NIL

Here's how Brenda Frese and the Terps have succeeded in the transfer portal.

Published

8 months ago

May 23, 2025

Here's how Brenda Frese and the Terps have succeeded in the transfer portal.

It was around 9 o’clock Eastern on a night in April when Brenda Frese called her latest transfer portal target to pitch a whirlwind suggestion.

Yarden Garzon, a three-year standout and the all-time 3-point leader at Indiana, had been talking with Frese on the phone and liked what she was hearing. So then, Maryland’s coach asked, Why don’t we get you on a visit to College Park? Could you fly out tomorrow morning?

Garzon was game — but had an added request. Could her sister, Lior, in Boulder, Colorado, join the visit? The Israel native wanted to see Maryland, but she wanted another pair of eyes she could trust at her side.

No problem, Frese said. The Terps would make it happen.

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The next day, Garzon flew in from Indiana, took a car service to College Park and by midday was enjoying lunch with her sister — whom she hadn’t expected to see until Passover later in the month. It was days later that Garzon, with her family’s blessing, committed to Maryland, where she took her only official visit.

“We had this conversation that was really great, and it was fun to hear from the players and the whole staff,” she said. “The most important thing at the end of the day is the people.”

That’s always been a truism when it comes to recruiting in college sports. But now, with drastic changes caused by the loosening of transfer rules and proliferation of name, image and likeness dollars, building championship teams often comes down to speed.

Relationships once unfurled over years of recruiting and were cemented with long-planned and relatively relaxed campus visits. The new environment forces coaches to forge bonds quickly, often on a player’s terms.

Frese and her staff have adapted well to the NCAA’s Wild West era, which saw more than 1,300 Division I women’s basketball players enter the portal this offseason. Last month, the Terps signed Garzon and Duke’s Oluchi Okananwa, ESPN’s No. 7- and No. 11-ranked available players, respectively. The acquisitions come on the heels of a season when Maryland went to the Sweet 16 and finished with a No. 12 Associated Press ranking on a team built largely with transfers — many of whom return next season.

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Entering her 24th season at Maryland, Frese says she’s “hesitant to say we’ve mastered” the transfer portal process, but the Terps are clearly doing something right. Their success has come amid a modern-day process that is so tense and fast-paced that Frese calls the recruiting window more stressful than March Madness.

On a recent Wednesday, Frese told her husband she could come up to Pittsburgh for the weekend to watch her twin sons play in their own basketball tournament. By Thursday, she was forced to recant. She had to recruit. Things change that fast.

“April is by far more intense than March now,” she said. “It’s the transfer portal. It’s how quickly things move. You might think you have tomorrow off, then by that night you have a visit scheduled in the morning.”

The trick for the Terps is making the process look smooth to the recruits. Bringing in a transfer portal target is like cramming for a final exam — and it takes a huge, cohesive team. Frese’s job is to get the recruit to say yes to the visit, then she hands things off to Lindsey Spann and Noelle Cobb, her assistants who handle the bulk of recruiting tasks: “I don’t think they get any sleep on those nights.”

There’s some sleep, Spann said, but not a lot. Once she and Cobb get a green light that a recruit is coming in less than 24 hours, they have to figure out all the logistics. They see which coaches and players are free the next day to meet. They coordinate with the compliance department. They see which airports are closest to the recruit and which flights are available in the morning, and they arrange the car service to pick them up.

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“We’re using a lot of that midnight oil,” Spann said.

Coaches are also responsible for showing how much work they’ve done scouting the recruit, which played a huge role in Okananwa’s decision to come to Maryland. Like Garzon’s, her official visit was scheduled the night before it happened. When Okananwa — a rising junior whom the Terps had recruited in high school before she committed to Duke — flew in from Durham, North Carolina, she was overwhelmed by the reams of notes the Terps had taken about her game.

“You talk about quick turnaround time — everything’s already laid out, everything’s already done,” Okananwa said. “There’s all these printed sheets going into detail about where I can improve, where they see me in the offense, where they see my game going all the way into the professional league — which is my dream. It was just so meticulously thought out and planned.”

Spann appreciated the positive feedback. In Okananwa’s case, it helped the staff that the Terps had played Duke in November and had scouting notes to use as a reference point. But creating the perfect package requires calibrating to the recruit’s goals: “We tailor these to her specific needs and situation, so when they come in they can see we know their game.”

Preexisting knowledge also put the Terps in strong position to recruit Garzon, who had challenged them in Big Ten play with the Hoosiers. Like Okananwa, Garzon’s dream is to be a pro player — “it’s not a secret, this is the main reason I came to the U.S.,” she said — but Maryland has other ways to sell that, too.

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One of the most impactful conversations Garzon had before committing was with Abby Meyers, herself a 3-point shooter who transferred in for a graduate season at Maryland in 2022 and has played professionally overseas, including in Israel.

“She came to Maryland for one year, which is basically my situation,” Garzon said. “She had amazing stuff to say about Coach Brenda and the staff — nothing bad to say about them.”

In Garzon’s case, Maryland’s substantial Jewish community also played a role in her decision to transfer. “It’s a big part of my identity, and I’m really proud of it.”

Some of these “fit” factors may seem antiquated or even besides the point in the modern era, because athletes also now negotiate NIL deals when they sign at schools. Cynics might believe only the highest dollar figure matters in a recruit’s decision. These market figures are closely guarded in part because schools want it that way. Notably, men’s coach Kevin Willard decried Maryland’s ability to compete in the NIL space, kicking dirt on the Terps before hightailing to Villanova.

Yet Maryland’s recruits say, although the money matters (and that the Terps are competitive in this space), it doesn’t matter most. Okananwa has an agent in her inner circle who advises her, but the top factor in committing to Maryland was Frese. “I trust Brenda to get me where I want to go.” The fact that Okananwa has already been at one school helps keep perspective that there are more important factors than how much money she can get.

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“It’s easy to get wrapped up and then you go to a place where you don’t fit as a player, because you didn’t pay as much attention to the basketball piece,” Okananwa said. “NIL is definitely something, but it’s coming underneath the part that’s about basketball. I’m going to get squared away with the categories that matter most.”

Not every swing is a home run. The Terps also thought as recently as the start of May that Gracie Merkle, a forward from Penn State, would bolster their frontcourt next year. Last week, Merkle announced she had decommitted from Maryland and would return to the Nittany Lions.

The Terps also lost depth up front when vet Allie Kubek announced she was transferring to Florida State. Just as quickly as the portal giveth, it can taketh away.

In the uncomfortable wake of Willard’s exit, Frese was asked many times throughout her March run about Maryland’s capacity to compete in the NIL space, and she’s only ever said that the Terps have gotten her what she needs. For Frese, the important part might just be that the components of her staff and support from the administration allow her to focus on what she does best: establishing relationships with recruits and players, and then coaching.

“I think we’re far ahead because of the team we’ve put together,” Frese said. “It allows me to do my job.”

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Maryland’s success in the transfer portal era is its own kind of advertising. Coaching in the NCAA tournament is stressful, Spann said, because the staff has more tasks to divvy up. Some will be assigned scouting for the next game; some will have to spend a few hours contacting recruits or keeping tabs on which players are entering the portal.

Kaylene Smikle made a significant impact on the Maryland program after transferring from Rutgers. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

Going on a postseason run is advantageous, and when players see what the Terps did with transfers Kaylene Smikle (Rutgers), Sarah Te-Biasu (VCU) and Saylor Poffenbarger (Arkansas), it speaks to their ability to blend newcomers in. A 14-0 start to last season was a powerful endorsement of how Maryland builds cohesion on the fly.

Everything, from recruiting to team building, is on a shorter timeline now. NCAA structures have evolved (or devolved, depending on whom you ask) so quickly in the past three years that Frese said she’s seen more change in that period than in her previous three decades of coaching. But however college sports zigs, she’s ready to zag. The Terps have managed the transition well.

“You hope it settles in at some point to a new normal,” Frese said. “But I just roll up my sleeves and go with what’s in front of me. I just dig in.”

NIL

McGuire one of eight finalists for Bear Bryant Award

Published

2 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Your Sports Nation

LUBBOCK, Texas – Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire was named one of eight finalists Wednesday for the Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year Award after leading the Red Raiders to their first Big 12 Conference title and an appearance in the College Football Playoff.

The award, now in its 40th year, is given annually to the college football coach for contributions that make the sport better for athletes and fans alike by demonstrating grit, integrity and a winning approach to coaching and life – both on and off the field. McGuire was joined as a finalist by Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, James Madison’s Bob Chesney, Miami’s Mario Cristobal, Texas A&M’s Mike Elko, Virginia’s Tony Elliott, Oregon’s Dan Lanning and Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea.

The Bear Bryant Award is the only college football coaching honor given after the National Champion has been determined. It will be presented Jan. 21 during an awards ceremony hosted at the Post Oak Hotel in Houston. The event will be broadcast by CBS Sports Network on a tape-delayed basis beginning at 12:30 a.m. on Jan. 22.

In addition to being named a finalist for the Bear Bryant National Coach of the Year Award, McGuire was also named Wednesday the Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year by the organization. The finalists and Coach of the Year recipient are voted on by members of the National Sports Media Association, the Bryant Awards’ executive leadership team and the Bryant family.

This is the fourth national coaching award to name McGuire as a finalist this season as he was previously one of the final candidates for the George Munger College Coach of the Year Award, the Eddie Robinson Award and the Dodd Trophy. It is the first time in his career McGuire has been a finalist for any of the national coaching awards.

The Red Raiders reached new heights this past season under McGuire, who pushed Texas Tech to a school-record 12 wins and its first Big 12 title. McGuire led the Red Raiders to their first College Football Playoff appearance at the Capital One Orange Bowl after downing BYU, 34-7, in the Edward Jones Big 12 Championship, securing Texas Tech’s first outright conference crown since 1955.

Texas Tech proved to be one of the most-dominant teams in recent history on its way to a 12-2 record, with all 12 wins coming by at least 20 points. The Red Raiders are joined by 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. Texas Tech is just the fifth FBS team with 12 wins by 20-plus points in a season period during that span.

Despite a loss to No. 5 Oregon in the Orange Bowl, Texas Tech will likely end its season ranked in the top 10 of both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches’ polls for the first time in history behind one of the most-balanced rosters in college football. Texas Tech currently ranks in the top-11 of several statistical categories, namely rushing defense (1st), scoring defense (3rd), total defense (4th), scoring offense (7th) and total offense (11th).

The Red Raiders have been the winningest Big 12 program under McGuire as Texas Tech has won 25 conference games in his four seasons, the most for any league school during that span. The Red Raiders are 35-18 overall under McGuire, which is the most wins by a Texas Tech head coach through 53 games since Jim Carlen was 35-17-1 midway through his final season of his five-year tenure from 1970-74.

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NIL

NIL a factor in Arch Manning losing Texas roommate, WR Parker Livingstone to rival Oklahoma in transfer portal

Published

3 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Your Sports Nation

Former Texas wide receiver Parker Livingstone crossed a Red River Rivalry line this week, committing to Oklahoma via the 2026 college football transfer portal. Livingstone, who roomed with quarterback Arch Manning and became one of his favorite targets during the 2025 season, ranked No. 3 on the Longhorns with 516 receiving yards and No. 2 with six touchdown receptions.

247Sports college football and transfer portal analysts Chris Hummer and Cooper Petagna provided insights into the breakup between Manning and Livingstone, detailing how NIL money and agent involvement played a significant role in the decision.

“It’s a surprising situation,” Hummer said Wednesday on CBSSports HQ.

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NIL

Mark Cuban makes donation to Indiana for 2026 transfer portal cycle, claims Hoosiers are ‘happier this year’

Published

4 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Your Sports Nation

Mark Cuban reportedly made a donation to Indiana football for the 2026 transfer portal cycle, according to Alex Schiffer of Front Office Sports. The billionaire most known for his time as the majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks is a 1981 graduate of the school.

“Already committed for this portal,” Cuban wrote to FOS in an email. “Let’s just say they are happier this year than last year.”

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Indiana already made splashes in the transfer portal, such as TCU QB Josh Hoover committing for the 2026 season. They also landed Michigan State WR Nick Marsh and Boston College RB Turbo Richard. That’s only the tip of the iceberg and Indiana is still playing in the College Football Playoff!

Cuban reportedly gave a “big number” to the Indiana athletic department in the past, as he told CBS Sports in October. He cited his connection with head coach Curt Cignetti as the biggest factor.

Cuban is also no stranger to donating to his alma mater. In 2015, he gave the school around $5 million for a sports media center and gave $6 million to fund Indiana’s rugby club.

But first thing’s first, Cuban will be watching Indiana play Oregon in the Peach Bowl in the CFP semifinals. It’s all about what’s in front of them and nothing’s changed for Cignetti and IU.

“Yeah, excited to be a part of the Peach Bowl,” Cignetti said. “Playing a great opponent in Oregon, Coach Lanning. Like I said so before we played earlier in the year, one of the young superstars you know in the coaching profession. I think they’re 26-2 the last two years.

“And, you know, really an excellent football team, offense, defense, and special teams. Do a great job of coaching. Be a big challenge. We were fortunate, you know, to win the game out in Eugene. It’s hard to beat a great team twice. You know, very difficult. So, edge to Oregon there. But tough to be a great team twice. Looking forward to the challenge.”

Indiana and Oregon are set to square off Friday night in the Peach Bowl. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET and the winner will play for the College Football Playoff National Championship.

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NIL

ESPN predicts outcomes of both College Football Playoff Semifinal games

Published

5 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Your Sports Nation

ESPN predicted the outcomes of both College Football Playoff semifinal games coming Thursday and Friday. Now down to the final four teams, we are that much closer to crowning this year’s national champion.

Miami, Ole Miss, Indiana and Oregon are the last teams standing following two rounds of competitive and dominant football. But what do ESPN’s metrics say, specifically their SP+ projections?

Putting player rankings, strength of schedule, game projection and everything else under the sun together, ESPN put out its College Football Playoff predictions for the semifinals. Let’s start at the Fiesta Bowl.

No. 6 Ole Miss vs. No. 10 Miami (Fiesta Bowl)

Jerome Miron-Imagn Images/Lauren Witte/Clarion Ledger / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

SP+ Projection: Ole Miss 28.1, Miami 25.2

Ole Miss seemingly has the quarterback advantage with Trinidad Chambliss over Carson Beck in this one. He’s played at a different level over the last two weeks and found a new gear in the upset over Georgia. With Kewan Lacy helping the cause at running back, Ole Miss has a dynamic offense to deal with.

But defense wins championships, right? At least that is what Miami hopes for in this College Football Playoff. They stifled explosive offenses in Texas A&M and Ohio State to get to this point. Mario Cristobal will look for his team to grind it out. But ESPN projects Pete Golding and crew to get to the national title game.

No. 1 Indiana vs. No. 5 Oregon (Peach Bowl)

Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

SP+ Projection: Indiana 26.7, Oregon 23.7

Indiana keeps winning, make sure you Google it. Curt Cignetti and crew learned from last year’s College Football Playoff mistakes and dominated Alabama in the Rose Bowl, 38-3. The Hoosiers are two wins away from the program’s first national title and have a Heisman QB in Fernando Mendoza to boot. On paper, especially with a win over the Ducks already, Indiana is rightly favored.

But Oregon is coming in guns blazing. Dan Lanning, like Cignetti, preaches toughness and grittiness. That’s exactly what Oregon is going to do and it has a pretty darn good quarterback, too, in Dante Moore. Which Nick Saban disciple is going to end up on top? The metrics say Indiana, again, by a hair.

Based on ESPN’s SP+ projections, No. 1 Indiana and No. 6 Ole Miss will square off for the College Football Playoff national championship. The game is scheduled for January 19th in Miami.

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NIL

NHL Winter Classic 2027 game will be held in Utah at Rice-Eccles Stadium

Published

6 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Your Sports Nation

The annual NHL Winter Classic game is a favorite of hockey fans.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) From left, reporter Jackie Redmond, Gary Bettman, the NHL Commissioner, and Ashley and Ryan Smith, both co-founders of Smith Entertainment Group and owners of Utah Mammoth, hold a news conference to announce the location of the 2027 NHL Winter Classic as Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, seen here on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026.

The marquee game of the NHL’s regular season is coming to Salt Lake City next year.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman joined Utah Mammoth owners Ryan and Ashley Smith on Wednesday in announcing that the 2027 Winter Classic will be held outdoors at Rice-Eccles Stadium. The Mammoth will play the current NHL leaders, the Colorado Avalanche. The game will take place at the beginning of next January.

“I think this venue is going to be incredible,” Ryan Smith said. “This is a dream.”

The NHL selected Rice-Eccles Stadium as the venue over competition from BYU’s Lavell Edwards Stadium in Provo and several other markets around the NHL that wanted to host the event.

“I wanted it here in Salt Lake. This is right,” Smith, a BYU alum, said. “I mean, I do enough down there. This is my NIL donation here. It’s a good one.”

And unlike at University of Utah football games, the stadium will sell alcohol for the event, university director of auxiliary services Collin Simmons told reporters. “We’re able to sell beer and seltzer for all private events,” he explained. “This is a private event.”

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Ryan Smith, right, and Ashley Smith, both co-founders of Smith Entertainment Group and owners of Utah Mammoth, answer questions during a news conference to announce the location of the 2027 NHL Winter Classic as Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, seen here on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026.

The exact date for the event has yet to be selected, as the NHL experiments with different dates at the beginning of January that conflict least with the NFL and college football. The game has traditionally taken place on either Jan. 1 or Jan 2.

The Winter Classic began in 2008, as the NHL sought to bring new fans to its games by returning to its roots in outdoor pond hockey. Since then, Winter Classic games have occurred annually with limited exceptions and have proven to be extremely popular with fans and players alike. Fans also enjoy that teams typically wear special-edition uniforms for the event, which Bettman said have not yet been designed.

The 2025 edition of the game took place at Wrigley Field between the Chicago Blackhawks and the St. Louis Blues. This year, the game moved to sunny Miami, Florida, as the Panthers played the Rangers in a matchup that drew significant criticism from hockey fans. Choosing Salt Lake City as the 2027 hosts reflects a league return to a cold-weather site.

League officials toured Rice-Eccles Stadium in recent months to determine its suitability for the game. It will be the fourth time the Winter Classic has been held at a college football stadium, with Michigan Stadium (2014), Notre Dame Stadium (2019), and the Cotton Bowl (2020) the previous three hosts.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Ryan Smith, right, and Ashley Smith, both co-founders of Smith Entertainment Group and owners of Utah Mammoth, sit on stage during a news conference to announce the location of the 2027 NHL Winter Classic as Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, seen here on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026.

“This stadium sets up very well. From a sightline perspective, there’s an intimacy here. We expect to have 50,000 plus here. We’re not anticipating any problems,” NHL commissioner Bettman said. “And the Governor” — Spencer Cox, who attended Wednesday’s announcement — “has promised me that the weather will be perfect.”

The Avalanche should prove formidable opposition to the Mammoth; through 42 games this season, they have suffered just four regulation losses against 31 wins. Team stars Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar have pushed the Avs to one of the greatest starts to a regular season in NHL history this season, and should provide additional juice to the matchup.

The Mammoth, meanwhile, are led by team captain Clayton Keller and newly-extended Logan Cooley, who provided a player’s perspective at the announcement.

“Being outside, it’s a whole different experience,” Cooley said, while noting the last time he played outdoors was when he was 4 or 5 years old. “That whole experience will be a challenge. And as players, as competitors, we like those.”

“Just being outside, you see the mountains in the background. As a player, I hope it’s pretty cold and there’s a lot of snow,” he said.

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