College Football and NIL now go hand in hand from here on out, and until further notice, it’s fair to expect highly random yet interesting deals to be made with some of the more high profile players within the Power 5 conferences, especially the SEC.

Mark Pope wants the best for Kentucky men’s basketball and, evidently, he isn’t the only one. In a conversation with Kentucky Sports Radio’s Matt Jones, Pope said that all former members of the storied program want to see it succeed, including prior head coach John Calipari.

“We have the greatest fanbase in all of college basketball. There is no one at any other fanbase that would argue that. Nobody can argue that,” Pope said. “So that fanbase deserves the best of everything. You go down the list, and we’re trying to be the best at everything, and that’s what Kentucky’s supposed to be.

“I was just with Karl-Anthony Towns yesterday in New York, and that’s what he expects out of this joint… That’s what all our former players, former coaches [expect]. You know what, that’s what Cal expects! Cal is at Arkansas and he’s like, ‘Don’t you ruin my program, man. That’s the best program in all of college basketball.’”

Calipari’s exit from Kentucky was tumultuous to say the least. The legendary head coach spent 15 seasons with the program and brought the Wildcats back to national prominence after they had a downslide in the late 2000s.

Calipari’s success at Kentucky peaked in 2012 when he won the national championship, but the coach remained in Big Blue Nation’s good graces for many years afterward, taking the team to a Final Four in 2015. Alas, starting in the COVID era, some Kentucky fans began to question if Calipari was the best man for the job.

After Kentucky went four seasons with only one win in the NCAA Tournament, countless ‘Cats fans were calling for Calipari’s job in the spring of 2024. Nonetheless, Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart ultimately backed Calipari and announced that he would be returning next season as UK’s head coach.

Just days later, the news broke that Calipari was heading to Arkansas. The unexpected move left Kentucky fans in limbo, wondering whether they should be thankful for all Calipari gave to the program or resent him for leaving UK after publicly stating he was running it back.

In his debut season at Arkansas, Calipari kept it classy when asked about his relationship with Kentucky, always emphasizing that he holds no ill will toward the program. Apparently, Calipari not only isn’t harboring negative feelings for Kentucky, but still fervently wants the program to thrive.

Of course, that feeling doesn’t apply when his Razorbacks square off against Mark Pope and Co. Calipari and Arkansas marched into Rupp Arena last season and silenced Kentucky fans, running away with an 89-79 victory.

Days after gaining traction, President Donald Trump has paused the formation of a presidential commission on college athletics.

The White House’s decision was made Wednesday morning after conversations with lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who suggested the commission’s work be sidelined as they seek co-sponsorship on Cruz’s long-developing bill to regulate college athletics, sources told CBS Sports. The presidential commission could return within the next 90 days, though no promises from the White House have been made, sources said.

Confidence that the commission focused on regulating college sports would gain bipartisan support was waning, and the Big Ten and SEC, the two most powerful conferences in college athletics, opposed commission leader Cody Campbell’s notions behind the scenes, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation. One high-ranking official told CBS Sports this week their nightmare was seeing Campbell arm-in-arm with Trump and completely reversing the years of work that have gone into supporting a new era of college sports that is expected to soon allow universities to pay their athletes directly. The White House was also convinced to sideline the commission because of the full docket Trump faces: trade disputes, the Russia-Ukraine war and the economy.

White House halts Donald Trump’s plan for college sports commission amid ongoing legislation talks, per report

Carter Bahns

The presidential commission also faced opposition on the ground, sources told CBS Sports. Campbell’s public push to pool conferences’ media rights to help smaller leagues facing financial trouble was of great concern to the Big Ten and SEC, the two richest conferences in the country. Sources within those conferences believed Campbell’s primary goal was to prop up Texas Tech, his alma mater, the Big 12 and smaller Group of Five schools at the expense of what the Big Ten and SEC are trying to accomplish. The two richest and most powerful conferences had zero desire to see any of their hard-earned money be redirected to the New Mexicos and UTEPs of the world just because it might benefit the system. 

Campbell criticized the two conferences’ stranglehold on amateur athletics and their efforts in Washington, D.C., seeking legal protections that would mostly favor them and lead to smaller conferences crumbling under financial burden. The power conferences and the NCAA have spent millions on lobbying efforts in Capitol Hill over the last four years.

“The NCAA is broken, but handing the keys to a few fat cats is worse,” Campbell wrote in March. “America thrives on competition, not cozy cartels blessed by D.C.”

The seed for Trump’s presidential commission was planted May 1 when Trump visited the University of Alabama to speak at a commencement ceremony. It’s there he met with former Alabama coach Nick Saban, and the two discussed college athletics and the unwieldy world of NIL. Campbell, the chairman of Texas Tech’s board of regents, was put in charge of the commission and actively sought input from college leaders and was recently recruiting members to serve, including Saban. The legendary former Crimson Tide coach spoke several times with Campbell, and the two met in person to discuss a leadership role, sources said.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), who accompanied Trump on his visit to Alabama, recently expressed doubt to CBS Sports that a federal legislative solution would emerge, instead putting his hopes in what Campbell and Saban could accomplish together with a commission.

“I think Nick and Cody can get something done along with President Trump’s power,” Tuberville told CBS Sports last week. “You’re not going to get six votes in the Senate, so [Trump is] going to have to say, ‘Look, this is what we’re going to do.'”

Campbell, a former Texas Tech football player who’s earned his wealth in the energy industry, has been heavily involved in the NIL space since 2022, when he founded The Matador Club, Tech’s NIL collective. He also has ties to Trump and Cruz, who he has financially supported via donations and fundraising events.

Meanwhile, Saban publicly questioned whether a commission was needed at the behest of those who didn’t want to see the commission gain traction, according to sources. Multiple Power Four sources told CBS Sports this week that Saban publicly distancing himself from the commission was helpful in slowing any progress. 

“I know there’s been a lot of stuff out there about some commission or whatever. I don’t think we need a commission,” Saban said, according to Bama247. “I’ve said that before. I think we need — we know what the issues are, we just have to have people who are willing to move those and solve those and create some solutions for some of those issues. I’m all for being a consultant to anybody who would think that my experience would be beneficial to helping create some of those solutions.”

NCAA president Charlie Baker and ACC commissioner Jim Phillips voiced support for the commission last week. 

“The fact that there’s an interest on the executive side on this, I think it speaks to the fact that everybody is paying a lot of attention right now to what’s going on in college sports,” Baker said. “I’m up for anything that can help us get somewhere.”

Inside Donald Trump’s push to fix college sports: How it began and what we know going forward

John Talty

The varying opinions among the conferences reflect the battle lines that have formed between the richest conferences — Big Ten and SEC — and those fighting to remain financially competitive — ACC and Big 12. One side had expressed hope for the commission, while the other was wary of motivations.

The NCAA and its major conferences have been seeking antitrust legal protection from the government for the last four years since NIL payments were legalized across the NCAA. Officials want universal laws to govern NIL after more than 30 states have adopted laws with varying regulations. Administrators also want to codify language in the expected settlement of the landmark House v. NCAA antitrust case, allowing schools to pay players millions of dollars at their discretion for the first time in history, starting July 1.

With the presidential commission on the back burner, the conferences’ efforts again turn to Cruz and his colleagues as they attempt to move forward with a bipartisan bill. Lawmakers have previously proposed more than a dozen bills over the last several years, but none have advanced to Congress after stalling in committees. Within the Big Ten and SEC, Cruz has been viewed as the best hope to get a federal solution that delivers what they most desire. 

Cruz said in January he hoped to pass a law to regulate the college athletics market in the current legislative session. Democratic senators Richard Blumenthal, Cory Booker and Jerry Moran are working on a bipartisan compromise with Cruz, ESPN reported in January. In March, Saban appeared alongside Cruz for a roundtable discussion on NIL at the Capitol. 

A request to Sen. Cruz’s office for comment on his role in the pausing of the commission was not immediately returned. 

In this week’s Akem’s Analysis, Samuel Akem talks about all the teams in the Big Sky Conference and  strength of schedule. He looks deeply into the previous top-5 teams from the conference last year (UC Davis, Idaho, Montana State, Montana, & NAU), or in other words, all the playoff teams. Also, analysis about Deloitte and the newly formed “NIL Clearinghouse”, which will serve as the new governing arm for NIL in college football.

0:00 – Intro 
3:55 – Toughest Strength of Schedules In The Big Sky 
29:00 – NIL, Clearing House, Deloitte, Collectives 
52:21 – 16-Team CFP Playoff Proposal 
1:01:10 – Final Thoughts 
1:02:37 – End 

James Madison was close to rounding out its 2025-26 roster and playing host to Ike Cornish and Justin McBride, a pair of former power conference players who were once four-star recruits ranked in the top 100 of their high school classes.

A couple of weeks earlier, the JMU women had a pair of SMU transfers — Kylie Marshall and Bri McLeod — on campus.

McLeod was one of the top players out of Canada in high school while Marshall was a top-40 player in the United States according to ESPN.

In the old days — before the House settlement, plans for revenue sharing and other direct payments to players for their services — that was the kind of news that had a way of leaking.

Even if those players hadn’t chosen the Dukes, which all four did, their official campus visits were good publicity.

Even being associated with high-level recruits was good for JMU’s brand.

But in 2025, it’s the dawn of a new era even as Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) has been around for almost half of a decade.

Their interest in James Madison was a closely guarded secret.

The fact they’d even been to Harrisonburg wasn’t public knowledge until after they’d announced commitments to the Dukes.

“It’s a different world right now,” JMU men’s head coach Preston Spradlin said. “This stuff is so tricky now. Things have to be really tight.”

The concern that news of even mutual interest between player and school, particularly when it comes to proven and experienced transfers, is twofold.

When it hits social media that the Dukes received a visit from a player, it’s not uncommon for said player to almost immediately receive a call from another program asking what JMU is offering to set off another round of negotiations.

Secondarily, other players may wonder if there’s money to go around if it appears a team is close to landing a transfer recruit.

Spradlin said even being listed among several programs that have talked to a player can lead to assumptions the recruiting process is further along than it is.

“To be honest, if it’s tweeted out that this kid was on campus, it could screw us with the next kid,” Spradlin said. “It’s so different. That’s just where it’s at. These coaches and agents try to use that stuff against you. The moment a kid tweets out that he’s coming here, another school will sweep in and say what’s the deal that you’ve got there, and try to offer him more.”

The recruiting visits themselves have changed, too.

Players and their families used to spend two days on campus with the JMU coaching staff guiding tours, showing off the basketball facilities and making sure they enjoyed Harrisonburg’s best restaurants and hotels.

If possible, the Dukes might schedule the visit to coincide with a big event, such as the spring football game, where the recruit could see and be seen by the fanbase.

Since the opening of the Atlantic Union Bank Center in 2020, more often than not, players who took an official visit to JMU later committed.

Some of those elements of the visit still exist, for sure.

But some official visits now last 24 hours or less, with a significant percentage of that time spent in a meeting room negotiating what amounts to a salary.

“This is what the difference is now between two years ago,” JMU women’s head coach Sean O’Regan said. “You still have to get to that portion of the visit where you sit down at a table. We also have to tell them, ‘Hey, understand what’s happening with the current team.’ And that’s not just about playing time now. In the past, in theory anyway, maybe you come in and you believe you can beat out the returning starter or the Player of the Year for playing time. Now it’s money, and maybe it’s a contract. And on our end, it’s loyalty to the players choosing to come back here.”

The evaluation process in recruiting has become not only observing a player’s potential to help on the court but also figuring out if their priorities line up with what JMU has to offer.

O’Regan said that while the Dukes are competitive financially with programs they recruit against, if the first thing a player brings up is money, that more or less ends the recruitment process for the women’s staff.

Spradlin agreed that taking time to figure out if a payday was the top priority could slow down the recruiting process.

“I can tell you our super power as a staff has always been evaluating and building great relationships in the recruiting process,” Spradlin said. “Not that that’s not important. It’s still very important to us, but it’s not quite as important to every kid out there. The ones that are coming here, it’s still important. But it’s taking a little bit longer to weed through and find the ones that are prioritizing that because of the influx of money.”

But, the new challenges aren’t unique to JMU’s programs.

And in the end, both the men’s and women’s teams filled their needs and essentially set their rosters for next season before most of their Sun Belt Conference rivals.

Spradlin and O’Regan both said that while they are figuring out a new process, JMU still has advantages that should allow the Dukes to compete for conference championships each year.

“It’s not exclusive to us,” Spradlin said. “It’s not exclusive to men’s basketball. In recruiting, the things that were prioritized and important, those are still important. But they don’t rank at the top of the list for some kids. I’m not saying that for everybody. There are still kids who want to come here because JMU is an amazing degree, and they want to play for the best fans in the Sun Belt. They want to play for a championship coaching staff, but then again there’s other kids who that’s not quite as important for any more because they can get more money somewhere else.”