What do Devin Booker, Karl-Anthony Towns, Julius Randle, Donovan Mitchell, Tyrese Haliburton, Chris Paul, Jalen Brunson, Reed Sheppard, Cooper Flagg and Jasper Johnson all have in common? As of today, they’re all clients of Creative Artists Agency (CAA) Basketball.

That’s just on the basketball side of things, a group that includes 61 first-round picks and 19 max contracts. CAA also represents some of the biggest names in football (Josh Allen, AJ Brown, Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkley and CeeDee Lamb), baseball (Shohei Ohtani, Marcell Ozuna, Garrett Crochet, Trea Turner and Max Fried) and entertainment (Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Brad Pitt and Zendaya).

Now, Lexington’s own Jasper Johnson joins one of the deepest rosters of talent in the world, announcing his decision to join the CAA Sports family for NIL representation on Friday.

“Excited to join the CAA family! Let’s work!” Johnson wrote on social media.

Johnson has been represented by Nate Conley of Court XIV, who also worked with Oscar Tshiebwe and Rob Dillingham during their Kentucky careers while also signing five-star recruit Anthony Thompson — a major target for the Wildcats in 2026.

The future Kentucky guard committed to Mark Pope and the Cats back in September and signed with the program during the early period in November. He closed as the No. 25 overall recruit in the 2025 On3 Industry Ranking.

What is the program getting in the 6-4 guard out of Lexington? A dangerous scorer with serious superstar upside.

“Jasper Johnson is just danger, danger, danger, danger, right? He just is a dangerous gravity guy,” Pope said following his addition. “He just demands that if you’re not going to pay attention to him with more than one body, anywhere he is on the court probably, he’s gonna hurt you, and he can really, really, really score the ball. And he’s got a kindness about him that’s really special. And he knows Kentucky, right?

“(He has an) emotional reaction when (he puts) on a t-shirt that has Kentucky across the chest, right? (He has an) emotional response. Jasper Johnson has a chance to be a really, really special player here in Kentucky, for sure.”

Don’t believe Pope? Doesn’t matter, because arguably the top agency in the world does. If they can recognize elite talent across every avenue imaginable and hand-pick Jasper Johnson as a client, that tells you everything you need to know.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel joined The Pat McAfee Show on Friday to dish the latest on where the expansion of the College Football Playoff stands. Earlier this week, Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported a potential 16-team bracket has “growing” Big Ten and SEC support after an in-person meeting on Thursday in New York.

While he’s expecting the bracket to grow to 16, there’s numerous reasons why the ESPN analyst believes it won’t go beyond that number: “If we get to 16 here, which I would say is a high probability at this point, I have a hard time seeing it jump up from there,” Thamel proclaimed. “I would think 16, you’d have to stay static there for a relatively short period of time.

“Now, 20 years from now. I don’t know how it all works. There’s already resistance from going 14 to 16 in a lot of ways. A lot of this comes down to TV windows. We saw the overlap last year, with the College Football Playoff and the NFL. There’s not a lot of places to put these games right now. The appetite for fierce growth, TV-wise, is likely not to be that high, just because the windows to showcase and maximize them financially aren’t there.”

While some will argue 16 is a larger number than necessary for the Playoff, it seems that’s the format we’re destined to see implemented. Many have joked that 64 or 68 would be fascinating, similar to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament; those fears won’t be realized, at least Thamel doesn’t think they will for a long, long time, if ever.

Continuing, the ESPN analyst provided some more context as to why this expansion will likely be taking place, shedding some light on the stances of Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. It’s easy to see why both men would want this to come true, as the reported 16-team bracket would include four automatic bids for each of the SEC and Big Ten, according to Dellenger.

“This is the final season we’re going to be at 12. They kind of soft agreed to go to 14 for the next iteration of the playoff. I believe it’s a six-year run, from ‘26 to ‘31. As the discussions have been honed in on that, there’s been recent momentum for the 14-team playoff to go to 16. A lot of this comes down to automatic qualifiers. Automatic qualifiers are controversial, in some sense, because the Big Ten and the SEC are likely to have double what the Big 12 and the ACC have. So, there’s been some pushback on that,” Thamel added.

“As it has gone forward and the conversations have continued, Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti has been very bullish on automatic qualifiers. Greg Sankey, the SEC Commissioner, has been a little more guarded in revealing what his hand is, but the notion that I’ve gotten, especially in the last week, is Sankey has started to align himself more with Petitti on the potential of four. The compromise of all this is to create more spots for the College Football Playoff, which is why 16 has really come into focus.

“… In the SEC especially, and in the Big Ten too, the coaches are pushing for it, they want automatic bids. If the SEC is going to go to nine games, which is appearing more likely, they want that extra protection. They don’t want a conference loss to cross them out. This would essentially keep the top half of each league in the playoff conversation for the entire year.

“Petitti has a background in the NFL, it’s always been his thing to have a Minnesota–Rutgers game, where they’re hovering around .500 have Playoff stakes. It’s like having the 7-8 Jets play the 8-8 Patriots or whatever, Week 15 and there’s a Wild Card bid seemingly on the table.”

All told, the 12-team bracket was widely considered a success, but more seems to be the way of college football over the past few seasons. It looks like 16 teams is inevitable, as Pete Thamel reported, and beyond that is anyone’s guess. 

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Chattanooga softball will take on Mercer in the Southern Conference Championship game Saturday at 1:00 p.m. at Wofford’s Hope Field in Spartanburg, S.C.
 
The Mocs and Bears fought in a marathon match Thursday morning with UTC getting the win in the bottom of the ninth. Chattanooga put up seven runs in the first five innings and Mercer returned the favor in the next two, tying the game in the top of the seventh and forcing extra innings.
 
GAME DAY INFORMATION
Mocs vs. Bears
Saturday, May 10, 2025
1:00 p.m.
Links for live stats and video streaming on ESPN+ can be found online on the softball schedule page on GoMocs.com.
 
MOCS vs. BEARS in the Southern Conference
Chattanooga’s win Thursday against the Bears gave the Mocs a 4-3 advantage in SoCon Tournament games. The two first met in 2015 and played twice with UTC winning both games. UTC was the No. 1 seed and Mercer the No. 3. The Mocs beat Mercer 7-6 in the championship bracket and then again by a 3-1 margin in the championship game. In 2016, Mercer, the No. 7 seed, beat six-seeded UTC 7-4. The Bears would get wins in 2021 and again in 2023 but Chattanooga won in five inning in 2024 in Greensboro.
 

 
FOLLOW CHATTANOOGA SOFTBALL
For the most up-to-date information and news regarding Chattanooga Softball, please follow @GoMocsSB on Twitter & Instagram and ChattanoogaSB on Facebook.
 
 

Carson Cunningham and Colby Powell open with some Thunder talk (87 points in the first half!) before reacing to Garret Rangel’s and Maealiuaki Smith’s landing spots. OSU continues to add portal talent in football and basketball … is this the perfect offseason for both programs?

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In this new era of college football, where NIL is king, head-coaching jobs are valued differently now. But which colleges have the most coveted jobs in the country, even if they aren’t available right now?

Top 10 College Football Jobs in the NIL Era

On3 hosts Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman recently broke down their lists for which schools have the best jobs in this NIL era.

Here is what Wasserman had to say regarding where Texas is:

“No. 1 is Texas to me…I think Texas is a place that has been a bully…It’s a historical program…I would die to go to Texas.”

Wasserman also noted how he thinks the idea of being able to be the person who delivers on bringing a national title back to Austin could be too tough to pass up.

That could be what a lot of recruits and coaches are thinking about.

Following Texas on Wasserman’s list are the national champion Ohio State Buckeyes, Oregon Ducks, Texas A&M Aggies, LSU Tigers, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Alabama Crimson Tide, and Michigan Wolverines.

What Attracts Coaches and Recruits to These Schools?

These schools are attractive to head coaches and players for a number of reasons.

First of all, it is the atmosphere and the chance to win a national title that could motivate these players and coaches. Additionally, the financial side is now way more significant because of the rise of NIL.

However much money a school wants to offer either a coach or a player certainly matters. Then, there are other attractions such as the city and community around the program.

KEEP READING: Top 100 Returning College Football Players for 2025

A place like Austin, Texas, is a big piece of the puzzle for coaches and players because there is so much to do. Other schools, such as Notre Dame, have a rich history and pageantry that make it hard to pass on.

All in all, these schools have their own unique qualities that make people want to come there, then it is just a matter of bringing a title back to the school.

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!