NIL

If Anybody Set Precedent for Potential Kane Archer Return to Arkansas, It’s His New Coach

photo credit: Nick Wenger / Nebraska Athletics To be clear, this is a day of celebration for Greenwood High quarterback Kane Archer. One of the most celebrated prep quarterbacks in the history of the state has had plenty on his plate over this last season, not least of which was grappling with the death of […]

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3 weeks ago

May 1, 2025

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Kane Archer, Scott Frost, Arkansas football, UCF football, Nebraska football — photo credit: Nick Wenger / Nebraska Athletics

To be clear, this is a day of celebration for Greenwood High quarterback Kane Archer.

One of the most celebrated prep quarterbacks in the history of the state has had plenty on his plate over this last season, not least of which was grappling with the death of one of his beloved teammates while preparing for a Friday night game.

As a state, Arkansas isn’t exactly pumping out elite football players left and right, so any time a native earns a full scholarship to a major conference program, it’s a big deal. In the months leading up Archer’s Tuesday announcement of becoming the latest UCF football commit, he fell in love with the Orlando program and his potential for growth there.

“UCF has the most complete campus I’ve been to,” Archer told UCFSports’ Brandon Helwig. “I really like UCF a lot.”

That’s not an insult to the other schools who had made Archer’s top seven: Appalachian State, Louisville, Missouri, Ole Miss, SMU and of course Arkansas. That’s just a testament to how much love he felt from the Golden Knights. He is, after all, the first class of 2026 quarterback on board there.

Still, among certain Arkansas football fans, a sense of loss lingers. Of what could have been.

Archer had been offered by Razorbacks in eighth grade and for many years, fans dreamed about what he could do on the Hill if given the chance one day.

He has certainly delivered on the field. Greenwood carries a 26-game win streak into the 2025 season, and Archer will be looking to lead the school to its third straight state title. Last year, he was named the 2024 Gatorade Player of the Year in Arkansas after throwing for 3,880 yards, 57 touchdowns and only two interceptions while adding 795 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground. Archer broke a national record, too, by completing a sensational 81.5% of his passes.

While Greenwood’s finest likely won’t be following in the footsteps of Tyler Wilson as a freshman, that doesn’t mean the dream of Kane Archer as a Razorback is dead. Given the transfer portal, things can certainly change in the coming years. Home will always be the Natural State for the talented 17-year-old.

More and more, Arkansas fans lament the loss of an in-state high school talent only to see him boomerang back a year or two (or three) later.

Here’s just a sampling of some of them:

Courtney Crutchfield (Missouri to Arkansas)

Markell Utsey (Missouri to Arkansas)

Luke Jones (Notre Dame to Arkansas)

Broderick Green (USC to Arkansas)

Anthony Switzer (began career at A-State, then followed Blake Anderson to Utah State, then came to Arkansas last year)

It’s even happened with two former Hog quarterbacks: the late Ryan Mallett and Jacolby Criswell, who has since committed the rare double boomerang, bouncing back between Arkansas and North Carolina on two separate occasions.

If any former quarterback knows that you can always return from where you came from, it’s UCF football coach Scott Frost.

Frost, the master of not burning bridges, has pulled a boomerang twice over the course of the last few decades.

Like Archer, he grew up in a one-program state bleeding red. Except for Frost, it was spending his childhood in Wood River, Nebraska, which is just farther from Lincoln than Greenwood is from Fayetteville. He fell in love with the Nebraska football program. “I basically grew up on this campus when my mom was a track and field coach here and I was running around, getting into trouble and getting run over on the Devaney Center track,” Frost said in 2020.

The 50-year-old Frost, like Archer, chose to leave the state coming out of high school, however. At that point, the legendary Tom Osborne hadn’t yet won any national titles and Frost wanted to learn under Stanford coach Bill Walsh, one of the game’s greatest minds and architect of the west coach offense which fueled the San Francisco 49ers’ NFL dynasty in the 1980s.

Instead of getting turned into the next Joe Montana upon his arrival in Palo Alto, Frost started logging snaps at safety. So he packed up his bags after two seasons and transferred back home to play for Nebraska, where he led the Cornhuskers to a share of the national championship as a senior.

Frost and Archer both know what it’s like to have your beloved home state program sour on you to an extent, too.

Frost, now in his second stint as UCF football head coach, coached the Golden Knights to a 13-0 season and a national championship according to only two sources of note – the school itself and the Colley Matrix.

He parlayed that into a yet another return to Lincoln, but things didn’t go as planned with the native son in charge. Instead, in three seasons, Frost suffered a 5–22 record in games decided by eight points or less, and an 0–14 record against ranked opponents before getting the axe three games into his fifth year.

He returned to Orlando in December, to take over for Gus Malzahn, another Arkansas native.

The UCF program hasn’t had the greatest of luck with imports from this state – as you can see in the below shots at Malzahn, KJ Jefferson and Terry Mohajir, the former A-State athletic director – but the hope is fourth time’s a charm.

Certainly, Archer has also gone through some humbling experiences. Despite his elite performances, the standout quarterback has continued to drop in the national recruiting rankings. Once considered a high four-star prospect by multiple services, Archer is now a consensus three-star and is not nationally ranked by any outlet. He likely didn’t hear from Bobby Petrino as much as he would have liked since the Hogs’ OC instead went with class of 2026 quarterback Jayvon Gilmore.

Gilmore is 6-foot-6 and Petrino likes those taller quarterbacks. Archer is listed at 6’1” but may be a bit shorter than that. Once it became clear that Archer wasn’t Arkansas’ priority any more, a few fans cooled on the former golden child too.

For now, Archer doesn’t have to worry about any of that. He can get on with the business at hand of having an all-time senior season. That must be a relief.

Frost didn’t return to Orlando to take over at UCF until December, but it only took a few months for him to make a deep impression on Archer.

“Coach Frost is one of the realest people I’ve ever met,” Archer told UCFSports.com. “He’s very straightforward and will tell you the truth whether you like it or not.”

Maybe, one day in the far future, that will entail a conversation that ultimately leads to Archer returning home. Frost would definitely be a coach who could empathize on that front.

But Frost knows something else: how it feels to have a renowned offensive genius cool on you. For him, that was Bill Walsh. For Archer, it’s Bobby Petrino.

The disappointment which led to Frost to leave Stanford opened the door to a college career that became the envy of most every other quarterback. Time will tell if Archer leaving his home state leads to the same.

“I want to be labeled as the greatest to ever come out of Arkansas,” he told the Hawg Talk Podcast. “I’m going to keep working until I get there. I don’t care what it takes.”

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Archer’s View on NIL Aligns with Pittman

During that interview with the Hawg Talk Podcast, Kane Archer gave an answer to a particular question on NIL in college football that seemed to perfectly align with the philosophy of Arkansas football coach Sam Pittman.

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See Archer’s full interview here:

Michael Main contributed to this story.

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NIL

Zakai Zeigler, a former UT basketball player, sues NCAA to play for a fifth year and collect NIL compensation

Zeigler’s lawsuit requests a preliminary injunction to let him compete in the upcoming season while pursuing graduate studies. KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A popular former University of Tennessee basketball player filed a lawsuit Tuesday, aiming to keep his eligibility to play for an additional year while collecting compensation for his name, image and likeness while pursuing […]

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2 minutes ago

May 20, 2025

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Zeigler’s lawsuit requests a preliminary injunction to let him compete in the upcoming season while pursuing graduate studies.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A popular former University of Tennessee basketball player filed a lawsuit Tuesday, aiming to keep his eligibility to play for an additional year while collecting compensation for his name, image and likeness while pursuing his graduate degree.

Zakai Zeigler said he is hoping to compete in his fifth year of college basketball and argued that he has a five-year eligibility window, despite already graduating from UT’s undergraduate program. The lawsuit argues that an “arbitrary” National Collegiate Athletic Association rule limits student-athletes to participating in four seasons of competition.

The lawsuit argues that many other student-athletes compete during their fifth year of eligibility and earn compensation for their name, image and likeness while playing. The lawsuit said Zeigler’s NIL valuation for the 2025-2026 season ranges between $2 million and $4 million.

It said if he had been barred from playing for a single year through the NCAA redshirt system, he would still be eligible to play now, and argued that through the system, the NCAA ultimately gets to decide if student-athletes have the chance to play during their fifth year of eligibility instead of the student-athletes themselves.

“But, because Zeigler participated in athletics for four consecutive years, the NCAA bars him from representing his school in interscholastic competition in the fifth year of the competition window—and thereby excludes him from the market for NIL compensation,” the lawsuit said.

Typically, “redshirted” student-athletes have the chance to sit out for a year, but still maintain their four-year eligibility. These kinds of student-athletes are usually still allowed to practice with the team, receive academic scholarships and financial aid, attend class or train with a coach. The system is meant to give student-athletes a chance to recover from injuries, improve their GPA or sharpen their skills, according to North Central College.

The lawsuit also claims the NCAA’s rule violates the Sherman Act, constituting an “unreasonable restraint of trade” because when student-athletes’ eligibility ends, they are effectively locked out of the NIL market.

“For Zeigler specifically, his NIL earning potential in a fifth year of eligibility would substantially exceed his current earning potential due to his established performance record and name recognition,” the lawsuit said. “By restricting Zeigler’s participation in this market through an arbitrary limitation on player eligibility, the NCAA directly impacts his ability to compete in the commercial marketplace.”

It also argues that effectively undoing the four-season rule would further the NCAA’s academic mission.

Zeigler graduated this week after completing UT’s retail and merchandising management undergraduate program. While studying and playing with the Tennessee basketball team, he also partnered with at least one local law firm for promotional content.

Garza Law Firm sponsored his sold-out “I AM G.I.A.N.T. Basketball Camp” in April 2025. He also appeared in a video promoting the law firm. Zeigler is represented by Litson PLLC and the Garza Law Firm.

The lawsuit asks for a 12-person jury to review the case, and for a judgment that the NCAA’s four-season rule violates the Sherman Act, as well as the Tennessee Trade Practices Act. It also asks for a preliminary and permanent injunction keeping the NCAA from enforcing the rule against Zeigler, allowing him to compete next season.

WBIR reached out to the NCAA for comment on the lawsuit.

Tennessee basketball has 12 out of 13 scholarship players on the 2025-26 roster.

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NIL

Cowboy Baseball Collects Conference Honors

IRVING, Texas – Oklahoma State’s Harrison Bodendorf highlights the list of Cowboys to earn All-Big 12 recognition for the 2025 season. Bodendorf was named the 2025 Big 12 Co-Newcomer of the Year, sharing the award with Arizona State’s Matt King, and the junior southpaw also earned a spot on the All-Big 12 First Team. […]

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3 minutes ago

May 20, 2025

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IRVING, Texas – Oklahoma State’s Harrison Bodendorf highlights the list of Cowboys to earn All-Big 12 recognition for the 2025 season.

Bodendorf was named the 2025 Big 12 Co-Newcomer of the Year, sharing the award with Arizona State’s Matt King, and the junior southpaw also earned a spot on the All-Big 12 First Team.

Also collecting all-conference honors for the Cowboys was Sean Youngerman, who was named to the All-Big 12 Second Team both as a starting pitcher and as a reliever.

Five Cowboys were named Honorable Mention All-Big 12, with Colin Brueggemann, Ian Daugherty, Mario Pesca, Nolan Schubart and Brayden Smith making that list.

A native of Temecula, Calif., who transferred to OSU after spending his first two seasons at Hawaii, Bodendorf is the sixth OSU player to earn Big 12 Newcomer of the Year honors, joining Tyler Mach (2006), Zach Johnson (2011), Matt Kroon (2018), Christian Encarnacion-Strand (2021) and Tyler Wulfert (2023).

Bodendorf has been dominant as OSU’s top weekend starter in 2025, compiling a 10-1 record and 2.43 ERA in 15 appearances, 14 of those starts. His 10 wins leads the Big 12 and are the most by a Cowboy pitcher since 2019; the win total also ranks fourth nationally, two behind the NCAA leader.

In 81 1/3 innings of work, Bodendorf has racked up 96 strikeouts, which ranks fourth in the Big 12. He has worked at least five innings in 11 of his 14 starts (one of those was shortened due to rain), including tossing a 10-inning complete game at Arizona.

Opponents are hitting just .194 against Bodendorf, which ranks second in the league, and he is also tied for second in the conference in ERA.

In conference play, Bodendorf started 10 games and finished with a 6-1 record and 2.20 ERA while posting 69 strikeouts in 61 1/3 innings.

Youngerman has also been dominant on the mound in his first season in an OSU uniform, shining whether starting or coming out of the bullpen.

In 19 appearances, five of those starts, Youngerman is 3-1 with a team-high four saves and a 2.08 ERA. The righty has tallied 54 strikeouts and issued only six walks in 47 2/3 innings.

Youngerman posted a 3-1 record and 2.14 ERA to go along with a save in nine Big 12 appearances, four of those as a starter.

Brueggemann is enjoying his best year in his final season with the Cowboys. The senior first baseman is hitting .312 with 11 doubles, 14 home runs and 51 RBIs, all of which rank second on the team.

A starter in all 49 games, Brueggemann owns a .603 slugging percentage and is now a three-time all-conference performer after earning second-team honors in each of the last two seasons.

Daugherty is also in his final collegiate season and has been a mainstay behind the plate, starting 37 games for the Cowboys. He sports a .264 batting average to go along with 10 doubles, six homers and 21 RBIs.

Another pitcher in his first season in Stillwater, Pesca has filled a variety of roles on the pitching staff. In 19 appearances, seven of those starts, the right-hander is 6-2 with a 3.64 ERA.

Pesca emerged as a weekend starter over the final five weeks of the season and posted four wins in Big 12 play. He is 4-1 with a 2.58 ERA on the year as a starter.

Schubart has continued to stake his claim as one of the top sluggers in OSU history. The junior is hitting .288 and leads the Cowboys with 17 home runs and 53 RBIs. His 17 round trippers rank third in the conference as do his 44 walks.

An All-Big 12 selection each of the last two years, Schubart ranks fourth on OSU’s career chart with 57 home runs.

In his first season in Stillwater, Smith leads OSU with a .313 batting average and 14 doubles to go along with 10 homers and 36 RBIs.

Smith hit a team-high .343 in Big 12 play and also led the Cowboys in doubles (9), slugging percentage (.627) and on-base percentage (.424) in league games; his 23 RBIs was second.

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Sprock Named Semifinalist for John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award

Story Links Overland Park, KS.- Junior Ryan Sprock was chosen as a semifinalist for the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year award, as announced by the College Baseball Hall of Fame Tuesday. Earlier today, Sprock was announced as being a member of the All-CAA First Team as well. “This […]

Published

23 minutes ago

May 20, 2025

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Overland Park, KS.- Junior Ryan Sprock was chosen as a semifinalist for the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year award, as announced by the College Baseball Hall of Fame Tuesday. Earlier today, Sprock was announced as being a member of the All-CAA First Team as well.

“This may be the most competitive semifinal list we’ve had since the award was created as there is no clear-cut favorite yet to win the award in 2025,” said Olerud Award chairman George Watson. “The next two weeks are going to be vital in determining not only who our finalists will be, but also to see whether someone puts on a late-season surge to rise to the top.”

Earlier this season, Sprock earned the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Week award for his performances against both #4 North Carolina and Towson. The junior got it done from both sides of the ball as he collected his first save of the season on the mound against Towson and finished his week 7-for-14 (.500) at the plate with two home runs, six runs scored and four RBI.

On the mound, Sprock has been the top arm out of the Phoenix bullpen. Sprock has a team-low ERA of 1.69 and a team low WHIP of 0.81. The junior has made 13 relief appearances and been a part of three Elon shutouts. His four saves lead the club and his strikeouts to walk ratio of 3:1 is also tops on the Phoenix.

In the batter’s box, Sprock has been the top power hitter in the Phoenix lineup. He leads the club in doubles, home runs, Rbis and total bases. Sprock is also top 10 in the CAA in all previous categories mentioned apart from doubles. He has set career bests in batting average, hits, doubles, home runs, RBIs and total bases this season.

Sprock and the Phoenix will match up against #3 Campbell in the first round of the CAA Championships tomorrow. First pitch against the Camels will be at 4 PM.

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Budweiser, Bud Light Celebrate Grill Season With ESPN, Star Athletes

Grilling season is here, and Budweiser and Bud Light are out to give backyard BBQers the props they deserve with their latest campaign. “Grill Like a Pro” incorporates both brands, along with NFL legend Emmitt Smith (aka “The Boss of Brisket”) and baseball great Ken Griffey Jr. ESPN is … 0

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34 minutes ago

May 20, 2025

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Budweiser, Bud Light Celebrate Grill Season With ESPN, Star Athletes

Grilling season is here, and Budweiser and Bud
Light are out to give backyard BBQers the props they deserve with their latest campaign.

“Grill Like a Pro” incorporates both brands, along with NFL legend Emmitt Smith (aka “The
Boss of Brisket”) and baseball great Ken Griffey Jr. ESPN is …

NIL

Adding Boogie Fland Elevates Florida's Shot at Back

Florida’s hopes of repeating as men’s basketball national champions in 2025–26 just got a whole lot more real. In one of the biggest transfer portal commitments of the offseason, the Gators reeled in Arkansas Razorbacks transfer guard Boogie Fland. Fland, who once seemed likely to go one-and-done, withdrew his name from the NBA draft last […]

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36 minutes ago

May 20, 2025

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Adding Boogie Fland Elevates Florida's Shot at Back

Florida’s hopes of repeating as men’s basketball national champions in 2025–26 just got a whole lot more real.

In one of the biggest transfer portal commitments of the offseason, the Gators reeled in Arkansas Razorbacks transfer guard Boogie Fland. Fland, who once seemed likely to go one-and-done, withdrew his name from the NBA draft last week and officially made his commitment to Florida during an official visit early this week. The former elite recruit averaged over 13 points and five assists per game in an injury-shortened first college season at Arkansas and profiles as one of the best guards in college basketball in 2025–26. Sources indicate Fland spurned higher-dollar NIL promises from other programs to join the Gators, buying into a Florida system that developed Walter Clayton Jr. into a likely first-round pick and Final Four Most Outstanding Player.

The Fland addition continues a monster offseason for the defending national champions, who have rapidly rebuilt a championship-caliber roster after losing essentially their entire backcourt rotation headlined by Clayton. The Gators beat out Kansas, St. John’s and a host of other top programs for Princeton Tigers transfer Xaivian Lee, who was expected to share backcourt duties with returner Denzel Aberdeen. But after Aberdeen surprisingly hit the portal close to the entry deadline in late April, the Gators’ pursuit of another high-level backcourt option intensified. They were long believed to be a favorite to land Fland’s services once he officially entered the portal on April 22, and things moved quickly once Fland decided to return to college basketball over being a likely second-round pick in this year’s draft.

Todd Golden’s staff also successfully retained huge pieces from a frontcourt rotation that was among the nation’s best last season. Super sub Thomas Haugh (who’s expected to slide into the starting lineup at the three next season) and starting center Rueben Chinyelu both announced their return to Gainesville, Fla., on NIL deals worth well over $1 million each. The final domino is starting power forward Alex Condon, who is still going through the NBA draft process. Sources indicated Condon is likely to return to Gainesville unless he receives the type of draft day promise that would be impossible to turn down, likely from a team drafting in the top 20 or so . If Condon returns, Florida’s roster is expected to be set outside of perhaps adding a developmental piece or two.

That core of five players (Fland, Lee, Haugh, Condon and Chinyelu) would make up perhaps the most talented starting lineup in the country. How Haugh takes to playing as more of a wing is a legitimate question, though he made strides as a three-point shooter as a sophomore and the Gators have more natural wings in AJ Brown (Ohio) and CJ Ingram who will allow Haugh to slide to his more natural power forward spot at times. While there have been questions about how Lee and Fland (two high-usage players) might fit together, each should be able to relieve some of the pressure on the other to carry an offense that otherwise lacks shot creation. Whether it comes together as seamlessly as last year’s group did remains to be seen, but there’s a strong case to be made that Golden and staff have built an even more talented roster than the one that cut down the nets in San Antonio last month.

And if things weren’t already going great in Gainesville, the Gators also locked in Golden for the foreseeable future with a contract extension through 2030–31 that makes him one of the five highest-paid coaches in men’s college basketball. That extension essentially takes him off the market as a potential target from other schools next spring, with a buyout of $16 million if he leaves for another college job following the 2025–26 season.

Repeating as national champions is an incredibly challenging endeavor, no matter how easy the 2023–24 UConn Huskies made it look. But with Fland in tow, the Gators now have a legitimate chance to challenge for another championship next April in Indianapolis.

NIL

NCAA President declares who’s in charge of NIL

Speaking in Indianapolis, hometown of its headquarters, NCAA President Charlie Baker divulged that college athletics’ top governing body … will not be governing NIL, if the House Settlement finally passes as expected. During the Knight Commission’s annual spring meeting, held this day inside Indianapolis’ downtown Marriott, Baker told the assembled crowd that college athletics’ Power […]

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45 minutes ago

May 20, 2025

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During the Knight Commission’s annual spring meeting, held this day inside Indianapolis’ downtown Marriott, Baker told the assembled crowd that college athletics’ Power Conferences — ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC — would have oversight of implementing the rules of the long-awaited House Settlement — if the measure is granted final approval in the coming days or weeks in the Oakland, California, courtroom of U.S. District Court of Northern California Judge Claudia Wilken.

Baker, as detailed by Front Office Sports, among other outlets, disclosed that the Power Conferences would have oversight of the revenue-sharing distribution component, as well as of the vetting of Name, Image and Likeness. (NIL) deals.

The settlement, in the range of $2.8 billion and already agreed to by both sides but awaiting Wilken’s stamped approval, not only outlines the revenue-distribution component moving forward, with the measure set to start at up to $20.5 million in distribution per participating school July 1 of this year, but also provides backpay compensation from the NCAA as part of the settlement terms.

Additionally, the future vetting of NIL deals would include a third-party arbiter — Deloitte, which would be in charge of determining fair-market value of NIL deals for student-athletes in excess of $600.

The news about the NCAA’s imminent step-back process arrives as all the Power Conferences hold their own various spring meetings. The ACC’s meetings concluded last week in Florida; the Big Ten’s are presently in session in Los Angeles and next week, the SEC meets in Sandestin, Florida, for its annual gathering of all conference leaders, including SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, as well as every member school’s president, athletics director and head football coach, among other dignitaries. Big 12 Conference meetings also are scheduled in the coming days.

Baker, as quoted in the Front Office Sports report, says, “The Power Conferences’ response is to create an entity, the College Sports Commission. The point behind that (College Sports Commission) was to create an entity that would see the cap management system and and the third-party NIL system, have rules associated with both; create enforcement parameters for violating those rules under the rubric that would be the theoretical injunction.”

In layman’s terms: it’s a step from college’s athletics latest, emerging power structure to lend some semblance of guardrails and oversight in the upcoming revenue-sharing era in order to slow down or thwart what essentially is the current “pay-for-play” system, as an NCAA official detailed earlier this month at the National Football Operations Organization’s annual meetings in Frisco, Texas, and as FootballScoop previously detailed.

ESPN has previously reported that the CEO of the fledgling, not-yet-fully-formed College Sports Commission, would be granted power moving forward to dole out discretionary punishments if it is determined that a school violated or circumvented the parameters of the House Settlement revenue-sharing agreement and corresponding terms.

Every conference, in same fashion, is not only confronting the expected knowns of the proposed House Settlement but also dealing with the still-gray areas; indeed, without federal regulations or oversight, state laws continue to take centerstage, such as Tennessee’s Danny White, the school’s fourth-year athletics director and former UCF boss, indicating the Vols would adhere to the state’s regulations and not the more stringent cap of the $20.5 million proposed by the House Settlement — a number that sources told FootballScoop was a step in the right direction favored by Sankey for a potentially more equal playing field in the league.

Additionally, the Power Conferences continue to game plan strategy surrounding the upcoming 12-team College Football Playoff, the last agreed-upon format, as well as the imminent expansion of the field to at least 14 if not 16 teams in 2026.

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