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The stunning reason Hugh Jackman delayed announcing his sporting partnership with Ryan …

Reynolds and Jackman now co-own Australia’s SailGP team  BONDS Flying Roos debut at New York Sail Grand Prix  Announcement was initially supposed to be made in January  By JOSH ALSTON FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA Published: 19:43 EDT, 6 June 2025 | Updated: 19:43 EDT, 6 June 2025 Hollywood superstars Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds have […]

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  • Reynolds and Jackman now co-own Australia’s SailGP team 
  • BONDS Flying Roos debut at New York Sail Grand Prix 
  • Announcement was initially supposed to be made in January 

Hollywood superstars Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds have officially joined forces as co-owners of Australia’s SailGP team, the BONDS Flying Roos, but it turns out the partnership has been in the works for months.

The announcement was finally unveiled this week – but not without months of behind-the-scenes tension. 

Plans to announce the partnership were originally scheduled for January 2025.

However, the reveal was postponed as Jackman’s personal life unravelled in the public eye.

In May 2025, Jackman’s ex-wife, Deborra-Lee Furness, filed for divorce in New York.

The filing followed a September 2023 separation, ending a 27-year marriage that began in April 1996.

Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds have announced their new role as co-owners of the BONDS Flying Roos SailGP team

The BONDS Flying Roos will debut under new ownership during the New York Sail Grand Prix this weekend

Soon after, Furness issued a searing public statement referring to a ‘traumatic journey of betrayal’ and a ‘profound wound.’

Her comments reportedly blindsided Jackman, who had expected a more discreet resolution.

The couple’s split came amid speculation about Jackman’s new relationship with Broadway co-star Sutton Foster.

Their romance became public in January 2025, further fuelling headlines and public interest.

Furness later claimed she felt betrayed, especially after Foster had tried to befriend her during the marriage.

The emotional fallout and media frenzy put Jackman’s professional ventures on pause.

The planned January announcement of his sports ownership with Reynolds was shelved due to the controversy.

Backers of the Australian SailGP team had hoped the noise would die down.

Deborra-Lee Furness’s divorce statement cast a shadow over Jackman’s scheduled January sporting announcement

But as the headlines persisted, they opted to go ahead with the launch regardless – despite it becoming the worst possible timing.

Jackman and Reynolds are now officially the faces behind the rebranded BONDS Flying Roos.

Reynolds and Jackman released a cheeky joint statement filled with their trademark wit.

‘We’re incredibly excited to set sail together in this new adventure,’ they wrote.

‘Hugh brings a deep love for and pride in his home country as well as being an avid fan of sailing.’

‘He will also be bringing his overly clingy emotional support human along for the ride.’

‘Apologies in advance to Australia. No comment on whether we’re writing this in our BONDS. No further questions.’

The announcement comes as Wrexham, Reynolds’ football club, prepares for a pre-season tour of Australia.

Jackman steps out with his new flame Sutton Foster in January, which caused the Flying Roos to delay the announcement

It also adds another chapter to Reynolds’ growing portfolio, which includes Aviation Gin and a stake in Alpine Formula One.

Meanwhile, SailGP’s Australian crew, led by Tom Slingsby, are leading the current championship with 39 points.

Slingsby, who is also a co-owner and driver, welcomed Jackman and Reynolds with enthusiasm.

‘This is an incredible milestone for us and for our sport,’ Slingsby said.

‘They bring unmatched star power, a love for storytelling, and a sharp sense of humour.’

‘With BONDS joining as our Title Partner and the launch of the BONDS Flying Roos, we’re building something distinctly Australian.’

BONDS, now launched in the US with help from Robert Irwin, also sees the partnership as a defining moment.

Tanya Deans, president of BONDS, called Jackman ‘Australian royalty’ in her statement.

‘We’re thrilled to join forces with such an iconic duo,’ she said.

‘And how do you say no to Hugh Jackman?’

‘As we set sail on this new adventure, the BONDS Flying Roos have one less thing to worry about.’

‘We’ve got their backs – and bums – covered.’

The team’s official rebranded debut will take place at the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix.

The event is scheduled to run across June 7 and 8.

NIL

UNC plan to pay players revenue, NIL after House settlement

UNC football coach Bill Belichick summer press conference UNC football coach Bill Belichick held a 20-minute press conference. He answered questions about outside “noise” and the roster. UNC athletes in football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and baseball will receive a share of revenue starting July 1st. UNC will increase its athletic scholarships from 338 to […]

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  • UNC athletes in football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and baseball will receive a share of revenue starting July 1st.
  • UNC will increase its athletic scholarships from 338 to 532 across all sports.
  • UNC is exploring new revenue streams like naming rights and sponsorships to offset increased costs.

University of North Carolina athletes will be paid revenue directly by the school, beginning July 1, in addition to income they already earn for use of their name, image and likeness.

UNC athletics director Bubba Cunningham outlined the university’s plan for the revenue sharing era in a letter posted on June 23. This follows the approval of the House vs. NCAA settlement on June 6, which moves college sports closer to a professional model. Schools opting into the format can pay athletes up to an annual cap of $20.5 million.

“This is a significant evolution that will change our department’s financial model while providing greater financial opportunities for Tar Heel student-athletes,” Cunningham said in a school-issued statement.

“At Carolina, we have been preparing for these changes for more than a year. We are fully committed to adapting to this new era and continuing to create outstanding championship experiences for our student-athletes across our 28-sport, broad-based program.”

UNC is among the schools positioning itself to share the full amount of revenue share to its athletes. Cunningham revealed how UNC’s athletics department plans to handle the changes.

“As we begin this new era, one thing won’t change: our dedication to excellence and winning in and outside of competition,” Cunningham said.

UNC will share most of $20.5 million with men’s basketball, football

Men’s basketball and football at UNC will receive a majority of the school’s $20.5 million in revenue sharing, according to Cunningham’s letter. Women’s basketball and baseball players will also get a cut of the revenue share, bringing UNC’s total to four sports. The rev-share cap will increase by 4% annually.

UNC scholarship increases for athletes

The settlement institutes roster limits for all sports, but removes scholarship limits. With that change, Cunningham said UNC will increases its number of scholarships by nearly 200 across 28 sports, going from 338 to 532.

“The ability to have more Tar Heels on full scholarship will greatly strengthen our athletics program and the student-athlete experience at Carolina,” Cunningham said. “This is a great opportunity to support additional student-athletes financially, outside of revenue share, and we want to keep building our Rams Club Scholarship Endowment in the hope of increasing scholarships even more in the future.”

UNC backpay for athletes, budget

UNC estimates an impact of $2 million annually for the next 10 years due to the $2.7 billion in backpay to athletes who weren’t allowed to profit off NIL. The NCAA is funding payments for schools by withholding a portion of its annual distribution of funds. Cunningham said UNC’s budget, which was $150 million this year, will grow 30% or 20% by next year.

“To prepare, we have hired a new Chief Revenue Officer to investigate and initiate new revenue opportunities, including naming rights, field sponsorships and jersey patches, expanding football’s Bell Tower Block Party to draw more fans, options to further optimize our relationship with corporate sponsorship partner Learfield and more aggressive ticket sales initiatives,” Cunningham said.

“ACC Success Initiatives and additional funding allocated by the state of North Carolina from gambling revenues may also assist our efforts in the coming years, and we will continue to evaluate our Department’s budget and spending for cost-cutting opportunities.”

Rodd Baxley covers Duke, North Carolina and N.C. State for The Fayetteville Observer as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his ACC coverage on X/Twitter or Bluesky: @RoddBaxley. Got questions regarding those teams? Send them to rbaxley@fayobserver.com.



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‘Each individual school can decide how they spend the money’ :: WRALSportsFan.com

Brian Murphy explains revenue sharing. Show Transcript We don’t know the breakdown. We do know that the back pay included in the house settlement goes 75% to football, 15% to men’s basketball, 5% to women’s basketball, and 5% to all other sports. So if North Carolina is spending a little bit less on football, I […]

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Brian Murphy explains revenue sharing.



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Florida State QB Tommy Castellanos ‘Doesn’t See’ Alabama Stopping Him

Despite being two months out from opening the 2025 college football season against Alabama, Florida State’s quarterback, Tommy Castellanos, has already called out the Crimson Tide. “I’m excited, man,” Castellanos said in an interview with On3. “People, I don’t know if they know, but you go back and watch every first game that I played […]

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Despite being two months out from opening the 2025 college football season against Alabama, Florida State’s quarterback, Tommy Castellanos, has already called out the Crimson Tide.

“I’m excited, man,” Castellanos said in an interview with On3. “People, I don’t know if they know, but you go back and watch every first game that I played in, we always start fast. I dreamed of moments like this. I dreamed of playing against Alabama. They don’t have Nick Saban to save them. I just don’t see them stopping me.”

It’s a bold statement from a player who hasn’t had the most decorated college football career to this point and has yet to play a snap for his new team. But, there’s no questioning Castellanos’s confidence. 

He transferred to Florida State ahead of his senior season. It’s his third ACC school after spending two years at Boston College and one at Central Florida, and Castellanos is trying to make a name for himself off the field to drum up the anticipation for the game on the field. 

In 2023, he completed 57.3% of his pass attempts for 2,248 yards, 15 touchdowns and 14 interceptions as a sophomore. He then took a step up in his junior season, improving his accuracy to 61.5%, while throwing 18 touchdowns and five interceptions through the first eight games of the season. But, midway through the season, Boston College lost three consecutive games, and then Castellanos got hurt against Syracuse, and his backup, Grayson James, replaced him and helped the Eagles break their losing streak. 

James’ performance pushed him ahead of Castellanos on the depth chart and, to deal with that decision to change quarterbacks, Castellanos took some time away from the team, while James finished out the season as the starter and led the Eagles to a Bowl Game.

That Syracuse game ended up being Castellanos’ last for Boston College. Now, he’s got a fresh start at Florida State, where he’s trying to make some waves, and introduce himself to the Seminoles’ biggest opponent well before the season even starts.  

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Most IMPACTFUL transfers heading into 2025 College Football season

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Most IMPACTFUL transfers heading into 2025 College Football season


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‘This is our time’: Alberts tailoring A&M’s approach as new era begins

Click here to view Trev Alberts’ Monday press conference. Trev Alberts’ job title is Texas A&M’s Director of Athletics. In some ways, tailor maybe should be added. That’s a reaction to how Alberts described the task he and A&M face in navigating the changing future of college athletics. “(It’s) how to thread the needle between tradition […]

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Click here to view Trev Alberts’ Monday press conference.


Trev Alberts’ job title is Texas A&M’s Director of Athletics. In some ways, tailor maybe should be added.

That’s a reaction to how Alberts described the task he and A&M face in navigating the changing future of college athletics.

“(It’s) how to thread the needle between tradition and modernization,” Alberts said in a Monday meeting with local reporters inside a third-floor conference room at Kyle Field.

Maintaining traditions at A&M won’t be a problem. Successfully modernizing A&M’s athletic department to excel in the new era of Name, Imagine & Likeness (NIL) and revenue sharing projects to be much more challenging.

Reacting to the recent House v. NCAA settlement, which allows NCAA member schools to directly pay student-athletes, Alberts announced that A&M will distribute $18 million to football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball.

A popular national template suggests directing 75 percent of funds to football, 15 percent to basketball, five percent to baseball and five percent to women’s sports.

“Some institutions have chosen to use that (75-15-5-5 model) as a template for their institution,” Alberts said. “Our percentages don’t reflect that. We’ve chosen to make market-based decisions based on revenue.”

The distribution could cause derision within athletic programs. Coaches in different programs could be competing against each other to get more funding.

Alberts said that hasn’t been a problem at A&M, but he has heard that has been an issue for other colleagues.

Alberts declined to reveal the percentages to be shared with A&M’s athletes for competitive reasons. But football is the only revenue-producing sport at Texas A&M, so it stands to reason that the majority of A&M’s shared revenue will go to football players.

“I’m not going to run out and tell you exactly what the numbers are and what the percentages are because there’s a competitive piece to that, right?” he said. “But I think you’re going to start to figure out where the numbers lie.”

He said in a year there may be more data available that provides at least guidelines how players perhaps should be compensated not only by sport, but by position.

Alberts acknowledged that some programs could be at a disadvantage to conference opponents.

“You’re not going to knowingly put any of your programs at a competitive disadvantage. But I think it’s absolutely true you could find yourselves in a situation — based on the priorities of the investments — that some of your programs will have less rev share than some of their competitors.”

– Director of Athletics Trev Alberts

For example, Kentucky, which puts great emphasis on basketball, figures to share a greater percentage of revenue with its basketball players than many other SEC programs.

“You’re not going to knowingly put any of your programs at a competitive disadvantage,” Alberts said. “But I think it’s absolutely true you could find yourselves in a situation — based on the priorities of the investments — that some of your programs will have less rev share than some of their competitors.”

Some of the differences, at least, could potentially be offset by greater NIL opportunities.

Alberts said if a program, like football, has players earning substantial money though fair-market NIL deals then some funds could be redirected to other sports.

To enhance those NIL possibilities, Alberts said a new position is being created to help locate NIL opportunities and ensure they meet the standard “fair market value” as determined by Deloitte, which will act as a third-party clearinghouse for NIL deals.

“We’re not ready to announce a name, but we are hiring a new position that will be an associate AD reporting directly to me that is an attorney,” Alberts said. “It’s basically, what is our strategy and how do we leverage every one of our assets?

“If we’re able to get fair market value NIL deals at a certain level, we may not need as much rev share there. We can put the rev share over at this sport because they’re not as successful. So, that’s why I think that fair market value NIL strategy is going to be really important to our future.”

Alberts later added: “We have to be better than our peers. To me, that’s the differentiator in the game. That’s why we’re going to throw a lot of energy and effort in making sure we have a good strategy there (NIL).”

Alberts is hopeful that a sound, effective strategy could launch A&M to great competitive success.

“This is our time,” he said. “If we have the courage to make tough decisions and act and modernize in some areas, I think Texas A&M can separate and do things we’ve never done here before.

“That’s why we’re all here. The opportunities are here at Texas A&M to do things that most people can’t do because of scale, because of resources and other things.”





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1981-82 Vandals to be Inducted into Spokane Hoopfest Hall of Fame

Story Links MOSCOW, Idaho – The Spokane Hoopfest tournament is nearly here, and tens of thousands of competitors will take the court in the largest 3-on-3 competition in the world. Before this, however, some of the best in basketball’s history will be immortalized at the fourth-annual Hooptown Hall of Fame ceremony on Wednesday. […]

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MOSCOW, Idaho – The Spokane Hoopfest tournament is nearly here, and tens of thousands of competitors will take the court in the largest 3-on-3 competition in the world.

Before this, however, some of the best in basketball’s history will be immortalized at the fourth-annual Hooptown Hall of Fame ceremony on Wednesday. Among the nominees for this prestigious society will be the 1981-82 Idaho Basketball team, alongside their head coach, Don Monson.

Widely considered one of the greatest seasons in school history, the 81-82 Vandals took the Big Sky Conference, and all of DI Basketball, by storm as they marched out to a 27-3 record, still the best all-time. The black and gold would be denied by very few as they went 13-1 in Big Sky play and achieved noteworthy non-conference wins over Oregon, Oregon State, Gonzaga, Washington, and Washington State to start the season 12-0. 

Sporting one of the most tenacious defenses in college basketball, Idaho allowed just 57.5 PPG as a team across 30 games, a top-20 mark in the country by the end of the year. This culminated in the #1 seed in the Big Sky Tournament, which the Vandals had earned the right to host due to securing the top spot. Inside the Kibbie Dome-turned-Cowan Spectrum, the top-seeded black and gold knocked off Weber State in the Semifinals and took down Nevada in the championship to earn the berth to the NCAA Tournament. 

As the #3 seed in the west, the Vandals matched up with the #16 Iowa Hawkeyes in what was effectively a home game in Washington State’s Beasley Coliseum. UI(daho) forward Phil Hopson led the scoring with a game-high 21 points, and four of five Vandal starters finished in double figures to win an overtime thriller, 69-67. The win was cemented by Brian Kellerman’s 18-foot buzzer-beater to end the extra period and send Idaho to the Sweet 16. 

The 81-82 squad was led by one of the most well-known faces in the history of Vandal Hoops. Don Monson was entering his fourth year at the helm of the program and had led his team to what was, at the time, the best season in school history. The Vandals finished with a program best 25-4 record in the 80-81 season and had reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever. They topped both of those notables with the 27-win season and Sweet 16 appearance the following year as Monson established himself as one of the best coaches in Idaho history. To date, he is one of only two coaches to lead the Vandals to the Tournament and the only coach in school history with a win under his belt.

In five years coaching in Moscow, Monson would finish with a 100-41 career record, the third most wins for an Idaho head coach to date. In those five years, his teams finished with ten losses or less in four of them and captured two Big Sky regular season titles and two conference tournament titles.  

The induction ceremony will take place on Wednesday, June 25th, at the Hooptown Courts.

 



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