Click here to view Trev Alberts’ Monday press conference.

Trev Alberts’ job title is Texas A&M’s Director of Athletics. In some ways, tailor maybe should be added.

That’s a reaction to how Alberts described the task he and A&M face in navigating the changing future of college athletics.

“(It’s) how to thread the needle between tradition and modernization,” Alberts said in a Monday meeting with local reporters inside a third-floor conference room at Kyle Field.

Maintaining traditions at A&M won’t be a problem. Successfully modernizing A&M’s athletic department to excel in the new era of Name, Imagine & Likeness (NIL) and revenue sharing projects to be much more challenging.

Reacting to the recent House v. NCAA settlement, which allows NCAA member schools to directly pay student-athletes, Alberts announced that A&M will distribute $18 million to football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball.

A popular national template suggests directing 75 percent of funds to football, 15 percent to basketball, five percent to baseball and five percent to women’s sports.

“Some institutions have chosen to use that (75-15-5-5 model) as a template for their institution,” Alberts said. “Our percentages don’t reflect that. We’ve chosen to make market-based decisions based on revenue.”

The distribution could cause derision within athletic programs. Coaches in different programs could be competing against each other to get more funding.

Alberts said that hasn’t been a problem at A&M, but he has heard that has been an issue for other colleagues.

Alberts declined to reveal the percentages to be shared with A&M’s athletes for competitive reasons. But football is the only revenue-producing sport at Texas A&M, so it stands to reason that the majority of A&M’s shared revenue will go to football players.

“I’m not going to run out and tell you exactly what the numbers are and what the percentages are because there’s a competitive piece to that, right?” he said. “But I think you’re going to start to figure out where the numbers lie.”

He said in a year there may be more data available that provides at least guidelines how players perhaps should be compensated not only by sport, but by position.

Alberts acknowledged that some programs could be at a disadvantage to conference opponents.

For example, Kentucky, which puts great emphasis on basketball, figures to share a greater percentage of revenue with its basketball players than many other SEC programs.

“You’re not going to knowingly put any of your programs at a competitive disadvantage,” Alberts said. “But I think it’s absolutely true you could find yourselves in a situation — based on the priorities of the investments — that some of your programs will have less rev share than some of their competitors.”

Some of the differences, at least, could potentially be offset by greater NIL opportunities.

Alberts said if a program, like football, has players earning substantial money though fair-market NIL deals then some funds could be redirected to other sports.

To enhance those NIL possibilities, Alberts said a new position is being created to help locate NIL opportunities and ensure they meet the standard “fair market value” as determined by Deloitte, which will act as a third-party clearinghouse for NIL deals.

“We’re not ready to announce a name, but we are hiring a new position that will be an associate AD reporting directly to me that is an attorney,” Alberts said. “It’s basically, what is our strategy and how do we leverage every one of our assets?

“If we’re able to get fair market value NIL deals at a certain level, we may not need as much rev share there. We can put the rev share over at this sport because they’re not as successful. So, that’s why I think that fair market value NIL strategy is going to be really important to our future.”

Alberts later added: “We have to be better than our peers. To me, that’s the differentiator in the game. That’s why we’re going to throw a lot of energy and effort in making sure we have a good strategy there (NIL).”

Alberts is hopeful that a sound, effective strategy could launch A&M to great competitive success.

“This is our time,” he said. “If we have the courage to make tough decisions and act and modernize in some areas, I think Texas A&M can separate and do things we’ve never done here before.

“That’s why we’re all here. The opportunities are here at Texas A&M to do things that most people can’t do because of scale, because of resources and other things.”

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard University baseball alumnus Mike Stenhouse ’80, a two-time All-American and three-time All-Ivy selection for the Crimson, has earned induction into the College Baseball Hall of Fame, the College Baseball Foundation announced on Monday.
 
During his time at Harvard, Stenhouse earned All-America accolades twice, including First Team All-America in 1978, and All-Ivy honors three times, including First Team All-Ivy laurels in 1978 and 1979. A 2003 inductee into the Harvard Varsity Club Hall of Fame, he played three seasons for the Crimson from 1977-79 and still holds the school records for career batting average (.422) and career triples (12).
 
Stenhouse won the Charles H. Blair Batting Title in Ivy Games after hitting .500 in conference play in 1978, set the school record for single-season batting average (.475) in 1977, and claimed the school record for single-season triples (six) in 1979.
 
The 26^th overall pick in the 1979 Major League Baseball Draft, Stenhouse went on to play in the MLB from 1982-86, competing for the Montreal Expos (1982-84), Minnesota Twins (1985), and Boston Red Sox (1986).
 
The 18th induction class will be honored at the 2026 Night of Champions presented by Prairiefire on February 12, 2026 in Overland Park, Kansas, the home of the College Baseball Hall of Fame. The event will serve as the ceremonial start to the 2026 college baseball season, which begins on February 13, 2026.
 

Associated Press

As accustomed as Matt Desrosiers was to seeing defenseman Haley Winn take one attempt after another at the RapidShot machine inside Clarkson’s training facility during her freshman season four years ago, the Golden Knights coach was stunned upon learning the final tally.

How does 35,000 shots sound?

“We actually had people from RapidShot grab us at the coaches’ convention and tell us they hadn’t seen anything like it,” Desrosiers said. “And that’s not including the pucks she went on the ice and shot extra, too. She’s just the most dedicated athlete we’ve been fortunate enough to have.”

The 21-year-old Winn laughed at the memory.

“Yeah, that sounds pretty accurate,” she said. “I could stay at the rink all day just because that’s what I enjoy doing. I don’t have to force myself to do it.”

The relentless work translated into Winn completing her college career ranking second among Clarkson defensemen with 130 career points (37 goals, 93 assists), seven behind Erin Ambrose at the school in upstate New York. It helped Winn, at 19, land a spot on the U.S. national team, with her already winning two gold medals in three world championship appearances.

And she’s considered a top-three pick entering the eight-team, six-round PWHL draft in Ottawa on Tuesday.

“It doesn’t even feel real that my name should be up there,” said Winn, who got her start at 3 on her father’s backyard rink in Rochester, New York.

“When I was that young, really, all I wanted to do was go to the Olympics,” added Winn, who has an opportunity to achieve that dream at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games in February. “As I grew older, I realized the steps to get there and what it was going to take. So yeah, it’s just awesome.”

Sirens have No. 1 pick

The New York Sirens hold the No. 1 pick for a second straight year, followed by the Boston Fleet and Toronto Sceptres. Next year’s expansion teams, Vancouver and Seattle, pick seventh and eighth, respectively..

Rounding out the top prospects are Colgate forward Kristyna Kaltounkova, who is from the Czech Republic and could be the first European chosen first; and Wisconsin forward Casey O’Brien, this season’s Patty Kazmaier Award winner as women’s college hockey’s MVP.

The prevailing consensus has the Sirens looking for a forward to complement last year’s No. 1 pick, Sarah Fillier, who finished tied for the PWHL lead with 29 points.

New York’s offense took a hit in the PWHL’s expansion process by losing forwards Alex Carpenter and Jessie Eldridge. They combined for 20 of the team’s PWHL-low 71 goals last season. Meantime, New York is deep at defense with the return of Ella Shelton, Maja Nylan Persson and Micah Zandee-Hart.

Not ruling out D

New York GM Pascal Daoust acknowledged a need at forward, while refusing to rule out targeting a defenseman at No. 1.

“Thinking that it automatically means we go forward is probably not covering all the angles, knowing me,” Daoust said, referring to potential trade opportunities. “There’s still a lot that can still be done between June and November.”

Sirens coach Greg Fargo previously coached Kaltounkova at Colgate, where he also faced Winn in ECAC competition.

At 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds, the 23-year-old Kaltounkova brings a physical style with offensive flair. She finished her five-year college career with 233 points (111 goals, 122 assists) and 218 penalty minutes in 171 games.

The only potential blemish was the ECAC assessing Kaltounkova a two-game suspension for an undisclosed reason in February 2024, after which she missed two more games to, as the school put it, “step away from the team.”

Kaltounkova staying grounded

Kaltounkova told the Rinkside Rundown podcast last week she’s doing her best to stay grounded in approaching the draft.

“There’s moments where I’m like, `Oh my god, what if this and what if that?′ And then I pause and just like, `I can’t think about that.′ Like, that would just bring me down a rabbit hole,” she said. “It kind of fuels me because it’s either people hyping you up and cheering you on, or it’s people criticizing you. And both things motivate me so much.”

Kaltounkova had four goals and six points in her world championship tournament debut on home ice in April.

“She’s coming with speed, she’s coming with physicality, she’s coming with a great shot — a PWHL shot-level quality,” Daoust said of Kaltounkova.

As for Winn, Daoust noted her puck-moving ability and defensive presence. “Great person, great leader, so a lot of positives under her name,” he said.

Winn reflected on her younger days in joining her three older brothers on the family’s rink.

“They never wanted me to play because I was the little sister. But I think I’ve earned my spot now,” Winn said. “Obviously, they were pretty tough on me. But that’s what made me who I am today.”

___

AP women’s hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey