There’s still plenty of good in the world of college football. With NIL opportunities changing the game, stories like this one are worth celebrating.

Keelon Russell, the No. 2 ranked quarterback in the class of 2025 and the 2024 Gatorade High School Football Player of the Year, made headlines this week for a heartfelt gesture toward his mother.

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It’s a great reminder that beyond the field, these young athletes are using their platforms to support their families, give back and lead by example.

The NIL-focused outlet On3 shared a photo of Russell’s generous surprise:

“NEW: Alabama QB Keelon Russell gifted his mom a new Mercedes Benz with NIL dollars.”

Russell’s current NIL valuation stands at $1.3 million. His first partnership was with Panini America. He ranks 37th among all college football players in NIL valuation, and 2nd among freshmen behind Michigan’s Bryce Underwood. Across all college athletes, he’s currently 78th according to On3’s rankings.

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Russell will enter fall camp with a shot at winning the starting quarterback job under new Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer. He’ll be competing with experienced returner Ty Simpson and promising youngster Austin Mack.

Back in February, Russell spoke with On3 Sports about his focus on staying grounded amid rising expectations and NIL attention:

“The best advice was to understand what’s coming towards you,” Russell said. “Understand that your profile is your profile. Understand that your name is your name. Building that is the most successful thing that you can do, especially with how the NIL space is getting bigger. The performances of the platforms are getting way more advanced. NIL is something that takes away from the aspects of football. Somebody told me, focus on the key things.”

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Russell originally committed to SMU, but after a standout senior season at Duncanville High School in Texas, he flipped his commitment to Alabama. One of the key reasons? The development of Michael Penix Jr. under DeBoer at Washington, a path Russell hopes to follow.

This story of Russell’s gift to his mother stands out as an awesome example of how NIL is already helping student-athletes make life-changing decisions for themselves and their families.

Related: LSU Football Makes Historic Academic Announcement Under Brian Kelly

Related: Urban Meyer Calls for Rule That Would Get Michigan Coach Fired

The NCAA is currently embroiled in multiple class action lawsuits, most notable among them House v. NCAA, an anti-trust suit that could reshape the landscape of college sports if a proposed settlement is approved.

Compensation for student-athletes has been a major point of emphasis in many of the suits leveled against the NCAA, but second to that issue have been eligibility issues.

Junior college transfers have, at times, been successful in securing additional years of eligibility at the Division 1 level with lawsuits. The most high-profile example is Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia.

A new kind of bid at additional eligibility has now been made by Tennessee basketball’s Zakai Zeigler.

Zakai Zeigler lawsuit

Zeigler signed with Tennessee out of high school in 2021 and proceeded to play immediately and often for the Volunteers over the past four years. He didn’t redshirt, which is the crux of his issue with the NCAA.

Zeigler is seeking a fifth year of eligibility while he pursues a graduate degree at Tennessee. He believes he is being “arbitrarily barred from doing so by an NCAA rule that limits athletes to participating in only four seasons of intercollegiate competition within the five-year window.”

Zeigler wants five years of eligibility across that five-year window.

Zakai Zeigler’s case against the NCAA

Zeigler’s argument boils down to a few major points:

• The NCAA’s redshirt system is flawed and skewed in favor of the schools.
• Because of that, NCAA programs essentially get to select which players get to benefit the most from NIL.
• Because Zeigler wasn’t redshirted as a freshman, he will miss out on an additional year of NIL compensation that is available to other student-athletes.

Redshirts allow NCAA programs to “largely control who gets access to the fifth year of eligibility, strategically ‘banking’ eligibility for some athletes while denying it to others, without consideration, based purely on institutional preference and benefit,” Zeigler’s complaint reads.

The fifth year of student-athletes collegiate careers has proven to be the most lucrative, based on projections from Spyre Sports Group.

Zeigler, who earned around $150,000 his freshman season, has had his NIL compensation grow each year. He would be in line to make around $2 million to $4 million next year if he was able to compete a fifth year.

“This valuation reflects the market value of an upperclassman with a proven performance record and high visibility, especially in a high-profile conference like the SEC,” the complaint reads.

By not being redshirted his freshman season, Zeigler argues that he is being prevented from collecting further NIL compensation that other student-athletes receive.

Zeigler isn’t trying to undo the NCAA’s five-year rule for student-athlete eligibility. Rather, the complaint states, he is arguing that there is no ”academic progress justification” to limiting student-athletes to only four year of eligibility over the five-year period. He says the five-year window in college sports should mean five years of eligibility.

“Indeed, the fact that the NCAA’s eligibility window is five years long demonstrates that allowing an athlete to play in each of the five years cannot conflict with any purported academic or other purpose the NCAA might claim supports the Four-Seasons Rule,” his complaint states.

It continues, “… The redshirt system also reveals that the Four-Seasons Rule lacks legitimate procompetitive justifications. The inconsistency exposes the pretextual nature of the NCAA’s claims: the Four-Seasons Rule cannot be about preserving amateurism, as both redshirt and non-redshirt fifth-year athletes exist within the same eligibility window. It cannot be about academic progress, as graduated athletes remain excluded. And it cannot be about competitive balance, as schools with greater resources can strategically redshirt more athletes. … Instead, the redshirt system demonstrates that the Four-Seasons Rule functions primarily as a market control mechanism. It allows institutions to strategically manipulate the eligibility window to their advantage, extracting maximum value from athletes while denying those same athletes the opportunity to realize their own market value when it peaks.”

Zeigler, who holds the record for most assists (747) and most steals (251) in Tennessee basketball history and was named the 2025 Defensive Player of the Year in the SEC, is seeking a jury trial and a ruling finding that the NCAA’s four-seasons rule violates both the Sherman Act and the Tennessee Trade Practice Act.

He also wants a “preliminary and permanent injunction” that will enable him to play during the upcoming 2025-26 college basketball season. If he were to win his lawsuit, it could dramatically alter the college athletics landscape.

After transferring from Arkansas, Boogie Fland is set to receive a lucrative NIL deal at Florida, CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander reported. His agreement is expected to be “north of” $2 million.

Fland arrives at UF as one of the best available players still in the transfer portal this cycle after withdrawing from the 2025 NBA Draft. He became the No. 10 overall player and No. 3-ranked point guard to hit the open market, according to the On3 Industry Transfer Rankings.

Now, he’s heading to Florida after putting up strong numbers at Arkansas before suffering a hand injury. Fland’s addition provides a major boost for the Gators as they look to repeat as national champions in 2025-26.

As a freshman at Arkansas last season, Fland appeared in 21 games, including 18 starts, as the injury knocked him out for two months. He made his return during the NCAA Tournament, dropping six points in back-to-back games against Kansas and St. John’s after jumping back into the lineup.

Fland arrived in Fayetteville as a key recruiting win for John Calipari as he took over at Arkansas. A product of Harlem (NY) Archbishop Stepinac, he was a four-star prospect and the No. 18 overall player from the 2024 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. Fland was also the top-ranked point guard from the cycle.

Boogie Fland’s On3 NIL Valuation

Boogie Fland also holds a $1.4 million On3 NIL Valuation as he makes his way to Gainesville. That figure ranks No. 21 in the men’s college basketball NIL rankings and No. 60 in the On3 NIL 100, the first of its kind and defacto NIL ranking of the top 100 high school and college athletes ranked by their On3 NIL Valuation.

“Despite what some fans and media believe, there is not an unlimited amount of money being deployed to manage rosters,” said Shannon Terry, the founder and CEO of On3. “Any model – whether it’s today’s broken NCAA ‘student-athlete’ construct or media rights sharing through employment, which is almost a certainty in the near future – demands efficiency based on the athlete and school knowing the athlete’s respective market value.”

The On3 NIL Valuation is calculated by combining Roster Value and personal NIL. Roster value is the value an athlete has by being a member of his or her team at his or her school, which factors into the role of NIL collectives. NIL in an athlete’s name, image and likeness and the value it could bring to regional and national brands outside of the scope of NIL collectives.

About On3 NIL Valuation, Brand Value, Roster Value

Happy Gump Day! We’re going to focus on College Football today, despite there being little news out there. Why? Because previews are starting to roll out, as we find ourselves just 95 days from the 2025 season kickoff.

But first, the man who rescued Alabama football and retired as the greatest of all-time, has added more hardware to a trophy case that can fill up a medium-size McMansion in East Mobile at this point.

That’s Emmy award-winning Coach Nick Saban, thank you very much. Imagine being an “emerging talent” in your 70s and bagging an Emmy in your first year? The dude has superhuman work ethic.

We kind of knew this was coming too, because after saving LSU and Alabama football, he also saved the venerable College Gameday broadcast — its rating shot up 25% once Saint Nick grabbed the mic. And though I don’t personally care for McAffee, the interplay of meathead-meets-old-timer has been a ratings bonanza, and is the most unlikely and successful buddy cop show we’ve seen in a while.

And what did the GOAT say about his Emmy nomination? Classic Saban:

“Must have been not a good year for people in the Emmys.”

He also weighed in on playoff expansion: Pandora’s box has been opened, may as well invite a few more to the party.

“Back in the years I was never for expanding the playoff because I thought bowl games were really important to the history and tradition of college football,” Saban said. “Now that we have expanded the playoff, now the bowl games have taken a less significant role. I think expanding the playoff and having as many teams involved as we can —without playing too many games for the players. I think that’s a little bit of a concern — is probably a good thing.”

Now, time for some footbaw.

We begin with genuinely the worst playoff bracket prediction I’ve ever seen:

Please note, for this to happen, Alabama would have to lose to LSU on its home field in the regular season, then lose to LSU in Bryant Denny West. Or Georgia being a mid-seed, and then losing to tissue-soft Oregon. Or that an Illinois team with a catastrophe of a defense will somehow survive the Buckeyes, USC, a trip to Seattle, a trip to Madison, and an Indiana offense in Bloomington that can drop points in a hurry — and do all it to finish third or fourth in the Big 10. Or that the Big 10 will even have four teams for that matter.

We could go on, but the more you look at it, the more impressively terrible it is.

Just a second to toot our own horn here. Roll ‘Bama Roll: The Champagne of ‘Bama Blogs since 2006, has been ranked third among the most influential Tuscaloosa sites, just behind UA Athletics and the Tuscaloosa News. And that’s pretty damned cool. So, thanks for being here with us, guys, and making it your own.

ESPN takes a stab at their Preseason story lines to watch. Of course, Alabama is going to be on there.

3. DeBoer at Alabama, Year 2: …Replacing Nick Saban at Alabama was always going to be a unique conundrum because it’s completely unfair to expect anyone to replace the greatest college football coach of all time. The coach who came after Saban was going to be measured against him. That’s just how this works. While that dynamic is probably unfair, that doesn’t make DeBoer’s task any easier…

I still don’t think most of the CFB media grasp the profound hole KDB found himself in last February. We should recap it though:

• He had to replace the greatest coach of all time
• OSU tampering with the roster before Saban even left, taking Alabama’s most important defender with them
• Lost almost half the class to the initial portal period and a second transfer window after the coaching change
• Did not have the benefit of signing additional help following that second transfer window
• Had to re-recruit the entire roster and get them to buy-in, at least to stay
• Implement two new schemes, and retool much of the program from the ground-up
• Try and establish recruiting ties 2500 miles away from KDB’s head coaching experience at Fresno and Washington
• Bring in almost an entirely new staff
• Hired an offensive coordinator who accepted the job, backed out late, and then left ‘Bama scrambling for a replacement
• Inherited a team rife with prima donna who too often prioritized self over team, and had been allowed to create a culture of entitlement
• Inherited two mediocre lines, and a running back corps that has sadly proven to be JAGs
• Incorporating freshmen and transfers all over the roster.
• And, when all that was done, the games had to be played, and the Tide had the second-toughest schedule in the SEC and the 7th hardest overall.

Despite that, Alabama was 8-2 in late November, and tracking for a bid in the playoffs. I still maintain that it’s not that ‘Bama finished 9-4 that bothered people, it’s to whom and how those losses occurred: two games especially. If Alabama beats Vandy or Alabama finishes on a high note against a depleted Michigan team, there’s not nearly the pressure on DeBoer this season. He had to have one of those, preferably both. Still, 9-4 with ‘Bama’s back against the wall, and all of the structural woes he inherited, was a good job under the circumstances. And this is functionally Year One in my books.

College Football News is a site I don’t hit up much in the season. But during the offseason, Fuitak does a great job meticulously previewing every college football team in D1, as well as the FCS.

We’ll look at two today: Vanderbilt and Auburn.

snip

For a program with just 54 winning seasons in 121 years, 2024 was magical. Vanderbilt went to a bowl game and won it.

The season opened up with a win over Virginia Tech from the ACC, and ended it with a win over the ACC’s Georgia Tech. It beat Alabama for the first time since 1984. It had its first winning season since 2013. It was super-fun thanks to the wonderful Diego Pavia taking over at quarterback. All of that is what Commodore fans will remember.

We’re grading on a curve here. Going 6-6 in the regular season gets SEC coaches fired, but for Vanderbilt, it wasn’t just about the record. It pushed Texas hard in a 27-24 loss, and it showed up big in tough road defeats to Missouri and LSU.

No, Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea will never accept any sort of a moral victory, and Pavia sure as shoot won’t, but for all the positives last year, there was a loss to a 3-9 Georgia State, and Alabama was the only regular season victory over a team that finished with a winning record.

This year’s version is loaded with experience, it’s better than the 2024 team, and it might just find enough magic again to keep it all going.

Even if that means another 6-6 regular season.

snip

Let’s start with this. Auburn will have a winning season, and it’ll go to a bowl game, and things will finally trend upwards again. While that might seem like a low bar, after four years without a winning season and no more than six wins since going 9-4 in 2019, being back to potentially normal matters.

Going to Baylor to start the season isn’t a layup, but Ball State, South Alabama, and Mercer will be a base of three wins. It won’t be easy, but Auburn has to beat Kentucky, win at Vanderbilt, and then come up with an upset somewhere.

LOL

Anyway, hit up CFN if you need your college football fix. Best offseason site for previews, IMO.

ESPN was not alone in starting to make predictions for the 2025 campaign: 247 National got in on the prognostications:

Kalen DeBoer would not be able to remove the stench of a season-opening loss to Florida State upon his return to Tuscaloosa if the Crimson Tide fail. Considering last year’s disappointing finish, Alabama is a marked program. Most are anticipate a rebound. Mike Norvell has another portal-infused roster with the Seminoles and after the faceplant in 2024, would love to get off on the right foot against a national brand. However, this is arguably Florida State’s second-toughest game of the year outside of a road trip to Clemson in November.

CBS Sports also has begun their Hawt Takes, and unsurprisingly SEC Hater Emeritus Danny Kannell thinks the SEC is mid.

Danny Kanell: The SEC champion will have a 9-3 regular season record

The SEC continues to increase its overall talent with nearly every transfer portal window, as even the best recruiting programs out of high school have been shopping for additions at positions of need. And while that has boosted the overall talent level of the conference it has also increased the parity and lessened the chances of seeing one team dominate the conference the way that Nick Saban’s Alabama program did throughout a good portion of the 2010s. Danny is doubting the strength of the conference with this prediction as much as the potential for more chaos, as the top teams have quarterback questions and the ability to separate from the pack has become more difficult in the modern era.

I genuinely don’t understand how Panhandle Uncle Rico keeps getting jobs. Schedules as much as talent determine the conference standings. He might not know that, cutting his teeth in the poverty ACC. But Georgia has a much easier path ahead of them this year, and Texas is once again pampered. If the SEC winner has more than two regular season losses, I will crawl to Tallahassee and smooch his fetid chocolate starfish in contrition.

I think I can keep my Chapstick in my pocket though; neither of those are going to happen.

How mad is OSU at having to play the Fox Big Noon game vs. Texas? The (ahem) esteemed lawmakers of the Buckeye State apparently have decided it’s their job to prevent noon kickoffs for all state schools.

No, that’s not a joke.

A bill has been introduced in the legislature to prohibit Ohio State and other state schools from playing most of its home games before 3:30 p.m. Under the terms of the proposal by Rep. Tex Fischer (R), games including at least one state school and games including top-10 teams would be prohibited from starting earlier than the mid-afternoon. With one exception.

“Division (B) of this section does not apply if an earlier start time of a college football game between two teams is a college football tradition,” the bill states. “For this purpose, a ‘college football tradition’ is a start time of a game between the teams of two institutions whose football teams have competed against each other at least fifty times and the start time has been the same for at least ninety-five per cent of those games.”

We have the democracy we deserve — we voted for every single one of these buffoons speedrunning their way to Idiocracy.

I would, however, like to direct the esteemed Assemblymen of Ohio to something called the United States Constitution, specifically Section 1, Article 10, Clause 3 (known as the the Contract Clause.) You sit in in law school, hungover and half-assing your way through the “lesser” provisions, and wait your whole life to see a Contract Clause case in the wild. Then — BAM! — Ohio serves one up for you. G’bless, gentlemen.

(No, we’re not talking about NIL today or the NCAA. It’s an important story, but I refuse to deal with this any more…or at least on this Gump Day).

The other day I made a comment similar to one Saban made regarding Ty Simpson: It’s both a rare trait, but a welcome one, to see perserverance in players now. Some guys have to season in the broth a bit longer. Mac Jones was one such player, so was Mal Moore. Nick Saban sees the same in semi-incumbent QB Ty Simpson:

“Ty was an outstanding high school player, no doubt. He’s a fine young man,” Saban said. “I think his example is a true example of development. He matured for two years, and now he’s getting an opportunity, and his experiences will help him be successful.”

Simpson was a 5-star quarterback and top-25 prospect in the 2022 recruiting class as a high school recruit. He redshirted his true freshman season behind starting quarterback Bryce Young and served as the primary backup during Saban’s final season in 2023 behind Jalen Milroe.

Despite losing the job to Milroe in 2023, Simpson didn’t enter the transfer portal and stuck around as the backup again in 2024. He’s now entering his fourth year in the Crimson Tide program, is the most experienced quarterback in the room, and seems to be in line to take over the starting job this coming fall.

And, finally, I leave you with a moment of levity.

He cracked the code.

Have a great one, Roll Tide.

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