Revenue sharing is now a feature of college athletics. Thanks to the house settelement signed in May, schools are permitted to spend $20.5m annually across sports, including through expanded scholarships and direct payments (of which it appears football will generally receive approximately 75%). This would seem to mitigate the longstanding problem of exploitation in college football.

However, in a sport still defined by extreme injury, recently disclosed provisions in the new Florida State University (FSU) revenue-sharing contract show that schools appear to simply be finding new ways to extract value from players, as ever at startling personal cost.

Per a CBS Sports report, the new FSU contract being distributed to football players reads, in part, “the following circumstances create a breach of contract by Student-Athlete: Student-Athlete experiences any illness or injury which is serious enough to affect the value of the rights granted to [school] under this Agreement.”

In other words: If a player gets injured, the school has leverage to cancel the deal.

Darren Heitner, adjunct law professor at the University of Florida and University of Miami, and an expert on college sports’ name, image and likeness (NIL) deals, was stunned by what he found upon reading the contracts.

“I take no issue with the drafter of a contract creating a document that leans in favor of the drafting party. In fact, that’s expected,” he told us. “However, there is a problem with a contract when it is so unfair, one-sided, and oppressive that it shocks the conscience.

“Reviewing the terms and considering that sometimes 17-year-olds with no legal counsel will be asked to sign on the dotted line, my takeaway is that this rises to the level of unconscionability unless thoroughly negotiated. I have reviewed dozens of revenue-sharing agreements and none compare.”

In a statement given to CBS Sports, FSU said in part that “Each individual situation will be unique and the hypotheticals are impossible to predict. However, we are committed to continuing to provide an elite experience for our student-athletes in all aspects of their collegiate career.”

Injury, of course, is an inherent feature of college football. In our recent book The End of College Football: On the Human Cost of an All-American Game we observe that every 2.6 years of participation in football doubles the chances of contracting the degenerative brain disorder chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and that 91 percent of American college football players’ brains examined in a pivotal Boston University study displayed neuropathology consistent with CTE. Similarly, participation in football likely increases the chances of developing Parkinson’s disease by 61 percent compared to athletes in other organized sports (and that risk is 2.93 times greater at the college/pro level).

In the book, we interviewed twenty-five former big-time college football players about their experiences in the sport. Many of those players suffered extremely debilitating injuries that caused them to lose seasons or even end careers, including knee reconstructions, torn AC joints, neck surgeries, torn achilles tendons, and countless concussions.

One player told us, “Before I got to college, never had an injury. By the time I left college, I had a medical record book of over six hundred pages. From rehab notes, surgery notes, to MRIs. I had over twelve MRIs total, five knee surgeries. This was while I was playing. . . . Later I found out that I had four torn labrum[s]. So I have a torn labrum on both shoulders, torn labrum on both hips.”

Thus, the question of players being relieved of their contractually agreed upon compensation as a consequence of injury is hardly academic. It will happen, and to many.

“I think the recently revealed contract details from Florida State exemplifies the current attitude of university officials who have completely lost sight of their jobs as educators,” former UCLA and NFL player Chris Kluwe told us. “They view college athletes (and students) as a product to be bought and sold and not human beings, which runs contrary to everything the education system should be.

“In a sport like football where athletes are predominately black and in a state like Florida where the current government seems intent on returning to the Antebellum Era, the fact school officials feel the need to include severe language curtailing players’ rights to the product of their labor is intensely concerning, and highlights the need for a college players union to protect athletes from would-be modern day plantation owners.”

The situation is compounded by the fact that universities don’t provide long-term health insurance to the players, leaving them to bear all the associated costs of their physical hardship. One player we spoke to for the book actually told us that “Long term, just strictly financially … it will have [ended up], like I paid money to play college football.”

Until such time as there are genuine occupational health and safety protections befitting a profession with such profound inherent dangers, it’s clear that the sport is not actually entering a more humane era. The House Settlement has ushered in little more than a new modality for the same old exploitation and harm.

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Political ripples in sports

We have made a commitment to divide the political from the sporting/pop culture stuff that has become the hallmark of the 5-at-10.

But we did dip a sporting toe into a political issue Tuesday in discussing the few sentences in the 940 pages of President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill that could greatly impact the legalized sports betting world.

Earlier this week, sporting news was made when Bryan Reynolds announced he will exercise his no-trade clause to the Mets, the Yankees, the Blue Jays, the Giants, the Dodgers or Padres — all postseason contenders — because of the political climates in those cities, states and countries.

This morning, The Athletic shared a detailed story explaining the political issues for the Buffalo Bills heading into the NFL season with the strained relations between the U.S. and Canada.

With slowing traffic across the border with our neighbors to the north, you have to wonder how many of the 8,000-plus Bills season ticket holders who live in Canada will continue to be patrons.

Yes, the Bills Mafia is undyingly loyal.

And yes, the Bills are one of the three or five true Super Bowl contenders.

But when 21% of a nation’s population lives within an NFL team’s home territory — like Canada’s does around Buffalo — the ripples are real.

Media daze

The annual cavalcade of coaches and star players head to major hotel ballrooms to meet with story-hungry media pros looking for a few juicy headlines.

Rarely does that deliver anything worth much once preseason practices start next month.

We had a rare moment of honesty from the Big 12 event from UCF Coach Scott Frost.

Frost, a Heisman winner at Nebraska, was at UCF eight years ago and had the Golden Knights rolling.

He left after an undefeated regular season in 2017 and returned to his alma mater try and redirect the once-elite Cornhuskers program.

It did not go well, and Frost was fired after four-plus seasons and a 16-31 record.

He’s back at UCF for a second tour.

“I didn’t want to leave UCF,” he told The Athletic. “I always said I would never leave unless it was some place you could go and potentially win a national championship. I got tugged in a direction to go try to help my alma mater, and I didn’t really want to do it. It wasn’t a good move. I’m lucky to get back to a place where I was a lot happier.”

He continued with, “Don’t take the wrong job, that’s what I learned. Make sure you’re working for and around good people.”

Man, Frost’s next trip back for homecoming in Lincoln will be, shall we say, frosty.

A new superpower

Texas Tech is becoming a microwaved recruiting power — across multiple sports — in the current NIL model.

They turned their softball program by making NiJaree Canady the first seven-figure softball player in the NIL world.

(Side note: Canady agreed to another big-dollar deal to become the brand ambassador with Venmo’s new deal with the Big 12 as a whole. Man, when a softball star is the face of the league for a product like Venmo, well, you know she has juice.)

Texas Tech has a couple of billionaire oil alums named Cody Campbell and John Sellers, and they are funding the NIL collectives of their former school.

It paid more dividends over the weekend as it was announced that five-star OT and top-10 national recruit Felix Ojo inked a three-year NIL deal worth between $2.3 and $5.1 million, depending on reports.

Ojo, the top prep player in Texas, picked the Red Raiders over Texas and THE Ohio State.

Welcome to the free-agentization of the recruiting process. Sure, we’re used to it in team sports. Heck, we’re even used to it in the current renditions of the portal.

But now it’s an open market for these kids coming out of high school, and at least by the sounds of it, Texas Tech got a long-term deal from this prized recruit. (Until he pulls a Nico Iamaleava, that is.)

Which truly means there will be a changing dynamic within these programs moving forward.

With finite numbers of resources — even Texas oil and limitless alums at places like THE OSU, Oregon and others — scouting becomes paramount, because committing 10-plus-% of your up-to $20.5 million revenue share kitty could be program derailing and a coaching contract deal-breaker.

Thoughts?

This and that

› The Braves played. The Braves got smoked. And in truth, they are committing MLB malpractice by continuing to run 20-year-old Didier Fuentes out to the mound. He got three outs — against the 38-55 A’s, mind you — and allowed three homers in his eight earned runs.

› We mentioned the EA Sports College Football game that drops Thursday in Tuesday morning’s conversation. This year’s game has an added degree of difficulty playing on the road, and here are the top-25 hardest places to play according to the game designers. LSU’s Tiger Stadium is 1, as it should be — especially after dark.

› UT football recruiting keeps rolling. Here’s more from Paschall, who notes the Fightin’ Heupels now have a five-star QB, a five-star OT and two of the top-five LBs in the country.

› The WNBA All-Star teams were announced. Here are the rosters and starters after captains Caitlin Clark and Napheesa Collier picked the squads. One, book me on a Paige Bueckers prop to be MVP at plus-2300. Two, Rhyne Howard — the former Bradley Central star and the featured speaker at the Best of Preps last month — is a Team Collier reserve. Three, great decision to have Angel Reese and Clark on opposite sides.

Today’s questions

› Which Way Wednesday starts here: Which of the “toughest places to play” list by EA Sports College Football is the most-misplaced?

› Which of those top-25 places have you watched a game? I’ve been to 11 of the 25.

› Which non-traditional power has the chance to make the biggest college football jump with the NIL possibilities out there?

Answer some WWWs, ask some WWWs.

As for today, July 9, let’s review:

› “Barbie” premiered on this day in 2023. Spy hearts Barbie.

› “Donkey Kong” was released on this day in Japan in 1981. It swallowed many of a young 5-at-10’s quarters back in the day.

› Tom Hanks is 69 today. I feel certain we’ve done his Rushmore.

› O.J. was born on this day in 1947.

› Fred Savage is 49 today. Yes, that made me feel wicked old.

› Rushmore of preteen lead TV characters in the modern era, because I think Savage’s turn as Kevin Arnold in “Wonder Years” has to be there.

Go, and remember the mailbag.

In college football discourse, there’s a tendency to talk about the transfer portal and NIL as unprecedented pillars of change that have disturbed a previously tranquil landscape.

Don’t get me wrong: this is very much a new era of college sports. But as a history guy, I have a different perspective.

College sports have always been marked by change. In the 1950’s, scholarships were formally legalized as teams began to offer financial inducements to attract talent. The two-platoon system was implemented in 1964, allowing for unlimited substitutions and making football programs prohibitively more expensive to maintain. The 80’s ushered in the era of massive TV contracts, leading to the first big wave of conference realignment and the formation of de jure “power conferences” in the 90’s. In the 2010’s, Nick Saban implemented the support staff model at Alabama that fundamentally restructured football departments.

The transfer portal, in conjunction with NIL, just happens to be the change of our era. And schools will continue to adapt.

This offseason, Virginia Tech has hammered the portal like never before under Brent Pry, bringing in 30 transfer additions. As of now, over one-third of the players on Tech’s roster began their careers elsewhere, and an even higher percentage will occupy the two-deep.

It’s a perfect time, then, to talk about the ramifications of the Hokies going portal-heavy — and how the portal has changed college football as a whole.

The Portal: In Exercise in Volatility

While the negatives of the transfer portal are discussed ad nauseum, there are upsides as well. Big-time programs can no longer stash elite talent on the bench; players leave before they can be developed by those big schools; and there’s less roster continuity across the board.

All this has led to increased volatility in the sport. For instance: last year, Indiana showed the greatest single-season improvement in adjusted efficiency, according to SP+, for any Power Four team ever. Ever!

(Okay, since at least 2005, but probably ever.)

In fact, five of the nine biggest single-season improvements by any team have occurred in just the last three years. Among them: Arizona State’s squad that made a Cinderella run to the CFP last season, and a trio of teams in 2022 (Duke, Kansas, TCU) that were all led by first- or second-year head coaches.

The revenue-sharing era is just over one week old, and since then dozens of athletes have signed agreements with the University of Louisville.

The revenue-sharing era of college sports is just over a week old.

It has been eight months, almost to the day, since the NCAA voted to open up eligibility to Canadian Hockey League players. We’re now weeks away from the official Aug. 1, 2025 date set by the Division I Council.

The flow of college hockey commitments from OHL, QMJHL and WHL players is now ramping up as each school’s admittance deadline for the fall semester approaches — as are CHL clubs’ efforts to develop relationships with agencies and NCAA programs and recruit players across the border in the other direction from U.S. minor hockey, Canadian Jr. A and the USHL.

On Tuesday night, when the reigning CHL Player of the Year and No. 1 prospect in the 2026 NHL Draft class, Gavin McKenna, announced on ESPN’s SportsCenter his decision to commit to play his draft year at Penn State University, it marked the biggest decision since November’s rule change and arguably the biggest freshman recruitment in the history of college hockey.

Here’s where the landscape stands and what it means for the NCAA, CHL, Penn State and the rippling impact of NIL money in the sport.

Different approaches around the NCAA in new era

Penn State’s approach in this new era of recruiting has been pretty clear: The Nittany Lions have positioned themselves and their NIL pot as a major player financially and are looking to capitalize on the momentum of a Frozen Four appearance to sell their first-class facilities, coaching staff (led by head coach Guy Gadowsky) and Hockey Valley as a new top destination for players.

But more interesting than that to me over the last several months has been the different ways schools are going about their sales pitch. Michigan State has really sold its coaching staff under Adam Nightingale and the renewed history and facilities at Munn Ice Arena to successfully recruit top classes and transfers. I heard a lot about Boston College, Boston University and Maine spending time in QMJHL rinks this year, and Maine has had some positive early successes tapping into Quebec and eastern Canada for players. Colorado College under Kris Mayotte has smartly recruited mid-round picks who were top players for their CHL teams, but are maybe not marquee names. Nebraska-Omaha is trying to carve out a reputation as a U Sports recruiter and has successfully recruited a class of former top CHLers who didn’t get pro deals and were stars at Canadian universities last year. North Dakota is using geography, history and a new staff structure to go after the top players in western Canada and has already landed two big ones in top 2026 prospect Keaton Verhoeff and 2025 first-rounder Cole Reschny. And there are other programs, like the University of Minnesota which has so heavily focused on players from within the state for so long, that haven’t yet made the same kind of inroads.

Who has success doing what is going to be one of the fascinating stories of the next few years in college hockey.

The CHL will still be the CHL

I think there’s been a bit of hyperbole and conjecture in all of this about the ultimate fate of the CHL.

There have been a little over 150 commitments made by CHL players to the NCAA. Of those, roughly 85 percent are graduating or 19-year-old players, meaning only a little over 20 players aged 17-18 have so far made the move for next year. In the last couple of weeks, several first-rounders who had interest from top NCAA programs, including Jake O’Brien, Benjamin Kindel and Lynden Lakovic, have decided to return to the CHL and sign entry-level contracts with their NHL clubs. (Look out for a few more in the next couple of weeks.)

It’s still a sensitive topic and time for the leagues, their teams and owners and fans in 61 hockey markets.

The counterflow back the other way and into the CHL has been real as well, though. More than 25 USHL players made the move to the CHL this season, and others, like Sharks second-rounder Haoxi Wang, made the move out of Canadian Jr. A and into the league. In the fall, college-bound USHL players like Blake Montgomery and Lev Katzin made quick decisions to come north. Other top young Canadian players like Adam Valentini and Caleb Malhotra, who didn’t previously have the CHL as an option after they made NCAA commitments, are now choosing it as their preferred path into college. A record number of American players were taken in the 2025 OHL Priority Selection. Some of the bigger programs think they can challenge the U.S. NTDP for top American talent now. The Quebec Remparts were aggressive in the QMJHL draft, targeting prospects in the U.S. The Saint John Sea Dogs have a history of pulling American players from the northeast of the U.S. that they can now lean on. The Penticton Vees, the CHL’s newest franchise, have a similar history out west and established relationships with NCAA programs. I’ve heard that franchises like Portland, Moncton and Kitchener have also worked hard to establish lines of communication with agencies and schools.

“There’s this big thing that we hate them and they hate us, but we’ve all got buddies who coach in the NCAA,” one OHL general manager told The Athletic.

“In my eyes, build a good program, have good coaching, development, communication, then why would they leave? It’s the best development league in the world,” said another OHL general manager.

Just last week, the Brantford Bulldogs secured USHL and Czech national team star Adam Benák, a Wild prospect, in the CHL Import Draft. The Regina Pats drafted USHL goalie and Red Wings prospect Michal Pradel. The Sea Dogs drafted Olivers Murnieks, a potential top-two-rounds pick in 2026, who played last season in the USHL. On Monday, I got a text about Nikita Klepov, another potential top-two-rounds pick in 2026 who played in the USHL last season and may end up in Saginaw next year. The list goes on.

“Once everything kind of settles, is it a bad thing? I don’t know if it’s a bad thing,” said a QMJHL head coach.

The $ — and NIL — of it all

Money talks.

It has always talked loudly in hockey, an expensive sport made up predominantly of well-to-do people.

But it’s talking louder than ever in the sport right now, and McKenna’s package from Penn State has set a new bar. Not that long ago, top NHL prospects were telling me they were getting branded sweaters and free meals at local restaurants as their NIL packages. McKenna’s package, all in all, is rumored to be upwards of $700,000 USD — or in and around a million CAD. (I haven’t been able to verify that number with people connected to McKenna, but it’s the biggest package ever given to a college hockey player.)

The CHL’s three leagues remain in good positions to hold their standings as the NHL’s top leagues for developing players. Several markets, including Brantford and Ottawa, have new arenas in the works. On Tuesday morning, at the height of McKenna Watch, the Drummondville Voltigeurs announced a complete overhaul of their Centre Marcel Dionne. There is big money behind organizations like Moncton and Saint John. In May, players’ area upgrades were announced for The Aud, Kitchener’s legendary arena. Other teams have reached out to their municipalities for the first time in decades in an effort to take this moment to improve their facilities and offerings.

“It puts a little bit of the onus on the owners of upscaling what they have to offer for facilities,” one OHL coach told The Athletic.

However, many CHL clubs can’t compete with the money and facilities offered at the big American schools. I’ve been to dozens of the CHL’s rinks and virtually all of the NCAA’s big schools. I’ve been behind the scenes at Wisconsin’s Kohl Center and Labahn Arena, and Michigan State’s newly upgraded and iconic Munn Ice Arena. I know what they’re up against. But where the money goes, the players will benefit. That’s true in both the NCAA and CHL, where the developments of the last year are only positive for what they mean for the pockets of the players and the amenities and paths they’ll have available to them on either side of the border.

There’s fear within the CHL and the NCAA that the rich will get richer and smaller markets and schools will have an even tougher time competing with the likes of London in the CHL and the powerhouses in the Big Ten or Hockey East than they already do, but smart hockey and business minds will find niches and avenues forward.

A program-shaping time for Penn State

The Nittany Lions didn’t become a Division I hockey program until 2011. When they did, they brought in Guy Gadowsky, previously of Princeton and Alaska-Fairbanks. In their second season as a Division I program, they played as a conference-less independent school. They’ve yet to produce an NHL player of note. But after a stunning run to the Frozen Four following a difficult, testy start to last season, they’ve now suddenly emerged, with their big-money backing (and their Pegula Ice Arena — with all of its bells and whistles — named after it), as a front-runner in the recruiting race for top talent. Last year’s team helped turn Nashville Predators prospect Aiden Fink into one of the country’s top scorers and overager Charlie Cerrato into a second-round pick, but they’ve never had a best-in-class freshman class, or even a freshman class of any notoriety. Now, after landing big transfer portal gets like Mac Gadowsky, Guy’s son, and goaltender Kevin Reider, they’ve also lured freshmen like Blue Jackets first-rounder Jackson Smith, Flames prospect Luke Misa and now McKenna.

And it cannot be overstated what McKenna does for the Nittany Lions. Not only is it a transformational time for the program and its boosters, it could create another potential giant in a Big Ten conference that had already had quite the glow-up over the last several years thanks to the re-emergence of Michigan State and the continued relevance of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin (albeit with mixed on-ice results for the latter).

A player like McKenna in Hockey Valley was unthinkable a short time ago. Part of the impetus of his decision was to put his mark on the program he chose. In choosing Penn State, he changes everything for them.

(Photo: Leila Devlin / Getty Images)

Phil Steele gave his 2025 forecast for the Kentucky Wildcats this upcoming college football season and the veteran writer expects a bit of improvement from the ‘Cats. The 2025 college football season will be the most important of the Mark Stoops era at Kentucky, as it suffered their worst season since 2013 in 2024 (4-8).

Kentucky stunned No. 6 Ole Miss on the road last season, but lost its other eight game against power-four programs. It heads into this season with a new quarterback, Zach Calzada from Incarnate Word, but returns 14 starters from last year’s team.

“Mark Stoops opened with three losing seasons (1 play away from bowl in both ’14 and ’15) but delivered 8 straight bowls,” Steele wrote. “In 2021 UK finished in sole possession of 2nd place in the SEC East for the first time ever at 10-3. In ’22 Cats fans beat me up all summer for having them #35 in my preseason rankings. UK entered the season ranked (#20) for the first time since 1978 (4-6-1 that yr) and they opened 4-0 and #7 AP, but they went 3-6 and were not among the 40 teams that drew a vote in the final AP poll. In ’23 they opened 5-0 and rose to #20 AP, but lost 5 of their next 6 before upsetting #9 [Louisville] (Stoops was 2-18 vs top 10 teams prior) and finished 7-6 again.”

Steele expects Kentucky to be better on both sides of the ball

Prior to the 2024 season, Kentucky had appeared in a bowl game in eight consecutive seasons with four wins.

“Kentucky has had just two winning seasons in SEC play since 1977 (both under Stoops, both 5-3). The Vegas Over/Under for Kentucky was 6.5 in ’24. UK opened 1-2 with a blowout loss to South Carolina then beat #6 Ole Miss the highest ranked team they beat on road since 1977 (Penn State) to move to 3-2. UK lost their remaining 6 games vs FBS foes (beat 1-10 Murray State) losing the last 5 by 20 PPG. UK is 2-12 in its last 14 SEC home games! They are 7-18 in the SEC since their 2021 Citrus Bowl win.”

“This year they have 14 returning starters but were -100 mpg in SEC play last year. The Vegas Over Under for the Cats is just 4.5 after their 4-8 year. There are plenty of indicators pointing up, like a +3.0 on my Stock Market indicator, they were -7 TO’s and -3 Net upsets. This team figures to be better on both sides of the ball but not enough to make my Most Improved list.”

Kentucky will open the season against Toledo on August 30th. Its first conference game takes place against Ole Miss on September 6.