Will Howard led Ohio State to a National Championship this past season after defeating Notre Dame before moving on to the NFL, before naming the player to watch in college football this year

Will Howard has named his former Ohio State number one wide receiver as Jeremiah Smith as the best player in college football ahead of the 2025 season.

Quarterback trio Arch Manning, Garrett Nussmeier and Cade Klubnik are above Smith as the best odds to win the Heisman Trophy next season, but Howard believes his former college teammate to be the best talent in the nation after what he showed in his freshman year.

As a true freshman, Smith dominated like no wide receiver ever has in college football, with 1,200 yards and 14 touchdowns and winning a National Championship – including catching a deep-ball from Howard in the final against Marcus Freeman’s Notre Dame team. His incredible performances have seen him on the cover of EA Sports College Football 26, alongside fellow second-year receiver in Alabama’s emerging superstar, Ryan Williams.

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Speaking to EA Sports ahead of their release of the new game, Howard was asked who he believes should be the cover star for the second edition after it’s return.

He said: “Give me Jeremiah Smith… Best player in the country right there, man.”

While Manning will be disappointed not to be on the cover, not too many would argue with Smith being chosen after his incredible first year in college football – something his older cousin Geno Smith had seen coming.

The Las Vegas Raiders starting quarterback had warned college football coaches that his younger cousin would dominate as soon as he entered the NCAA.

In a 2023 press conference when Smith had been with the Seattle Seahawks game, Geno had discussed his abilities before a reporter asked his name. He replied: “His name? Jeremiah. You’ll all know it next year.”

Geno was then asked about Jeremiah again after news had broke that he won the starting position as a true freshman, before replying: “I’ve seen a lot of great receivers, and I’ve had the chance to watch a lot of JJ since he was about 10 years old. He’s gonna be the best receiver ever. I really believe that.”

Smith had dominated through his first year, but put in a statement performance in the Rose Bowl as Ohio State advanced over Oregon earlier this month, having 187 yards and two touchdowns.

In that game, he was given a 94.6 grade by Pro Football Focus (PFF) for his performance – one of the highest ever given to a receiver.

Smith will not be draft eligible until 2027, in what looks to be a generational class alongside the aforementioned Williams, with quarterbacks DJ Lagway, Dylan Raiola and potentially, Manning, if he stays at Texas.

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With all of the big names changing teams, the 2026 NCAA Gymnastics championship is firmly up for grabs with multiple teams in the mix.

Morgan Price and the Arkansas Razorbacks

Morgan Price is no stranger to bright lights, but now she’ll take her talents to arguably the biggest stage in the sport — the SEC. Originally committed to Arkansas in high school,Price decided to compete for Fisk University and made history several times in her three years there. Fisk became the first HBCU to launch a gymnastics program in 2023 and while there, Morgan became the first HBCU gymnast to earn a perfect 10 and win a national title. She won six national titles in her three years at Fisk, sweeping the event titles at the WGNIC Nationals this year along with defending her 2024 All-Around title.

Now, Morgan joins her older sister, Frankie Price, a fan-favorite Gymback who is taking her fifth year for the 2026 season after being injured during her floor routine at this year’s regional meet. Morgan has the scores on all four events to compete in the All-Around for the Razorbacks, and will especially make an impact on bars and beam.

Price will be joined at Arkansas by San Jose State University transfer Madison Gustitus. Gustitus has three years of eligibility after spending her freshman year at SJSU, where she competed on bars, beam, and floor. Arkansas lost a lot of their depth on beam to graduation this year, so she should fill an immediate need there, while also joining a dynamic floor rotation anchored by Joscelyn Roberson and Frankie Price. She also brings a lot of Level 10 competitive experience, having competed at the Development Program Nationals and Nastia Liukin Cup and won events at the regional level.

Arkansas lost two athletes to the transfer portal this season — Chandler Buntin and Dakota Essenpreis. Essenpreis is returning to her home state of Missouri to compete for SEC rival Mizzou. The vault specialist competed at every meet this season, breaking 9.850 five times, including a career high 9.900. Buntin did not compete in her two years at Arkansas, but could be a strong depth piece on vault and bars at her new program, which she has yet to announce.

Madison Ulrich and Emily Innes to the LSU Tigers

Madison Ulrich competed the last two years for the Big 12’s Denver Pioneers. This year, Ulrich was named a three-time All American by the WCGA and qualified to the NCAA national championships as an all-around individual competitor. She has career highs of at least a 9.900 on all four events and regularly competed in the All-Around for Denver.

Ulrich was one of the hottest commodities in the portal this year, taking official visits at three high-profile schools — Louisiana State, Utah, and Oklahoma — before committing to LSU. LSU tasted glory last year with their first ever national championship, and Ulrich will be instrumental in their quest to reach that peak again. She’ll make a strong case to be a regular three-event competitor on bars, beam, and floor after ending the NCAA season ranked in the top 20 on beam and bars. She owns a career high 9.925 on vault, but LSU has a deep lineup on the event that she might not slot into.

Senior Emily Innes is trading one shade of purple for another as she joins the LSU Tigers after three seasons with the Washington Huskies. She qualified to regional competition this year as an individual competitor on floor and beam, earning a 9.750 on floor and a 9.800 on beam. Last season, she won the regional floor title with a career high 9.950.

Innes will bring stability and experience to a young LSU roster that saw 10 seniors graduate from the program this year. She should consistently make the floor and beam lineups and could contribute on vault as well. She competes a Yurchenko Full that has typically scored in the low-mid 9.800s at UW, but LSU has a strong lineup of Yurchenko 1.5s with higher scoring potential that they’re more likely to include on a regular basis. That said, Innes will at least provide depth on that event while competing regularly on two others.

eMjae Frazier to the Florida Gators

The first big splash in the transfer portal was the surprising news that eMjae Frazier would graduate early from Cal Berkeley and transfer as a graduate student for her final year of eligibility. Over a month after she announced that she would enter the portal, Frazier put the speculation to rest and announced that she would be taking her talents to the Florida Gators.

Frazier would have been a great pick-up for any team in the NCAA, but the Gators in particular will benefit from her poise and consistency. Before college, she was an elite gymnast for Team USA and represented the country internationally. As a sophomore, she broke the NCAA single season scoring record and has scored multiple perfect 10s on different events over her career. In her three years at Cal, Frazier racked up 10 All-American honors across the regular and post-season. She should immediately be competing in the all-around, but watch for her to make a huge impact on beam and floor, both events she holds a career-best 10.0 on.

Florida finished third in the SEC conference meet this year before a shocking meltdown on vault ended their search for a title in the national semi-finals. Frazier will join the Gators quest to maximize their potential next season alongside a strong incoming freshman class and returning stars Selena Harris-Miranda and Kayla DiCello. Frazier led Cal to the team silver medal in the 2024 National Championship, and she’s certainly hungry to return to the podium after Cal failed to qualify to Nationals this year.

Georgia departures

This season, Georgia had a bit of a renaissance under new head coaches Cecile Landi, formerly of World Champions Centre in Texas, and Ryan Roberts. After a strong regular season, Georgia faltered in SEC championships and then placed third in regional finals, failing to advance, but qualifying two individuals to nationals. After the conclusion of the season, three gymnasts announced their intent to transfer, including fan-favorite Naya Howard, who had been missing from the GymDogs’ regional lineups.

All three former GymDogs are moving to the Big Ten, with Sadie Jane Berry transferring to Ohio State, Alexis Czarrunchick heading to Maryland, and Naya Howard announcing her commitment to Michigan State.

Czarrunchick is headlining a large transfer class for Maryland with five athletes recommitting to the Terps so far. She’s joined by a pair of Bowling Green transfers in Megan Bingham and Katrina Mendez Abolnik, Aine Reade from New Hampshire, and Towson’s Chelsey Dennis. Czarrunchick will bolster Maryland’s vault lineup and contend for a spot on bars as well.

Naya Howard has one year of eligibility remaining and she’ll be spending it in East Lansing, Michigan. The Spartans advanced to their first National Championship since 1988 this year, finishing with the fifth-highest score in the semi-final field. Howard has scored at least a 9.900 on all four events and will bring solid experience to the beam lineup in particular and reliable depth on the other events.

Biggest winners in the NCAA Gymnastics transfer portal

Missouri

Missouri has gained three gymnasts from the portal so far and reloads after their historic third place finish at NCAAs this season. They show no signs of slowing down, even after graduating an incredible senior class headlined by Helen Hu and Amari Celestine. They bring in hometown vault specialist from Dakota Essenpreis from Arkansas, Sara Wabi from Illinois State, and Makayla Green from Illinois.

Wabi will spend her fifth year of eligibility as a graduate student at Mizzou. She competed on the uneven bars as an individual competitor at regionals this year after earning All-MIC (Midwest Independent Conference) First Team honors on floor, bars, and vault. She won the conference title on bars and took third on floor and vault. She should shine, especially on bars for the Tigers.

Green will also join the Tigers bars lineup this year after hitting a career high of 9.925 on the event three times this season, including in the high pressure situations of Big 10 Championships and NCAA regionals. She also competed on vault and beam during her career as an Illini, but after being injured in 2024, only competed on uneven bars this season.

Green and Wabi will both help the Tigers continue where they left off last year and fill the void left in the bars lineup left by 2025 SEC co-champion Mara Titarsolej. Essenpreis will bolster the vault lineup with her consistency and the growth she’s shown across her first two seasons.

Ohio State

Ohio State’s bars lineup is getting a huge boost with Sadie Jane Berry (formerly competing for Georgia) and their vault, beam, and floor lineup will be strengthened by the addition of Natalie Martin (formerly competing for Maryland).

Sadie Jane Berry competed nine times on bars as a freshman, earning a career-high 9.875 twice. She was a really strong beam worker in Level 10, placing in the top ten on the event at the 2024 Level 10 Development Program Nationals. It will be interesting to see what lineups she can break into at Ohio State for her sophomore season and beyond.

Natalie Martin, an Ohio native, is coming home with two years of eligibility. She regularly competed three events (vault, beam, and floor) for Maryland and was instrumental in Maryland advancing to the second round of regionals this year with a pair of 9.850s on vault and beam in the first round. She outdid her first round performance with a 9.900 on beam, repeating her 9.850 on vault, and joining the floor lineup for a 9.875 in the second round.

Arkansas, Ohio State, Missouri, Louisiana State, and Maryland come out of this year as the biggest winners, picking up star athletes and filling out their lineups. And, with plenty of athletes still in the portal, the roster shakeups are far from over as we look ahead to the 2026 season.

By: Callie Cyr

CARLSBAD, Calif. – Tyler Brand has been named to the D1 PING Northeast All-Region Team, the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) announced this week. This is Brand’s third post-season recognition due to his play on the course in the 2024-25 campaign.
 
Brand played in 11 matches this season and recorded three first place finishes throughout. His first-place finishes came at the Columbia Autumn Invitational where he shot a -17, the Columbia Spring Invitational with a -1 and the ROAR-EE Invitational after shooting a -6. Brand’s top finish at the Columbia Autumn Invitational broke the tournament record and secured a nine-stroke victory over the second-place individual. At the Ivy League Championships, Brand finished tied for 18^th and was named First Team All-Ivy. After his play in the month of September, he was named Ivy League Golfer of the Month. At the completion of the season, Brand was named the Dartmouth men’s golf team Most Valuable Player for the 2024-25 season.
 

Cortez Braham Jr., who spent last season on the Nevada football team, is suing the NCAA for a seventh year of college eligibility.

A 6-foot-2, 201-pound wide receiver, Braham was among a wave of former junior-college players who starred for the Wolf Pack last season and were seemingly out of eligibility but entered the transfer portal this offseason. But Braham has not committed to a new school as he seeks an additional year of eligibility, which he claims could net him up to $500,000 in name, image and likeness money.

The NCAA has faced a number of lawsuits from athletes with antitrust claims who argue they should not be limited by the NCAA’s eligibility clock, which includes four years of active playing time over a five-season period. The NCAA’s rules have held seasons played at the junior-college level count against four years of NCAA eligibility, although Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, who at one time was committed to Nevada, received an injunction last December after he argued his JuCo years should not count against his NCAA clock. The NCAA has appealed the court ruling favoring Pavia but granted junior-college athletes a temporary additional year of eligibility in 2025-26.

Many Nevada Wolf Pack athletes have or plan to take advantage of that ruling, which apparently does not apply to Braham because his five-year clock has expired. Braham spent three seasons at Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College from 2019-21 and two at West Virginia from 2022-23 before arriving at Nevada last season. Braham redshirted at West Virginia in 2023 after playing in three games and 2020 did not count against eligibility due to COVID-19’s impact, the latter making him eligible for the Wolf Pack last season as his NCAA clock was extended to six years. Braham also was committed to Buffalo at one point but did not play for the Bulls.

Braham played three seasons at Hutchinson, two at West Virginia and one at Nevada, so he is seeking a seventh active season over a seven-year period. The Baltimore, Md., native initially intended to transfer to West Virginia for the 2021 season but had a GPA of 2.47, below the minimum requirement of 2.5 for a JuCo-to-FBS transfer. The lawsuit argues that is an unfair standard given given the academic requirement to transfer from one four-year school to another within the NCAA is a 2.00 GPA. Braham raised his GPA enough before the 2022 season to transfer to West Virginia where he played sparingly that season before having a career year at Nevada in 2024.

Braham started all 13 games for Nevada last season and was named All-Mountain West honorable mention after finishing second on the team in receptions (56), receiving yards (724) and touchdown catches (four). He took part in Nevada’s senior day ceremonies and believed his career to be over prior to Pavia’s lawsuit.

Braham’s lawsuit alleges Nevada, through its compliance staff, has repeatedly refused to file a “a waiver request so that the NCAA can exercise its discretion to waive the Five-Year rule and the JUCO transfer GPA requirement as it applies to Braham.” The lawsuit says the university told Braham he should “find a lawyer and file a lawsuit against the NCAA instead of looking to the school for help” and that litigation was the only path available for Braham’s quest for an additional year of eligibility in 2025. NCAA rule states any school Braham could transfer to would be eligible to file a waiver on his behalf.

The lawsuit argues Braham not being granted an additional year of eligibility would “permanently deprive him of a once-in-a-lifetime NIL contract opportunity worth nearly $500,000 and the opportunity to enhance his career and reputation by playing another year of Division I football. Additionally, this will harm Braham’s lifetime of hard work in the classroom and on the football field that he has pursued to even be considered for these opportunities. The NCAA’s anti-competitive conduct, coupled with his former university affiliation’s unreasonable denial of Braham’s ability to request a specific NCAA waiver, is resulting in irreversible damage.”

At least two Nevada transfers who were seniors last season got an additional year of eligibility due to Pavia’s injunction and have signed with power-conference schools this offseason, those being cornerbacks Michael Coats Jr. (West Virginia) and Chad Brown (Purdue). It is unknown if they received NCAA waiver requests from Nevada as Coats is entering his sixth college season and Brown his seventh, meaning they have seemingly navigated around the NCAA’s five-year eligibility window to play in 2025.

If Braham was granted an additional year of college eligibility, that would not come at Nevada as Braham entered the transfer portal and has reportedly taken recruiting visits or planned visits with Kentucky, Kansas, Memphis and Arkansas. He remains unsigned and did not participate in any school’s spring camp.

The NCAA and junior-college system are governed by separate entities with athletes arguing their time in the National Junior College Athletic Association should not count against their eligibility in the NCAA. The lawsuit argues NCAA rules do not prohibit former pro athletes from profiting from NIL in Division I football, citing Chris Weinke’s time as a Heisman Trophy-winning Florida State quarterback after a six-year professional baseball career, saying holding junior-college players to a higher standard in eligibility considerations is unfair.

The lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday and first reported by Boise State assistant professor Sam C. Ehrlich, was drafted by Reno-based attorney Brandon D. Wright as well as Gregg E. Clifton, from Phoenix. Braham is seeking a court declaration and an injunction. Presiding over Cortez vs. NCAA is U.S. District Judge Miranda M. Du and U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig S. Denney of the Nevada federal district court.

You can read the entire lawsuit below.

Hometown: Merrimac, Massachusetts

Previous School: University of New Hampshire 

 

Before Maryland: Aine Reade joins the GymTerps as a freshman transfer from the University of New Hampshire. Reade made an immediate mark in her debut season, qualifying as an individual for floor at the 2025 NCAA Regionals and earning EAGL Rookie of the Week honors eight times. She was named to the EAGL Championships All-Tournament First Team for vault, bars, floor, and all-around, and secured All-EAGL First Team honors on floor and all-around, as well as Second Team honors on vault and bars. Reade also excelled academically, earning a spot on the EAGL All-Scholastic Team.

Aine Reade:  “I chose Maryland because the moment I stepped on campus, I felt incredibly welcomed by the amazing atmosphere created by the coaches and the team. They truly made me feel at home and like I was already part of the family. Maryland offers so many opportunities and resources that will challenge me to grow and become my best self and that’s how I knew it was the right place for me.”

EAST LANSING, Mich. – The accolades keep rolling in for rising senior Isaac Howard following a historic 2024-25 campaign, who was announced as the recipient of USA Hockey’s Jim Johannson College Player of the Year award on Tuesday. Howard is the fourth Spartan to earn this distinction, following in the footsteps of Jeff Lerg (2007), Ryan Miller (2001), and Mike York (1999). He’ll be officially recognized during the USA Hockey President’s Award Dinner on Friday, June 6 in Denver.

Howard previously became the program’s third all-time recipient of the Hobey Baker Memorial Award after delivering a career-best 26 goals and 52 points across Michigan State’s 37 games. He ranked first nationally in points per game (1.41), was third in goals per game (0.70), and finished No. 23 in assists per game (0.70). In addition to being named a First Team AHCA All-American, Howard earned Big Ten Player of the Year, Big Ten Tournament Most Outstanding Player, and First Team All-B1G.

The Jim Johannson College Player of the Year award was first established in 1994 and recognizes the accomplishments of the top American-born player in NCAA Division I men’s college hockey. In 2019, the award was renamed in honor of Johannson, who won a national championship while playing at the University of Wisconsin and spent two decades as an executive at USA Hockey.

Howard is fresh off a gold medal at the 2025 IIHF Men’s World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden. The Hudson, Wis. native was named to the U.S. Hockey Men’s National Team in April, contributing an assist across four appearances in pool play in addition to an assist in an exhibition against Germany. Alongside Michigan State head coach Adam Nightingale, who served as an assistant coach on Team USA, the pair helped the United States bring home its first gold medal at the World Championships since 1933.

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