Last Updated on June 17, 2025

Immigration attorney Ksenia Maiorova, a partner at Green and Spiegel, joined me to chat about what international athletes can and cannot do when it comes to NIL, why so many workarounds being attempted don’t actually work and why there’s virtually no way for international athletes to safely receive revenue sharing on a student visa.

We also talk about other visa types available and the process for obtaining one, in addition to answering questions sent in by the audience.

Even more of Ksenia’s advice, including more “what if” scenarios are included in my new book, The Athlete’s NIL Playbook.

Listen on your favorite podcast app or watch the video on YouTube.

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Louisville baseball head coach Dan McDonnell entered the 2025 season with a chip on his shoulder. He believed his 2024 squad should have been chosen for the NCAA Tournament, and he felt like the program he’d built over 19 years was being disrespected time and time again.

The new world with NIL was challenging to navigate, making it tough to keep consistency within the program. The Cardinals’ last trip to the College World Series was 2019, and McDonnell was beginning to wonder what it would take to get back.

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On Sunday, McDonnell and his Cardinals punched their ticket back to Omaha, the annual site of the College World Series. They took out Miami in their three-game Super Regional, winning 3-2 on Sunday for the sixth CWS berth in program history.

See you in Omaha.#GoCards pic.twitter.com/GAVvxcqdjC

— Louisville Baseball (@LouisvilleBSB) June 8, 2025

“Yes, there was a chip on my shoulder. There was a chip on our players’ shoulders. There was just a chip on this program’s shoulder,” McDonnell said in his postgame press conference. “… We were disrespected as a program, players, coaches. Even commitments were just backing out and dropping like flies, as if we weren’t the program that we built here. So, you wake up the next day ready to compete. You just start stacking days. Just start winning days.”

The Cardinals didn’t win many days toward the end of this season. They lost seven of their final 10 regular-season games, and were eliminated from the ACC Tournament by Pitt in the opening round. That dropped Louisville’s record to 35-21.

But that was enough to earn selection into the NCAA Tournament, where the Cardinals were placed into the Nashville Regional as a No. 2 seed. The host was Vanderbilt, the No. 1 overall seed. Following an opening-game victory over East Tennessee State, Louisville shocked Vanderbilt, 3-2. Wright State then eliminated Vandy and faced Louisville in the regional final, which the Cardinals won, 6-0.

That gave them hosting honors for the Super Regional against Miami, which finished ninth in the ACC standings while Louisville ended up 10th. Of the nine ACC teams selected for the NCAA Tournament, only Louisville remains.

It’s a postseason run few saw coming. And for McDonnell, he says it wouldn’t have been possible without Jesus.

He also shared in the postgame press conference that he’s 159 days into reading through the Bible. He started January 1 with his brother, his wife, friends from New York and friends from The Citadel, where he played from 1989-92 and reached the 1990 College World Series, the first time a military school made the trip to Omaha. He recited a poem he’s memorized after hearing it from Tara-Leigh Cobble, the “Bible Recap” founder: “Two hearts beat within my chest, the one is foul, the one is blessed. The one I love, the one I hate. The one I feed will dominate.”

“I just had to make a decision: What was I feeding my heart?” McDonnell said. “And for me, I had to get into the Word … 159 days. And in one sense, you say, ‘Well, just because you read the Bible doesn’t mean you go to Omaha.’ But for me, it does. For me, it’s what’s in my heart. It’s how I can love on others, and how I can treat others, and how I can coach others.”

“I would please encourage others to get in the Word.”

Louisville baseball coach Dan McDonnell was prepared to share about his faith after his team advanced to the College World Series.

( @DustyBakerTV ) pic.twitter.com/rs53mrkZIy

— Sports Spectrum (@Sports_Spectrum) June 9, 2025

McDonnell said he’s also memorized Psalm 23 and has come to a place where he constantly wants to share about his faith and what he’s learning through walking with Jesus.

“You just hope that you can encourage others,” he said.

And he encouraged everybody to read the Bible.

“I would just encourage people to join a church, get in a group study. … Getting in the Word is very intimidating and it’s not easy doing it by yourself. So fortunately, I’m doing it, like I said, with a group, I’m using the app. I’m no Bible scholar, don’t act like I’m one. But I’ll tell you, these last 159 days, hasn’t been perfect but I would encourage others to get in the Word,” he said.

Though his study of the Bible may have reached a deeper level as of late, McDonnell has been reading God’s Word for years. He told the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in 2015 that he first did a Bible study at Ole Miss, which he joined as an assistant coach in 2001.

“Coach McDonnell understands the influence a coach has, and he capitalizes on the opportunity to not only make great players on the field, but great men off the field,” Louisville FCA chaplain Chris Morgan said. “He instills character, integrity and excellence, and always points back to Christ.”

Thank you Lord for allowing me to be around so many great things and great people at @GoCards
I love serving and being part of this special place.
So proud of this @LouisvilleBSB team. #Omaha
@MrAndersonJared pic.twitter.com/XkjyoiQNSQ

— Chris Morgan (@UofLfca) June 8, 2025

Louisville will begin its College World Series campaign against No. 8 overall seed Oregon State at 7 p.m. ET Friday.

>> Do you know Christ personally? Learn how you can commit your life to Him. <<

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This year’s Women’s College World Series was one for the books. Games 1 and 2 of the championship series between Texas and Texas Tech broke all-time viewership records, and Game 3, which garnered 2.4 million viewers and peaked at 2.7 million, was the most-viewed college softball game in history. This year’s tournament also shattered in-person records–nearly 120,000 fans attended Devon Park over the nine-day semifinal and final rounds. 

College softball made the rounds online too when Appendix G trended on Twitter after a controversial call in the semifinals. And of course, there were two viral business announcements that aired during this year’s postseason: one, that MLB will be partnering with pro softball league, AUSL, to fund professional softball and air it on major sports networks, and two, that Texas Tech star NiJaree Canady’s NIL deal would be renewed for a cool 1.2 million next season just prior to Game 3. And why shouldn’t it?

“Nija Canady is the most electrifying player in softball. She’s box office and she goes out every day and competes,” Canady’s manager, Derrick Shelby, told ESPN just hours before Game 3. “The decision to stay at Tech was not difficult. This program has taken care of her. They have showed how much she is appreciated. The entire staff, her teammates, the school in general have been great. Tonight she is playing for a national championship and she is making history. Everything she wants from this game she can get here at Texas Tech.”

If Texas Tech has taken care of Canady, she has more than returned the favor. Canady is the college softball player of the moment, and she showed her worth well before the postseason arrived, ushering in the no. 1 softball transfer class in the country to Lubbock last year, breaking in-person home game attendance records six times, and leading her team to its first ever WCWS appearance.

However, because Texas Tech lost to Texas following Canady’s lackluster first inning appearance in Game 3, the internet did what the internet does best following the conclusion of the WCWS: pick apart elite athletes for sport from the comfort of their couches. 

Specifically, the worth of Canady’s “million dollar arm” was called into question ad nauseam, especially given the timing of the announcement of its renewal. Which, if you take a look at what Canaday accomplished for her team this season, is pretty shortsighted.

The Canady effect

In 2024, Texas Tech finished the season with a 29-21 record and an 8-16 conference record. However, this season, Canady, and the other seven top-100 recruits that committed to Texas Tech after her, finished the year with a 54-14 overall record, a 20-4 conference record, their first-ever conference title, and their first-ever WCWS appearance in the most-viewed WCWS in history.

Those are huge wins for Canady, Texas Tech, and the sport of softball as a whole – who’s to say that’s not worth a million dollars or more? And how many college football coaches have been hired to do the same thing for much more, and spectacularly failed to deliver?

So the TLDR is: before the 2025 season, Texas Tech never even won a conference title. In its Nijaree Canady era, it made it to the final of the WCWS. In one year, Canady accomplished what entire coaching staffs and offices of college athletics employees strive (and are paid) to do: make their programs relevant.

That’s what makes Canady worth a million dollars. And she might be worth even more with the approval of the House settlement.

In case you missed it, the House settlement will usher in significant changes to the already fluctuating college sports landscape. Starting on July 1st, college athletes will be allowed to accept direct NIL payments from their schools for the first time in the history of college sports (plus nearly $3 billion in back payments to former athletes). Schools will be allowed to allot $20.5 million across sports as they see fit (possibly subject to Title IX requirements). Although it is estimated that up to 90% of this compensation will be allocated to football and men’s basketball, standout female athletes like NiJaree Canady stand to benefit monetarily from this new ruling. 

But with an increased net worth comes increased scrutiny. And even in the final days of the pre-House era, the discourse around Canady’s million dollar arm is already proving as much. 

Sports coverage post-House

Sports media must be careful in the incoming era of college sports. As athletes will be paid outright, they will be put under a microscope more so than ever. College sports has always been a business, but, as we saw with NIL, paying athletes outright will only amplify their visibility and celebrity status. Those of us who cover these athletes must look at the bigger picture of the value these athletes bring to their teams. If we don’t, we risk doing what athletes are already prone to do to themselves: reducing their worth to on-the-field statistics. 

And it’s not that Canady’s stats weren’t where they needed to be. Canady threw every pitch of the postseason for Texas Tech until Game 3 of the championship series final when she was lifted in the first inning after allowing five runs to score. In total, she accounted for 520 pitches over 35 innings in the WCWS alone, and won with minimal run support against some of the best offenses in the country, including three-time national champion Oklahoma, to make it to the final series.

From a pure statistics standpoint, Canady was nearly perfect. Texas, led by ace pitcher Teagan Kavan, who allowed zero earned runs through 31 ⅔ innings, was just better (and better rested). And, having seen Canady for two full games before Game 3, Longhorns like Mia Scott, Leighanne Goode, and Katie Stewart, were prepared to step up to the plate and deliver offensively. 

The only thing Canady did wrong in the eyes of her naysayers was prove that she’s human after being, in the words of her head coach, Gerry Glasco, pushed to “the very limit” over the course of the WCWS. And while sports media should feel free to acknowledge where athletes fall short, we also can’t deny the overall value these athletes bring to the table.

Besides, if college athletes like Canady are both performing athletic labor on the field and supplying visibility and prestige that athletics workers are paid for off the field, why shouldn’t they be compensated (and legally recognized) as such? National title or not, it’s arguable that Canady is underpaid.

And whether sports media likes it or not, reporting on stories like Canady’s is going to become the new norm. It’s imperative that we see the whole picture of what these athletes bring to the table in college sports’ next era.

LaNorris Sellers had a decision to make.

His father, however, said it was an easy one.

The Athletic reports the South Carolina quarterback turned down an eye-popping $8 million over two years.

“He was offered all kinds of crazy numbers,” Norris Sellers, LaNorris Sellers’ father, told the publication. “I told him he could say, ‘I’m gonna stay or I’m gonna go.’ By my two cents: It was to get into college on a scholarship, play ball, get our degree and go on about our business. This NIL deal came later. We didn’t come here to make money. We came here to get our education, play ball. And with schools calling, we’re not gonna jump ship because they’re offering more than what we’re getting. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

“You’re 19. You don’t need ($8 million). You’re in a great spot. There were several talks, but it never really crossed his mind (to leave). It’s a challenge with colleges offering younger guys that kind of money. Who’s gonna say no to $8 million for two years? They’re gonna be swayed if you don’t have the right people in your corner.”

The 2024 SEC Freshman of the Year threw for 2,534 yards, 18 touchdowns and seven interceptions last season en route to a 9-4 season.

He became just the third freshman in FBS history to throw for 2,500 yards and rush for 500 yards, joining Johnny Manziel and Jalen Hurts.

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter@Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.