NIL

How college basketball’s wave of European imports rose from a recruiting sea change

Published

8 months ago

May 15, 2025

Miško Ražnatović went to his first Final Four in April. A few years ago, the trip to college basketball’s ultimate networking event would have been a waste of time for the agent of Nikola Jokić; most of the young players Ražnatović represents would never have considered coming from overseas to play for a university in the United States. But over four days in San Antonio, he had 70 meetings. Next season Ražnatović will likely represent between 35 and 50 college players.

“(Ražnatović) used to not even pick up the phone for the NCAA before,” said Dražen Zlovarić, a former college player and coach who is the director of North American basketball for BeoBasket, the Serbia-based agency Ražnatović runs. “It’s basically fair game for everybody now. Like the guys that you never think would come to college are actually coming to college.”

The reason is obvious: Money. College basketball’s top talents will earn seven-figure salaries next season, and most of the European players who are rushing over the Atlantic to cash in will be leaving behind five-figure salaries.

“They can make in one season what they can make in half of their career by going to college,” said Avi Even, the former sports director for Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. who recently became the director of basketball operations for the overseas basketball agency Octagon Europe. “So there’s no reason for them to stay here.”

Programs like Gonzaga, Davidson and Saint Mary’s recruit internationally on an annual basis and have carved out a niche in college basketball’s talent market over the past few decades. In recent years, more schools have explored their options overseas, but it was still difficult to convince the best prospects — particularly those connected to teams in the EuroLeague, the continent’s highest level of competition — to leave.

The traditional route for these players has been to start with a professional franchise’s youth program at an early age. The franchises employ coaches to work with those players, often house and feed them in their teenage years and see the payoff when they eventually play for the top team. But in the past 18 months, permissive NCAA eligibility rulings, opportunistic agents and rising pools of name, image and likeness money have combined to open the floodgates.

International prospects from some of the top professional leagues in the world are about to become household names at preseason Top 25 programs like Louisville, Kentucky and Purdue. Ražnatović will represent four players on Illinois’ roster alone, including 22-year-old Serbian point guard Mihailo Petrović, who was an MVP candidate in the Adriatic League playing for KK Mega Basket, the professional club owned by Raznatović’s agency.

The result is an increasingly global flavor to college basketball that figures to be even more noticeable in 2025-26.

“Name the five best players in the NBA, and look where they’re from,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “I just think that we continue to follow that path, the NBA path, and then it trickles down.”

“What would Luka (Dončić) have done as an 18-year-old given the opportunities that would be presented to him now?” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “Would he be coming and playing a year of college? Who knows?”

After contributing at Kentucky and Arkansas, Zvonimir Ivišić will be one of multiple European players on Illinois’ roster next season. (Steve Roberts / Imagn Images)

As an assistant at Gonzaga in the summer of 2014, Tommy Lloyd got a message from the brother of Lithuanian freshman Domantas Sabonis, asking for wire information so that the family could send money to pay for Sabonis’ rent.

“No, no guys,” Lloyd remembered saying. “He’s on scholarship. He’s on a full ride.” Housing would be covered.

The players who came to play college basketball in the United States then had different priorities. Sabonis was an outlier. Because of his family’s wealth — his father, Arvydas, is one of the greatest international players ever and played seven seasons in the NBA — Sabonis had the luxury of taking a path where money wasn’t a determining factor.

Even when the NCAA loosened its restrictions on NIL rights in 2021, there was some uncertainty on how international prospects would benefit from the opportunity to make money. The F-1 student visa used by many college athletes coming from abroad allows international students to study in the U.S., but they cannot work off campus. Schools like Kentucky found workarounds: 2022 national player of the year Oscar Tshiebwe fulfilled NIL deals his visa wouldn’t allow while off of American soil. International players can also make money by licensing their NIL rights to their schools.

Another uncertainty concerned whether players had lost their amateur status under the terms of their relationship with professional clubs in European leagues. To maintain NCAA eligibility, players can only have received “actual and necessary expenses” — lodging, travel, meals, etc. — and nothing further from teams they played for prior to college. Most coaches would have been hesitant to recruit a player like Croatian center Zvonimir Ivišić, who started playing professionally at 16 and enrolled two years ago at Kentucky.

“He was really the guy that opened up the floodgates because nobody thought it was really possible,” Zlovarić said of Ivišić, who didn’t get cleared to play until the 17th game of the 2023-24 season. “After that, man, it was like everybody wanted to come over.”

And then there was the belief that college basketball wasn’t the best pathway for top international players’ development. Phillip Parun, an agent for Octagon, has often posed the question to college coaches: Which European players went to college and then made the NBA? He can list most of the recent examples off the top of his head — Sabonis, Lauri Markkanen, Svi Mykhailiuk, the Wagner brothers, Jeremy Sochan, Killian Tillie.

Now compare that to the number of international players selected in the last 10 NBA Drafts who did not go the college route: 92. (Thirty-four of those players have yet to play a minute in the NBA.)

Valentin Le Clezio, an agent with Wasserman, says it’s still best for players who are a year or two away from getting drafted to stay abroad. “College coaches are the best liars on the planet, so you always want to minimize the risk,” Le Clezio said.

But that line of thinking could change if imports enjoy the kind of success that Kasparas Jakučionis and Egor Demin just experienced in their one-and-done college seasons.

Jakučionis played with FC Barcelona’s second team last year, appearing in just one EuroLeague game for the club’s top team. After earning second-team All-Big Ten honors at Illinois, he’s projected to be a lottery pick this June. Demin starred for Real Madrid’s Under-18 team in 2023-24. After one year at BYU, he’s also projected to go in the first round.

Le Clezio estimates that between 60 to 80 college programs were represented at the Under-18 European Championships last summer.

“When you watch a game before (at those events), there was only one or two guys on each team that were high-major players that were going to go to college,” Michigan coach Dusty May said. “Now the entire team is open to college if the situation’s right.”

Underwood said Illinois keeps a scouting database with just about every player in every age group overseas.

“Now with the money, everybody has interest,” Le Clezio said. “Everybody feels like we can get the best kids here.”

Relationships still matter, but NIL offers can close the gap, and international players do not care as much about a school’s name recognition.

“A lot of times over here, some guys are a little scatterbrained on what’s important to them, whether it’s style of play, location, whatever,” said Florida coach Todd Golden, who just won the national championship with a starting power forward from Australia, a Nigerian center and a Slovenian guard coming off the bench. “Whereas (international) guys are coming over strictly to focus on basketball and being part of a program where they feel like they can grow and get better. There’s a little less of bells and whistles in their recruiting process.”

Petrović and David Mirkovic didn’t even visit Illinois before committing. Underwood was in Serbia last week watching Petrović play live for the first time.

As the college option becomes more enticing, pro teams abroad feel mostly helpless in the fight to retain talent. EuroLeague sports directors — the analog to general managers in American sports — are frustrated to be losing rotation players to the college ranks.

Some of these breakups have been very public. Dame Sarr, who was in the rotation for FC Barcelona, one of the top clubs in Europe, traveled to the Nike Hoops Summit in Portland last month without his club’s approval. Sarr and FC Barcelona eventually agreed to part ways, and he’s expected to eventually sign with a college team. (He has long been linked with Duke and recently visited Kansas.)

Other recruitments are happening in the shadows. Take Elias Rapieque, a 21-year-old forward for Alba Berlin who grew up playing for its junior team, averaged 15 minutes per game during EuroLeague play this year and is currently helping Alba Berlin try to qualify for the Basketball Bundesliga playoffs. Alba Berlin sports director Himar Ojeda says he found out during the middle of this season that Rapieque was being recruited by colleges.

“No matter how much I like the youngest guy and how much I’m willing to play him, it’s unrealistic that I can pay this guy nothing close by far. By far!” Ojeda said. “So there’s no way we can compete. No one can do it.”

Russian-born point guard Egor Demin, who spent last season at BYU, is a likely first-round pick. (Isaiah J. Downing / Imagn Images)

Bringing some of the best young international talent to college basketball is great for college basketball, but is it good for the overall health of the game worldwide? Similar to NIL and the transfer portal, this is a development the NCAA wasn’t exactly ready for.

As far back as February 2024, NCAA officials, conference commissioners, USA Basketball and representatives from FIBA have discussed how to create a clearer transaction process for players who are leaving teams in Europe to come play college basketball. In the current framework, most players are able to get out of their contract because they can say they’re leaving for academic reasons.

“The reality is they’re not going there for academic reasons; they’re going because they will get a nice chunk of money on top of a good basketball development,” says Thorsten Leibenath, the sports director for Ratiopharm Ulm in Germany.

It’s been a disruption to the system for these professional franchises, which use their youth programs to develop their own talent. Omer Mayer, an 18-year-old guard from Tel Aviv, Israel, was one of those players. Mayer was the best young prospect in Maccabi Tel Aviv’s system, who started in the youth program when he was 12 and played in EuroLeague games each of the last three seasons. Even, the club’s former sports director, says Mayer was the “next face of the club” — but last month he committed to Purdue.

Had Mayer left for another club in Europe or stayed with Maccabi Tel Aviv and eventually been drafted, his next club would have been required to pay Maccabi Tel Aviv for his transfer. The current rate for an NBA franchise is $875,000. Some franchises will choose to wait out a player’s contract overseas so that it’s not required to pay the buyout, a “draft and stash” tactic especially popular for second-round picks. Mayer was able to get out of his contract to go to Purdue by paying a small buyout, the amount of which was added to his agreed-upon amount with Purdue’s collective. If he does one day get drafted, Maccabi Tel Aviv will not receive a dime.

“This is where European teams struggle,” Leibenath said. “And this is where you would have to ask the question, why do we do this if we continue to not get any kind of revenue out of that or at least compensation? There’s nothing in it for us.”

Parun has proposed what he thinks could be the solution: The international club loans their players out, retains their rights and gets a small percentage of a player’s earnings while on loan, a system similar to the one soccer has internationally. Leibenath believes FIBA needs to be involved.

“In my eyes colleges nowadays are run like pro teams,” Leibenath said. “They pay their players like pro teams. They make revenue like pro teams. If you consider them pro teams, it would make life a lot easier.”

It would also benefit everyone involved if the NCAA would adjust the wording of its requirement that only amateurs are eligible. As it stands, the organization has found policing the gray area difficult.

“People know now I think even more so than they did obviously two or three or five years ago, if you can produce documentation that only shows that an athlete only received actual necessary expenses, that’s basically all you need,” said a former NCAA employee, given anonymity so he could speak with candor on how the process really works. “If there’s no other conflicting materials or anyone that can go on the record that has any type of real evidence to show that the club did anything improper, then it’s just a matter of time getting through the system that that kid is eligible.”

Without subpoena power, the NCAA is rendered helpless in these cases. And why even try when college basketball players are now making money like professionals?

“Five years ago, none of these guys were getting eligible,” McDermott said. “There was no chance, but because of everything that’s happened in our sport and in college athletics, it’s really hard to stand firm I think on some of those reasons why guys wouldn’t be eligible that have signed pro contracts.”

The new challenge: How to determine how much college eligibility these players have. The current guide is that a player’s year in school is determined by his graduation date. Once a prospect overseas graduates high school, he has a gap year and then he must start studying as his eligibility clock begins. Creighton’s Fedor Zugic, for instance, joined the Jays last year as a 21-year-old and was ruled a college senior because he had more than one gap year due to some commitments with his national team; he has filed for another year of eligibility.

Purdue coach Matt Painter, who has served on the NCAA’s oversight committee and the National Association of Basketball Coaches board, sees an easy solution to the eligibility side. He has recommended to the NCAA that anyone college-aged should be eligible.

“Even if they’ve been a pro and they’ve signed, who cares now?” Painter said. “They’re all pros. Everybody’s getting paid in name, image and likeness. So what’s the difference in having a contract overseas?”

Lloyd is one of the experts in this field, because he’s been recruiting overseas for multiple decades, first as an assistant at Gonzaga and now as the head coach at Arizona. At both places, he’s had players who are immediately successful and some who need a year or two to adjust.

Rui Hachimura, for instance, arrived from Japan and played only 4.6 minutes per game as a freshman at Gonzaga. As a junior, he was a second-team All-American and went ninth in the 2019 NBA Draft.

“I think the key to making it work, like anything, is being 100 percent committed,” Lloyd said. “Understanding that it’s not always going to work. You can’t take one shot, because there’s lots of reasons kids don’t work out.”

The 2025-26 season could be an inflection point for a lot of college coaches, who will either try to get in on the trend if it works out for the schools at its forefront or tread carefully because of high-profile misses.

Zlovarić is betting on the former. Last month, he was on the stage with Florida after the Gators won the national championship with one of their clients, Urban Klavzar, on the roster. Klavzar was just a backup, averaging 3.2 points per game, but Alex Condon, from Australia, was a key starter. He trained at the NBA Global Academy, which has long been sending some of its best players to American college.

But most of the top Europeans have been off-limits, and the real eye-opener will be when a team wins a national title with an NBA-bound European prospect as one of its stars.

“That’s going to happen next year, or if not next year, it is gonna happen after that,” Zlovarić says. “(Recruiting) Europeans is becoming mainstream. And the whole mindset is shifting where now, like, ‘Hey, why would I just only look at a St. John’s transfer if there is a guy out there that used to not be available but is available to me now and he’s just as good, if not better? Why would I not go get it?’

“Up until this point, the most talented went to the draft in the NBA, and the second tier, they went to EuroLeague and somewhere in Europe. But now it’s completely changed, obviously, in the approach. Because now, like everybody, we are 100 percent open.”

(Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

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Gophers can’t spin Koi Perich’s decision to enter portal – Twin Cities

Published

55 minutes ago

January 4, 2026

Your Sports Nation

Koi Perich has thrown his hat into the NCAA transfer portal and there’s no way to spin this as a positive for the University of Minnesota’s football program.

Or college football.

Even if he wasn’t the Gophers’ best safety this season — that was Kerry Brown — and coach P.J. Fleck can use the money the U was paying Perich on more than one transfer who can help next season, the fact is, the best in-state prospect to buy into P.J. Fleck’s row-the-boat paradigm has taken a long look and decided he’s more interested in the big-time NIL paradigm.

Whether it’s more money, more national exposure or a more likely path to the NFL — debatable — Perich has decided it won’t happen at Minnesota.

As a college football fan, one has to wonder if watching most of your school’s best players go look for the bigger, better thing after every season is palatable. And as a Gophers’ fan, one has to accept that this just doesn’t bode well for the program’s viability as, for all intents and purposes, a small-market professional football franchise.

One could look at what Indiana has done the past two seasons and see a crack under the fence just big enough for those without a ticket to crawl through. We know that, for now, it’s possible for an also-ran Power Four program to genuinely contend for a national championship. But Minnesota appears to be moving the other way at an inopportune time.

The Gophers went 8-5 after beating New Mexico in the Rate Bowl in Phoenix. The Lobos were one of two bowl teams they beat this season, and Minnesota was 0-3 against the best Big Ten teams they played — Ohio State, Iowa and Oregon — and was outscored 123-19.

With talented young quarterback Drake Lindsey under center and what they believed would be a prolific running game — it wasn’t — the Gophers had their eyes on another move up the conference ladder. Instead, it was a typically OK season.

P.J. Fleck and his team run onto the field. — Minnesota Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck leads his team onto the field at the start of an NCAA football game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

It’s probably not lost on longtime Gophers fans that Indiana started the season as the only other OG Big Ten school with a Rose Bowl drought (1968) nearly as long as Minnesota’s (1962). And the Hoosiers just humiliated Alabama in Pasadena on New Year’s Day to advance to the College Football Playoff semifinals.

This space has been used, fairly recently, to praise the job that Fleck has done in his nine seasons in Dinkytown. A large reason for that is the way he cleaned up an ugly culture fomented by former coach Jerry Kill that later exploded into ugly, and very public, behavior under replacement Tracy Claeys.

What was once a national embarrassment for the Gophers has changed for the better under Fleck. Against most odds, his dedication to teaching his players how to meditate and where to place the salad fork has, in fact, resulted in a program that Minnesota can be proud of off and, largely, on the field.

When, for instance, they were short of the six wins required to earn a berth in one of 41 bowl games in 2023, they became eligible because they had the best graduation rate of available teams. That matters, or used to, anyway.

Further, Fleck’s teams are 7-0 in bowl games, including a victory over a then-Top 10 Auburn team in the 2019 Outback Bowl that pushed them to a program-record 11 wins and No. 10 in the final Associated Press poll. The Gophers also have been sending more players to the NFL, a recruiting point that could help build the talent coffers.

Landing Perich, a four-star recruit from Esko who turned down 2025 national champion Ohio State to stay home, was another positive step. Losing him, as seems inevitable, is two steps back, because whatever the safety and kick returner’s goals are, he’s convinced they will be easier to meet elsewhere.

Even Darius Taylor, a talented but oft-injured tailback, who will no doubt be the Gophers’ starter next season, waited until the last moment — at least publicly — to renew his vows with Minnesota.

Fleck did something smart when this season ended, when he publicly revealed that he was allowing Lindsey to help him target receivers in the next recruiting class. In the absence of the big, big money, giving a promising QB like Lindsey that kind of ownership is the next best thing to the bigger, better thing.

But isn’t it exhausting? Not just for Fleck, or athletics director Mark Coyle, but everyone with an emotional stake in the Gophers’ success.

Fleck has been conspicuously tied to just about every coaching opening that appears to be a step up from Minnesota. If any of that was real, and those offers come again, he might want to finally take one with more money in the slush fund.

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North Texas QB Drew Mestemaker transfers to Oklahoma State in big portal splash

Published

2 hours ago

January 4, 2026

Your Sports Nation

Oklahoma State just got itself a boost at the quarterback position.

Drew Mestemaker, who led all of FBS college football in passing yards with North Texas this season, will be transferring to Oklahoma State next season, according to multiple reports.

According to On3, Mestemaker also has a “two-year deal” worth $7 million attached to his commitment to Oklahoma State, which is seemingly connected to an NIL contract.

North Texas quarterback Drew Mestemaker (17) looks to throw during the American Conference championship. — North Texas quarterback Drew Mestemaker (17) looks to throw against Tulane during the first half of the American Conference championship NCAA college football game in New Orleans, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. AP

Mestemaker, who just completed his freshman season with the Mean Green, will be joining former North Texas coach Eric Morris, who signed a five-year deal with Oklahoma State to replace Mike Gundy in December.

“I think just the relationships that I’ve built there with Coach Morris, Coach [Sean] Brophy and that whole staff, offense and defense,” Mestemaker said to ESPN. “I think Coach Morris is the best play-caller in the nation. The insight he has, and the way he sees offense, and the way he makes me at quarterback comfortable in everything we are running.

“I feel like sets me up for success in everything that he calls.”

Mestemaker led the FBS by throwing for 4,379 yards and 34 touchdowns while completing 68.9 percent of his passes, helping lead North Texas to a 12-2 record and a bowl win over San Diego State.

North Texas Mean Green head coach Eric Morris talks to an official during the 2025 American Conference Football Championship against the Tulane Green Wave. — Head coach Eric Morris of the North Texas Mean Green talks to an official during the 2025 American Conference Football Championship against the Tulane Green Wave at Yulman Stadium on December 5, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Getty Images

The 20-year-old chose to remain loyal to Morris, saying that he is excited to continue playing under him in Stillwater.

“To be the starting point of it all, and the one that’s locked in first, I hope getting that out there will help more name [players] realize how special this staff really is,” Mestemaker added. “If I didn’t 100 percent trust these guys with my career, I’d take longer to see what’s out there and test out the waters.”

The move comes following another underwhelming season for the Cowboys, who finished with a 1-11 record, failing to land a win in the Big 12.

Mestemaker acknowledged that there is a lot of work to do in Stillwater for a potential turnaround.

“I know Coach Morris knows there’s work to do,” he said. “But he’s never shied from that. We knew last year, there was work to do. People thought we’d be struggling to make a bowl game again.

“I know this staff on offense and defense never shied away from a challenge.”

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Bruce Pearl calls for collective bargaining, multi-year contracts in college sports

Published

3 hours ago

January 4, 2026

Your Sports Nation

With collective bargaining at the forefront of the college sports conversation, former Auburn coach Bruce Pearl voiced his support. He discussed his plan to help try and settle the landscape.

Pearl, now an analyst for TNT Sports, broke down four things he would do differently. One would be to pave the way for collective bargaining, allowing for the players to be involved in talks about the rules. That, he argued, would take the courts out of the equation.

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Pearl then argued for multi-year contracts and a new approach to revenue-sharing with different funds for football and basketball. Finally, he said players should get five years of eligibility without the ability to appeal.

“No. 1, we’ve got to get Congress to help us establish some collective bargaining,” Pearl said Saturday. “What that would do is, that would have the players and both parties be able to agree. That’s where the courts would have no say. We’d have to adjust the transfer portal. My idea is to let the kids sign two- or three-year contracts. If you want out of a two-year contract, both have to agree.

“I think we’ve got to decide what the rev-share is going to be. … The last thing is, five years of eligibility, no appeals. That takes a lot of the legislation out of it.”

Bruce Pearl: Collective bargaining is ‘where we need to go’

While there’s still a debate around whether college athletes could be considered employees, collective bargaining continues to be floated as a potential answer. Tennessee athletics director Danny White most recently spoke in support of the idea, and ESPN analyst Jay Bilas – a practicing attorney – has done so, as well.

In August, On3’s Pete Nakos reported 23 Power Four football general managers also backed collective bargaining in a closed-door meeting. Bruce Pearl is also among those in favor of the move, calling the current off-court situation “out of control.”

“Guys, collective bargaining, for me, is where we need to go,” Pearl said. “I just don’t see Congress fixing it. In other words, somebody representing college basketball, college football. Somebody representing the players. Have them get together, decide what the rules are going to be. Agree to it, then the courts are out of it.

:Right now, the game is terrific on the court. But it’s completely out of control off the court.”

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College football’s top 5 transfer portal commitments so far

Published

4 hours ago

January 4, 2026

Your Sports Nation

Less than 48 hours into the transfer portal window, there’s already been a handful of top talents who have found landing spots. While many of the nation’s top players are just starting to figure out visits, others have the portal decision completely wrapped up.

According to On3’s rankings, here are the top five transfer portal commitments who made near-instant decisions on their portal destination.

Drew Mestemaker, North Texas QB to Oklahoma State

A nearly out-of-nowhere star at North Texas, Mestemaker passed for 4,379 yards and 34 touchdowns for the Mean Green and coach Chad Morris. So when Morris hit the road for a new job following Oklahoma State legend Mike Gundy, Mestemaker didn’t need much time to make his decision. He’s got three seasons to play and is now the presumptive starter at an Oklahoma State team that will need plenty of help to rebuild off a 1-11 season in 2025.

Benjamin Brahmer, Iowa State TE to Penn State

A 6’6″ middle of the field target, Brahmer had a quick jaunt in the portal. Last year, he snagged 37 passes for 446 yards and six touchdowns. He also had a big 2023 season with an injury-plagued 2024 in between. Brahmer’s coach, Matt Campbell took the Penn State job following the departure of James Franklin. Brahmer followed him to State College and should help Penn State’s passing game in 2026, which will be his final year of eligibility.

Abu Sama, Iowa State RB to Wisconsin

A 5’11” back, Sama has been a steady contributor through three seasons of college football. He ran for 732 yards and five scores in 2025 at Iowa State, which brought his career numbers to 1,933 yards and 13 touchdowns. Like Brahmer above, Sama had played for Matt Campbell. But he didn’t follow his prior coach, instead moving on to Wisconsin, where Luke Fickell needs to juice up a ground game that had no back running for more than 363 yards in 2025.

Noah McKinney, Oklahoma State OL to TCU

McKinney started his career at UNLV and saw extensive action there in 2023 before missing most of the season in 2024. He came to Oklahoma State and was part of the disastrous 1-11 season in 2025. McKinney has now left OSU to finish up his college career with a season at TCU. The Horned Frogs averaged 30.7 points per game in a nine-win season in 2025 and McKinney should see early time there.

Houston Thomas, Texas-San Antonio TE to Texas A&M

Thomas posted back-to-back seasons with 34 receptions for UTSA in 2024 and 2025. For his career, he has 78 catches for 918 yards and five touchdowns. The 6’4″, 245 pound target is moving on from UTSA for his final college season at Texas A&M. Two of A&M’s top three pass-catching tight ends in 2025 were seniors, so Thomas should get a shot.

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Pete Golding addresses status of LSU assistants at Ole Miss for remainder of College Football Playoff

Published

4 hours ago

January 4, 2026

Your Sports Nation

Pete Golding gave an intriguing statement about the current Ole Miss staffers who are under contract at LSU. Essentially, the former Rebels’ coaches are on loan from former coach Lane Kiffin, who departed for the Tigers.

Ole Miss is now 2-0 in the College Football Playoff with wins over Tulane and Georgia. It’s been a great start to Golding’s head coaching tenure as they prepare for Miami in the CFP Semifinals.

But Golding was honest about guys like Charlie Weis Jr. and others who are finishing out the playoff run with Ole Miss. He’s simply not paying them but they’re free to keep doing what they’re doing.

“They’re doing two jobs,” Golding said, via OM Spirit’s Ben Garrett. “They’ll be at the practices and all those things. They have every opportunity to [keep coaching]. They’re not employed by me.”

AD Keith Carter told Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger that he was unsure if those departed assistants would continue with Ole Miss in the semifinals and potentially national championship. Everyone’s status seems to be up in the air.

“I don’t know,” Carter said. “We’re going to celebrate tonight and get ready for Arizona in the morning.”

Those six assistants, currently ‘working’ under Golding include: Weis Jr., tight ends coach Joe Cox, receivers coach George McDonald, inside receivers coach Sawyer Jordan, quarterbacks coach Dane Stevens, and running backs coach Kevin Smith.

Amid the opening of the transfer portal, things could get crazy as Ole Miss players could be enticed to leave Golding’s watch and go play for Kiffin at LSU, at some point. Having former staffers who left for Baton Rouge in the building is certainly a unique situation, particularly for a final four team.

“There are going to be some fireworks,” an unnamed Ole Miss source said, via ESPN. “We always knew this might be a possibility.”

Golding and Ole Miss will keep eyes forward while Kiffin collects contract bonuses from the Rebels advancing. How the situation manifests itself after the CFP semifinals is anyone’s guess.

After Kiffin’s high-profile departure for LSU, Golding took over as Ole Miss’ full-time head coach. But the Tigers said they would include “ancillary benefits” in Kiffin’s deal with the Rebels, and that means a $500,000 payout because his former program is advancing in the CFP.

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Three College Football Playoff teams linked to 1,000-yard RB in transfer portal

Published

5 hours ago

January 4, 2026

Your Sports Nation

The NCAA transfer portal has opened for all college football players seeking a new destination for the 2026 season. The portal is open for a two-week period that ends on Jan. 16.

In the weeks following the end of the 2025 regular season, thousands of players decided to leave the school they had play for to go to different places in 2026.

While Power Four quarterbacks have been a dominant topic in the weeks leading up to the portal opening, other significant offensive skill players are also shifting across the college football landscape.

One skill player on the move is former NC State running back Hollywood Smothers. He will have two seasons of eligibility remaining at his third school.

The 5-foot-11, 195-pounder began his college football journey under Brent Venables at Oklahoma in 2023. He played in the maximum four games to maintain his redshirt with the Sooners, logging 42 rush yards on 11 carries and catching a pass for a yard.

Smothers transferred to NC State in the 2024 season. He missed a pair of games due to injury but still ran for 571 yards and six touchdowns while grabbing 19 receptions for 263 yards and two touchdowns. He ran for 100 yards in a blowout win over Stanford and in the Military Bowl against East Carolina.

Injuries once again hampered some potential production from Smothers in 2025. He finished with 939 rush yards and six touchdowns to go with 37 catches for 189 yards and another touchdown in 11 games in his last season with the Wolf Pack. He was named All-ACC First Team for his 2025 output.

Smothers’ production in the 2025 season has programs across the Power Four landscape vying to acquire him from the transfer portal. Pete Nakos of On3 reported three different participants in the 2025 College Football Playoff are making the heaviest pushes for Smothers on Friday.

Alabama

Jam Miller in the 2025 Iron Bowl. — Alabama Crimson Tide running back Jam Miller (26) runs the ball vs. the Auburn Tigers | Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

One of the weaknesses plaguing Alabama in 2025 was the inability to produce on the ground offensively. With Jam Miller’s eligibility expiring and Richard Young heading for the transfer portal, the depth at running back is going to thin out for the Crimson Tide.

Alabama has not used the transfer portal to acquire running backs in Kalen DeBoer’s two seasons in Tuscaloosa. However, the last time the Crimson Tide went into the portal to find a running back, it catapulted Jahmyr Gibbs to stardom. Gibbs’ all-purpose numbers in his final season at Georgia Tech bear some similarity to Smothers’ at NC State in 2025.

Georgia

The Bulldogs have shifted to a running back by committee approach in the last six seasons of Kirby Smart’s tenure. Injuries have forced Georgia’s hand in that philosophy sometimes, but the talent pool in Athens is deep enough each season to where the Bulldogs can feature multiple running backs.

As for the portal, Georgia has acquired a running back each of the past two seasons. The Bulldogs brought in Trevor Etienne (Florida) in the 2024 offseason and Josh McCray (Illinois) in the 2025 offseason. Georgia could be looking at Smothers to add as a rotational piece with its other running backs in 2026.

Ole Miss

Kewan Lacy at the Sugar Bowl. — Mississippi Rebels running back Kewan Lacy (5) celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Georgia Bulldogs | Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

The biggest potential obstacle to Smothers seeing the field at Ole Miss hinges on whether or not AP All-American running back Kewan Lacy stays with the Rebels next season. Lacy has 295 carries on the season for Ole Miss, 266 more than the next man in the Rebels’ running back room.

However, should Lacy return, he will not have much depth behind him to give him a breather. Logan Diggs and Damien Taylor are both out of eligibility, so Smothers could fill a rotational need for the Rebels by transferring to Ole Miss in the offseason.

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