Last week, NCAA president Charlie Baker told reporters that the NCAA Tournament could expand to 72 or 76 teams by 2026. During an appearance on the “Dan Patrick Show,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey revealed how his conference coaches reacted when he brought up tournament expansion.

“I introduced the issue to our men’s basketball coaches, which I think we’ve talked about with that group before. I would guess then, given the other issues we had on our plate, that conversation maybe lasted five minutes,” Sankey said. “My points to them were, this is still a work in progress.

“I didn’t know that there was going to be kind of a press gathering. This is not a criticism. Charlie Baker spoke about tournament expansion, I think, the day after our basketball coaches gathered. I mentioned it to our women’s basketball coaches as well briefly. It didn’t really go anywhere.”

The announcement from Baker has divided the college basketball landscape. Some fans are excited to see more teams have the chance to participate in March Madness. Meanwhile, others claim that adding teams to the historic tournament, dilutes the importance of the event.

Of course, from the NCAA’s perspective, tournament expansion is mostly about finances. More games equals more money. The NCAA Tournament last expanded in 2011 when it changed from including 64 teams to 68, with the addition of the First Four round of games.

Prior to that, the format of March Madness had remained unchanged since the 64-team field was first adopted in 1985. Greg Sankey still doesn’t know if expanding the tournament is the best move.

“We should be exploring tournament expansion. Whether or not it happens, is actually another point of evaluation,” Sankey said. “So have the conversation, deep dive, figure out if it works, practically, competitively, economically.

“I think the one issue for us is, if it is expanded, let’s pick the number of 76 and I’ll do quick math for you. So 52 of the 76 teams would be like in that traditional first round. The other 24 would play in 12 games. The 12 winners meet up with the 52. There’s your 64-team bracket, right? That’s like from my intramural director days at Utica. So I know how brackets work. What I’m really interested in, we’re interested in, is who fills those 12 games, those other 24 teams?”

Only time will tell. However, judging from Baker’s latest statements, college basketball fans might be learning more about an expanded NCAA Tournament sooner than they’d previously expected.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Senior Brodie Kresser, senior Reese Bassinger, and junior Logan Sauve of the West Virginia University baseball team were all named Academic All-District by College Sports Communicators as announced by the organization, Tuesday afternoon.
 
Kresser earned his Sport Management degree with a 3.78 GPA, Sauve is a General Business major with a 3.59 GPA and Bassinger has a 3.58 GPA and earned his Integrated Studies degree. For Kresser and Sauve, it is their second Academic All-District selection while it is the first for Bassinger.
 
To qualify, student-athletes must have a 3.50 GPA, be at least a sophomore, and play in at least 90% of the team’s contests or start in at least 66% of the team’s games.
 
Bassinger is an All-America finalist and will advance to the national ballot to be voted on by CSC members. First-, second- and third-team Academic All-America® honorees will be announced July 1, 2025.  
 
Kresser is currently hitting .287 with three home runs, 41 RBI and a team-high 50 runs scored while also contributing with 12 doubles and 13 stolen bases. He was recently named to the NCAA Clemson Regional All-Tournament Team.
 
Sauve, an All-Big 12 first team selection, has a .289 batting average with eight home runs, 36 RBI and 46 runs scored. He has played in 52 games this season with 44 starts behind the dish and was also named to the Clemson Regional All-Tournament Team.
 
Bassinger has been a go-to relief pitcher for the Mountaineers with 29 appearances out of the bullpen, leading the team. He is 7-1 with five saves, a 4.28 ERA and 43 strikeouts in 61.0 innings pitched. He was named All-Big 12 honorable mention earlier this season.
 
The trio of players become the 12^th, 13^th, and 14^th Academic All-District selections in program history. Sauve and Kresser are the third and fourth players to become multi-time selections after Braden Barry (2022-23) and Lee Fritz (2003-05).
 
The Mountaineers continue their season, June 7-9, for the NCAA Baton Rouge Super Regional against LSU. The best-of-three series gets started from Alex Box Stadium on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET.
 
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow @WVUBaseball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
 

South Dakota State pitcher Jake Goble and outfielder Bryce Ronken were honored Tuesday as members of the 2025 College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Baseball Team. The nation’s top student-athletes for their combined performances on the diamond and in the classroom are recognized across four divisions: NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA.

A senior from Rapid City, Goble maintained a 3.59 GPA as a business economics major to earn a repeat selection to the CSC Academic All-District Team. He was an honorable mention selection to the all-Summit League Team for the second time in his career during the 2025 campaign and led the Jackrabbit pitching staff with 53 2/3 innings pitched and 51 strikeouts in 14 appearances.

Ronken, a sophomore from Sioux Falls, has compiled a 3.64 GPA while majoring in business economics and finished as the team leader with 13 doubles in 2025. He also contributed a .314 batting average and 36 runs batted in to go along with a team-best .448 on-base percentage.

To be nominated for CSC academic honors, student-athletes must be at least a sophomore in athletic and academic standing, maintain at least a 3.5 cumulative grade-point average and be a starter or key reserve.

-GoJacks.com-

After a riveting round of regional action, there was more than a bit of controversy. And at least one prominent voice in the sport, Chipper Jones, is speaking up.

Jones called out some aberrant behavior that he believes is bad for the sport, pledging only to view teams that play the right way going forward. He won’t be a party to some of the nonsense he saw from various teams over the weekend.

“Spent quite a bit of time watching college baseball this weekend,” Jones wrote on Twitter. “I will only watch a select few teams from here on out. Reason? They have coaches that respect the game and their opponents and demand the same of their players.”

Chipper Jones would delve further into his reasoning, but he’s clearly advocating for a cleaner version of the sport. One in which things are done the correct way.

He outlined what he meant a bit more thoroughly. He explained.

“Any team that doesn’t wear the uni correctly, taunts the other team, and has a coach that condones this behavior, is a disgrace to the game,” Chipper Jones said.

He did, however, have one team that certainly fit his criteria for doing things the right way. That was one of the 16 regional host teams.

“Big fan of coach (Kevin) Schnall at Coastal Carolina!” Chipper Jones wrote. “Him and his team represent what college baseball should be like. Well done, sir! U stand for proper behavior.”

That, in and of itself, is interesting, because Schall was adjacent to arguably the biggest controversy of the week. That came when Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan was caught on camera multiple times berating NCAA Tournament staffers and Coastal Carolina officials over a game time being moved.

Schnall went off on O’Sullivan, though he didn’t call him out by name. He did note that the behavior was “absolutely unacceptable,” likely the exact kind of thing Chipper Jones was referring to.

“I believe in standing up for what’s right, and what transpired this morning on our field, another coach disrespected our associate AD, who works as hard as anybody in our entire program,” Schnall said. “He disrespected our field crew, who are the salt of the earth. These guys would do anything for our program. It’s not OK. And this needs to be brought up.

“Absolutely disrespectful. As a coach it’s our job to mentor young kids,” Schnall said. “And the way he treated the two site reps, the way he treated our associate AD, the way he treated our field crew is absolutely unacceptable. And I’m really, that’s what I’m most disappointed about.

“This is a national champion coach who thinks he can come in here and try to bully people around. Disappointed. Disappointed somebody that a lot of coaches look up to, for him to act that way, really disappointed. He disrespected a Hall of Fame coach who’s the site rep here. That’s all I’ve got to say.”

Coastal Carolina will certainly have a viewer in Chipper Jones. And if his message gets through, hopefully the sport will see fewer antics in the Super Regional round.

Nebraska set to pay student-athletes over $20 million next year in NIL contracts, Troy Dannen says

Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen says UNL is set to pay student-athletes over $20 million next year.

Updated: 4:29 PM CDT Jun 3, 2025

Nebraska Athletic Director Troy Dannen says they are walking into a completely different world over the next few years. However, he feels like Nebraska has done enough leading up to now to compete in the world of name, image and likeness licensing. The roars in Memorial Stadium have been heard for years, but behind the scenes what happens off the field will see a major shift this upcoming year.”The greatest change of all is we’re going to be paying our athletes $20.5 million this year,” Dannen said.Dannen says that to support the payroll, the university has had to change its business model.READ MORE: Nebraska athletic director says Memorial Stadium will no longer offer stadium re-entry because of alcohol sales”Our coaches will tell you the most important dollar that gets spent is to recruit and retain good quality student-athletes,” Dannen said.Despite the settlement not even being passed yet, Dannen says the third-party collective NIL works is changing, as well as roster limits. No matter what happens in the settlement, Dannen says there are contingency plans in place for whatever the outcome.”Nebraska is very fortunate in that I think because of the wisdom of all of my predecessors in athletics, we’re in an extraordinarily strong financial position and we didn’t have to do anything draconian to get to the point where we’re able to support the athletes to the fullest,” Dannen said.Athletes will not be employees of the university, according to Dannen. These will be NIL rights contracts, meaning the university is providing a fee to utilize athletes’ rights to their name, image and likeness.”It talks about if you violate academic standards, if you become ineligible because of your conduct, things like that, these contracts become void,” Dannen said.Most of the deals will be one-year contracts, so if an athlete chooses to leave, there should be no issues. Dannen added that there will be a few exceptions for multiyear contracts, but the hope is the deals will make it attractive enough for athletes to want to stay at UNL.”We’ve seen a lot of movement related to rev share and NIL,” Dannen said. “If the settlement works as intended, you will see a lot less player movement because of that, because there is a finite amount of money among all the institutions.”That $2.8 billion NIL settlement is still caught up in the courts. The original deadline was set for June 6, but a federal judge granted an extension, and the new date is June 27. That deadline also pushes the timeline for a potential resolution even closer to the expected start of revenue-sharing payments to athletes on July 1.NAVIGATE: Home | Weather | Local News | National | Sports | Newscasts on demand |