The decision to head to the NFL instead of returning to college can be a complicated choice. Massive NIL payouts, potential NFL landing spots, and the solidity of a returning team are several factors that go into the stay-or-go calculus.

But with the 2026 NFL Draft QB class looking a bit thin already, some are second-guessing one QB’s plan to return to school.

Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss is in the middle of requesting another year of college eligibility from the NCAA. Chambliss is claiming that he missed the 2022 season due to respiratory health issues and is thus seeking one more year to play. His NIL value is likely to end up at several times the $665,000 estimate from On3sports.

ESPN broadcaster Chase Daniel second-guessed Chambliss’s decision to return to school. “Trinidad Chambliss should absolutely think abotu entering the draft after the way he’s played in the #CFBPlayoff,” Daniel Tweeted. “Light QB draft,” he also noted.

The 2026 NFL Draft class is highlighted by Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza and, should he enter, Oregon’s Dante Moore. Many are projecting both of those quarterbacks at or near the top of the Draft. But after Mendoza and Moore, things get increasingly cloudy.

Alabama’s Ty Simpson has indicated his plan to enter the Draft. Other veteran QBs like Carson Beck and Cade Klubnik figure to be in the picture. But it’s entirely plausible that NFL teams could view Chambliss as the No. 3 or No. 4 QB prospect in the 2026 NFL Draft class.

Chambliss rose to prominence seemingly from nowhere in 2025. He sat for two years at Division II Ferris State and then played mostly as a reserve in 2023. In 2024, though, he passed for 2,901 yards and 26 scores while rushing for 1,019 yards and 25 scores on the ground while leading Ferris State to the national title.

He began 2025 as the backup for Ole Miss’s Austin Simmons. But an ankle injury in Week 2 gave Chambliss a chance to play and he didn’t relinquish the job. Chambliss wound up passing for 3,937 yards and 22 touchdowns against just three interceptions. He ran for an additional 527 yards and eight touchdowns.

Of course, an adverse NCAA ruling might leave Chambliss with no real choice but to go pro. He has inked a tentative NIL deal with Ole Miss based on the premise that he will be given eligibility. That deal has been indicated as likely worth several million dollars. But Daniel thinks even better NFL money could be in Chambliss’s future… if he seeks it.

Thursday night, Ole Miss’ run in the College Football Playoff came to an end. The Rebels fell to Miami in the final seconds of the Fiesta Bowl.

With the loss, Lane Kiffin will officially receive a $500,000 payout from LSU within 30 days of the end of Ole Miss’ campaign. That was the amount he was due from Ole Miss, per the terms of his contract, and LSU said it would honor it in his deal with the Tigers. The school included “ancillary benefits” in Kiffin’s agreement after his high-profile departure from Ole Miss.

Ole Miss’ advancement in the College Football Playoff bracket increased Kiffin’s payout, which LSU is due to pay 30 days after the Rebels’ postseason run ends. It would have gone up even more if Ole Miss won the title. Here is how the structure is written out in his deal at LSU.

• Ole Miss first-round game participation: $150,000
• Ole Miss quarterfinal appearance: $250,000
• Ole Miss semifinal appearance: $500,000
• Ole Miss CFP national championship appearance: $750,000
• Ole Miss CFP national championship win: $1 million

With Thursday’s loss, Ole Miss’ season ended in the College Football Playoff semifinal. As a result, Kiffin is due $500,000. If the Rebels pulled off a win, that figure would have grown to $750,000.

“Coach will be entitled to receive a payment in an amount equal to the amount Coach would have been entitled to receive had he remained Head Coach at Coach’s immediate prior employer and coached the prior employer’s football team through the 2025-26 CFP,” Lane Kiffin’s contract at LSU reads. “… If applicable, the payment under this section may be paid from affiliated foundation funds and shall be paid within 30 days following the prior employer’s team being eliminated from the 2025-26 CFP.”

Miami holds on to beat Ole Miss in Fiesta Bowl

Ole Miss trailed Miami 17-13 at halftime of the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl, but mounted a charge in the fourth quarter. The Rebels were able to capitalize on multiple Hurricanes miscues and took their first lead of the game, 19-17, with seven minutes to play.

Miami responded with a touchdown from Malachi Toney, but Ole Miss punched back. After a pass interference penalty extended the drive, Trinidad Chambliss hit Dae’Quan Wright for a touchdown and got the two-point conversion to make it a 27-24 Rebels lead with 3:13 to go.

The Hurricanes didn’t go down easily, though. Carson Beck ran in the go-ahead touchdown with 18 seconds left to make it a 31-27 Miami lead, giving Ole Miss one more shot. But Chambliss’ final Hail Mary fell short, sealing the Hurricanes’ victory and sending the program to the national title game.

However, Miami won’t have to go far for the championship game. The game will be at Hard Rock Stadium Jan. 19. The Hurricanes now wait to find out if they will play Oregon or Indiana.

FARGO — North Dakota State athletic director Matt Larsen says “never in a million years” did he foresee his position getting into legal agreements like Name, Image and Likeness contracts with student-athletes. Well, a million years suddenly became 2026.

Another step in the different world of college football is alive and well with the Bison, whose players are required to sign either one of two contracts with the athletic department: a student-athlete participation and publicity agreement that allows the university to use the student-athlete for marketing and promotional purposes and a more comprehensive NIL license agreement that is tied to funds players receive directly from the Green and Gold Fund, the collective that pays student-athletes from the athletic department.

Almost 80% of NDSU football players are part of the latter.

Contracts like NDSU’s are most likely the standard in college football these days.

“I don’t know about every school but I think if you’re doing any sort of in-house institutional NIL, these are the types of things you need to do,” Larsen said. “There are probably varying degrees to how extensive they are. We just felt like we wanted to do it right on the front end.”

NDSU’s NIL license agreement is nine pages of legal language. For instance, there are stipulations that do not allow the athlete to enter into a third-party agreement with a competitor of an athletic department or university sponsor (which is nothing new), such as Under Armour, Scheels, Gate City Bank or Sanford Health, among others.

They are not allowed to represent industries related to alcohol, tobacco, anabolic steroids, gambling or sexually-oriented businesses.

Not all football players are paid and not all are paid the same, with preference given to starters or veterans who contribute the most on the field. The contract specifies the student-athlete have a degree of confidentiality with the exception of the student-athlete’s authorized representative, immediate family members, tax adviser or legal counsel.

The contracts between student-athletes and the university are not subject to open records, mainly because of student privacy rights like the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

“It’s a completely new world,” Larsen said. “It’s not something I ever thought I would do yet here we are.”

Larsen didn’t want to get into how enforceable the contracts are, although it’s a general assumption that a multi-million dollar agreement with a Power Four athlete is vastly different from a contract with an FCS player.

Anna Paige / The Forum

It’s doubtful a school like NDSU would legally go after a player making $10,000 in NIL as opposed to the University of Washington suggesting this week it may take legal action against quarterback Demond Williams Jr., who signed a million-dollar NIL contract last week with the school but said he was entering the transfer portal this week.

All 425 NDSU student-athletes sign the participation and publicity contract, which grants NDSU to use them for promotional purposes. There is no revenue exchanged with the parties.

Both contracts didn’t come about overnight. NDSU met with multiple lawyers, including an external Title IX attorney and the North Dakota University System assistant attorney general, over the summer in creating the agreements.

Football players get paid between two and four times a year depending on their situation with the payments of NIL funds to NDSU athletes being done through a company called Teamworks LLC, an operating system that distributes funds. The company advertises that its platform helps with tax obligations and offers tools for savings and business accounts.

Larsen calls it a general manager tool. More than that, Larsen has become more than a director of his athletic department. Add general manager to that title, too.

“A lot of our terms are all pretty standard,” he said.

Standard, in 2026.

Jeff Kolpack, the son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he’s covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995. He has covered all 10 of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written four books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough,” “Covid Kids” and “They Caught Them Sleeping: How Dot Reinvented the Pretzel.” He is also the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” April through August.

Demond Williams Jr., a college football player who ignited controversy by entering the transfer portal just days after signing a lucrative name, image and likeness deal with Washington, announced late Thursday that he will remain with the Huskies. The abrupt reversal comes amid reports that the university was weighing its legal options to enforce the contract.

Williams, 19, signed an NIL deal on Jan. 2 to remain as Washington’s quarterback for the 2026 season, a contract reportedly valued at around $4 million. Days later — on the same day as the memorial service for Washington women’s soccer player Mia Hamant, who died in November after a long battle with kidney cancer — Williams announced his intention to enter the transfer portal.

Demond Williams Jr. of the Washington Huskies arrives for the game against the Oregon Ducks at Husky Stadium on Nov. 29, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. (Blake Dahlin/ISI Photos/ISI Photos)

The decision, and the timing of Williams’ announcement, was met with both shock and backlash.  

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The fallout of that announcement led Williams’ agent, Doug Hendrickson, to drop the quarterback, citing “philosophical differences.” Williams then retained Florida-based attorney Darren Heitner amid reports that the university was exploring legal action to enforce the contract.

But in a shocking reversal, Williams released a statement Thursday confirming that he would be staying with Washington. 

“After thoughtful reflection with my family, I am excited to announce that I will continue my football journey at the University of Washington. I am deeply grateful to my coaches, teammates, and everyone in the program for fostering an environment where I can thrive both as an athlete and as an individual,” his statement posted to social media read. 

“I am fully committed and focused on contributing to what we are building.”

Demond Williams Jr. of the Washington Huskies celebrates a touchdown against the Oregon Ducks during the second half at Husky Stadium on Nov. 29, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

AGENT DUMPS WASHINGTON QUARTERBACK TRYING TO BREAK $4M CONTRACT DAYS AFTER SIGNING

Williams also apologized that his initial announcement “coincided with the celebration of life for Mia Hamant, a beloved member of our University community. I never intended to call attention away from such an important moment.” 

In his statement, head coach Jedd Fisch acknowledged the strain caused by the situation and said the program would work with Williams to repair relationships and rebuild trust within the Husky community.

“Over the last few days, Demond and I have engaged in very honest and heartfelt conversations about his present and future. We both agree that the University of Washington is the best place for him to continue his academic, athletic, and social development,” he said in a statement provided by the university.

Demond Williams Jr. of the Washington Huskies passes against the Oregon Ducks during the first half at Husky Stadium on Nov. 29, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

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“I appreciate Demond’s statement. I support him, and we will work together to begin the process of repairing relationships and regaining the trust of the Husky community.” 

Williams is a dual-threat quarterback who threw for 3,065 yards with 25 touchdowns and eight interceptions, while also rushing for 611 yards and six scores during his sophomore season at Washington.

Fox News Digital’s Scott Thompson contributed to this report. 

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From Harvard to Horned Frog. That’s the transition record-breaking Crimson quarterback Jaden Craig ’26 is making.

Craig finished his eligibility at Harvard on a down note with the 52-7 defeat to Villanova on November 29, 2025, in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) post-season playoffs. Having concluded his academic coursework in Cambridge, he is now enrolling at Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, Texas, as a so-called “grad transfer,” a development first reported by the Crimson. The expectation is that Craig will be the starting quarterback for the Horned Frogs (that is, their mascot) when they kick off the 2026 season in the fall.

The move represents a step up in class for the two-time All-Ivy signal caller. TCU plays in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) as a member of the Big 12, one of college football’s so-called Power Four conferences. To get there, Craig entered his name in the NCAA’s transfer portal, indicating his availability as a potential graduate transfer for an additional season of college football.

Craig quickly found a taker at TCU, whose starting quarterback in 2025, Josh Hoover, is transferring to suddenly-mighty Indiana. This past season the Horned Frogs were 9-4 and played in the Alamo Bowl, where they outlasted Southern Cal 30-27.

The graduate transfer rule was established in 2018, one of the many features of the new, Wild West atmosphere of college sports. It essentially rewards student-athletes who have run out of eligibility at their school by allowing them to get an additional year of competition at another school that will accept them. (The Ivy League does not accept grad transfers for athletic competition.)

Several former star Harvard players have taken advantage of the rule and played elsewhere, most notably kick returner Justice Shelton-Mosley ’19 (Vanderbilt), tight end Tyler Neville ’24 (Virginia), and defensive lineman Thor Griffith ’24 (Louisville). This past season, receiver Cooper Barkate ’26 became a star at Duke as a grad transfer. More players from Harvard’s 2025 team are expected to follow Craig’s lead in the coming weeks.

Andrew Aurich, the Stephenson family head coach for Harvard football, thinks the move will benefit both Craig and TCU. “I see him being able to fit in right away, whatever the dynamics are of the roster at TCU,” says Aurich. “They do a really good job of putting the quarterback in situations to be really successful, and Jaden’s a really good decision maker.”

Still, Aurich, who also has coached at the FBS level and in the NFL, knows that it may take a while for Craig to adjust. “The speed that he saw from a few defensive guys in the Ivy League,” Aurich says, “he’ll see from everyone in the Big 12.”

Craig’s grad transfer stint will be a showcase for NFL scouts who may be skeptical of his Ivy pedigree. For sure, he had done all he could on Soldiers Field. Craig was an integral member of teams that shared three Ivy championships. He established new Crimson career records with 52 touchdown passes and 6,074 yards gained through the air. Craig threw for more than 300 yards five times.

Gaudy as they are, the statistics don’t fully do him justice. This past season against Penn, he calmly directed a stirring march in the final 22 seconds to set up a game-winning field goal that clinched a share of the league title.

Craig is in the discussion for the best Harvard quarterback of all time. Perhaps only Ryan Fitzpatrick ’05 surpasses him. What is undeniable is that Craig sported the best arm in the program’s 151 seasons. In football parlance, Craig has all the throws. He can rifle the ball or prettily feather it. He can fit passes into tight windows. He can loft long bombs that drop right into the hands of streaking receivers. His rapport with favorite targets—the most notable being Barkate—has been almost eerie. He has set a high bar for his successors.

Now he moves onto the big stage, and a more lucrative one. In this new world of big-time college sports, schools can legally pay student-athletes (Harvard does not), who also can earn money through NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) deals. Some reports have FBS schools putting together financial packages worth a minimum of $1 million for starting quarterbacks. We have no idea if Craig has partaken of such booty. Then again, his concentration at Harvard was economics.

We wish him well—as potential new fans of the Horned Frogs.