It’s the offseason for college basketball, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been any controversy. In particular, there’s been a growing debate surrounding playing two halves or four quarters. Now Auburn Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl has joined the conversation, sharing his thoughts.

While being interviewed by Andy Katz on The Sideline, Pearl shared that he prefers quarters over halves. After all, that’s how the game is played at every other level.

“Quarters,” Bruce Pearl said. “Just like everybody else.”

Pearl didn’t expand on his reasoning beyond that. Part of that might have been because Andy Katz asked him for a rapid-fire answer, though. Still, to his point, basketball is played in a four-quarter format in the NBA, in high school, and even in women’s college basketball. Women’s basketball made the switch back in the 2015-16 season. So, men playing two halves does remain an odd outlier.

This growing concern over halves and quarters stems from a recent NCAA press release. In it, the NCAA was announcing some changes to help with the flow of the game. Among those changes was the move to allow coaches to challenge and review out-of-bounds calls and goaltending or basket interference. However, deeper inside that press release was an interesting note about the halves and quarters format.

The NCAA has since announced that there’s been “positive momentum” toward the switch. Bruce Pearl, seemingly, is a good example of that momentum now. The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel also recommended that Division I conferences actually develop a working group to provide further feedback on the option.

“In considering the decisions last month, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee had conversations about ways to continue this direction in the upcoming years, which includes positive momentum for moving the men’s game from halves to quarters,” the NCAA’s press release read. “The committee realizes there are hurdles to implementing the quarter format to the game, including the structuring of media timeouts to accommodate commercial inventory. The committee recommended NCAA Division I conferences create a joint working group to provide feedback on the potential change from halves to quarters.”

For many coaches, this would be a massive change. In particular, they’d have to adjust to a new system as it relates to clock management. For some, that may be more difficult than others. Still, if Bruce Pearl, who has been in college coaching since 1982 and has been a head coach since 1992, wants the change, then he is probably confident that he can adjust just fine. After a trip to the Final Four, of course, it’s easy to be confident.

Associated Press

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. (AP) — Martin Ojeda scored a goal and Pedro Gallese had his eighth shutout of the season to help Orlando City beat the Rapids 1-0 on Saturday night, Colorado’s third consecutive loss.

Gallese finished with two saves for Orlando (8-4-6), which had lost back-to-back games following a 12-game unbeaten streak.

Ojeda gave Orlando a 1-0 lead in the 24th minute. On the counter-attack, Marco Pasalic flicked a low cross along the top of the penalty area to Ojeda for a rolling shot the bounced off the outstretched arm of diving goalkeeper Nico Hansen into the top-net.

The Rapids (6-8-4) outshot Orlando 14-7.

Hansen finished with two saves for Colorado.

Orlando is 6-1-2 all time against the Rapids.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer

Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Kade Anderson limited Arkansas’ high-powered offense to three hits and a run in seven-plus innings, LSU knocked Razorbacks ace Zach Root out of the game early, and the Tigers beat the rival Razorbacks 4-1 in the College World Series on Saturday night.

Anderson, a projected top-five overall pick in the MLB amateur draft next month, kept Arkansas batters off-balance with his four-pitch mix and struck out seven to become the national leader with 170.

“Outstanding performance, one we’ve been accustomed to on opening night of every weekend,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “He got stronger as the game went along, and he executed pitches at a high level, which you have to do against that offense. Offensively, we did just enough.”

LSU (49-15), which won the SEC regular-season series against the Razorbacks in Baton Rouge last month, improved to 4-0 in all-time CWS meetings. The Tigers will play UCLA on Monday night as they continue their bid to win a second national title in three years. Arkansas (48-14), in its 12th CWS and looking for its first championship, meets Murray State in an elimination game Monday.

“Obviously, we need to move on from this one and get over it and not think too far down the road,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “We have to take care of business Monday because if we don’t, there’s no Tuesday. You can’t get all uptight about it. These guys have come back and won games. They’ve done some great things this year.”

The matchup between the No. 3 national seed Razorbacks and No. 6 Tigers marked the first time since the NCAA Tournament went to its current format in 1999 that the highest remaining seeds have met in their CWS opener.

The Tigers were up 3-0 in the second inning after Root (8-6) issued two walks and allowed a bunt single to Daniel Dickinson to load the bases. Chris Stanfield singled in a run and another was forced in when Root plunked Michael Braswell III in the foot. The third came home when Josh Pearson grounded to short and beat the relay throw to first on the double-play attempt.

That was all for Root, whose 1 2/3 innings marked his shortest start of the season.

“When you’re facing that caliber of arms, you aren’t going to get a ton (of runs) maybe like you would playing in SEC ballparks where home runs are a real thing with every pitch of the game,” Johnson said. “We did an excellent job setting the table. I’ve coached enough games here to know getting the lead is really important.”

Van Horn said it was a hard decision to take out Root.

“The game was about to get out of hand,” Van Horn said. “Yeah, it’s early. The wind was blowing in. Scoring a lot of runs against Anderson, to me, was something that wasn’t going to happen. I hated to do it, but I felt like it was the right decision and I’ll stand by it.”

Gabe Gaeckle, who moved to the bullpen after making nine starts, kept his team in the game. He allowed just three hits, and his 10 strikeouts and six innings were career highs.

Gaeckle left with two outs and a runner on second in the eighth. Cole Gibler came on and Derek Curiel sent his 0-2 pitch to left for an insurance run.

Anderson (11-1) held the Razorbacks scoreless until the sixth when Reese Robinett connected for his third homer of the season.

“Real cool moment,” Anderson said of his night. “Just taking it all in. That’s why you come here. Really proud of our team. Doesn’t matter the stat line. We won the game and that’s all I really care about.”

The left-hander from tiny Madisonville, Louisiana, went seven innings for the third straight start and departed after Cam Kozeal singled leading off the eighth. Chase Shores retired three straight and turned things over to freshman Casan Evans in the ninth. Evans worked around Charles Davalan’s leadoff single to finish off the Razorbacks.

The full house of more than 25,000 was evenly split between the fan bases. Well before first pitch, Arkansas fans countered passionate “L-S-U” chants by raising their arms and doing the Hog call: “Wooooooooo. Pig. Sooie!”

Influencer and former LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne was in the front row in a half-LSU, half-Pittsburgh Pirates No. 30 jersey with the name of her boyfriend, Paul Skenes, on the back. Skenes pitched on LSU’s 2023 title team before he made his fast rise in the majors.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

If it weren’t for Clemson, perhaps it wouldn’t have happened at all.

Just ask Ben Haulmiller.

Long before College Football 25 was the highest-selling sports video game in the history of the United States, one of the many tasks to accomplish to get the game in development was bringing the schools on board.

There needed to be proof of concept, or something that could be a minor selling point to enticing the rest of the universities to take action. One of the key issues was hesitancy due to the uncertainty of how to create a video game without having the players in it. At the time, Name, Image and Likeness compensation was not a thing, and a lawsuit over use of student-athletes’ NIL brought the game to a halt after the 2013 edition.

In NCAA Football 14, players were listed by their position and jersey number. Tajh Boyd was “QB10,” and Sammy Watkins was “WR2.”

Was there a way to show this concept could work?

Enter the Madden Franchise.

At the time, Madden was the king of football video games, and “Madden 20” was set to unveil a unique aspect of its career mode, particularly when it came to quarterbacks. The player could select from a variety of programs, including Clemson, Texas, Florida, LSU, Oklahoma, USC, Florida State, Miami, Oregon, and Texas Tech.

You would assume control of the quarterback in the College Football Playoff, playing in the semifinal and national championship before heading to the NFL.

Nobody knew it at the time, but those 10 programs were the stepping stones to eventually bringing back college football to video games. On the “Two Right Turns” Podcast, Haulmiller, EA Sports’ principal game designer, broke down how Clemson, along with nine other universities, stepped up to pave the way for CFB 25.

“Honestly, too, it’s a big reason why we’re even back is going back to when we first put in a kind of a pilot program for college in Madden,” Haulmiller said. “There were 10 schools you can go through, and you can kind of work your way from college to the NFL and superstar mode. And we selected 10 schools, and we were working with them, but a lot of schools were hesitant to work with us because we were still in the dark ages of how can we work with making a video game without having players in them, and not infringing on player rights, and all of those.”

As it turns out, Clemson was the first one of the bunch to step up to the plate. In Haulmiller’s eyes, the Tiger program had recognized that this small mode in an NFL-based game could prove to be incredibly valuable.

Once Clemson jumped on board, it was only a matter of time before other top programs wanted in on something special.

“And honestly, Clemson was the first school to step up and say, we want to do this with you guys,” Haulmiller said.” “And now you have a school in your back pocket, you can say, Hey, everybody else, Clemson’s on board, are you on board too? Let’s go. And it really got the ball rolling to get those schools to sign up to be in the game and then prove out to schools that we can do this in a way that if we don’t have player rights, we’ll be able to make it without players and be fine. But if we do have players, man, we can really make some magic here.”

Eventually, that source of magic would come. On July 1, 2021, the NIL floodgates were opened, and the possibility of using players in a college football video game was no longer a distant dream.

In many ways, Haulmiller believes Clemson’s trust in the process is what laid the groundwork for such a project to happen. At the time, it seemed that Madden’s small mode was the only way fans could play as college teams in video games again.

Little did they know, those 10 schools were an early demo for what was to come. Years later, that groundwork turned dreams into reality.

“So it’s that relationship we have with schools and specifically Clemson here,” Haulmiller said. “I mean that’s why we’re talking today in some way, shape, and form is because way back a few years ago, Clemson had the foresight to say, this is something that matters. This is maybe a way we can get the game back. And so here we are.”

Two days after the approval of a groundbreaking $2.8 billion antitrust settlement, thousands of athletic directors and department personnel traveled to Orlando, Florida, for the annual National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics convention.

The hot topic, of course, was the influx of changes both threatening and beneficial for schools across the country. According to NCAA President Charlie Baker, approval of the settlement may be the biggest change in college sports history. On July 1, schools that opt in to the settlement will embark on a new era of revenue sharing, changing the game both on and off the field.

Rewards

A handful of convention attendees breathed a sigh of relief on Friday night when U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken announced her decision. It’s a quick turnaround and a period of trial and error is anticipated, but Division I athletic directors welcomed the news.

“The best thing is clarity,” UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond said. “The best thing about July 1 is we now have clarity on the rules of engagement, what we’re allowed to do, how we can move forward. Does it solve everything? No, it doesn’t. But when you have clarity, you can operate more efficiently and effectively.”

Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart was relieved to get the agreement in hand.

“We’ve been trying for so long to be part of this,” Barnhart said. “Maybe, just maybe, on July 1, we’ll sort of all know where we are on this one.”

Barnhart added that the College Sports Commission, an entity that will enforce compliance and set market value for NIL deals, will be a major positive.

“The College Sports Commission and the way that is coming around gives us guardrails and enforcement in a way that we can move forward collectively, together, for college sports,” Barnhart said.

Risks

In a settlement where high-revenue sport athletes have the most to gain, Title IX has emerged as a topic to watch.

The 75-15-5-5 formula has emerged as a popular revenue-sharing formula, meaning that schools are likely to allocate 75% of revenue-share funds to football, 15% to men’s basketball, 5% to women’s basketball and the remaining 5% dispersed to other programs. If a school spent the full $20.5 million allowed this coming year, that would mean a breakdown of $15.4 million for football, $3.1 million for men’s hoops and about $1 million each for women’s hoops and everyone else.

Montoya Ho-Song, an attorney for Ackerman LLP who specializes in higher education issues, expects Title IX lawsuits to come, just like one filed this week by eight female athletes. The area has shifted again under President Donald Trump, with guidance suggesting the federal government won’t hold schools to rigid requirements to distribute proceeds equitably between men and women.

“There are definitely going to be legal challenges related to this revenue-sharing model. I always tell my clients, look, your student athletes’ perceptions are their reality. If they think that they are not being treated equally, they will raise those concerns,” Ho-Song said.

She warned that the 75-15-5-5 formula shouldn’t be a one size fits all and suggested dividing revenue based on how it comes in isn’t a valid argument. The majority of rev-share funds going to football and basketball programs, especially when coupled with losing records, will inevitably stir the pot.

“Just because there is a 75-15-5-5 budget breakdown, that does not mean that that’s going to work on all campuses,” she said. “The analysis under Title IX is making sure that it is available and everyone has the same type of access to non-grant funds. So, you do have to figure out a way to creatively divvy up those funds, but always keep in mind, if someone feels as if they’re not being treated correctly, then that is always a legal risk.”

Warnings

Attorney Mit Winter, a college sports law specialist with Kennyhertz Perry, said it is paramount that athletic departments present an organized, united front.

Since the launch of name, image, and likeness compensation four years ago, Winter said, he has encountered several instances where athletic departments are giving conflicting statements and numbers to current and prospective athletes. That can lead to legal headaches, too.

“You need to have a plan that everyone is on board with and that everyone knows,” Winter said. “As a school, you don’t want to have a situation where five different people are talking to an athlete about how much they’re going to pay him or her. I think that needs to be much more formalized. The coach, assistant coaches, GM, everybody needs to be on the same page.”

St. Bonaventure men’s basketball general manager Adrian Wojnarowski and coach Mark Schmidt know exactly what their roles are — and aren’t.

“I will never talk to a player or a parent or an agent about playing time, their role,” Wojnarowski said. “During the season, if someone is disappointed in playing time and they call, the only conversation I’m having with a family member is supporting the head coach, supporting the coaching staff. And in the end, that’s a conversation for their son to have with the head coach. Then economically, we have to have one clear message in negotiations and finances.”

Impacts

There are concerns that the revenue-sharing era will have multiple impacts on college rosters.

Few athletic directors were willing to talk in any detail about plans for their campuses, but some of the moves have already begun in the search for more money to fulfill the details of the NCAA settlement: UTEP dropped women’s tennis, Cal Poly discontinued swimming and diving, Marquette added women’s swimming and Grand Canyon shuttered its men’s volleyball program. The athletic director at Cal noted the school expects to lose about 100 athletes.

Just how many of the so-called non-revenue sports — the ones that often feed U.S. Olympic teams — will be affected is also a concern. And many programs will need to find a niche that works for them, even if that means not consistently contending for national championships.

There are several significant changes coming to college sports thanks to the House settlement. One of those that’s been widely discussed is that there are now going to be limits to the size of rosters.

There’s, of course, plenty of debate about this. That includes those concerned it’s taken away opportunities, particularly from walk-ons and those who think the move will bring more parity to college football. However, one person who pushed back on that idea is Greg McElroy. On his show Always College Football, the analyst explained why he doesn’t think roster limits are actually bringing parity to the sport.

“So, will there be more parity as a result of the roster limits and the new House settlement? That’s the assumption,” Greg McElroy said. “Do I think that’s the reality? Probably not. I really don’t.”

In college football, the House settlement sets roster limits at 105 spots. Other sports were hit too, including men’s and women’s basketball (15), baseball (34), men’s and women’s soccer (28), softball (25), and volleyball (18). Notably, as part of the settlement, it was agreed to phase in roster limits.

“I think the best teams are still going to be the best teams. Now, will they annually be the best? Are there going to be years in which there’s going to be outliers and teams decide to go all in and maybe the stars align and they can make a run? Sure. But I still think those teams with the deepest pockets, the best resources, the best facilities, the best fan support,” McElroy said. “Those are still going to be the teams that are competing annually at the top of college football. So, I will be curious to see how this House settlement affects the quality of play and the parity that we experience right now in the sport.”

The counterargument to McElroy is that these roster limits are going to test teams’ depth. In an increasingly long season with the Transfer Portal already showing its impact on depth, these smaller rosters would be another hit as teams battle injuries. That, hypothetically, would create more parity.

Parity is something that’s been a bit of an issue in college football since the beginning of the College Football Playoff. In 11 seasons of the Playoff, including one where it was expanded to 12 teams, there have been six national champions coming from three conferences. Alabama, who notably has the most national championships in the Playoff era, also won two of the final three in the BCS era. It has, for the most part, been a limited field of realistic potential national champions.

The House settlement is going to go well beyond roster limits, which will again shake up college athletics. That, most notably, includes revenue sharing, the creation of an NIL clearinghouse to review third-party deals, and the creation of a new enforcement entity.