After a Texas bill to amend the state’s NIL law passed the House and Senate, it headed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. He signed it into law Thursday morning – paving the way for some high school athletes to sign deals.

Abbott signed HB 126 into law, which allows colleges in the state to directly pay athletes in line with the House v. NCAA settlement. It also means high school athletes who are 17 and older can sign NIL deals. That’s a shift from the previous verbiage that said only college athletes in the state could do so.

Texas State Rep. Brandon Creighton sponsored the bill, filed March 10, and the state House and Senate both signed it June 1. That meant it headed to Abbott’s desk for signature, and the law took effect immediately after he signed.

Under the previous law, high school athletes were not allowed to sign NIL deals and had to wait until they got to college. The amendment changes that, setting the age requirement at 17 years old to do so.

“Unless a prospective student athlete younger than 17 years of age is enrolled at an institution of higher education, an individual, corporate entity, or other organization, including an institution to which this section applies, may not enter into an arrangement relating to the athlete’s name, image, or likeness with the athlete or with an individual related to the athlete by consanguinity or affinity,” the law states.

Texas’ new NIL law also comes ahead of the landmark House settlement, which is set to usher in the revenue-sharing era in college athletics. Schools will be able to directly pay athletes up to $20.5 million in 2025-26, the first school year of the 10-year agreement, and the law allows schools to participate in rev-share.

The previous version of the law said institutions could not “provide or solicit a prospective student athlete of an intercollegiate athletic program at the institution with compensation in relation to the prospective student athlete’s name, image, or likeness.” The amended law eliminated that language, meaning universities can directly pay athletes.

At Texas, athletics director Chris Del Conte announced plans to fully fund every sport by maximizing roster limits that would be put in place by the House settlement. Additionally, he said the school is raising football season ticket prices by $13 per game to help defray the extra costs.

“I’m going to alter the season ticket price … to help defray the cost of what we’re doing,” Del Conte said during his annual town hall in February. “I’m doing this, y’all, because I’m trying to maintain the very best athletic program in the country.

“I hope that you think the value we provide you on game day with all the things that we’re doing – whether it’s Bevo’s Blvd., the concert, everything that we do – we’re trying to create incredible value to say thank you. But more importantly, for you to understand what we’re trying to do.”

The transfer portal has only been open for a few days in college baseball but already the accusations are flying. On Thursday, East Carolina coach Cliff Godwin accused coaches at Power Four schools of tampering with his players.

East Carolina finished its season over the weekend, coming up a little short in the Conway Regional final against Coastal Carolina. And now Godwin is having to battle illegal contact.

“Our system is so BROKEN!” Godwin wrote on Twitter. “We have coaches at P4 schools texting our players directly who are not in portal! And we have proof!”

Cliff Godwin didn’t provide proof immediately, though his original tweet was still very fresh at the time of this writing. So it’ll be interesting to see if he opts to lay everything bare on social media at some point.

Even if he doesn’t, Godwin has been vocal in the past about the potential pitfalls of NIL and the transfer portal. In conjunction, the two can be especially disruptive for a coach at the non-power-conference level.

“I don’t like the portal and NIL together because it’s become a corrupt business,” Godwin said in January 2024. “So people are cheating. And I’m not perfect. I’m not saying that. But that’s not why that was created.”

As of Wednesday morning, there were more than 2,700 Division I baseball players in the transfer portal, according to On3’s Pete Nakos. So the problems aren’t going away any time soon.

Cliff Godwin outlines issues with NIL

The East Carolina coach has been blunt about how he feels about NIL, too. In short, he thinks its a system ripe for abuse. He even called it ‘pay for play.’

“They kept saying it’s not pay for play,” he said. “Well guess what it is? Pay for play.”

Even though NIL has impacted the way rosters are built at times, that hasn’t changed anything for Godwin’s approach at ECU. But balancing that can be challenging, and when NIL comes into the picture, Godwin admitted that jealousy can play a role, too. That only becomes more challenging when considering college baseball teams only have so many scholarships (currently) to distribute across a much larger roster.

“I’m all for rewarding our guys who have been in our program and have done the things the right way, from Trey Yesavage to Justin Wilcoxen to Joey Berini,” Cliff Godwin added. “I think it’s also worth mentioning that Joey Berini has never received a cent of baseball scholarship money since he’s been at East Carolina because we only have 11.7 (scholarships). [Wilcoxen] has only received scholarship this year in his fifth year. Guys that have grinded, that have developed with our coaching staff, that means something to me, because that’s what this place was built on. Now I still want them to be able to make some money if that is available. And so those guys were able to get some money, but it also creates jealousy.

“I asked Trey Yesavage this summer, ‘Does NIL create jealously?’ ‘100 percent Coach.’ So that’s another thing we have to navigate. But I’m all for helping the returners. I can’t foresee Coach Godwin offering any recruit any amount of money because that is going to take away from the culture that we have in the locker room. A lot of coaches talk about it. And I’m not sitting up here saying that we have the best culture in the country, but it means something to me to have culture. And you can’t sustain success the way we do if you don’t have great culture within that locker room.”

On3’s Jonathan Wagner also contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — The Atlantic 10 Conference concluded its annual spring meetings Tuesday, June 3, 2025.  The A-10 Presidents Council and the Athletic Directors met at the league headquarters in Washington, D.C., and prior to Tuesday the Athletic Directors met with the men’s and women’s basketball coaches, corporate sponsors and select NCAA staff in Naples, Fla.
 
The most significant topics of discussion in both meetings was the future landscape of intercollegiate athletics in the NIL and post-House settlement era, the potential expansion of the NCAA basketball tournament field and the financial challenges facing higher education.  Unanimously, all in attendance reaffirmed the league’s commitment to the importance of supporting student athletes athletically, academically and personally through NIL opportunities, mentorships and career development.
 
The Presidents approved the proposed 2025-26 conference operating budget at Tuesday’s meeting, highlighted by the establishment of an additional revenue distribution incentive fund tied to a program’s success in men’s basketball. The Presidents also reaffirmed another conference-wide supplemental distribution of $2.8 million for the 2025-26 academic year.
 
“The Presidents Council and Athletic Directors are committed to maintaining the Atlantic 10’s status as one of the nation’s premier basketball-centric leagues, which was evident in the discussions held in both meetings,” stated A-10 Commissioner Bernadette V. McGlade. “The enhanced financial commitment is crucial to continuing the five decades of success the league has enjoyed. As we prepare to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of the Conference we will honor the history of the A-10 and enthusiastically embrace the future.”
 
“Although this is a challenging time in higher education and intercollegiate athletics, our A-10 membership engaged in great discussions, reaffirmed our commitment to national success in basketball, and will focus on supporting and developing our student-athletes,” said Dr. Eric Spina, University of Dayton President and Chair of the A-10 Presidents Council.
 
The group acknowledged the presentation provided to the Athletic Directors from PPG Paints Arena, host of the 2026 Atlantic 10 Men’s Basketball Championship and extended the contract with Henrico Sports and Entertainment to host the Women’s Championship through 2029.  Approval was granted to host the men’s and women’s basketball media day together for the second year in a row in Pittsburgh, Pa., where the A-10 was founded in 1975-76. In conjunction with the joint media day the Presidents approved a 50^th Anniversary Luncheon to “Tip-Off” the year-long celebration. A full slate of 50^th Anniversary celebrations and plans were shared with all. 

“We had great spring meetings where all of the Atlantic 10 coaches and Athletic Directors came together with a focus on elevating the Atlantic 10 as a top basketball-centric conference that includes many sport programs enjoying high levels of success on the national level,” said Chris May, Director of Athletics at Saint Louis University and Chair of the Athletic Directors. “I want to thank the Presidents for their unwavering support and partnership as we lead the conference through this evolutionary moment in college athletics.”

 

Review of 2024-25: The A-10 staff reviewed the success the Atlantic 10 in 2024-25, with the addition of women’s golf as the league’s 23rd championship sport, national semifinal appearances in field hockey by Saint Joseph’s and Massachusetts, with the Hawks reaching the NCAA national championship game. Men’s soccer tied a league record and were fourth among all conferences with four bids to the NCAA Tournament. Men’s and women’s basketball had tightly contested championships with record high attendance, including the highest neutral site men’s championship day crowd in league history with 12,516 fans in attendance. Women’s basketball recorded the highest ticket revenue generated in a single championship. Men’s basketball placed eight teams in the postseason while women’s basketball had six postseason teams, including a first-ever appearance by George Mason, Richmond women reaching the NCAA Round of 32 and Duquesne advancing to the Super 16 of the WNIT.  Baseball also recorded the first ever sold-out championship game day crowd at 1,121 in attendance.

 

NCAA Topics: Jenn Fraser, NCAA Vice President of Division I and Dave Schnase, NCAA Vice President of Academic and Membership Affairs attended and provide updates on the pending House Settlement Implementation Committee work, as well as the proposed NCAA ”new” governance structure. NCAA General Counsel Director Greg Pottorff also joined remotely to provide briefings on legal issues facing the Association.

 

Olympic Sports: Further action taken at the May meetings related to Olympic Sports included approval of the following items:

• Extending the existing agreement with Virginia Beach Sports Center to serve as home of the 2027 and 2028 A-10 Indoor Track & Field Championship site.
• Approval of the full slate of championship sites for 2026.
• A new format for the men’s and women’s tennis championship at the USTA National Campus.
• Addition of required video replay for men’s and women’s soccer championships.

 
A-10 Reports: Reports on communications, television and streaming, advanced media and an update from the Senior Woman Administrators and the Commission on Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, were delivered and approved.
 
The Presidents Council recognized Dr. Fred Pestello, President of Saint Louis University who is retiring after 11 years at SLU.

Texas Tech may be establishing itself as the home of female champions—and the softball team might be putting an exclamation point on that idea this week.

For years, Texas Tech has chased the elusive dream of a football championship. It came close a few times, but things took a downturn after the departure of the late, great Mike Leach. Since then, the coaching position has been a revolving door. With the constantly shifting landscape of NIL deals, it’s hard to predict what the next season will bring—but it’s safe to say the Red Raiders won’t bulldoze their way through the Big 12 just yet.

Basketball? Sure, Tech has remained competitive. The Red Raiders are always a threat, backed by one of the loudest, most loyal fanbases in the country. But let’s not forget who really put the spotlight on Lubbock sports. The Lady Raiders brought home a national championship in 1993. And while it’s been decades, that pride still echoes across the South Plains.