? What will NIL look like after this season? Opinion on the roster limits? These questions and more will be asked and talked about this week.

Because of existing rules around NIL, next offseason could look a lot different on how Texas Tech and other schools can operate.

College Football Playoffs

– The 2024 season was the first year that a 12-team college football playoff was implemented. It will remain at 12 teams for 2025, but a big topic that will come up is if the playoffs will have 14 or 16 teams that would include play-in games as part of conference championship weekend. A big discussion point will be the new rules for this years playoffs. This year’s edition will include straight seeding instead of the four highest-ranked conference champions receiving byes.

Will the Big 12 publicly support a specific playoff format for 2026 and beyond? Will the Big 12 look to potentially get the US government involved? Will the Big 12 posture publicly for the “good of sport” mantra that commissioner Yormark discussed last week?

Transfer Portal Windows

– Several topics such as the transfer portal window dates, recruiting periods, spring practice, and more will be discussed by coaches and administrators this week. Many coaches want to rid themselves of two portal windows. Several players were able to enter the portal in December, commit, and then enter the portal again in the spring and go somewhere else.

If the spring portal window is shut down, how does this affect spring practice? Does the Big 12 have a stance on when they want the portal window to be?

Kickoff times

– On Thursday May 29th, kickoff times for the first three weeks of the 2025 season are expected to be announced. Keep an eye out for Texas Tech’s kickoff times for games vs Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Kent State and Oregon State. Oregon State could potentially be picked up by a national TV network.

18 game Big 12 basketball season

– For league play in Big 12 basketball, there had been an 18-game conference schedule, but last year it was switched to 20 games. This resulted in teams not having as much time off and having two games every single week with limited rest time with no bye. After overwhelming support to go back to 18, the 2025/26 season will return to 18 games during conference play.

How will the Big 12 decide how that 18 game conference slate is constructed? Keep an eye on who Texas Tech will play multiple times.

What’s next for Big 12 baseball?

– It was just announced that the 2026 Big 12 Baseball Championships will be held at Surprise Stadium in Surprise, Arizona. This is believed to be a one year scenario, but what comes next?

A bill making its way through the Texas legislature could see the state’s colleges pay their student athletes for the first time.

The Texas state senate unanimously passed a bill on Tuesday that would allow universities to enter into name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals directly with their athletes, either as compensation for team-sanctioned events in which they participate or as an incentive for enrollment.

This differs from previous NIL legislation, which allowed deals to be struck between intercollegiate athletes and outside parties such as advertisers.

Why It Matters

Compensating student athletes has remained a contentious issue given the popularity and profitability of college sports in the United States, with many arguing the athletes themselves should be entitled to a share of the revenue they generate. Supporters of the current bill argue that this will also give colleges extra leverage to ensure talent is not lost to other states.

Opponents, however, maintain that providing students with compensation beyond scholarships could undermine educational integrity and the longstanding amateurism model of collegiate sports.

With one of the largest student athlete populations in the country, behind only California, the landmark Texas bill could see more states following suit.

What To Know

The NIL compensation bill passed through the Texas House in April and the Senate Education Committee earlier this month. Representative Carl Tepper, who drafted House Bill 126, told lawmakers during one debate: “We will be killing college football in Texas if we do not pass this bill.”

According to the amended bill, which passed in the Senate on Tuesday, student athletes will still be barred from receiving compensation for the endorsement of alcohol, tobacco and nicotine products, as well as steroids, gambling, firearms or any “sexually oriented business.”

The legislation follows several high-profile challenges to the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) rules regarding student athlete compensation. This includes the imminent settlement in House v. NCAA, a class-action lawsuit filed by several college athletes against the Association and its five largest conferences.

The parties agreed to pay just under $2.8 billion in back damages to student-athletes who competed between 2016 and 2024 but were denied NIL benefits during their college attendance. The settlement still awaits final approval from United States District Judge Claudia Wilken.

Senator Brandon Creighton, who sponsored the latest bill in the Texas Senate, cited the NCAA settlement as a motivation, saying: “We have to continue to work – especially with settlements like this – to bring any common sense and consistency possible to what has been considered the Wild West for name, image, and likeness and paying college athletes.”

What People Are Saying

Texas state Representative Mitch Little, during a debate in April: “The university enters into an NIL contract with a student athlete [and] says: ‘We’re going to pay you $4 million to come and play college football here.’ And then they get on campus, and the university decides ‘you stink. We’re not going to pay you the rest of this NIL contract.’ What am I supposed to tell that student athlete?”

What Happens Next

The Texas compensation bill now awaits the signature of Governor Greg Abbott and could take effect as soon as September 1, according to The Texas Tribune.

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