The transfer portal era has already changed college football in big ways. With NIL rules now changing rosters and entire seasons, coaches are scrambling to keep up. A proven quarterback no longer just costs a scholarship — it can run seven figures, depending on the bidding war. For Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule, this new landscape has been equal parts frustrating and eye-opening. As he tried to build a winning team, he found that the NIL marketplace can be cutthroat. But in Lincoln, it’s not just about scouting talent — now, it’s about outlasting the chaos of a college football economy where loyalty can be bought. With College Sports Network’s Transfer Portal Tracker, you can stay ahead of the chaos. Follow every entrant, commitment, and decommitment as they happen. Matt Rhule Explains How Struggling Programs Are Outspending Contenders in the NIL Era Nebraska HC Matt Rhule is not afraid to say things that coaches tend to whisper behind closed doors. Recently, Rhule was on the “HuskerOnline” podcast, where the third-year Nebraska head coach shared a reality that’s reshaping how programs approach recruiting. “The desperate team sets the market,” Rhule said, referencing a conversation with personnel staffer Troy Vincent. As Rhule

ARLINGTON, Texas – Oklahoma State began defense of its Big 12 tourney title with a 4-3 win over Baylor in the opening round of the Big 12 Baseball Championship Wednesday at Globe Life Field.
 
With the win, the seventh-seeded Cowboys improved to 28-22 and moved into the quarterfinals to take on No. 2 seed Kansas Thursday at 4 p.m.
 
Mario Pesca was outstanding in relief of starter Sean Youngerman to earn the win out of the bullpen. The right-hander tossed 3 2/3 shutout innings, allowing just two hits and striking out a pair, to improve to 7-2 on the season.
 
Youngerman worked 4 1/3 innings, striking out five and allowing three runs, just one of those earned.
 
Gabe Davis retired all three batters he faced in the ninth for his third save of the season.
 
Offensively, the Cowboys had just five hits, with Kollin Ritchie and Colin Brueggemann picking up RBIs.
 
OSU jumped on top in the second when Ritchie deposited his 10^th home run of the season into the seats in right-center field.
 
However, the Bears would take advantage of a throwing error in the third to plate a pair of runs and take a 2-1 lead.
 
BU added to its lead in the fifth, going up 3-1 on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Tyriq Kemp.
 
OSU trimmed its deficit in the sixth. Brayden Smith and Ian Daugherty led off the frame with singles before a deep fly out to center field by Nolan Schubart advanced both runners into scoring position. Brueggemann then picked up an RBI on a sac fly line out to left field to make the score 3-2.
 
The Cowboys would then take advantage of a BU error as, with two outs, third baseman Pearson Riebock uncorked a wild throw to first that allowed the tying run to score from second base.
 
With the game tied 3-3 in the seventh, another error proved pivotal. With Cowboys on first and second and two outs, Daugherty grounded a ball at Kemp, BU’s shortstop, who misplayed the ball. The miscue allowed the go-ahead run to score as OSU went back on top, 4-3.
 
Pesca kept the Bears off the scoreboard in the eighth, stranding the tying run at first with an inning-ending striking, before Davis came out of the pen and shut the door in the ninth.
 

After years of anticipation, and only after college athletes were permitted to profit off of their NIL, “EA Sports College Football 25” was the highest-grossing sports video game ever.

Now the question is, how does EA Sports follow that up? How much will the company try to change or improve from a model that was already clearly successful?

I personally played it and loved it. It’s the only game I’ve played on my PlayStation 5 for more than 100 hours. I thoroughly enjoyed being the head coach of a Group of Five school and leading my team to a national championship – on All-American, granted, because I was about .500 on Heisman and barely made the College Football Playoff.

Anyway, here’s more about the upcoming version of the game.

College Football 26 will come out on July 10, 2025, according to EA Sports’ website. However, The MVP bundle and Deluxe Edition will be available on July 7, giving gamers three days of early access.

The money distributed to schools from the College Football 25 game reportedly depended on how those schools ranked in the AP Poll over the 10 seasons leading up to CFB25, from 2014-23. 

Based on a scoring system from those rankings, schools were put into one of four tiers. Schools from the top tier received nearly $100,000 while the bottom tier received just under $10,000.

No G5 schools were in the top tier. Boise State, Utah State, Liberty, Louisiana, Memphis, San Diego State, USF, Fresno State, and Navy were among the schools currently in the Group of Five that were in the second tier and received $59,925.09 each. 

Washington State, Marshall, Army, Troy, Coastal Carolina, Western Michigan, Air Force, App State, Tulane, Ball State, Buffalo, Oregon State, Western Kentucky, and San Jose State were among the G5 teams in the third tier and received $39,950.06. All other G5 schools would’ve been in the fourth and lowest tier.

Players will reportedly receive $1,500 each for appearing in CFB26. That’s up from the $600 players received from College Football 25.

There was an 11-year span of no college football game due to complications related to EA Sports’ inability to use college athletes’ names, images, and likenesses. But that has since changed, and EA Sports is now paying players for appearing in the video game.

The cover of this year’s College Football game will feature several players, like Ohio State wideout Jeremiah Smith and defensive back Caleb Downs, Alabama wide receiver Ryan Williams, Florida quarterback DJ Lagway, and Penn State running back Nick Singleton, and coaches like Kirby Smart of Georgia, James Franklin of Penn State, and Kenny Dillingham of Arizona State.

Some of the other people on the cover are Heisman Trophy winners Tim Tebow and Reggie Bush.

Cover	Team	Year
Bill Walsh	Stanford	1994
Bill Walsh	Stanford	1995
Tommy the Trojan	USC	1996
Tommie Frazer	Nebraska	1997
Danny Wuerffel	Florida	1998
Charles Woodson	Michigan	1999
Ricky Williams	Texas	2000
Shaun Alexander	Alabama	2001
Chris Weinke	Florida St.	2002
Joey Harrington	Oregon	2003
Carson Palmer	USC	2004
Larry Fitzgerald	Pitt	2005
Desmond Howard	Michigan	2006
Reggie Bush	USC	2007
Jared Zabransky	Boise St.	2008
DeSean Jackson, Matt Ryan, Owen Schmitt & Darren McFadden	Cal, Boston College, W. Virginia & Arkansas	2009
Brian Orakpo, Brian Johnson, Mark Sanchez & Michael Crabtree	Texas, Utah, USC & Texas Tech	2010
Tim Tebow	Florida	2011
Mark Ingram II	Alabama	2012
Robert Griffin III & Barry Sanders	Baylor & Oklahoma St.	2013
Denard Robinson	Michigan	2014
Quinn Ewers, Travis Hunter & Donovan Edwards	Texas, Colorado & Michigan	2025

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.  — South Dakota State’s Carter Sintek was named Wednesday as one of 30 semifinalists for the Brooks Wallace Award, which is presented annually by the College Baseball Foundation to the top shortstop in college baseball.

A sophomore from Bennington, Nebraska, Sintek ended the regular season with a team-best .352 batting average and 22 multi-hit games. His 74 hits and 45 runs scored also led the Jackrabbits, while adding three home runs, 29 runs batted in and 118 defensive assists en route to second-team all-Summit League recognition.

The award is named in honor of former Texas Tech shortstop Brooks Wallace, who played for the Red Raiders from 1977 to 1980. Wallace died of leukemia at the age of 27. The semifinalists were identified based on their combined offensive and defensive performances from this season. Finalists for the Brooks Wallace Player of the Year Award will be announced on June 4, with the 2025 winner to be announced later in the month. Griff O’Ferrall of the University of Virginia was the 2024 Brooks Wallace Player of the Year.

The full list of semifinalists is as follows (Name, School, Hometown, Conference):

• Alex Alicea, Louisville, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, ACC
• Wehiwa Aloy, Arkansas, Wailuku, Hawai’i , SEC
• Aiva Arquette, Oregon State, Kailua, Hawai’i, Independent
• Dillon Baker, Miami (Ohio), Tampa, Florida, MAC
• Kolby Branch, Georgia, Lucas, Texas, SEC
• Benny Casillas, Michigan, Los Ángeles, California, Big Ten
• Roch Cholowsky, UCLA, Chandler, Arizona, Big Ten
• Lukas Cook, Purdue, Knoxville, Tennessee, Big Ten
• Dylan Grego, Ball State, Kansas City, Missouri, MAC
• Cam Hassert, Loyola Marymount, Longmont, Colorado, West Coast
• Core Jackson, Utah, Wyoming, Ontario, Big 12
• Tyriq Kemp, Baylor, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Big 12
• Matt King, Arizona State, Houston, Texas, Big 12
• Maddox Latta, Cal State Fullerton, Granada Hills, California, Big West
• Alex Lodise, Florida State, St. Augustine, Florida, ACC
• Kyle Lodise, Georgia Tech, Brunswick, Georgia, ACC
• Isaac Lopez, UTRGV, Edinburg, Texas, Southland
• Alex Madera, North Carolina, Delran, New Jersey, ACC
• Lorenzo Meola, Stetson, Green Brook, New Jersey, Atlantic Sun
• Jake Ogden, Miami, Homestead, Florida, ACC
• Ray Ortiz, NJIT, Bayonne, New Jersey, America East
• T.J. Salvaggio, Southeastern Louisiana, Slidell, Louisiana, Southland
• Blake Schaaf, Georgetown, Oakland, California, BIG EAST
• Jake Schaffner, North Dakota State, Janesville, Wisconsin, Summit
• Colby Shelton, Florida, Lexington, South Carolina, SEC
• Ike Shirey, Tarleton State, Dale, Oklahoma, WAC
• Brady Short, Central Connecticut, Huley, New York, Northeast
• Carter Sintek, South Dakota State, Bennington, Nebraska, Summit
• Drew Wyers, Bryant, Columbus, New Jersey, America East
• Colin Yeaman, UC Irvine, Saugus, California, Big West

-GoJacks.com-

 
 
 
 
 
 

While there’s still little known about President Donald Trump‘s commission on college sports — even co-chair Nick Saban remains in the dark — one of Saban’s former Alabama players has some interesting suggestions on how the still-yet-to-be-determined working group could address what’s currently ailing college football.

ESPN analyst Greg McElroy recently addressed the presidentially-mandated commission and proposed an array of fixes the commission could attempt to address both the NCAA Transfer Portal and NIL, as well as growing concern between the haves and have-nots within the sport. McElroy’s first fix is to reduce the time the transfer portal is open to a single month — May, specifically.

“I think if we were to limit the amount of time the portal was open, that’d calm things down quite a bit. … I think having the portal opened in the month of May is the best thing for the sport,” McElroy said on last week’s episode of his Always College Football podcast. “… But if we were to open it on May 1^st and close it on May 31^st, it would do a few different things for us. One, it’d keep college football in the news. … Think about how much traction we’d get in May if players were leaving one place and going to another. … Two, … I think if we move the portal window to May, there would be a renewed emphasis for programs across the country to put a higher priority on the high school talent that could join their roster in January, go through Spring, go through Winter workouts, go through Summer, and hopefully be ready to play come Fall. I want to see more focus on high school players getting opportunities as opposed to players on their fourth school in five years.”

McElroy also suggested the single, post-Spring portal window would limit the sheer number of portal entries and, as such, limit coaches from “poaching off other rosters” because by May, most coaches will likely have a better hold on what their roster will look like in the Fall. According to On3’s latest numbers, of the 4,000-plus players that have entered the portal since the end of the 2024 season, only a little more than 2,400 have committed to new homes — with roughly two out of every five transfers still in the portal.

According to McElroy, the later portal window would also limit emotional decisions being made immediately after the season, citing his own career as an example. Had the portal been around when he was at Alabama, McElroy admitted he would have entertained leaving following the late 2006 firing of former coach Mike Shula. Of course, had McElroy done that, he would have missed out on playing under Saban, who was hired away from the Miami Dolphins more than a month later in early January 2007.

“Had I jumped in the portal, would I have been able to play for Nick Saban and lead Alabama to a national championship as their starting quarterback in 2009? Probably not,” McElroy said. “I would have made an emotional decision that I would’ve regretted for the rest of my life. … I think moving the portal from May 1^st to May 31^st would be an amazing move for college football, and I think this commission could potentially do that.”

Greg McElroy proposes presidential commission address NIL inequities with universial contract language

With the portal problem potentially solved, McElroy turned his attention to NIL, suggesting the commission develop universal contract language in NIL deals that wouldn’t allow schools to take advantage of favorable state laws. If that’s not possible, McElroy is hopeful the commission could help establish buyout language that would let schools recoup money should a player opt to leave before fulfilling the full term of their NIL agreements.

“It doesn’t have to be a massive hurdle for these players to move from school to school, but there’s a little one,” McElroy explained.

Last but not least, McElroy also proposed creating subsidies for less lucrative programs, like those from the Group of Six or even lower levels, many of whom are contemplating whether or not they can still field a football program in the day and age of NIL.

“We need to figure out a way to subsidize those schools,” McElroy said. “And if that means taking just a sliver of the College Football Playoff revenue, then by all means let’s do it.”

Of course, based on the current state of college athletics, where Florida State and North Carolina sued the ACC because they weren’t receiving equitable revenue compared to that of similar Big Ten or SEC teams, it’s unlikely any of the Power Four leagues would agree to such financial giveaways.

Nevertheless, McElroy clearly had some potential game-changing ideas, many of which might even be given serious consideration by the commission. But whether or not the presidential commission has any power to actually implement any of McElroy’s proposals without facing the threat of anti-trust litigation is unclear, especially given the working group is still in its infancy.