CHICAGO − Yaxel Lendeborg rubbed his hands together seated inside Wintrust Arena, a wave of excitement and anxiety coursing through him as he laid out the options again before his first official NBA audition was set to begin. The former UAB star is an intriguing figure among the group of players taking part in this week’s 2025 NBA Draft Combine. He’s facing the sort of decision prospects invited to this annual league event never did in the past. 

TEMPE – Kenzie Brown and Kelsey Hall of Sun Devil Softball were each honored by the NFCA on Thursday by being named to NFCA DI All-Region selections. Brown was voted to the first team as a pitcher while Hall made the third team as the designated player.

This is the first All-Region honor for each player during their time at ASU. Hall was twice named to the All-Region team during her time at Boise State.

After sitting out last season with an injury, Brown developed as one of the top pitchers in the country in 2025. At the moment, Brown is third in the NCAA with 265 strikeouts and second at 11.77 strikeouts per seven innings. Her strikeout total is the highest of any pitcher in a Power 4 conference.

Brown had 18 strikeouts against BYU on March 6 to tie the ASU record for strikeouts in a 7-inning game. She ranks in the Big 12 top five in 11 statistical categories, including second by allowing 4.13 hits per seven innings, third with a 1.29 ERA, and fourth with 19 wins. Brown’s strikeout total is the 10th-most for a season in ASU history, and she has double-digit strikeouts in a game 11 times.

Hall opened the season in the starting lineup 277 days after tearing her ACL. Having started all 54 games this season, Hall is batting .325 with a .929 OPS. She leads the team with 47 RBIs, posting 53 hits with six doubles and 10 home runs.

In her sixth season of collegiate softball, Hall ranks 28th among players with 159 RBIs and 30th with 364 total bases. She is also 33rd with 152 runs scored and 39th with 40 home runs.

With these two selections, ASU has now had 68 players named All-Region a total of 114 times. Brown is the program’s 54 selection to an All-Region First Team and the 20th pitcher to be recognized. Hall gives ASU 17 All-Region Third Team honors while becoming the seventh DP honored.

This is the 19th consecutive season at least one Sun Devil has been named All-Region and the 28th time there has been multiple Sun Devils honored in the same season.

 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — South Dakota State’s Abby Gentry continued her haul in prestigious honors for the 2025 softball season as she was named a National Fastpitch Coaches Association 1st Team All-Region performer by the organization on Thursday. 
 
Gentry was chosen as the third base honoree for the 1st Team in the Mountain Region. Other selections include individuals representing programs such as Boise State, BYU, Nebraska Nevada and Oregon. Gentry is the sixth Jackrabbit to earn All-Region 1st Team accolades joining recent selections in Mia Jarecki (2024) and Tori Kniesche (2021-24). 
 
The Benton, Ark., native was previously selected as The Summit League Player of the Year. 
 
Gentry ended her sophomore season ranked among the top 60 individuals in Division I softball for the season in batting average (.427), doubles (16), hits (70) and RBIs (56). She finished among the top three among conference individuals in several categories including slugging percentage (.701), on-base percentage (.503), hits, RBIs, doubles, home runs (9) and sacrifice flies (4), along with leading The Summit League in average. 
 
SDSU’s third baseman played in 54 of the Jackrabbits’ 55 games and started in 53. The 2025 season saw Gentry set the program’s Division I record for batting average topping the previous best .418 mark set by Jocelyn Carrillo in 2021. Multiple other totals ranked among the top five for single seasons in program history set by Gentry including the second-best mark in on-base percentage, third most hits and RBIs in a season, fourth most total bases (115) and fifth best marks in doubles and slugging percentage. 
 
The NFCA announced 380 student-athletes from 146 programs for the Division I All-Region accolades. NFCA member head coaches from each respective region nominated student-athletes and voted for the teams. All awarded student-athletes now become eligible for 2025 NFCA Division I All-America squads. 
 
The South Dakota State softball season ended with a 29-26 record at The Summit League Championship held at Jerald T. Moriarty Field last week. The winning record continues a streak of seven straight seasons which is the longest stretch in the program’s history.
 

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It may have been a surprise to some when highly regarded offensive lineman Jackson Cantwell committed to Miami instead of Georgia on Tuesday, and Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart offered some pointed comments on the current name, image and likeness situation in college football.

“I just want it to be able to have a freshman come in and not make more than a senior,” Smart said on the Paul Finebaum Show (h/t Kipp Adams of 247Sports).

Smart made sure to explain he is in favor of players being able to make money but worries about the slippery slope that massive contracts could lead to in college sports.

“And where we are right now, I think every coach agrees, we’re in a good place with being able to compensate players,” he said. “Call it pay-for-play, call it NIL, I don’t care what you call it. We’re all in a good place with that. We just want it to be in a way that’s sustainable.

“I’d like for other sports to be able to still survive. We’re on the brink of probably one to two years away from a lot of schools cutting sports. What’s the pushback going to be then when you start cutting non-revenue sports? I don’t want that to happen.”

Adams noted that “word emerged that the Hurricanes’ NIL offer was well and beyond that of any other program” when it came to Cantwell’s recruitment.

It reached a point where the prospect himself had to address it and called it a “false narrative” he chose the Hurricanes over Bulldogs solely because of NIL, per John Talty of CBS Sports.

Talty noted Cantwell hired agent Drew Rosenhaus to handle all his NIL negotiations and still chose Miami even though he hadn’t visited the ACC program since March.

At this point, there aren’t many restrictions in place when it comes to NIL and recruiting in college football. Perhaps there will be more stability down the line when the House settlement that opens the door for collective bargaining and direct pay to athletes does pass, but the sport is still waiting for that to happen.

Regardless of how it landed Cantwell, this was a major win for Miami.

He is the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2026 recruiting class, per 247Sports’ composite rankings, and gives the Hurricanes quite the building block as they look to put together an impressive class and compete for future College Football Playoff spots.

Georgia will surely still be fine, though, as a national powerhouse that always performs well on the recruiting trail. In fact, it has the No. 12 class in the country in the 2026 recruiting cycle as of Thursday, per 247Sports’ composite rankings.

ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, speaks at a NCAA college basketball media day, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

(AP) — The Atlantic Coast Conference is entering a period of stability.

How long it lasts is anyone’s guess. Not even commissioner Jim Phillips knows for sure.

“I still live one day at a time,” Phillips quipped.

The ACC wrapped up its spring meetings Wednesday at the Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island, with athletic directors and coaches having spent three days discussing wide-ranging issues affecting football and basketball.

The event came amid the backdrop of the pending $2.8 billion NCAA settlement, which would allow schools to share up to $20.5 million annually directly with their athletes.

The ACC spent the past two years tracking that legal battle while also wading through contentious litigation from two of its top member schools, Clemson and Florida State.

The Tigers and Seminoles approved a settlement in March that changed the league’s revenue-distribution model to benefit schools with marquee football brands. Both would presumably fall into that category.

Although the 2030-31 season looms as a potential spot for more changes to the college football landscape, the revised deal should fortify a league that looked to be on the verge of collapse while falling further behind the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten.

“I just think you got to settle down,” Phillips said, noting he envisions four or five years of stability ahead. “And I think college athletics needs it to settle down, not just the ACC. I think we’ve positioned ourselves for that, and that’s a good thing. It just is.

“Chaos and the constant wondering of what’s happening here or there, I just think that distracts from the business at hand. But I feel good about where we’re at.”

The league’s revised revenue-distribution model incorporates TV viewership as a way for the league’s top programs to generate more money.

Florida State, for example, expects roughly $18 million extra annually from the tweaked structure. Those schools outside the top tier could see a decline of about $7 million a year.

“We’re really excited that this is now put behind us,” FSU athletic director Michael Alford said. “We have a path going forward. We have a path to really look at how we control the conference together, how we expand on the great brands that are in this conference and really promote the ACC and especially ACC football moving forward and give it its day in the sun.”

Presidential help ahead?

Even though ACC schools are bracing for the NCAA settlement and how it will change their business model, Phillips believes President Donald Trump’s proposed commission on collegiate athletics could help.

“We have not been able to get this thing into the end zone, so to speak,” Phillips said. “If the President feels that a commission could potentially help, I’m all for it.”

The proposed commission would be co-chaired by former Alabama coach Nick Saban and current Texas Tech board of regents chairman Cody Campbell.

“I think it’s well-intended,” Phillips said. “I do feel that the time is right based on all the work that’s previously been done and a supportive administration that’s in there. So I’m hopeful that that can be a positive to an end result that gets us a standardized law across the country with NIL.”

NCAA president Charlie Baker spoke at the ACC meetings Monday and said he was “up for anything” if it helped formalize NIL laws that differ from state to state.

“I think it speaks to the fact that everybody is paying a lot of attention right now to what’s going on in college sports,” Baker said. “I’m up for anything that can help us get somewhere.”

Future of the CFP

While power four conferences — the ACC, the Big Ten, Big 12 and the SEC — continue to negotiate the future of the College Football Playoff beginning in 2026, Phillips declined to reveal specifics regarding the league’s stance on automatic qualifiers.

“I remain steadfast about fairness in the system and access,” he said. “Out of respect for my colleagues, I want to hold off on commenting about AQs and specific models.”

The 16-team playoff model that has been widely discussed would grant four automatic berths to the Big Ten, four to the SEC, two to the ACC and two to the Big 12. That would leave four bids, with as many as three of those going to at-large teams and the other to the highest-ranked team from the Group of Six.

The ACC, according to several coaches, wants three guaranteed spots.

“You start to wonder if we are going to have an invitational,” SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said. “Every year, one league may be better than the other, and it can change to some degree.

“To say we’re going to pick teams based on what’s happened the last 15 years, especially in an environment where we have more and more parity with the way the rules are, I think it’s a slippery slope.”