Manning’s name, image and likeness (NIL) valuation has risen to $5.3 million as of Monday, December 8, almost $2 million higher than it was last month. In mid-November, Manning lost his title as the highest paid college athlete, but he now finds himself back on top thanks to a upset victory by the Longhorns to cap off the regular season.

Manning currently leads all athlete on On3’s NIL valuations tracker, followed by BYU basketball player AJ Dybantsa at No. 2 with a $4.3 million value and Ohio State football player Jeremiah State at No. 3 with a value of $4.2 million.

Manning, who is the nephew of Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks Peyton and Eli, saw his NIL value peak at $6.8 million in July, per On3’s past NIL data. However, his value began to slowly take a dip throughout the season after Texas lost to Ohio State, Florida and Georgia. After Texas’ loss to Georgia, Manning’s NIL valuation fell to nearly half of what is was in the preseason, dropping to $3.6 million on November 17. 

Texas finished at No. 13 in the final CFP rankings with a 9-3 record, not good enough to earn an at-large bid in the CFP. This marks the first time in three years that Texas will not appear in the playoffs, but Longhorn fans will still get to see their team take on the Michigan Wolverines in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on December 31. 

The decision by Notre Dame to not play in a bowl game could have sweeping consequences not only for the playoff system, but also regarding the future of the national college football bowl system itself.

That is according to a bowl executive who believes the move could have historic implications for the entire postseason format.

The end of college football bowl season?

After being snubbed from playoff consideration on selection day, Notre Dame stunned the college football world by declining to take part in any postseason competition, and a person involved in the bowl system has suggested that the move could spell its end.

“The bowl system we know now is officially dead,” a college football bowl executive said, via On3 Sports’ Brett McMurphy.

They added: “RIP. It was a nice run while it lasted.”

Playoff or bust?

After news of Notre Dame’s decision went public, a growing consensus has emerged among college football analysts that a precedent has already been established.

By having such a well-known and highly-ranked team that was kept out of the playoff elect to not play in any bowl game, a message of sorts has been communicated to decision makers that the big-time schools are moving towards a playoff-or-bust mentality.

Over time, that could prove to be a mortal blow against a bowl system that was already struggling to stay as relevant as in years past since the emergence of the playoff.

Why Notre Dame did it

Notre Dame looked poised to take the final place in the College Football Playoff after being ranked ahead of Miami in the selection committee’s previous rankings. 

That was, until the selectors suddenly swapped them on the last day to put the Hurricanes in and the Irish out.

While most observers agree Miami likely deserved the spot given its head-to-head victory over Notre Dame, the timing of the committee’s decision also drew criticism.

And positively enraged everyone at Notre Dame, enough to withdraw their name from any bowl consideration. Why play in a rinky-dink bowl game when you could have had a playoff spot?

Notre Dame isn’t alone

While it may be the most high-profile program to back out of the bowl season, Notre Dame is not the only one to make that decision.

Kansas State and Iowa State were the two other bowl-eligible teams that announced they will not play in the postseason after the first school’s head coach retired and the latter’s, Matt Campbell, left the program to become the head man at Penn State.

Florida State, Auburn, UCF, Baylor, Kansas, Rutgers, and Temple were the 5-7 schools that also turned down a bowl appearance that was offered to them, according to McMurphy.

Those schools all have very different reasons, but the relatively easy decision they made to not take part in bowl season could itself be enough to send a message to the powers that be that the system itself may not be as important as it once was.

ESPN being the main power in question, given it broadcasts so many of the bowl games and owns more than a dozen of them.

The end of another tradition?

The network could eventually decide that bowl season is an acceptable sacrifice in order to put all of its attention on broadcasting the College Football Playoff.

Which could, in turn, fuel more expansion of the playoff field to ensure as many high-profile schools can take part as possible.

Who knows what the timeline would be, but if the process of eliminating bowl games will turn college football’s operators a profit in place of tradition, you can be sure that’s the course they’ll take.

Read more from College Football HQ

In the aftermath of the College Football Playoff bracket reveal, Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua has gone after the ACC. He says the ACC has done “permanent damage” to their relationship in an attempt to get Miami into the 12-team field. Notre Dame plays five ACC teams a season in football, while being a member of the conference in other sports.

These comments from Bevacqua came on Monday, only for ACC commissioner Jim Phillips to respond. Phillips released a statement on the matter to On3’s Brett McMurphy.

“The University of Notre Dame is an incredibly valued member of the ACC and there is tremendous respect and appreciation for the entire institution,” Phillips said. “With that said, when it comes to football, we have a responsibility to support and advocate for all 17 of our football-playing member institutions, and I stand behind our conference efforts to do just that leading up to the College Football Playoff Committee selections on Sunday.

“At no time was it suggested by the ACC that Notre Dame was not a worthy candidate for inclusion in the field. We are thrilled for the University of Miami while also understanding and appreciating the significant disappointment of the Notre Dame players, coaches and program.”

Miami will travel to Kyle Field on Dec. 20, facing Texas A&M in the first round. Kickoff is scheduled for noon ET and 11 a.m. local time. Notre Dame’s season is done, declining an opportunity to play in the Pop-Tarts Bowl against BYU.

Pete Bevacqua expresses ‘permanent damage’ done by ACC

Bevacqua made an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show, discussing Notre Dame getting snubbed from the College Football Playoff. The issue for him is not with Miami, the team seemingly replacing the Irish. Instead, Bevacqua believes the ACC attempting to knock down Notre Dame while promoting Miami was a bad look.

“I have tremendous respect for Miami, great team, great school,” Bevacqua said. “Their athletic director, Dan Radakovich, is a good friend. We were mystified by the actions of the conference, to attack their biggest business partner in football and a member of their conference in 24 of our other sports. I wouldn’t be honest with you if I didn’t say that they have certainly done permanent damage to the relationship between the conference and Notre Dame.”

As usual, five ACC opponents are on the 2026 schedule for Notre Dame. Of those, only one will take place outside of South Bend. North Carolina will host the Irish on Oct. 3. Four others, including Miami, will make their way to Notre Dame Stadium throughout the season.

Yes, it’s a bit unorthodox to hire your just-fired head coach as DC. But as you noted Pry had great success with Franklin as his defensive coordinator for many years. And it frees up some money to allocate elsewhere. Pry is already on our payroll, so we might as well get some value for our money. If he flames out as DC in year 1 (doubt it, given the upcoming talent upgrade), no catastrophe. Just fire him (again) and get someone else.

The Nevada men’s basketball team is on a three-game winning streak to improve to 7-3 as non-conference play comes to an end, but we got more questions in this week’s Monday Mailbag about a Jeff Choate press conference than Wolf Pack hoops. And I thought this was a basketball town! Let’s get to the questions. Thanks, as always, for the inquiries.

When Jeff Choate was hired by Nevada in December 2023, we were told by people who previously covered him that Choate would never lose a press conference. Two years into his tenure, that promise has been kept. Choate keeps it real. You ask him a question, and he’ll answer it honestly. That’s rare in college athletics, which can shock some people. But it’s refreshing. And that brings us to last Wednesday when I asked Choate what his sales pitch was to potential recruits. Choate gave a thoughtful answer that lasted more than two minutes, which I posted on our NSN Twitter account. As you can see below, the post went viral with more than 1.2 million views on our post in addition to ESPN, Yahoo! Sports, Sporting News and several other national publications taking the video (ESPN stole it without attribution, whereas most other organizations credited NSN).

The money part of the quote was, “You know what happens when you come to Nevada? You go get $1.4 million to go to Oregon (OT Isaiah World) if you’re developed the right way. A guy that couldn’t play consistently at the University of Texas (DB Kitan Crawford) got drafted when he came here. A guy that was a junior-college walk-on (CB Michael Coats Jr.) ended up becoming a first-team Mountain West player and went and got a bag at West Virginia. A guy that was kind of a sometimes player at Butte College (DE Dylan LaBarbera) comes here, gets developed and becomes a first-team All-Mountain West player. A journeyman safety from the Big Sky Conference (S Murvin Kenion III) comes here and becomes a second-team All-Mountain West player.”

Was that wise? Yes. When all is said and done, Choate’s quote probably got in front of 3 million-plus people, many of whom are potential recruits who had never heard of Nevada before. Now those players not only know of Nevada but know the Wolf Pack has sent players to Oregon and the NFL and turned lightly recruited prospects into all-conference honorees. That honesty got Choate’s sales pitch in front of a ton of eyes (and if we can take a little credit, it doesn’t happen without NSN since that video was only showcased because we put it out first).

Does that soundbite make college athletics feel transactional? Yes. But college athletics is transactional, so why shy away from it? It’s OK to tell recruits to come to Nevada to get playing time and get developed so you can make money elsewhere. In theory, that will help Nevada get more talented players, which should lead to winning, which should lead to more community interest, which should lead to enhanced NIL revenue, which could lead to Nevada having the ability to eventually start keeping some of these players it develops. Does Choate like this system? Hell no. I truly believes he cares more about developing humans than winning games. But it’s the system he’s working with, and he’s been upfront about it. Nothing wrong with that.

In Choate’s first talk to Nevada players in December 2022, he said, “How many of you guys have homeboys and asked them what I’m about? What do they say? I keep it 100, right? ‘This guy’s going to keep it real.'” Well, he’s keeping it real.

As mentioned above, I don’t mind it. But it’s really not about how I absorb what Jeff Choate said. What matters is how the people who help fund Nevada football absorb it. As long as boosters and season-ticket holders and the Wolf Pack’s administration are OK with it, then it’s fine. If a booster or NIL contributor says, “Well, why am I giving the program money to develop players for other schools?” that could be a problem. But I imagine they know how this thing works. It’s not like Choate only talked about developing players for other programs in that viral video. He also talked about the quality of education Nevada offers, how much his players love living in Reno and how hard-working blue-collar players fit within Northern Nevada’s ecosystem. He was very complimentary about Reno, the school and the region while also being honest about how college football works these days with the transfer portal and NIL. If Isaiah World, the left tackle from Nevada who transferred to Oregon, truly made $1.3 million this season with the Ducks, he netted more than the Wolf Pack’s entire 2025 roster (and more than Choate, too). There’s not much Nevada can do about that but find its fit in that system.

Yes. If I’m a lower-level high school recruit and Nevada shows the ability to develop me into a Power 4 player to get paid elsewhere, I’m fine with that. If I’m a transfer who didn’t get much playing time at my first school and Nevada shows it can offer me playing time and potentially a bigger check at another school after a season or two, that’s appealing. Most of these players won’t sniff NFL training camp. If they can make good money in college by using Nevada as a platform, that seems to be mutually beneficial, if not ideal for the Wolf Pack. The alternative is never developing players good enough for the Power 4, which seems like it would lead to a lot of losing.

In 2010, Tulane was in Conference USA and coming off eight straight losing seasons.

In 2010, James Madison was in the FCS playing in the Coastal Athletic Association Football Conference.

In 2010, Nevada was ranked 11th in the nation with a College Football Hall of Fame head coach.

So, I obviously would have picked Nevada to be the first of those three to make a playoff. But it was also clear Nevada was not ready to use that historic 2010 season as a launching point to sustain a regular Top 25 future. The only thing the Wolf Pack really did based off that success was hire two low-level staff positions (director of player personnel; director of operations), which, at the time, it called “critical hires.” It also decided to start the 2011 season with four straight road games, including at top-10 teams Oregon and Boise State and at the Big 12’s Texas Tech. Those games, predictably, went very poorly, and Nevada’s 2010 momentum was killed one month into the 2011 season.

But since 2010, schools like Western Michigan, Liberty, Tulane, James Madison, Boise State, Memphis, Houston and Cincinnati have all played in New Year’s Six/College Football Playoff games. It was possible for Nevada if the Wolf Pack invested at the appropriate time. It did not.

Somebody who can fix the passing game. That has been Nevada’s biggest issue the last four seasons, a period in which it has gone 2-10, 2-10, 3-10 and 3-9. You need to be able to throw the ball to win games. Nevada has had more interceptions than touchdown passes in three of the last four seasons, which is insane. Since 2022, Nevada has thrown 42 touchdown passes and 45 interceptions. The Wolf Pack threw 38 touchdowns in 2021 alone. I don’t have specific offensive coordinator names for you, but top candidates like Nick Rolovich and Bryan Harsin are unlikely to come to Nevada, although Rolovich has history here and Harsin coached with Jeff Choate at Boise State. Either would be great but seem unlikely given Nevada’s pay rate and recent history. What I think would be interesting is getting an offensive coordinator/quarterback combo from a successful FCS school. Look at Western Carolina, whose quarterback, Taron Dickens, passed for 3,508 yards with 38 touchdowns and two interceptions this season and is in the portal. Could you get him and Western Carolina offensive coordinator Rylan Wells in a package deal? That’d be ideal.

If you removed the San Jose State game, Nevada scored five first-half touchdowns in 11 games.

Among Nevada players? No. A quarterback would have to stay at Nevada for all four seasons and average 2,726 yards per season. I don’t see anybody who plays that well for Nevada sticking for four seasons as a starter unless it’s a really unique situation (like a father-son coach-player situation). Nevada couldn’t retain Brendon Lewis after a season in which he passed for 2,290 yards. David Neill’s record is probably safe.

That’s already started to happen. Myles Walker has passed Tyler Rolison for Nevada’s backup point guard job. It was surprising to see Rolison on the floor late in the UC San Diego game, and that almost backfired. Walker has played more minutes (37) than Rolison (29) the last three games and outproduced him thus far with Walker shooting 50 percent from the field and Rolison shooting 26.2 percent. We saw Rolison’s minutes heavily cut last year before he became a key piece late in the season, and that could happen again. It’s a long season. But Walker has outplayed Rolison to date and deserves to back up Tayshawn Comer at this point.

Tyler Rolison’s production hasn’t been strong enough for large minutes, but he’s also one of the team’s leaders, so it looks like Nevada is trying to keep him in the rotation as much as possible to keep the chemistry good. As noted above, it’s a long season and things can change. But Myles Walker has added a spark off the bench at backup point guard and deserves to keep getting some of Rolison’s minutes for now.

Steve Alford said Corey Camper Jr.’s back spasms flared up the practice before Sunday’s Washington State game and he’s optimistic Camper will be available Saturday against Duquesne. If he skipped that game, Camper would have two weeks of rest before Nevada’s Mountain West opener against Boise State, which might not be a bad idea. He was moving very gingerly on the bench against Washington State. It’s hard to tell with back injuries, which are the worst. But Alford didn’t seem overly concerned. We’ll see. K.J. Hymes’ back injury a couple of years ago turned into a season-ending deal and required surgery, which derailed his career. The hope is Camper will be find in a couple of days.

It’s always nice when you have a guy fresh off their playing career on your staff, as Jarod Lucas is. He’s able to relate a little more deeply with the players and knows Steve Alford’s system having played in that scheme for two years. That’s super helpful. When he played for Nevada, Lucas was the Wolf Pack’s most vocal leader, and his dad is a successful high school coach. Add that all up and Lucas was a nice addition to Nevada’s staff. Lucas joined Layup Line with John Ramey and Nick Fazekas this week to discuss re-joining the Wolf Pack (he thought he had a spot with the Lakers until the last minute). You can watch that interview below.

Most Power 4 teams schedule soft in non-league. The Big Ten’s Indiana is the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff and played Old Dominion, Kennesaw State and Indiana State out of conference. Not exactly murderer’s row. So, this isn’t unique to the SEC. The bigger issue is why is the SEC champion (Alabama) didn’t get dinged for being blown out in its conference title game when the Big 12 loser (BYU) fell one spot in the CFP rankings, the ACC loser (Virginia) fell two spots, the Big Ten loser (Ohio State) fell one spot and the American Conference loser (North Texas) fell one spot? Alabama didn’t drop a spot after its 28-7 loss to Georgia. This after the Crimson Tide lost by 14 points to a non-bowl Florida State, lost to an Oklahoma team that can’t score and was blown out by Georgia in the conference championship while rushing for negative yards in that game. BYU has a stronger résumé than Alabama but wasn’t even considered for a playoff spot.

Cool story to see Indiana, a basketball school, winning the Big Ten title and getting the top seed in the College Football Playoff. I’m also fine with giving Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza the Heisman Trophy. But I don’t see the Hoosiers winning the national championship. My (theoretical) money is on Georgia.

It’s terrible. Sacramento State coach Brennan Marion clearly had a deal done to be Colorado’s offensive coordinator but kept that secret until the day after national signing day, at which point the players who signed with the Hornets were bound to the school. That’s why some players wait until the late signing period in February to put pen to paper. But players going to Sac State are unlikely to have that level of leverage and recruiting interest. This is why I don’t put too much energy into players transferring regularly to put themselves in more advantageous positions. They’re just modeling the behavior of the adults running college athletics. Three of the 12 head coaches in the College Football Playoff have already accepted jobs at other schools. That’s how much those coaches care about their universities. It’s all a shell game to advance your career and get more money from somebody else. It’s long been that way with coaches and administrators. Now, players get to participate in that game.

Those numbers are not public, so it’s a guessing game. I wish we had transparency here, but we don’t. Between Nevada football and men’s basketball, you’re probably looking at a cumulative pot of around $2 million to $3 million with hoops getting more than football, which is the reverse of most schools.

Again, unknown, although I get a question like this basically every week. I can get coaching salaries and athletic department budgets through public-record requests. I cannot get NIL and revenue-sharing figures that are trustworthy enough to report. In the new Mountain West (there are eight full members that play football), Nevada will probably be in middle of the pack, but I doubt Wolf Pack football or men’s basketball will rank in the top four in NIL in either sport even in this watered-down MW.

There’s the fact the stadium is named after the Mackay family, which donated the land where the stadium is built to the school, although I do think there is room for a naming-rights sponsor if an interested party stepped forward with the money. To this point, that’s not happened. I’d expect GSR Arena to get a naming-rights sponsor, but truth is, there aren’t a lot of businesses headquartered in Northern Nevada with the kind of cash to make that happen.

UNLV just signed a sponsored jersey patch deal for $11 million over five years. That’s something Nevada should explore.

One of the biggest selling points in promoting Jordan Getzelman from assistant to head coach after Jake McKinley took a job with the Seattle Mariners was player retention. McKinley said the 2026 team was the one he had ben eying since he got Nevada’s job before the 2023 season, and it does seem set up for success. Had Nevada opted for an outside coach, it probably would have had departures. But, as far as I can tell, every player on the Wolf Pack roster was at Getzelman’s introductory press conference and will remain with Nevada for the 2026 season.

“I’ve been invested in this place for years,” Getzelman said at his press conference. “I’m excited and humbled to lead the next chapter. This is a unique moment stepping into this role into the middle of the year. But one of the advantages that we have here is that I’ve been here, I know the players, I know this culture and I know the standards that have been put in place. My priority is to provide confidence and stability. We have a group of players who have worked extremely hard, and they’re deserving of continuity. My job is to keep us moving forward, keep us connected and keep us competing at a very high level.”

Nevada athletic director Stephanie Rempe said you usually take the long-term view when hiring a head coach, but she believed this group of players deserved a short-term perspective, and that played a role in elevating Getzelman, who said his job will be to keep Nevada baseball’s 2026 trajectory on the right course while coming off last year’s Mountain West regular-season title.

“We’re family here, and we’re going to grow closer through this,” Getzelman said. “They know who I am, they know what I expect and I’m excited to continue working with them in this new capacity. My message to them was simple. The ship is on the right track, the coordinates are set, let’s all move over one spot and take this thing where it needs to go, together.”

Nevada athletic director Stephanie Rempe has been getting a little more heat with these Mailbag questions in recent months. Her contract runs through June 30, 2027, and I’d guess she gets extended before that contract is up. From a competitive standpoint, Nevada is still struggling, especially in the fall sports, which have historically struggled. The last fall sport to win a conference title was football in 2010, and those struggles significantly predate. Rempe hired Nevada’s two coaches who won Mountain West championships last year in baseball (Jake McKinley) and softball (Victoria Hayward) with men’s and women’s tennis also doing well during her tenure. Men’s basketball has been solid with two NCAA Tournament berths during her tenure, although she didn’t hire coach Steve Alford. Facility development has improved during her tenure, although a good chunk of that progress has come thanks to university president Brian Sandoval. Rempe did play key roles in the FieldHouse and GSR projects, and deserves some credit there.

Nevada has 14 head coaches (the Wolf Pack no longer counts cross country as having a head coach), and Rempe has hired just six of them (baseball, softball, volleyball, soccer, football and skiing). Baseball and softball have won MW titles; skiing finished 15th in the nation last season; and volleyball, soccer and football have struggled. Obviously football needs to be fixed, although Rempe inherited a new coach (Ken Wilson) on a five-year deal in that sport, so there were limitations on what could be done there immediately. Rempe hired Jeff Choate, which, to date, has not paid dividends. Typically, athletic directors get two shots at football coaches. I honestly don’t think Rempe’s seat is very hot. I imagine she’ll get an extension before her contract is up in June 2027, but getting football to a more respectable place is preeminent. And Nevada should be one of the better departments in the new MW. At least, that should be the expectation.

No reason has been provided, but the women’s soccer head-coaching job at Nevada is the most difficult on campus. There’s almost zero history of success with that team, which has just two winning seasons since the program was started in 2000, and those came in 2005 and 2006. The Wolf Pack plays on FieldTurf in a football stadium, making it the only Mountain West women’s soccer team that doesn’t play on grass. And the job doesn’t even pay six figures. I know there was some friction there behind the scenes, but it’s a low ceiling, lower floor kind of job.

I’m not a fan of the “take my ball and go home” attitude schools like Notre Dame made by not playing in bowl games, but if means there are fewer bowl games in the future, I’d be cool with that. I’ve never liked the fact 6-6 teams (and sometimes 5-7 teams) qualify for bowls. Finishing .500 in not a major accomplishment. Make the requirement seven wins, including at least six against FBS teams, and cutting the number of bowl to 30 would be great. Then you can backfill with 6-6 teams if 7-5 or better teams opt out. Should conferences fine teams that don’t go to bowls? Since leagues have bowl alliances they’re required to fulfill, I don’t have a problem with fines if that leaves the conference financially vulnerable for not fulfilling its bowl obligations.

As soon as the Group of 6 did created its own playoff, the Power 4 would take it as an invitation to remove the G6’s automatic entry into the College Football Playoff. Heck, the Power 4 might do that this offseason anyway since two G6’s (Tulane and James Madison) made this year’s playoff in place of teams like Notre Dame, Texas and BYU. If that were to happen — the removal of the G6’s auto spot — you could see the G6 shift to its own playoff system. Until then, it’s not happening. I would love to see a G6 playoff, perhaps in the place of these lower-level bowls the Power 4 schools are now snubbing.

The only thing that is clear is that no matter how many teams you add to the College Football Playoff, the first team left out of the field will bitch about it. Honestly, we should go back to a smaller field. Eight teams are fine. If Notre Dame wanted to be in the College Football Playoff, maybe it should have beaten a good team. Notre Dame played 10 Power 4 teams, going 8-2 in those games. Of the eight wins, only three were over teams with winning records. Those wins were against USC (9-3), Pitt (8-4) and NC State (7-5). That’s not enough for a playoff berth. What the Power 4s will do, however, is punish the Group of 6 by taking away their spot in the field. They can’t have Tulane and James Madison in the field over bigger brands. The SEC’s five playoff teams are simply not enough. Also, the Power 4s should go back to divisions if they’re going to keep conference title games because their tiebreakers were the biggest issue and led to Duke winning the ACC, which screwed up everything. It’s not the Group of 6’s fault that the Sun Belt and American Conference winners were better than the ACC’s winner. This is all a result of Power 4 conferences having too many schools. They should have left the Pac-12 alone.

I have a long-standing rule that I don’t care about uniforms.

The Tulane Greenwave was wearing blue and the North Texas Mean Green were wearing white. So, two teams with “green” in their name, and neither team was wearing green. Amazing.

See y’all next week!

Sports columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. He writes a weekly Monday Mailbag despite it giving him a headache and it taking several hours to write. But people seem to like it, so he does it anyway. Contact him at crmurray@sbgtv.com or follow him on Twitter @ByChrisMurray.