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No. 1 College Basketball Recruit AJ Dybantsa Receives Massive $4.1 Million NIL Update originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

BYU Cougars signee AJ Dybantsa is one to watch for as he enters college basketball next season. As a high school recruit, he was a five-star and rated as the No. 1 player in the class of 2025 (On3 Sports).

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Back in December, the 6-foot-9 small forward announced his commitment to BYU, choosing the Cougars over three of college basketball’s biggest names: UNC, Kansas and Alabama.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Dybantsa saw a significant jump in his On3 NIL valuation—up $274k to a total of $4.1 million.

We are living in a new era of college sports, with the leading beneficiaries being the players and the schools with big-market athletic programs. Including his landing of brand deals with Nike and Red Bull, Dybantsa is on a contract with BYU to receive over $7 million this season, according to Adam Zagoria of the New York Times.

The Cougars have emerged as an NIL juggernaut, especially after the hiring of head coach Kevin Young back in April. Young, in fact, was reportedly one of the biggest reasons Dybantsa elected to take his talents to Provo, Utah.

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“A lot stood out during my visit,” the Massachusetts native said on ESPN’s “First Take.” “Obviously, coach Kevin Young’s there. My ultimate goal is to get to the NBA, and he coached my favorite player of all time, Kevin Durant.”

When asked who he models his game after, Dybantsa listed household names like Tracy McGrady and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the current front-runner for finals MVP (-550, ESPN Bet).

“KD, my favorite player, I take a lot from his game, but I don’t think I play like him,” Dybansta added. “I think he really one of one… I play like a mix of Tracy McGrady and Shai.”

Related: BYU Basketball moves up in ESPN’s early top 25 preseason poll

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 5, 2025, where it first appeared.

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502Circle will use relationships with sports agencies like CAA, Klutch Sports Group and Excel Sports Management to continue assisting Louisville coaches with roster construction.If the House settlement goes through, the NIL market will be more heavily monitored by a clearinghouse. All deals exceeding $600 will have to be reported to and pass through the clearinghouse.Since 502Circle became the official collective of Louisville Athletics in 2023, five U of L sports teams have rose to, returned to or maintained national relevance. “We freaking crushed it.”A previous version of this story incorrectly detailed the operating structure for 502Circle beginning July 1. 502Circle will continue to operate independently of the University of Louisville. 502Circle, the official collective of University of Louisville Athletics since 2023, will be turned into a marketing agency to help support Cardinals sports, president Dan Furman told The Courier Journal.

Furman said his group will use relationships with agencies like CAA, Klutch Sports Group and Excel Sports Management to continue assisting Louisville coaches with roster construction. Otherwise, 502Circle will lean into its creative content arm, Floyd Street Media, and local business partnerships to help athletes grow their brands and maximize earning potential outside of revenue-sharing contracts with U of L, which are scheduled to start July 1.

“I still think the functionalities are gonna be pretty similar,” Furman said of pre- and post-July 1 502Circle. “It’s just gonna have more layers to it.”

This move is being done in anticipation of schools being allowed to pay college athletes directly. The House v. NCAA settlement, which received preliminary approval from Judge Claudia Wilken in October, would provide $2.8 billion in back damages to athletes who could not profit off their name, image and likeness between 2016 and Sept. 15, 2024 and bring revenue sharing to college sports starting July 1 with a projected cap for 2025-26 of $20.5 million per school.

“The contracting party with these athletes, as Dan talked about, has been 502,” Andrew Brandt, strategic advisor to Louisville Athletics and former Green Bay Packers vice president, told The Courier Journal. “That’s what we have, and we respect that, and are continuing that through July 1. From that point on, it’ll be more of a marketing-focused agency along with Floyd Street Media to make sure we’re providing the best opportunities outside of the rev-share agreement for our players. 

“… We’re confident that role can be filled here by the collective, which may again turn into a different name or different type of entity going forward.”

Louisville athletics director Josh Heird has “a lot of confidence” that Wilken will approve the agreement, but she has yet to issue a decision since the final approval hearing April 7. Should Judge Wilken deny the settlement, U of L will likely pay athletes anyway as permitted by Kentucky Senate Bill 3. 

“That’s probably the path we would go down,” Heird told The Courier Journal at ACC spring meetings last month. “Just from the standpoint of the more control you can have of the situation, the better. It’s been a little bit disjointed with outside entities, collectives, doing things. So I would presume that’s the road we would go down.”If the House settlement goes through, the NIL market will be more heavily monitored by a Deloitte-operated clearinghouse called “NIL go.” All deals exceeding $600 will have to be reported to and pass through the clearinghouse starting three days after the settlement is approved. The clearinghouse is intended to assess athletes’ fair market value.Officials from Deloitte have been sharing data with athletics directors and coaches over the last month or so, including: Those numbers are a far cry from the millions collectives have reportedly spent on athletes over the last four years or so. Restricting compensation in this way feels, to some, like a step backward.Louisville is adjusting by further emphasizing partnerships with businesses based in Louisville (like Buffalo Construction, The Galt House, L&N Federal Credit Union, Tom Drexler Plumbing, Angel’s Envy and Glow Brands) and upping athlete deliverables.

“(The clearinghouse) won’t necessarily impact how we spend,” Furman said. “It’s gonna impact how we operate. So we’ll just have to be more diligent with the reporting process. We’ll have to be more diligent with the deal structure. Like, make sure that what the athlete is doing for the money is more elaborate.”

Since 502Circle became the official collective of Louisville Athletics in 2023, five U of L sports teams have rose to, returned to or maintained national relevance.

Cardinals volleyball played for a national championship in 2024. Baseball will play in its first super regional since 2022 this weekend after missing three of the last four NCAA Tournaments. Football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball are all in ESPN’s way-too-early preseason top-25 polls.

As the revenue-sharing era of college sports looms, schools across the country are still trying to figure out what it’ll look like. But 502Circle and the University of Louisville have experience navigating uncharted territory en route to success.

“We freaking crushed it the last few years,” Furman said. “Like, has it been rocky? Yeah, 100%. Everyone’s trying to figure out the rules, trying to figure out what’s going on. But, golly, have we crushed it.”

Reach college sports enterprise reporter Payton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com, and follow her on X @petitus25.

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STARKVILLE — Chris Jans focused on two areas to improve Mississippi State basketball for the 2025-26 season: rebounding and 3-point shooting.

Six transfers, four freshmen and one commitment from an international player later, the Bulldogs believe they accomplished that.

“We needed to get bigger,” Jans said on June 5 as he enters his fourth season as MSU coach. “We needed to get better on the glass, which is hard for me to admit because most of my teams historically have been really good in the rebounding department. We felt like we had too many games where that was maybe a difference in the win-loss column, so we tried to shore that up that way.”

Mississippi State finished 21-13 and made its third consecutive NCAA tournament but is still seeking its first NCAA tournament win since 2008.

It lost starting power forward Cameron Matthews to graduation and starting center Michael Nwoko transferred to Miami. Forward KeShawn Murphy, who was second on the team with 11.7 points per game and the leading rebounder at 7.4 per game, transferred to Auburn.

Mississippi State’s transfer class consists of two power forwards, Achor Achor and Brandon Walker, and one center, Quincy Ballard. The freshmen class, which is No. 12 in the country according to the 247Sports Composite rankings, contains two four-star centers in Tee Bartlett and Canton’s Jamarion Davis-Fleming.

Ballard, a Wichita State transfer, could fill that spot as a starting center. He averaged 10.0 points, 9.2 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game last season. The Bulldogs were 130th in the country in rebounding percentage last season.

“With just how many ball screens are employed each and every game, and the level of what’s going on in those ball screens, having a quarterback on defense, or a goalie would be probably more appropriate, is a big advantage,” Jans said. “I’ve never felt like we’ve had that since we’ve been here, a guy that can protect the lane, protect the rim, protect some of the guys out front if they’re getting beat. Certainly not trying to put a ton of pressure or weight on his back walking in the door, but it’s a big reason why we went after him the way we did.”The return of Josh Hubbard, a two-time All-SEC guard, is a big boost for the 3-point shooting, but Mississippi State needs more consistent and efficient shooting around him. MSU shot 31.4% from 3 last season, 14th in the SEC, but on the third-most attempts at 26.9 per game.

“We thought going into the year, just to be frank with you, that we had addressed it,” Jans said. “We thought we had enough guys that could shoot the ball, and for whatever reason, as a group, we didn’t end up shooting it as well as we anticipated.”

Georgetown transfer Jayden Epps shot 34.4% from 3-point range on 154 attempts. UAB transfer Ja’Borri McGhee shot 40.8% from 3-point range, but only on 71 attempts. Arizona State transfer Amier Ali was a 32.6% 3-point shooter on 92 attempts.

Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.