NIL

Schlossman

Published

8 months ago

May 13, 2025

GRAND FORKS — There has been a flurry of headlines lately about Bowling Green reeling in the nation’s No. 1 men’s hockey recruiting class for 2025.

Neutral Zone, a scouting service,

has the Falcons atop

its rankings.

It has received coverage from across the country. There was a column in the

Toledo Blade,

a piece on

Barstool Sports

and it has been a hot topic on social media.

To recap: Bowling Green hired Dennis Williams last year as its new head coach. Williams came from the Canadian Hockey League’s Everett Silvertips. Months after his hire, an NCAA rules change allowed CHL players to retain college eligibility for the first time in decades.

Bowling Green has heavily recruited CHL players with Williams’ connections.

But the question remains: Is this really the best recruiting class in college hockey?

Let’s contextualize it first.

Bowling Green is not winning recruiting battles against the traditional powerhouses of college hockey. The Falcons are recruiting a different type of player than the blue bloods. They’re going after older, experienced players instead of younger NHL prospects.

The Falcons just

announced 10 players

expected to be a part of the freshman class.

Only one of the 10 is an NHL Draft pick — Winnipeg Jets seventh-rounder Connor Levis, who will turn 21 in October.

Eight of the 10 players will enter as undrafted, 21-year-old freshmen. The other, defenseman Mazden Leslie, will be 20. Leslie has been passed over in two drafts, but could be a late pick this summer.

Of course, you don’t need to be a top NHL prospect to be a terrific college hockey player. Several recent NCAA powerhouse teams have been built with few top NHL prospects. Quinnipiac, the 2023 NCAA champion, and Minnesota State, the 2022 runner-up, are great examples.

That’s the model Bowling Green is looking to replicate in this class — older, late bloomers who are not on NHL draft boards. A lot of them are coming off of great seasons in one of the three CHL leagues — the Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League or Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League.

But again, is this really the best recruiting class in college hockey?

We’ll find out in a few years.

This year, more than any other in recent history, is hard to project. It’s a period of the great unknown in college hockey.

In the past, it’s been easier to project recruiting classes. There are historical precedents for how players translate based on their junior league, point totals, age and draft position.

We have no recent precedents for how CHL players translate.

If Bowling Green ends up with the best class — or even one of the top — it’s not a case of winning recruiting battles against blue bloods. It means Williams projected that 21-year-olds from the CHL will translate to college hockey — and which ones — better than anyone else.

Omaha is another intriguing case.

The Mavericks, who had success in the NCAA transfer portal the last couple of seasons, are expected to bring in more

transfers from Canadian universities

than anyone.

Like Williams, this also has to do with the coach’s familiarity of the landscape. Head coach Mike Gabinet came to Omaha from Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. His grandfather, Hockey Hall of Famer Clare Drake, was the longtime coach at the University of Alberta.

Most Canadian USports players are former CHLers who opted to take their education package rather than pursue a pro hockey career. So, the majority of them have not been eligible in the past.

Again, there’s virtually no precedent to predict how these players will translate. If they hit, Gabinet’s play will be the talk of college hockey.

Others are continuing their traditional model in both historical recruiting grounds like the United States Hockey League and in the CHL.

Michigan is targeting the NHL first-round types. It got a commitment from forward Malcolm Spence, a potential first-rounder, this week.

Denver is picking up commitments from mid-round draft picks — Seattle Kraken fifth-rounder Clarke Caswell and Calgary Flames sixth-rounder Eric Jamieson have committed out of the CHL.

North Dakota has gotten a depth player in winger Josh Zakreski and will now start taking swings at top prospects.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Ohio from Bowling Green, there have been few whispers about Miami’s incoming class. But it is shaping up to be quite good.

Only two schools have multiple recruits in the top 15 of the USHL in scoring — Northeastern and Miami.

Miami’s are forward Artemi Nizameyev from Tri-City and forward David Deputy from Muskegon/Omaha. Both tallied 55-plus points this season. Deputy leads the USHL playoffs in goals.

Miami also is expected to bring in forward Ilya Morozov, a potential first-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. Morozov is only 16. He turns 17 in August, so it may be a difficult transition as a rookie, but he’s an impressive prospect.

Goaltender Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev, who has Muskegon in the Clark Cup Final with a .935 playoff save percentage, is headed to Oxford, too. So is Tri-City top-pair defenseman Shaun McEwan.

Miami has not had a class like this in years.

Where does it rank? Again, it’s hard to say.

Neutral Zone weighs the number of players in a class. Having bigger classes helps in the rankings.

Bowling Green has that.

Is it really the best? We’ll look back again in four years and analyze.

NCHC talks about naming playoff trophy

The National Collegiate Hockey Conference named its regular-season championship trophy, the Penrose Cup, before its inaugural season.

It still has not named its playoff trophy.

There was talk about it at the league’s annual meetings earlier this month in Florida. The NCHC was far from a consensus on it, but there appears to be interest in giving it a name.

The most obvious suggestion? The Broadmoor Trophy.

That was the name of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s old playoff championship trophy. It went away when the WCHA folded.

It has history, name recognition and the league’s offices are based on the Broadmoor’s campus.

Portal set to close

The NCAA men’s hockey transfer portal is set to close at the end of Tuesday, May 13, unless a player has an exemption (like a head coaching change or if he has aid reduced or eliminated).

As of Tuesday afternoon, only one player had entered in the last week — Boston University forward Jack Gorton, who has played three games over the past two seasons.

NCAA coaches are pushing to narrow the window from its current 45-day period to 30 days in the future — a change that makes sense considering the lack of entrants over the last 15 days.

There have been 305 total entrants, which ranks No. 2 in the current portal era.

So far, 163 have committed to new schools. Players can continue to commit to schools after the portal closes for entries.

Many of the players left in the portal were cut from their schools. Sixty-two percent of the forwards or defensemen currently available in the portal had one or zero points last season.

Quick hits

Former UND forward Shane Pinto has joined Team USA at the IIHF Men’s World Championship. Pinto registered two assists against Hungary in his first game.
Former UND defenseman Troy Stecher made his 2025 Stanley Cup Playoff debut Monday night for the Edmonton Oilers. Edmonton beat Vegas 3-0 to go up 3-1 in the best-of-seven series. Stecher suffered an injury at the end of the regular season and hadn’t played in the playoffs yet.
Former UND forward Brad Malone, now the head coach of the Oshawa Generals in the Ontario Hockey League, is in the finals. Oshawa trails London 2-1 in a best-of-seven series.
Waterloo and Muskegon split the first two games of the USHL’s Clark Cup Final. Game 3 is Friday in Muskegon. Waterloo is coached by former UND captain Matt Smaby. Muskegon’s associate head coach is former UND forward Colten St. Clair and director of player development is Evan Trupp. Grand Forks native Bauer Berry is on Muskegon.

NIL

NIL gives football programs like Texas Tech a ‘taste of success’

Published

16 minutes ago

December 31, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Dec. 31, 2025, 4:06 a.m. CT

“NIL is ruining college football.”

“Teams are just buying players.”

“NIL is taking passion out of college football.”

During the college football season, these quotes have been commonplace. Is college football ruined? Maybe for those few programs that reside at the top over the last two decades.

The contrary view to the negative is the shot in the arm NIL has brought to cities and fan bases not named Ann Arbor, Tuscaloosa, Athens, etc. For cities like Lubbock or Bloomington, or Dallas, it has allowed a taste of success at a high level. Last year, SMU was able to play in a conference championship and have a shot at a very cold playoff game. Without NIL, they would still be playing San Jose State in a bowl game.

There are three reasons NIL is great for college football: Alums have a role in making their alma mater great, players have a chance to build wealth and cities have a chance to taste success.

First, if someone deeply cares about their university, they now have a direct line to facilitating success.

Money is no guarantee for on the field success, (see Texas) but it helps level the playing field.

Take a team like Texas Tech, whose defense has historically been more open than a Waffle House in the South.

Defensive lineman with an NFL pedigree have historically gone to “blue blood” schools and either waited their turn in the line up or maybe were able to grow into NFL players at lesser-known schools and not capitalize on their value.

In either scenario, these players are now open for business.

For SMU, players like Elijah Roberts or Anthony Booker transferred in and fundamentally changed the trenches and the program.

This year, Texas Tech has seen Lee Hunter, David Baliey and Romello Height.

All players that would have looked to historically great programs are now looking to programs they can make historically great.

All paid for by Cody Campbell, David Miller and others who want to bring success to their schools.

Second, as a former college football player, I can attest to the plight of many players after graduation.

Many players grow up in extreme poverty and are then dropped into a five-star luxury resort, with no guidance on the importance of networking.

As upper-income students are well versed in the importance of building business alliances and are taking majors such as finance and engineering, many student athletes are pushed to majors that fit their practice schedule.

They study “ball,” but the shelf life on “ball” can be four years.

Today, NIL fundamentally transforms families. Buying mom a house. Learning the power of long-term investing. Starting a franchise, owning rental properties, having a chance at the American Dream.

Of course, along the way there will be bottle service, ridiculous purchases, and many who will recreate the Mike Tyson wealth preservation plan; however, at least they are given the opportunity.

Being able to be compensated for their hard work, in a skill that is short lived, should be a factor in the current NIL Environment.

You could make an argument, that this ability to be compensated should not have a cap.

Last, it is difficult to fully quantitate the impact of college football to cities and families.

I grew up in Lubbock, and from the age of 4 have been rooting alongside my dad for the Red Raiders.

Rain, snow, and shine we rode out every season together and it was a unique way we showed each other love. We saw Crabtree catch the ball and much more.

My dad passed in 2021, and I haven’t been able to enjoy Texas Tech since.

For decades, as a season ticket holder in Section 108, we saw fellow ticket holders lose loved ones to cancer, children grow into adults and friends go through 2008 and 2020.

For many families across the country, college football is family.

For a fanbase like Bloomington that has been a bottom bencher for decades, families can now plan trips to the Rose Bowl and potentially follow their team to Miami.

They can use all their PTO and savings to potentially allow their son or daughter to experience a season they will remember.

For a town like Lubbock that still dwells on a catch in 2008, they can now experience the joy of winning and the city can experience the economic success that sold-out stadiums can bring.

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NIL

$1.6 million WR makes transfer portal decision ahead of College Football Playoff game

Published

1 hour ago

December 31, 2025

Your Sports Nation

One of the most talented wide receivers in the SEC has made his final decision when it comes to entering the transfer portal days before his team is set to appear in the second round of the College Football Playoff.

And it’s a decision that Alabama fans should welcome right before their team is set to take on the top seed team from the historic Rose Bowl.

Alabama star is staying put

Crimson Tide wide receiver Ryan Williams has stated that he will return to the school for the 2026 college football season.

“Of course. I’m Alabama through and through. I have no intentions of being anywhere else,” Williams told reporters before the Tide’s appearance in the Rose Bowl quarterfinal game.

So he’s not going into the portal? “Nah,” he said.

Coming off an impressive comeback victory against Oklahoma in the first round, Alabama is set to face off against undefeated No. 1 overall seed Indiana in the second-round fixture from Pasadena on New Year’s Day, and Williams should be a big part of its game plan.

Williams burst onto the scene last fall

Williams made a name for himself as a 17-year-old freshman last season, catching 48 passes for 865 yards and eight touchdowns in addition to two rushing scores.

The wideout’s gravity-defying and acrobatic plays in a statement win against Georgia, in particular, made him a household name among college football fans in the SEC and nationally.

And he was able to parlay that success into a solid NIL valuation, ranking among the top 50 players in the NCAA and in the top 35 in football with a reported $1.6 million estimation, according to the On3 Sports national rankings.

This was a down year, though

Expectations were through the roof coming off his debut campaign, but Williams’ production didn’t live as much up to the hype in his sophomore effort.

The wideout recorded 43 receptions for 636 yards and just four touchdowns in 2025, although he had a strong outing against Wisconsin early this fall, when he secured 5 grabs for 165 yards and two of his touchdown catches.

“This season has presented a lot of opportunities for me and my squad,” Williams said at the Rose Bowl media day from L.A.

He added: “Learning opportunities. On the field opportunities. Really just growing as an individual.”

How the college football transfer portal works

College football’s transfer portal officially opens on Jan. 2, but that hasn’t stopped a flurry of players from entering their names for consideration at a new school right now.

The new 15-day transfer portal window from Jan. 2-16 and the elimination of the spring transfer period has condensed the timeline for players and programs to make their moves.

The NCAA Transfer Portal is a private database that includes the names of student-athletes in every sport at the Division I, II, and III levels. The full list of names is not available to the public.

But to hear the Alabama star speak for himself, it appears Ryan Williams will not be among those names.

More college football from SI: Top 25 Rankings | Schedule | Teams

Follow College Football HQ: Bookmark | Rankings | Picks

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NIL

Nick Saban goes on long rant about state of college sports: ‘I got it figured out, nobody will listen’

Published

2 hours ago

December 31, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Nick Saban went on a lengthy rant about the state of college sports, claiming he had all the answers. But, the former Alabama coach said “nobody will listen” to his solutions.

“I got it figured out. Nobody will listen,” Saban said on The Pat McAfee Show. “So, you know, what are you going to do? I mean, we got to have, you know, some kind of antitrust exemption. You got to get the political parties together on it. I think the college people have to get over the fact that, you know, a graduate student can be a graduate assistant, get paid, is not an employee. So players don’t have to be employees. And these graduate students have representation. You call it a union if you want, but it’s restricted on what they can negotiate for.

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“They can’t say, you know, I have a lab that takes 10 hours and I’m going to go on strike, so we only have to go six hours. Can’t do that. You do the same thing in football. Put some restrictions and determine what you can and can’t negotiate. Shouldn’t be anything that has anything to do with athletic development. We already have those restrictions, 20 hours a week, whatever it is, that practice time. So there is a way to do this that satisfies both parties, that gives cover to both groups, so that we can move forward.”

Saban even referred to how he was criticized for his opinions on the state of college athletics at this time. That’s despite college football being more popular than ever, but it’s not without its flaws.

“And you know, I got killed in the Wall Street Journal for saying things like, college football is messed up,” Saban said. “But the thing about it is, everybody just looks at … the playoffs have created tremendous interest in college football. There’s a whole bunch of teams now that have a chance to get in the playoffs. There’s more interest than ever, higher TV ratings and all that. But the underbelly underneath that is not really good. It’s not really good for the development of players. It’s not really good for all the sports that we try to sponsor in college.”

Nick Saban has hot opinion about state of college athletics

“I mean, and I think we got to decide that we want to be, you know, a professional developmental league,” Saban continued. “Or are we really going to have college athletes who go get an education and develop value for their future as they’re playing and making money? I want them to make money. I think they should make money, but there should be some restrictions on how they go about doing it.”

However, money aside, Saban said the biggest issue is the transfer portal. NIL can be tweaked, but player movement has to be fixed. He even likened it to the biggest issues in basketball and has coaching legends hitting him up!

“And the movement is as big an issue, to me, a bigger issue than even the money,” Saban said. “I mean, everybody being able to transfer all the time. I mean, that’s not a good thing. Now, we even got a basketball player going to Baylor after he played in the NBA. I mean, you heard me say this before: we are going to have a quarterback gets drafted by the New York Giants. He’s gonna be playing for Penn State. I mean, what about that? Calipari and Izzo are blowing me up. I’m not even a basketball guy.”

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Three Reasons Why USC Is A Top Transfer Portal Destination

Published

3 hours ago

December 31, 2025

Your Sports Nation

USC trojans lincoln riley college football playoff big ten Recruiting Transfer NIL Jayden Maiava Transfer Portal D'Anton Lynn — Oct 11, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; USC Trojans quarterback Jayden Maiava (14) warms up prior to the game against the Michigan Wolverines at United Airlines Field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

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One-on-one with Nixa High School football star Jackson Cantwell and agent Drew Roesenhaus

Published

4 hours ago

December 31, 2025

Your Sports Nation

NIXA, Mo. (KY3) – It’s a new era of college football. And Nixa High School offensive lineman Jackson Cantwell finds himself in the middle of it.

The Ozarks Sports Zone’s Danielle King sat down with Cantwell and his agent Drew Rosenhaus to discuss his recruitment and managing NIL.

Check out the latest high school sports coverage on the Ozarks Sports Zone by clicking here.

To report a correction or typo, please email digitalnews@ky3.com. Please include the article info in the subject line of the email.

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San Diego State EDGE Ryan Henderson plans to enter NCAA transfer portal

Published

5 hours ago

December 31, 2025

Your Sports Nation

According to On3’s Pete Nakos, San Diego State EDGE Ryan Henderson plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal. Henderson just finished his fourth season with the program, putting up the best campaign of his career. He now goes onto the open market in what should be his final season of eligibility.

Henderson did not play for the Aztecs during the 2022 season as a true freshman, opting for a redshirt. Since then, he has taken the field in 33 games, three of which were starts. Forty-five tackles have followed, adding 12.5 tackles for a loss, and 10.5 sacks. You can even add a forced fumble and fumble recovery in there.

There is no doubt about which season was Henderson’s best, though. San Diego State saw him break out this past fall with nine tackles for a loss and seven sacks. Five of those sacks were in Mountain West play, with the other two coming in nonconference vs. Cal and Northern Illinois.

Henderson played high school football at North Las Vegas (NV) Canyon Springs, where he was a three-star prospect. He was the No. 1,289 overall recruit in the 2022 cycle, according to the Rivals Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

A few other Mountain West schools came after Henderson during his recruitment. Arizona, then a member of the Pac-12, extended an offer during his senior season. However, he stuck with San Diego State and signed with the Aztecs.

Fast forward to the present and Henderson is on the move for the first time in his career. Finding productive pass rushers can be a chore at times for teams. Henderson can pull up what he accomplished in 2025 to prove he is someone to watch moving forward.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.

More on San Diego State, 2025 season under Sean Lewis

This was year No. 2 of San Diego State under head coach Sean Lewis. An incredible turnaround took place, flipping the record’s numbers year-over-year. After the Aztecs finished 3-9 last season, they went 9-3 in 2025.

A spot in the New Mexico Bowl was earned, facing a near-College Football Playoff team in North Texas. However, San Diego State did find itself on the losing end.

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