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Can This 14

WASHINGTON — Brittany Coleman’s son Kaden had just turned 10 when youth football coaches started pressing envelopes with thousands of dollars into her hand. They wanted Kaden to play for their club teams in Maryland, in New Jersey and across the mid-Atlantic. Coleman always refused. Payments for top players, an open secret in youth sports, […]

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1 month ago

June 2, 2025

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Coleman always refused. Payments for top players, an open secret in youth sports, weren’t allowed, and she didn’t want to tarnish her son.

But as Kaden has grown to become one of the best eighth-grade football players in the country, there is now a legal, and potentially far more lucrative, way for him to profit from his talent.

Just as college athletes can now be paid for their athletic talent through so-called name, image and likeness, or NIL, deals — which compensate players for the use of their image in commercials and other promotional material — so can students as young as middle school.

Last summer, Coleman allowed Kaden to sign sponsorship deals with a local fashion brand, Second N Six, and an athletic gear company. Kaden also has an agent to help him with future deals.

Coleman declined to say how much money her son had received so far, but she’s clear about her aspirations for him. “I’ll tell you what the goal is,” said Coleman, a counselor in the District of Columbia’s public school system. “The goal is for him to reach a million dollars his freshman year of high school.”

Since the National Collegiate Athletic Association began allowing NIL deals in 2021 after years of increasing legal and political pressure, money has poured into college athletics, turning young star players into multimillionaires and raising the already high stakes for student-athletes and their families.

Now, at least 41 states and the District of Columbia have policies through their athletic associations allowing NIL agreements for high school students, and many allow deals for students in middle school, according to Opendorse, a platform for NIL deals. About two years ago, one sports marketing agency signed an NIL deal with a youth football player in Los Angeles who was only 9 years old.

Major brands such as Reebok, Gatorade and Leaf Trading Cards have offered lucrative deals to a handful of high school football and basketball stars, and local businesses like real estate companies and restaurants participate as well. The deals can range from modest — free clothing and food — to seven figures from major brands.

“In compensating minors, you just hope that they have someone responsible acting on their behalf,” said David Ridpath, a professor of sports business at Ohio University.

Seeking the best path for her son, Coleman has found an ally in Mike Sharrieff, Kaden’s coach at John Hayden Johnson Middle School. He anticipated the NIL gold rush’s trickling down to youth sports and was ready for it.

One day in April, coach Mike, as he’s known, sat at the head of a lunch table monitoring his players’ after-school study hall, as he does each day. Coach Mike is broad-shouldered with a booming voice and a lighthouse smile. His football team, the Panthers, was dressed for the workout that would follow, in black shorts and T-shirts, both emblazoned with a Panther logo. When a stranger walked in, the middle schoolers stood up, introducing themselves one by one and offering a handshake.

Over 22 years, the coach has built a football powerhouse and become a pillar of Washington’s Ward 8 neighborhood by making the Johnson school more like a clubhouse. Days start with early-morning workouts. They end with study halls that keep Sharrieff’s boys (and girls) on its grounds until 8 p.m. into the summer months so they can maintain the 3.0 GPA required to play for his team.

For good reason. Despite the cranes and pastel-colored houses and apartments going up that give Ward 8 a veneer of gentrification, it remains a rough neighborhood. The rate of gun violence is the second highest in the city, while the poverty rate is more than double the U.S. average.

By all measures, Johnson’s football program is a success.

Under Sharrieff, the Panthers are 192-25, have won nine city championships and are perennially ranked in the top five nationally. Seven Johnson alumni have played in the National Football League.

“People belong somewhere but not everywhere,” he said. “I found my somewhere.”

Sharrieff is not a fan of the NIL system. He wonders how healthy could it be paying children. How damaging is it to the hierarchy of a locker room?

But Sharrieff knew these deals were inevitable in youth sports and felt that if he ignored them, he would be shirking his duties as an educator. He had a half-dozen players with deals this past season, he said, and expects that number to double next fall.

“College already has become pro football, high school is finding its market, and there were already some foxes trying to get in my henhouse,” Sharrieff said.

He has taught each player how to open a savings account and brought in a bank representative to talk to parents. The students must pass a financial competency test, and take lessons in handling social media and the news media. Those who secure NIL deals must maintain a 3.5 GPA.

“I’m here to make sure they are dealing with reputable people and that they won’t disrupt what we are trying to do here,” Sharrieff said.

Kaden Coleman-Bennett, 14, has been famous in youth football circles since he was 9. He has played more than 140 games for club teams that traveled to Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Florida, where his team won the Battle Youth National Championship.

In the summers, he attends football camps, where his performance has prompted verbal offers for scholarships from both Syracuse and Virginia Tech. He is also an honors student and is taking advanced classes.

In the fall, Kaden will attend DeMatha Catholic High School, a national powerhouse in football, on an academic scholarship.

Kaden is used to awkward approaches from adults wanting him to play for their teams. He has been recruited for every kind of team imaginable — travel, high school, all-star teams. When he was 9, one coach asked him for his Cash App handle.

“I had to tell him I didn’t have a phone,” Kaden said.

Coleman admits that she has a hard time grasping her son’s celebrity. Kaden never wanted to play football. He likes drawing and science. He wasn’t eager to get hit. Yet he was a natural the moment he stepped onto the field. Now, 5 feet, 8 inches tall and 165 pounds, Kaden is a fast, punishing running back with excellent balance and high football IQ.

(BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM.)

While Coleman and Kaden were standing outside school one day this spring, a group of high school students passed by and started calling out to her son. He didn’t know them.

“They were like, ‘There’s No. 0,'” referring to Kaden’s uniform number, she said, “and making a fuss over him. It is so unreal. I haven’t gotten used to it.”

There is a downside as well. His highlights are circulated in youth football communities on social media, along with plenty of hate. Coleman will not let her son on Facebook.

“There are adults who say terrible things about him,” she said.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM.)

Last season, Sharrieff helped Kaden’s mother vet would-be sponsors, including an offer from the clothing brand Second N Six.

Keith Hardy, founder of Second N Six, had struck deals with high school players before, but Kaden was his first middle school player. Kaden has more than 9,400 Instagram followers, but highlights of his performances reach tens of thousands more across social media. For wearing and posting about Second N Six, Kaden gets free swag to wear and a commission on sales of certain items.

In a world where social media turns out content creators at a dizzying pace, it pays for marketers to attach themselves to athletes no matter their age.

“It is a bet on Kaden’s future, that he is going to blow up even more in high school and wherever he goes to college,” Hardy said.

(BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM.)

Coleman knows that money from football can bring life-changing opportunities for her son, but as a truancy counselor in Southeast Washington she has seen talented young people like Kaden be taken advantage of by hustlers and hangers-on, some of them family members.

To guide her son through more complicated and, she hopes, more lucrative future deals, Coleman reached out to a childhood friend, Terrence Jackson, who is an NFL agent. At first, Jackson said, he was reluctant to represent his friend’s son.

“But I have a 13-year-old daughter who is a model, and she has an agent,” Jackson said.

For now, he said, he will not take a commission, which for NIL agents can range from 10% to 20%. He is getting to know his new client, working on a marketing plan and revamping Kaden’s social media platforms.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM.)

Kaden knows that the $1 million goal might be aspirational, but he has promised his mother that he will continue making his grades, doing his workouts and, well, being a good son.

“The only people out there who touch a million dollars are in the NFL or in college,” he said. “With a lot of help, I have hit all my goals so far. I know how to stay focused.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

NIL

The new college sports agency is rejecting some athlete NIL deals with donor-backed collectives

The new agency in charge of regulating name, image, likeness deals in college sports sent a letter to schools Thursday saying it had rejected deals between players and donor-backed collectives formed over the past several years to funnel money to athletes or their schools. Those arrangements hold no “valid business purpose,” the memo said, and […]

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4 minutes ago

July 10, 2025

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Those arrangements hold no “valid business purpose,” the memo said, and don’t adhere to rules that call for outside NIL deals to be between players and companies that provide goods or services to the general public for profit.

The letter to Division I athletic directors could be the next step in shuttering today’s version of the collective, groups that are closely affiliated with schools and that, in the early days of NIL after July 2021, proved the most efficient way for schools to indirectly cut deals with players.

Since then, the landscape has changed yet again with the $2.8 billion House settlement that allows schools to pay the players directly as of July 1.

Already, collectives affiliated with Colorado, Alabama, Notre Dame, Georgia and others have announced they’re shutting down. Georgia, Ohio State and Illinois are among those that have announced plans with Learfield, a media and technology company with decades of licensing and other experience across college athletics, to help arrange NIL deals.

Outside deals between athlete and sponsor are still permitted, but any worth $600 or more have to be vetted by a clearinghouse called NIL Go that was established by the new College Sports Commission and is being run by the auditing group Deloitte.

In its letter to the ADs, the CSC said more than 1,500 deals have been cleared since NIL Go launched on June 11, “ranging in value from three figures to seven figures.” More than 12,000 athletes and 1,100 institutional users have registered to use the system.

Georgia's Olivia Smoliga swims to a first-place finish in the... — Georgia’s Olivia Smoliga swims to a first-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle at the NCAA women’s swimming and diving championships at Georgia Tech, March 19, 2016, in Atlanta. Credit: AP/David Goldman

But the bulk of the letter explained that many deals could not be cleared because they did not conform to an NCAA rule that sets a “valid business purpose” standard for deals to be approved.

The letter explained that if a collective reaches a deal with an athlete to appear on behalf of the collective, which charges an admission fee, the standard is not met because the purpose of the event is to raise money to pay athletes, not to provide goods or services available to the general public for profit.

The same would apply to a deal an athlete makes to sell merchandise to raise money to pay that player because the purpose of “selling merchandise is to raise money to pay that student-athlete and potentially other student-athletes at a particular school or schools, which is not a valid business purpose” according to the NCAA rule.

Sports attorney Darren Heitner, who deals in NIL, said the guidance “could disproportionately burden collectives that are already committed to spending money on players for multiple years to come.”

Texas State takes the field against Louisiana Monroe during an... — Texas State takes the field against Louisiana Monroe during an NCAA football game, Oct. 14, 2023, in San Marcos Texas. Credit: AP

“If a pattern of rejections results from collective deals submitted to Deloitte, it may invite legal scrutiny under antitrust principles,” he said.

On a separate track, some college sports leaders, including the NCAA, are seeking a limited form of antitrust protection from Congress.

The letter said a NIL deal could be approved if, for instance, the businesses paying the players had a broader purpose than simply acting as a collective. The letter uses a golf course or apparel company as examples.

“In other words, NIL collectives may act as marketing agencies that match student-athletes with businesses that have a valid business purpose and seek to use the student’s NIL to promote their businesses,” the letter said.

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Kentucky basketball handled NIL payments with maturity. Revenue-sharing era will be same

Before name, image and likeness brought huge payouts to college athletes, coaches panicked over its potential impact in the locker rooms. They thought pocket watching would be the rule of thumb and it would cause division on the team over how much individuals were making. There were tales here and there of jealousy over deals […]

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24 minutes ago

July 10, 2025

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There were tales here and there of jealousy over deals tearing teams apart. Steve Alford said Nevada’s basketball team fell victim last season. Overall, the coaches were wrong about this one.

I bring that up because, as of Tuesday, colleges and universities can officially begin paying their athletes directly as part of the House v. NCAA settlement. There will be more players with deals that rival professional sports contracts.

It wasn’t a problem when it was just NIL, and it won’t be a problem with college athletes essentially getting salaries now.

Just ask Kentucky basketball players. Who’s making what isn’t a topic that is ever really broached in their locker room.

“If I’m being honest, we really don’t talk about it because it’s a weird conversation to have,” UK guard Otega Oweh said. “Like, ‘Oh, yeah, how much you making?’ It’s kind of strange, so we just stay away from that topic. Keep the hoops, the hoops.”

Unless some regulation is passed to get transparency and there is public reporting of team roster salaries, then it will be a guessing game for the athletes, too.

Players hear the same things the general public does when it comes to individual salaries and how much a school is reportedly paying its roster. Oweh said he heard the rumors that UK was paying $20 million for its 2024-25 basketball squad.

“I feel like it could be,” Oweh said. “A lot of other teams I’m seeing, like, similar things. So it could be, I really don’t know.”

Give the players some credit here. Every player in every sport has been through enough practices, enough drills and through enough game scenarios to know exactly who they’d want to make a play that will decide the game’s outcome.

There is an unspoken hierarchy. And the payments will reflect that reality. The disparity between who makes what is only going to get worse now with revenue sharing in play.

For those lucky enough to play professionally in their sport, this is simply the beginning of what life looks like in the real world.

Denzel Aberdeen transferred to UK after being a key reserve on Florida’s national championship run last season. He said comparing incomes wasn’t a problem for the Gators, and he hasn’t found any issues now that he’s with the Wildcats.

“We know what we came in for, we came in to play basketball,” Aberdeen said. “It ain’t really about the other stuff.”

That’s certainly not to say that it’ll never happen.

There will be cases where who is making what money will cause division in the locker room. But those occurrences will happen no more than players bickering over the starting lineup or who gets what plays called for them or the timeless tale of bickering over a love interest, which has been known to throw a monkey wrench in many a championship contender.

The bigger stories from NIL payments came over unfulfilled NIL promises including UNLV starting quarterback Matt Sluka, who transferred midseason because the school didn’t deliver on a verbal agreement. Or former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava reportedly asking for a pay increase to $8 million before leaving for UCLA.

The players handled making NIL money with maturity. Expect them to do the same with more money pouring in from the House settlement.

Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.

This story was updated to add a video.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball can handle NCAA revenue sharing: House settlement

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Pitching with purpose: One Lady Vol’s NIL deal makes a difference

Thanks to Charli Orsini’s advocacy, every Tennessee softball video on Instagram now includes subtitles KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — For Tennessee softball’s Charli Orsini, her purpose is far beyond the softball field. “I always say it’s not about the disability — it’s about the ability,” said Orsini. Long before she ever wore orange, Orsini was watching the […]

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26 minutes ago

July 10, 2025

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Thanks to Charli Orsini’s advocacy, every Tennessee softball video on Instagram now includes subtitles

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — For Tennessee softball’s Charli Orsini, her purpose is far beyond the softball field.

“I always say it’s not about the disability — it’s about the ability,” said Orsini.

Long before she ever wore orange, Orsini was watching the Lady Vols from 10,000 miles away, home in Australia, in class.

“I actually got my iPad confiscated because I would watch the World Series in class, and I’d have to put my iPad in phone iPad jail,” she said.

Becoming a Lady Vol was always her dream, and eventually, Knoxville became her home, but this story is not just about softball. Once a student athlete at Tennessee, Orsini found her calling.

“I started learning Australian sign language when I was in Australia and it was something that was like oh this is pretty cool. Part of my degree, you needed to learn a language, and I was enrolled in intermediate Russian and I was like let’s not do that,” added Orsini.

That switch led her to American Sign Language — and it became more than just a degree requirement.

“In the end of the day, I just want a world where everyone’s included,” said Orsini.

Unlike her teammates, Orsini is not eligible for NIL because she isn’t a U.S. citizen.

“Mom always says, Turn a red light into a green light.”

When Fans Meet Idols reached out about an NIL opportunity, Orsini decided to turn it into a deal for purpose, not for profit, with 100% of the proceeds from her merch going to the Tennessee School for the Deaf.

“It kind of sucks, like my freshman and sophomore year, like I kind of had to sit on the sideline because I wasn’t presented with this opportunity before. So I knew that, like, I had this idea and I’m gonna run with it,” added Orsini.

The mission hits close to home for one of her professors, Ethan Swafford, who attended the Tennessee School for the Deaf.

“I was completely surprised, and at the same time honored, because I’m an alumni of the Tennessee School for the Deaf. I graduated. I attended that school. I played sports there, I earned a letter in three sports there,” said Swafford.

Orsini’s newest piece in the collection? A jersey featuring her last name spelled out in ASL.

“It gives you an opportunity to say, ‘Wow, let me teach you about it’,” said Orsini

The ripple effect is reaching younger generations, including a second grader named Charlee at the Tennessee School for the Deaf in Nashville.

Charlee’s mom, Amy, entered her in one of Orsini’s Instagram giveaways — and didn’t tell her.

“I didn’t tell her about the giveaway, so she saw the front of the shirt. She was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool’. Well, when I turned it around and she saw the ASL on there, she was like, ‘Wait, what?’ And so we talked about it. She saw that it had her school name on the inside of the jersey, and she was super excited about it. Danced around our living room for a little while,” said Amy Ferrell.

Charlee was even more excited when she learned what Orsini was doing for her school.

“I’m happy about that because teachers, principals, they need some money to get new things for the building, different food,” said Charlee.

Thanks to Orsini’s advocacy, every Tennessee softball video on Instagram now includes subtitles. Additionally, the in-stadium video board features subtitles at home games — ensuring Deaf fans can be part of the big moments, too.

“Imagine a world where you can’t hear and you go to a game and you don’t know what’s happening now, all of a sudden, one person makes a really small change, and now you know what’s going on,” added Orsini.

And for Amy, it’s something families like hers have long needed.

“I grew up watching UT sports. My parents have season tickets to the game, so it just makes it that much more special. Any accessibility is huge. It’s one less burden we as a family have to fight for,” added Ferrell.

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A Breakdown of the FGCU Women’s Soccer Team’s 2025 Schedule – Eagle Media

The FGCU women’s soccer team released its 2025 schedule on Thursday, July 3, which features a mix of Southeastern Conference (SEC) opponents and cross-state rivals. The schedule consists of 20 matches, with 10 home games and 10 away games, unlike its male counterpart. The Eagles will kick off their 2025 season with a pair of […]

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27 minutes ago

July 10, 2025

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The Eagles will kick off their 2025 season with a pair of exhibition matches. FGCU will play Miami in Coral Gables on Aug. 3. This will be the eighth all-time meeting between the two teams, with the Hurricanes holding a 4-2-1 advantage in the series. In an exhibition match last year, both teams ended in a 0-0 draw at Pickering Field at the FGCU Soccer Complex. FGCU rounds out exhibition play against Miami-Dade College on Aug. 8.

The season begins with a two-game homestand against Cal State Fullerton and Webber International on Aug. 14 and Aug. 17, respectively. Both games set up the first of three SEC matchups this season. The Eagles will host LSU on Aug. 21, in what will be the first-ever matchup between the two programs. The Tigers finished the 2024 season with a 9-9-3 record, which earned them an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. This will be the second consecutive season in which FGCU hosts an SEC opponent.

From there, the Eagles will embark on their longest road trip of the season, spanning four matches. FGCU will play Florida rivals FAU and FIU on Aug. 28 and Sept. 4. Then, the Jim Blankenship-led team will face the SEC duo of Florida and Auburn on the road. They will complete the second leg of a home-and-home series against the Gators on Sept. 4. FGCU has played against Florida eight times and has yet to beat them. The best result occurred last season, which was a 0-0 draw at Pickering Field.

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Then, FGCU will travel to Auburn, Alabama, to face off against Auburn on Sept. 7. The Tigers are coming off an impressive season, posting a 13-4-4 record with an appearance in the 2024 NCAA Tournament’s second round. This will be the second matchup against the Tigers in program history, the first being a 1-0 defeat in the first round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament.

The Eagles return to Pickering Field on Sept. 11 to wrap up their non-conference slate against the Grambling State Tigers.

FGCU aims to repeat its strong season in the ASUN, where it went 9-1-1, earning the top seed in the ASUN tournament. The Eagles fell to Eastern Kentucky in the semifinals of the tournament, 2-1, in extra time. They begin their conference slate with three straight road games against Stetson on Sept. 21, Queens on Sept. 25 and West Georgia on Sept. 28. The Eagles outscored each university by a combined 15 goals last season.

The Eagles then return home for a two-match homestand against cross-state rivals Jacksonville and North Florida on Oct. 2 and Oct. 5, respectively. A two-match road trip against the Dolphins and the Ospreys follows on Oct. 9 and Oct. 12, respectively. FGCU swept both games against JU and UNF last season.

Following the road trip, FGCU wraps up its regular season with a three-match homestand. The Eagles will host West Georgia on Oct. 16, Queens on Oct. 19 and Stetson on Oct. 25 at Pickering Field.

After coming up short in the 2024 ASUN Tournament, the Eagles eye redemption with key All-ASUN players: Erika Zschuppe, Kendal Gargiula, and Lauren Dwyer, returning for a run at the title.

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EA Sports College Football 26 review

When the College Football video game series came back last summer after 11 years away, it didn’t really matter how good the game was, as long as it was the game fans remembered. For the most part, it was, and the reviews for College Football 25 were overwhelmingly positive, including from me. Gamers agreed. It […]

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30 minutes ago

July 10, 2025

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When the College Football video game series came back last summer after 11 years away, it didn’t really matter how good the game was, as long as it was the game fans remembered. For the most part, it was, and the reviews for College Football 25 were overwhelmingly positive, including from me.

Gamers agreed. It became the best-selling sports video game of all-time in total dollars, blowing away everyone’s expectations, including EA Sports’. It was so successful that schools and their licensing partners last fall began working to bring back a college basketball video game, which is expected to happen in the coming years.

But as the year went on and the newness of College Football 25 wore off, the holes in the game became easier to see. Dynasty Mode was bare-bones. Road to Glory didn’t have a high school mode. Gameplay was frustrating at times. The game was still very good, but there was obviously more to do. The developers admitted they couldn’t get to everything.

With the release of College Football 26 this week, EA Sports has filled most of those gaping holes. Does that mean it’s worth the $70 or more to upgrade to a new game? That’s up to each individual gamer and what they prioritize. In this review, I’ll go over what’s new and whether it makes buying a new game worth it.

Presentation

A lot of fine-tuning here. The incessant drumline from CFB25 has been replaced by bands playing real songs and fight songs, making daily returns to the game much more enjoyable. The Trophy Room is back, providing both a fun background quest and educational tool (you can see every trophy’s winner throughout history). The addition of most FBS coaches’ likeness provides an upgrade to the game’s realism, even if many of the virtual coaches need some graphics fine-tuning.

First look at Mike Gundy in game pic.twitter.com/cCOf9VY1DB

— PokeNation (@Big12Pokes) July 7, 2025

There are more actual songs and traditions. Virginia Tech runs in to “Enter Sandman”. Michigan fans sing “Mr. Brightside” after the third quarter and continue after the band stops playing. The dynamic lighting for afternoon games is a really nice touch, turning a day game into a night game for the second half. Gameplay animation has also gone up a notch, making tackles look better. Not much needed to be tweaked here, but enough was that it’s noticeable.

CFB25 grade: A
CFB26 grade: A

Gameplay

Playing an actual game in CFB26 is different enough from CFB25 that it takes some time to adjust to the speed. Receivers can come back to the ball. Quarterback accuracy is a bit tougher to master, but catches broken up by a hit seem significantly rarer, a welcome change. Pass plays feel less predictable; there are more surprise catches and missed throws.

If you’re a hardcore player, there are enough new features like substitutions and pre-snap changes to play around with a lot. Playbooks are deeper. I’ve seen a handful of glitches and experienced one myself on a field goal. Those are bound to happen and hopefully will get fixed in patches, and gamers will likely find unstoppable plays as they always do.

The gameplay is good, but this itself probably wouldn’t be a reason to upgrade from CFB25.

CFB25 grade: B+
CFB26 grade: A-

Dynasty Mode

Dynasty Mode is much more customizable, but make sure you get your settings right, or you could have problems. The transfer portal is maybe too active, with numerous Power 4 starting quarterbacks on the move, and it’s really hard for Group of 5 schools to keep top players … unless you lower the maximum number of transfers per team per offseason. So far, I think it’s easier to build a team through the portal than high school recruiting. And if you don’t manually recruit much, make sure you have CPU recruiting turned on. I simulated a Michigan State season without manual recruiting, and I had just 49 players on my roster going into Year 2, including one running back. And because you can only add 35 players, it’s hard to get back up to 85. I simmed a second season and got fired after a 6-7 year — only to end up with the SMU job as the Mustangs came off an 11-2 season.

Which brings me to the coaching carousel, which seems to always be wild and sometimes nonsensical. Joey McGuire left Texas Tech for the Alabama defensive coordinator job despite a top-10 season and is now working under Dabo Swinney. Shane Beamer took the Clemson job while in the middle of winning a national championship at South Carolina. Bret Bielema (Washington), PJ Fleck (Illinois) and Matt Campbell (TCU) took jobs within their current conference. Several good G5 head coaches leave for P4 coordinator jobs. On one hand, this is all extremely funny now that the real coaches are featured in the game. On the other, it’s not as realistic. But how realistic a video game should be depends on personal taste.

The rest of the Dynasty Mode tweaks are minor but helpful. Protected opponents are nice. You can now see your recruiting needs list on the prospect list screen, rather than needing to hit buttons to find it. The gear available for a custom coach character is much deeper. It’s more difficult to raise all your coach’s traits. Dynasty is also finally usable in cross-play between PlayStation 5 and Xbox players. But be warned that position switches have had some skill cap problems. I wouldn’t personally upgrade solely for Dynasty, but others might.

CFB25 grade: B+
CFB26 grade: A-

Road to Glory

This is one of the game’s biggest changes. High school mode is back, and it’s a lot of fun, coming from someone who thought high school mode was too overwhelming in the old NCAA games. Each week (of five), you are given four sets of goals. Each set must be completed on its own individual drive. Completing goals gives you more tape points. If you’ve made yourself a five-star recruit, you need a lot of points to stay that high. If you start as a lower-ranked recruit, you can move up. It can be pretty hard, and simply accomplishing goals might not be enough. I started as a five-star recruit, the No. 3 quarterback in the nation. I completed almost all of my goals and finished as a three-star recruit, down to No. 96 at my position. While I appeared to work back up to a four-star during my senior day game, I remained a three-star when I got back to the menu.

You pick your top 10 schools at the start and can adjust them each week. As a five-star recruit, I got loads of Group of 5 offers each week. But it matters where you rank teams, too. Ryan Day asked me to complete a 50-yard pass, which I did. But he later was offended I had Michigan State ahead of Ohio State on my list and talked down about the Spartans. In response, I made a social media post announcing I wouldn’t go to Ohio State, which helped my standing with other schools.

College mode in Road to Glory is mostly the same. You can also choose to skip high school mode if you don’t want to do it. Overall, this mode is a huge leap from the previous game.

CFB25 grade: B-
CFB26 grade: B+

Other features and notes

Online play (Road to the CFP) now has home-field advantage, which is randomized and makes a difference. Before a game, a screen shows your opponent’s historical pass/run breakdown, a nice addition. It’s still frustrating that you must use your specific team’s playbook in Road to the CFP, rather than another school or a custom playbook. I’ve asked game developers about this, and they always tell me the point is for users to get the real feel of playing with a team, rather than something like running the option at Alabama.

I haven’t used Team Builder or Ultimate Team very much yet on CFB26, but I didn’t play either much in last year’s game. UT is just not my thing, but I openly acknowledge that it’s the way a lot of younger players play the game. Team Builder was barely usable last year, and so far this year, it’s crashing quite a bit in Google Chrome, the most popular browser. EA Sports has posted a workaround, but that remains a clear foundational problem.

Pro tip for using our #CFB26 Team Builder website!

Make sure your web browser has “Graphics Acceleration” set to [ON] in the settings for a smoother performance.

Example on how to enable for Chrome:

1. Head to Settings
2. Click System
3. Enable “Use graphics acceleration when…

— CFBDirect (@CFBDirect) July 8, 2025

Final Grade

Something I keep thinking about College Football 26 is just how much game it is. You can do so many different things that I at times wonder if it’s too much. Playbooks are insanely deep. Dynasty Mode is so customizable now but can easily go wrong for someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing. That reflects the broader state of video games, which have had to get deeper and more intricate to satisfy hardcore, dedicated audiences. Developers have to balance keeping so many groups happy (just look up the online uproar asking for more customizable player equipment).

But what about the casuals? They matter, right? Some people just want to pick up a game and play without needing to put in thousands of hours. Some of you reading this probably fall into that group. I don’t think CFB26 is over-complicated yet, but I am concerned the franchise could get there in an attempt to make the game feel new every year, breaking itself in the process. That’s what some gamers feel happened to Madden. (The potential college basketball franchise may not be an every-year game, just updating rosters in off-years).

Then again, you have to change a game to make it worth upgrading every year. That’s the business. Which brings me back to the original question of this review. Is this game worth upgrading from the previous year?

If you just play by yourself, it’s a close call. If you’re only a casual Dynasty person, probably not. If you’re a big Road to Glory person, definitely yes. If you’re a heavy online player, it’s an obvious yes. What has always made college football games feel new every year is the sport’s high roster turnover, which has accelerated in recent years thanks to the transfer portal. Those roster changes are enough for many people to want the new game, and the inclusion of the real players’ names and likenesses makes that feeling easy to spot.

All in all, the game is loaded across the board with minor upgrades that add up to a lot, along with a few actual big changes. The biggest gaping holes in CFB25 have been filled.

This game, like last year’s, is a love letter to all of college football. Everything that makes this sport different from the NFL is highlighted. It’s so nice that this game is regularly back in our lives. This is still the honeymoon period, and I’m going to enjoy that for now.

CFB25 grade: B+
CFB26 grade: A-

(Gameplay screenshots courtesy of EA Sports)

NIL

New college sports agency rejecting some athlete NIL deals with donor

Published

34 minutes ago

July 10, 2025

Your Sports Nation

New college sports agency rejecting some athlete NIL deals with donor

Since then, the landscape has changed yet again with the $2.8 billion House settlement that allows schools to pay the players directly as of July 1.

But the bulk of the letter explained that many deals could not be cleared because they did not conform to an NCAA rule that sets a “valid business purpose” standard for deals to be approved.

“If a pattern of rejections results from collective deals submitted to Deloitte, it may invite legal scrutiny under antitrust principles,” he said.

On a separate track, some college sports leaders, including the NCAA, are seeking a limited form of antitrust protection from Congress.