During an interview with YouTuber Bordeaux at an EA Sports College Football 26 media opportunity, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin threw a jab at Georgia head coach Kirby Smart.

When asked about winning the NIL/recruiting battle, Kiffin responded by trolling the two-time National Championship winning coach.

“Yeah, money,” Kiffin responded when asked about getting players. “NIL, like that Georgia coach over there. He just outpays everybody.”

In his first season as head coach at the University of Georgia, Kirby Smart and his staff brought in the No. 11 ranked recruiting class in the country. Since then, the Bulldogs have brought in a top-three recruiting class in every single cycle. They’ve had the No. 1 recruiting class in 2018, 2020 and 2024, the No. 2 class in 2019, 2023 and 2025, and the No. 3 class in 2017, 2021 and 2022.

According to On3’s college Football NIL Valuations, seven different Georgia football players are making at least $500k in NIL this upcoming season. The entire list is below:

Since Kiffin became head coach at Ole Miss in 2020, the two high-profile coaches are tied at a game in each in head-to-head matchups. Georgia demolished the Rebels 52-17 in the first meeting on November 11, 2023, but Ole Miss got its revenge on November 9, 2024 with a convincing 28-10 win.

Georgia will open the 2025 season on August 30 against Marshall. Smart’s Bulldogs will come out with an attitude this season, as they fell to Notre Dame 23-10 in last season’s College Football Quarterfinals (Sugar Bowl).

The 2024 season was also a bit of a disappointing one for Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss Rebels, as losses to unranked Kentucky and Florida kept them out of the College Football Playoff. They will open the 2025 season on August 30 against Georgia State.

Although Kiffin’s jab at Smart was likely a friendly one, the series between the two while at their current schools is tied at one game apiece. That however will not be the case when Georgia and Ole Miss meet in Athens on October 18. That will likely be an integral result in determining the two teams that will face off in December’s SEC Championship game.

St. John’s star RJ Luis has officially decided to keep his name in this year’s draft, according to Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Twitter link). The decision confirms a statement Luis made two weeks ago when he said he’s “all-in” for the draft.

The 6’7″ guard is coming off an outstanding season with the Red Storm, being named Big East Player of the Year and earning second-team All-America honors. He was also voted the Most Outstanding Player in this year’s Big East Tournament.

Luis averaged 18.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.4 steals in 35 games while leading St. John’s to its first conference championship in 40 years. He shot 43.9% from the field and 33.6% from three-point range on 3.9 attempts per game.

Despite the accolades, Luis isn’t considered a sure thing to be drafted. He’s ranked 62nd on ESPN’s latest big board, although that could rise as some of the players ahead of him return to school.

Givony states that Luis would have been one of the most sought-after players in the transfer portal if he had opted for another year of college. North Carolina, Kansas, Mississippi, Villanova and Georgetown were among the schools that have expressed interest. There were some substantial NIL offers involved, Luis’ father told college basketball writer Jeff Goodman of The Field of 68 (Twitter link).

“We understand the situation, we were offered a lot of money to go back to college,” Reggie Luis said. “But we have a plan and we’re going to stick with the plan.”

NCAA early entrants who want to maintain their college eligibility will have to withdraw from the draft by the end of the day on Wednesday.

TEMPE – Sun Devil Softball pitcher Kenzie Brown was named to the 2025 NFCA Division I All-America First Team the Association announced on Wednesday afternoon during its annual press conference at the Women’s College World Series (WCWS). She is one of fifty-four student-athletes from 33 different institutions to be voted to one of three 2025 NFCA Division I All-America teams.

Brown’s first All-America selection marks the 45th time a Sun Devil has been recognized and its the 26th first team honor. She is the first ASU pitcher named All-American since 2018 (G Juarez) and the first to make the first team since 2022 (Cydney Sanders).

Through play in the Super Regionals, Brown ranks second in the country with 289 strikeouts and by averaging 11.6 strikeouts per seven innings. She leads all Power 4 pitchers in both categories. Her strikeout total ranks 10th for a season in program history with the per seven average a new program record.

Brown ended the season at 19-8 with four saves and a 1.28 ERA. She recorded double-digit strikeouts in a game 12 times and had 12-plus on nine occasions. Brown tied the ASU record for strikeouts in a seven-inning game when she recorded 18 in a 1-0 win over BYU in the program’s first-ever Big 12 game on March 6.

In addition to being named to the NFCA All-America First Team, Brown was named Second Team All-America by D1 Softball and Softball America.

 

Cortez Braham Jr., who spent last season on the Nevada football team, is suing the NCAA for a seventh year of college eligibility.

A 6-foot-2, 201-pound wide receiver, Braham was among a wave of former junior-college players who starred for the Wolf Pack last season and were seemingly out of eligibility but entered the transfer portal this offseason. But Braham has not committed to a new school as he seeks an additional year of eligibility, which he claims could net him up to $500,000 in name, image and likeness money.

The NCAA has faced a number of lawsuits from athletes with antitrust claims who argue they should not be limited by the NCAA’s eligibility clock, which includes four years of active playing time over a five-season period. The NCAA’s rules have held seasons played at the junior-college level count against four years of NCAA eligibility, although Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, who at one time was committed to Nevada, received an injunction last December after he argued his JuCo years should not count against his NCAA clock. The NCAA has appealed the court ruling favoring Pavia but granted junior-college athletes a temporary additional year of eligibility in 2025-26.

Many Nevada Wolf Pack athletes have or plan to take advantage of that ruling, which apparently does not apply to Braham because his five-year clock has expired. Braham spent three seasons at Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College from 2019-21 and two at West Virginia from 2022-23 before arriving at Nevada last season. Braham redshirted at West Virginia in 2023 after playing in three games and 2020 did not count against eligibility due to COVID-19’s impact, the latter making him eligible for the Wolf Pack last season as his NCAA clock was extended to six years. Braham also was committed to Buffalo at one point but did not play for the Bulls.

Braham played three seasons at Hutchinson, two at West Virginia and one at Nevada, so he is seeking a seventh active season over a seven-year period. The Baltimore, Md., native initially intended to transfer to West Virginia for the 2021 season but had a GPA of 2.47, below the minimum requirement of 2.5 for a JuCo-to-FBS transfer. The lawsuit argues that is an unfair standard given given the academic requirement to transfer from one four-year school to another within the NCAA is a 2.00 GPA. Braham raised his GPA enough before the 2022 season to transfer to West Virginia where he played sparingly that season before having a career year at Nevada in 2024.

Braham started all 13 games for Nevada last season and was named All-Mountain West honorable mention after finishing second on the team in receptions (56), receiving yards (724) and touchdown catches (four). He took part in Nevada’s senior day ceremonies and believed his career to be over prior to Pavia’s lawsuit.

Braham’s lawsuit alleges Nevada, through its compliance staff, has repeatedly refused to file a “a waiver request so that the NCAA can exercise its discretion to waive the Five-Year rule and the JUCO transfer GPA requirement as it applies to Braham.” The lawsuit says the university told Braham he should “find a lawyer and file a lawsuit against the NCAA instead of looking to the school for help” and that litigation was the only path available for Braham’s quest for an additional year of eligibility in 2025. NCAA rule states any school Braham could transfer to would be eligible to file a waiver on his behalf.

The lawsuit argues Braham not being granted an additional year of eligibility would “permanently deprive him of a once-in-a-lifetime NIL contract opportunity worth nearly $500,000 and the opportunity to enhance his career and reputation by playing another year of Division I football. Additionally, this will harm Braham’s lifetime of hard work in the classroom and on the football field that he has pursued to even be considered for these opportunities. The NCAA’s anti-competitive conduct, coupled with his former university affiliation’s unreasonable denial of Braham’s ability to request a specific NCAA waiver, is resulting in irreversible damage.”

At least two Nevada transfers who were seniors last season got an additional year of eligibility due to Pavia’s injunction and have signed with power-conference schools this offseason, those being cornerbacks Michael Coats Jr. (West Virginia) and Chad Brown (Purdue). It is unknown if they received NCAA waiver requests from Nevada as Coats is entering his sixth college season and Brown his seventh, meaning they have seemingly navigated around the NCAA’s five-year eligibility window to play in 2025.

If Braham was granted an additional year of college eligibility, that would not come at Nevada as Braham entered the transfer portal and has reportedly taken recruiting visits or planned visits with Kentucky, Kansas, Memphis and Arkansas. He remains unsigned and did not participate in any school’s spring camp.

The NCAA and junior-college system are governed by separate entities with athletes arguing their time in the National Junior College Athletic Association should not count against their eligibility in the NCAA. The lawsuit argues NCAA rules do not prohibit former pro athletes from profiting from NIL in Division I football, citing Chris Weinke’s time as a Heisman Trophy-winning Florida State quarterback after a six-year professional baseball career, saying holding junior-college players to a higher standard in eligibility considerations is unfair.

The lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday and first reported by Boise State assistant professor Sam C. Ehrlich, was drafted by Reno-based attorney Brandon D. Wright as well as Gregg E. Clifton, from Phoenix. Braham is seeking a court declaration and an injunction. Presiding over Cortez vs. NCAA is U.S. District Judge Miranda M. Du and U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig S. Denney of the Nevada federal district court.

You can read the entire lawsuit below.