The Cardinals (32-16, 18-6 Mid-American Conference) are the only MAC team on the list, which is voted on by 32 college baseball writers and related media persons throughout the nation.

Ball State is set to play at Purdue at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

The Numbers Tell One Story. The Rankings Tell Another.

It’s not just Underwood. Five-star offensive tackle Andrew Babalola—valued at $711K—and top-100 recruits Ty Haywood, Nate Marshall, and Shamari Earls all signed with Michigan this cycle. That’s millions more in NIL compensation. So how does a collective funding this kind of class not show up in national rankings? The likely answer: Michigan may be strategically keeping its financial operations out of public view.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/michigan-s-12-5m-qb-deal-raises-r…

Associated Press

The $2.8 billion NCAA settlement awaiting final approval from a federal judge is touted as a solution for thousands of athletes to finally get the money they deserve and provide some clarity to recruiting. For some, it’s too late.

Sophomore distance runner Jake Rimmel says he was one of five walk-ons cut from Virginia Tech’s cross country team after Thanksgiving break. Rimmel decided to take a leave of absence and train independently while considering his next move – something that’s proven easier said than done.

“Everyone’s got their hands tied right now, so there’s just not many opportunities for me,” Rimmel told the Associated Press. “I’ve just been having to bet on myself and trust the process. It’s just been lonely. I’ve been at home training by myself and living with my family again. Thank God for my family and all, I appreciate them. It’s still kind of lonely though, being out of the norm, not being at school and with my friends.”

Pending approval, the so-called House settlement will allow schools to share revenue with athletes directly for use of their name, image and likeness (NIL). That could secure generational wealth for some but not others, and replacing scholarship caps with roster limitations is expected to leave walk-ons, partial scholarship earners, non-revenue sport athletes and high school recruits at risk. There are deep concerns about the potential impact on sports that feed the U.S. Olympic teams.

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken told attorneys handling the settlement to come back to her with a plan soon to protect athletes currently or recently on rosters at schools across the country, a request seen as a way to soften the blow.

What that looks like is anyone’s guess for now, but thousands of athletes like Rimmel have no idea where they might be this fall or are in jeopardy of no longer playing college sports at all. And many athletes balancing school and their sport are unaware of what’s at stake and have more questions than answers.

Belmont track and field athlete Sabrina Ootsburg said everything she knows about the settlement is from personal research.

“My school doesn’t do a lot of education around it (the settlement). Every now and then, we’ll be told, ‘Hey, if you want to sign up to potentially get some money from this House settlement that’s happening, you can do that,’” Ootsburg said. “It’s almost like the education we’re being given is optional to consume, even though it’s limited.”

Oostburg is used to taking matters into her own hands, securing over 50 NIL deals by herself. She has contacted lawyers and asked for updates on the settlement, but she’s not quite reassured. The chaotic nature of college athletics so obvious to the public is even worse for the athletes themselves.

“Being a college athlete, it’s so hard to stay up to date with what’s happening every day because it’s so constantly changing,” she said.

Smaller, non-revenue-generating programs don’t often have a point person to navigate NIL deals or educate athletes. At Belmont, Ootsburg said, NIL-related responsibilities are managed by an already busy compliance office.

“To take time to learn about what’s happening is just so time-consuming, especially if you’re not in that one percent or one of the football players where they have people dedicated to helping them stay up to date,” she said.

For now, thousands of athletes are trying to wrap up their spring semesters and many of them have league tournaments or even NCAA championship competition ahead before what many expect will be the final summer before college sports sees some of the most dramatic changes in history. For athletes like Rimmel, those changes are already here.

Some of the others cut from the Virginia Tech program have given up on their dreams of collegiate running altogether. Rimmel hasn’t given up completely; he spoke with his former coach recently, who said the Hokies’ athletics department is still trying to figure out what’s to come.

“I’m still kind of hoping I might be able to find my way back there next fall,” he said.

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

An unprecedented situation in college football is transpiring over name, image, and likeness contracts.

Sparked by the transfer of quarterback Madden Iamaleava, the Arkansas Razorbacks have hired an attorney to enforce the buyout clause in the departed star’s agreement with the school’s NIL collective.

CBS Sports reported that, in addition to using Iamaleava as a prominent headline, the program is also pursuing efforts with former receiver Dazmin James.

Regardless of the outcome, the optics of a collective suing former college athletes with the apparent backing of the Arkansas athletic director are not great.

Are these efforts enforceable?

Sports attorney Kelleigh Irwin Fagan, chair of The Collegiate Sports Law practice, which primarily represents and advises schools, in addition to working with NIL entities, athletes, conferences, and coaches, spoke exclusively to NIL Daily On SI to provide insight on the matter. 

Fagan thinks that collectives are generally reluctant to enforce NIL buyouts, if they even have them in contracts. The negative publicity is something to consider. From a legal standpoint, the situation presents as a breach of contract claim that can be litigated under the state law that applies to that contract, usually defined within the terms therein.

The legal arguments to consider will be whether buyout clauses are enforceable, whether contracts were negotiated at arm’s length, whether language is styled as liquidated damages or considered more of a penalty, and how they would be intended to be used within a contract.

The American Bar Association defines liquidated damages as a pre-agreed amount of money specified in a contract to be paid to one party in the event of a breach and are intended to compensate losses that may be difficult to calculate or prove. 

A contract specifies liquidated damages as a pre-agreed sum of money that one party must pay to another in the event of a breach. This amount is intended to compensate for losses that are difficult to prove or calculate.

Per Fagan, if there’s a defined amount that a party will receive, that’s a reasonable ascertainable number that wouldn’t require a liquidated damages clause. The questions and arguments will focus on vaguer terms of value. 

“The other side of it is that there may be more than just the amount that a school or collective is paying an athlete,” Fagan explained. “It’s the value or potential lost value over time of no longer having that party hold up their end of the bargain. So that may be the argument about how it’s not reasonably ascertainable, and then the parties then agree on a certain amount in the contract.”

The debacle underscores a dire need for athletes to all have proper representation in negotiations, particularly for high-profile athletes signing NIL agreements with significant amounts.

However, the crux of the issue lies not only in the enforceability of these terms but also in the potential risk that schools and collectives face regarding their possible entry into employment relationships. 

“Whether it’s a school or collective, they have to make that risk assessment and decide if they’re comfortable with it,” Fagan said. “Versus the risk of somebody leaving and not being required to pay back or to be able to benefit from no longer being there in a financial sense. There are a lot of those risks that universities and collectives are having to balance at this point with these new agreements that are being negotiated for the first time, at least aboveboard.”

In the case of Iamaleava, it seems like more headache than it’s worth to recoup the loss of $200k in an NIL contract when the optics of suing a 19-year-old wouldn’t look less problematic should it be in the millions.