FARGO — North Dakota State athletic director Matt Larsen says “never in a million years” did he foresee his position getting into legal agreements like Name, Image and Likeness contracts with student-athletes. Well, a million years suddenly became 2026.

Another step in the different world of college football is alive and well with the Bison, whose players are required to sign either one of two contracts with the athletic department: a student-athlete participation and publicity agreement that allows the university to use the student-athlete for marketing and promotional purposes and a more comprehensive NIL license agreement that is tied to funds players receive directly from the Green and Gold Fund, the collective that pays student-athletes from the athletic department.

Almost 80% of NDSU football players are part of the latter.

Contracts like NDSU’s are most likely the standard in college football these days.

“I don’t know about every school but I think if you’re doing any sort of in-house institutional NIL, these are the types of things you need to do,” Larsen said. “There are probably varying degrees to how extensive they are. We just felt like we wanted to do it right on the front end.”

NDSU’s NIL license agreement is nine pages of legal language. For instance, there are stipulations that do not allow the athlete to enter into a third-party agreement with a competitor of an athletic department or university sponsor (which is nothing new), such as Under Armour, Scheels, Gate City Bank or Sanford Health, among others.

They are not allowed to represent industries related to alcohol, tobacco, anabolic steroids, gambling or sexually-oriented businesses.

Not all football players are paid and not all are paid the same, with preference given to starters or veterans who contribute the most on the field. The contract specifies the student-athlete have a degree of confidentiality with the exception of the student-athlete’s authorized representative, immediate family members, tax adviser or legal counsel.

The contracts between student-athletes and the university are not subject to open records, mainly because of student privacy rights like the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

“It’s a completely new world,” Larsen said. “It’s not something I ever thought I would do yet here we are.”

Larsen didn’t want to get into how enforceable the contracts are, although it’s a general assumption that a multi-million dollar agreement with a Power Four athlete is vastly different from a contract with an FCS player.

Anna Paige / The Forum

It’s doubtful a school like NDSU would legally go after a player making $10,000 in NIL as opposed to the University of Washington suggesting this week it may take legal action against quarterback Demond Williams Jr., who signed a million-dollar NIL contract last week with the school but said he was entering the transfer portal this week.

All 425 NDSU student-athletes sign the participation and publicity contract, which grants NDSU to use them for promotional purposes. There is no revenue exchanged with the parties.

Both contracts didn’t come about overnight. NDSU met with multiple lawyers, including an external Title IX attorney and the North Dakota University System assistant attorney general, over the summer in creating the agreements.

Football players get paid between two and four times a year depending on their situation with the payments of NIL funds to NDSU athletes being done through a company called Teamworks LLC, an operating system that distributes funds. The company advertises that its platform helps with tax obligations and offers tools for savings and business accounts.

Larsen calls it a general manager tool. More than that, Larsen has become more than a director of his athletic department. Add general manager to that title, too.

“A lot of our terms are all pretty standard,” he said.

Standard, in 2026.

Jeff Kolpack, the son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he’s covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995. He has covered all 10 of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written four books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough,” “Covid Kids” and “They Caught Them Sleeping: How Dot Reinvented the Pretzel.” He is also the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” April through August.

Demond Williams Jr., a college football player who ignited controversy by entering the transfer portal just days after signing a lucrative name, image and likeness deal with Washington, announced late Thursday that he will remain with the Huskies. The abrupt reversal comes amid reports that the university was weighing its legal options to enforce the contract.

Williams, 19, signed an NIL deal on Jan. 2 to remain as Washington’s quarterback for the 2026 season, a contract reportedly valued at around $4 million. Days later — on the same day as the memorial service for Washington women’s soccer player Mia Hamant, who died in November after a long battle with kidney cancer — Williams announced his intention to enter the transfer portal.

Demond Williams Jr. of the Washington Huskies arrives for the game against the Oregon Ducks at Husky Stadium on Nov. 29, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. (Blake Dahlin/ISI Photos/ISI Photos)

The decision, and the timing of Williams’ announcement, was met with both shock and backlash.  

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The fallout of that announcement led Williams’ agent, Doug Hendrickson, to drop the quarterback, citing “philosophical differences.” Williams then retained Florida-based attorney Darren Heitner amid reports that the university was exploring legal action to enforce the contract.

But in a shocking reversal, Williams released a statement Thursday confirming that he would be staying with Washington. 

“After thoughtful reflection with my family, I am excited to announce that I will continue my football journey at the University of Washington. I am deeply grateful to my coaches, teammates, and everyone in the program for fostering an environment where I can thrive both as an athlete and as an individual,” his statement posted to social media read. 

“I am fully committed and focused on contributing to what we are building.”

Demond Williams Jr. of the Washington Huskies celebrates a touchdown against the Oregon Ducks during the second half at Husky Stadium on Nov. 29, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

AGENT DUMPS WASHINGTON QUARTERBACK TRYING TO BREAK $4M CONTRACT DAYS AFTER SIGNING

Williams also apologized that his initial announcement “coincided with the celebration of life for Mia Hamant, a beloved member of our University community. I never intended to call attention away from such an important moment.” 

In his statement, head coach Jedd Fisch acknowledged the strain caused by the situation and said the program would work with Williams to repair relationships and rebuild trust within the Husky community.

“Over the last few days, Demond and I have engaged in very honest and heartfelt conversations about his present and future. We both agree that the University of Washington is the best place for him to continue his academic, athletic, and social development,” he said in a statement provided by the university.

Demond Williams Jr. of the Washington Huskies passes against the Oregon Ducks during the first half at Husky Stadium on Nov. 29, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

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“I appreciate Demond’s statement. I support him, and we will work together to begin the process of repairing relationships and regaining the trust of the Husky community.” 

Williams is a dual-threat quarterback who threw for 3,065 yards with 25 touchdowns and eight interceptions, while also rushing for 611 yards and six scores during his sophomore season at Washington.

Fox News Digital’s Scott Thompson contributed to this report. 

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From Harvard to Horned Frog. That’s the transition record-breaking Crimson quarterback Jaden Craig ’26 is making.

Craig finished his eligibility at Harvard on a down note with the 52-7 defeat to Villanova on November 29, 2025, in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) post-season playoffs. Having concluded his academic coursework in Cambridge, he is now enrolling at Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, Texas, as a so-called “grad transfer,” a development first reported by the Crimson. The expectation is that Craig will be the starting quarterback for the Horned Frogs (that is, their mascot) when they kick off the 2026 season in the fall.

The move represents a step up in class for the two-time All-Ivy signal caller. TCU plays in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) as a member of the Big 12, one of college football’s so-called Power Four conferences. To get there, Craig entered his name in the NCAA’s transfer portal, indicating his availability as a potential graduate transfer for an additional season of college football.

Craig quickly found a taker at TCU, whose starting quarterback in 2025, Josh Hoover, is transferring to suddenly-mighty Indiana. This past season the Horned Frogs were 9-4 and played in the Alamo Bowl, where they outlasted Southern Cal 30-27.

The graduate transfer rule was established in 2018, one of the many features of the new, Wild West atmosphere of college sports. It essentially rewards student-athletes who have run out of eligibility at their school by allowing them to get an additional year of competition at another school that will accept them. (The Ivy League does not accept grad transfers for athletic competition.)

Several former star Harvard players have taken advantage of the rule and played elsewhere, most notably kick returner Justice Shelton-Mosley ’19 (Vanderbilt), tight end Tyler Neville ’24 (Virginia), and defensive lineman Thor Griffith ’24 (Louisville). This past season, receiver Cooper Barkate ’26 became a star at Duke as a grad transfer. More players from Harvard’s 2025 team are expected to follow Craig’s lead in the coming weeks.

Andrew Aurich, the Stephenson family head coach for Harvard football, thinks the move will benefit both Craig and TCU. “I see him being able to fit in right away, whatever the dynamics are of the roster at TCU,” says Aurich. “They do a really good job of putting the quarterback in situations to be really successful, and Jaden’s a really good decision maker.”

Still, Aurich, who also has coached at the FBS level and in the NFL, knows that it may take a while for Craig to adjust. “The speed that he saw from a few defensive guys in the Ivy League,” Aurich says, “he’ll see from everyone in the Big 12.”

Craig’s grad transfer stint will be a showcase for NFL scouts who may be skeptical of his Ivy pedigree. For sure, he had done all he could on Soldiers Field. Craig was an integral member of teams that shared three Ivy championships. He established new Crimson career records with 52 touchdown passes and 6,074 yards gained through the air. Craig threw for more than 300 yards five times.

Gaudy as they are, the statistics don’t fully do him justice. This past season against Penn, he calmly directed a stirring march in the final 22 seconds to set up a game-winning field goal that clinched a share of the league title.

Craig is in the discussion for the best Harvard quarterback of all time. Perhaps only Ryan Fitzpatrick ’05 surpasses him. What is undeniable is that Craig sported the best arm in the program’s 151 seasons. In football parlance, Craig has all the throws. He can rifle the ball or prettily feather it. He can fit passes into tight windows. He can loft long bombs that drop right into the hands of streaking receivers. His rapport with favorite targets—the most notable being Barkate—has been almost eerie. He has set a high bar for his successors.

Now he moves onto the big stage, and a more lucrative one. In this new world of big-time college sports, schools can legally pay student-athletes (Harvard does not), who also can earn money through NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) deals. Some reports have FBS schools putting together financial packages worth a minimum of $1 million for starting quarterbacks. We have no idea if Craig has partaken of such booty. Then again, his concentration at Harvard was economics.

We wish him well—as potential new fans of the Horned Frogs.

• Today’s Fiesta Bowl appearance is the biggest game for Ole Miss in at least 50 years. It’s also the culmination of a massive fundraising effort athletics director Keith Carter and other behind-the-scenes people that’s helped the Rebels gain an upper hand in the NIL era. 

Keith Carter had a premium vantage point at the Sugar Bowl for arguably the biggest moment in Mississippi’s college football history, standing directly behind the goalposts as Lucas Carneiro’s 47-yard field goal split the uprights.

The Ole Miss athletic director scooped up the football and tucked it under both arms, hugging it tight like a fullback as he ran through the end zone in jubilation.

The 49-year-old Carter — who played basketball for the Rebels in the late 1990s — didn’t play a snap in Ole Miss’ 39-34 victory over Georgia in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals. But in some ways, he might be the most important person for a football program that hasn’t achieved this much success since the early 1960s.

He is also the man working to keep Ole Miss on top.

“We want to go win the whole thing this year, obviously,” Carter said. “But our hope is to be right back here next year and be a program that’s an every-year CFP contender with a chance to win national championships.”

Such talk would have sounded crazy less than a decade ago when Ole Miss was mostly an afterthought in the SEC, dealing with the fallout of an NCAA investigation into rules violations and a messy breakup with then-coach Hugh Freeze.

But as the No. 6 seed Rebels prepare to face No. 10 Miami in the Fiesta Bowl on Thursday with a spot in the national championship game on the line, it doesn’t feel nearly as far-fetched.

Thanks to a group of behind-the-scenes people that includes Carter and Walker Jones — who leads the Ole Miss NIL collective — the Rebels have thrived in the pay-for-play era, building a fundraising behemoth that’s given them resources to build a roster that includes quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, running back Kewan Lacy and a defense stacked with NFL-caliber talent.

Chambliss recently committed to return to the Rebels next season pending NCAA approval. He said Ole Miss has all of the resources it needs to compete at the highest level.

“I feel like college football’s changed throughout the years,” Chambliss said. “NIL changed that. The transfer portal changed that. The college football playoff changed that. I feel like Ole Miss, being in the SEC, the best conference in the nation, you’re going to get guys. You’re going to get good guys and coaches want to coach there. Ole Miss has done a good job transitioning with how college football is transitioning itself.”

Jones played football for the Rebels in the 1990s before a business career that included more than a decade with Under Armour. He came back to Ole Miss in 2022 to lead The Grove Collective, which is the athletic department’s fundraising arm.

Carter and Jones have known each other since their days playing Ole Miss sports and that connection was crucial.

“I always talk about the trust Keith had in me to come back in this capacity during a very confusing and complex time,” Jones said. “That probably wasn’t easy. I credit our history together and the experience of being student-athletes together.”

The Rebels were quick to adapt to the NIL era under coach Lane Kiffin, who iprovided the recruiting. Carter and Jones provided the money and a juggernaut was born.

Now Kiffin is gone — headed to LSU after an awkward breakup — but the money remains. Jones has cultivated a group of roughly 7,000 donors in The Grove Collective who range from millionaries to college students. It’s all impressive for a school that has a large following, but not the same kind of massive alumni base of schools like Ohio State or Texas.

“We may not have a T. Boone Pickens or a Phil Knight,” Carter said, referring to the well-heeled donors for Oklahoma State and Oregon. “But when you put us all together collectively, pull the rope in the same direction and people give not only what they can, but maybe even a little above what they should, we’ve been able to be really good.”

Ole Miss’ staying power has been evident over the past 12 months after last year’s disappointing ending to the season. The Rebels spent a boatload of money in 2024 for a roster that included quarterback Jaxson Dart, but they went 9-3 in the regular season and didn’t make the playoff.

Jones and Carter weren’t deterred and the donations kept pouring into the program. One year later, they’re exactly where they want to be. Even losing Kiffin hasn’t stopped the momentum; Carter quickly promoted Pete Golding and the Rebels keep chugging along.

“You’ve seen this before in sports,” Carter said. “There’s a team with all the expectations and you fall a little short. Then the very next year, you look up, and there’s a team that’s maybe not as heralded or doesn’t have as much preseason hype. But the pieces fit perfectly, the locker room is right, all these intangible things happen and it’s the best team in school history.”

It’s all new territory for an Ole Miss program that hasn’t been a powerhouse since the 1950s and ’60s, back before integration. The Rebels claim three national championships in football, though none since 1962.

There were a few good moments in the ensuing decades: Eli Manning was the team’s quarterback during a few heady years in the early 2000s, the Rebels won the Cotton Bowl in 2008 and Freeze had it rolling for a few years in the mid-2010s before NCAA troubles arose.

All those flashes of national relavance faded quickly.

Now because of Carter, Jones and a whole lot of cash, this version of Ole Miss might stick around for a while. Carter is soaking in the moment.

“It’s not just for me,” Carter said. “I’m the one who gets recognized and is the one out in front, but there are so many people who deserve this. I’m so happy for our fans, the ones who have been through some ups and downs.”

We shouldn’t be surprised to be surprised in college football anymore.

In a landscape reshaped by NIL, the transfer portal, the expanded playoff, and realignment, chaos isn’t a bug of the postseason. It’s the feature.

Very few fans, pundits, or punters indeed predicted that Miami would face Ole Miss in the final four of the College Football Playoff, but we should have been prepared for this possibility, given what this sport has become in this modern era.

The gap between the old guard and the nouveau riche is virtually non-existent anymore. All you need to do is get hot at the right time.

That’s exactly what has happened with Miami and Ole Miss.

The Rebels, who finished 11-1 in the regular season, were a lock to get into the College Football Playoff after beating Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl, but Oxford turned red when it was announced that head coach Lane Kiffin would abandon ship and take over at LSU.

Kiffin’s departure was expected to derail Ole Miss, but the Rebels have used it as a galvanizing force, and are playing their best football of the season at the exact right time.

The Rebels aren’t perfect, but they can handle several different game scripts, which is essential when you’re asked to run the gauntlet in a 12-team playoff.

Tulane didn’t put up much resistance in Round 1, but a showdown with Georgia in the quarterfinals was expected to be the end of the ride for Mississippi.

Instead, the Rebels, led by quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, took Georgia’s best shot and survived. A two-score deficit at halftime was erased thanks to the heroics of Chambliss and some clutch playmaking by running backs, receivers, kickers, and defenders.

Chambliss, who started the season as the backup after transferring from Ferris State, had his most impressive performance of his career against Georgia, but he’s been lights out all year for the Rebels, amassing 3,660 passing yards and a superb 21-to-3 touchdown-to-interception ratio. The Grand Rapids, Mich., native can beat you with his legs, too.

Miami’s path to the semifinals was more daunting, taking them to Texas A&M and then to the Cotton Bowl to take on Ohio State, and bettors have taken notice, pushing the Hurricanes to -3.5 for Thursday’s battle with Ole Miss.

On the surface, that all makes sense. Miami’s defense has been the most impressive unit in the College Football Playoff, holding Texas A&M and Ohio State to a combined 17 points and pitching shutouts in the first half of both contests.

Miami’s offense hasn’t been nearly as good, but it’s doing what it needs to do to get the Canes over the line. Carson Beck, who is no stranger to making errors in big moments, has held his nerve and kept a steady hand on the wheel to this point. Beck certainly isn’t winning games for Miami, but he’s not losing them, either.

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The question is whether or not Miami’s offense can answer the bell if the defense bends more than it has through the first two rounds. Holding the Aggies and Buckeyes to just 17 points is a gargantuan feat, but at some point, a big play will break, and that will force Beck and the offense to answer the bell.

And perhaps no offense is better equipped to hurl that pressure on Miami than Ole Miss. Not only do the Rebels have a game-breaking quarterback and terrific playmakers surrounding him, but they also seem to thrive in chaos. They’ve played some wild games this year, and just pulled off a stunning comeback against a Georgia defense that is on the same level as Miami’s.

Miami, based on its form and path to this game, is the deserving favorite. But I actually think it’s the underdog with more paths to success in this contest. The Hurricanes have proven they can be the storm, but Ole Miss has proven time and again it can weather one.

The Play: Ole Miss moneyline (+140, FanDuel)

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Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.