The House settlement hasn’t yet been in place for a full college season. Already, however, coaches around the country are looking for a solution to fix issues they see with revenue sharing. That now includes Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders.

At Big 12 media days, Sanders suggested putting a cap on rev-share, raising some eyebrows in the process. In the wake of those comments, Paul Finebaum and Greg McElroy appeared on Get Up. There, Finebaum boldly told Sanders to stick to coaching.

“Right now, there’s so many issues in college football that getting to a cap,” Finebaum said. “It may happen one day, but I think they need to solve some more basic problems first.”

Finebaum notably thinks that Sanders’ argument would be different if he still had some of last season’s stars on his team. So, the messaging is likely based on what would be best for Colorado right now.

“I just love Deion for a lot of reasons,” Finebaum said. “But especially how he just changes the narrative depending on who is on his team. I mean, those two guys that he had last year, Shedeur [Sanders] and Travis [Hunter], could have left and broken everybody’s bank, and would have had he not had that hold over them. So I just think Deion needs to stick to coaching football. Let the college football leaders screw up the game the way they have already.”

The House settlement allows for revenue sharing of up to $20.5 million with athletes at a given school. How that money is divided and if the school spends the entire amount is up to the school. However, in most cases, football will receive the majority of the funding.

On top of that, House also looks to set a fair market on NIL spending. NIL deals above $600 will need third-party approval and will be sent to a new clearinghouse called NIL Go. There is also a new enforcement agency in place called the College Sports Commission. 

“It’s just unrealistic at this point. I do think at some point there’ll be donor fatigue. I do think at some point, there will be more parameters in place,” Greg McElroy said. “And I’m cautiously optimistic that there will be competitive balance across the college football landscape. But the reality is, college football has never been fair. It’s like Major League Baseball. That’s what it is. I mean, we don’t live in the salary cap world in college football. Those with resources that can spend, win.”

McElroy looked to emphasize his comparison by explaining that the deepest pockets don’t always win. Upsets do happen. So, even if Sanders and Colorado aren’t the richest program, there are still opportunities on the field.

“The good news is, just like in baseball, the Yankees don’t win the World Series every year. The Tampa Bay Rays, who have one of the smallest payrolls, compete in the playoffs regularly,” McElroy said. “And are, at times, much better than those of their big-spending counterparts in the Red Sox and the Yankees. So I think college football, yes, it’s nice to have resources, but it can also work against you. Texas has just one national championship since 1970 and they have the deepest pockets in the land. So I think that, yes, it’s nice to have money, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t necessarily always equate to success on the field.”

Deion Sanders explained why he wanted to see a rev-share cap by pointing to last season’s national champions, the  Ohio State Buckeyes. In particular, he looked at headlines that their roster was worth upwards of $20 million.

“I wish there was a cap. Like, the top-of-the-line player makes this and if you’re not that type of guy, you know you’re not going to make that. That’s what the NFL does. The problem is, you’ve got a guy that’s not that darn good, but he could go to another school and they give him another half a million dollars. You can’t compete with that. It don’t make sense,” Sanders said.

“You talk about equality … all you have to do is look at the playoffs and see what those teams spent, and you understand darn near why they’re in the playoffs. It’s kind of hard to compete with somebody who’s giving $25, $30 million to a darn freshman class. It’s crazy.”

When Joe Castiglione was hired at Oklahoma at athletic director in 1998, there was no way for him to predict how much the NCAA landscape would change during what will end up being a three-decade tenure in Norman. Particularly, in the last decade of his tenure with the implementation of NIL and the NCAA transfer portal.

Castiglione has overseen 26 of Oklahoma’s 45 total national championships, and is OU’s longest-serving AD. He positioned the Sooners for long-term success since the beginning his tenure, and it’s followed into the new era of college athletics. Under his guidance, Oklahoma seen at least one team compete for a national championship in each of the last 12 years.

“One of the most challenging parts of the period that we’re in is, there’s never been a moment like it. Not only in college athletics, I think you could look across various industries, they all go through some moment of disruption and change,” Catsiglione said. “And the ones that see the future, that adapt, pivot, be flexible, those are the ones that navigated, not only survived, but become stronger when they get on the other side.”

The Sooners have done just that, positioning themselves to be at the forefront of college athletics for years to come after aligning with the Southeastern Conference alongside Texas ahead of the 2024-25 academic calendar year. The move came just weeks after it was ruled that athletes could begin compensating from their name, image and likeness.

“We have to be uncomfortable with the uncomfortable period that we’re in, and that’s where we are,” he continued. “So if you’re not willing to lean into it, get scarred up, nicked up and try to find the solutions that are necessary in this moment in time where we’re still not structured the way we should be, … realize sometimes that you don’t have full control of everything, but you better exert as much as you can. Lean into the future and don’t be afraid to be a change agent.”

Those at the forefront of college athletics are the ones who are able to adapt to the current state of college athletics. With just under three years to find Castiglione’s successor, adaptability is likely a quality the Sooners will be looking for in their next athletic director.

“However you want to define the the skills of the next AD, you better be a leader that can lean in, accept and effectuate change of the future,” Castiglione said. “Because if the people in the business don’t do the leading, then who is?”

Rock Hill, S.C. – D1 Softball announced its 2025 Mid-Major D100 Player Rankings and Winthrop standout Megan Powell was ranked 97^th.
 
Powell adds more recognition to a season that saw her voted as the 2025 Big South Conference Player of the Year. Powell was also an All-Big South First Team selection, NFCA All-Region Selection and was named to the Big South All-Tournament Team. She also earned academic recognition as she was named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team.
 
This year she led the team with a .333 average to go along with 27 runs, seven doubles, 10 home runs, 35 RBI, 22 walks and an on-base percentage of .425. In the circle she was 16-12 with a 2.15 ERA, 16 complete games, five shutouts and 122 strikeouts in 163 innings. She also held an opposing batting average of .206.
 
Powell was 1-of-2 Big South Conference players recognized, joining Radford’s Dakota Redmon on the list.  
 
The Top 100 rankings list can be found here.
 
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MORGANTOWN — West Virginia’s Rich Rodriguez hasn’t spoken in front of the media in three months, and the rapid space of college athletics has seen massive changes in the time away from the podium. 

At the start of June, revenue sharing was announced, and more guardrails were applied, with a new College Sports Commissioner picked, in charge of regulating NIL. 

With over a decade of experience, Rodriguez witnessed the change of college athletics over the years and was vocal about how there needed to be a change. Now, there have been changes made, and Rodriguez gave his opinion at Big 12 Media Days.

“A lot better guardrails than a month ago,” Rodriguez said. “I mean, it was a cluster for the last three or four years. All coaches are complaining about it, but it was just a mess, and nobody knew how to really solve it right away. And I still think we got it a lot better now with the cap and the rev share. But there’s still a lot of work to do.”

The new ruling isn’t perfect, like Rodriguez said. Paying players directly is a step forward. The College Sports Commission could be too, but there’s no telling how much jurisdiction it’ll have over passing and denying NIL deals without lawsuits. Rodriguez still doesn’t have his one transfer portal window, either, arguably his biggest issue.

There’s still work to do. Rodriguez wants athletic directors and Congress to lead the charge on shaping the future of collegiate athletics.

“Hopefully, smarter minds than myself will get that together,” Rodriguez said. “I said this earlier today, I think they need to get the college athletic directors more input and more say in how college athletics is going to be run because these are the guys and the ladies that know what’s best for the schools and what’s best for the country in college athletics.”

West Virginia’s representative is athletic director Wren Baker. Baker and WVU athletics moved quickly on the new ruling, creating a revenue-sharing company, Gold & Blue Enterprise, to generate money. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yomark said WVU was the first school to integrate Venmo and PayPal to distribute revenue-sharing money. Baker is fully committed and determined that WVU athletics has everything necessary to compete at the highest level.

Rodriguez appreciates the work Baker’s done, and is glad he’s WVU’s athletic director.

“I’ve worked for a lot of really good ADs,” Rodriguez said. “One or two, I wasn’t sure about, but most of the ones I’ve worked with have been great. Wren has as good a grasp as anyone. I’m very fortunate. We’re in good shape with Wren Baker.” 

The new court ruling isn’t the only news that’s emerged since Rodriguez’s last press conference after the Gold-Blue Game. There’ve been talks about moving to a 5-plus-11 and 16-team College Football Playoff model in the future, meaning the Power Four conference champions get a bid, the highest rated conference champion, and then 11 at-large bids. Some SEC coaches wanted a 4-4-2-2 system, where the SEC and Big Ten would get four bids each, and the Big 12 and ACC would get two each. The consensus, though, is the 5-plus-11.

Rodriguez cares a lot less about the College Football Playoff than NIL, revenue sharing, and the transfer portal.

“I don’t give a sh*t,” Rodriguez said. “I mean, my give a sh*t meter is a lot less than a lot of stuff. If you win the league, you’re going to be in. Just win the league, like 5-11, all that stuff, whatever. I’m worried about just winning. Let’s win the league. I ain’t worried about, well, this team’s going to vote here, what’s this team going to vote there? If you’re good enough, people will know you’re in the top 12, whatever, it’s good. We win all of our games. I guarantee we’re in the playoffs.”

Rodriguez still has his issues with college athletics, but he’s not alone. There are a lot of coaches in just the Big 12 that have problems. Rodriguez made it clear where he stands and what he wants: more guardrails and one transfer portal. Those changes are looking like they’re coming in the future.

Despite his issues, Rodriguez still loves his main job, coaching WVU to win football games.

“I think we’re in a better place now than we were a month ago,” Rodriguez. “There’s still some work to be done. We could complain as coaches, but hell, it’s still a pretty good gig. You know what I mean? These are good jobs. There are a lot tougher jobs than being a college football coach. So like I said, I’m fortunate and blessed to have what I have.”