Fisk University’s decision to end its women’s artistic gymnastics program, the first at a historically Black college or university, at the end of the 2026 season has sparked a range of emotions among those with personal ties to the team.

In a June 6 statement announcing the move, the university cited challenges in scheduling competitions and creating a recruiting pipeline as a member of the HBCU Athletic Conference (HBCUAC).

Fisk’s decision to discontinue its gymnastics program, which began competition in 2023, comes nearly a year after Talladega College, the second HBCU to add a gymnastics program, ended its own program after one season of competition. After 2026, Wilberforce University, the third HBCU to add women’s gymnastics, will be the only HBCU with an operational program.

Corrinne Tarver, the new gymnastics head coach for Southern Connecticut State University, was the first head coach for Fisk’s gymnastics program. Tarver, who resigned in February, disputed the reasons the university gave for discontinuing the program.

“The rationale they’re using for why they dropped the team is ridiculous, and it’s shortsighted. If it’s true, then they didn’t bother to get to know what was going on in the program because recruiting was not an issue,” Tarver told Andscape.

“I didn’t have to reach out to girls for recruiting. I didn’t have to beg people – they wanted to come to Fisk. I got a number of emails from athletes who wanted to go because they wanted to go to an HBCU.”

Fisk’s athletics department did not respond to requests for comment.

Naimah Muhammad and Kiara Richmon, who both graduated in May, transferred to Fisk in fall 2022 to be a part of the inaugural roster. During the program’s first season, Muhammad and Richmon expressed their excitement about having the opportunity to compete at an HBCU. Now, the university’s decision has left both alums shocked and confused, they said. 

According to Fisk’s current roster, there are eight underclassmen who will have to finish their collegiate careers elsewhere after next season. Fisk standout Morgan Price, who in 2024 became the first HBCU gymnast to win a national title in all-around competition at the USA Gymnastics Women’s Collegiate National Championships, committed to the University of Arkansas in May.

Andscape spoke with Muhammad, Richmon and Tarver about their reactions when they learned Fisk was ending the gymnastics program, the impact of the decision and how ending the program affects the HBCU landscape.

These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

What was your initial reaction to finding out Fisk was discontinuing the gymnastics program?

Richmon: When we were told the news, they didn’t even have the decency to tell the whole team – they only told the current athletes that were still on the team. I feel like that was really like a slap in the face to me and Naimah and all the other girls that were on the team because … we started the team. For them to just tell only the people who were on the current team and to tell them right when they got on the call, they were just basically like, “So, Fisk gymnastics is no longer going to be a thing after this season.” It was a sense of like they just didn’t care.

On top of that, it was told to the whole school an hour later. We didn’t even have time to process or digest anything before people started blowing up our phones asking questions and asking for answers. We were just as shocked as they were.

Muhammad: One of my teammates just texted me like, “They’re getting rid of the gymnastics team.” That was very shocking to me because we’ve had so many conversations with our athletic director and the leadership at our school about the future of our gymnastics team just because so many things seemed unclear and we were unsure about a lot of stuff going on in terms of our leadership. She basically told us, “We’re not going to get rid of the team. We want to make sure you guys are good. We want to make sure you guys get what you need. We’re not getting rid of gymnastics – we love gymnastics.” Then just to find out a few months later the team is being discontinued. Then they sent a statement out through our school’s email. I read it, and it just made me so angry because I’m like, “That doesn’t make sense.” Everything they said was so contradictory.

It just made me mad because it’s like you say you care about your athletes. You say you care about these girls. You say gymnastics is the pride and joy of this school, and you’re not treating us like we are your pride and joy. It feels like we’re actually the opposite, like we’re a burden, like we are too expensive.

Tarver: My initial reaction was to check on the girls on the team. I mainly talked to the girls that were still going to be on the team because they’re the ones that were going to be directly affected by it. … They were kind of still trying to process it. They were mad.

I’m gonna be honest – I wasn’t surprised by it. I pretty much thought it was going to happen based upon signs that were happening. I had made statements that I could make gymnastics more self-sufficient and they didn’t want to hear it. It didn’t seem to be important. The first indicator for me was that pretty much all the promises and commitments that were made to the program were taken off the table. I was told to stop talking about building a gym and that we were not building a gym. We weren’t going to get a practice facility.

What were some of your most memorable moments at Fisk and what did the opportunity to compete at Fisk mean to you?

Richmon: Fisk did mean a lot to me, because I started at a different school, at a predominantly White institution (PWI). I left my PWI and was trying to go other places. I was actually going to commit to the University of Iowa before I saw that Fisk had started its program, and I was so excited to finally be around people that looked like me because I grew up at a Christian white school, so it’s not many of us there. So to have this opportunity to be around girls that are just like me, to be coached by female athletes that look like me was a big thing. 

I’ve never been on a campus where I felt like all these people were just there for you. I know there’s a lot of girls that are in my exact shoes, that just went to PWIs their whole life and they’re searching for something new. … For that to be ripped away from so many people, even our teammates, it is very heartbreaking.

Muhammad: Fisk has given me the opportunity to really grow and explore the best version of myself. I had no idea what Fisk was. … The only reason I came to Fisk was because I’m a gymnast. I want to do gymnastics. That’s it. They didn’t have any HBCUs with a gymnastics team, so all of a sudden here comes one. It was an opportunity of a lifetime, so I took it. 

I was the type of person that all I cared about was gymnastics. … Then being at Fisk – being around a bunch of gymnasts that looked like me and had similar experiences that I had – it was comforting and I felt like I could be myself. Being at Fisk gave me an opportunity to be like, “OK, now who am I outside of being a gymnast? … I felt like I could really explore and grow into who I am. Now I know I am more than a gymnast because of the opportunities of being on the gymnastics team. Because I was at an HBCU I could finally understand that I’m more than just an athlete. I am this amazing, excellent Black woman, and I did not get that experience at my PWI.  

Tarver: There’s tons of highlights. … The biggest one was when we competed at Georgia because it was very, very surreal that my team was competing in the same building I did. (Tarver was the first Black gymnast to join the University of Georgia’s gymnastics program.) That was huge for me. The first time we competed, the first meet and that first routine – Naimah hitting it because she had been struggling a little bit in practice. So for her to go out there and just nail it, it was incredible. Morgan Price’s 10 on the beam was a big highlight for me because I was a beam coach. Morgan won a national championship and then in the same year (Talladega College’s) Kyrstin Johnson won a vault national championship. So it was just kind of like, “Hey, guess what? HBCU gymnastics is definitely quality.”

Fisk is the second HBCU to discontinue its gymnastics program. What type of message do you think it sends to other HBCUs?

Muhammad: It makes it look like it was a waste. … I’ve always wanted to have HBCU gymnastics. I remember when Talladega first got established and then they announced Wilberforce was going to come in. I said, “Oh my God, another one! We finally have the HBCUs coming.” Now they’re cutting these programs left and right. It just feels like we can’t even have anything, and it makes it look like HBCUs aren’t responsible enough to maintain and keep these programs alive.

Richmon: Naimah said what was on everyone’s mind. I 110% agree with her. I hope Fisk opens up their eyes and says, “You know what? This program actually does mean something” so girls can continue to build a legacy.

Tarver: I think this might end up killing HBCU gymnastics, at least for a while. … I think the new landscape of college athletics is changing. HBCUs are going to have a struggle to keep up with the other big schools when it comes to paying the athletes. If they’re trying to be competitive in that market, then they’re not going to take money to put toward a new team, especially one that is going to be more expensive like gymnastics. Financially, it makes it that much harder. 

With the current political climate and the fact that they’re reducing Pell Grants, reducing a lot of these funds that help our minority students go to college, that’s going to hurt these schools because it could hurt admissions. It could hurt especially a school like Fisk that’s private. That’s going to really impact their bottom line because they don’t have the state funds. … So it’s going to make it less attractive to add sports in general, especially a sport like gymnastics, when they look at it and say, “Oh, well, they weren’t successful, so why should we add it?”

GRAND FORKS — The UND hockey team took a trip to Davos, Switzerland, over Christmas break in 1982 to play in the Spengler Cup. It added two additional exhibitions in Kreuzlinger and Lucerne on that trip.

More than 40 years later, the Fighting Hawks may head overseas again.

UND has been exploring the possibility of competing in the 2027 Friendship Four tournament in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

No contract has been signed and nothing has been finalized. But UND has made significant progress on it over the last several months, according to multiple sources.

The Friendship Four is a regular-season tournament held annually on Thanksgiving weekend. It is played at the home of the Belfast Giants, who compete in the top United Kingdom-based league. Their arena seats about 11,000.

Three former UND players suited up for Belfast last season — Jordan Kawaguchi, Grant Mismash and Gabe Bast.

Boston University won the 2024 Friendship Four and eventually made a run to the NCAA Frozen Four. Quinnipiac won the 2022 event en route to its first national championship.

This season, Miami, Sacred Heart, RIT and Union are participating.

The NCAA allows teams to do a foreign trip once every four years.

This is not the first time UND has looked into playing overseas in recent years — but the other attempts fell through.

UND was close to scheduling exhibition games in Finland when the 2020 coronavirus pandemic hit. Those competitions were scratched due to the pandemic.

UND also looked into previous Friendship Fours, but they didn’t work out.

If 2027 happens, it could be a strong field.

Other potential participants include Quinnipiac and Northeastern, who have both played in the event twice already. The Friendship Four field is generally announced in the fall.

UND has two nonconference games left to fill for 2027-28, so it works scheduling-wise. The Fighting Hawks are set to play two-game series against Bemidji State, Augustana, Minnesota and Wisconsin that season.

The Fighting Hawks already have a destination game on the books for the previous year. They will play Michigan State in Austin, Texas, on Halloween 2026.

College hockey’s biggest ongoing story is the recruitment of Medicine Hat Tigers forward Gavin McKenna, the projected No. 1 overall pick of the 2026 NHL Draft.

McKenna will likely enter the season as the Hobey Baker Award frontrunner wherever he lands, which is extra notable considering last year’s winner, Isaac Howard of Michigan State, is planning to return to school.

Although there’s been plenty of buzz on social media about UND being a top contender for McKenna, as of last week, the Fighting Hawks still had not been able to crack that door open.

Michigan State, Penn State and Michigan — all with significant NIL resources and offers — have long been considered the front-runners. Denver also is in the picture. UND would like to be — who wouldn’t? — but the Fighting Hawks haven’t been in the mix to this point.

McKenna is expected to join UND incoming freshman defenseman Keaton Verhoeff as top 2026 NHL Draft prospects who are enrolling into college a year early.

Several other top players have done that in recent years, including freshman Hobey Baker Award winners Macklin Celebrini of Boston University (2024) and Adam Fantilli of Michigan (2023).

Forward Isaac Gordon committed to UND out of the NCAA transfer portal in late April, but reversed course a couple weeks ago and opted to stay at Michigan Tech.

Gordon, a junior forward from Manitoba, talked about his decision on the Pucks in Deep podcast this week.

“Initially, I was super excited to go to North Dakota,” Gordon told Pucks in Deep. “Obviously, it’s close to home. But I kind of made a home at Michigan Tech. I’ve grown to love it. The place is really special. When I saw they were making some changes and stuff, I went back, and was like, ‘I would have liked to know (that before). I maybe would have thought a little differently.'”

Gordon’s change of heart came shortly after Michigan Tech fired head coach Joe Shawhan and replaced him with Lindenwood head coach Bill Muckalt.

Muckalt previously had success as an assistant at Michigan Tech and Michigan.

Gordon said Michigan Tech was too structured under Shawhan and “it was a grind to create any offense.”

“(Muckalt) is a super modern hockey thinker,” Gordon said on the podcast. “Very creative.”

Gordon also indicated playing time could have been a factor.

“There’s something to say about being comfortable where you are,” he said.

Without Gordon, UND is now searching for two forwards to fill out the 2025-26 roster.

The Fighting Hawks likely have some flexibility on whether they’ll add centers or wingers. Gordon was projected to play wing.

Right now, UND has 13 forwards, eight defensemen and three goalies set for this season’s roster.

A few former UND players collected votes for major NHL awards this season.

Defenseman Jake Sanderson of the Ottawa Senators finished 10th in voting for both the Lady Byng Trophy (best sportsmanship combined with playing talent) and the Norris Trophy (best defenseman).

Forward Jackson Blake of the Carolina Hurricanes finished ninth in voting for the Calder Trophy (best rookie).

Former UND defenseman Aaron Schneekloth has been named an assistant coach with the NHL’s Seattle Kraken.

Schneekloth has spent the last 19 years with the Colorado Eagles organization — seven as a player, 12 as a coach.

The Eagles have gone from the Central Hockey League to the ECHL to the American Hockey League during his time.

He was a player when the organization transitioned from the CHL to ECHL. He was a coach when they went from the ECHL to the AHL.

Schneekloth was Colorado’s head coach the last two seasons.

• Former Grand Forks Central and UND defenseman Paul LaDue has signed with Rögle BK in Ängelholm, Sweden, for next season. Rögle BK plays in Sweden’s top league. LaDue scored five goals and tallied 17 points in 50 games last season for MoDo in Sweden’s top league.
• UND incoming freshman defense Sam Laurila, expected to be a mid-round NHL Draft pick on June 28,

  talked to WDAY TV this week

  about going undrafted a year ago. Laurila said: “I think it was really good for me. Kind of makes you mad and kind of makes you want to get back to work.”

• The Athletic’s hockey prospect expert

  Corey Pronman posted a seven-round mock

  draft this week. Among the incoming/future UND players on the list: Cole Reschny (18), Cooper Simpson (77), Laurila (136), Andrew O’Neill (166) and Ashton Schultz (171).

• FloHockey’s prospect expert

  Chris Peters posted his top 100

  for the draft. UND players on his list: Reschny (15), Laurila (74) and Simpson (94).

• Christian Wolanin tallied an assist Tuesday night as the Abbotsford Canucks took a 2-1 series lead on the Charlotte Checkers in the AHL’s Calder Cup Finals. Matt Kiersted and Riese Gaber (injured) play for Charlotte.
• Vancouver picked Ashton Bell with the first pick of the PWHL Expansion Draft. Bell was signed to play at UND when the women’s program was cut. Bell had been playing in Ottawa.

Over the last few years, Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) has changed the entire landscape of college sports.

Athletes are now able to profit off themselves, resulting in paydays in the high six-figures or reaching seven figures for some of the top players, particularly in men’s basketball and football.

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LaNorris Sellers is expected to be one of the best quarterbacks and overall players in college football this fall. The South Carolina signal caller is a preseason Heisman Trophy candidate, and if all goes well, could be picked very high in the 2026 NFL Draft.

After a breakout 2024 season, Sellers received plenty of back-channel overtures from other programs trying to lure him into the transfer portal. According to his father Norris, one of them dangled an $8 million offer over two seasons.

“He was offered all kinds of crazy numbers,” Norris Sellers told Bruce Feldman of The Athletic. “I told him he could say, I’m gonna stay or I’m gonna go. By my two cents: It was to get into college on a scholarship, play ball, get our degree and go on about our business. This NIL deal came later. We didn’t come here to make money. We came here to get our education, play ball, and with schools calling, we’re not gonna jump ship because they’re offering more than what we’re getting. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Eye-popping NIL offers have become part of the game for elite quarterbacks lately. Georgia transfer Carson Beck reportedly signed a $4 million deal with Miami this offseason, and in 2024, former Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers was rumored to have been approached with a $6 million offer to transfer, which he declined.

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In the case of Sellers, the money wasn’t worth moving on from the program where he has established himself.

“I’ve been playing football all of my life for free,” LaNorris Sellers told Feldman. “I’ve built relationships here, my family’s here, my brother’s here. There’s no reason for me to go someplace else and start over.”

South Carolina finished 9-4 in 2024, with Sellers throwing for 2,534 yards, 18 touchdowns and seven interceptions. The 6-foot-3, 242-pound dual-threat added 674 rushing yards and seven scores on the ground.

The Gamecocks will open the 2025 season against Virginia Tech on August 31.

Star College QB Reportedly Turned Down $8 Million This Offseason first appeared on Men’s Journal on Jun 17, 2025

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – Ten members of the Wesleyan women’s crew team earned Scholar-Athlete honors from the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA), as announced on Tuesday afternoon.

Wesleyan’s 10 honorees rank fourth-most in the nation among Division III programs. In total, over 1000 student-athletes earned Scholar-Athlete honors across all NCAA Divisions. To qualify for selection, student-athletes must have at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA through the fall 2024 semester and be in their sophomore year. Student-athletes must have rowed a minimum of 75% of the current spring races or competed in the conference championship race (National Invitational Rowing Championship).
 
Among the list of Cardinals who earned Scholar-Athlete honors includes three-time honoree Ava Olson ’25 (College of Social Studies, History double major) while several earned the distinction for the second time in their careers including Aleah Hurwitz ’25 (Art Studio, Sociology), Cadence Cole ’26 (Anthropology, Archaeology), and Nora Printy ’26 (Biology, German Studies, Mathematics). Making the list for the first time in their careers is Annabelle Miller ’25 (Earth and Environmental Sciences), Clara Preisig ’25 (Neuroscience and Behavior, Psychology), Alexandra Stanislaw ’25 (Italian Studies, Science in Society), Hailey Hutchison ’27 (Undecided), Julia Lissack ’27 (Mathematics, Economics), and Ruby Roberts ’27 (Undecided).  

SUNRISE, Fla. — From the trade deadline bargain bin to a Stanley Cup champion in a little over three months, Brad Marchand is the new gold standard for how an in-season pickup can reinvigorate an NHL team.

The Florida Panthers surrendered a future first-round pick to the Boston Bruins and paid Marchand just $109,375 in salary before turning him loose for an unforgettable spring on the edge of the Everglades.

Marchand scored 10 goals from the third line during Florida’s second straight championship run, helping transform the Panthers into the deepest team in hockey. That included two game-winners during a six-game Cup Final win over the Edmonton Oilers that ended up being much more lopsided than the battle between the teams last June.

The biggest difference?

The presence of a 37-year-old who brought the tenacity of a champion to the lineup and the joy of a kid to the dressing room. Marchand and the Panthers proved to be a match made in hockey heaven — above even the expectations of the player himself.

“You never know how things are going to play out,” Marchand said. “I just wanted to come in and buy in and be part of the group and play whatever role I was put in and do it to the best I possibly can. When you walk into this room and you see what guys are putting themselves through every day to prepare and to sacrifice and how dialed in they are, you just kind of follow suit.

“They’ve built an incredible culture in this room. It’s very easy to follow. And when you do that, you just leave it all on the ice. We have a good team, so good things happen in here and we have a lot of fun.”

Marchand unleashed 14 years of pent-up emotion when he lifted the Stanley Cup above his head again at Amerant Bank Arena on Tuesday night. He’d won the trophy with the Bruins in 2011 at the end of his first full NHL season, but was on the losing end of championship series in 2013 and 2019.

Brad Marchand first lifted the Stanley Cup in 2011. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)

He vowed to treat this opportunity like it might be his last.

That capped a remarkable run for the veteran winger in Florida after being one of the final players moved before the March 7 trade deadline. Marchand didn’t make his Panthers debut until March 28 because of injury, but looked immediately at home after finding a spot on the third line beside Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen.

That trio chewed through opponents all spring, with Florida outscoring its opponents 21-7 during Marchand’s five-on-five minutes. Multiple Panthers labeled them the team’s most effective line while dispatching the Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, Carolina Hurricanes and Oilers on the way to another championship.

Needless to say, the first trade of Marchand’s NHL career worked out better than anyone could have imagined. He admitted to feeling anxious about the move after 16 seasons in Boston and wasn’t initially sure how he’d even fit in with the Panthers.

“When you look at the lineup, I was honestly like, ‘I think I’m playing fourth line again. Back to my roots,’” Marchand said. “I didn’t have many expectations. I knew playing against the Panthers this year that they were the team that I felt in the East was the team that was going to make a run. So I was just excited to be part of it. I didn’t have expectations of where I was going to play or what I was going to do.”

A pending unrestricted free agent on July 1, Marchand is expected to command more than $8 million per season on the open market, according to league sources.

He will go down as one of the better trade deadline pickups in NHL history. The Panthers acquired him for a first-round pick in either 2027 or 2028, with Boston retaining half of his remaining salary to make the numbers work.

In adding Marchand, the Panthers knew they were getting a high-engine worker. But they didn’t realize what a big impact he would have on their team culture, thanks in large part to his good-natured demeanor.

“Getting to know him a little bit more as a human, he’s more special than I could have imagined on that front,” Panthers general manager Bill Zito said. “As a teammate and as a character human. From that standpoint, it’s like frosting on the cake.”

He was asked if he will be able to keep Marchand.

“I bought a Dairy Queen,” Zito joked after the game during the team’s on-ice celebration.

While Sam Bennett (15) scored more goals for the Panthers this spring and received the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, Marchand arguably had the bigger moments. He won Game 2 against the Oilers with a breakaway goal in double overtime and scored twice with impressive individual efforts in Game 5 to give the Panthers the chance to hoist the Cup on home ice.

Marchand also had an overtime winner against the Maple Leafs in Round 2, which prevented them from falling into an 0-3 hole in that series.

Following a season in which he struggled with health challenges and the weight of the uncertainty in Boston, Marchand saved his best hockey for when it mattered most. No one enjoyed the Cup run more than the oldest member of the Panthers.

“I honestly feel like a young guy again,” he said.

(Top photo: Mike Carlson / Getty Images)