Surviving the Shift: Mountain West Navigates the NIL Era and Portal Power Struggle

By Roger Holien

As college football barrels into a new era dominated by big-money NIL deals, free-flowing transfer activity, and a rapidly widening gap between Power Five (P5) programs and the rest, the Mountain West Conference (MWC) finds itself at a crossroads.

Once seen as a feisty mid-major with dark horse potential, the MWC now faces a stark reality: adapting to the unfamiliar landscape—or risk becoming irrelevant.

The New Playing Field

In the wake of the NCAA’s policy shift in 2021 allowing student-athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness, P5 programs have surged ahead, capitalizing on deep-pocketed donors, organized collectives, and brand-name exposure to lure top talent.

The transfer portal, once a backdoor to second chances, has become a revolving door, with teams losing and gaining new players each year.

The reality is no team will look the same each year, so as a fan, you had better enjoy the moment because the following year will be a completely different team in most cases.

It’s the reality of this day and age of NCAA college sports and for the average fan, they disdain it for the most part.

For Mountain West schools, that means building a program only to watch its best players leave for bigger stages.

“Recruit. Develop. Lose. Repeat,” lamented one MWC assistant coach anonymously. “We’re basically a farm system for the SEC and Big Ten.”

The Talent Drain

Take San Diego State, for example. The Aztecs have long been a model for consistent development, particularly on defense and special teams.

But in recent seasons, they’ve watched standout players leave for bigger NIL opportunities elsewhere.

Boise State, Fresno State, and Utah State have experienced similar heartbreaks—players who dominate on Saturdays in the MWC and then suit up the next year in a Power Five uniform.

The issue isn’t just losing talent. It’s the lack of leverage to keep it. While P5 schools are signing players to six-figure NIL deals, many Mountain West programs are still struggling to organize collectives or legally structure meaningful incentives for athletes.

Juggling Loyalty and Loss: MWC Coaches Face New Reality

For coaches in the Mountain West Conference, the job has never been harder—or more complicated.

The game plan used to be straightforward: recruit, develop, win. Now, it’s recruit, develop… and hope your best players don’t leave.

With NIL money and the transfer portal reshaping the college football landscape, Mountain West coaches are juggling roster instability, shifting loyalties, and constant re-recruiting of their own players.

“We’re not just coaching football anymore,” said one MWC head coach. “We’re managing careers, branding strategies, and weekly transfer rumors.”

Boise State has seen talented underclassmen bolt for SEC and Big Ten schools after breakout seasons.

At San Diego State, defensive standouts are now fielding NIL offers from national powerhouses before bowl season ends.

The new reality? Coaching in the Mountain West means being part strategist, part salesman, and part counselor. And every day, the clock resets.

Creative Solutions and Culture Play

That’s not to say the MWC is giving up by any means, the bigger the challenge, the bigger the reward, as they say in winner circles.

Some programs are leaning hard into culture, player development, and creative NIL strategies.

Boise State has launched its “HorsePower Collective,” aiming to pool community and alumni resources to fund athlete NIL opportunities.

San Jose State is emphasizing tech-industry partnerships in Silicon Valley to sweeten its NIL pitch.

“We can’t outspend USC or Texas,” said former head coach New Mexico coach Bronco Mendenhall in a recent interview, “but we can create a culture players want to be part of—and use NIL as a life-building tool, not just a paycheck.”

The reality is NCAA College coaches are learning to “Adapt or Die on the Vine” in dealing with young men being promised sizeable sums of money for high-value athletes and balancing old school language of being committed to a program.

In this writer’s opinion, the teams that will adapt the most are those who have a focused plan, resources that they can leverage and a huge component will be community involvement, the ones with a rapid fan base.

Conference Realignment Looms

Realignment continues to destabilize Group of Five (G5) leagues like the Mountain West. With the Pac-12’s collapse and the Big 12’s rapid expansion, MWC teams like San Diego State and Colorado State have flirted with upward mobility, hoping for a seat at the bigger table. Yet no official invitation has come.

In 2023, the MWC entered into a “football-only scheduling alliance” with Oregon State and Washington State—what some see as the first step toward a new hybrid league that could bring in TV revenue and visibility. But long-term stability remains elusive.

What the Future Holds

Looking forward, Mountain West schools are focusing on three key strategies:

1. Institutional NIL Investment: Organizing alumni collectives and securing regional sponsorships to make NIL sustainable and competitive.

2. Retention Through Relationships: Building strong player-coach bonds to minimize portal losses.

3. Media Visibility: Seeking better TV deals, streaming opportunities, and partnerships to increase exposure—essential for both recruiting and funding.

Ultimately, the Mountain West’s future will depend on its ability to embrace innovation, leverage local advantages, and retain identity amid the national arms race.

“We may not win the bidding wars,” said Boise State AD Jeramiah Dickey, “but we can win hearts, minds, and games—if we’re smart about it.”

Whether that optimism holds up in a world increasingly ruled by dollars and deals remains to be seen.

But one thing’s certain: the Mountain West isn’t backing down this is going to be interesting to say the least to see how all the Mountain West Conference teams fair in the next five to ten years.

With the NCAA Division I hockey transfer portal, there are times when schools get a second opportunity to recruit players.

That was the case for Payton Holloway. Holloway, a forward from Tomah, Wisconsin, played forward the last two seasons at Minnesota Duluth.

When she was finishing up playing for Shattuck-St. Mary’s, Holloway narrowed her college choices to

St. Cloud State

and UMD. She chose the Bulldogs at the time. But she entered the transfer portal after last season and will be playing for SCSU this fall.

“I wasn’t getting the opportunity here at Duluth that I was wanting and I wasn’t able to showcase my abilities and really play my game,” Holloway said Thursday, May 1. “I wasn’t going to get any more opportunity next year. I thought I would enter the portal and see what was out there.”

The third week of April, she decided to play for the Huskies.

“It’s definitely stressful,” Holloway said. “There were quite a few schools reaching out. I had quite a few phone calls and quite a few with the same schools. I was able to narrow down right away which ones I was interested in. St. Cloud reached out a few days after I entered the portal. Once they reached out, it was kind of a no-brainer.”

She had an official on-campus visit to SCSU when she playing for Shattuck-St. Mary’s. Her connection to SCSU coach Brian Idalski played a role, and so did his track record.

“His ability to build the program the past few years,” Holloway said of what impresses her about Idalski. “He’s a great coach. He’s the type of coach that I’m looking for. His coaching style, the way he goes about things: I just really like that about him. I’m really excited to be coached by someone like him.”

Idalski said that with the transfer portal, if a team does not get a player the first time around, it’s important to still be on good terms with them.

“When you talk about what the landscape is with recruiting and the transfer portal, there’s a lot of kids who circle back,” he said. “So you try to leave on good terms, knowing you may end up seeing that kid in a couple years in the transfer portal. Building that relationship and those conversations are important for not only then, but down the road.”

Holloway said that her parents, Ian and Laura, are also excited about her choice.

“They’re pretty pumped,” she said of her parents. “My dad is really excited, excited to see me so happy to be going to a place that I think is going to be very good for me, both on and off the ice. They have a good exercise science program. That’s a big plus.

“It’ll be great to go to St. Cloud and play for that coaching staff and be able to develop to where I want to be at the next level.”

In two seasons at UMD, Holloway had a goal and two assists in 60 games.

Holloway’s father played hockey for the University of Wisconsin-Stout in the 1990s and gave her an early start in hockey.

“My dad put me on skates when I was about 3 years old,” she said.

He also coached her teams until she was 14.

“He’s very knowledgeable and he knows the game really well,” Holloway said of her dad. “There’s always pros and cons to having a parent as a coach. They can be a little extra hard on you.

“But I think him being hard on me really motivated me to be a good player and the player that I am. I’ve always liked a coaching style that is honest. ‘This is what you’re doing wrong. This is you need to do.’ I grew up with him being like that. There was never any negativity. There were never any fights. He was hard on me because he wanted to see me achieve and be great.”

Ian also helped coach when Holloway moved up to AAA hockey and played for the Madison Capitols.

She then decided to go to Shattuck-St. Mary’s, the famous prep school in Faribault, Minnesota.

“I played in Madison for the Capitols for 4-5 years,” Holloway said. “I was looking for something new, something where I could develop a little bit more and get ready for college. Me and a girl from Madison both ended going to Shattuck. We ended up loving it. I think the best decision I’ve made was to go to Shattuck. It’s a great place for hockey and the schooling was awesome.”

She played two seasons for the Under-19 team. Her last season in 2022-23, she led the team in both goals (35) and points (60) in 52 games and helped Shattuck-St. Mary’s win the national title.

When she was playing for Shattuck-St. Mary’s, she played center. With the Bulldogs, she played mostly wing and she is hoping to get back to playing center this season with the Huskies.

“I’ve always been a center, so I’m really looking forward to that,” she said. “I think I have very good vision on the ice. I read plays very well. I always think a step ahead and I feel like I’m a very smart player and a good shot, great passing. I think I have a great hockey IQ and I’m really excited to be able to showcase that at St. Cloud and do some damage in the WCHA and take down the top teams.”

Idalski said that with the graduation of centers

Emma Gentry

and

Brieja Parent,

Holloway and transfer Sidney Jackel (Lindenwood) are both going to get looks at center.

“The natural centers that we have are young and freshmen,” Idalski said. “I don’t like putting freshmen in the middle of the ice. That’s got to be a pretty special kid to me. We’re going to take a look at it and she did it when she was younger. Jackel’s the same way. Both get a look down the middle of the ice.”

Despite her lack of production at UMD, Idalski sees potential offense in Holloway.

“She’s got a profile for the ability to put the puck in the net,” he said. “It didn’t happen a whole lot at Duluth for whatever reason. She can shoot a puck and she’s going to have the opportunity to come in and compete to be a top-six kid for us and someone that can score. That’s an area we want to upgrade. We’re excited about that possibility and the chance to work with her.”

Holloway said that her younger brother, Parker, is also a forward. Parker is about to graduate from Tomah High School and plans to play for junior hockey for the Wisconsin Woodsmen, an NA3HL team that plays their home games in Tomah.

“(My dad) always tried to get me and my brother to play ‘D,’ but neither of us caved into that,” she said.

While Parker has a new team, Payton is glad that her decision to pick a new school to play for is over.

“The whole not knowing where I was going to go was a little scary, but it was a good scary,” she said. “There was a place out there that was better for me. I’m just happy to be able to focus on getting ready for the season and dialing in on their workout and training stuff.”

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The University of North Carolina women’s lacrosse program has earned the No. 1 overall seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, the organization announced on Sunday night. The Tar Heels enter the tournament 18-0, having won both the ACC Regular Season and Tournament Championships. This is the 20th straight season and the 26th time in the program’s 30-year history that UNC has heard its name called on selection Sunday.
 
Carolina will host the first and second rounds at Dorrance Field this weekend. The first-round game between Clemson and Navy will be played on Friday, May 9 at 5 p.m. The winner of that game will face the Tar Heels on Sunday at noon in a second-round match-up. Both games will air on ESPN+.

If the Tar Heels were to advance, they would host the quarterfinal round at Dorrance Field on Thursday, May 15 on ESPNU.

 

Overall, the Tar Heels are 42-22 in NCAA Tournament games. Head coach Jenny Levy‘s 42 NCAA wins are tied for the second-most in women’s lacrosse history. 

Carolina has made 13 trips to the semifinals – including 10 in the last 15 tournaments – which ranks third all-time. The program has appeared in five NCAA title games and won three times, most recently in 2022 during its undefeated season.

Tickets for the first and second round will go on sale Monday, May 5 at 10 a.m. and can be purchased here. Tickets are priced at $10 for reserved seating, $8 for general admission, $ for group rate tickets and $5 for all UNC students.

 

With commencement ceremonies, three NCAA Lacrosse games this weekend at Dorrance Field, and a number of other events in and around campus, it’s a full weekend for the Carolina Community. Due to the activity, normal parking and traffic procedures could be altered.

 

Below is parking information for the first two rounds of women’s lacrosse action:

 

Friday, May 9

NCAA Women’s Lacrosse First Round

Navy vs. Clemson

Time: 5 p.m.

ADA parking at School of Government Deck

Raleigh Road Visitors Lot

Cobb Deck

Bell Tower Deck

 

Sunday, May 11

NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Second Round

1st Round winner vs. UNC

Time: 12 p.m.

ADA parking at School of Government Deck

Raleigh Road Visitors Lot

Cobb Deck

Bell Tower Deck

 

Fans are encouraged to check @goheels, @goheelsgameday and the social media accounts of the respective UNC teams for the latest updates throughout the weekend and may text questions to the GoHeelsGameDay fan textline 919-238-9894.

Stay up to date with UNC women’s lacrosse by following the Tar Heels on Twitter, Instagram  and Facebook.

 

Eric Anderson has been sure to make the branding of his lacrosse program more representative of the make-up of his team.

The team is under the supervision of the Bay City Central athletic department, as BCC is the primary school in the cooperative that draws players from four schools total. But while the team also carries BCC’s mascot, the Wolves, their uniforms are black, purple and grey, and their helmets white – with those color choices making “Wolves lacrosse” more a representation of the breakdown of its players: 12 from Bay City Central, 12 from Frankenmuth, two from Freeland and two from Saginaw Swan Valley.

While the players outside of Bay City Central appreciate the gesture, they’re much more appreciative of the opportunity.

“Lacrosse being my favorite sport, I didn’t really have a choice. If there wasn’t a team, I couldn’t play,” Frankenmuth senior Aidan Hubbard said. “With this opportunity, it brings a lot of joy to me, playing the sport I love, and I didn’t have to just quit it because there wasn’t a team. 

“I’m going to be honest, (the branding is) not really (important). As long as I’m playing, I don’t care what our team name is. We’re wearing the purple and playing on this field.”

The identity is important to Anderson, who built the team by going the co-op route following the pandemic. His first season as coach was set to be the spring of 2020, but a promising roster of more than 30 players never got to see the field.

By the time he was able to coach a game in 2021, that number was down to 14.

“I reached out to my AD and said that we have to do something different; we need a co-op,” Anderson said. “My son was coming in as a freshman, and I knew we had a couple lacrosse players who are hockey players at Frankenmuth High School. We reached out to Frankenmuth, and Frankenmuth grabbed a hold right away. … Between the parents and myself, we have not had a single issue. Everything has been absolutely seamless. We treat it as one. This is a Bay City Central lacrosse team. Bay City Central pays for it. But our colors are black, purple and grey, even though Central is purple and gold. We refer to it as Wolves lacrosse.”

Anderson’s son, Maveric, attends Bay City Central, and was part of that first co-op team, as were Hubbard and John Britton, who both attend Frankenmuth. 

All three are now seniors, along with Frankenmuth’s Caleb Morgan, who joined as a sophomore and is in his third year with the program.

“It’s very unique,” Morgan said. “Because it’s not people you see every day in school. You only get to see these guys this time during the year, so it’s like a very unique experience catching up after the year is over and everybody comes back after a whole year of not seeing each other.”

With that backbone, the team has grown to its current number of 28, nearly to the point where Anderson can create a junior varsity squad.

“The program really wasn’t too much in the past years,” Hubbard said. “Now, it’s kind of like getting a little jumpstart. Even kids over in Frankenmuth, everyone in Frankenmuth is talking about it. It’s kind of hot in Frankenmuth right now. Lots of younger kids are wanting to play.”

It helps that the Wolves are translating those numbers into success.

Heading into tonight, the Wolves are 8-4 on the season and have won eight of their past 10 games.

Not only have they already set a school record for wins, they’re on their way to doubling the number of wins they had (five) over the previous three years combined.

“We have a bunch of younger kid stepping into roles that they’ve never really played before,” Britton said. “I kind of figured that sooner or later we’d get enough kids to put on a lacrosse field and win some games.”

It’s something Anderson could see coming, as the team had been getting more and more competitive. And, despite the fact they were consistently scheduled as a team’s ceremonial Senior Night, they weren’t making it easy for the opposition.

“This group of guys would compete in every single game,” Anderson said. “We would just lose because, in the fourth quarter, we’d run out of gas. We didn’t have enough players. We’ve been everybody’s Senior Night for the last number of years. Last year, we watched all these teams graduating 18 kids, 16 kids, all these kids, and we graduated one. You believe that these kids, they’ve kept receipts.”

Now, Anderson is seeing his senior-led team – there are 13 on the Wolves roster – not only winning more games, but controlling them. 

“You know where I see (the improvement), I see it offensively, where we’re finally able to handle the ball, make passes, and control the ball in the offensive zone,” Anderson said. “We’re not always having to be on the run and backtracking. We’re able to get the ball in the zone, maintain an offensive possession and get a quality shot.”

The Wolves already have attained the goals Anderson had set for his team, as they’re competing night in and night out and have shown massive improvement year over year. 

For the players, they simply want to keep doing that – and building up the program for which they’ve laid the foundation.

“We’ve kind of just been building,” Hubbard said. “We’ve had our little group, and it’s just been building up and everyone here has stuck it through, so I think we all deserve it. Coaches, too. They stuck it through while we were one of the worst, if not the worst, lacrosse teams in Michigan.”

Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.

PHOTOS (Top) Wolves lacrosse players celebrate a win this season. (Middle) Maveric Anderson (8) pursues a loose ball Saturday against East Kentwood. (Photos by Shae Lauwers/Moments by Shea.)

By: D. Scott Fritchen

It has been a busy time for Chris Klieman and Kansas State football. Heading into his seventh season as K-State head coach, Klieman in the last week attended AFCA Board of Trustees meetings in Arizona, met with his current players, stayed in touch with assistant coaches on the road as they line up 2026 official recruiting visits, signed two players out of the transfer portal, and generally “cleaned some things up” as the Wildcats embark upon final exams and prepare for unsupervised captain-led practices this summer.

 

Asked what he learned about his team during its 10 spring practices, Klieman indicated that one thing remains consistent: Avery Johnson.

 

“It’s the maturity of Avery and the growth of Avery,” Klieman said. “You could tell there’s so much more comfort level. Last year at this time, he’d played in one game, and we were trying to keep progressing him. Now you can tell he’s got another 12 or 13 games under his belt. The confidence he has and the leadership he has, it’s made our whole offense a lot more confident and a lot more efficient.

 

“Even though we didn’t have a full complement of spring practices, I felt really good on that side of the ball because of the growth of Avery.”

 

The hunt for Johnson’s backup remains ongoing heading toward fall camp — an apparent competition between junior Jacob Knuth, redshirt freshman Blake Barnett, freshman Dillon Duff and redshirt freshman Hudson Hutcheson.
 
“That was probably the biggest thing that I knew we would not probably get done in the spring was naming the No. 2 because we weren’t in double reps,” Klieman said.
 
“Last year in spring double reps Knuth got 300 or 400 reps and this year it was maybe 150, and Avery had like 600 down to 250,” Klieman said. “Those numbers were triple or at least double the previous spring. Blake didn’t participate the previous spring because of injury. Avery took a lot of reps because we want that chemistry with the wide receivers who just came aboard, and then it was probably split between Blake, Dillon and Jacob, and then Hudson probably got the fewest amount of reps. This is going to remain ongoing as we find out who the No. 2 is. I was really pleased with all of them.
 
“I really like the growth of Knuth. He’s had the best spring he’s had. Blake finally getting in and being healthy showed great improvement. What I really like about Dillon Duff is nothing is too big for him. He was drinking through a firehose trying to learn the offense and maybe he’d screw something up with the cadence or motion, and it never overwhelmed him. He’d go and execute a play, and he had that moxie of just making player with the few snaps that he had. All three of those guys have a chance to be really, really good. I don’t know how it’ll shake out, but it’ll be fun to have an entire fall camp where we can do double reps and get a couple guys on each field and get some of those rep counts up. The experience factor of getting under center is going to help.”
 
Meanwhile, the 6-foot-3 Johnson has apparently grown on and off the field. in April, he said that he increased his weight from 188 to 200 pounds since K-State beat Rutgers 44-41 in the Rate Bowl on December 26. In March, Johnson ran 23.00 miles per hour, making him the fourth-fastest player on the team.
 

The offseason decision by Klieman and Trumain Carroll, director of strength and conditioning, to augment spring practice with additional weeks of strength and conditioning, seemingly paid hefty dividends.
 
Four players timed over 23 miles per hour, six players timed over 22 miles per hour, 33 players timed over 21 miles per hour, 27 players back squatted over 500 pounds, 35 players cleaned over 300 pounds, and 60 players bench pressed over 300 pounds.
 
K-State reported that players gained a combined 700 pounds of muscle between January and April.
 
Klieman, in his news conference to wrap up spring practice, called the decision to add three weeks of strength and conditioning “maybe the best thing we’ve done here in a long time.”
 
Klieman largely offered a wait-and-see approach while outlining the Wildcats’ challenges during eight padded practice sessions, going as far to mention that the team paused its customary “double-reps,” — which allows every player to participate in some form at the same time — due to an influx of soft-tissue injuries. He indicated that K-State finished spring practice with two running backs, four tight ends and six linebackers practicing.
 
“We just didn’t have the bodies to do double reps,” Klieman said. “We were piecing the practice together and giving the running backs breaks and just stopping practice and doing special teams and giving those guys a break because we were down due to some soft-tissue injuries.”
 
The K-State defense apparently got creative at times.
 
“On defense, it was hard because of all the guys out with injuries,” Klieman said. “We tinkered with some things because we were down so many players at different spots.”
 
The bright spot for the defense in the spring appeared to be defensive back, and most glaringly a pair of sophomore cornerbacks in Zashon Rich and Donovan McIntosh.
 
“Awesome that we are able to use development there,” Klieman said. “Rich and McIntosh are guys that have been in the program a short period of time and trusted the process and what we were talking about and the growth they’ve had putting on really good weight and strength and speed, those are young players that have ascended to essentially toward the top of the depth chart that are ready to play now. I think we all saw that in the Rate Bowl that those two kids really have talent.
 
“Then you throw in Justice James that has been in the program a long time and will be a valuable piece back there, and then we add Jayden Rowe and Amarion Fortenberry to provide not necessarily depth but experience as well as competition, and we know we’re going to need five and six guys back there. Happy with McIntosh and Rich because they’ve really taken another step.”
 

The offensive position group that arguably grew the most in spring practice: Wide receiver. The list most notably includes top returner Jayce Brown and transfers Jaron Tibbs, Jerand Bradley and Caleb Medford.
 
“I know it helped getting Tibbs and JB and Medford in here,” Klieman said. “Those guys are really efficient wide receivers who’ve had a lot of playing time at other places that it didn’t take long to learn a system sometimes like a young player does. These are older guys that have played a lot of football. You can tell them something once and tell them about a concept, just with different terminology, and it clicked a lot faster for those guys.
 
“Then you throw Jayce Brown into the mix, and I think it really helped us there, finding some more people outside. We were down some running backs in the spring, so we worked a lot more on the passing game. We love our tight ends. They’re really good players. I think it’ll make is more dynamic and more versatile.”
 

The apparent rise of the wide receivers and continued growth of Johnson had to be pleasing to first-year offensive coordinator Matt Wells, who also serves as associate head coach and quarterbacks coach.
 
Asked to gauge the difference in a Wells-led offense to the Wildcats’ offense a year ago, Klieman replied, “In a very small sample size of practices, not a bunch.”
 
“I think that just comes from the development and growth of Avery as he continues to improve, and the fact that we’re bringing in some wideouts that have played an awful lot, that it probably looked more efficient,” Klieman added. “Granted, there were some mistakes and things that we need to clean up that were by no means where we want to be, but it looked more efficient and crisper.”
 
K-State appeared to get a lift with the recent signing of a pair of offensive linemen in 6-foot-5, 326-pound JB Nelson from Penn State and 6-foot-5, 315-pound Terrence Enos Jr. from Pittsburgh. Both players have one year of eligibility remaining and are the first two transfers to sign with K-State during the spring transfer window. Nelson played 776 offensive snaps at Penn State at either guard or tackle while Enos Jr. totaled 383 offensive snaps along the offensive line last season.
 
Klieman indicated that their additions could help foster the ability to have eight or nine offensive linemen ready to go in the fall.
 
“You’re always trying to improve your team,” Klieman said. “I thought with the offensive staff that if we could add some veteran guys to the offensive line, it’d be good. You lose veteran guys, and you want to replace them with the younger guys who are up and coming. Those guys are really good football players, but they just don’t have that game experience. We had the opportunity to land a couple guys.”
 

In this age of college athletics, the work is a 365-day grind. Klieman comes off one of the busier weeks of his time at K-State. Uncertainty wafts in the air across college football due to ongoing litigation that remains outside of Klieman’s control.
 
“We’re in May and nobody knows what their roster is going to be for the season,” Klieman said.
 
But Klieman retains a key cog in Johnson. The Wildcats are expected to be among the favorites to claim the Big 12 Conference title and should be ranked when they open the 2025 season against Iowa State in Dublin, Ireland.
 
For now, K-State forges ahead into an important summer.
 
Where might K-State be better than it was a year ago?
 
“The proof,” Klieman said, “will be in the fall.”

MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. – The Alaska Anchorage hockey team will compete for a postseason title in 2026, participating in the inaugural United Collegiate Hockey Cup at the Centene Community Ice Center in the St. Louis area.

Set for March 5-7, 2026, the tournament will feature UAA, rival Alaska Fairbanks, Long Island, Stonehill and host institution Lindenwood.

The five-team tournament will include a play-in game, with all teams guaranteed at least two games over the three-day competition.

“We are thrilled to bring this tournament to the St. Louis market,” said Jason Coomer, Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics at Lindenwood University. “This event not only provides a competitive platform for our student-athletes but also showcases the growth and quality of independent NCAA hockey programs on a national stage.”

This event represents a major step forward for independent college hockey programs, providing them with a postseason championship experience and an opportunity to showcase their talent on a national stage. The United Collegiate Hockey Cup is expected to draw college hockey fans, NHL scouts, and media attention, further growing the visibility of these programs.

Tickets for the United Collegiate Hockey Cup will go on sale August 1, and can be purchased at lindenwoodlions.com.