by Daniel Johnson

June 15, 2025

As BYU’s first-ever five-star recruit, the expectations for Dybantsa’s freshman season are sky high.

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AJ Dybantsa, the number one high school player in the country and arguably the biggest college basketball signing in Brigham Young University’s history, also leads all of college basketball in NIL valuation, logging an estimated $4.1 million value according to Athlon Sports.

According to their reporting, his portfolio, although somewhat selective, like fellow West Coast native Juju Watkins, also contains a fair amount of groundbreaking NIL deals. The 6’9 Dybantsa is reportedly the first male basketball athlete to be sponsored by Red Bull and like Watkins, he is also signed to Nike, his deal is valued at over $4 million.

As BYU’s first ever five star recruit, the expectations for Dybantsa’s freshman season are sky high, and although he has denied rumors that he has a $7 million contract with the school, BYU has been projected to contend with the defending conference champions, the University of Houston, for the Big 12 title due in large part to his presence on the team.

Regardless of how BYU’s season goes, Dybantsa has already indicated that he is going to be a one and done player and will declare for the NBA draft at the end of his freshman year.

According to The Athletic, his rejection of the rumors of a $7 million NIL contract from BYU squares with his distaste over receiving a $1,000 grant which being awarded the Gatorade National Player of the Year entitled him to.

As he told the outlet, “Don’t take anything for granted.” Dybantsa’s father, Ace, is Congolese, and gave him a lesson on the haves and have nots on a visit to Brazzaville, the capital of the Congo. “People are less fortunate and don’t have what we have. If I continue this route, I’m going to get a lot more money than that. So, I might as well just donate (that check) back to the community.”

Dybantsa, if he pans out as the draft prospect that scouts believe he can be, will most assuredly be firmly in the haves camp, per an analysis that an anonymous NBA front office executive provided to The Athletic.

“He’s what the NBA is looking for. Wings with legitimate size that understand the game can create offense and then, in theory, can guard multiple guys,” the executive said.

Dybantsa seemed unconcerned with the exact value of his deals in January when he told the outlet that his deals more or less were executed by his father, and he just wants to hoop.

“People just gonna talk, but I (didn’t) even know how much I’m getting. They just tell my dad all of that. I’m trying to make it to the NBA, so wherever they can get me the fastest there with the best development, there’s a whole lot of pillars that come with it. Money’s going to come if I do the work, so I’m not worried about the money in a year,” Dybantsa said.

An example of his aversion to chasing a bag just to chase a bag is his NIL deal with the prep academy Utah Prep, which he chose to sign a $600,000 deal with to finish his high school career with, despite having a more lucrative offer from Florida’s more prestigious Montverde Academy.

“Montverde, we can use them as an example, I’m trying to show people you don’t have to go to a school like that to accomplish certain things,” Dybantsa said. “They’re a great school, and they’ve got the most league guys from high school. So, there’s no knock going there. But you don’t have to go to a school like that.”

He continued, “You don’t want to just sign with somebody. You want to be partners with them. There’s a lot more to an offer than just money. People only see the money part of it, but it’s not just about money. I’m not gonna change. They might. There are some people I know that become famous and change their whole personality. They want to have this lavish lifestyle, but I just stick to who I am, and I think people mess with that.”

RELATED CONTENT: Why NIL Deals Have More Brands Investing In College Athletes Over Pros, And Women Athletes’ Dominance In The Arena

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey will be among the leaders in college football meeting in Asheville next week to discuss potential changes to the College Football Playoff. This includes expansion, format changes and more.

Changes have already been made to the CFP earlier this offseason, seeing its seeding format shift to a straight-seeding model in 2025. More changes could be on the way.

“We’re at 12,” Sankey said during an appearance on Golic and Golic on Friday on the FanDuel Sports Network. “That was actually one of the other untold stories, is that 12-team format was established for ’26 by what’s called by the President’s Group by the Board of Directors, the College Football Playoff board. And their statement was, ‘Hey, if you can start earlier, go ahead,’ and we did in ’24 with good success.

“So remember, we’ve made an iterative change to just fill the bracket based on the rankings, rather than kind of this maneuvering what happened around conference champions. So that’s an improvement for 2025.”

There has been much speculation over shifting the CFP to a 14 or 16-team model ever since the playoff’s 12-team format was approved. Sankey said this conversation is still “alive” heading into next week’s discussions.

When the SEC Spring Meetings commenced in Florida last month, Sankey sensed that the notion of more opportunities was important to the head football coaches and athletics directors in his conference. More opportunities, whether this comes in a nine-game SEC schedule, conference auto-bids into the CFP, or additional teams in the field, remain to be seen.

However, Sankey said that he can’t predict what the final outcome could be based on his single opinion of the 11 that will be in attendance. There is doubt that a conclusion will be reached, and Sankey expects each leader to bring their own concerns to the table during the meeting.

“One of the issues is to look at the selection process as conference membership has changed, as the bracket has changed, as you have more pressure points on selection issues,” Sankey explained. “The selection process really hasn’t adapted. So, looking at the criteria, how strength of schedule is analyzed, how we populate the committee.

“I think those issues are really important. And I tend more towards, now, based on a lot of in-depth conversations with our membership to like more than 12, but I think 12 is really healthy and I’m going to save my crystal ball for a moment.”

Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn has addressed the rumors that he may retire at the end of the 2025 college baseball season. He was blunt in his response.

“I’m not retiring. I’m not going anywhere,” he told Tom Shatel at the Omaha World-Herald.

There was speculation that the longtime Razorbacks skipper may be heading toward retirement following his 23rd season at the helm of Arkansas’ baseball program. That was before Van Horn’s team cracked the College World Series barrier for the eighth time under his guidance. It comes following consecutive seasons where Arkansas’ season ended at the Fayetteville Regional. This was the first time since 2006-07 that this had happened.

Van Horn was emotional after Arkansas’ Super Regional win against Tennessee, saying that it means a lot for this team to find its way to the CWS. He let his group know how proud he is of them for finishing the season playing at Charles Schwab Field Omaha.

“I’ve said this all year, this is a special group,” Van Horn said following the Super Regional. “These guys have fun. They get along. They’re fun to coach, they’re fun to be around. They’ve got some personality. … It would’ve been hard, for me, if this good a team didn’t get to Omaha, without winning a championship somewhere. They didn’t win a trophy, they didn’t get a ring, they didn’t get the SEC Championship, didn’t get the Tournament championship.

“If we would’ve lost this series, it would’ve been like, this is the best team that didn’t do anything. Now, it’s one of the best teams that’s ever come through here. You never know how it’s going to go from here, but they’re down to the final eight, and that’s a championship to me. That’s big.”

Despite Van Horn’s storied career in Fayetteville, he has yet to lead to Razorbacks to a national championship. As the No. 3 overall seed, Arkansas is the top-ranked team heading in Omaha. If this was going to be his last season, it would have been a strong way to end his career. Instead, it appears that Van Horn has some more coaching left in his tank.

Arkansas will open play in the College World Series against LSU on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. ET. The Razorbacks and Tigers played earlier this season in Baton Rouge, where LSU won the first two games of the series but failed to finish off the sweep. The Razorbacks are looking to avoid the upset this time around.

TRUST IS EARNED, NOT EXPECTED

Florida State football was awful in 2024, where they limped to the finish line with a 2-10 record. Head football coach Mike Norvell was left speechless with what transpired just one calendar year from being snubbed from the College Football Playoff.

It was something that the fan base had to turn the page and forget about. There were instances where Coach Norvell felt confident in the team, where they thought they would be able to run the football, Darius Washington is an All-American candidate, and this was one of the fastest teams that he has coached.

Not to mention, the outside noise became strong with legendary head football coach Nick Saban calling the Seminoles’ defensive line one of the best in college football. It was all a disaster, and it pains me to watch the 2024 season over again.

Coach Norvell re-evaluated everything from a season ago, and one of the biggest changes in the offseason was overhauling the offense to make it presentable. I wanted to discuss why I believe that individuals should trust the Seminoles’ rushing attack during the 2025 season. If you prefer video form, I made a YouTube video discussing my reasoning, as well. You can click here to view.

Greg McElroy has the Wisconsin vs. Alabama game in Tuscaloosa this year as one of the top-10 non-conference games of the entire season. He circled that week three game on his calendar as a can’t-miss game. Sure, it could be partly because he’s an Alabama alum so he’s paying a bit more attention to what the Tide are doing but he didn’t shy away from an explanation.

On ESPN College Football’s “Always College Football,” McElroy shared his thoughts on the Wisconsin vs. Alabama game. He ranked it the 10th-best non-conference game of the season.

““A rare home-and-home game. This game was awesome last year, where Alabama went up to Madison, Wisconsin. They (the Tide) won that game, but, man, it was just cool to see those two helmets on the field at the same time. Two proud programs, two traditionally very physical programs. Just a fun matchup there that we will have there in week three of the college football season this year.””

Greg McElroy

Greg McElroy has circled Wisconsin vs. Alabama as a can’t miss game in week 3

The game didn’t go well for Wisconsin, and in many ways, it was a season-defining game for the Badgers. Two major things happened. The first was that they lost their starting quarterback, Tyler Van Dyke, for the season. The second was that it was the game that Luke Fickell realized that the defensive line had to get better for 2025. He saw firsthand that they couldn’t hang tough with a team like Alabama for a full game.

The Badgers ultimately lost the game 42-10, outmatched from about the middle of the first quarter through the end. It’s interesting that this is the game that McElroy circles, and instead of highlighting improvement for the Badgers, it talks about history and how cool it is that those two programs get to play each other.

Wisconsin fans are not optimistic about the rematch, but the Badgers should put up a much better fight this time.

McElroy’s other top non-conference games can be find on the youtube video, here. There are only two other Big Ten teams featured in the list.