NIL
These Penn State Commits Are the Next Big Stars! — Inside the REAL Battle With NIL
Penn State may not be throwing around $1M NIL deals — but they’re still finding ways to win key recruiting battles. Author: ksdk.com Published: 10:09 PM CDT July 3, 2025 Updated: 10:09 PM CDT July 3, 2025 1

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Big Ten coach reveals he ‘lost his locker room’ over NIL in 2025
Maryland said goodbye to longtime quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa last offseason and promptly suffered through its worst season since 2019. The Terrapins lost 8 games in 2024, missing out on a bowl game for the third time under coach Mike Locksley. The offense suffered without Tagovailoa at the controls. Maryland ranked 95th in offensive efficiency, averaging […]

Maryland said goodbye to longtime quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa last offseason and promptly suffered through its worst season since 2019. The Terrapins lost 8 games in 2024, missing out on a bowl game for the third time under coach Mike Locksley.
The offense suffered without Tagovailoa at the controls. Maryland ranked 95th in offensive efficiency, averaging only 5.4 yards per play. And the Terps averaged just 23.7 points per game to rank 100th in the FBS.
But the dysfunction can’t be entirely attributed to the change at quarterback. In fact, at Big Ten Media Days this week, Locksley pulled back the curtain a bit and revealed something deeper was at play.
“I’ll tell you, a year ago Coach Locks lost his locker room,” Locksley said. “I lost my locker room, and it wasn’t because I wasn’t a good coach. It wasn’t because they weren’t good players because we were better than a 4-win team.
“We had haves and have-nots for the first time in our locker room, and the landscape of college football taught me a valuable lesson. That valuable lesson is it’s important for me, even in the midst of this change, to continue to educate our players on the importance of what playing for something bigger than yourself is all about. And I can tell you that if I’ve got to put my desk in the locker room this year, I will.”
Locksley went on to say he now has a sign posted outside the Maryland locker room that instructs players to leave the “Louis belts,” car keys, and “financial statements” outside because inside the locker room, “we’ll all pay the same price for success or failure.”
Maryland hired a general manager this offseason, Geroy Simon, to take some of the burden of roster management off Locksley. The former Alabama assistant admitted that last year was tough on him as a coach.
“For the first time, those really strong relationships were questioned because I had to decide whether to pay a freshman coming in or take care of a veteran player that helped me go to 3 bowl games,” Locksley said. “It was hard to do both.
“… That’s what last year was about for me, but that’s also why I’m excited about this year, because I don’t know what kind of team I have just yet, but I know that they’re really talented. It’s a matter of them playing for something bigger than themselves, which we’re in the process of developing that type of culture.”
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
NIL
$1.1M NIL-Valued Star Claps Back at HC Brian Kelly’s “Death Valley Jr.” Jab Ahead of Clemson vs LSU College Football Showdown
LSU and Clemson have a lot of things in common, aside from their teams both being called the Tigers. Both teams call their respective home stadiums “Death Valley,” though LSU head coach Brian Kelly riled up Clemson fans by calling their home stadium, Memorial Stadium, “Death Valley Junior.” TJ Parker was having none of that […]

LSU and Clemson have a lot of things in common, aside from their teams both being called the Tigers. Both teams call their respective home stadiums “Death Valley,” though LSU head coach Brian Kelly riled up Clemson fans by calling their home stadium, Memorial Stadium, “Death Valley Junior.” TJ Parker was having none of that and fired back at the LSU coach.
The clap-back from Parker was also a nod to the teams’ season opener against each other on Aug. 30, where LSU will be visiting what Kelly called “Death Valley Junior.” LSU has a strong team this year, with a lot of transfers, but TJ Parker, whose NIL is valued at $1.1 million, noted that they will be in for quite the challenge for LSU.
“They can have their opinion. We’re gonna handle all that on August 30,” TJ Parker said. “At the end of the day, we can do all the talking, we still got to play. So, we gonna see, you know what I’m saying? They’re hyping up everybody across the board, all these transfers they got — we’ll see.”
The last time LSU met, the Bayou Tigers defeated Clemson 42-25 during the 2019 national championship game. However, that was a different time, and the Tigers had a different coach. Kelly has not yet won a national title himself, though the two previous LSU coaches did, and Kelly is seen to still be playing catchup to them.
Clemson’s Memorial Stadium was the first to be called “Death Valley” by Presbyterian College head coach Lonnie McMillian back in 1948. LSU did not start calling Tiger Stadium “Death Valley” until over 10 years later, in 1959, after LSU defeated Clemson at home, 1959, when it was known as “Deaf Valley” for how loud it got.
TJ Parker Speaks on Not Leaving Clemson Despite Transfer Offers From Other Schools
As for TJ Parker, he actually has a lot of offers from other schools to enter the transfer portal, but he has so far stayed loyal to Clemson. During the ACC Media Days, the defensive end revealed why he has not even entertained any of them.
“There’s no point in me leaving if I have everything I want here,” Parker told reporters.
This statement from Parker only reinforces that the culture Dabo Swinney has made over there at Clemson, with the school having a “family atmosphere” that may prove attractive to players and making the older ones want to stay.
Related: ‘He Has To Win’: CFB Analyst Sets Expectations Straight As LSU HC Brian Kelly Writes Cheque Worth $1,000,000
College Sports Network has you covered with the latest news, analysis, insights, and trending stories in college football, men’s college basketball, women’s college basketball, and college baseball!
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MAC football: How coaches and players have adapted to NIL, transfer portal changes
DETROIT — In recent years, it has become more and more challenging to be a college football head coach. Gone are the days of recruiting players and coaching them up for four or five years. Instead, the sport finds itself in an era of unprecedented player movement thanks to the transfer portal quickly facilitating moves […]

DETROIT — In recent years, it has become more and more challenging to be a college football head coach.
Gone are the days of recruiting players and coaching them up for four or five years. Instead, the sport finds itself in an era of unprecedented player movement thanks to the transfer portal quickly facilitating moves between NCAA institutions with few restrictions.
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Widespread tampering under the guise of name, image and likeness (NIL) deals has only exacerbated such movement. While schools and coaches can’t directly recruit players from other teams, there are no rules preventing independent NIL collectives from negotiating with agents and making offers to players to enter the portal. This has created a system where the top players in the NCAA’s non-autonomous conferences (Group of 5) are often poached by teams in autonomous conferences (Power 4).
The Mid-American Conference is in the former group, seeing its top talent migrate up to the Power 4 level more frequently over the last few years. Of the 11 players on the 2024 All-MAC first-team who retained eligibility for 2025, only two will return to their 2024 teams. Meanwhile, eight of the nine who transferred wound up at Power 4 schools.
This new era raises plenty of questions. How can the coaches of the MAC best respond and adapt to the constant roster turnover? Does the constantly looming threat of the portal affect locker rooms during the season? How understanding are players when their teammates move on? Well, like almost everything else, it varies from school to school.
More: ‘Pirate mentality’ guiding MAC commissioner through uncertain times in college football
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More: ‘Establish our standards’: How Ball State football coach Mike Uremovich is shifting the culture
Coaches emphasize culture, relationships
Perhaps the most eventful transfer portal season among the MAC belongs to Ball State. Exactly half of its roster — 55 out of 110 players — is new this season, and new head coach Mike Uremovich replaced almost the entire staff with his own guys. With more new faces than old, it’s been easier for everyone to get on the same page as the program begins a new era.
“The new guys who came in and the guys who were returning, it was all new to them, so they were all going through it for the first time.” Uremovich said. “It’s fun to watch that all coming together, and then you have the new crop of guys that comes in May and June and high school guys, so we’ve got to get those guys bought in too.”
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The Cardinals are one of six teams in the MAC who will have a new coach this season. This group includes the reigning MAC champion Ohio Bobcats, as former offensive coordinator Brian Smith will take over the head coaching post from Tim Albin, who took the Charlotte job mere hours after the MAC title game.
Despite Albin’s stunning move and the fact that he took a slew of assistant coaches with him, Ohio only lost a handful of players to the portal. The Bobcats have also had success recruiting from the portal, as many of the key contributors to their conference championship victory were former transfers.
“When you really emphasize the culture within your program and that gets built among the players that are in it, and you are constantly emphasizing it within your team, the new players are going to be able to adapt to that culture, or they’re not going to work out,” Smith said. “We’ve done a good job of identifying kids that we think fit what we do from a program standpoint, but also culturally.”
Another team with limited roster turnover this offseason was Buffalo. The Bulls had the MAC’s least active portal period in terms of both transfers out and in, and they were one of the two teams to retain a 2024 first-team All-MAC player with linebacker Red Murdock. Going into his second season as the head coach, Pete Lembo takes pride in the Bulls’ limited movement and cited the program’s emphasis on relationships as a key factor in the continuity.
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“I think the best way to overcome those (challenges) is to do what we’ve always done, which is build great relationships,” Lembo said. “The reason I got into coaching 30-plus years ago was because I enjoyed the relationships, player-to-player, coach-to-player, the staff, the administration, and those things haven’t changed.”
Of course, not every team in the conference was as fortunate as Ohio and Buffalo. Eastern Michigan, for example, has 50 new players this season. Twelfth-year coach Chris Creighton — tied for the longest tenured head coach in the MAC — remembers a time before the conference was ravaged by the portal and has had to adapt to its new landscape. Creighton believes that his adaptation has been made easier by the fact that his team culture is firmly solidified with his decade-plus of experience with the Eagles.
“Our guys know who they are, so we can recruit to that,” Creighton said. “We’re not trying to figure out who we are, we’re not trying to establish who we are. That’s what we want to continue to be really strong in, is knowing who we are and having a certain culture.”
No hard feelings among players
While one might expect constant roster turnover and NIL negotiations to create animosity or jealousy within a locker room, the players of the MAC are generally understanding. Most players get the “business decision” nature of their teammates who opt for the portal, and those who stick around know they need to rally around the next man up.
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“We’re not going to dwell on who’s not here,” said Eastern Michigan defensive lineman Jefferson Adam. “You know, best of luck to them, but we’re just building off what we have because that’s ultimately what’s most important.”
Players who do decide to stay often play a role in convincing others to do the same. For coaches who now have to worry about re-recruiting their own players, having players who can do it for them is a big advantage.
“For a head coach, it’s one of your biggest jobs to recruit your own roster,” Western Michigan coach Lance Taylor said. “Your own players can be a huge part of that because honestly, those are the guys that they battle with every single day. They live with them, they hang out with them, they have really close and deep relationships.”
Those relationships don’t expire when players do decide to leave. Adam, a former Iowa State transfer, is still in touch with some of his Cyclones teammates. Ohio quarterback Parker Navarro spent his first two seasons at UCF, where he met two friends who he remained close enough with to be in each of their weddings recently. Ball State defensive tackle Darin Conley is still close with many of the former Cardinals who left this offseason and continues to support them in their new destinations.
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“You’ve got to remember these guys were our teammates,” Conley said. “We’ve been through thick and thin, they just happened to go somewhere they thing was a benefit for them. You can’t really hate or knock them for that. With the guys who transferred, we’re still close friends. A lot of guys still hang out with each other because we still kind of live close.
“They’re still our guys, and we’re still going to love them. They’re just not currently our teammates.”
The Mid-American Conference football championship trophy at the MAC Football Kickoff media day.
Contact Cade Hampton via email at cbhampton@muncie.gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @CadeHamp10.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: How MAC football has shifted in the NIL and transfer portal era
NIL
President Donald Trump signs executive order related to college sports
Share Tweet Share Share Email President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday related to college sports and NIL. The executive order, which is titled “President Donald J. Trump Saves College Sports,” is intended to help enforce new provisions on athletic scholarships and “pay-for-play” licensing deals for […]

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday related to college sports and NIL.
The executive order, which is titled “President Donald J. Trump Saves College Sports,” is intended to help enforce new provisions on athletic scholarships and “pay-for-play” licensing deals for athletes.
Here is an excerpt from ESPN:
Trump’s order sets out specific guidelines for preserving athletic scholarships based on an athletic department’s annual revenue. It also declares that schools should not permit athletes to accept “third-party, pay-for-play payments.” The order states that Secretary of Education Linda McMahon should use future federal funding decisions among other tools to force schools to abide by the administration’s policy.
The NCAA always has prohibited pay-for-play payment from third parties. In the past several years, college sports leaders have struggled to find ways to stop boosters at the industry’s wealthiest schools from paying athletes via contracts that are endorsement deals on paper but function in reality as de facto salaries.
“A national solution is urgently needed to prevent this situation from deteriorating beyond repair and to protect non-revenue sports, including many women’s sports, that comprise the backbone of intercollegiate athletics,” Trump stated in the order.
The executive order states that endorsement deals from third parties should continue to be permitted so long as they reflect a “fair market value.”
Arkansas head coach John Calipari spoke out about the executive order, saying he is “encouraged” by the move:
I am encouraged by the President’s executive order today. This is an important step forward and will create opportunity for meaningful dialogue and movement toward a clearer picture of college athletics for everyone.
As we move forward, we must continue to do what’s right for…
You can read the actual executive order here

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Copy of Trump signs order to clarify college athletes’ employment status amid NIL chaos :: WRALSportsFan.com
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order mandating that federal authorities clarify whether college athletes can be considered employees of the schools they play for in an attempt to create clearer national standards in the NCAA’s name, image and likeness era. Trump directed […]

WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order mandating that federal authorities clarify whether college athletes can be considered employees of the schools they play for in an attempt to create clearer national standards in the NCAA’s name, image and likeness era.
Trump directed the secretary of labor and the National Labor Relations Board to clarify the status of collegiate athletes through guidance or rules “that will maximize the educational benefits and opportunities provided by higher education institutions through athletics.” The order does not provide or suggest specifics on the controversial topic of college athlete employment.
The move comes after months of speculation about whether Trump will establish a college sports commission to tackle some of the thorny issues facing what is now a multibillion-dollar industry. He instead issued an order intended to add some controls to “an out-of-control, rudderless system in which competing university donors engage in bidding wars for the best players, who can change teams each season.”
“Absent guardrails to stop the madness and ensure a reasonable, balanced use of resources across collegiate athletic programs that preserves their educational and developmental benefits, many college sports will soon cease to exist,” Trump’s order says. “It is common sense that college sports are not, and should not be, professional sports, and my administration will take action accordingly.”
There has been a dramatic increase in money flowing into and around college athletics and a sense of chaos. Key court victories won by athletes angry that they were barred for decades from earning income based on their celebrity and from sharing in the billions of revenue they helped generate have gutted the amateurism model long at the heart of college sports.
Facing a growing number of state laws undercutting its authority, the NCAA in July 2021 cleared the way for athletes to cash in with NIL deals with brands and sponsors — deals now worth millions. That came mere days after a 9-0 decision from the Supreme Court that found the NCAA cannot impose caps on education-related benefits schools provide to their athletes because such limits violate antitrust law.
The NCAA’s embrace of NIL deals set the stage for another massive change that took effect July 1: The ability of schools to begin paying millions of dollars to their own athletes, up to $20.5 million per school over the next year. The $2.8 billion House settlement shifts even more power to athletes, who have also won the ability to transfer from school to school without waiting to play.
At Big Ten Conference football media days in Las Vegas, Purdue coach Barry Odom was asked about the Trump order.
“We’ve gotten to the point where government is involved. Obviously, there’s belief it needs to be involved,” he said. “We’ll get it all worked out. The game’s been around for a hundred years and it’s going to be around 100 more.”
The NCAA has been lobbying for several years for limited antitrust protection to keep some kind of control over this new landscape — and avoid more crippling lawsuits — but a handful of bills have gone nowhere in Congress. Trump’s order makes no mention of that, nor does it refer to any of the current bills in Congress aimed at addressing issues in college sports.
NCAA President Charlie Baker and the nation’s largest conferences both issued statements saying there is a clear need for federal legislation.
“The association appreciates the Trump administration’s focus on the life-changing opportunities college sports provides millions of young people and we look forward to working with student-athletes, a bipartisan coalition in Congress and the Trump administration,” said Baker, while the conferences said it was important to pass a law with national standards for athletes’ NIL rights as soon as possible.
The 1,100 universities that comprise the NCAA have insisted for decades that athletes are students who cannot be considered anything like a school employee. Still, some coaches have recently suggested collective bargaining as a potential solution to the chaos they see.
It is a complicated topic: Universities would become responsible for paying wages, benefits, and workers’ compensation and schools and conferences have insisted they will fight any such move in court. While private institutions fall under the National Labor Relations Board, public universities must follow labor laws that vary from state to state and it’s worth noting that virtually every state in the South has “right to work” laws that present challenges for unions.
Trump’s order also:
— Calls for adding or at least preserving athletic scholarships and roster spots for non-revenue sports, which are those outside football and basketball. The House settlement allows for unlimited scholarships but does impose roster limits, leading to a complicated set of decisions for each program at each school that include potential concerns about Title IX equity rules. Trump said “opportunities for scholarships and collegiate athletic competition in women’s and non-revenue sports must be preserved and, where possible, expanded.”
— Asks the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission to “preserve college athletics through litigation” and other actions to protect the rights and interests of athletes — a stance that could influence ongoing lawsuits filed by athletes over eligibility and other issues.
— Directs White House staff to work with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to protect the collegiate pipeline feeding Team USA. College sports programs produce around three-quarters of U.S. Olympians at a typical Summer Games, but some are on uncertain footing as schools begin sharing revenue with athletes and the lion’s share going to football and basketball.
___
AP National Writer Eddie Pells contributed.
___
AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
NIL
Trump signs order to clarify college athletes’ employment status
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order mandating that federal authorities clarify whether college athletes can be considered employees of the schools they play for in an attempt to create clearer national standards in the NCAA’s name, image and likeness era. Trump directed the secretary of labor and the […]

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order mandating that federal authorities clarify whether college athletes can be considered employees of the schools they play for in an attempt to create clearer national standards in the NCAA’s name, image and likeness era.
Trump directed the secretary of labor and the National Labor Relations Board to clarify the status of collegiate athletes through guidance or rules “that will maximize the educational benefits and opportunities provided by higher education institutions through athletics.” The order does not provide or suggest specifics on the controversial topic of college athlete employment.
The move comes after months of speculation about whether Trump will establish a college sports commission to tackle some of the thorny issues facing what is now a multibillion-dollar industry. He instead issued an order intended to add some controls to “an out-of-control, rudderless system in which competing university donors engage in bidding wars for the best players, who can change teams each season.”
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