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NCAA transfer portal has been boon for UWGB women, coach Kayla Karius

AI-assisted summaryUWGB women’s basketball coach Kayla Karius rebuilt her roster primarily through the transfer portal after losing seven players to graduation.The Phoenix added several key players, including local standouts Carley Duffney and Gracie Grzesk, as well as Horizon League star Maddy Skorupski.UWGB is one of only five women’s programs in the nation without a player […]

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NCAA transfer portal has been boon for UWGB women, coach Kayla Karius


AI-assisted summaryUWGB women’s basketball coach Kayla Karius rebuilt her roster primarily through the transfer portal after losing seven players to graduation.The Phoenix added several key players, including local standouts Carley Duffney and Gracie Grzesk, as well as Horizon League star Maddy Skorupski.UWGB is one of only five women’s programs in the nation without a player entering the transfer portal in the past two years.Karius expressed some reservations about the transfer portal’s impact on player development, despite her success using it.Expectations remain high for the Phoenix in the upcoming season, with the team likely to be favored to win the Horizon League.University of Wisconsin-Green Bay women’s basketball coach Kayla Karius and her staff didn’t have much time to relax after the season ended in March with a loss to Alabama in the NCAA Tournament.

UWGB was set to lose seven players to graduation, including all five starters.

The game plan was simple.

“We just knew we needed a lot of people,” said Karius, who led her team to a 29-6 record in her first season at UWGB. “And it covered really every position. I guess the focus really was on guards. We lost (senior forward) Jas (Kondrakiewicz), but we have (senior forward-center) Jenna (Guyer) and (sophomore forward-center) Meghan Schultz who are really excited to fill in behind her. So, more of an emphasis on guards and the fact that we have got to turn around and find people who are going to fill up the scoring and the minutes part of it.

“We certainly want to aim high. We talked about that early. But we also want to stick to our philosophy of trying to find the best local kids.”

The roster is all but complete after a flurry of signings the past couple of months, with just one scholarship remaining but no guarantee it will be used.

UWGB aimed high. It aimed for the best local players.

It appears to have won on both fronts.

It started with South Dakota senior forward and former Green Bay Preble standout Carley Duffney and continued with University of Wisconsin sophomore forward and former Green Bay Notre Dame star Gracie Grzesk.

That would have been a good offseason for some Horizon League teams.

UWGB followed by adding one of the best players in the Horizon in senior guard Maddy Skorupski from Oakland, landed Iowa State senior guard and former Appleton East star Lily Hansford and capped it with the UW-Milwaukee and former Hortonville sister duo of senior guard Kamy Peppler and sophomore guard Kallie Peppler.

The only local talent the Phoenix missed out on was former De Pere guard Jordan Meulemans, who entered the transfer portal after two seasons at Butler and signed with Marquette.

Karius didn’t waste time going after players the team was interested in.

Grzesk said her new coach called just minutes after her name hit the portal. UWGB was the first school to reach out to Kamy Peppler. Duffney already knew Karius well considering she played for her at South Dakota for two seasons before Karius was hired at UWGB.

Karius started using a software program after she arrived in Green Bay that helps filter through more than a thousand names in the portal.

It was a huge improvement from the past, when a person on staff would hit the refresh button over and over to see if a new name was entered.

It was, to say the least, not efficient.

She and her staff now just plug in whatever filters they desire. Perhaps all players from Wisconsin or anybody who averaged more than 4 assists per game.You name it, they can find it. Fast.  “As soon as we see names that are in the local area, I do want to be their first call,” Karius said. “Sometimes, I don’t know what direction we are going to go with them yet. Sometimes, it’s a conversation of, ‘What are you looking for?’ We really want people who want to be here. There were kids I felt like I was twisting their arm a little bit to come here.“A lot of them were outside the region. They didn’t have a background of this place. That gets really difficult, because you are like, you don’t know how special this place is. But the majority of kids from the state have been to camp, have been to games. We have always done a really good job of getting young kids in the door.”UWGB has a winning tradition to sell. It has 48 consecutive winning seasons — the second-longest streak in the nation behind only Tennessee — and has been to the NCAA Tournament 20 times.But could it really have expected this type of offseason, filled with so many notable local names and all-conference talent?“I had no idea what to expect,” Karius said, laughing. “You feel this pressure is a privilege feel. You don’t want this to end on your watch. Certainly, we didn’t have to refill a lot of players last year when we got here.“Now, being really the first big amount of kids that our staff is responsible to bring in, it was difficult at times. You are moving really quickly and working really long hours and trying your best to fill this roster with kids that are the right fit. There is some pressure with that. Same we always deal with, but you want to keep this going with the right people. There are 1,500, I think, names in the women’s portal. There is a ton of talent out there. That doesn’t mean that talent fits here at Green Bay. That doesn’t mean that talent fits in our culture of team-first basketball.”UWGB forward-center Jenna Guyer is expected to play a big role for the Phoenix as a senior in 2025-26.Transfer portal has been good to UWGBThe Phoenix has not lost many key contributors the way other programs have since the portal opened in October 2018.Former forward Karly Murphy transferred to Colorado State in 2020 after three seasons with the Phoenix.

Former guard-forward Lyndsey Robson transferred to the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2021 after starting 48 games during her career for UWGB.

But the Phoenix has been on the other side far more often, from getting Sydney Levy from UWM to Natalie McNeal from St. Louis.

Not one player has entered the portal since Karius was hired in April 2024, even when it would have made sense for a few to leave after former coach Kevin Borseth announced his retirement.

UWGB is one of only five women’s programs in the nation not to have a player enter the portal the last two years, joining Harvard, Army, Air Force and Kent State.

Perhaps even more impressive is that of the six returning players from 2024-25, only Guyer played significant minutes, although reserve guard Maren Westin was averaging 14.5 minutes the first 11 games before tearing an anterior cruciate ligament in a knee.

It would have been easy for others to look elsewhere, but none did.

Not even guard Ellie Buzzelle, who was a full-time starter at Eastern Illinois as a sophomore and played 155 minutes her first season at UWGB.

Karius speaks individually to each player at the end of the year to see if they were happy with their role and the season. She wants to know if they will be OK if transfers arrive and play over them.She believes in being honest. Players appreciate that more than anything.“I think that is even more a sense of pride,” Karius said. “That those players found that they were valued. We celebrated them. We showed their bench celebrations and highlighted that in front of everybody. Just make sure everybody is given the attention and the value that they deserve.“My staff, we all are really intentional about checking in on our players and taking care of them. In turn, they stay. They tell us point blank, ‘I love it here.’”It would seem Karius should love the portal, although it’s not the goal to find six or seven players every season but instead just a few to plug holes.But despite having success adding and not losing players both at UWGB and South Dakota, there is a part of the portal process that doesn’t sit well.“I don’t love the lesson that it teaches kids,” said Karius, who played at UWGB from 2007 to 2011 and is one of the program’s all-time greats. “I would really rather see kids stick it out. I had a tough freshman year. I played, but it was tough for a lot of reasons. But at the time, you had to sit out a year (if you transferred). And then where are you going to go? There was definitely a stigma around it, like, you don’t do that.“Now, the whole perception has changed. I don’t love that lesson, like you don’t have to stick it out anymore. There is a free out that we are teaching kids for the rest of life. It doesn’t just work like that. There is a beauty in fighting through adversity and maybe not getting what you want right now but knowing a year from now if you keep working hard, you are going to get that.”She can’t say what the younger version of herself would have done after her freshman season if it was easier to leave.Karius does know she’s incredibly grateful she didn’t, that instead a veteran teammate like Lavesa Glover spent time with her and encouraged her to keep working hard and that she’d be fine.“I’m just really glad that I stayed,” Karius said.UWGB women's basketball coach Kayla Karius went 29-6 in her first season with the Phoenix.UWGB has high expectationsDespite the loss of so many veterans, UWGB’s offseason has kept expectations high for 2025-26.When the preseason poll is released in October, it’s a decent bet the Phoenix will be the favorite to win the 11-team league after being picked to finish second last season.While UWGB had no losses to the portal, Cleveland State watched star guard Destiny Leo transfer to UNLV. Oakland must replace Skorupski and UWM the Peppler sisters.Other Horizon teams such as IU-Indy, Northern Kentucky and Robert Morris had at least four players enter the portal.UWGB simply reloaded.Men’s update: UWGB coach Doug Gottlieb lands three recruits in final days of April

“We have a lot of really good pieces in place,” Karius said. “You see we are able to bring in the local talent, so they love this place. But let’s talk about them as players. You have three players coming in that have already had success in our league. Then you’ve had a couple players playing up at the higher level, didn’t play that much this year, but practiced against a high level every day and are capable of being really good here. Then you have Carley, who was a double-digit scorer in a comparable league.

“Then you’ve got returners. You’ve got Marty (Westin) who is getting healthy. You’ve got Jenna who had a breakout year, and then Meghan is right behind her. There are a couple shining stars that are waiting their turn. If you just look at all the pieces, we are all really, really excited.”

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Anthony Davis warns college basketball culture is crumbling under chaotic NIL money battles

In an era where college basketball is navigating through uncharted waters, the influx of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals has stirred a mix of excitement and concern. At the heart of this evolving landscape is Anthony Davis, a Dallas Mavericks star whose collegiate achievements at Kentucky are etched in the annals of college basketball […]

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In an era where college basketball is navigating through uncharted waters, the influx of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals has stirred a mix of excitement and concern. At the heart of this evolving landscape is Anthony Davis, a Dallas Mavericks star whose collegiate achievements at Kentucky are etched in the annals of college basketball history. Davis, whose freshman year feats propelled him to the pinnacle of college basketball, recently shared his insights on the seismic shifts being prompted by NIL agreements.

The Golden Era of College Basketball

Anthony Davis’s journey through college basketball was nothing short of spectacular. As a freshman at Kentucky, he not only clinched the Wooden National Player of the Year Award but also led his team to a national championship in 2012. With an average of 14.2 points, 10.4 rebounds, and an astonishing 4.7 blocks per game, Davis’s college career was a harbinger of his future success in the NBA. His transition from college to being the first overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft by the New Orleans Hornets marked the end of an era and the beginning of his professional journey.

The NIL Conundrum

Fast forward to today, and the college basketball landscape has undergone a radical transformation, primarily due to the introduction of NIL deals. Davis, reflecting on these changes, highlighted the complexities and challenges that NIL has introduced into the sport. “It’s tough, because obviously they didn’t have that when I was in college,” Davis remarked, pointing out the stark differences between his time in college basketball and the present day.

The crux of Davis’s concern lies in the integrity of the game. The lure of NIL deals, according to him, has begun to overshadow the essence of college basketball, with players choosing schools not for their programs or the quality of coaching but for the financial incentives on offer. This shift, Davis argues, has not only affected the recruitment process but has also made it difficult for coaches to build and maintain a team culture. “It kinda takes away from the game a little bit because of—and I’m not hating—it takes away from the integrity in the sense of players are only going to certain schools because of the money,” Davis explained.

A Culture at Crossroads

The ability of players to transfer with ease, facilitated by the NIL deals, has further complicated the dynamics within college basketball. Davis pointed out that this fluidity in player movement threatens to erode the sense of community and continuity that teams strive to build. “The coaches either have to be more strategic with their recruiting, or if you don’t have a lot of money for NIL, that kind of takes away your school, your program, as far as being a top recruiter for some of these players,” he said, emphasizing the challenges faced by programs not flush with NIL funds.

The Path Forward

Despite the challenges posed by NIL, there’s an acknowledgment of its necessity. The principle that players deserve compensation for their contributions is widely accepted; however, the absence of regulation has turned the system into what Davis describes as the “Wild West.” This unregulated environment raises questions about the future of college basketball and whether it can find a balance between maintaining the sport’s integrity and ensuring fair compensation for its athletes.

As college basketball continues to navigate through the complexities of NIL deals, the insights of players like Anthony Davis offer a valuable perspective on the evolving landscape. The challenge ahead lies in finding a middle ground that preserves the essence of college basketball while embracing the inevitable changes brought about by NIL. The journey of adapting to these changes is just beginning, and the decisions made today will shape the future of the sport for generations to come.



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Greg McElroy calls for significant change to Week 1 of college football schedule

Greg McElroy has an idea that would result in a significant change to Week 1 of the college football season. He wants college football to own that weekend before the NFL gets in full swing. The idea would be to own the entire weekend with games from Thursday through Monday with the biggest matchups. That […]

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Greg McElroy has an idea that would result in a significant change to Week 1 of the college football season. He wants college football to own that weekend before the NFL gets in full swing.

The idea would be to own the entire weekend with games from Thursday through Monday with the biggest matchups. That would include all Power Four teams in action against nonconference opponents.

If you want some marquee matchups, this would be the weekend for you. McElroy argued for what seems like a college football bonanza.

“I think we can do more,” McElroy said on Always College Football. “I’ll be sitting there on my couch and or in a booth, consuming as much college football content as humanly possible, there in week one of the college football season. But what we should do, because there is no NFL, there is no competition, we own that weekend. We have exclusivity over that weekend. We should make week one the greatest spectacle of nonconference matchups that we can possibly imagine. 

“And I’m talking year to year. I know these schedules are scheduled way out in advance, in some cases, like Clemson and Notre Dame, they agreed just last week to a 12-game series that starts in 2027, running all the way through 2038. But what I propose is, let’s make sure we have the biggest possible matchups for every power four team on that week one, and if that means we have triple header on Thursday, triple header on Friday, triple header on Saturday, triple header on Sunday, triple header on Monday, then so be it. Monday’s a holiday. Let’s play a game at noon, 3:30 and at seven, load it up with marquee matchups across the board.”

Week 1 is considered August 23rd through September 1st. Some of the marquee matchups, as McElroy alluded to, are Syracuse-Tennessee, Texas-Ohio State, Alabama-Florida State, LSU-Clemson, Notre Dame-Miami and TCU-North Carolina.

Can the sport do better as McElroy suggested? It certainly can if they rework the schedule to include many more Power Four non-conference matchups that could have playoff implications. At the very least, like McElroy wants, the games that can make the opening weekend a spectacle and must-see TV.

If college football wants to become the NFL, or have similarities, it needs to be a landmark date on the sports calendar. The potential is there.



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Cowboy Baseball Advances In Athens Regional

ATHENS, Ga. – Oklahoma State smashed seven home runs and staved off elimination at the NCAA Athens Regional Saturday as the third-seeded Cowboys knocked off No. 4-seed Binghamton, 13-5, at Foley Field. With the win, the Cowboys improved to 29-24 and will take on the loser of tonight’s Georgia-Duke contest Sunday at 11 a.m. (CDT). Binghamton ended […]

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Cowboy Baseball Advances In Athens Regional

ATHENS, Ga. – Oklahoma State smashed seven home runs and staved off elimination at the NCAA Athens Regional Saturday as the third-seeded Cowboys knocked off No. 4-seed Binghamton, 13-5, at Foley Field.
 
With the win, the Cowboys improved to 29-24 and will take on the loser of tonight’s Georgia-Duke contest Sunday at 11 a.m. (CDT). Binghamton ended its season at 29-26.
 
The seven home runs by the Pokes is the most ever in an NCAA Tournament game under head coach Josh Holliday, surpassing the five against Florida in last June’s NCAA Stillwater Regional. It is tied for the seventh most in a tournament game in NCAA Baseball Championship history, two shy of the record.
 
Six different Cowboys homered against BU, and four Pokes had multiple hits in the contest. Kollin Ritchie led the way, going 3-for-4 with a pair of homers and a career-high four RBIs.
 
Stormy Rhodes came out of the bullpen and earned the first win of his collegiate career as he improved to 1-1. The freshman right-hander allowed just one run on three hits in 2 1/3 innings.
 
Hunter Watkins started on the mound for the Pokes and worked 4 2/3 innings, striking out four and allowing four runs on six hits.
 
Ethan Lund closed out the game with two shutout innings and a pair of strikeouts in his first appearance since April 1.
 
OSU jumped out to an early lead in the first. Back-to-back doubles from Brayden Smith and Avery Ortiz to open the inning made it 1-0, and Ritchie joined in on the fun with an RBI double of his own to put the Cowboys up by two.
 
The Bearcats got on the board in the second, plating an unearned run when OSU dropped a fly ball in left field that made the score 2-1.
 
A power surge by the Cowboys grew their lead in the third. For the first time this season, OSU hit three consecutive homers as Ritchie, Colin Brueggemann and Ian Daugherty all went deep to extend the advantage to 5-1.
 
It was more of the same in the fourth as the Cowboys went back-to-back once again. This time, it was Ortiz with a two-run blast followed by a bomb off the bat of Nolan Schubart, which marked his team-leading 18th round tripper of the season and 58th of his career.
 
With OSU leading 8-1, the Bearcats used two long balls of their own to cut their deficit to 8-4 in the fifth, but the Cowboys got two of the runs back in the bottom of the inning on an Alex Conover solo homer and a RBI groundout by Smith.
 
The Pokes plated their final three runs in the eighth to put the game away, which included Ritchie smacking his second homer of the game and 13th of the season, a two-run job over the right-field wall.
 

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Florida State’s Underdog Approach: Coach Luke Loucks on Competing With Less NIL Than Other Powerhouses

Florida State basketball enters a new era under Luke Loucks, who candidly acknowledges the program’s financial limitations in today’s NIL-driven landscape. During a recent appearance on the Field of 68 YouTube channel with host Jeff Goodman, Loucks embraced Florida State’s underdog status while outlining his strategy for competing against better-funded rivals. His honest assessment reveals […]

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Florida State basketball enters a new era under Luke Loucks, who candidly acknowledges the program’s financial limitations in today’s NIL-driven landscape.

During a recent appearance on the Field of 68 YouTube channel with host Jeff Goodman, Loucks embraced Florida State’s underdog status while outlining his strategy for competing against better-funded rivals.

His honest assessment reveals a coach determined to build sustainable success through player development and authentic relationships, rather than checkbook recruiting.

college basketball transfer portal tracker
College Sports Network’s Men’s College Basketball Transfer Portal tracks the comings and goings of every athlete who has entered the transfer portal. Find out who’s entered and where they’re going now!

NIL Reality Check: Florida State’s Luke Loucks on Building With Less

Loucks was refreshingly transparent about Florida State’s NIL situation during his interview with Goodman. When Goodman pointed out the financial disparity, Loucks didn’t dispute the assessment that “you guys aren’t up there with the Kentucky’s or the Illinois or some of those schools right now” when it comes to NIL resources.

The gap is substantial. Programs like Kentucky are spending a lot on basketball NIL alone this season, while Florida State operates with a much smaller pool that must also support a major football program.

“(The university was) very upfront about our financial situation and how important football is,” Loucks said, acknowledging that basketball must operate with significantly fewer resources than their competitors.

The financial constraints became evident immediately during roster construction.

“We’ve signed 10 players, two returning, and I don’t think we’ve had the highest bid on a single one of them. Actually, I know for a fact we haven’t.” Loucks revealed.

This reality forced him to develop a different recruiting approach entirely.

Rather than engaging in bidding wars, Loucks tells prospects directly when other schools offer more money.

“I understand that you can make in some cases six figures more elsewhere,” Loucks said. “And the fact that you still want to be here and come be a part of what we’re building… it speaks volumes about what’s important to you.”

The Fundraising Challenge and Long-Term Vision

Part of Loucks’ new responsibilities includes extensive fundraising efforts to boost Florida State’s NIL capabilities. He’s leveraging relationships from his playing days and business school connections across Florida, Atlanta, Tampa and Jacksonville.

“Part of my job is to go fundraiser,” he admitted, describing it as selling “equity in our team.”

The approach focuses on building genuine relationships rather than aggressive sales tactics.

“I never ask them for a certain number,” Loucks explained. “I just say, hey, we need your help and this is what I’m trying to build and if you want to be a part of it, great.”

Loucks believes his NBA background provides crucial advantages in player development that money cannot buy. Having worked with Golden State and Sacramento, he can authentically tell recruits about the professional pathway.

His experience running draft workouts and sitting at the Chicago combine gives him credibility with players who have NBA aspirations.

The combination of financial constraints and roster overhaul has created what Loucks describes as a bunker mentality within the program.

KEEP READING: ‘Shameful’ – Fans Say ACC Prioritizes Payouts Over Passion as UNC-NC State Matchup Gets Sidelined

“I know I’m one of the lowest paid coaches in the ACC,” Loucks said. “Roster-wise, we’re middle of the pack in the ACC, but let’s go take out some of these big teams that are making more money. And I think that’s fun. It’s almost that bunker mentality of like, yeah, we’re all in this together.”

This underdog approach represents a calculated strategy rather than resignation. Loucks is betting that culture, chemistry, and player development can bridge the financial gap against programs that simply outspend Florida State.

The Seminoles enter their first season under new leadership, knowing they must maximize every advantage beyond the checkbook to compete in today’s college basketball landscape.

College Sports Network has you covered with the latest news, analysis, insights, and trending stories in college footballmen’s college basketballwomen’s college basketball, and college baseball!



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College Basketball NIL Deals Have Important Ripple Effect on NBA Draft

Pendulum swings occur in most areas of life, and the pathway from college basketball to the NBA draft is no exception. For a long time, college basketball teams struggled to build a team of contenders with players electing to go to the NBA as soon as possible out of college. With the infusion of NIL […]

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Pendulum swings occur in most areas of life, and the pathway from college basketball to the NBA draft is no exception.

For a long time, college basketball teams struggled to build a team of contenders with players electing to go to the NBA as soon as possible out of college.

With the infusion of NIL in the college sports landscape, that trend has flipped entirely, compounded by star college basketball players hitting the transfer portal.

The NCAA deadline for players to declare for the draft or return to school passed on Wednesday at 11:59 p.m., and that notion became quite clear.

NIL Leads To Harsh Dropoff in NBA Draft Entrants

College basketball insider Jeff Borzello and NBA draft insiders Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo collaborated on a story on ESPN.com that dove into the new landscape of college basketball.

As Givony points out, the 106 early-entrant candidates were the lowest number in a decade.

Another dozen draftable players withdrew at the deadline, compounding the issue and leaving a bare-bones second round.

From the NBA’s perspective, that’s concerning for them as they build summer league and G League rosters. However, the complete explosion of the NIL market is believed to eventually settle by those in the league.

It will lead to a group of older prospects who elected to return and exhaust their eligibility. The flip side of that for the league is more pro-ready rookies.

It will necessitate a shift in scouting philosophy, as previously, it was easy to dismiss older prospects due to their dominance over 18- and 19-year-olds.

Players were previously criticized for staying in school, but as the entire crop of prospects continues to do so, so grows the level of competition in college basketball.

As Borzello adds, the previous allure of being selected in the second round was enough to entice prospects and has dissipated with multimillion-dollar NIL deals.

It’s not just lower-round players. Multiple first-round projections are returning to their programs for deals up to $3 million. That nearly matches up to the end of the first round on the rookie scale.

“A prospect’s decision no longer hinges on hoping his draft stock is good enough to make real money in the NBA vs. playing for free while developing at the collegiate level,” Borzello writes.

With the perspective on players staying in college for three to four years changing, there’s less risk of perception for prospects to stay and possibly improve their draft stock.

That’s not only due to NIL but also the transfer portal, as they point to several first-rounders who weren’t once that, including Danny Wolf, who transferred to Yale from Michigan.

While the initial effects of NIL on the draft depth will sting for NBA teams, in a few seasons, they may come to appreciate the more pro-ready prospects they receive that have proved their dominance against valid competition.





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UCLA May Have to Give Recruits More Luxurious Offers

It’s happening: The consequences of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) are starting to sink in, especially as it transforms from this cloudy mystery of unknown money to a revenue-sharing system between programs and players, and now we’re seeing how programs are dealing with the financial issues in the modern game. UCLA is already dealing with […]

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It’s happening: The consequences of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) are starting to sink in, especially as it transforms from this cloudy mystery of unknown money to a revenue-sharing system between programs and players, and now we’re seeing how programs are dealing with the financial issues in the modern game.

UCLA is already dealing with a precarious financial situation in its athletic department, so news out of Norman, Oklahoma, that the Sooners have had to start laying off employees should not be taken lightly.

The OU Daily reported preemptive layoffs in anticipation of revenue sharing.

According to a report from OU Daily writers Ana Barboza, Natalie Armour and Daniel Homrok, “OU confirmed to the OU Daily late Thursday what athletic department employees learned via a mass email Wednesday: The university is laying off employees due to the looming realities of starting to share revenue with athletes.

“According to the email, which was shared with the Daily by an equipment manager, athletic director Joe Castiglione wrote that OU has reached a critical moment that requires the department to restructure its staff functions, resulting in a ‘limited reduction in force.’

“This is the only expected reduction in force for our department,” Castiglione wrote in the email provided by OU Daily. “We remain steadfast in our commitment to you and to the mission that drives us: serving our student-athletes and representing the University of Oklahoma with pride and integrity.”

Considering the financial resources Oklahoma has, one must ask how this is happening.

It’s actually quite simple, recruits are demanding more and more with NIL deals expected to go through the roof, according to On3’s Pete Nakos.

“Top high school football recruits are now earning six figures to guarantee their commitment to programs,” Nakos wrote.

Nakos reported that a general manager told On3, “I’ve heard guys making $25K a month.”

Nakos added that sources have told him that recruits are being offered financial packages, including cars and real estate.

It appears all Power Five schools will be using every dollar that could possibly be allotted for NIL as this arms race across the sport continues.

How UCLA manages to balance its books will be something to watch out for, but as Oklahoma has displayed, the realities and consequences of NIL have not arrived; they’ve made a home within the game.

Ensure you follow on X (Twitter) @UCLAInsideronSI and @tcav30 and never miss another breaking news story again.

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