This time at UCF, Scott Frost won’t need to catch lightning in a bottle
Andrea AdelsonMay 5, 2025, 09:58 AM ET Close ACC reporter. Joined ESPN.com in 2010. Graduate of the University of Florida. ORLANDO, Fla. — Scott Frost walks into the UCF football building and into his office, the one he used the last time he had this job, eight years ago. The shades are drawn, just like […]
ORLANDO, Fla. — Scott Frost walks into the UCF football building and into his office, the one he used the last time he had this job, eight years ago. The shades are drawn, just like they used to be. There are drawings from his three kids tacked to the walls. There are still trophies sitting on a shelf.
He still parks in the same spot before he walks into that same building and sits at the same desk. The only thing that has changed is that the desk is positioned in a different part of the room.
But the man doing all the same things at the University of Central Florida is a different Scott Frost than the one who left following that undefeated 2017 season to take the head coach job at Nebraska.
UCF might look the same, but the school is different now, too. The Knights are now in a Power 4 conference, and there is now a 12-team College Football Playoff that affords them the opportunity to play for national championships — as opposed to self-declaring them. Just outside his office, construction is underway to upgrade the football stadium. The same, but different.
“I know I’m a wiser person and smarter football coach,” Frost said during a sit-down interview with ESPN. “When you’re young, you think you have it all figured out. I don’t think you really get better as a person unless you go through really good things, and really bad things. I just know I’m where I’m supposed to be.”
Out on the practice field, Frost feels the most at home — he feels comfort in going back to the place that has defined nearly every day of his life. As a young boy, he learned the game from his mom and dad, both football coaches, then thrived as a college and NFL player before going into coaching.
He coaches up his players with a straightforwardness that quarterbacks coach McKenzie Milton remembers fondly from their previous time together at UCF. Milton started at quarterback on the 2017 undefeated team, and the two remained close after Frost left.
“I see the same version of him from when I was here as a player,” Milton said. “Even though the dynamic in college football has changed dramatically with the portal and NIL, I think Coach Frost is one of the few coaches that can still bring a group of guys together and turn them into a team, just with who he is and what he’s done and what he’s been through in his life. He knows what it looks like to succeed, both as a coach and a player.”
Since his return, Frost has had to adjust to those changes to college football, but he said, “I love coming into work every day. We’ve got the right kids who love football. We’re working them hard. They want to be pushed. They want to be challenged. We get to practice with palm trees and sunshine and, we’re playing big-time football. But it’s also just not the constant stress meat grinder of some other places.”
Meat grinder of some other places.
Might he mean a place such as Nebraska?
“You can think what you want,” Frost said. “One thing I told myself — I’m never going to talk about that. It just doesn’t feel good to talk about. I’ll get asked 100 questions. This is about UCF. I just don’t have anything to say.”
Frost says he has no regrets about leaving UCF, even though he didn’t get the results he had hoped for at his alma mater. When Nebraska decided to part ways with coach Mike Riley in 2017, Frost seemed the best, most obvious candidate to replace him. He had been the starting quarterback on the 1997 team, the last Nebraska team to win a national title.
He now had the coaching résumé to match. Frost had done the unthinkable at UCF — taking a program that was winless the season before he arrived, to undefeated and the talk of the college football world just two years later.
But he could not ignore the pull of Nebraska and the opportunities that came along with power conference football.
“I was so happy here,” Frost said. “We went undefeated and didn’t get a chance to win a championship, at least on the field. You are always striving to reach higher goals. I had always told myself I wasn’t going to leave here unless there was a place that you can legitimately go and win a national championship. It was a tough decision because I didn’t want to leave regardless of which place it was.”
Indeed, Frost maintains he was always happy at UCF. But he also knew returning to Nebraska would make others happy, too.
“I think I kind of knew that wasn’t best for me,” he said. “It was what some other people wanted me to do to some degree.”
In four-plus seasons with the Cornhuskers, Frost went 16-31 — including 5-22 in one-score games. He was fired three games into the 2022 season after a home loss to Georgia Southern.
After Frost was fired, he moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, where his wife has family. He reflected on what happened during his tenure with the Cornhuskers but also about what he wanted to do with the rest of his career. He tried to stay connected to the game, coaching in the U.S. Army Bowl, a high school all-star game in Frisco, Texas, in December 2022. Milton coached alongside him, and distinctly remembers a conversation they had.
“He said, ‘It’s my goal to get back to UCF one day,'” Milton said. “At that time, I was like, ‘I pray to God that happens.'”
If that was the ultimate goal, Frost needed to figure out how to position himself to get back there. While he contemplated his future, he coached his son’s flag football team to a championship. Frost found the 5- and 6-year-olds he coached “listen better than 19-year-olds sometimes.”
Ultimately, he decided on a career reboot in the NFL. Frost had visited the Rams during their offseason program, and when a job came open in summer 2024, Rams coach Sean McVay immediately reached out.
Frost was hired as a senior analyst, primarily helping with special teams but also working with offense and defense.
“It was more just getting another great leader in the building, someone who has been a head coach, that has wisdom and a wealth of experience to be able to learn from,” McVay told ESPN. “His ability to be able to communicate to our players from a great coaching perspective, but also have the empathy and the understanding from when he played — all of those things were really valuable.”
McVay said he and Frost had long discussions about handling the challenges that come with falling short as a head coach.
“There’s strength in the vulnerability,” McVay said. “I felt that from him. There’s a real power in the perspective that you have from those different experiences. If you can really look at some of the things that maybe didn’t go down the way you wanted to within the framework of your role and responsibility, real growth can occur. I saw that in him.”
Frost says his time with the Rams rejuvenated him.
“It brought me back,” Frost said. “Sometimes when you’re a head coach or maybe even a coordinator, you forget how fun it is to be around the game when it’s not all on you all the time. What I did was a very small part, and we certainly weren’t going to win or lose based on every move that I made, and I didn’t have to wear the losses and struggle for the victories like you do when you’re a head coach. I’m so grateful to those guys.”
UCF athletics director Terry Mohajir got a call from then-head coach Gus Malzahn last November. Malzahn, on the verge of finishing his fourth season at UCF, was contemplating becoming offensive coordinator at Florida State. Given all the responsibilities on his desk as head coach — from NIL to the transfer portal to roster management — he found the idea of going back to playcalling appealing. Mohajir started preparing a list of candidates and was told Thanksgiving night that Malzahn had planned to step down.
Though Frost previously worked at UCF under athletics director Danny White, he and Mohajir had a preexisting relationship. Mohajir said he reached out to Frost after he was fired at Nebraska to gauge his interest in returning to UCF as offensive coordinator under Malzahn. But Frost was not ready.
This time around, Mohajir learned quickly that Frost had interest in returning as head coach. Mohajir called McVay and Rams general manager Les Snead. They told him Frost did anything that was asked of him, including making copies around the office.
“They said, ‘You would never know he was the head coach at a major college program.” Mohajir also called former Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts to get a better understanding about what happened with the Cornhuskers.
“Fits are a huge piece, and not everybody fits,” Mohajir said.
After eight conversations, Mohajir decided he wanted to meet Frost in person. They met at an airport hotel in Dallas.
“He was motivated,” Mohajir said. “We went from coast to coast, talked to coordinators, head coaches, pro guys, all kinds of different folks. And at the end of the day, I really believe that Scott wanted the job the most.”
The first day back in Orlando, Dec. 8, was a blur. Frost woke up at 3:45 a.m. in California to be able to make it to Florida in time for his introductory news conference with his family.
When they pulled into the campus, his first time back since he left in 2017, Frost said he was in a fog. It took another 24 hours for him and his wife, Ashley, to take a deep exhale.
“Rather than bouncing around chasing NFL jobs, we thought maybe we would be able to plant some roots here and have our kids be in a stable place for a while at a place that I really enjoyed coaching and that I think it has a chance to evolve into a place that could win a lot of football games,” Frost said. “All that together was just enough to get me to come back.”
The natural question now is whether Frost can do what he did during his first tenure.
That 2017 season stands as the only winning season of his head coaching career, but it carries so much weight with UCF fans because of its significance as both the best season in school history, and one that changed both its own future and college football.
After UCF finished 13-0, White self-declared the Knights national champions. Locked out of the four-team playoff after finishing No. 12 in the final CFP standings, White started lobbying for more attention to be paid to schools outside the power conferences.
That season also positioned UCF to pounce during the next wave of realignment. Sure enough, in 2023, the Knights began play in a Power 4 conference for the first time as Big 12 members. This past season, the CFP expanded to 12 teams. Unlike 2017, UCF now has a defined path to play for a national title and no longer has to go undefeated and then pray for a shot. Win the Big 12 championship, no matter the record, and UCF is in the playoff.
But Frost cautions those who expect the clock to turn back to 2017.
“I don’t think there’s many people out there that silly,” Frost said. “People joke about that with me, that they’re going to expect you go into undefeated in the first year. I think the fans are a little more realistic than that.”
The game, of course, is different. Had the transfer portal and NIL existed when Frost was at UCF during his first tenure, he might not have been able to keep the 2017 team together. The 2018 team, which went undefeated under Josh Heupel before losing to LSU in the Fiesta Bowl, might not have stayed together, either.
This upcoming season, UCF will receive a full share of television revenue from the Big 12, after receiving a half share (estimated $18 million) in each of his first two seasons. While that is more than what it received in the AAC, it is less than what other Big 12 schools received, making it harder to compete immediately. It also struggled with NIL funding. As a result, in its first two years in the conference, UCF went 5-13 in Big 12 play and 10-15 overall.
Assuming the House v. NCAA settlement goes into effect this summer, Mohajir says UCF is aiming to spend the full $20.5 million, including fully funding football.
“It’s like we moved to the fancy neighborhood, and we got a job that’s going to pay us money over time, and we’re going to do well over time, but we’re stretching a little to be there right now, and that requires a lot of effort from a lot of people and a lot of commitment from a lot of people,” Frost said. “So far, the help that we’ve gotten has been impressive.”
Mohajir points out that UCF has had five coaching changes over the past 10 years, dating back to the final season under George O’Leary in 2015, when the Knights went 0-12. Frost says he wants to be in for the long term, and Mohajir hopes consistency at head coach will be an added benefit. Mohajir believes UCF is getting the best of Frost in this moment and scoffs at any questions about whether rehiring him will work again.
“Based on what I’m seeing right now, it will absolutely work,” Mohajir said. “But I don’t really look at it as ‘working again.’ It’s not ‘again.’ It’s, ‘Will it work?’ Because it’s a different era.”
To that end, Frost says success is not recreating 2017 and going undefeated. Rather, Frost said, “If our group now can help us become competitive in the Big 12, and then, from time to time, compete for championships and make us more relevant nationally, I think we’ll have done our job to help catapult UCF again.”
You could say he is looking for the same result. He’s just taking a different route there.
Trump issues executive order related to paying college athletes
SPOKANE — Just about a week away from college football teams reporting to camps, President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order governing how some payments are made to college athletes and to protect other sports that don’t generate lots of money. The order claims to seek to clarify how universities pay their players, […]
SPOKANE — Just about a week away from college football teams reporting to camps, President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order governing how some payments are made to college athletes and to protect other sports that don’t generate lots of money.
The order claims to seek to clarify how universities pay their players, but it’s likely to further confuse an already chaotic landscape as university officials grapple with new revenue-sharing plans as part of a massive legal settlement that took effect on July 1.
The order will continue to allow athletes to market their name, image and likeness, better known as NIL, as long as those NIL deals remain “legitimate, fair-market value compensation … such as for a brand endorsement,” the order read in part.
But it prohibits “third-party, pay-for-play payments to college athletes,” the fact sheet reads. “The order provides that any revenue-sharing permitted between universities and collegiate athletes should be implemented in a manner that protects women’s and nonrevenue sports.”
Athletics department officials from Washington State University and Gonzaga University were not immediately available for interviews Thursday afternoon when the order was announced.
But U.S. Rep. Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, issued a statement in support.
“President Trump’s executive order is a major step toward restoring fairness in college athletics. It reins in NIL abuses, protects women’s and Olympic sports, and ensures any future revenue-sharing model preserves broad-based participation,” Baumgartner said in a news release. “I applaud the president for signing this executive order, and I look forward to working with him to save college sports.”
Trump’s directive comes on the heels of rules issued earlier this month by the College Sports Commission, which was created by the Southeastern, Big Ten, Big 12 and Atlantic Coast conferences to oversee a revenue-sharing system that was created by the July 1 House settlement.
In essence, the College Sports Commission is taking over the role that once was administered by the NCAA.
The settlement in House v. NCAA ended three separate federal-antitrust lawsuits which all claimed that the NCAA illegally was limiting the earning power of college athletes.
Since NIL payments began in 2021, collectives affiliated with specific schools inked deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars with athletes. They pool funds from donors and boosters and use them to license the NIL rights of specific athletes in exchange for appearances and social media posts.
As part of the suit, some of the $2.8 billion settlement will be distributed to athletes who played before they could take advantage of the current NIL rules.
But the suit also established a clearinghouse, called NIL Go, that must approve all third-party deals over $600, according to previous reporting by the Athletic.
The two main requirements for those deals are that they must be created for a “valid business purpose” and fit within the fair-market “range of compensation.”
The settlement also created a revenue-sharing system that allowed schools to directly pay their athletes up to $20.5 million in 2025. The CSC, created by the power conferences, was established to oversee that revenue-sharing program and it issued rules how schools were to issue those funds.
Earlier this month, the CSC issued guidance that immediately was met with backlash.
The guidance said “an entity with a business purpose of providing payments or benefits to student-athletes or institutions, rather than providing goods or services to the general public for profit, does not satisfy the valid business purpose requirement set forth in NCAA Rule 22.1.3.”
In response, attorneys Jeffrey Kessler and Steve Berman, who argued the case on behalf of the athletes, sent a letter to the College Sports Commission saying its guidance violated the terms of the House settlement and that the board should treat collectives the same as any other third-party business.
“While we want to continue to work together to implement the Settlement Agreement in a cooperative fashion, this process is undermined when the CSC goes off the reservation and issues directions to the schools that are not consistent with the Settlement agreement terms,” the letter said, according to the Athletic.
The CSC guidance also raised the ire of the Collective Association, a trade group of prominent collectives from around the country.
The CSC rules “regarding ‘true NIL’ and ‘valid business purposes’ is not only misguided but deeply dismissive of the collective organizations and the tens of thousands of fans and donors who fuel them,” the association wrote, according to the Athletic. “Any attempt to delegitimize the role collectives play in today’s collegiate athletics landscape ignores both legal precedent and economic reality.”
In regards to those ongoing revenue sharing controversies, Trump’s order directs the U.S. Secretary of Labor and the National Labor Relations board to clarify the status of student-athletes.
“The order directs the Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission to take appropriate actions to protect student-athletes’ rights and safeguard the long-term stability of college athletics from endless, debilitating antitrust and other legal challenges.”
Michigan, Western Michigan to open 2026 season in Frankfurt, Germany
Michigan and Western Michigan will open the 2026 season on Saturday, Aug. 29, in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany, sources told On3. The game will be held at Deutsche Bank Park, a 55,000-seat retractable roof soccer stadium that has hosted five NFL games. “I am excited about the football and educational experience this game could provide for […]
Michigan and Western Michigan will open the 2026 season on Saturday, Aug. 29, in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany, sources told On3.
The game will be held at Deutsche Bank Park, a 55,000-seat retractable roof soccer stadium that has hosted five NFL games.
“I am excited about the football and educational experience this game could provide for our players,” Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said. “We are always looking for unique opportunities to expose our student-athletes to other cultures. In the last 10 years, our program has been to Italy, France and South Africa and this game would provide another chance to grow our international fanbase.”
This will be Michigan’s first international game in the program’s 145-year history. It will also be the fifth college football game held in Germany, but the first between FBS programs and the first in Frankfurt.
“The University of Michigan is one of the few worldwide brands in college athletics and the interest in playing an international game would be unique,” Michigan AD Warde Manuel added. “This would be a great opportunity to teach ‘Go Blue’ to a new group of fans in Germany.”
Michigan will become only the sixth Big Ten member (at the time of the game) to play overseas. The others: Northwestern vs. Nebraska in 2022 in Dublin, Ireland; Penn State played UCF in 2014 in Dublin; and Wisconsin vs. Michigan State in 1993 in Tokyo.
The MAC has had several teams play in bowl games outside the United States, but Western Michigan will be the first MAC team to play an international regular season game. The Broncos have played outside the United States twice before in the 2015 Bahamas Bowl and the 2007 International Bowl in Toronto.
Next year’s contest between UM and WMU was originally scheduled to be played at Michigan Stadium on Sept. 5, 2026, before being moved to Frankfurt. It will be the 29th meeting between the Wolverines and a MAC opponent, but the first not played in Michigan Stadium.
Michigan has won all eight meetings against the Broncos, the last game in 2021.
Next year, TCU and North Carolina also will open the season in Europe. The Horned Frogs and Tar Heels will play on Aug. 29, 2026 in Dublin, Ireland.
Also known as Waldstadion, Deutsche Bank Park most recently held two NFL regular season games in 2023. Deutsche Bank Park is the home field for Eintracht Frankfurt of the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German soccer league.
The Texas Longhorns secured a commitment from the NCAA transfer portal on Friday with the pledge of former Liberty Flames second baseman Callum Early. The 6’0, 170-pounder has three season of eligibility remaining. A product of Midlothian (Va.) James River, Early signed with Liberty as a member of the 2024 recruiting class ranked as the […]
The Texas Longhorns secured a commitment from the NCAA transfer portal on Friday with the pledge of former Liberty Flames second baseman Callum Early.
The 6’0, 170-pounder has three season of eligibility remaining.
A product of Midlothian (Va.) James River, Early signed with Liberty as a member of the 2024 recruiting class ranked as the No. 417 shortstop nationally and the No. 47 player in Virginia by Perfect Game with the versatility as a right-handed pitcher, middle infielder, and outfielder.
Early started 28 of his 33 appearances for Liberty as a freshman, slashing .295/.427/.410 with two home runs, six doubles, and 15 RBI. Batting from the left side, Early fits the profile that Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle prefers as a contact hitter who controls the strike zone — Early’s strikeout rate was 23.8 percent with a 25-to-22 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
With a .972 fielding percentage, Early has a solid glove at second baseman, making three errors in 2025.
Early projects as infield depth in 2025 who step into the reserve role filled by Jayden Duplantier over recent seasons though Duplantier will likely remain the primary pinch runner for the Longhorns.
Ohio State Buckeyes football’s Jeremiah Smith lauded for how much he hates TTUN
Second-year Ohio State Buckeyes football phenom Jeremiah Smith isn’t the prototypical Michigan hater. Still, after a year in which his team won the CFP title but still didn’t fully get the job done because the Wolverines won “The Game,” he gets it more than most. So much so that Cleveland.com’s Jimmy Watkins called Smith the […]
Second-year Ohio State Buckeyes football phenom Jeremiah Smith isn’t the prototypical Michigan hater. Still, after a year in which his team won the CFP title but still didn’t fully get the job done because the Wolverines won “The Game,” he gets it more than most.
So much so that Cleveland.com’s Jimmy Watkins called Smith the “perfect messenger” for the scarlet’s side of the rivalry’s venom.
“On the surface, Smith seems a strange choice for keeper of old college football customs. According to On3 Sports, Smith is worth$4.2 million in NIL money. According to the diamonds around his wrist and neck at Big Ten Media Days, those estimates look conservative. And at 19 years old, the sophomore from South Florida grew up with no connection to Buckeye country,” Watkins wrote.
“But over the last few months, Smith has been spewing the type of hate typically reserved for lifelong Ohioans. And I’m starting to think he might be the perfect messenger.”
Smith has every reason to be frustrated with the team up north. He only had 35 yards receiving and a touchdown in the Week 14 loss that dropped OSU down to the No. 8 seed in the CFP field.
He has every reason to turn that around in the next two years. At this point, knocking off the Wolverines would propel the Buckeyes with enough momentum to get through a second 12-team CFP field.
Smith is the best player on one of the most bloated payrolls in the sport. He has immense pressure not to have a sophomore slump. An NIL raise in 2026 is on the line.
Not to mention, the pressure on the defending champions to repeat is high. The 2,000+ days (and counting) it’s been since OSU won “The Game” adds another anxious element.
It’s Smith and the Buckeyes against the world.
Good thing the player and the team couldn’t be better fits for each other.
Trump’s executive order seeks to clarify students’ NIL status | Sports
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 […]
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.
Alabama football: Trump signs executive order on college sports, NIL
Happy Friday, everyone. It’s 36 days until kickoff, so Creg Stephenson is remembering the 2008 beatdown of Auburn. Alabama dominated in every way possible, outgaining Auburn 412 yards to 170 and limiting the Tigers to a mere eight first downs. Auburn turned the ball over three times, gained just 57 yards rushing (to 234 for […]
Happy Friday, everyone. It’s 36 days until kickoff, so Creg Stephenson is remembering the 2008 beatdown of Auburn.
Alabama dominated in every way possible, outgaining Auburn 412 yards to 170 and limiting the Tigers to a mere eight first downs. Auburn turned the ball over three times, gained just 57 yards rushing (to 234 for the Crimson Tide) and was shut out for the first time since 2003 — the first time in the Iron Bowl since 1992.
“It would have felt good just to get a win,” Alabama senior safety Rashad Johnson said, “but to dominate the way we did and beat them without giving up any points, I definitely think we made a statement by coming out and letting them know that we were focused and not looking past this game.”
Good times.
The President followed through on his promise of an executive order to “save college sports.” In reality it serves as little more than a nudge to Congress and his cabinet, but here are a few of the listed initiatives.
Protecting scholarships for non-revenue sports: The executive order, most notably, requires schools to maintain or even increase the number of scholarships they provide to non-revenue sports. This is geared to protect Olympic and women’s sports that are at risk of elimination as schools direct more funding away from those and to the sports that generate the revenue like football and men’s basketball. Those with $125 million or budgets (most of the power league schools) must provide more scholarship opportunities than they did last year, for instance. Those with budgets of $50 million must provide at least the same, as seen in a screen shot of the section here.
Prohibit third-party, “pay-for-play”: You might call this the prohibition of booster collective pay to athletes, which, in a way, codifies the House settlement terms that prohibit collective pay to athletes if they are not deemed to be for legitimate endorsement or commercial opportunities. This issue is at the heart of negotiations among attorneys that is expected to result in a resolution soon that permits collectives to operate in a more open capacity than first thought. The executive order reinforces that provision in the House settlement.
How does Trump plan to enforce these parameters? Well, that remains a bit murky, but he suggests in the order that members of his cabinet, as well as the Federal Trade Commission, have 30 days to create a plan on the enforcement of such, including potentially withholding federal funding for violators, opening up Title IX investigations, etc.
Additionally, the order does require the National Labor Relations Board to formally clarify the status of athletes, which could have significant implications on whether they’re eligible to collectively bargain. The attorney general and Federal Trade Commission offices will also have 60 days to evaluate status and create plans to clarify and defend athlete rights. Firm deadlines will inspire at least some movement.
However, more than anything else, the executive order does change one thing: It puts college sports high on the agenda for Capitol Hill.
There are numerous bills that have been proposed over the years to address the state of athlete compensation, including several that involved both sides of the aisle. Former Stanford player Cory Booker, former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville and Texas senator Ted Cruz rank among the numerous senatorial dignitaries who have worked to get bills passed to no avail.
Continue to color me skeptical that anything resembling consensus will be found here, but Greg Byrne seems pleased about the development.
Chase Goodbread notes that Ryan Grubb has shown a penchant for gadgetry.
With Grubb calling plays, the 2023 Washington offense averaged a trick play per week — 15 of them in a 15-game season. And with plenty of variety: reverses, reverse passes, double passes, flea flickers, even a rooskie. It’s also worth noting that Alabama wide receiver Germie Bernard threw a few passes among all that razzle dazzle at Washington, and if Grubb trusted Bernard’s arm and poise as a sophomore, he’d certainly trust it as a senior.
There’s plenty of fun on a Grubb play sheet. The Sheridan offense, by contrast, wasn’t one for trickery at all. And that’s not a criticism, as trick plays can be as high-risk for an offense as they are dangerous for a defense. A missed assignment or bad execution on a gadget play can result in a big loss or a turnover fairly easily. But they can be game-changers, too, when called at the right moment. And if Grubb’s penchant for them resurfaces in Tuscaloosa, one can’t help but presume star receiver Ryan Williams will be on the receiving end of some of it.
There was a time when Alabama fans would be nauseated to hear such things.
This was pretty amusing.
Kalen ain’t even bothered to walk in the one at Alabama.
Michael Penix Jr. was asked at Falcons camp about time he spent recently with DeBoer.
“He’s got a crazy house man,” Penix said. “The market in Alabama is crazy because his house is like way bigger than mine, and it cost less than mine. I’m like ‘Dang, that’s crazy.’ But he’s got a good gig over there.”
Penix spoke of spending time with DeBoer and some of his old Washington teammates. The Huskies went to the 2023 national championship game, with DeBoer and Penix leading the way.
“It was great to be with those guys,” Penix said. “Be around those guys. You know, obviously those guys played a big role in helping me get to this position and all my success in my football career. So it’s always good to be around those guys and spending time with them.”
Last, Labaron Philon looks forward to facing some old teammates on the hardwood.
Philon now gets another opportunity to go up against some of college basketball’s best due to Oats’ scheduling philosophy. However, Philon is looking forward to some matchups against former teammates within the SEC. Still friendly now, once on the court, competitive spirits will come out.
“Probably all my teammates that transferred to other SEC schools,” Philon said. “It’s going to be really fun. We still all talk to each other to this day. But those guys at different schools, pretty sure they’ll be trying to take our heads off too. It’s no friends once we step onto the court.”
Alabama saw four guys leave this offseason via the NCAA transfer portal. Two of them are still in the SEC. Mo Dioubate will suit up for the Kentucky Wildcats while Derrion Reid landed in Norman with the Oklahoma Sooners. Both teams will go up against Alabama at some point.
