Former Wildcat football standout Anthony Egbo, Jr., spoke on March 4 to a congressional committee about the potential changes to name, image and likeness deals for college athletes. 

Egbo, the vice-chair of the NCAA Div. I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, spoke to the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the importance of letting student-athletes remain students. 

“There’s been a strong push to have student athletes classified as employees,” Egbo said. “What that would do is that student athletes wouldn’t be students anymore.”

This potential legislation is based on the fact that student-athletes may be considered employees of the university instead of students who attend the school for education. Egbo said this would be detrimental to student-athletes because the quality of their education could decrease. 

Egbo emphasized the importance of letting student-athletes remain students to the Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee. 

“They are students who dedicate their time and energy to their sport while simultaneously earning their degree and catapulting themselves into life after athletics,” he said. “For these student-athletes, the unique opportunity to do all these things at once is unique to college sports.”

Many departments of athletics across the country have seen how some schools have lobbied their congressional representatives to write different legislation, some asking for advantages over other states. 

“Some states are writing bills that will pretty much exempt NIL money from getting taxed,” Egbo said. “So now if the University of Oregon is trying to recruit a kid that also is getting recruited by the University of Idaho, now they can offer him this amount of money and tell him that it’s not gonna get taxed, versus if he goes to another state that doesn’t have that in place, he’s gonna get taxed.”

Egbo said the most important thing for legislators to realize when it comes to NIL is that all schools need to be on a level playing field.

“Uniform rules and clarity on them are needed to ensure that NIL is here to stay;” Egbo said, “it fulfills its intended purposes and is not harmful to the ones it was created to benefit.”

Another setback for smaller universities like ACU is that football has become the basis for how popular a school is, which widens the gap even further between Football Championship Subdivision and Football Bowl Subdivision schools, even if FCS schools have basketball programs far better than FBS schools.

“As beloved as the NCAA basketball tournament is to many,” said Paul Weir, deputy athletic director and chief operating officer, “college football has become the primary element in defining a school and its relevance in the national landscape and many schools right now are jockeying for where they will end up in that landscape.”

Another drawback to classifying student athletes as employees is that it would hurt the athletics programs that do not draw as much attention or revenue. While most sports bring in at least a little bit of revenue, the main revenue-gaining sports are football and men’s basketball, Egbo said. 

“Most every other sport across the NCAA doesn’t generate revenue,” he said. “So going to an employment model would just pretty much deteriorate the opportunities of all these sports that probably don’t generate revenue.”

Another result of NIL now being considered employment law is that Title IX legislation is no longer required to be taken into consideration. Previously, universities had to provide the same opportunities to male and female athletic programs but no longer do.

Hannah Gonzalez, sophomore volleyball player from Lucas, said this makes sense, as unfortunate as it is for female athletics. She said she understands sports that make more money should receive more money, no matter if it is a male or female sport. 

“It makes sense for schools to pay money to what brings in money,” she said. “So if football is bringing in the most money, then it makes sense that football is receiving the most money. But, for example, a school like Nebraska, where volleyball is one of their biggest sports, if it’s bringing in the most money, then give those student athletes the most money.”

Egbo said schools will have to be more intentional about giving female athletes opportunities since it is no longer required by law to do so.

“I think the biggest thing is that schools have to take the initiative to make sure that they’re highlighting and giving due attention to non-revenue generating sports, specifically their women’s sports,” he said. “There has to be more of an emphasis from institutions to push that forward.”

Gonzalez has an NIL deal as the brand ambassador for First Financial Bank, a role that belonged to Egbo during his time as a student athlete. The bank recently signed six other Wildcat athletes to NIL deals in addition to Gonzalez’s deal.

The three women are Bella Earle, senior women’s basketball player from Corinth, Lili Ross, junior soccer player from Beaumont, and Elizabeth Schaefer, junior softball player from Rockwall. 

The male athletes are Bradyn Hubbard, junior men’s basketball player from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Zion Stephens, sophomore baseball player from Missouri City, and Jed Castles, junior football player from Wichita Falls.

Gonzalez said the other six were signed to deals as a group effort to introduce a new First Financial debit card, and Samantha Baker, vice president of marketing at First Financial, believed a larger group would help sell to more people. 

“This particular advertising movement was that they wanted to promote the new ACU Wildcat debit card,” Gonzalez said. “But she just wanted to get a bigger audience because it is targeted towards Wildcats.”

Many people are concerned with how student athletes will have their academics impacted in this new “era of NIL,” but Weir said college athletics has faced threats to academics several times in the past.

“The ‘one and done’ basketball players, athletes who leave early for professional opportunities, the entire idea has been around for quite some time,” Weir said. “This new era of NIL will take on a new meaning, but nothing that the NCAA, the term student-athlete, or our higher education institutions haven’t faced questions about before.”

Egbo agreed this is not new for college athletics, but also said the education of these student athletes needs to be taken more seriously, especially when it comes to athletes potentially attending four schools in four years. 

“I think a lot of these student athletes, a lot in the revenue-generating sports, are chasing the dollars right now,” Egbo said, “but they’re sacrificing educational experience, and it’s sacrificing the networking experience you get when you stay somewhere.”

The introduction of NIL to college football has put some big-time money into the pockets of players. Especially when playing for a program like Oregon, which recruits at as high of a level as anybody out there in the country. This has caused Dan Lanning to add a few financial lessons to his program.

Financial literacy has become a topic of conversation for Lanning with his players. Even before they step on campus, he is making sure that smart decisions can be made. Players are almost always going to buy themselves something nice and Lanning knows they do not have to go 100% on purchases.

“I think our guys are pretty savvy,” Lanning said. “They all make mistakes. But I always tell them in recruiting ‘You’re about to be taken care of. I don’t need you walking in with a chain that says Taylor on it. We can just have a T, man.’ Let’s be smart. I think the education piece. We spent a lot of time on financial literacy here. We bring people in to talk to our guys. They have to feel comfortable having that conversation with us.”

Lanning was even able to provide a recent example, talking with Bucky Irving. An early draft pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year, Iriving had a successful rookie season at the running back position. His contract was worth nearly $1.2 million a year over four seasons.

Irving took the time to tell Lanning about some of the smart decisions he has made with the money since entering the NFL. Maybe something the head coach can take back to the current roster with proof of concept.

“I’m talking yesterday with Bucky Irving and I’m so proud of what he’s done with the Bucs but just catching up and he said ‘Hey, here’s the great decisions I’ve made thus far financially.’ How he’s able to put some back and he’s taking some for the future. And I think that’s from lessons learned here. And sometimes, a mistake is a great lesson. Some of these guys will make mistakes and you want them to learn from it and build from it so they can have a long-term future because of it,” Lanning said.

Oregon signed the No. 4 overall recruiting class during the 2025 cycle. The average NIL Valuation of the players they signed was $214,000 — only Texas and Michigan were higher.

North Carolina‘s football program has undergone a massive roster overhaul in the last five months. A total of 51 players left UNC to enter the college football transfer portal this offseason, the most transfer departures of any ACC team and the most for the Tar Heels in the portal era. General manager Michael Lombardi told ACC Network’s Mark Packer on Monday that multiple players have backed out of signed NIL deals since he and Bill Belichick arrived on campus in December, citing the “loosely written” language of the contracts as a contributing factor.

“The most disappointing thing about the college game that I’ve experienced is that the players don’t view the contracts as binding,” Lombardi said. “I come from a league where the contracts are binding. We’ve had four or five players we signed in in December, before we got here, that have left already without any hesitation. They’re free to do that because the contracts are loosely written based on NIL. We, as a league, the NCAA, and all these conferences have to make players honor a contract when they put their John Hancock on it. Just like I have to honor my contract. That’s part of life. That’s the only disappointing thing.”

Two of UNC’s biggest transfer portal departures came in recent weeks as last season’s sack leader Beau Atkinson and top returning linebacker Amare Campbell entered the transfer portal. Atkinson landed at Ohio State, while Campbell visited SMU and Penn State ahead of his decision. 

Lombardi and Belichick have assembled an impressive transfer portal class. The Tar Heels’ 34-man portal class ranks No. 9 in the nation and No. 3 in the ACC behind Miami (No. 3) and Florida State (No. 6). Only three Power Four schools have larger commitment lists than UNC: West Virginia (51), Purdue (50) and Oklahoma State (38). There’s been a noticeable emphasis on size with UNC’s portal additions. Ten of the Tar Heels’ transfers are 6-foot-5 or taller and nine are 300+ pounds.  

“I’ve got to make this team look like a Southeast Conference team,” Lombardi said. “We need a roster conducive to building a big, fast, physical football team. A roster that can play in any kind of weather, has mental and physical toughness and can control the middle of the field. You cannot be a great executive in football without studying the past history of football. Why did Clemson win a national championship? Why was Florida State good in the ACC? What made Miami good? It’s because they’ve been so damn good along the offensive and defensive lines. They’re physical, and they’re big up front. They have 6-foot-5 defensive linemen, not 6-foot-1. The first thing I noticed on this roster is that we have to get bigger, more physical and stronger. We’ve added an (NFL) weight program. We’ve added 450 pounds of muscle and lost 125 pounds of fat within the team that we have since January. We’re making progress.”

I wouldn’t expect Jeff Goodman to be getting a Christmas card from Bo Mattingly later this year or really ever after this week’s latest social media celebrity tiff.

Goodman, of course, is a national college basketball writer and insider who has never been too popular with the Razorback fan base, dating back to his beef with Mike Anderson. As long as John Calipari is coaching the Arkansas basketball team, he certainly won’t be – especially after what he penned just a few months ago.

Although it’s possible his piece cherry-picking the quotes of Calipari naysayers, one of whom alleged the Hall of Famer had “lost his fastball,” helped catapult the team out of the slide it was in. That rebound lasted all the way into the NCAA Tournament, culminating in Calipari’s first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2019.

Mattingly, meanwhile, put himself in the headlines last week when he shared on the show he co- hosts with Chuck Barrett that Boogie Fland, according to media sources he had contacted, could command $5-$7 million in NIL if he elects to withdraw from the NBA draft. 

In this instance, Florida – where Mattingly happens to hail from and who has been connected to Fland – would be the one hoping to employ his services.

Arkansas Basketball Aggregation Goes Awry

Chuck & Bo’s media team put out a clip of that, and it got picked up by a college basketball Twitter/X account called @CBKReport. That rando behind that account shared it to 93,000 followers, attributed the monetary amount to Mattingly and – presto – the all-important buzz ensued.

If it had just stopped there, Mattingly probably would’ve let it slide. Nobody outside of who runs that account anonymously knows what kind of credibility it has, other than just aggregating college basketball news stories and analysis.

Also, it would be next to impossible to respond to the amount of disdain and vitriol that the former 40/29 and KNWA sports director and longtime radio host gets on social media on a daily basis. It just goes with the territory when you’re in the profession of offering strong opinions and have a following.

But this is where Goodman reappears.

Apparently that CBK Report tweet came across his algorithm, whether he’s a ‘for you’ guy or just follows his timeline like a normal person does.

Goodman then decided to chime in with his take, which skewered Mattingly even though he didn’t mention him by name:

‘A case study in how social media works’

Mattingly wasted no time in talking about it on Tuesday’s “Chuck & Bo” show, jumping into it in the second segment by taking umbrage with Goodman’s “‘insanely inaccurate” comment.

“Jeff Goodman, you are not the only person that knows anything about NIL or how much money somebody is getting,” Mattingly said emphatically. “I would argue that sometimes you’re the last to find out.”

The co-host then pivoted to saying that he wanted to present this as a case study in how social media can easily distort the real meaning of what someone is trying to say. 

“This is how information travels, just so you know, on social media,” Mattingly said. “So that clip has now turned into, ‘I said that he’s going to basically get $7 million.’”

To be fair, the CBK Report tweet did say “up to $7 million,” which is essentially what Mattingly originally said, but he never specifically tied the number to Florida. A report tying Fland to the Gators was simply what prompted him to ask around about the talented freshman in the first place.

A good media beef is all good fun, as long as nobody is taking unwarranted potshots at each other. No question, Mattingly’s $7 million is shockingly high, but it also makes sense why some parties involved would want to exaggerate Fland’s market value. That could, undoubtedly, help with negotiating at some point. 

Boogie Fland will command something, at least

The fact point guard Boogie Fland is in the transfer portal at all is kind of odd, if you think about it. This was a guy that, prior to the season, was appearing in the early first round of almost every reputable mock draft there was. Some were talking about Fland being amongst one of the greatest Razorback guards in history going into SEC play.

Obviously the hand injury and missing almost two months of action changed things, but it shouldn’t have been enough to really make him go from a lottery pick to a mid-to-late second round pick.

Scotty Thurman says “hello.” He had three years of college tape, hitting clutch shot after clutch shot, and had the measurables that suggested he would be at a minimum a serviceable NBA player. He went undrafted and never got a shot.

It’s 2025 though. Not 1995. There was no NIL package back then to entice Thurman to stay in Fayetteville for his senior year, and the transfer portal was 25 years from existing.

Fland is either going to stay in the draft, get picked in the top 40 and work his way onto a NBA roster, or he’s going to not get the feedback he wants from the combine, withdraw his name and go somewhere and get paid handsomely to be a team’s point guard.

Whether that’s Florida, who recently took itself out of the Desmond Claude sweepstakes, or somewhere else, remains to be seen. The Gators are also linked to Pop Issacs of Creighton and Malachi Smith from Dayton.

If that Fland-to-Florida actually does happen, you can bet a whole lot of Gator chomping will go down in Gainesville and an equal amount of hands will be wrung in Fayetteville. Even if, as is so often the case in these kinds of scenarios, all parties are winners.

More from the “Chuck & Bo” show on Goodman starting at 20:30 here:

Outtake:

 Goodman said piggybacking off the CBK Report tweet, he gives Goodman credibility when he likely doesn’t want to. If Mattingly stands by what he said based on what he heard, then who cares what Goodman thinks about it?

Another thing that social media aggregators like to do is prop up the most egregious or ‘eye-catching’ statement or “cherry-pick,” as Mattingly’s executive producer Bart Pohlman called it, and not present what was said in its full context or its entirety.

That is likely what was done in this scenario. They didn’t want to be the ones putting their name on what Fland may command on the open market, so they looked at Mattingly’s Twitter/X following, saw it was close to theirs, and attributed it to him. It gets them off the hook.

Notre Dame and Clemson have agreed to a monumental scheduling deal that could have major implications on how the ACC moves forward with scheduling games in the future that will not only help with revenue, but provide fans with more marquee matchups down the road in this new era of college football.

The two schools have agreed to a 12-year scheduling agreement that will see the two schools play annually through 2038, which was first reported by David Hale. 

We are currently seeing conversations taking place across the country about how bigger brands in college athletics can meet on the field, which would increase television ratings, along with providing additional revenue for some of the marquee schools that are looking to cash-in when it comes to hosting on-campus games in the future. 

ACC Agreement With Florida State, Clemson Provides New Revenue Model, Exit Fee Reduction

Even though there have been a number of games played between Notre Dame and Clemson in recent memory, the latest being in 2023, which Clemson won 31-23, there is a need for more marquee matchups within the ACC. From a television ratings standpoint, if the ACC is going to add additional revenue based upon their recent court proceedings with both Florida State and Clemson, this is the most logical route to take when trying to garner national attention. 

While Notre Dame is part of the ACC football schedule, with five games per season against other conference foes, they do not play Clemson annually, which the ACC saw as a disadvantage when trying to set up ‘marquee’ matchups within the conference. Under the new agreement, the annual game with Clemson will count towards Notre Dame’s required five games versus conference foes. 

This means that Notre Dame will only have three games left on their ACC schedule to fill, given that they play Stanford every season. So, this presented the opportunity for the Fighting Irish to have a permanent game against a team that will certainly draw eyes, along with creating additional revenue for both schools. 

Are We About To See More ACC Matchups Between The Bigger Brands?

One of the most interesting talking points about this scheduling agreement is how the ACC can start pitting bigger-name teams against each other on an annual basis. When you have schools like Florida State, Miami, Clemson and Notre Dame, it’s certainly more lucrative for the conference if you had these teams playing each other on a yearly basis, compared to division play, which spaces out the potential matchups yearly. 

Miami athletic director Dan Radakovich told ESPN’s David Hale that it’s time for these bigger brands to play each other on a more consistent basis. 

“The brands need to play each other more. That’s what has to happen,” Radakovich told ESPN. “Do we divide into two divisions? Who gets to play Notre Dame? How are doing those kinds of things? And if the SEC goes to nine (conference games) we might have to go to nine as well with the bifurcated brands and non-brands.”

What he’s implying is that when the SEC decides it’s time to start playing nine conference games, which they will eventually, the ACC will need to focus on creating bigger matchups to compensate for the lack of marquee games within the conference. 

Even though it could hurt brands like Cal, Wake Forest, Boston College, Pitt or even Virginia, the ACC has to focus on bringing in more eyeballs to the schools that create television ratings. This means pitting Miami against Clemson or Florida State versus Clemson on a more consistent basis. 

Now that the ACC is trying to find further ways to increase revenue distribution for its top brands, putting together these types of matchups on a yearly basis is the logical next step. 

It’s all about money, if you haven’t figured that out yet. But, this also provides the fans with a yearly game that is worth the price of admission, with ticket prices only rising in college football. 

STARKVILLE – Hosanna Lindblade was selected to represent Mississippi State on the SEC Community Service Team for the second year in a row, the league office announced Tuesday. She is one of four Bulldogs in history to earn the recognition in back-to-back years and the first since Alexis Silkwood in 2016 and 2017.
 
Lindblade has dedicated over 100 hours of community service to different religious organizations between Starkville and her hometown of Waller, Texas.
 
Over the summer she served as a mentor, led a table and spoke with Southeast Texas Pescadors, a Christian camp for students. She also volunteered at her hometown church’s fall cleanup day where she helped clean the church and assist in transportation for visually impaired members.
 
Throughout the year in Starkville, she dedicated many hours as a student prayer leader during Collegiate Day of Prayer. She led on stage for athletics as well as staying after the event as a student prayer leader. She has also volunteered with His House, helping gather, organize and box cleats and bats to send overseas.
 
Lindblade is hands-on on campus, helping provide food for Mississippi State’s International Thanksgiving Feast, assisting with freshman move in day and dedicating time to MSU’s ACCESS special needs program.
 
In addition to her hours of community service she has utilized her aerospace engineering major and benefited others with her academic pursuits. This past summer she interned at MSU’s Athlete Engineering Institute where she designed and built a hitting platform that integrates force plates for State’s hitters to use in their development.
 
No. 17 Mississippi State begins its SEC Tournament run on Wednesday at 11 a.m. CT against No. 10 LSU on SEC Network.
 
For more information on the Bulldog softball program, follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching “HailStateSB.”