College sports are in a weird place these days.

It’s hard to keep up with all the media reports and chatter about the NCAA, ongoing conference realignment, NIL, potential revenue-sharing, a future CEO and so on and so forth.

Much remains in flux. One thing that is clear is that collegiate athletics, as I knew them when I was a student at Syracuse University from 1996 to 2000, is toast. Assuming a federal judge approves the House settlement, and that hadn’t transpired as of this past Friday heading into the Memorial Day holiday weekend, the Syracuse Orange and its peers nationwide will be able to start directly paying their athletes for the use of their name, image and likeness.

If revenue-sharing does occur beginning with the 2025-26 sports season, there are some things to monitor as it pertains to SU Athletics and other athletics departments across the country.

Keep tabs on these potential themes related to Syracuse Orange Athletics.

One thing to monitor. Could SU Athletics end up cutting staff in the future due to upcoming revenue-sharing? In recent days, a report came out that Oklahoma’s athletics department would lay off 15 people “due to the looming realities of starting to share revenue with athletes.”

That’s unfortunate. But this is where we are. If athletics departments elect to set aside millions of dollars every year to pay their players, that could force these departments to cut overhead, resulting in layoffs. I hope this doesn’t transpire at SU Athletics, but I’ll be keeping a watchful eye.

To be fair, SU Athletics earlier this year made a new hire, bringing on board veteran sports executive Kevin Morgan as the department’s first general manager and chief revenue officer.

A few weeks ago, Kentucky’s board of trustees approved the school’s athletics department converting to a limited-liability company called Champions Blue LLC.

On May 22, Vanderbilt announced that it had hired long-time hospitality industry executive Markus Schreyer as CEO of that school’s newly created Vanderbilt Enterprises, which will focus on, among other things, “enhancing Vanderbilt Athletics resources, support for student-athletes and the fan experience.”

Big Blue Nation was up to its ears in anxiety ahead of a Sweet 16 matchup with the Tennessee Volunteers. In the hours before the NCAA Tournament game in Indianapolis, we received a welcome distraction. Tulane forward Kam Williams announced he was transferring to Kentucky.

A transfer portal commitment? While they’re still in the middle of the season? That’s weird.

Mark Pope picked up that commitment two weeks into the NCAA Tournament. The Kentucky baseball team hasn’t even been selected for this year’s NCAA Baseball Tournament, and Nick Mingione already has a commitment.

Right-handed pitcher Burkley Bounds announced this weekend that he’s transferring to Kentucky. Bounds entered the transfer portal earlier this week after EKU fired head coach Walt Jones. Bounds is a Lexington native who played high school baseball at Lex Cath with a couple of future Bat Cats, Owen Jenkins and Jack Sams.

As a true freshman in the spring of 2025, Bounds appeared in 18 games and earned two starts, winning both. He had an ERA of 4.17 and his opponents batted .244, leading the Colonels in both statistical categories. In 41 innings, he had 39 strikeouts and gave up 38 hits. It’s clear this Kentucky kid has a bright future.

Kentucky baseball just had its most successful two-year run in school history, following up a Regional Title with a College World Series appearance. Much of that success was built on the backs of productive transfer portal players. Nick Mingione isn’t waiting around to learn the postseason fate of this team before he begins building next year’s roster, which should feature a significant amount of returners following a rebuild year.

Today, conference tournaments will conclude before the NCAA reveals its top eight seeds for this year’s tournament. Kentucky will have to wait until Monday’s selection show at Noon. The Bat Cats are currently projected to be on the right side of the bubble as a No. 3 seed.

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