It’s not every day you see the sixth man of a national championship team with remaining eligibility decide to transfer. That same player then choosing to make the move to a conference rival and fellow title contender is unheard of — but that’s the reality in 2025 with the portal and NIL. Kentucky was thrilled to take advantage of the unique circumstances when Denzel Aberdeen unexpectedly became available, moving quickly to earn his commitment after talks fell through between the standout guard and Florida.

Pope and the Wildcats were motivated to get it across the finish line, whatever it took. And the feeling was mutual.

“Our phone call lasted about three hours, to be honest. … When (Kentucky) called, I was like ‘Man, I got to come here and play for Coach Pope,’ who is obviously another national champion,” the Gator-turned-Wildcat said in June. “And just the school itself, the people here, the atmosphere is crazy… When they called it was pretty much a no-brainer for me. I was like, yeah, I got to do it. I’m ready.”

What did it take to close the deal, exactly? At the time, Aberdeen’s father, Ian, told KSR+, “We really wanted to stay here at Florida, but negotiations went south a little bit,” and left it at that.

Now, Todd Golden is sharing the Gators’ side of the story — and you don’t have to read too far between the lines to figure out why Aberdeen is no longer in Gainesville. It’s nothing personal, to be clear, as he actually has nothing but good things to say about the senior guard as a person and player.

“It’s going to be different. I think Denzel is a great young man, and we’re grateful for the time that he spent in our program,” Golden told Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports. “He obviously helped us win a national championship last year, and took advantage of the new world of college basketball and free agency.”

Ah, there it is. The new world of college basketball and free agency.

What does Golden mean by that? Well, Aberdeen saw his value at an all-time high as a title-winning supersub and cashed out with a blue-blood basketball school. If the winningest tradition in the sport wants to not only expand your role, but also give you a massive pay raise along the way, you’d be crazy to pass on the opportunity, right?

His now-former coach doesn’t blame him.

“He had a program like Kentucky that was able to come in here and take advantage, give him an opportunity — both from a basketball standpoint and financially — that was probably a little too good for him to turn down,” Golden said.

That was the path Aberdeen chose, and now, he has to look those Gator fans in the face on Valentine’s Day when Kentucky travels to Gainesville to take on Florida on Feb. 14.

Odds are good he’ll get booed. Odds are also good that the fierce competitor in him that helped Golden win his first championship will also be ready to give his old team his best shot.

“He’s going to have to come back into the O’Dome and get received by our fans. Our staff will be ready to compete against Denzel, and I think Denzel will be ready to compete against us,” Golden said. “He’s a great young man and a good player, but it’s a great example of what college basketball is like in 2025. We had to play against Riley Kugel last year at Mississippi State after he was a Gator for a few years, so it’s something that you’re starting to see more and more.”

Golden isn’t thrilled about the situation, but he gets it. And above all else, he’ll have his guys prepared when that ball is tipped.

That’s something he guarantees.

“Again, Denzel is a great, great guy, and we’re not necessarily happy to see him in Kentucky blue, but we’re going to be ready to compete against him,” he said. “I can promise you that.”

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark is listed out for Tuesday’s contest against the Seattle Storm, according to beat writer Tony East. It will mark the 16th straight game that Clark has missed as she recovers from a right groin injury.

Clark suffered the injury on July 15 against the Connecticut Sun, and it also caused her to miss the WNBA All-Star Game that month. She has now been sidelined more than a month and has about two weeks left to make her return before the end of the regular season.

The good news is that Clark appears to be close to getting back on the court for game action. She was present at the team’s shootaround Sunday morning prior to a game against the Minnesota Lynx, marking her first time working with the team since suffering the injury.

Still, Clark has yet to make her return to the practice court. The Fever fell into a tie for eighth place in the WNBA standing after a 97-84 loss against the Lynx on Sunday and are only one game ahead of the ninth-place Los Angeles Sparks.

That in mind, Clark can’t return soon enough to save her team’s postseason hopes. But they’ll have to be without her for at least one more game when the Fever take on the Storm at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

Caitlin Clark drops new logo, announces timeframe for apparel collection, signature shoe

Fans waiting for more Caitlin Clark apparel will be getting some in the very near future. The Indiana Fever star announced Monday that she has a new logo collection set to release soon through Nike.

“Logo collection coming soon,” Clark wrote on X. “Signature product dropping 2026.”

The “signature product” that Clark is referencing is a signature shoe as well as a signature apparel collection, per Chloe Peterson of The Indianapolis Star. That collection will include shirts, pants, hoodies and shorts, along with special pieces in adult sizes only.

The first drop from the logo collection is set to release on Sept. 1 and will feature a navy and yellow t-shirt. After that, a full apparrell collection featuring the logo will drop on Oct. 1.

“To me, this is more than just a logo, it’s a dream come true,” Clark said in a statement announcing her logo. “People always talk about leaving your mark on the game — and this is another way I can do that.”

Clark will become the third WNBA player to have a shoe released through Nike, joining Sabrina Ionescu and A’ja Wilson. Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese, who was in the same draft class as Clark and won a national championship against her in college, has her first signature shoe set to drop later this year with Reebok.

A Democratic U.S. lawmaker sent a letter to leaders at the more than 350 Division I schools across the country Monday, warning of a two-tier college sports system with haves and have-nots if a proposed bill to regulate the industry passes without changes.

In the letter, Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, the ranking member of a committee that oversees college sports, says the SCORE Act would “incentivize a Power 2 conference system that will create inequities for other conferences and leave behind small to mid-sized schools.”

The “Power 2” she references is the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference, which share the decision-making power for the future of the College Football Playoff, which with its $7.8 billion media-rights deal is the single-largest financial driver of all college athletics.

The House is expected to vote on the SCORE Act next month. It would provide the NCAA a limited antitrust exemption, override state laws designed to regulate name, image, likeness payments and prevent athletes from becoming employees of their universities.

Cantwell argued against those parts of the bill, while also focusing on language that she said would lead to the removal of the 22% cap on revenue-sharing implemented by the recently approved lawsuit settlement. This school year, the 22% cap equals $20.5 million that can be paid out to players, but some schools will be able to exceed that using third-party deals that have to be approved by the newly created College Sports Commission.

“If passed, the SCORE Act will entrench the current arms race to recruit and retain athletes and leave small and mid-sized schools unable to compete for championships and postseason games, along with the inability to earn the increased revenue that comes with those opportunities,” Cantwell wrote.

Though crafters of the bill have touted bipartisan support in the House — Reps. Janelle Bynum, D-Ore., and Shomari Figures, D-Ala. are among the backers — Democrats have largely framed it as a giveaway to the NCAA, which supports it, at the expense of athletes, who would lose the right to challenge the system on a number of fronts.

Cantwell noted media reports that Pac-12 schools that were previously part of what was then known as the Power Five will receive 63% less in revenue from TV rights than before the latest round of conference realignment.

She also pointed out a new arrangement in the Atlantic Coast Conference that calls for 60% of the league’s distribution to be based on viewership ratings that are largely driven by football and men’s hoops — a provision designed to appeal to its highest-profile teams.

“Ultimately, the broad antitrust exemption in the SCORE Act would widen existing inequities among schools and conferences, creating long-term instability for schools of all sizes,” Cantwell said.

The SCORE Act would need the backing of at least seven Democrats in the Senate to pass as a standalone bill, though there’s a chance it could be attached to a larger piece of must-pass legislation, which would diminish their chances of making substantive amendments.

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Will Nico Iamaleava become the cautionary tale of NIL?

That’s a question on college football fans’ minds ahead of the start of the 2025 season, months after a very messy divorce between Iamaleava and Tennessee in mid-April, which was reportedly sparked by failed attempts to renegotiate the quarterback’s name, image and likeness compensation package.

FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt and Colin Cowherd discussed the topic on a recent episode of “The Joel Klatt Show,” with Cowherd making a bold statement about Iamaleava’s decision to depart Knoxville.

“He shouldn’t have left Tennessee,” Cowherd said. “They [the Volunteers] have better players. You’re gonna face more NFL bodies maybe in that schedule compared to UCLA’s this year. … But he is good, and he is kind of what the NFL is looking for. He moves really, really well.”

Why did Iamaleava leave Tennessee in the first place?

Those representing Iamaleava were reportedly seeking a renegotiated package that would pay him approximately $4 million for the upcoming season rather than the $2.4 million he was expected to earn. A back-and-forth disagreement ensued, which led to head coach Josh Heupel moving on from the star quarterback because “no one is bigger than” the program. 

Iamaleava entered the transfer portal and committed to UCLA the following week. He has declined to discuss the specifics of his new NIL agreement, which will reportedly pay him just shy of $2 million this season.

“Here’s why I would defend Nico a little bit,” Klatt said of the Southern California native. “He never really got a chance to tell his side of the story. You know, Tennessee ran out basically a propaganda effort and got to tell the story without Nico being involved at all. It was not all about money. It really wasn’t. If it was, he wouldn’t have gone to UCLA, which is the tell-tale sign.”

Klatt also pointed to the offensive system Heupel runs at Tennessee and how it limited Iamaleava’s skillset.

“He wanted the offense to grow with him. … That offense that Josh Heupel runs is … almost like a glorified high school offense … and the reason that it doesn’t develop a quarterback is because everything is a half-field read. … Nico understood that. … They wanted the offense to expand and to grow and to develop, and when it didn’t do that through spring football, that’s when he was like, ‘I don’t know if this is the right place for me.'”

UCLA is entering Year 2 under new head coach DeShaun Foster after finishing 5-7 overall and 3-6 in conference play last fall. If all goes well for Iamaleava, this could very well be his only season with the Bruins before entering the 2026 NFL Draft.

“I hope he succeeds,” Klatt said about Iamaleava. “We’ll see.”

UCLA opens the 2025 college football season against Utah at 8 p.m. ET Saturday on FOX.

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