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Hailey Van Lith Is a 'Sports Illustrated' Cover Star — and This Is How It Happened

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8 months ago

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Hailey Van Lith Is a 'Sports Illustrated' Cover Star — and This Is How It Happened

Few afternoon emails get the blood pumping like one from a prominent monthly publication on deadline. Just ask Alex Catterton, the director of content and public relations at Visit Fort Worth, who received precisely one of these in late February. As it turns out, Sports Illustrated, the national magazine that practically invented long-form sports journalism, was coming to Fort Worth to photograph Hailey Van Lith, TCU’s star guard and a rising celebrity in the growing sport of women’s basketball.

If you happened to peruse the internet yesterday, you might’ve come across Sports Illustrated revealing the cover star for their digital Swimsuit Issue. And if this is the case, you know the photoshoot the email references was far from your typical magazine shoot — it wasn’t a single page or spread to simply acknowledge Van Lith and her final NCAA stop. No, this shoot was for the cover. And the cover of the Swimsuit Issue, no less.

That’s right, folks. Hailey Van Lith is on the cover of the digital Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. No singular volume of a magazine is more iconic, lauded, or gazed upon. And landing on the cover puts one in rarefied air — it’ll attract as many eyes as Time’s Person of the Year or People’s Sexiest Man Alive. Van Lith now belongs to a club of cover stars that includes Kate Upton, Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum, Ronda Rousey, and Beyonce.

And such shoots require their fair share of masterminding to execute. From securing locations and scheduling to catering, transportation, and even a little entertainment, successfully pulling off a photoshoot of this magnitude requires boots on the ground and people with local know-how.

This is where Catterton and the Visit Fort Worth team came in.

The photoshoot would take place in Fort Worth in 15 days, and Sports Illustrated made no bones about leaning on Visit Fort Worth to plan and execute the logistical nightmare that would include photographing multiple athletes — the shoot also included two other Big 12 athletes — in multiple locations. The magazine would bring the talent, and Visit Fort Worth would provide the place.

To put the entire experience concisely, Catterton says, “We scouted the locations, changed locations, had dinner at Joe T’s, woke up at 4 a.m. for breakfast, did a full-day shoot, wrapped the shoot at six that evening, and most of their team flew out that night at seven.”

A lot of work, but the payoff was worth it: Cowtown gets on the cover.

With a quick turnaround, Catterton, working hand in hand with Visit Fort Worth’s director of sports marketing Becca Berger, hit the ground running. “We built a team internally [the day they contacted us] to start prepping,” Catterton says. “I had our social media manager out the following day scouting locations and taking current photos to show [Sports Illustrated]. I wanted them to give us two more weeks so we could’ve had bluebonnets, but they needed [the shoot done] in March.”

The team pitched several locations — many you might easily guess — but we’re not going to travel the road of could-have-beens. After a myriad of emails, texts, calls, and Zoom meetings, the magazine ultimately chose three locations: the Trinity Art Court (the painted basketball court under Lancaster Avenue Bridge), the Crescent Hotel (which is where the visitors stayed), and the Museum of Modern Art.

The court required a fresh coat of paint, which also required approval from the city’s graffiti abatement supervisor — approval that wouldn’t come in time. “Thank goodness,” Catterton says. “It rained the weekend before, and we would’ve never had time to get it done. So, then we were going to line the entire court with vinyl, but it was going to be outrageously expensive. So, we cut that and ended up doing three vinyl circles that would be good for certain shots.”

When SI’s team of 25 — photographer, hair, makeup, wardrobe, editors, assistants, etc. — arrived in Fort Worth the day before the scheduled shoot, they elected to nix the basketball court idea.

Too obvious to shoot a basketball player on a basketball court? One must suppose, but the team was now down a location.

That night, the evening before the shoot, Visit Fort Worth planned a welcome dinner at Joe T. Garcia’s for the entire SI crew and models. The dinner included local tequila from Sarah Castillo’s La Pulga and a custom hat bar pop-up from Brittany Cobb’s Flea Style. But not long after their arrival, upon walking through the iconic outdoor space, the editor-in-chief, MJ Day, and photographer, Taylor Ballantyne, found their replacement: They want to shoot at Joe T’s.

A call to Kelly Lancarte, daughter of Lanny Lancarte and head of marketing for Joe T’s, ensured the space was available for a shoot in the morning. So, new plan: Joe T Garcia’s in the morning and The Modern in the afternoon. The crew began shooting at the Mexican restaurant as the sun came up at 7:43 a.m. and would continue their session at Joe T’s until 3:30 p.m. “It was incredible,” Catterton says. “They shut down the whole back half of the restaurant for us to shoot at all day long.”

The shoot would then move to the The Modern, which came with its own set of obstacles, including some unsightly construction and an event in the café at 5:15 p.m. — “and we had people outside in bathing suits,” Catterton says. But The Modern is where Ballantyne would take the image that now graces the digital cover of the Swimsuit Issue. According to Catterton, all of the solo snaps of Van Lith were taken at The Modern, while group photos of the Big 12 athletes were taken at Joe T’s, which are still included in the magazine.

We’ll be the first to tell you that any project involving a magazine will include more than its fair share of hurdles, but Fort Worth seems to have cleared any and all snags with ease.

Others who contributed to the SI cover shoot include Mackenzie Hughes and the folks at Fort Worth Camera who donated all of the production equipment for the shoot, Henry Abuto who provided the catering for breakfast, Tim Love who catered lunch, Mercedes Maddox and American Hat who provided hats for the athletes, and Lizzy Chestnut Bentley and City Boots who provided boots for the athletes.

“The team in Fort Worth came together,” Catterton says. “I mean, every person that was asked [to do anything] was saying yes and being helpful.”

And Fort Worth sure made an impression on the SI team (check out this glowing write-up). To put things in perspective, according to Catterton, the SI crew of staff and freelancers were in Switzerland the week before heading to Cowtown — they’re accustomed to jaw-dropping locales. And the city might’ve even converted a gal or two to the charms of Western duds. Those Flea Style custom cowboy hats the SI team got the night before? Well, word has it the editor-in-chief was wearing hers the entire day of the photo shoot.

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Josh Pate defends Joel Klatt amid G5 backlash, proposes second tier to College Football Playoff

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39 minutes ago

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December 17, 2025

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FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt found himself in a social media firestorm after comments he made about the Group of Five on a podcast appearance on Next Round Live. Clips of that interview quickly went viral with short snippets of some of the quotes.

The gist of those snippets suggested that Klatt was anti-G5, to the point of wanting the G5 kicked out of the College Football Playoff. Klatt intimated that the only thing keeping the G5 in the playoff currently is the threat of litigation.

College football analyst Josh Pate had his own thoughts on Joel Klatt’s take. He mostly came to the defense of the suddenly targeted analyst.

Pate first played a couple clips from Klatt’s appearance in their entirety. That offered more full context.

“Some of that was insane, I’m going to grant you that,” Pate said of Klatt’s points. “I just want to say the foundation of it I at least understand. The foundation of it is sound. Not all the parts of it. The foundation of it is sound.

“Couple of quotes there. No. 1, the G5 is in the College Football Playoff to avoid litigation is basically true.”

Pate lambasted the use of quote edits in condensing Joel Klatt’s much larger point into a few soundbites. He tried to explain how that’s misleading to his viewers.

“You know sometimes how you see a snapshot or a small soundbite of something and you get outraged by it and then you go on to learn the context of it two weeks later and you’re like, ‘Wow, I probably shouldn’t have gotten as outraged as I did over that,’ Pate said. “That is what is happening to Klatt. Admittedly he brought a lot of this on himself. …

“Now, what you probably saw was you probably saw quote edits like this or quote graphics like this. And if you’re listening on podcast just imagine scrolling through your social feed and there’s a picture of Klatt, looks like he’s somewhere sunny and happy and there’s a quote at the top, and it says, quote, ‘We don’t want Cinderellas. We want the best teams playing each other at the end. It’s the dumbest tournament and the least fair tournament in all of sports.’”

That part from Joel Klatt, obviously, was what many detractors latched onto. But it doesn’t take away from Klatt’s overall point about the G5, Pate pointed out.

So all the moaning over James Madison being in the playoffs is for naught. That’s just the way the current structure is set up.

“They are present in the playoff, they’re granted an auto bid in the playoff because if they are not then lawsuits will be filed immediately,” Pate said. “So that part’s accurate.

“Now whether or not you think it’s morally sound that they’re included in the playoff, that’s your own opinion. He’s got his, I’ve got mine, you’ve got yours. But he is right. Because in no other merit-based world where we just judged these teams on a static scale of quality, of resources and therefore what you do with the resources, and the results on the field and strength of schedule, in no world would James Madison be in the playoff. But the parameters of the playoff right now are that we take the five highest-ranked conference champs. So by every current rule James Madison is in the playoff and should be in the playoff. I don’t disagree with that. Tulane is in the playoff and should be in the playoff. I don’t disagree with the structure. I don’t disagree with the body of the playoff this year based on the current rules.”

So what’s the solution? Well, Joel Klatt also offered an answer for that. It just didn’t happen to go viral with the other stuff.

Klatt believes the G5 should effectively break off from the power conferences and host its own playoff. It would be a playoff tier between the FCS and the FBS.

“That’s been the same point that’s been made on my show,” Pate said. “So you notice if you really hated the G5 you’d just say, ‘Piss on the G5.’ That’s not what he did, despite the fact that that part didn’t get shared widely and it’s not what I’ve ever done on this show.

“Any time you have a problem with something, you ought to have a solution for it. So if your problem is, ‘Man, it makes little sense that we’ve got 136 teams pretending to play the same caliber of the sport’ you need to have a solution. That solution he just presented is the same one we’ve shared on this show, and that is a G5 playoff.”



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How NIL has transformed Ohio State’s recruiting from star-chasing to strategic roster building

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2 hours ago

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December 17, 2025

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — The days of simply collecting as many five-star talents as possible in college football recruiting are over.

In a revealing Buckeye Talk podcast episode, Ohio State analysts Stephen Means and Andrew Gillis detailed how the program has shifted to a more sophisticated “roster construction” approach that mirrors NFL team building more than traditional college recruiting.

“I think that because the financial aspect has come into this but also just logical roster building that has become more of a focal point than star, star, star, star, stars,” explained Stephen Means. “Because for a long time, college football was like, get as much talent as you humanly can, develop it, cuz you were living in a world where the top 1% of college football had all the talent. And that’s not true anymore.”

This fundamental shift in philosophy is perhaps most evident in how Gillis described Ohio State’s running back recruiting needs for the 2027 class. While five-star David Gabriel Georgees tops their board, the approach is more nuanced than just stacking elite talent.

“If they got three five stars running backs, the odds that we got on this podcast and said that’s actually probably not that good is higher than it might seem because we were saying why is your asset management this? Like because hey, look at your your receiver recruiting was down. You couldn’t have spent some of that money on a receiver,” Gillis explained.

The financial component of recruiting has transformed how Ohio State approaches each position group and recruiting class. It’s no longer just about who’s the best player available, but whether investing heavily in one position might shortchange another.

“It is a math equation. It is a money equation at this point. You’re not going to go get three five stars at running back in a single class,” Gillis emphasized.

Means further elaborated on how NIL money has forced this change: “You can’t pay a fivestar recruit, fivestar recruit money and then have the guy sitting on the bench because there’s another guy with there’s only so much money to go around.”

This strategic approach has Ohio State looking at players through different lenses: “ready to go” immediate contributors (typically five-stars and top-100 recruits), “developmental” prospects (usually ranked 200-350 nationally), and “depth” pieces who might be ranked lower but fill specific roles.

The analysts identified several instances where this approach is evident in Ohio State’s 2027 planning. At quarterback, they’re content with a developmental prospect in Brady Edmonds rather than chasing another five-star. At wide receiver, despite already having five-star Jir Brown committed, they believe Ohio State needs another elite receiver plus two depth pieces to properly structure the room.

“Now we are talking about roster construction,” Means said. “And the reason why we structured it this way is okay, they went and got a devel they have a developmental quarterback in 2027. They probably need a ready to go quarterback in 2028 and they probably need a depth quarterback in 2029. And the cycle continues, right?”

This staggered approach ensures Ohio State will have players at different stages of development at every position, creating a sustainable pipeline of talent ready to contribute when needed.

“Everybody everybody’s running the same race, but they can’t be running it at the same pace or you’re not going to have a team to field every single year,” Means added.

The conversation revealed how Ohio State’s recruiting approach now more closely resembles NFL roster management, with considerations for “salary cap” (NIL budget), positional value, and development timelines all factoring into decisions that previously might have been simply about collecting the highest-ranked players available.

As college football continues to evolve in the NIL era, this strategic roster construction philosophy may become the new standard for elite programs looking to maintain sustainable success.

Here’s the podcast for this week:



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Texas Tech announces football staff contract extensions

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December 17, 2025

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LUBBOCK, Texas – Texas Tech announced Tuesday it has come to terms on contract extensions for four key members of its football coaching staff: general manager James Blanchard, offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich, associate head coach and special teams coordinator Kenny Perry and defensive coordinator Shiel Wood.

Texas Tech agreed to the extensions with Blanchard and its three coordinators in recent weeks, pushing each of their contracts through the 2028 season with significant financial investments included as well as a revised buyout structure. McGuire, himself, agreed to a new seven-year contract following the regular season, only days prior to leading the Red Raiders to their first Big 12 Conference title in school history.

“I appreciate Kirby Hocutt and our administration for proactively investing in the future of our football program,” McGuire said. “Our expectation is to compete annually for championships with this staff and the resources we have in place here at Texas Tech. While we still have goals in front of us this season, we’re thankful to have the support of an incredible fan base and administration that believes strongly in the future of this program.”

Texas Tech enters the College Football Playoff Quarterfinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl with a 12-1 record, having already snapped the single-season school record for wins ahead of a potential matchup with either No. 5 Oregon or No. 12 seed James Madison. The Red Raiders are in the College Football Playoff for the first time in program history following a 34-7 rout over previously-No. 11 BYU in the Edward Jones Big 12 Championship.

Texas Tech has dominated opponents this season with all 12 wins coming by at least 20 points. In the process, the Red Raiders joined only Alabama in 2018 as the only teams in the Associated Press era (since 1936) to record 12 or more wins by 20-plus points prior to a bowl game. The 12 wins by that margin are already both a Texas Tech and Big 12 Conference record and are one shy of the FBS record that was set by Clemson in 2018.  

The Red Raiders’ success has stemmed from all three sides of the ball with a stingy defense, another high-scoring offense and an aggressive approach on special teams. To date, Texas Tech is the only team in the country to rank in the top five for scoring offense (42.5), scoring defense (10.9), total offense (480.3 yards per game) and total defense (254.4 yards allowed per game). The Red Raiders are also the FBS leaders in both takeaways (31) and rush defense (68.5 yards allowed per game) and rank 10th for passing offense (289.4 yards per game), creating the balance McGuire desired upon his hiring four years ago.

On special teams, the Red Raiders have combined to block five kicks this season, which is tied with Penn State for the most in the FBS. Texas Tech has been among the most-aggressive teams in the country under Perry, blocking a total of 14 kicks during his four seasons, which leads all Big 12 programs during that span and ranks in the top five nationally. Texas Tech is also the only team in the country to rank in the top 20 for both kick return average and kickoff return defense this season, all while boasting a Paul Hornung finalist in running back and returner J’Koby Williams and a Lou Groza semifinalist in kicker Stone Harrington.

Perry was a charter member of McGuire’s staff upon his hiring prior to the 2022 season as he has been part of four-consecutive bowl appearances and 25 wins over Big 12 opponents, the most in the conference during that span. Both Leftwich and Wood are completing their first seasons on staff after arriving this past offseason on three-year contracts.

Kickoff for the Capital One Orange Bowl is set for 11 a.m. CT on New Year’s Day with coverage provided on ESPN and the Texas Tech Sports Network.



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Paul Finebaum labels newly unemployed college football coach as ‘arrogant’

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3 hours ago

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December 17, 2025

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It’s no surprise that opinionated college football personality Paul Finebaum had some pointed responses when asked to describe certain college football coaches with just one word.

But his description for former LSU and Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly was particularly interesting.

“Arrogant,” Finebaum said.

In the spirit of the bit, he didn’t expound on the label, and many college football fans will surely nod at that description for the fired former Tigers coach. But what makes it interesting in this case is that Finebaum had Kelly as a weekly guest on Mondays during the football season and was usually very deferential to the coach for taking the time to join him.

“Coach, always appreciate you coming on, on Monday,” Finebaum said to close out Kelly’s last weekly appearance before he was fired on Oct. 26.

That said, he’s not wrong.

There’s a reason there has been almost zero buzz around Kelly’s name for any job opening this cycle, despite his status as the winningest active coach in college football with an official record of 297-109-2 across his tenures at Division II Grand Valley State, Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Notre Dame and LSU, with 21 more wins officially vacated from his Notre Dame record.

Kelly stunned the college football world when he left Notre Dame after 12 seasons and five straight double-digit-win seasons, including 11-1 in his final year there in 2021, for LSU while saying publicly that he wanted “to be in an environment where I have the resources to win a national championship.”

Never mind that Kelly had led Notre Dame to the national championship game after the 2012 season, losing to Alabama, and that, without him, the Fighting Irish reached the national championship game last year (losing to Ohio State).

He drew further ire when he said he was rooting for the Irish in that title game last year while noting that he had recruited many of the players involved.

Of course, Kelly’s LSU tenure seemed misfit almost from the start when he slipped into a fake southern accent during his introductory press conference.

Then there was the awkward video of Kelly showing off his dance moves with a recruit …

But the biggest problem was that Kelly simply didn’t win enough in Baton Rouge. He never reached a College Football Playoff with the Tigers, never finished higher than No. 12 in the final rankings, dipped to 9-4 last year and then 5-3 this season before he was fired.





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Elon Announces 2026 Football Schedule

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4 hours ago

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December 17, 2025

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2026 Elon Football Schedule Horizontal



Football


Elon Athletics


Five-Game Home Slate, Road Trip To Stanford Highlight Schedule




ELON – Elon football head coach Tony Trisciani and the Phoenix released their 2026 football schedule Tuesday afternoon in conjunction with an announcement from the Coastal Athletic Association. The 11-game schedule is highlighted by a mid-October trip to Stanford and an eight-game CAA slate that gets started in week two. 

The Phoenix will play five home games at Rhodes Stadium, including Sept. 26 for Family Weekend against Maine and Oct. 10 for Homecoming against Wofford.

Elon opens the season with two straight road games at Davidson (Sept. 5) and CAA foe Rhode Island (Sept. 12). The Phoenix defeated the Wildcats 55-7 in its 2025 home opener. The trip to Rhode Island will be Elon’s first since 2022.

Elon plays its home opener on Sept. 19 against CAA newcomer Sacred Heart and then closes out the month of September by hosting Maine on Sept. 26 for Family Weekend.

After completing the first half of its CAA schedule by returning to the northeast to face New Hampshire on Oct. 3, the Phoenix welcomes former Southern Conference rival Wofford to Rhodes Stadium for Homecoming on Oct. 10. It’ll serve as Elon’s only home game in October.

Elon will make its first-ever West Coast trip to face Stanford on Oct. 17, marking the fourth straight season it has clashed with an ACC opponent. A bye week will then lead to another October road game at North Carolina A&T on Halloween (Oct. 31).

The Phoenix closes its home schedule against Hampton (Nov. 7) and Campbell (Nov. 14) before playing its regular-season finale at Towson (Nov. 21), a squad it defeated 17-3 on the road in 2025. 

2026 ELON FOOTBALL SCHEDULE 

Aug. 29 – Bye 

Sept. 5 – at Davidson 

Sept. 12 – at Rhode Island 

Sept. 19 – vs. Sacred Heart 

Sept. 26 – vs. Maine (Family Weekend) 

Oct. 3 – at New Hampshire 

Oct. 10 – vs. Wofford (Homecoming) 

Oct. 17 – at Stanford 

Oct. 24 – Bye 

Oct. 31 – at North Carolina A&T 

Nov. 7 – vs. Hampton 

Nov. 14 – vs. Campbell 

Nov. 21 – at Towson

* Game times will be announced at a later date 

SUPPORT THE PHOENIX  

2026 Elon Football Season tickets are available now at ElonTickets.com. Fans can support Elon Athletics through the Phoenix Club.  

STAY POSTED  

For further coverage of Elon Football, follow the Phoenix on X (@ElonFootball) and Instagram (@ElonFB).

 



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Patriots Lessons, NIL Chaos & His Post-NFL Career

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5 hours ago

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December 17, 2025

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In Season 2, Episode 10 of Portfolio Players presented by E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley, Brian Hoyer offers an inside look at how NIL (name, image, and likeness) collectives, and program infrastructure are transforming college football. As a longtime NFL quarterback and current partner at Legacy25, Hoyer brings a rare combination of on-field experience and operational insight into how the athlete pipeline is shifting.

He details why today’s college landscape mirrors professional sports, how donor fatigue and escalating expectations impact programs, and why collectives must prioritize financial education and long-term planning. Hoyer also explains the role of Legacy25 in supporting athletes across multiple sports and why non-revenue programs are increasingly turning to NIL as a competitive advantage.

Drawing from his years with the Patriots, Hoyer reflects on the leadership lessons, discipline, and organizational standards that now inform his post-football career. With thoughtful commentary on NIL, athlete development, and long-term sustainability, Hoyer paints a clear picture of where college athletics is heading and what it will take to succeed.





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