Last week, the attorneys representing the NCAA and power conferences agreed to a revised plan to phase in roster limits as part of a revised House v. NCAA settlement before Judge Claudia Wilken in the U.S. Northern Districk Court of California. The proposal, which would effectively grandfather all current student-athletes and any that were preemptively cut before the settlement was finalized, would appear to satisfy Wilken’s request last month.

And while Wilken is currently considering the revised proposal, if approved, the House v. NCAA settlement would pave the way for revenue-sharing between NCAA schools and student-athletes, with some programs able to share between $20-22 million annually, or 22-percent of the average Power Five school’s annual revenue, along with approximately $2.75 billion in back damages to former college athletes over a 10-year span. It would also mean strict roster limits in football (105), men’s and women’s basketball (15), baseball (34), softball (25), men’s and women’s soccer (28) and volleyball (18).

But, at least for any coaches concerned about having to cut players three months before the start of the 2025-26 academic school year, the amended settlement would seem to be a welcomed relief. Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell, for one, explained the complicated balancing act football coaches have faced in recent months amid the ongoing uncertainty about the true impact of the settlement.

“I think the hardest thing about that is (that there are) some of the guys within your program that even in the winter we had some conversations with to say, ‘Hey, I don’t know what this thing is going to go to. If it goes to 105, we’re going to have to make some tough decisions.’ So there are some guys I think that could be looming in their head,” Fickell said last month during Spring practice. “If they do make this decision and it does come down and it is across the board, meaning everybody is going to have to conform to it, and there’s going to be obviously somebody paying attention and making sure everybody is on the same page. Then we’ll address that.

“(But) no, we can’t go about doing the things and building the things expecting to have to cut down, but I know that could be difficult on some guys that are curious what’s going to happen, and what their opportunities are going to be.”

Fickell admitted many of those conversations have already taken place at Wisconsin, though no definitive decisions will be made until the settlement has been approved and guidance is provided to programs.

“We have. And just trying to be forthright, … we care about all these kids, especially the guys that have been here for a while. If and when they do go to that, there’s going to have to be some tough decisions made. And it’s not going to be easy,” Fickell continued. “We don’t know the parameters to it all, we don’t know what that entails. Can guys be in waiting, can they still be apart of some things? We have no idea. So for us to jump too far ahead other than just being really honest and open with guys, and making sure they know what we feel and where we are with things, but not making any decisions.”

The devil is in the details, and until Wilken officially approves all parts of the revised House v. NCAA settlement, college football coaches like Fickell remain in wait-and-see mode.

— On3’s Pete Nakos and Nick Schultz contributed to this report.

In an otherwise smooth production by ESPN for the reveal of the 2025 NCAA Softball Tournament bracket, one hiccup left one team very confused. And it was all caught on camera.

As the final stages of the bracket reveal took place live on ESPN2, the Worldwide Leader was providing live look-ins to various teams selected for the field. With only two regional sites remaining, things were getting tense for a few teams waiting to hear their destination.

One of them included Binghamton. The Bearcats knew they were in the field, courtesy of winning the America East.

But they didn’t know where they’d be playing. Or who they’d be playing against.

So you can imagine their confusion when they suddenly appeared live on ESPN2’s camera feed prior to their selection in this year’s softball bracket being announced. Instead, ESPN2’s production crew inadvertently paired a shot of Binghamton with the announcement for Jackson State.

That left a very bewildered Binghamton squad gesturing wildly at the TVs. It was as if players were saying, ‘Wait, what is this?’

You can check out one such reaction below. An unfortunate goof for ESPN.

In any case, Binghamton would later hear its name called in the final regional pairing for the postseason softball event. And this time players would celebrate wildly upon hearing the selection.

Binghamton will take on Stanford in the opening game of the Eugene Regional out west. Jackson State, meanwhile, will take on host Alabama in the Tuscaloosa Regional.

You can view both softball regional pairings below. We’ve also included start times and TV networks for all games.

Tuscaloosa Regional

(15) Alabama
Jackson State
Friday 6 p.m. ET – ESPN+
Belmont
Virginia Tech
Friday 3:30 p.m. ET – ESPN+

Eugene Regional

(16) Oregon
Weber State
Friday 7:30 p.m. ET – ESPN+
Binghamton
Stanford
Friday 5 p.m. ET – ESPN+

STORRS, Conn. – The UConn softball team will begin their quest to Oklahoma City on Friday, May 16 as the Huskies head to the Baton Rouge regional as the No. 3 seed. 

UConn will match up with the No. 2 seed Nebraska Huskers in their opening round game at 3:00pm on Friday afternoon at Tiger Park. 

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The 2025 NCAA Softball Tournament will include a record number of teams from one conference with the SEC having 14 seeds. Nine of those were in top sixteen hosting regionals and seven of the top eight could be hosting super regionals, including the top two overall seeds in the field in No. 1 Texas A&M and No. 2 Oklahoma.

Kurt McGuffin, the selection committee chair, made an appearance on the special and, with that, would explain their reasoning that the Aggies (45-9) would be the top overall seed in the bracket as compared to the Sooners (45-7), who are the four-time defending champions. They went with A&M there over OU as they felt that the Aggies had a resumé with better results against their strength of schedule.

“Well, two quality opponents in Texas A&M and Oklahoma,” said McGuffin. “And I think what set apart Texas A&M was they have 19 Top-25 wins, which is number one in the country in wins in the Top-25. They also have had two quality non-conference wins versus Florida State and Texas Tech.”

“I think those were the two pieces that set them to the No. 1 seed,” McGuffin said.

These two teams could have settled this on the field this weekend in Athens during the championship match in the SEC Tournament. However, rain forced the game to be cancelled by the league with Texas A&M and Oklahoma being declared as co-champions.

Texas A&M went 29-2 in the non-conference this season before posting a record of 16-7 in the SEC. That record featured wins over tournament teams like UCF, Oklahoma State, and Virginia in the Clearwater Invitational, Florida State twice and Southeastern Louisiana in the Graf Classic, and Texas Tech twice in the Texas A&M Invitational during the non-conference and then series wins over Alabama (3-0), Auburn (2-1), Georgia (2-0), LSU (3-0), and Tennessee (2-1) in conference play. They then defeated South Carolina and Texas in the SEC Tournament before their matchup with OU rained out. Nine of those wins came against teams hosting in this tournament, including five against those hosting in Super Regionals.

Oklahoma has been as consistent as any program in making the Women’s College World Series since 2011. However, for the first time ever, it will be Texas A&M who will be the No. 1 overall seed in the 2025 NCAA Softball Tournament.