HUNT VALLEY, Md. (TNND) — It’s been nearly four years since the NCAA enacted a new policy allowing college athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness, and just a few weeks since a federal judge opened the door for college athletic departments to pay athletes directly.

Much of the details are still being worked out in the courts. Key components like roster limits, scholarship limits and payment pools are still up in the air.

As is a governing body to oversee all of these new rules, since most current regulation is a patchwork of state laws, legal settlements and NCAA rules.

But, we are starting to see the impacts of college athletes getting paid – and what it means for the enterprise as a whole.

Depending on who you ask, the historical shift is: long overdue for athletes who’ve spent thousands of hours grinding for their craft; late to the party in terms of global sports; the official death certificate for amateurism and the “student” side of “student-athlete”; or, an inevitable reality that has to run wild before it gets reined in and regulated.

To the league itself, it’s a positive step.

When a judge granted preliminary approval for a framework for schools to pay athletes, NCAA President Charlie Baker said it would “help bring stability and sustainability to college athletics while delivering increased benefits to student athletes for years to come.”

The push for college athletes to get paid spans decades, with legal challenges and legislative efforts dating back to at least the early 2000s. Which is surprising, considering the NCAA has been a multi-million dollar industry for several decades, and a multi-billion dollar industry for about a decade.

That disparity is due to the idea of “amateurism,” a word many experts and analysts use when they cite concerns about completely commercializing college sports. That idea goes back more than a century, to 1800s England, where sports were only for the wealthy, and the working class didn’t want them to be able to pay their way to victory.

“I don’t want to say [amateurism] is going to die, but it will certainly be the commercial aspects that are going to permeate,” said David Hedlund, the chairman of the Division of Sport Management at St. John’s University. “I think we’re going to see and hear less and less about amateurism, and college sports are going to look more like professional sports, or a training ground for professional sports.”

The idea that sports are for enjoyment and the love of the game rather than money is a noble one. And players can love the game and make money off their talents at the same time.

But many experts say amateurism has long been dead; the NCAA was just, for whatever reason, the last organization behind the International Olympic Committee to let it die. It’s part of an effort to keep pace with the rest of the world. Overseas soccer and basketball players are spotted when they’re 12 to 14 years old, and go pro when they turn 18.

“We’re in a global marketplace,” said Matt Winkler, a professor and program director of sports analytics and management at American University. “We sort of have to keep up with the other nations if we want to strive and have those great moments in sports for our Olympic teams and our World Cup teams and so forth.”

Coaches have long been compensated, and universities have long profited off their sports teams.

“The money has always been there. It’s just a lot more front-facing now, I think, than it’s been in the past,” Hedlund said.

Some sports analysts say it was quite front-facing in this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

March Madness was devoid of any significant upsets or Cinderella teams. For the first time in five decades, every team that made it to the Sweet 16 came from a power conference, including all four No. 1 seeds and all but one No. 2 seed.

And, every team that made it to the Final Four was a No. 1 seed.

ESPN analyst Stephen Smith said NIL deals and the now no-limits transfer portal are to blame for why mid-major programs didn’t see much success, and top-tier schools prevailed.

“If there was no NIL, if there was no portal and you have the mid-majors go 0-6 in the second round, please, we ain’t sweating that,” Smith said. “But when you’re able to point to rules that have been implemented that ultimately shows itself to have inflicted upon the game itself, that’s dangerous.

“College basketball as we knew it – which, to me, is all about March Madness – will cease to exist. Because there’s no madness.”

Experts say there is a serious question mark about the current state of how much colleges can pay to entice players, and how many times players can be enticed enough to transfer.

But not all believe it has to be the death of March Madness or competition in college sports. After all, there’s still Division 2 and 3 universities.

Richard Paulsen, a sports economist and professor at the University of Michigan, said it’s hard to gauge the impact of NIL deals and the transfer portal on competition. Because while the top ten or so power schools may be able to offer the most money to the elite players, there’s still a lot of talent out there.

“The top schools have an advantage in getting the A-level talent, but some of the players that might have sat on the bench at a top school previously could be enticed away with NIL money coming from a second tier school,” Paulsen said. “So I think the impact on competitive balance is maybe a little bit less clear.”

Paulsen says, as a professor, he is worried about the impact NIL deals – particularly million-dollar ones – can have on the students themselves, some 18, 19, 20 years old. It raises the question, does a teenager or young adult need this much money?

Shedeur Sanders is 23 years old, and his NIL valuation at the University of Colorado was roughly $6.5 million. Granted, he’s the son of NFL Hall of Famer and head coach for Colorado Deion Sanders.

But, his 2024 stats were top five in completion percentage, passing touchdowns and yards. Several analysts had him as the top prospect in the 2025 NFL draft, but he slid down to the fifth round, shocking much of the sports world.

Various reports place blame on other reasons – maybe he took more sacks than he should have, maybe NFL executives see traits we can’t see, maybe he bombed interviews with the managers, maybe it had to do with his Hall of Famer dad. And he certainly wouldn’t be the first prospect to get picked later than expected and prove all the teams that passed over him wrong.

But, he’s also losing money by going pro. The iced out, custom “Legendary” chain he wore on Draft Day reportedly cost $1 million.

“It is at least worth noting that five years ago, he wouldn’t have had the online presence that he had, and that could have turned off some NFL teams,” Paulsen said. “Without being in the rooms, I don’t know if it did, but that is possible, and it’s not something that would have been possible even five years ago.”

It begs the question, is it even worth going pro for these top-tier college athletes with insane NIL deals?

In the NBA, new data shows it may not be. The league announced last week just 106 players declared early for the 2025 draft. It’s the fewest since 2015. The number typically hovers around 300.

The drop in early entrants could be lingering effects of the extra COVID year.

But, next year, ten schools will pay their rosters somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 million, including several million dollars per top player. That’s far more than the players would make if they were a second-round draft pick in the NBA.

Winkler said the combination of competitive rosters and the scope of these NIL deals has more to do with this drop in early declarations.

“These deals are getting so big that unless you’re going to be a first round draft choice, maybe if you’re going to be kind of a lottery pick or a top 10, 15 pick, it would be better for you to exhaust your eligibility on a major team, because you’re going to make more,” he said.

So, it might be financially advantageous for athletes to wait on the pros. Some announcers were even suggesting Sanders should go back to college if the NFL didn’t deem him ready for the show. (NCAA rules prohibit him from doing so anyway; he declared for the draft and signed with an agent).

But what about the fact that these players, who become millionaires, are still students?

Schools are working to provide resources for these athletes so they can get advice on what to do with their wealth, so that they don’t spend it irresponsibly. Which is not to assume all of them would; it goes without saying this money could greatly benefit an athlete who grew up in poverty and change the trajectory for his/her family.

But Paulsen says he worries about the “student” side of “student-athlete” when we start talking about millions upon millions of dollars and students transferring to whichever school offers them the most. Sometimes credits don’t transfer; sometimes players could feel pressure to fulfill their NIL commitments over their studies, when the stakes are that high.

At a young age, these players are under an unprecedented amount of pressure, from their coach, from their family, from their financial adviser, from social media, from broadcast exposure, from stakeholders, from the tens of millions of people who can now legally bet on them.

“Players should be able to leave bad situations, absolutely, and I certainly support players’ autonomy and chasing financial benefit from their athletic talents,” Paulsen said. “But if we’re going to call them student athletes, we should have some emphasis on the student part of that too. Some of these rules that are helping the athlete are hurting the student.”

One of those rules, he says, is the transfer portal. But in addition to harming the students’ academic careers, experts say this also takes a toll on teams and fans of those teams.

Take Nico Iamaleava for example. The star quarterback abruptly parted ways with Tennessee over an alleged compensation dispute with the school’s collective. He demanded an NIL readjustment to $4 million to keep playing for the Vols, and when they said no, he transferred to UCLA, though it’s unclear if they met his demands.

The exit shocked his teammates in Knoxville, with one of his receivers and defensive backs, Boo Carter, telling reporters, “He left his brothers behind.”

But the new pay-to-play system does also beg the question of school loyalty, not just for the players, but the fans too.

Paulsen says roster continuity, players spending all four years playing for one team, has been an endearing feature of sports like women’s college basketball, when you look at the legacies, for example, Caitlin Clark built at the University of Iowa, or Paige Bueckers at the University of Connecticut.

“I do think there’s definitely some extent to which all this player movement can have negative consequences,” he said.

But, some experts doubt fans of teams need to see the same or similar team year to year.

After all, this past NCAA Men’s March Madness Championship between Florida and Houston – the one ESPN’s Smith said featured no madness at all – scored 18.1 million viewers on CBS. That’s up 22% from last year’s championship, and the biggest audience since 2019.

The Final Four games, featuring all No. 1 seeds, ranked as the most-watched games in eight years.

In other words, so far, so good when it comes to college sports fandom.

One thing broadly agreed upon among experts is that competition must remain intact. The Florida-Houston matchup was a nailbiter.

“The biggest thing that would kill sports is if there is no competitive balance,” Hedlund said. “It is known when you have a really great team being a not-so-great team, if the great team probably will win, people don’t want to watch.”

People still appear to be watching. If they stop, one could assume the NCAA would change its course, or it’d be out of all its money too.

Plus, these experts expect regulation soon – possible measures like transfer restrictions, collectively bargained salary caps, conference realignment to avoid concentration, turning athletic departments into LLCs, putting degree completion into bylaws and evening out the number of roster spots, among other rules.

Experts say: be patient, wait for the legal fights to run their course, and wait for the brightest minds in sports – and Congress – to come up with a solution that pleases the players, teams, coaches, schools and fans.

“This is fundamental to the success of sports, so we just need to figure out what rules, what regulations, what governing bodies, how do we facilitate this?” Hedlund said. “We don’t want to ruin sports. That’s what’s at stake here.”

Winkler says it all comes down to the most “hardcore” stakeholders: fans and alumni. If the SEC and Big 10 just ganged up and created their own Premier League and college sports turned into checkbook sports, it could threaten that school pride.

“This year, we definitely saw cracks in the system,” Winkler said. “If the best athletes just go to the top, are [fans] rooting for an inferior product? Are they still going to have that affinity for their school, their team, their degrees, and people that are doing it? This is really going to test that.

“[Schools] have two key pressure points: keep getting a lot of money from TV so you can fund your athletic department, and keep alumni, fans and donors still feeling as engagedThere’s a lot to be worked out in the next several months and probably the next year to really get a boiler plate idea of what the rules and regulations need to be.”

DULUTH — Former Minnesota Duluth defensemen Neal Pionk and Dylan Samberg, both of Hermantown, played over 40 minutes each Sunday night for the Winnipeg Jets in a come-from-behind 4-3 double-overtime victory over the St. Louis Blues in Game 7 of their first round series.

Pionk had three assists and finished with 46 minutes, 15 seconds of ice time. He was credited with the primary assist on the game-winning goal after his shot from the blue line nicked Blues center Oskar Sundqvist and Jets’ captain Adam Lowry — who was given the goal — en route to the back of the net with 3:50 left in the second OT.

Pionk and Samberg assisted on

the extra-attacker goal by teammate Vladislav Namestnikov

that got the Jets back in the game as the Jets center pulled Winnipeg within one by putting a puck in off Blues defenseman Ryan Suter with 1:56 left in the game.

The Jets forced overtime and saved their season with

another extra attacker goal with 2.2 seconds left.

Pionk — who didn’t leave the ice much in the final three minutes of regulation — was on the ice for that goal, as well.

Winnipeg lost defenseman Josh Morrissey early in Game 7 on Sunday, leading to extra shifts for the five remaining defensemen. Samberg logged 44 minutes as the Jets face a quick turnaround for the second round, hosting the Dallas Stars on Wednesday.

Samberg and Pionk are two of four former Bulldogs playing for the Jets this postseason along with former UMD forwards/linemates Alex Iafallo and Dominic Toninato. Iafallo was on the ice for two of the final three Winnipeg goals while Toninato — playing in his third NHL postseason — suited up for the second time in the series.

Iafallo, Toninato and Pionk were teammates on UMD’s 2016-17 team that lost to Denver in the NCAA championship in Chicago. The coach of the Pioneers was Jim Montgomery, who is now coach of the St. Louis Blues.

Samberg won back-to-back national championships at UMD as a freshman in 2018 and sophomore in 2019 while he and the Bulldogs shot at a three-peat was dashed by COVID-19 in 2020.

The four “Winnipeg Bulldogs” are the only UMD alumni remaining in the Stanley Cup Playoffs after Justin Faulk and the Blues were beaten on Sunday. Mikey Anderson and the Los Angeles Kings lost in the first round to the Edmonton Oilers.

Three former UMD Bulldogs are chasing a second-consecutive Professional Women’s Hockey League Walter Cup championship while seven are seeking their first PWHL postseason title this spring.

The defending champion Minnesota Frost will take on the Toronto Sceptres in a best-of-three series that begins Wednesday while the Montreal Victoire host the Ottawa Charge beginning on Thursday.

Fourth-seeded Minnesota is the defending champs and returns three former Bulldogs from last year’s title team in forward Michela Cava, defenseman Maggie Flaherty and goaltender Maddie Rooney. The former UMD goalie enters the postseason second in the league in goals against average at 2.07.

The third-seeded Charge are making their first postseason appearance after missing the inaugural tournament. They feature five former Bulldogs, including Jocelyne Larocque, Katerina Mrazova, Gabbie Hughes, Ashton Bell and Mannon McMahon.

The Charge and Frost both needed wins Saturday — the final day of the regular season — to get in the playoffs, with the Frost needed two regulation wins in their final two games to get in. The first win came over the Charge, who then needed an overtime goal by Mrazova — playing Saturday with a broken hand — to get in.

Montreal is the top seed and got to choose its first round opponent, picking Ottawa. Former Bulldog Catherine Daoust has been a reserve player for Montreal this year, playing in one game.

Annika (Linser) Rankila is the lone former Bulldog playing for second-seeded Toronto, but has dressed for just three games this year.

This story originally listed the incorrect start date for the second-round series between the Winnipeg Jets and Dallas Stars. It was updated at 2:10 p.m. May 5. The series begins Wednesday. The News Tribune regrets the error.

A law firm involved in the historic $2.8 billion antitrust lawsuit settlement involving the NCAA and the nation’s five largest conferences ripped former college football coach Nick Saban and the possibility of an executive order from the Trump administration to deal with name, image and likeness.

Attorneys at the Hagens Berman law firm released a statement on Monday calling Saban’s reported involvement in the potential executive order “unmerited and unhelpful.” Steve Berman, the firm’s managing partner and co-founder, called Saban and Trump’s talks “unneeded.”

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“While he was a coach, Saban initially opposed NIL payments to athletes, pushing to add restrictions and red-tape through national legislation to add ‘some sort of control,’” Berman said in a statement. “During his time scrutinizing the athlete pay structure, he made tens of millions of dollars and was previously the highest-paid coach in college football.

“Coach Saban and Trump’s eleventh-hour talks of executive orders and other meddling are just more unneeded self-involvement. College athletes are spearheading historic changes and benefitting massively from NIL deals. They don’t need this unmerited interference from a coach only seeking to protect the system that made him tens of millions.”

The firm added there were a number of ways college athletes have benefitted from NIL without any executive orders from the White House in any administration. The firm said it empowered athletes to earn their own income, among other positives.

Fox News Digital reached out to Saban’s rep for comment.

Trump was considering an executive order to regulate name, image and likeness in college sports after meeting with the legendary Alabama Crimson Tide coach, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. Saban reportedly doesn’t want to halt NIL payments but seeks to “reform” them.

BILL BELICHICK REPORTEDLY EXPLORING PR MOVE FOLLOWING AWKWARD TV INTERVIEW

In an appearance on Fox News Channel last year, Saban urged Congress to step in and make NIL “equal across the board.”

“And I think that should still exist for all players, but not just a pay-for-play system like we have now where whoever raises the most money in their collective can pay the most for the players, which is not a level playing field. I think in any competitive venue, you want to have some guidelines that gives everyone an equal opportunity to have a chance to be successful,” he said.

Saban said the NCAA “can handle” NIL and whatever changes are necessary, but Congress “needs to” add “national legislation.”

“Now, we just have the state legislation – and every state is different – that would protect the NCAA from litigation once we establish guidelines for the future of college athletics. But the litigation is what got us to this point right now,” Saban said. “We have to have some protection from litigation. I don’t know if it’s antitrust laws or whatever. 

“I’m not versed enough on all that to really make a recommendation. But I know we need some kind of federal standard and guidelines that allows people to enforce their own rules.”

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said “if anyone” can help regulate NIL, “it’s President Trump.”

Saban introduced Trump on Thursday at an event for Alabama’s graduating students, where Trump gave a speech.

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In the speech, Trump raved about Alabama’s athletic programs, saying the school is a place “where legends are made.”

Fox News’ Ryan Morik and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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It was repeatedly hinted at the team’s banquet on Saturday that news was coming about “some returners” on Monday. And when the seniors were called up to talk about the season and two were conspicuously absent (well, one was at her brother’s graduation, I was told), it sent excited whispers through the room.

My table asked Shannon, “So…. ummm… we noticed that [person] wasn’t up there with the seniors. Does that mean…?!” To which he gave us a shrug and was basically like, “Well, I guess you’ll have to see….”

This coach is always keeping things from me, you guys. NOT COOL. (I kid.)

Fellow gymthusiast Nate Salsman and I had thought the return of one of them — we’ll call her Achilles Twin 1 — was very likely to happen, as her Senior Day festivities didn’t seem too… final, I guess you could say. And I tkept thinking, you transferred out here for your final year of gymnastics just to have an injury halt your career and then call it quits? Without us getting to watch her beautiful gymnastics? I hated to see it. The other — we’ll call her Achilles Twin 2 — we were less certain about. Until about a month ago, I started seeing some beam videos pop up on her IG stories, and it got me wondering, is she coming back, too? Why else is she on the beam? Just for funsies? After all, Helen Hu decided on a return not long after hopping up on a beam and doing a routine just for funsies last summer, so seeing someone back on an apparatus again will forever spark curiosity.

Well, as promised, on Monday the news dropped that Lauren Macpherson (Achilles Twin 1) and Grace Anne Davis (Achilles Twin 2) will return to Mizzou Gymnastics on their final year of eligibility. It has massive positive repercussions for this team.

But first, I encourage you to check out their cute lil’ video. Such personality, the Mizzou Gym team.

Lauren Macpherson

Welcome back, Lauren! The last time we saw Lauren Macpherson compete was December’s Black & Gold meet where she won the all-around, scoring a 9.90 on beam, and 9.85s on vault (with a stick!), bars and floor. Her upcoming season was looking so promising, which is why Mizzou fans and the gymternet alike were traumatized to learn that she would be out all season after observing her wheeling around on a scooter during Week One’s Beauty & The Beast meet. An achilles injury. Yikes.

But she’s back and she’s healed, and we are EXCITED.

Rather than redo this whole thing, I thought I’d save some time by copy/pasting some of my transfer piece from over the summer. You can check it out in its entirety here.

When San Jose State grad transfer Lauren Macpherson committed back in June of 2024, the gymternet was screaming about what a good pickup this was. Macpherson, a 5-foot-1 grad student from Gilbert, Ariz., arrived in the offseason from San Jose State, where she earned First Team All-Conference seven times and Second Team honors three times in both the Mountain Pacific (MPSF) and the Mountain West conferences, while also qualifying for NCAA Regionals three times as an all-around competitor. The 2024 Mountain West Beam Specialist of the Year was also awarded First Team All-Mountain West in All-Around and Beam and Second Team honors on floor, and now looks to make some noise now as a part of the vaunted SEC.

CGN Analysis when she committed:

“Lauren Macpherson was such a steady competitor for San Jose State during her four years, and I for one am excited to see her at Missouri and to finally get recognition for what she brings to gymnastics.” -Savanna

With the loss of 4/6 of the no. 4 ranked bars squad and 3/7 of the no. 11 ranked beam team, adding another 9.925 bars (9.830 NQS) and 9.95 beam worker (9.905 NQS, 1st in Mtn W) into the mix is seismic. LMac also is a good FX’er, scoring a 9.925 twice (9.880 NQS), so that’s also an option, though not quite as needed due to the very deep floor rotation that only contained two graduates (Joci & Amari).

In my Too Early Beam Lineup Predictions in August, I touted LMac as the new “Beam Queen,” as she scored under 9.825 just twice in 2024 (9.775, 8.975— a fall in the NCAA Regional Round I), and the rest of the time? Consistent as hell. She scored five 9.825, two 9.85, a 9.875, 9.90, two 9.925, and a 9.950 in late February 2024.

In my Too Early Bars Lineup Predictions, I also fully expected to see her in bars lineups, recording two 9.90 scores and a career-high 9.925 to go with four scores 9.80 and above in the 2024 season.

A few fun skills Lauren incorporates is a Tkatchev (Jocelyn Moore’s high-flying skill that always wows the announcers for its enormous height), as well as a blind full turn into a FTDT (full-twisting double tuck) dismount. You can watch here.

Grace Anne Davis

The wearer of the tiger slippers returns (and my vote for the Spirit Award)! Nate and I watched Grace Anne in multiple intrasquads absolutely KILLING it on vault, and that was one of many reasons we were stunned to learn of her achilles injury. She was looking phenomenal. Per my research-laden Too Early Vault Preview, GAD was a regular in the vault lineup in 2024, recording 11 scores at 9.80 or better, including four at 9.85 or better, while earning just two at 9.775 or lower (9.775 & 9.65 once each). Historically speaking, Davis showed improvement in 2024, as she tied her 9.875 career high set in 2022 against #3 LSU, and her NQS and average were both career highs. She’s got a ton of power, and if the achilles is a go, I expect to see her in at least some lineups, though I can’t say for certain if she’ll be a mainstay in 2026.

Beam was the best of GAD’s events, and the one I’m most excited about. From my August Too Early Beam Preview, I talked about how Grace Anne reached career-highs on beam in 2024 across the board and was one of the Tigers’ most consistent beamers over the last two years. In 2024, GAD earned four scores of 9.90 or above, a couple 9.85s, a trio of 9.80s and five scores 9.75 or below, only one of which was a fall. In fact, Grace Anne has recorded just two falls in the past two years of competition!

Here’s a snippet of Davis’s routine, which features college gymnastics’ best gainer full off the side of the beam.

Combined with the surprise (to us, anyway) commitment of Illinois grad transfer Makayla Green, whom I wrote about on Sunday evening, this team suddenly got a helluva lot deeper. And that’s saying something as they already had a lot of depth.

Here’s how the roster stacks up as of right now. We do expect to see another transfer or two, though the number of transfers I think will ultimately depend upon what’s decided in the House settlement, which is currently at odds due to.. you guessed it.. roster management. Should the expected number hold up, then they’ve got one spot left, barring any other roster defections (both Kylie Minard and Courtney Woods previously announced their intent to transfer).

Stay tuned for more Gym news here at Rock M. I suspect we’ll be hearing more news very soon.

WELCOME BACK, LAUREN AND GRACE ANNE!!!! #MIZ

David Carle has signed a multiyear contract to remain head coach of the University of Denver’s men’s hockey team, the school announced Monday.

The 35-year-old has been Denver’s head coach since 2018, winning the national championship in 2022 and 2024 and amassing a record of 179-74-17. He has also been behind the bench for Team USA’s back-to-back World Junior titles in 2024 and 2025. This season, the Pioneers lost to Western Michigan in the semifinals at the Frozen Four in St. Louis.

Carle seemed a candidate to either become an NHL head coach this summer or use the considerable interest he’s generated off his NCAA and World Junior success into a raise from Denver.

He was linked to multiple NHL head coaching vacancies over the past few weeks and had interviewed for openings in prior years as well. The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported interest from the Anaheim Ducks, and there were multiple reports that the Chicago Blackhawks made an aggressive pursuit before Carle removed himself from consideration.

This new contract doesn’t preclude him from leaving Denver mid-contract, but he holds the cards. He has great job security at Denver, and NHL coaches are mostly hired to be fired shortly thereafter. An NHL team will need to make a very convincing argument to Carle, and he can pick his ideal situation to step into where he can have success.

That Carle is staying at the University of Denver isn’t necessarily a surprise, especially if you consider his backstory and bond with the school.

Carle hasn’t shied away from talking to NHL teams, and there was certainly interest in this cycle of openings (the Blackhawks most notably). There might be a time when he does make the jump. But Carle has said he’s very happy with the Pioneers, who have advanced to the Frozen Four six of the last 10 years and are the standard in college hockey. Carle told The Athletic after their semifinal loss to eventual champion Western Michigan: “What drives me now is people saying, ‘It was a good run.’ F— that. That window is still wide open. And we’ll be back.”

Carle, whose wife, Mellissa, gave birth to their third child (a daughter) in March, said it’d have to be a really special job to leave.

“If there’s a life-changing opportunity, then I’d have to listen to that,” Carle said in February. “And if it’s accompanied with the opportunity to win, then that becomes more enticing. But to just take any job, that’s not happening.”

(Photo: Adam Ihse / AFP)

NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. – After going 8-under par over its second nine holes of the day, the Kansas State women’s golf team battled rainy conditions to turn in a first-round score of even-par 288 on Monday as the Wildcats are tied for second place in the 2025 NCAA Lexington Regional held at the par-72, 6,095-yard Keene Trace Golf Club.
 
Starting on hole No. 10, the fifth-seeded Wildcats finished their first nine holes toward the bottom of the leaderboard at 8-over par, but 11 birdies over the final 9 holes of the day helped K-State even out its score and put the Cats in great position entering Tuesday’s second round.
 
“Although we stumbled a little bit over the starting line, the ladies kept their composure and fought right to the end of the round,” said head coach Stew Burke, whose squad leads the 12-team field with 17 birdies. “This format is a marathon, not a sprint, and you can really play your way out in that first round. Tomorrow is a moving day, where we hope to close the gap on the team ahead of us and pull away from those behind us. However, we will be focused on the task at hand, which is posting a great second-round score to put us in position for the final round.”
 
The Wildcats’ first-round score of 288 was their best ever in NCAA Regional play, nine shots better than the 297 that they put together during the second round of the 2016 NCAA Athens (Ga.) Regional.
 
K-State is tied with No. 6 seed Georgia Southern and trails top-seeded Florida State – the third-ranked team in the country – by seven shots. No. 2 seed USC is one shot back of the Wildcats and Eagles, and the Trojans are three shots clear of the fifth-place team, No. 3 seed TCU.
 
Junior Noa van Beek and senior Carla Bernat led the way for Kansas State on Monday as each posted a score of 2-under par 70 to begin postseason play in a tie for third place, and they also lead the 66-player field with five birdies apiece. The duo tied for the fourth-lowest individual round in K-State’s NCAA Regional history, only to be outdone by a pair of 69s by Bernat at last year’s NCAA Bryan (Texas) Regional and Miranda Smith’s round of 69 in the 2003 NCAA Central Regional.
 
A junior from Oene, Netherlands, van Beek went even par over her first nine holes before tallying birdies on Nos. 2, 4, 5 and 7 to produce her eighth under-par round this season. Bernat followed suit as she was 1-over par at the turn prior to birdies on Nos. 1, 5, 7 and 8 en route to her 23rd under-par round of the year.
 
Sophomore Alenka Navarro went bogey-free and 2-under par over her second nine holes as she is tied for 19th place at 1-over par 73. Two shots back and in a tie for 31st place is freshman Nanami Nakashima, who finished her second nine holes at 1-under par. Senior Sophie Bert is tied for 57th place at 8-over par 80.
 
Florida State’s Mirabel Ting – the top-ranked player in the country – holds a one-shot advantage on the individual leaderboard at 4-under par 68, just ahead of Western Kentucky’s Julia Zigrossi. USC’s Catherine Park, who ranks 20th nationally, is among four other players who are tied with Bernat and van Beek for third place.
 
Kansas State begins the second round of the 2025 NCAA Lexington Regional on Tuesday with tee times off No. 1 starting at 8 a.m. (ET), and the Wildcats are paired with USC and Georgia Southern. Live results can be followed on SCOREBOARD powered by Clippd.