Entering the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, the Virginia Tech softball team was on the bubble as to whether or not the Hokies would be hosting the first weekend as a Top 16 National Seed. After the 64-team field was announced on May 11, Tech was snubbed for one of the final Top 16 seeds and had to hit the road to Alabama for the Tuscaloosa Regional.

After splitting the two regular-season games with the Crimson Tide, Virginia Tech dropped both meetings that weekend in Alabama and were eliminated short of the Super Regionals. The loss ended the Hokies’ season at 43-13 and well short of their preseason goal of making it to Oklahoma City for the College World Series.

Virginia Tech softball receives a final Top 20 ranking from D1 Softball

After Texas beat Texas Tech in three games to win the National Championship last week, D1 Softball released their final Top 25 rankings for the season, and Virginia Tech dropped five spots from their pre-NCAA Tournament ranking to finish at No. 20.

Truth be told, the Hokies were in the situation they were in for seeding in the NCAA Tournament because of a couple of hiccups they had. The first one was in April when they dropped two out of three at Pittsburgh, then in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament at Boston College, they held a 9-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth before Clemson rallied with eight runs in the pouring rain to pickup a stunning 10-9 victory.

That game should not have been used for NCAA Tournament seeding purposes, as it was unfair to both teams to play in those conditions, something the ACC failed both schools with. Now, the Hokies will look back and wonder, what if? They will need to replace a lot of talent going into 2026, something that head coach Pete D’Amour is already doing.

Former Florida Gator 2B Mia Williams has officially found her new home via the transfer portal. The key cog in softball’s lineup for 2025 hit the portal after the season in a somewhat surprising move.

But in the modern era of the transfer portal, nothing winds up being too shocking, as Williams has wound up at Texas Tech for the 2026 season.

Williams announced the move on social media.

Texas Tech has been ramping up its NIL spending across all sports and burst onto the softball scene this past season after being a historically dormant program. The Red Raiders wound up within one game of winning the WCWS and are expected to be one of the favorites to make it back to Oklahoma City next season.

Malcolm Clemons is the national champion in long jump

The outdoor track and field national championships are underway, and the Florida Gators have already had someone climb to the top of the podium.

Malcolm Clemons took first place in the long jump to claim his first ever national title.

Clemons hit 8.04m [26′ 4.5″] on his first jump, a personal best of five inches, and that was good enough to claim first.

Leikel Cabrera Gay took second place in the javelin with a throw of 79.05m [259′ 4″] on his third throw. That was a personal best of over four feet for Cabrera Gay.

The Gators are sitting in a tie for second after day one with 18 points but have minimal scoring opportunities left, and Florida will more than likely not factor into the final race to the podium.

Aidan King receives recognition

About the only Gator who can say they did well during the NCAA Tournament was Aidan King, and he was honored for his freshman campaign as an NCBWA Freshman All-American.

King went 7-2 in 2025 with a 2.58 ERA and had a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 3.4.

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Next NCAA lawsuit

So, as MocsColts mentioned Wednesday, eight female athletes have filed a lawsuit questioning the settlement ruling in the House v. NCAA settlement.

Here’s more from The Athletic, and I believe this is a free link.

For starters, I think everyone expected this. Everyone.

“I think for so long female athletes have just been OK with getting whatever scraps are left and are told just to be thankful that they’re even competing and not aspire for more,” said Lexi Drumm, a College of Charleston business administration and political science major who is heading to law school in the fall. “Title IX is supposed to be a promise to get a full seat at that table and not just get the scraps.”

So this is the next of several legal dominos that will tumble.

Here’s my question for some of you legal eagles out there: Did the judge’s decision offer some cover with the specific wording of “revenue sharing” in the decision?

I think Title IX has for the most part been great, and that’s as a dad of a female athlete who hopes to be recruited in college. Not for the NIL, but for the love of the game.

I hate that the downside of Title IX has resulted in the growing number of men’s program terminations.

I fear that NIL and revenue sharing will have a similar effect, if not in termination of men’s programs but certainly in terms of de-emphasized importance and spending.

And that’s the thing. If this is truly based in revenue-sharing — and that revenue is not federally generated, which is the basis of Title IX disputes — is there a legal argument of gender differences in NIL shares?

Because, while Texas Tech decided to spend seven figures on a softball pitcher and attendance and interest is growing in several female sports (looking at you softball and gymnastics) there simply is no comparison to what revenue is generated from football and men’s hoops to every other sport and all women’s sports.

Thoughts?

It’s that time

So, we are in mid-June — June 12 to be exact — which means we are looking for football things to discuss.

Exhibit A: Aaron Rodgers. All of it.

Exhibit B: We are overly concerned about whether Trey Hendrickson resigns from Cincinnati.

Exhibit C: Kirk Cousins talking to the media as a $40 million back-up is news.

Well, the same is true for our favorite version of the game — college football.

In fact, I find myself wandering down the rabbit hole of “overhyped/underhyped” rankings.

And realizing that this is June 12, and we are a full two months before teams are popping pads in earnest, here is my overrated, underrated and properly rated of the teams of local interest.

> Tennessee. Properly rated with a lean to maybe overrated. And I’m not sure there is a bigger swing player we’ll mention in this than transfer QB Joey Aguilar.

> Alabama. Overrated. I am not sold on Kalen DeBoer. And this is a sneaky big year for the coach and THE coach. Especially since this will be the last full roster of the Dark Lord’s recruiting prowess.

> Georgia. Properly rated. I believe in Gunnar Stockton. Oscar Delp is Brock Bowers-lite. The WR room is as good as it’s been in a long time and the defense is always stocked with talent. I’ve never been a believer in OC Mike Bobo, but the talent cupboards are Stockton-ed. (Spy?)

> UTC. A touch underrated. I think there is a lot of talent working over there next to Manker Patten. My only question centers on whether the program’s leadership is ready to finally deliver in a make-or-break moment.

> Auburn. Underrated. Granted, I am an eternal optimist when it comes to my alma mater, but the QB play has to be better. The WR room is top-five nationally. The defense has multiple Sunday dudes on it. And the coaching staff best be extremely motivated to win now or they are going to be asked to win elsewhere.

True or false on a Thursday, there is no hotter seat in the SEC (and maybe the country) than Hugh Freeze’s?

Got any specific teams you want an “overrated/underrated/properly rated review”? Feel free to fire away in the comments.

Basketball eyeballs

Several things here.

So the Pacers took Game 3 of the Finals and now leads 2-1. The basketball has been entertaining.

But this Pacers-Thunder matchup has a major viewership issue. Game 1 was historically low. Game 2 was worse with only 8.76 million viewers on average. The only Game 2s worse were the bubble year of Lakers-Heat in 2020, the Cavs-Spurs in 2007, which aired opposite the series finale of “The Sopranos” and a Friday night Nets-Spurs game in 2003. Yikes.

Second, as USA Today reported, the WNBA goes as Caitlin Clark goes, no matter what her peers think say or do.

From the national newspaper, according to Nielsen numbers, “Nationally televised WNBA viewership is down 55 percent since (Clark’s) injury. Fever national TV games are down 53 percent since Clark’s injury – 1,810,000 average viewers before her injury and 847,000 viewers since her injury for Fever national TV games.”

Finally, and this is much-needed, college basketball is taking steps to improve the flow of games in the final minutes.

The changes are designed “to help with the flow of the game focus on the points of emphasis for officials for 2025-26. These will include directives to address delay-of-game tactics, limit time spent at the monitor, improve game administration efficiency and reduce physicality.”

Yay.

This and that

› The U.S. Open is underway. War Aberg.

› Is there a national sports storyline that causes your eyes to glaze more than the Knicks head coaching search? Not for me. When the topic comes to the replacement for Tom Thibodeaux on the four-letter network, I instantly reach for the remote. Is there an NCIS rerun on somewhere?

› You know the rules. Here’s Paschall with some UT football goodness.

› So yes, the Pope does wear a funny hat. And in this case, it’s a Chicago White Sox cap. Yep, those White Sox. Who knows, maybe he’s a big fan of Easy E and NWA. Probably not, but maybe.

› Braves played. Braves won. Wait, what? Nice game for Spencer Schwellenbach, who threw a complete game in the 6-2 win over Milwaukee, and Ronald Acuña Jr., who went 3-for-5 and is hitting .353 since returning to action.

Today’s questions

It’s an AGT — Anything Goes Thursday — so we’ll start here:

Larry Bird thinks the NBA is going to “have to do something” in terms of moving the 3-point line back.

Do you agree? Would you rather move the 3 back or instill a 4-point line several feet back?

Also, how much of the NBA Finals have you watched?

What schools should I review in the “overrated/underrated/properly rated” ratings?

As for today, it’s June 12, let’s review:

“Raiders of the Lost Ark” premiered on this day in 1981. Great movie.

Mariah Carey’s debut album dropped on this day 35 years ago. Great voice.

Marv Albert is 84 today.

It is also National Peanut Butter Cookie Day.

Does the peanut butter cookie make the Rushmore of cookies? Go, and remember the mailbag.

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets baseball season may have ended 11 days ago, but the team and players are both still being recognized as some of the best in the college baseball landscape, and one of those players, while unsurprisingly, is none other than sophomore outfielder Drew Burress.

Burress was recognized yesterday as one of the top players in his position, as he was named to the First Team All-American team, joining outfielders Zulu Irish from the Auburn Tigers and Devin Taylor from the Indiana Hoosiers. This is Burress’ second straight appearance on the list, and the first Yellow Jackets player to do so since Deck McGuire did it in 2009 and 2010.

Burress continued his illustrious career for the Yellow Jackets in his sophomore season, after having perhaps the greatest freshman season of any player in program history. Burress would lead all Power 4 conference players in doubles, claiming 23 over the course of the season.

The Yellow Jackets seen many impact players on the team this season, such as the emergence of freshman phenoms Alex Hernandez and Caleb Daniel, but having Burress return to the team was something that the Yellow Jackets needed. It gave them a familiar face and a bat to lean on when the lineup wasn’t exactly doing the greatest.

Burress is the only ACC underclassman to make the team, as he heads into what could possibly be his best season yet on The Flats next season. Burress is currently sitting at 44 home runs, which is just 13 short of the program record.