NIL

USF

Mike Bishop holds a Brahman Golden Ale at Thirsty Buffalo Brewing Company’s 8,000 square feet production facility in Odessa. ORACLE PHOTO/CLARA ROKITA GARCIA The Thirsty Buffalo Brewing Company added a new beer to its collection in February— a USF-themed Brahman Golden Ale. Part of the beer’s proceeds go to the Fowler Avenue Collective, USF’s name, […]

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2 weeks ago

April 14, 2025

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*Mike Bishop holds a Brahman Golden Ale at Thirsty Buffalo Brewing Company’s 8,000 square feet production facility in Odessa. ORACLE PHOTO/CLARA ROKITA GARCIA*

The Thirsty Buffalo Brewing Company added a new beer to its collection in February— a USF-themed Brahman Golden Ale.

Part of the beer’s proceeds go to the Fowler Avenue Collective, USF’s name, image and likeness collective, in an effort to support student-athletes through NIL funds.

Two months after its launch, the beer has already generated around $2,000 for the collective, said Thirsty Buffalo co-founder Mike Bishop.

“I love USF sports,” Bishop said. “I will do anything I can do to help.”

But the brewery partnership wasn’t chosen at random — a former Bull fermented the idea.

Bishop is a USF finance alumnus who graduated in 2006 and later got a degree in brewing arts from the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago.

Related: USF students trade textbooks for taste tests in these classes

He founded Thirsty Buffalo with his wife Erin in 2023, with the company’s headquarters in Land O’ Lakes and a factory in Odessa.

But USF always stayed close to his heart.

A good friend of his, Andy Taylor, is a director for the USF Alumni Association.

When Taylor heard the Fowler Avenue Collective was considering a brewery partnership, he “immediately” put his friend Bishop in contact with Will Turner, the collective’s fan engagement director.

Turner said USF’s NIL collective started idealizing the project in 2023, after the University of Cincinnati’s NIL collective, Cincy Reigns, launched a light lager to support student-athletes with part of its proceeds.

The Fowler Avenue Collective gets 10% of each Brahman Golden Ale sale, he said.

All of the money the collective gets is put into a “big pot” that is distributed to student-athletes, Turner said.

The brewery and the collective worked together to negotiate the percentage, and Bishop said it was a “very fair” arrangement.

Turner said the beer, with a six-pack costing up to $13.99, is a way for the community to support student-athletes through a different avenue and at a lower price.

“The big thing is, and this is gonna sound so cliche, but people like to drink,” Turner said.

The collective sells T-shirts ranging from $25 to $75. However, Turner said not everybody wants to buy merchandise with athletes’ names, especially when they are often transferring schools.

“The beer is kind of more of a blanket way for folks to support and still put money back in the collective without necessarily having to commit to merchandise,” Turner said.

Related: USF women’s basketball loses four players to transfer portal

*The Brahman Golden Ale has a green and gold can with phrases often used by USF when recruiting student-athletes. ORACLE PHOTO/CLARA ROKITA GARCIA*

The can, with a bull in the center, displays the phrases “Join the stampede,” which USF uses for promoting school spirit and athletics, and “Come to the Bay,” used to recruit student-athletes.

But the USF essence didn’t stop at the can.

Bishop said the Brahman Golden Ale was “entirely” created with sports in mind.

“When you’re at a tailgate or you’re at a USF basketball game, you want something light, you want something crispy,” Bishop said. “You don’t want anything super heavy.”

Bishop said the beer has a good balance of hops and malt — making it clean, light and “easy to drink.”

“Even if you don’t necessarily drink beer all the time, you’re still very open to trying it,” he said.

Bishop said he “could have made it” a blind, white or clean ale. But he ultimately chose a golden ale for people to associate it with USF’s “green and gold” theme.

At the USF Tampa campus, the beer is “slowly growing” in distribution.

The Brahman Golden Ale has been available at the on-campus BurgerFi on tap for around a month.

Bishop said he tried getting the beer to the Yuengling Center for basketball games, but was told he had to wait until Compass Group makes its way to campus.

Last year, USF announced it would change its athletics concessions providers from Aramark to Compass Group’s Levy. The transition is set to take place over the summer.

Related: USF’s new dining, facilities partner has a checkered past

Bishop said he is also in contact with Raymond James Stadium’s representatives to get the Brahman Golden Ale available at USF football games.

“How cool is that, if you’re watching USF football and you realize you can buy this beer, and a portion of that goes towards helping the athletes there?” he said.

Bishop said he is excited to see how his product will align with school spirit in the upcoming football season.

“People are always looking for ways to feel good about what they’re purchasing,” he said. “And that sometimes is pounding a beer with the USF bull on it.”

CLARA ROKITA GARCIA, NEWS EDITOR

Clara Rokita Garcia is the news editor for The Oracle. She’s an integrated public relations and advertising student double majoring in English with literary studies concentration. She grew up in Brazil and moved to the U.S in fall 2022. She started at The Oracle in fall 2023 as a news correspondent intern. She is highly motivated to write creative and helpful stories for USF students. Reach her at clararokitagarcia@usf.edu.

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Nebraska GM Pat Stewart offers another reminder how much the college game has changed

LINCOLN, Neb. — Pat Stewart, the new general manager of the Nebraska football program, counted one visit to Memorial Stadium in his nearly two decades as a scout in the NFL. The Huskers hosted Oklahoma State, and he saw Ndamukong Suh and Dez Bryant, future first-round draft picks and NFL All-Pros. Stewart doesn’t recall the […]

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52 minutes ago

April 26, 2025

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LINCOLN, Neb. — Pat Stewart, the new general manager of the Nebraska football program, counted one visit to Memorial Stadium in his nearly two decades as a scout in the NFL.

The Huskers hosted Oklahoma State, and he saw Ndamukong Suh and Dez Bryant, future first-round draft picks and NFL All-Pros. Stewart doesn’t recall the year of that matchup.

But there was only one such game — in 2007, the first year of his initial stint of 11 seasons with the New England Patriots. It also happened to rate as one of the darkest days in Nebraska football history. The Cowboys led 38-0 at halftime en route to a 45-14 win. Two days later, Nebraska fired its athletic director. A coaching change came six weeks later.

Here’s hoping that Stewart’s return to the stadium in September unfolds more smoothly for Nebraska.

His introduction Thursday went well, albeit in a kind of morbidly fascinating way. In a 20-minute interview session, Stewart’s first since leaving the NFL last month after two seasons as the Patriots director of pro personnel, one Stewart answer after another seemed to eradicate the innocence of college football.

Of course, the innocence died long ago, even before the end of so-called amateurism.

Never until Thursday, though, has an administrator or coach at Nebraska spoken so plainly about the high-stakes business that is college football. Stewart addressed the football salary cap in the era of revenue sharing — a figure unreleased, for now, but expected to land in the range of $14 million — player acquisition, evaluation, valuation and the untethered landscape on which the sport is conducting business.

“I don’t have a lot of college football experience,” Stewart said, “but I could have been in this business for 15 years, and I’d probably still be on the same plane as everyone else. Because everything’s changing.”

Much like Bill Belichick, the NFL coach under whom Stewart worked longest, he talks about football in unemotional tones. It’s a contrast to Matt Rhule, who worked alongside Stewart from 2020 to 2022 when Rhule coached the Carolina Panthers.

Stewart received a three-year, $2.55 million contract from Nebraska to oversee the acquisition, retention and finance aspects of the Huskers roster. He reports to Rhule, different from some coach-GM dynamics in the NFL.

“I brought Pat in because I think he’s an absolute difference maker,” Rhule said.

Stewart said that he and Rhule see football in a similar light. “What it’s about,” Stewart said, “what kind of players we want, the type of people we want to build a team around.”

Their strengths seemingly complement each other. In assessing a player in this salary-cap system, Rhule said, personal value does not equal player value.

Rhule’s nature is to focus on personal value. The third-year coach doesn’t engage in financial conversations with his players or their families. That’s the job of Stewart.

“Those discussions can get pretty personal,” Stewart said. “When you hear where somebody values your child and it doesn’t match up with what your opinion of it is, there are going to be some feelings. So it’s kind of trying to thread that needle of being considerate to people’s emotions and feelings about how much they’re valued, where we see them falling on the roster as far as role and what we’re going to ask of them. And just trying to balance that out.”

With limited data in college to create a valuation system, Stewart said, he finds that the ask is always going to be higher than the offer.

“Sometimes, exponentially higher,” he said.

The best practice in communication is honesty.

“Tell people exactly where they stand,” Stewart said, “so nothing’s a surprise.”

An Ohio State graduate and former student manager under Jim Tressel, Stewart said he arrives daily at the Osborne Complex prepared to adjust. On Wednesday, for instance, a curveball in the House settlement case prompted Nebraska leaders to consider the likelihood that the 105-player roster limit will not go into effect in 2025.

Stewart took the news in stride. The Huskers will adjust as needed, he said.

Other nuggets from the GM on Thursday:

• Stewart’s work in the NFL exposed him often to the college game. He arrived at Nebraska with a baseline expectation. And the Huskers’ development surprised him.

“A lot of guys on defense playing with their hands at levels I wouldn’t expect,” Stewart said. “Quarterbacks who know how to go through progressions. Receivers who know how to run routes. I’ve been surprised more on the positive side of things, trying to adjust my eyes to watching a different type of football.”

He likes the talent that he saw in 14 spring practices. And that’s not all.

“The effort, the grind, the grit, the toughness of this team has been really impressive,” Stewart said.

College football remains on track to institute some version of a salary cap. Observers often compare the transfer portal in college to free agency in the NFL. But Stewart is quick to note the differences between the college and pro systems.

NFL contracts allow for incentives and deferred payment schedules that generate room for general managers to work creatively. “You really can’t do that under this setup,” he said.

Similarly, in NFL free agency, executives know for months who’s about to come on the market.

“Here, guys become available and you have to pivot right away,” Stewart said.

Transfer portal activity more resembles cutdown periods in NFL training camps when rosters shrink from 90 to 53 in one day, flooding the market with available talent.

Responsibility falls on the general manager and his staff — Stewart wants to hire several scouts — to anticipate who might enter the portal and understand their value to Nebraska in advance.

“You can look around the country every week,” Stewart said, “college and the NFL, and most (games) are decided in a five-play stretch, where a decision has to be made and you have to perform at high speeds and make decisions at a high level.”

Stewart’s job, he said, is to identify, acquire, retain and compensate players with the experience to win those five plays.

“Find good football players,” he said. “That’s pretty much the secret sauce.”

(Photo: Mitch Sherman / The Athletic)

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College football spring games face uncertain future in NIL era

US LBM Coaches Poll: Ohio State claims top spot after national title run See where your team landed in the final US LBM Coaches Poll ranking of the year. Sports Pulse While college football adopted offseason workouts not long after Rutgers beat Princeton — Harvard claims to have conducted the first out-of-season practice on March 14, […]

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While college football adopted offseason workouts not long after Rutgers beat Princeton — Harvard claims to have conducted the first out-of-season practice on March 14, 1889 — the spring game truly flourished this century, as programs began to stage largescale recruiting spectacles around what had evolved into one of the tentpole events on the sport’s annual calendar.

Steadily, the traditional end-of-spring scrimmage began to adopt a far less essential on-field purpose. One contributing factor was the increase in overall interest in these showcases. In response to ESPN and conference-branded networks starting to broadcast dozens of games every spring, many programs opted for an overly narrow glimpse at personnel and the playbook so as not to provide any insight for opponents on that season’s schedule.

That represented a deviation from the spring game’s original intent: to provide a game-like atmosphere as a way to evaluate a larger roster and specific position-by-position competitions.

Now, amid similar concerns stemming from dramatic changes to the NCAA model, spring games are approaching the territory of leather helmets, wishbone offenses and the four-team playoff — former college football hallmarks that have drifted into antiquity.

“What I think is happening with spring games is a consequence of what is happening in college football in general,” said Baylor coach Dave Aranda.

Conventional spring games have gone from a luxury to a liability because of NIL and the transfer portal, which have combined to turn roster management and retention into a free-for-all frenzy. With very little to gain but much to lose by mirroring a realistic game-day environment, many coaches who once embraced the positives of the spring showcase have shifted toward a closed-door approach as a way to combat widespread player movement.

“There’s more potential downside than upside for us,” said SMU coach Rhett Lashlee.

Said Illinois coach Bret Bielema, “I always worry about outside voices. I’m not oblivious to the fact that our guys were probably contacted by college programs that want their services.”

Twenty-five Power Four teams have decided against the traditional spring scrimmage, including nearly half of the Big Ten. Among the programs opting for something more closely resembling a practice-like setting are Nebraska, Florida State, Southern California, Oklahoma, LSU and Texas.

The reasoning is simple: Coaches and programs have become openly wary of having their rosters poached by teams that see potential contributors on tape and, because of NIL enticements and the ease of the portal, have the wherewithal to sway players through unofficial channels.

“The word ‘tampering’ doesn’t exist anymore,” Nebraska coach Matt Rhule said. “It’s just an absolute free, open, common market. I don’t necessarily want to open up to the outside world and have people watch our guys and say, ‘He looks like a pretty good player. Let’s go get him.’

“Honestly, to me, it’s about protecting the roster and protecting through that portal period.”

This weekend is the final weekend where a significant portion of the Power Four schools will wrap up spring practice and look toward offseason preparations.

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said the Longhorns will conduct NFL-style training sessions in lieu of a normal game. Arizona State is more focused on situational gameplay such as red-zone offense, coach Kenny Dillingham said. Nebraska will hold skills competitions and 7-on-7 games involving current and former players, among other events, and then a scrimmage featuring backup players battling for spots on the Cornhuskers’ roster.

Concerns that holding a spring game could influence roster makeup isn’t reserved for the Power Four. While major-conference teams might worry about the loss of depth and young talent not quite ready for larger roles, those on the Group of Five fear that starting-caliber players could be lured away by programs with much deeper pockets and ample NIL offerings.

“My primary intent is both to protect and retain our current roster and to keep our schemes and strategies unknown from our opponents for as long as possible,” Utah State coach Bronco Mendenhall said in announcing the Aggies will not hold a spring game and will close all spring practices to the public.

Overall, thousands of players have entered the portal since the first transfer window opened in December. The spring window closes on Friday, though players are only required to enter the portal during this period in order to be immediately eligible this season.

Canceling these spring games may have a minimal impact on the overwhelming amount of roster turnover every Bowl Subdivision program has encountered since the portal and NIL legislation went into effect earlier this decade.

“Listen, whether you have a spring game or not, it’s going to be tampering,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said.

A largely unregulated landscape has been intensified by the potentially seven-figure payouts handed out to college football’s best players at key positions such as quarterback, to the point where even starters at high-profile programs are evaluating their options in advance of the expected House settlement that will set an annual cap on athletics department spending on NIL.

In the most glaring example, former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava decided to transfer this month amid a dispute over his NIL contract. But Iamaleava’s departure for UCLA came before the Volunteers’ spring game; there was already plenty of tape establishing the sophomore as one of the most promising young passers in the FBS.

“People are going to tamper with our players whether we like it or not,” Sarkisian said. “That’s fine. Hopefully, we’ve built a culture and they believe in the development of the other guys before them in the program and feel this is the best place for them.”

Yet many programs have stayed the course and closed spring drills with an intrasquad scrimmage, accepting the tradeoff between the clear positives behind conducting a game-like setting — player development and the chance to evaluate the competition for a starring role — and the potential fallout of losing players into the portal.

“We have enough players that will benefit from the work that we think that offsets any of the other implications,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “You can’t be scared to do everything. We have to get guys better. That’s our number one objective.”

Even as these holdouts cling to tradition, the concept of a realistic, game-like scrimmage to close spring practices seems destined to be replaced by either modified jamborees or, as with the Longhorns, types of offseason training sessions designed to maximize development away from prying eyes.

One option raised this spring by Colorado coach Deion Sanders was a controlled scrimmage between two teams, which would mirror the NFL model. While Sanders’ call for an opponent was answered by Syracuse coach Fran Brown, the waiver was denied by the FBS oversight committee.

“Under current NCAA Bylaws, teams cannot play another school in the spring,” an NCAA spokesperson told USA TODAY Sports.

With no ready solution for balancing the need for development with the chance of largescale player movement, traditional spring games face an increasingly high likelihood of being erased from the college football schedule.

“To each his own,” said Florida coach Billy Napier. “I’m either going to have coaches tampering with my players, or I’m going to have a fanbase that’s pissed off at not having a spring game. It’s pick your poison.”

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Nebraska basketball lands Tulsa transfer post Jared Garcia

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Nebraska basketball lands Tulsa transfer post Jared Garcia

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‘Unforgettables’ would never have happened in NIL, portal era

To appreciate the full gravity of where we are in college athletics, understand this: If NIL and the transfer portal existed at the time, there might never have been an “Unforgettables,” the darling 1992 Kentucky team. Nor Cameron Mills’ dramatic 3-pointer to give UK a late lead against Duke in 1998. Nor Darius Miller’s solid […]

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April 26, 2025

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Nor Cameron Mills’ dramatic 3-pointer to give UK a late lead against Duke in 1998.

Nor Darius Miller’s solid contributions to the 2012 national championship run.

In each instance, much beloved in-state players like Richie Farmer would never have gotten a chance to shine because they would have been recruited over by coaches adding older players with proven track records, either standouts at smaller schools or frustrated five-stars at big time programs looking for a fresh start.

You think Tennessee Tech’s Van Usher, who led the nation in steals and assists in 1992, wouldn’t have been a hot portal commodity, potentially stealing away Farmer’s minutes? How about prolific scorers Charles Jones of Long Island or Ball State’s Bonzi Wells burying Mills on the depth chart in ’98?

The portal and NIL would have stolen so many precious memories Kentucky fans cherish and it’s ruining the game today, not because of evil coaches but because of an absurd situation that demands this chaos.

Given that frustrating reality, you understand why Travis Perry has now reluctantly chosen to leave Kentucky after just one season.

Perry is known for many things, most notably as a Kentucky Mr. Basketball, the state’s all-time scoring champion and Sweet 16 MVP in leading tiny Lyon County to the 2024 state championship. Today, he adds a new notation, though it’s not one he would celebrate – poster child for college athletics in 2025.

On April 22, in the final hour on the last day before its closing, the Kentucky freshman decided to leave his dream school and enter the transfer portal. The kid who chose No. 11 because of John Wall voluntarily surrendered that lifelong goal after just one season.

Perry certainly didn’t want to do it, agonizing until the deadline forced a decision, but he knew what we all knew, the kid had no choice. He is a basketball player who needs to be on the court, not a glorified walk-on.

Welcome to the new day for college athletics, the Old West where coaches are the town’s powerful business owners bankrolling hired guns to protect and advance their wealth.

In olden times, less than a decade ago, Perry need only worry about beating out any new freshmen added to the roster. Knowing that players typically show their greatest growth between the freshmen and sophomore seasons, Perry could have held his own against a precocious kid making the leap in competition enabling him to develop into a valuable contributor as a junior and senior.

In this new day, however, Perry’s head was on a swivel, not only looking back to incoming freshman Jasper Johnson, but ahead to a pair of hired guns – Pittsburgh junior transfer Jaland Lowe and Florida senior Denzel Aberdeen.

One could argue Perry should stay and compete. But let’s be honest, he would never have gotten that chance. The replacement gunslingers will arrive soon and given the reported price tags for each, who do you think is going to get the first shot to see the court?

Truth be told, Perry would never have seen the floor this past season if not for a rash of injuries. The kid who was recruited to Kentucky by John Calipari saw new coach Mark Pope re-recruit him while also adding five new guards – Lamont Butler, Kerr Kriisa, Collin Chandler, Koby Brea, Otega Oweh and Jaxson Robinson.

Perry saw action in the two exhibition wins, but Kriisa’s return sent Perry to the pine. He never left the bench against Duke, WKU and Clemson and averaged fewer than three minutes in five other games despite an average win margin of 33 points.

But injuries to Kriisa Dec. 7 at Gonzaga, Butler Jan. 14 versus Texas A&M and Robinson on Feb. 7 ahead of the South Carolina game forced the issue. Perry played in 31 games with four SEC starts and averaged 2.7 points. His best game was in a Feb. 22 loss at No. 4 Alabama when Perry played 28 minutes with 12 points and four assists, a time when all three injured players were missing in action.

Clearly that performance, nor any others, were enough to secure his future as Perry did not play in Kentucky’s final two NCAA Tournament games and then saw his coach add two veterans on top of him in the rotation, including Aberdeen just one day prior to the portal window closing.

Going forward, what is the lesson for future Travis Perrys?

Sadly, the transfer portal holds the answer. Most kids, especially in-state players, will be best served going to a school where they can spend two years proving their talent to Kentucky in hopes of spending their latter seasons in Lexington. Brea shined at Dayton, Amari Williams at Drexel. Why not a similar path for future Kentucky Mr. Basketballs?

Without doing so intentionally, that worked for Travis Ford (Missouri) and Patrick Sparks (WKU), who became invaluable additions to the Kentucky roster, leading UK to the 1993 Final Four and 2005 Elite Eight, respectively.

So while Perry is bound for a new school, he will forever be a Wildcat – the family bleeds enough blue to change the water color at Lake Barkley – but he is a gifted basketball player first and foremost.

Ultimately, that is the dream that must be followed.