NIL

March Madness expansion could be decided 'in next new months' per Charlie Baker

NCAA President Charlie Baker said Thursday he sees value in expanding the NCAA Tournament by a handful of teams and wants to reach a decision on the matter in the next few months. Baker spoke during Big 12 spring meetings, where conference leaders are discussing everything from the multibillion-dollar revenue-sharing House settlement to complexities brought […]

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2 weeks ago

May 29, 2025

Your Sports Nation

March Madness expansion could be decided 'in next new months' per Charlie Baker

NCAA President Charlie Baker said Thursday he sees value in expanding the NCAA Tournament by a handful of teams and wants to reach a decision on the matter in the next few months.

Baker spoke during Big 12 spring meetings, where conference leaders are discussing everything from the multibillion-dollar revenue-sharing House settlement to complexities brought on by the transfer portal and name, image and likeness compensation.

Baker discussed the idea of expanding from 68 teams to 72 or 76.

“We’ve had good conversations with CBS and WBD,” Baker said, referring to Warner Bros. Discovery, whose holdings include the Turner networks that air NCAA Tournament games. “Our goal here is to try to sort of get to either yes or no sometime in the next few months because there’s a lot of logistical work that would be associated with doing this. If we were to go down this road, you just think about the opening weekends, who has to travel the longest, it gets complicated.”

Zach Freemantle of the Xavier Musketeers celebrates as the clock runs out against the Texas Longhorns during the First Four round of the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. (Photo by Grace Bradley/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

The NCAA Men’s tournament expanded from 64 to 68 teams in 2011, with the Women’s tournament jumping to 68 teams after the 2020-2021 season, following a review of gender equality between the men’s and women’s side that also allowed the latter to use “March Madness” branding. The change introduced the First Four round, a set of pre-tournament games where the four lowest-seeded at-large teams and four lowest-seeded conference champions compete for spots in the traditional 64-team bracket.

Baker indicated that the current formula has flaws and said it would be beneficial to give more opportunities to worthy teams.

“If you have a tournament that’s got 64 or 68 teams in it, you’re going to have a bunch of teams that are probably among what most people would consider to be the best 68 or 70 teams in the country that aren’t going to make the tournament, period,” Baker said. “The point behind going from 68 to 72 or 76 is to basically give some of those schools that were probably among the 72, 76, 68, 64 best teams in the country a way into the tournament.”

Baker cited a competitive Indiana State team falling short of the tournament as an example. Indiana State went on to play Seton Hall in the 2024 NIT title game, which he referred to as one of the best games that spring.

Kansas coach Bill Self said fellow Big 12 coaches seem to favor an NCAA tourney expansion. The Big 12 had seven bids in 2025, half the total of the SEC.

“There was a little bit that was brought forth and the consensus among the coaches, even though it was very little, would be in favor of that,” he said. “I don’t know if you could make it where it was totally equitable all the way across the board for everybody. Certainly, there’s going to be outliers on every situation.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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BYU’s AJ Dybantsa Becomes College Basketball’s Top NIL Earner

BYU’s AJ Dybantsa Becomes College Basketball’s Top NIL Earner originally appeared on Athlon Sports. BYU’s AJ Dybantsa is already turning heads before the 2025-26 college basketball season. As the No. 1 player in the country, he’s already projected as the top pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. But his moves off the court are just […]

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56 minutes ago

June 12, 2025

Your Sports Nation

BYU’s AJ Dybantsa Becomes College Basketball’s Top NIL Earner originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

BYU’s AJ Dybantsa is already turning heads before the 2025-26 college basketball season. As the No. 1 player in the country, he’s already projected as the top pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. But his moves off the court are just as good.

Dybantsa saw a significant jump in his On3 NIL valuation recently. He moved up to $4.1 million and cracked the top five for the first time in his career. As it stands now, the 6-foot-9 power forward is only $200K away from Miami QB Carson Beck at No. 2 ($4.3M) and $100K from Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith ($4.2M). Arch Manning is firmly at the top with a valuation of $6.8 million.

However, Dybantsa is the top college basketball earner after landing deals with Nike and Red Bull. Dybantsa is on a contract with BYU to receive over $7 million this season, according to Adam Zagoria of the New York Times. An NIL offering he denied at the McDonald’s All-American Game.

Related: BYU Basketball Shows Interest in Rising International Star

BYU has picked up the pace on the NIL trail very quickly. One of the biggest contributors is Utah Jazz and Utah Mammoth owner Ryan Smith. But underneath it all is Kevin Young. The Cougars coach came to Provo after being an NBA assistant for the Phoenix Suns and Philadelphia 76ers. His detailed guidance and pro-ready approach is why Dybantsa decided to sign with BYU.

Related: BYU Cracks ESPN’s Future Power Rankings Top 25

As the season quickly approaches, Dybantsa will be part of the most hype-filled year in BYU Basketball history. The Cougars projected starting lineup has many national outlets putting them as a national title contender and on a level playing field in the Big 12 with Houston, who is coming off a heartbreaking loss in the National Championship to Florida.

The upcoming season will be fun to watch as Dybantsa has already said he’s one-and-done before turning pro.

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 12, 2025, where it first appeared.

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Breaking down house settlement and how it could impact UF athletics

Swampcast breaks down Florida softball at WCWS, Florida basketball The Sun’s Kevin Brockway and Noah Ram and Kevin Brockway are joined by Nathan Geise of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal to break down Florida softball, Texas Tech in WCWS. The University of Florida can now pay athletes directly due to the House vs. NCAA settlement. Florida football […]

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1 hour ago

June 12, 2025

Your Sports Nation

The University of Florida can now pay athletes directly due to the House vs. NCAA settlement.
Florida football and men’s basketball are likely to receive the majority of the $20.5 million allocated for athlete compensation.
NIL deals exceeding $600 will be reviewed for legitimacy by a clearinghouse monitored by Deloitte.

The landmark House vs. NCAA Settlement, approved on June 6 by U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken, opens the door for athletes to be paid directly by the University of Florida Athletic Association.

According to the settlement, starting on July 1, UF can spend up to $20.5 million on its athletes, which includes funding scholarships and paying them directly. How that money is allocated by sport remains to be seen. Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin was unavailable for comment this week and may or may not choose to disclose how the money will be distributed.

UF has the potential to provide financial support to all 21 of its men’s and women’s sports, either by paying athletes directly or funding scholarships. Priority, though, will likely be given to two major revenue producing sports, Florida football and Florida basketball, which is coming off a national championship season. A model prescribed in the preliminary House settlement calls for about 75% to be paid to football players, 15% to men’s basketball, 5% to women’s basketball and 5% to other sports.

That’s based on the revenue generated by each sport. Per UF’s latest NCAA financial report, football generated $100,796,971 in revenue in fiscal year 2024, followed by men’s basketball at 14,344,967 and baseball at 4,328,038. Football accounted for 50.4% of UF’s total athletic department revenues ($200,094,587), while basketball accounted for 7.2%.

Stricklin released a statement on June 7, the day after the settlement was reached.

“The University of Florida Athletic Association welcomes the recent court ruling allowing schools to directly share revenue with student-athletes,” Stricklin said in the statement. “This decision marks an important step forward for college athletics, and we remain committed to supporting Gator athletes on and off the field. Beyond financial opportunities, the UAA will continue to provide world-class training, academic support, and career development to help our Gators succeed during their time at UF and beyond.”

Can Florida athletes still receive outside endorsements?

Florida athletes can still receive outsides Name, Image and Likeness endorsements based on the value of their brands. But those deals will undergo more scrutiny.

All NIL deals of more than $600 will pass through a clearinghouse which will determine the legitimacy of the deal based on the athlete’s market value. For example, Cooper Flagg’s multi-million-dollar deal with New Balance would pass the smell test based on coming into college basketball as the nation’s top college recruit playing for one of the sport’s biggest college basketball brands, Duke. But under the new system, the days of promising a five-star offensive lineman a six-figure deal NIL deal out of high school to keep from signing with a rival school are likely over.

The accounting firm Deloitte will monitor the NIL clearinghouse. Athletes will submit NIL deals of more than $600 to an online platform called NIL Go, where they will be reviewed.

The NCAA will no longer be involved in rules enforcement, replaced by the College Sports Commission, which was formed by and has received the full backing from major conference commissioners. The College Sports Commission will hand out punishments to schools who break rules regarding NIL and revenue sharing.

“Our schools want rules,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark told a group of national media outlets this week. “We’re providing rules, and we will be governed by those rules. And if you break those rules, the ramifications will be punitive.”.

Mit Witner, a Kansas City-based attorney specializing in sports law and NL legislations, expects more legal challenges to arise due to the NCAA’s inability to secure an antitrust exemption.

“If the College Sports Commission says if an athlete wants to remain eligible, they can’t do this deal to play college sports, it’s acting as a limit on the college athlete’s compensation,” Witner said. “There’s no antitrust exemption now for that, so I definitely think there will be litigation on that issue.”

How Florida football has prepared for paying its players

Florida football coach Billy Napier said he expects revenue share to provide more stability in terms of compensating football players entering the 2025 season.

In Napier’s first three seasons, he relied on funds and NIL deals generated from Florida Victorius and the now defunct Gator Collective. A botched NIL deal by the Gator Collective for five-star quarterback recruit Jaden Rashada resulted in Napier, booster Hugh Hathcock and former UF staff member Marcus Castro-Walker getting sued by Rashada for fraud and vicarious liability.

Last February, Napier made two front office hires to the football program, adding Benjamin Elsner as director of football strategy and Nick Polk as Associate Athletic Director/Football General Manager,

Polk spent 17 seasons as Director of Football Operations for the Atlanta Falcons (2004-21), where he was responsible for salary cap management, including draft negotiations, contract proposals, player contracts, coaches’ contracts, trades and trade value analysis. Those skills will be put to test in the new college sports revenue share era.

“His experience with the cap management, the strategy around contracts, that’s part of the game, right?” Napier said last March. “He’s hit the ground running.”

Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1. Read his coverage of the Gators’ national championship basketball season in “CHOMP-IONS!” — a hardcover coffee-table collector’s book from The Sun. Details at Florida.ChampsBook.com

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Tennessee softball pitcher Peyton Tanner transfers to Baylor after freshman season

Tennessee softball pitcher Peyton Tanner has transferred to Baylor, she announced June 11. Tanner never publicly announced she was in the transfer portal, but posted her commitment to the Bears on Instagram. She’s the third player transfer out after Tennessee’s run to the Women’s College World Series. Sophomore infielder Ryan Brown and junior infielder Destiny […]

Published

2 hours ago

June 12, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Tennessee softball pitcher Peyton Tanner transfers to Baylor after freshman season

Tennessee softball pitcher Peyton Tanner has transferred to Baylor, she announced June 11.

Tanner never publicly announced she was in the transfer portal, but posted her commitment to the Bears on Instagram. She’s the third player transfer out after Tennessee’s run to the Women’s College World Series. Sophomore infielder Ryan Brown and junior infielder Destiny Rodriguez also entered the transfer portal since the season ended in the WCWS semifinals.

Baylor is located about four hours from Tanner’s home town of Lake Jackson, Texas.

The freshman didn’t get a lot of playing time, only starting in two of her nine appearances. She went 3-0 with a 3.36 ERA in 25 innings pitched, and threw 16 strikeouts with 12 walks.

Tanner was part of a historic day for Tennessee in March. She threw a perfect game against Delaware State on March 1 and All-American Karlyn Pickens threw a no-hitter on the same day. It was only the third time in program history that Tennessee pitchers threw no-hitters the same day, and the first since 2006.

Tanner’s perfect game made it the first time in program history it was a no-hitter combined with a perfect game. She logged six strikeouts as she retired all 15 hitters she faced in five innings.

Tanner was ranked No. 4 in the 2024 class by Extra Inning Softball and was a 2024 PGF All-American. But Tanner fell to fourth in the rotation behind fellow freshman Erin Nuwer, who started in 11 of her 18 appearances. Nuwer (6-4) threw 57⅓ innings overall with a 2.32 ERA and 65 strikeouts.

Tennessee is bringing in three more pitchers next season. Incoming freshmen Peyton Hardenburger is ranked No. 4 and Kailey Plumlee is ranked No. 22 in the class. Transfer Maddi Rutan, who was at Eastern Kentucky, has two seasons of eligibility left.

Cora Hall covers University of Tennessee women’s athletics. Email her at cora.hall@knoxnews.com and follow her on X @corahalll. If you enjoy Cora’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that allows you to access all of it.

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IU AD Scott Dolson states intent to maintain 24 varsity programs after House settlement – The Daily Hoosier

One of the main questions stemming from the recent approval of the House settlement is whether sports that don’t generate positive cash flow will be impacted. With schools like Indiana now facing a new $20 million annual expense in the form of revenue sharing, cuts have to be made somewhere. Around the nation going back […]

Published

4 hours ago

June 12, 2025

Your Sports Nation

One of the main questions stemming from the recent approval of the House settlement is whether sports that don’t generate positive cash flow will be impacted.

With schools like Indiana now facing a new $20 million annual expense in the form of revenue sharing, cuts have to be made somewhere.

Around the nation going back five years colleges have been eliminating programs to ward off budgetary concerns. Those instances have accelerated over the last year as schools have anticipated the House settlement. Title IX, which requires schools to provide equal opportunities to male and female athletes, puts men’s sports at even greater risk.

Will IU be able to maintain all 24 of its varsity sports? In a statement released Wednesday in response to the House settlement, IU AD Scott Dolson signaled it is Indiana’s intent to do just that. But he also suggested continuing financial support from fans and alumni is critical to holding it all together.

Here’s the full statement Dolson e-mailed:

Dear Hoosier Nation,

Friday was a landmark day for college athletics. The U.S. District Court for Northern California granted final approval for a settlement in the House vs. NCAA litigation, paving the way for a new and exciting era of intercollegiate athletics. Our department has been anticipating and preparing for this settlement for an extended time, and we are excited that we can move forward with a new level of confidence about what our world will look like in the coming years.

As a passionate IU fan, you likely have questions about what the future looks like. While a lot has changed in the last several years, our quest remains the same – to bring you and fellow Hoosier fans to your feet as you cheer on your beloved IU programs as they pursue championships and provide us all with cherished experiences and memories.

With that in mind, I want to highlight a couple of things as we embark on this journey together.

First, IU Athletics’ core principles are our foundation, and they remain as solid as ever. We are committed to supporting student-athletes’ opportunity to excel academically, athletically, and personally. We want to see our students challenge themselves academically and earn their IU degrees. We want them to maximize their athletic abilities and compete for championships. And when their time in Bloomington is done, we want them to be well prepared to succeed in the next chapter of their lives, whether that is in athletics or in any other professional pursuit or journey.

Second, the successes that we can enjoy moving forward are inextricably linked with you, our passionate and dedicated supporters. IU Athletics is excited to support our student-athletes’ opportunities to the fullest in terms of both revenue sharing and NIL. We plan to do that while maintaining a broad-based athletic program that features 24 varsity programs with their own proud traditions. To make all of that happen, we need Hoosier Nation to rally together and propel our programs and student-athletes to the upper echelon in all areas on and off the field.

We can do this, but we need to do it together. Over the course of time, new challenges have always meant new opportunities for IU Athletics, and this is no different. We are Never Daunted, and with your support, we can and will build on our tradition of championship success in this new era of college athletics.

Scott Dolson
Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics

The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”

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Naukot and Tait Head to NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships

Story Links MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – Freshman Joy Naukot and graduate student Sarah Tait of the West Virginia University track and field team will travel to Eugene, Oregon for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships on June 11-14. The pair of Mountaineers are scheduled to compete in their respective events on June 12, inside […]

Published

5 hours ago

June 12, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Naukot and Tait Head to NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – Freshman Joy Naukot and graduate student Sarah Tait of the West Virginia University track and field team will travel to Eugene, Oregon for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships on June 11-14.

The pair of Mountaineers are scheduled to compete in their respective events on June 12, inside of Hayward Field. Tait will compete in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase semifinal at approximately 7:38 p.m. ET, while Naukot is slated for the women’s 10,000-meter final at 9:56 p.m.

Additionally, the 3,000-meter steeplechase final will be held on June 14 at 9:24 p.m. Twelve total athletes from the semifinal round will advance, including the top five fastest times of each heat plus the next two fastest times.

Tait is seeded No. 1 in the second heat of the steeplechase, while Naukot will start in the No. 1 spot in the 10,000 meters.

Live results from the championships can be found at WVUsports.com, while live video can be viewed on ESPN’s family of networks.

Last time out, the duo qualified for the championships after their stellar performances at the NCAA East First Rounds on May 28-31, in Jacksonville, Florida. Naukot secured her bid to Eugene after finishing eight overall in the 10,000 meters with a time of 32:51.33. Tait punched her ticket to the national championship after winning the third heat of the steeplechase, crossing the finish line in 9:42.14.

For more information on the Mountaineers, visit WVUsports.com and follow WVUXCTF on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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Brag House aims to empower student

Brag House Holdings (NASDAQ:TBH) announced on Tuesday that it plans to develop a Name, Image, and Likeness initiative that is designed to help student-athletes of all backgrounds monetize their personal brand. The initiative builds on Brag House’s (NASDAQ:TBH) creation of a new digital sports medium through its strategic partnership with Learfield. While the NCAA’s 2021 […]

Published

5 hours ago

June 12, 2025

Your Sports Nation

While the NCAA’s 2021 ruling enabled student-athletes to profit from their NIL rights, the New Jersey-based company believes that the vast majority of the active NCAA athletes do not receive meaningful NIL compensation.

The company’s NIL initiative aims to empower student-athletes to connect directly with fans and generate new revenue. One route the company is considering is to offer authenticated digital collectibles and unique fan experiences to create and share digital assets like signature highlight reels, exclusive game-day access passes, and personalized memorabilia. Athletes will benefit by retaining a majority of the earnings from initial sales and receiving a share of revenue from any future fan-to-fan resales.

Brag House (TBH) wants to simplify the creation process of digital collectibles and blockchain-backed experiences through a no-code interface. Considerations for implementation include utilizing a smart contract infrastructure and blockchain technology to deliver transparency, efficiency, and secure payments directly to student e-wallets.

“We’ve created a new lane where college gaming and school spirit intersect,” stated Brag House (TBH) CEO Lavell Juan Malloy II. “Brag House was built on the idea of inclusivity, and we believe it’s time to level the playing field,” he added.

Brag House’s (TBH) initiative comes at a time of rapid growth in both the NIL and digital ownership markets. According to Opendorse, the NIL market reached approximately $917 million in 2022 and is projected to surpass $1.5 billion by 2027. The NIL initiative is currently aimed to pilot with several activations for select campuses in late 2025.