Former Maryland basketball assistant David Cox was among the finalists for the job when Kevin Willard left for Villanova. But Buzz Williams got the job, so Cox followed Willard up the road to Nova, where the basketball program will purportedly have more money to spend on players because it doesn’t have to support big-time football.

If that sounds familiar, it should. Everyone recalls Willard’s public complaints about`basketball funding, and his private beef with the football program getting so much money. Cox explained those comments during an interview on 1st String Podcast.

“So, coach was looking ahead, not necessarily at last year or even behind in the last two years. He might have had some issues here and there that needed to be addressed and either did or didn’t, but that wasn’t a big issue. He was looking towards the future, and if you look towards the future, if we would have stayed at Maryland, we would have had about, going in the next year, $4.5 million. No more collective, so you can’t you know just raise that money and put it in a pot and add it on. You can get fined for that as a school. I think the fine is like $5 million if they catch you using illegal money outside of the money that’s allotted to you, so we couldn’t take that chance,” he said.

“So if we would have came back this year, into the Big Ten with let’s just say with a $5 million roster [or] $6 million roster, we probably would have finished close to last place … And then we would have been fired.”

More below from Cox on Willard’s comments, the differences he’s noticed at Villanova, where he thinks Derik Queen will land and more:

Will Wade’s work building N.C. State into an immediate winner included the pursuit of an entrant in the NBA draft, just in case he returned to college.

It wasn’t a huge risk: With all the cash flowing in college, the number of early entrants to the NBA draft has continued to shrink. This year’s draft starts Wednesday night with its lowest total of those prospects in at least 10 years.

“Now you can play the long game a little bit more,” Wade told The Associated Press, referring to how college players can look at their futures. “Look, I can get paid the same I would get paid in the G League, the same I would get paid on a two-way (contract), some guys are getting first-round money.”

And more money is on the way.

It’s been four years since college athletes were permitted to profit off the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL), opening the door for athlete compensation that was once forbidden by NCAA rules. Next week, on July 1, marks the official start of revenue sharing where schools can begin directly paying athletes following the $2.8 billion House antitrust settlement.

For Wade, that led to signing Texas Tech’s Darrion Williams after 247sports’ fifth-ranked transfer withdrew from the draft.

“Basically now if you’re an early entry and you’re not a top-20, top-22 pick — where the money slots — you can pretty much make that in college,” the new Wolfpack coach said.

It’s all part of a seismic change that has rippled through college athletics since the pandemic, its impact touching the NBA. Players willing to “test the waters” in the draft before returning to school now have a lucrative option to consider against uncertain pro prospects.

And it shows in the numbers.

“With all the money that’s being thrown around in NIL, you’re having a lot less players put their names in,” Detroit Pistons president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon said. “You’re having pretty good players pulling their names out.”

Declining number of early entrants

This year’s drop is significant when compared to the years before anyone had heard of COVID-19. There was a spike of college players jumping into the draft in the pandemic’s aftermath, when they were granted a free eligibility year to temporarily make even a fourth-year senior an “early” entrant.

But those numbers had fallen as those five-year players cycled out of college basketball, and they’re now below pre-pandemic levels. That decline coincides with NIL’s July 2021 arrival, from athletes doing paid appearances or social-media endorsements to boosters forming collectives offering NIL packages amounting to de facto salaries.

As a result:

— Eighty-two players appeared on the NBA’s list of early entrants primarily from American colleges with a smattering of other teams, down 49% from 2024 (162) and nearly 47% compared to the four-year average from 2016-19 (153.5);

— Thirty-two remained after withdrawal deadlines, down from 62 last year and 72.0 from 2016-19;

— Adding international prospects, 109 players declared for the draft, down from 201 last year and 205.0 from 2016-19;

— And only 46 remained, down from 77 in 2024 and 83.8 from 2016-19.

More college players weighing options

Duke coach Jon Scheyer understands draft dynamics, both for no-doubt headliners and prospects facing less clarity. He sees college athlete compensation as a “legitimate gamechanger.”

“Hopefully it allows players to decide what’s truly best for their game,” Scheyer told the AP. “It allows them to analyze: ‘Am I actually ready for this or not?’ Where money doesn’t have to be the deciding factor. Because if money’s the deciding factor, that’s why you see kids not stick. The NBA’s cutthroat. It just is.”

The Blue Devils are expected to have three players selected in the first-round Wednesday, including presumptive No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg alongside top-10 prospects Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach. They also had players sorting through draft decisions.

Freshman Isaiah Evans — a slender wing with explosive scoring potential — withdrew instead of chasing first-round status through the draft process. Incoming transfer Cedric Coward from Washington State rapidly rose draft boards after the combine and remained in the draft.

“There’s no substituting the money you’re going to make if you’re a top-15, top-20 pick,” said Scheyer, entering Year 4 as successor to retired Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski. “But if you’re not solidified as a first-round pick, why risk it when you can have a solid year and a chance to go up or be in the same position the following season?”

College compensation is re-shaping the draft pool

Langdon, himself a former Duke first-rounder, sees that evolution, too.

His Pistons had their first playoff appearance since 2019, but lack a first-round selection and own a single pick in Thursday’s second round. Fewer candidates could make the already imperfect science of drafting even trickier in this new reality.

According to the NBA’s 2024-25 rookie scale, a player going midway through the first round would make roughly $3.5 million in first-year salary. That figure would drop to about $2.8 million at pick No. 20, $2.3 million at No. 25 and $2.1 million with the 30th and final first-round draftee.

A minimum first-year NBA salary? Roughly $1.2 million.

“These NIL packages are starting to get up to $3 to $4 to $5 to $6 million dollars,” Langdon said. “These guys are not going to put their name in to be the 25th pick, or even the 18th pick. They are going to go back to school in hopes of being a lottery pick next year. With that pool of players decreasing, it kind of decreases the odds of the level of player we get at No. 37, just the pure mathematics.”

Current NBA players offer insight

Indiana Pacers big man Thomas Bryant and Oklahoma City Thunder counterpart Isaiah Hartenstein, who both played in the seven-game NBA Finals that ended Sunday, illustrate Langdon’s point.

They were back-to-back second-rounders in 2017 (Bryant at 42, Hartenstein at 43), pushed down a draft board featuring early-entry college players in 33 of the 41 picks before them.

Bryant played two college seasons at Indiana before stints with five NBA teams, including Denver’s 2023 championship squad. Would the ability to make college money have changed his journey?

“To be honest, I see it from both sides,” Bryant said. ”If you’re not going to get drafted, you understand that a kid needs money to live in college and everything. So, I understand where they’re coming from on that end.

“But for me, I took the chance. I bet on myself, and I believed in myself, and I worked to the very end. And the thing about me is that if I went down, I was going down swinging. I hang my hat on that. For some, it might not be the same case.”

The American-born Hartenstein moved to Germany at 11 and played in Lithuania before being drafted. As he put it: “I think everyone’s journey is different.”

“I think you should have the right people around you to kind of guide you,” said Hartenstein, a newly minted NBA champion. “I mean, I was lucky that my dad, who was a professional before, kind of guided me. Depending on your circumstances, it’s hard to turn down guaranteed money. If there’s an opportunity to get in a good situation in the NBA, you do that. But it’s a hard decision.”

College now can be more of an allure

At N.C. State, Wade’s pitch to Williams included a leading role and a shot at boosting his draft stock.

The 6-foot-6 junior averaged 15.1 points with multiple big NCAA Tournament performances as the Red Raiders reached the Elite Eight, nearly beating eventual champion Florida.

“He was most likely going to be a second-round draft pick, and his package here is better than probably he would’ve gotten as a second-round pick,” Wade said, adding: “We certainly talked about that. We went over that. We went over the math of everything. We went over the plan on how to accomplish that.”

That’s not to say it’s easy at the college level in this new landscape. Roster management is tricky, including a balancing act of maintaining financial resources to potentially land one player while risking missing out on others.

“It’s the way life works, it’s the way it should work,” Wade said. “If there’s no risk, there’s no reward. The riskiest players, in terms of waiting on the money and waiting them out, are the best players. That’s why they’re in the draft process. We’re not going to be scared of that.”

Nor should he, not with the allure of campus life these days.

Find more sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

After 23 since his retirement, former Arkansas baseball coach Norm DeBriyn will be inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame. He is the second Razorback to earn the honor in the accolade’s 19-year history.

Norm DeBriyn to be inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

When it comes to Hog legends, DeBriyn is in the upper echelons of Arkansas’ athletic history. Spanning across four decades, DeBriyn led Razorbacks’ baseball between 1970 and 2002. In the process, the Ashland, Wis., native won 1,161 games (the most in school history) with a winning percentage of .641. Under DeBriyn’s guidance, the Hogs won two Southwest Conference titles, one SEC title, made 15 NCAA Tournament appearances, and four at the College World Series, finishing as the runner-up in 1979.

It’s without a doubt that DeBriyn laid the groundwork for the machine fans see at Baum-Walker today. Arkansas baseball is arguably the most consistently elite team in the country, with head coach Dave Van Horn at the helm, and one of the supporters of Van Horn landing the job was DeBriyn.

The 18th induction class will be honored at the 2026 Night of Champions event at the home of the College Baseball Hall of Fame in Overland Park, Kan. The ceremony will take place on Feb. 12, 2026. Along with DeBriyn, the College Baseball HOF will induct 20 additional players, coaches, and persons who have otherwise helped grow the game.

THE 2025 COLLEGE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME CLASS

Players

• Gene Ammann, Pitcher, Florida State University, 1968-70
• Kris Benson, Pitcher, Clemson University, 1994-96
• Kip Bouknight, Pitcher, University of South Carolina, 1998-2001
• Hubie Brooks, Shortstop, Mesa College/Arizona State University, 1976-78
• Gene Hooks, Third Baseman, Wake Forest University, 1947-50
• Mike Loynd, Pitcher, Florida State University, 1984-86
• Mark McGwire, First Baseman/Pitcher, University of Southern California, 1982-84
• Phil Nevin, Third Base, Cal State Fullerton, 1990-92
• David Price, Pitcher, Vanderbilt University, 2005-07
• Earl Sanders, Pitcher, Jackson State University, 1984-86
• Mike Stenhouse, Outfielder, Harvard University, 1977-79
• Stephen Strasburg, Pitcher, San Diego State University, 2007-09
• Joe Thomas, Pitcher/First Baseman, Marietta College, 1994-97

Coaches

• Norm DeBriyn, Coach, University of Arkansas, 1970-2002
• *Clint Evans, Coach, University of California, 1930-54
• *Ray Fisher, Third Baseman/Pitcher/Coach, Middlebury College 1907-09/1910 (Third Baseman/Pitcher/Coach) / University of Michigan / 1921-59 (Coach)
• Les Murakami, Coach, University of Hawai’i, 1968-97
• Ray Tanner, Coach, North Carolina State, 1988-96/University of South Carolina, 1997-2012
• Jerry Weinstein, Coach, Sacramento City College, 1975-98

Administrators / Builders / Umpires

• Scott Boras, Agent, University of the Pacific, 1972-76
• Paul Guillie, Umpire – 1990-2014/SEC Coordinator of Baseball Umpires – 2014-current

In mid-May, I did the insane thing of trying to not only project who will make the College Football Playoff, but also trying to guess which teams would win in the postseason.

A few weeks later, the CFP opted to move to the straight-seeding model. As we learned last year, seeding can have a profound impact on how the entire tournament shakes out, so we took the same rankings, updated the seeding and tried to project again how it would play out.

It changed. Let’s get into it.

First Round 

No. 12 Boise State vs. No. 5 LSU
Boise State makes its second consecutive trip to the College Football Playoff. And because of the new seeding rules, the Broncos have a more manageable test in the first round instead of playing Ohio State, who would have been the No. 5 seed behind the Big 12 Champion enjoying a bye. Boise State had a first-round bye a year ago and didn’t measure up with Penn State, so it’s hard to imagine a Group of 5 team playing their way into a top-four seed this year, regardless of record. Boise loses to LSU in the first round.

No. 8 Oregon vs. No. 9 Illinois
Oregon got screwed with last year’s seeding rules. Had the rules not changed, Oregon would have had to face Texas in the first round, so the Ducks actually get a break. And because the Big Ten is too big and everyone can’t play everyone, this would be an in-conference matchup happening for the first time. Though Illinois had a great run of a season, it faces a better Big Ten team it was fortunate to avoid on its regular-season schedule and comes up short.

No. 11 BYU vs. 6 Notre Dame
Go try to pick the Big 12 champion in June. It’s impossible. I went with BYU because I like the pieces the Cougars bring back. The Big 12 champion gets an automatic spot in the CFP, but the new rules don’t guarantee a bye, so the Cougars will likely find themsleves in the back half of the final top 12. It faces a Notre Dame team that has one of the best offensive lines in the country, and though BYU plays a hard-fought game, the Irish advances to the next round.

No. 10 Alabama vs. No. 7 Georgia
The thing about the 12-team CFP era that people didn’t really acknowledge when we expanded was how many rematches we would get. Here’s another example of two SEC superpowers who met in the regular season once and have to play again. Though it’s really hard to tell right now which of these two will be better this year, I find it hard to believe either of these teams would go 2-0 against each other. I have Georgia winning the regular-season matchup and Alabama advancing under second-year head coach Kalen DeBoer.

Quarterfinals

No. 5 LSU vs. No. 4 Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl
Ohio State didn’t win the Big Ten but it was one of two teams from that conference to enjoy a first-round bye. It doesn’t have an easy road though, having to play a top-tier SEC team in LSU its first time out. Though there is some question about whether the bye can kill momentum, Ohio State captures some of that magic from last year and gets hot in the CFP, ending Brian Kelly’s first postseason run with the Tigers in the quarterfinals.

No. 8 Oregon vs. No. 1 Texas
Oregon had the benefit of not playing Texas in the first round, but the Ducks’ reward for winning their first-round-game was a date with the Longhorns. Texas is the deepest, most talented team in college football in 2025. That team is led by Arch Manning, who will be fresh off a trip to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony. It’s not that Oregon hasn’t gotten better year over year, but the Ducks continue to have an unfortunate path to the College Football Playoff semifinal. Texas wins.

No. 6 Notre Dame vs. No. 3 Clemson
Though there is some doubt lingering about just how good Clemson will be this year, it’s hard to picture a world in which the Cade Klubnik-led Tigers don’t won the ACC. The Tigers, backed by head coach Dabo Swinney, fall back on some of the postseason experience and handle Notre Dame in the second round. Notre Dame’s program is building in the right direction and the Irish, especiall after a hot month on the recruiting trail, know they’ll be back in this position for many years to come.

No. 10 Alabama vs. No. 2 Penn State
Alabama didn’t win the SEC or win its first matchup with Georgia, but the Crimson Tide get hot at the right time. Penn State is still trying to prove it can win against top-tier competition in the postseason and it has the unfortunate reality of facing an ultra-talented Alabama team that’s feeling good about itself right out of the gate. Alabama advances.

Semifinals

No. 4 Ohio State vs. No. 1 Texas in the Fiesta Bowl
There have been a lot of familiar matchups in this CFP projection, both in terms of 2025 rematches and games from last year’s Playoff popping back up again. But even though the CFP has expanded, there are still going to be usual suspects in the semifinals. So we get another Ohio State-Texas game, which is expected given the talent both teams possess. This year, though, Texas finally gets over the hump and knocks off the Buckeyes to advance to the title game.

No. 10 Alabama vs. No. 3 Clemson
We get a classic CFP matchup in the semifinals between two teams who are very familiar with seeing each other in the postseason. After people spent the entire year doubting Swinney, he proves he’s a made scientist with a well-rounded roster. The Tigers return to the national championship game by beating Alabama, proving everything is well and good with the Clemson football program.

National Championship Game

No. 1 Texas vs. No. 3 Clemson in the national title game
It has been 20 years since Texas won the national championship and it has been a rough two decades for Longhorns fans. But Steve Sarkisian has built a program that was good enough to consistently knock on the door before finally kicking it down. Manning becomes the next star of the sport and Texas asserts itself as one of the premier programs in college football, conquering the SEC and the the nation. Clemson, though disappointed, has a regained confidence in Swinney and his plan.