NIL

Which Nevada coaches have had the best post-Wolf Pack careers?

Published

6 months ago

June 23, 2025

Former Nevada baseball coach Jay Johnson is a national champion again. Now at LSU, Johnson has won two national titles in the last three seasons, bringing the Tigers two crowns during his first four years on campus after being hired, by among others, Stephanie Rempe, who was at LSU at the time and now runs the Nevada athletic department as athletic director. We lead this week’s Monday Mailbag with a Johnson-focused question before hitting some other topics. Thanks, as always, for the inquiries.

Put Jay Johnson near the top of the list, but I have him No. 2 right now. Here’s the top 10.

1. Head football coach Buck Shaw (won 62 college games with five top-15 national finishes in 10 years post-Nevada while winning 90 more games in the AAFC/NFL, including the 1960 NFL Championship with the Eagles; he was the 49ers’ first head coach)

2. Head baseball coach Jay Johnson (two national titles; four College World Series in 10 years post-Nevada)

3. Assistant baseball coach John Savage (800-plus wins; four College World Series; one national title post-Nevada)

4. Assistant football coach Bobby Petrino (137 college wins, one NFL head job, one famous motorcycle crash and one neck brace post-Nevada)

5. Men’s basketball coach Eric Musselman (two Elite Eights, three Sweet 16s in six seasons post-Nevada)

6. Head football coach Ray “R.E.” Courtright (two nationals titles as Michigan’s men’s golf coach post-Nevada)

7. Swimming and diving coach Mike Shrader (nine Mountain West titles and 11 coach of the year honors in 18 seasons at San Diego State post-Nevada)

8. Football assistant coach John L. Smith (157 college wins with stints at Idaho, Utah State, Louisville, Michigan State, Arkansas, Fort Lewis and Kentucky State post-Nevada)

9. Men’s basketball coach Sonny Allen (most of Allen’s great career happened before he was Nevada’s coach, but he did go on to coach a WNBA team, the Sacramento Monarchs, post-Nevada)

10. Head football coach Jim Aiken (just 21-20 at Oregon post-Nevada, but that included a top-10 season and Cotton Bowl appearance in 1948)

Next would have been former Nevada track and field coach Curt Kraft, who led East Carolina to three conference titles in 19 seasons post-Nevada. Former Nevada baseball assistant Jay Uhlman has done a nice job at Tulane, leading that team to two NCAA Regionals in four years. And a special shoutout to Nevada football coach James Hopper, who was the Wolf Pack’s coach for one season in 1900 (4-2-1) and a year at Cal in 1904 (6-1-1) before turning to writing where he published 450 short stories and six novels as a influential writer in the first couple of decades of the 1900s.

Among head coaches to move on, the only one I know who would win a national title outside of Jay Johnson is former Nevada football coach Ray “R.E.” Courtright, who won two national titles as Michigan’s men’s golf coach.

As far as Dodgers vs. Padres, only two times was a batter intentionally hit in that series. And both times it was Shohei Ohtani. So, I don’t know why the Padres were so upset. They brought up the fact the Dodgers have hit Fernando Tatis Jr. six hits since he made his MLB debut. In the same time period, the Padres have hit Dodgers catcher Will Smith 11 times, Max Muncy nine times and Mookie Betts six times. Cry me a river, Padres. San Diego pitchers have hit 68 Dodgers batters to the Dodgers pitchers hitting 37 Padres batters since Tatis’ MLB debut. And the Dodgers have as many World Series titles (two) in the last five years as the Padres have NL West championships in the last 26 seasons. This is not a rivalry. The Padres just want to make it one. If it did come to blows, Joe Kelly would come out of retirement to be Nolan Ryan to Tatis’s Robin Venutra.

I actually could see that happening at some point as Jay Johnson remembers his time at Nevada fondly. I’m surprised he hasn’t scheduled a game against Nevada, either when he was at Arizona or now at LSU. Let’s make that happen.

And as LSU won its second national title in three years last season, I got to thinking former McQueen High standout Robby Snelling could have been on both of those Tigers teams. I don’t blame him for taking the $3 million signing bonus after being a first-round draft pick in 2023. That was the right move. But he would have been a freshman on the 2023 LSU title team and a draft-eligible junior this season after committing to Johnson and LSU out of high school before turning pro. Snelling is having a solid season at Double-A Pensacola as a 21-year-old this year, sitting a 2-5 with a 4.18 ERA in 12 games with 70 strikeouts in 60.1 innings as his velocity has spiked back up over a dip last season. But those would have been cool experiences for him.

Steve Alford played at Indiana a number of times while Iowa’s head coach from 1999-2007 but has not played the Hoosiers since then. That’s 18 total seasons, including six each at New Mexico, UCLA and Nevada. If it hasn’t happened yet, it probably won’t happen. Although that’d be a cool moment for Alford as he’s still an Indiana legend.

I’m sure Nate Yeskie’s had a lot of head-coaching offers as he reportedly turned down Mississippi State a number of years ago and has been one of college baseball’s top pitching coaches for the last two decades, which includes a national title at Oregon State in 2018 and LSU in 2025. At LSU, Yeskie has a base salary of $400,000 and got $80,000 in postseason bonuses this season. That’s head-coach money at most places. It just comes down to whether Yeskie wants to be a head coach. I would guess he will be a head coach soon as he wanted the Oregon State job that instead went to Mitch Canham in 2020. LSU’s last pitching coach, Wes Johnson, became Georgia’s head coach in 2023, so Yeskie could be in for a similar kind of job.

I sat down with Steve Alford today for a 25-minute interview on the offseason that I’ll post on our website later today or tomorrow. I asked about the smaller point guard model that’s being used this season (6-foot Tyler Rolison, 6-1 Tayshawn Comer and 5-9 Myles Walker) and he said that’s largely coincidental, adding the team’s ballhandling and ability to pressure the ball defensively should be improved over last year. He said the Wolf Pack’s post size (7-1 Jeriah Coleman, 6-10 Joel Armotrading, 6-9 Elijah Price, 6-8 Kaleb Lowery, 6-9 Ethan Croley) should be a plus. He added shooting is a question mark but something that’s been fine in the first couple of offseason practices.

I would agree Nevada seems to have a faster, more athletic, more defensive-oriented team compared to last year, although that does carry some offensive efficiency questions. Alford’s first impressions of the 2025-26 team have been positive.

“Really good, really excited about it,” Alford said. “It’s just adapting to a new era. Last year was the first year in 34 years we didn’t have a freshman on the team. As I enter year 35, it’s gonna be the first year we’ve had nine new players. You only get 13 scholarships, and we’re gonna have nine new players. That’s a lot. … We wanted to, I think first and foremost, become more athletic. I think last year’s team, though we were a little bit older, wasn’t quite as athletic as we’d like to be. I think we’ve increased our athleticism. I think we’re gonna be deeper up front now, which will help us. Jeriah getting an extra year. Ethan being a freshman. Joel and Elijah playing those positions. Our freshmen don’t look like freshmen. Ethan and and Peyton (White) are very physical, and Myles is a very quick, explosive point guard. They don’t look like freshmen, which is good. I think we’ll be a more athletic, more physical team is my hope.

“And then we wanted to add scoring and obviously shooting. There’s some question marks with shooting, but as I’ve watched the four or five practices that we’ve had, these guys know how to shoot the basketball. I think Tayshawn brings us another point guard with TR, which will really help us. I think Kenan gave us that presence. Last year, Kobe (Sanders) not a true point guard, more of a combo. And then TR really came on from January on. But a lot of the success that we’ve had prior to Nevada is playing multiple point guards. And I think the way the game has gone, you’re looking at the Pacer-Thunder series, you’ve got a lot of ball-handling guards. And I think our ball handling has a chance to be at a level that we haven’t had it. And if we can do that, then I think that creates more opportunities for us offensively and opens up better shooting opportunities for us. But also what we can do defensively, I think this has the potential — again, it’s just potential; it’s early — but potentially our deepest team, our most athletic team where we can increase pressure when we wanna increase pressure and be a little bit more disruptive defensively is my hope than what we’ve been maybe in the last year or two.”

There are a lot of great writers in the league. I’ll shout out the Albuquerque Journal’s Geoff Grammer; the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Mark Zeigler; The Coloradoan’s Kevin Lytle; The Gazette’s Brent Briggeman; the Fresno Bee’s Robert Kuwada; and BJ Rains going independent with Bronco Nation News and making it work is really cool. Those guys have been covering the league for a long time.

And I’ll take mini-golf, although I love TopGolf. We go to Roseville once or twice a year to hit some balls at that facility. It will be nice to have that in Reno at the Grand Sierra Resort in a couple of years.

Here are the 10 biggest betting-line underdog spreads for Nevada dating to 2000:

1. at Penn State, +43.5 (2025) — TBD

2. at USC, +38 (2023) — Didn’t cover

3. at Florida State, +35.5 (2013) — Didn’t cover

4. at Texas A&M, +32 (2015) — Covered

5. at Colorado State, +30 (2001) — Covered

6. at Washington State, +28.5 (2017) — Didn’t cover

7. vs. Kansas, +28 (2023) — Covered

8t. at Fresno State, +27.5 (2004) — Didn’t cover

8t. at Boise State, +27.5 (2011) — Covered

8t. at Notre Dame, +27.5 (2016) — Didn’t cover

So, that’s 4-5 against the spread and 0-9 straight up. The biggest underdog line Nevada has won straight up is 17 points (against San Diego State in 2019 and Washington in 2003). Since joining the FBS in 1992, Nevada has played eight top-10 teams, going 1-7 in those games, the win coming against No. 3 Boise State in 2010.

Jeff Tisdel went 23-22 overall and 13-8 in conference in four seasons at Nevada with two first-place finishes and a second with a bowl win (the 1996 Las Vegas Bowl). Yes, he inherited a much better situation than Ken Wilson, but Tisdel’s time had some legitimate successes. And while Wilson didn’t have much success as a head coach (4-20 in two years), he did contribute to a lot of success to Nevada as an assistant. If you’re just looking at head-coaching tenure Tisdel <>> Wilson. Tisdel had a really good head-coaching career post-Nevada, too, going 82–36 in 11 years at Sierra College.

Zero percent.

No. The revenue sharing the colleges can now pay athletes is on top of NIL deals, not in replacement of them. And while there’s a clearinghouse to approve these deals, NIL Go, I don’t think that will do much to limit NIL deals. Major donors can still have a huge impact on roster construction.

Many colleges have announced which teams they will share revenue with, although few have offered specifics per team. Nevada has only said its goal is to hit $5 million combined in revenue sharing and NIL for the 2025-26 season, which should put it in the competitive range of the Mountain West if it gets to that number. We don’t have a per-sport breakdown on which teams will get money, but that list will definitely include football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and baseball. I imagine softball will be on that list, too. It should be. Nevada should be investing heavily into softball right now.

No. LSU would get destroyed. There’s a massive jump from the SEC to Triple-A let alone MLB.

I watched zero seconds of this year’s NBA Finals, and it had nothing to do with the talking heads on ESPN, although those talking heads are annoying. Pacers versus Thunder just didn’t interest me, and almost none of the games were close. Games 1 and 4 had some tension. That’s about it. And while we’ve seen a lot of ink spilled trying to figure out why pitchers keep needing Tommy John surgery, let’s get some think pieces on why three Eastern Conference stars who wear No. 0 — the Bucks’ Damian Lillard; the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum; and the Pacers Tyrese Haliburton — all tore their Achilles in the playoff. Tatu is 27 and Haliburton is 25. That’s too young to suffer that kind of injury.

1) I’ve tried to make Smashburgers on my Camp Chef flat-top grill and they don’t turn out as well as my regular burgers, so I’m off the trend.

2) Caramelized onions.

3) Mustard if I have to pick one. If I get two, add ketchup. Never mayo. That’s gross.

4) I’ve never met anybody who publicly admits they like coleslaw. French fries are the best. If you can’t have that as a burger side, just do a salad.

No idea. There are many “pros” to living on the West Coast, but one of the best is the Pacific time zone sports starts. Staying up until 10 p.m. to watch games end on the West Coast is tough enough. But that’s 1 a.m. on the East Coast. That’s crazy. NFL games don’t start until 1 p.m. on the East Coast rather than the 10 a.m. start on the West Coast. More proof the west coast in the best coast.

See y’all next week!

Sports columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. He writes a weekly Monday Mailbag despite it giving him a headache and it taking several hours to write. But people seem to like it, so he does it anyway. Contact him at crmurray@sbgtv.com or follow him on Twitter @ByChrisMurray.

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NIL

$2.3 million college football QB heavily linked to struggling NFL team

Published

6 hours ago

January 1, 2026

Your Sports Nation

The 2026 NFL draft officially opens on April 23 in the shadows of Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

A prominent discussion around the draft is about the organizations in need of quarterbacks and which quarterbacks are expected to be selected in the first round.

Drafts like 2018 and 2021 have featured five quarterback selections in the first round. The 2022 NFL draft only featured one quarterback (Kenny Pickett) in its first round.

The 2026 NFL draft figures to split the difference. While there are franchises that need new quarterbacks, the number is limited to the ones drafting at the very top of the first round.

As for the quarterbacks who will be selected in the first round, Fernando Mendoza of Indiana and Dante Moore of Oregon are the two who have been connected with the very top of the order. Ty Simpson of Alabama has also been floated as a first-round choice, but his position is less well-known than Mendoza and Moore.

The Athletic compiled a projection of how each NFL team missing the playoffs is expected to approach the draft. The projection linked Moore with the Las Vegas Raiders.

Dante Moore throws a pass against Washington. — Oregon quarterback Dante Moore throws a pass as the Oregon Ducks take on the Washington Huskies | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Currently, the Raiders hold the worst record in the NFL at 2-14, putting them in line for the No. 1 overall pick. However, one week remains in the 2025 NFL regular season, and with a handful of teams at 3-13, the draft order can change if the Raiders win their regular-season finale.

Unless the season has produced one of the worst records in the league, a starting quarterback is not a position NFL teams look to draft in the first round.

The last multi-year starting quarterback the Raiders drafted was Derek Carr in the 2014 NFL draft, but that was in the second round. JaMarcus Russell is the last quarterback the Raiders selected in the first round, all the way back in 2007. Before Russell, the last quarterback the Raiders drafted in the first round was Todd Marinovich in 1991.

While the trend of the Raiders drafting first-round quarterbacks is few and far between, Oregon is no stranger to having its quarterbacks selected in the first rounds of NFL drafts. Dating back to 2015, Marcus Mariota, Justin Herbert and Bo Nix have all been selected by NFL franchises in the first round of the NFL draft.

Moore began his college football journey at UCLA in 2023. He played nine games for the Bruins and passed for 1,610 yards, 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions.

When Chip Kelly left UCLA to become Ohio State’s offensive coordinator that offseason, he transferred to Oregon.

After redshirting in 2024, he became the Ducks’ starter in 2025. Ahead of the College Football Playoff quarterfinals, Moore has thrown for 3,046 yards, 28 touchdowns and eight interceptions while rushing for 196 yards and two touchdowns.

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NIL

Inside Joey McGuire’s calculated program build

Published

7 hours ago

January 1, 2026

Your Sports Nation

One of the 2025 college football season’s major storylines has been Texas Tech‘s rise to the upper tier. The West Texas program made headlines throughout the year, positioning itself as a power player in the NIL and revenue‑sharing world. The Red Raiders dominated Big 12 play and earned a first‑round bye in the College Football Playoff.

When the Red Raiders take the field on New Year’s Day in the Orange Bowl against Oregon, an experiment four years in the making will play out on the big stage. There has been plenty written this year about Texas Tech’s “Maverick” super donor Cody Campbell, its swashbuckling general manager James Blanchard and fiery head coach Joey McGuire, along with a roster filled with high‑priced talent.

How did the Red Raiders get here?

It has been an intentional build since McGuire was hired Nov. 8, 2021, to save a program that was floundering in West Texas. Having resources is one thing, but executing the plan is another. The current Texas Tech team is an intricate puzzle put together over the span of a presidential term, and every piece matters.

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Oregon’s Dan Lanning calls for college football season to end by Jan 1 every year

Published

8 hours ago

January 1, 2026

Your Sports Nation

By Ryan Canfield

Published December 31, 2025

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning continued to campaign for the college football season to end on Jan. 1 every year in an effort to fix multiple issues.

Lanning noted the challenges of coordinators who take head coaching jobs being forced to juggle responsibilities and said he prefers to reduce the long layoff between games. The 39-year-old has been talking about ending the college football season sooner since the summer.

“Every playoff game should be played every single weekend until you finish the season,” Lanning said during his press conference Wednesday. “Even if it means we start Week 0 or you eliminate a bye, the season ends Jan. 1. And then the portal opens. Then coaches that have to move on to their next opportunities get to move to their next opportunities.”

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Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning during the fourth quarter against the James Madison Dukes at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Ore., Dec. 20, 2025. (Craig Strobeck/Imagn Images)

Lanning reiterated throughout his news conference that he thought playing in the first round allowed his team to stay in a rhythm. Last season, Oregon was the No. 1 seed and lost in its first College Football Playoff game to Ohio State.

The NFL plays games on Saturdays throughout the month of December, which Lanning disagrees with. He would rather see Saturdays remain exclusive to college football to quicken the pace of the College Football Playoff to finish the season by Jan 1.

“I’ve got a ton of respect for the NFL, but we’re a prep league for the NFL,” Lanning said. “We do a lot of favors for the NFL. We’re the minor league in a lot of ways, but there’s no money paid from the NFL to take care of college football.

NATIONAL CHAMPION COACH WANTS TRUMP ‘MORE INVOLVED’ IN NIL REGULATION: ‘OUR SPORT IS GETTING KILLED’

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning looks at the scoreboard during the first half of the first round of the NCAA College Football Playoff against James Madison Dec. 20, 2025, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Lydia Ely)

“We’ve given up some of our days to the NFL. We said, ‘Oh, you guys get to have this day, you get to have this day, you get to have this day.’ Saturday should be sacred for college football, and every Saturday through the month of December should belong to college football.”

Oregon’s offensive and defensive coordinators are both trying to navigate their dual responsibilities. Offensive coordinator Will Stein took the Kentucky job, while defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi took the California job.

If Oregon advances beyond the quarterfinals, both coaches will be dealing with navigating the transfer portal, which opens Jan. 2, while also trying to coach the Ducks to a national championship.

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“Our national championship game this year is Jan. 19, and that’s really hard to envision as a coach that’s going out and trying to join a new program and start a staff,” Lanning said.

“It’s hard for players to understand what continuity looks like and where they’re going to be at and to manage that with visits, the portal, everything else that exists. The clear way to do that is to bump the season up and make sure these playoff games happen a lot faster.”

Oregon will take on Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl Jan. 1 at noon ET.

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Ryan Canfield is a digital production assistant for Fox News Digital.

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https://www.foxnews.com/sports/oregons-dan-lanning-calls-college-football-season-end-jan-1-every-single-year

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NIL

Dan Shaughnessy: Is college sports broken?

Published

9 hours ago

January 1, 2026

Your Sports Nation

It’s a huge week for big-time college sports. We’ve got bowl games every hour, with a national championship at stake. Meanwhile, NCAA basketball repeat violator John Calipari (two Final Four appearances vacated) is delivering lectures about the evils of NIL and the transfer portal. Cal, who has coached for eight NCAA and NBA teams, is shocked, shocked, that college basketball players keep transferring.

The vaunted NCAA — overseer of the once-glorious Pac-10, Big Ten, and Big East — has yielded to a Wild West of “straight cash, homie” and regionally random, power conference monopolies. The system is irreparably broken, yet more popular than ever.

God bless to folks who still love it. I understand the lure of rooting for Old State U, “boola boola” and all that. If you live in a yahoo town with no real professional sports, it’s good to have a legacy college program in your midst. This explains football mania in Columbus, Ohio, State College, Pa., Athens, Ga., and Tuscaloosa, Ala. When March Madness takes hold, it’s the same deal in Lexington, Ky., and Spokane, Wash. All of America loves a nice little 16-seed beating a 1-seed and CBS’s shining moments can make grown men weep.

I get it. I just want no part of it and am proud to work in a region in which big-time college sports don’t move the needle one little bit.

Remember when Boston College had Matt Ryan and the No. 2 football team in the nation for a couple of weeks back in 2007? Of course you don’t. Nobody knew it even then. The Red Sox had just won the World Series, the Patriots were on their way to 18-0, and the Celtics were kicking off the ubuntu championship of 2007-08.

We are a pro sports town. That’s it.

All of which brings me to recent conversations I had with a couple of former Ivy League basketball players: Harvard’s Charlie Baker and Dartmouth’s Peter Roby. They played against one another a half-century ago. Both are tall enough to eat candy off my head. Both graduated in 1979.

Most of you know Baker. He went on to become governor of Massachusetts for eight years, and today he serves as president of the NCAA, a lucrative ($3.15 million per year) yet thankless five-year gig that will take him halfway into 2028.

I told Charlie I wouldn’t take his job for all the money in the world. The NCAA is a hopeless mess and there’s simply no fixing it.

“There’s a lot about it that’s frustrating,” Baker said over lunch last week. “But I spent most of my career in healthcare and government, and those can be frustrating environments, as well. OK?“

Roby knows the college sports landscape as well as anybody. He’s a former athletic director at Northeastern and Dartmouth, was head basketball coach at Harvard, and served a five-year term on the NCAA selection committee for the men’s basketball tournament. He’s an outgoing member of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.

Here’s Roby’s assessment of college sports today:

“No one talks about education or personal development at the highest levels. It’s about transfer portal, NIL revenue sharing, and the need for congressional intervention. Schools continue to complain about rising costs and the need for more revenue, yet they are paying out multimillion-dollar buyouts for fired coaches and hiring coaches at $12 million per year.

“The way things are trending, the NCAA will not exist in its current form in the next few years. It will only manage sports championships. All the legal settlements have resulted in billions of dollars being paid out over the next 10 years, and that money is coming from the NCAA and member schools. This has resulted in less programs being offered to students, coaches, and administrators by the NCAA, while rendering the NCAA powerless to pass overarching legislation or enforce current rules for fear of more litigation. All of this comes as a result of the failure of presidential leadership and overreach by boards of trustees.”

Peter Roby is an outgoing member of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.Jon Chase photo

Baker counters: “With all respect to Peter, I don’t think he’s being fair to the power conferences when he puts it that way. For all the talk about the power conferences and the ‘money’ that’s involved in those operations, they are huge investors in women’s sports. I just went to the women’s volleyball championships for the second year in a row. That’s going to be a rocket ship.”

What about NIL?

“In my first year the only people who were allowed to talk to student-athletes about money was everybody but the school,” said Baker. “That’s not good because the school is more likely to have a different point of view than the agents and the collectives. For me, making it possible for the schools to participate in an NIL program so at least they could talk to kids and maybe create a relationship, might help kids stick around. We’re still early in the process.”

We haven’t even gotten into issues of eligibility. Or court rulings. It’s really complicated.

Baker understands the notion that name, image, likeness has, in fact, become “wages.”

“People will call it all kinds of things, and I’m OK with that,“ he said. “Most of these schools, especially the ones that have the biggest school-based NIL programs, those programs are a huge part of these schools’ brand. To say that the Alabama football team doesn’t have a lot to do with the success of the University of Alabama is a misnomer. Same with Ohio State. Michigan. Those schools have benefited in a major way from the success of their sports teams.”

Roby’s position: “It’s time to separate those schools from schools that believe in the primacy of education and the personal development of young people. The NCAA is made up of 1,100 schools in all three divisions and the overwhelming majority of them want to educate young people and prepare them for a life of purpose and impact.

“Let’s create another division within Division 1 to allow like-minded schools to compete on a more level playing field academically, philosophically, and athletically.”

“I think to say that the power conferences don’t care about education is wrong,” argued Baker. “If you look at their graduation rates, they’ve improved dramatically in the last 15 years. I worry a lot about the transfer stuff having an impact on graduate rates, but the transfer rules we had were taken away from us in a court decision in West Virginia a couple of years ago.”

Ah yes, the courts. These days, the NCAA is in court more than the White House. And the law has been friendly to athletes, making the college sports industrial complex ever more complicated and less stable.

“Most of the student-athletes I talk to really want to be students first and want to play sports,” said Baker. “They do not want to be employees. That’s not how they want to roll. Ours is a voluntary membership organization. They can leave any time they want. But the good news is that for 100-plus years, they’ve stayed. But one of the reasons to simplify the Division 1 governing model is that I don’t want schools to leave. I want them to stay. If you leave the NCAA, you give up your chance to win a national championship.

“The thing that people don’t see that I get to see all the time is the kids. They make me glad I am in this role. They are smart, proud, accomplished. The lessons they learn playing sports about teamwork and putting your own interests aside and being able to take constructive criticism and do the grind. They’re applicable everywhere for the rest of their lives.

“I’m too much of an optimist to think anything is hopeless.”

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him @dan_shaughnessy.

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2025-26 College Football Playoff quarterfinal, bowl game predictions, picks, odds

Published

10 hours ago

January 1, 2026

Your Sports Nation

There is no juggernaut. There is no team still standing that will be talked about in the decades to come.

In the absence of one, Ohio State was often treated like one, sporting a historically efficient defense, last season’s national championship rings and the No. 1 ranking for nearly the entire season. But the potentially fatal flaw has been visible since the season opener, when the Buckeyes squeaked by Texas with 14 points. It emerged again in the Big Ten title game, when Ohio State scored 10 points in the loss to Indiana.

The defending champs enter the playoff as the No. 2 seed, but with the 28th-ranked offense, having been limited to less than 20 points per game against the four toughest defenses (Texas, Washington, Michigan, Indiana) it faced, led by a first-year starter (Julian Sayin) who has struggled under pressure, and was sacked five times against the Hoosiers.

Miami’s front is built to create similar havoc — featuring All-American Rueben Bain Jr. and senior Akheem Mesidor — part of a top 10 defense that forces nearly two turnovers per game, shuts down the run and excels in the red zone. The Hurricanes (+9.5) may also struggle to score, but their College Football Playoff first-round upset at Texas A&M will be far more beneficial than the Buckeyes’ 25 days off heading into Wednesday night’s quarterfinal.

Ohio State — still the betting favorite to win the national title — has fallen short of that goal the past three times it spent the majority of the season atop the polls (1998, 2006, 2015). The Buckeyes’ three most recent national championships (2002, 2014, 2024) were all unexpected, including last season’s run as an 8-seed.

Orange Bowl: Texas Tech (+2.5) over Oregon

Texas Tech has exceeded its NIL-fueled hype, winning its first Big 12 title, while going undefeated with Behren Morton under center, as well as 12-0 against the spread with its starting quarterback healthy.

Though Dan Lanning has made the Ducks annual contenders, he has also lost the team’s biggest games every season, most often as the favorite.

Texas Tech’s top-ranked run defense will force Dante Moore to shoulder too much responsibility, having thrown for an average of 149 yards, with one touchdown and three interceptions in his two previous matchups against top 10 defenses (Indiana, Iowa), when the Ducks averaged 19 points.

Rose Bowl: Alabama (+7.5) over Indiana

It was no coincidence that each team that received a bye last year came out flat. The Hoosiers will not be immune to the effects of being off for nearly four weeks, of spending the past month as the top-ranked team in the nation, and no longer able to play the card that no one believes in them.

For once, Alabama carries that chip, in the unthinkable scenario of the most dominant program in the sport’s history playing the role of the underdog against the FBS team with the most all-time losses. The pressure is on the Hoosiers — who have won three games by five points or less — and Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza, whose stock has been inflated by a generationally poor quarterback class.

The Tide won’t lack confidence, coming off an incredible comeback at Oklahoma, and entering with more talent and depth than the nation’s top-ranked team.

Sugar Bowl: Georgia (-6.5) over Ole Miss

The Rebels wouldn’t have signed up for this rematch after surrendering the game’s final 17 points — of a season-worst 43 allowed — against the Bulldogs on Oct. 18, when Georgia controlled possession and Gunnar Stockton had his best performance of the season.

Kirby Smart’s core won’t face-plant in back-to-back playoffs, with his defense peaking — allowing an average of 7.3 points in the past four games — and Lane Kiffin’s absence certain to be felt.

ReliaQuest Bowl: Iowa (+5.5) over Vanderbilt

The Hawkeyes always have hope, suffering their four losses — all against ranked teams — by an average of less than four points. It doesn’t feel good to bet against Diego Pavia, but Iowa’s top 10 defensive ranking is well-earned, having held a pair of top 10 offenses (Indiana, Oregon) to nearly 20 points below their season averages.

Sun Bowl: Duke (-3.5) over Arizona State

The Sun Devils haven’t been the same without starting quarterback Sam Leavitt. Now, Kenny Dillingham will be without his top receiver, running back and pass rusher, as well as both starting tackles.

That is enough to tilt the field in favor of one of the ACC champs, whose opportunistic defense should give extra possessions to Darian Mensah, the nation’s fourth-leading passer.

Citrus Bowl: Michigan (+6.5) over Texas

It’s hard to know which team will show up when so many key players from each side won’t show up. Though Arch Manning will suit up — who knows for how long? — the Longhorns defense and backfield has been decimated, making the Wolverines a live dog after their upset of Alabama in the same bowl last year. New coach Kyle Whittingham will be watching. Will Sherrone Moore?

Las Vegas Bowl: Utah (-14.5) over Nebraska

The Cornhuskers will have plenty of issues putting up points without their star quarterback (Dylan Raiola) and running back (Emmett Johnson), but the defense is a bigger problem, most recently surrendering 40 points to Iowa’s 121st-ranked offense.

Utah’s longtime defensive coordinator turned head coach, Morgan Scalley, knows the path to success comes from pounding the rock. Anything under 200 yards would be a shock.

Armed Forces Bowl: Rice (+14.5) over Texas State

A game that highlights the absurdity of the bloated bowl season features an Owls (5-7) team that has no business being rewarded. But Rice — which was only invited after multiple schools declined — should demonstrate urgency, looking for its first bowl win since 2014 under first-year coach Scott Abell. The Bobcats are 0-2 against the spread this season as favorites of two touchdowns or more.

Liberty Bowl: Navy (-7.5) over Cincinnati

Since 2013, the service academies are 19-3 against the spread in bowl games, being largely shielded from opt-outs and the transfer portal.

Cincy isn’t so lucky, entering this game without standout quarterback Brendan Sorsby — who will soon collect seven figures elsewhere — and at least five other starters. Even at full strength, the Bearcats would’ve struggled to stop Navy’s top-ranked ground game, owning the nation’s 104th-ranked run defense.

Holiday Bowl: Arizona (-2.5) over SMU

The Wildcats will want it more, bouncing back from a 4-8 campaign to potentially finish this season with six straight wins, while the Mustangs — who are 0-3 in the postseason under Rhett Lashlee — may struggle to find motivation, most recently blowing their chance to make the playoff for the second straight year. Arizona hasn’t allowed more than 200 yards passing since September.

Betting on College Football?

Duke’s Mayo Bowl: Mississippi State (-3.5) over Wake Forest

The Bulldogs endured a grueling SEC gauntlet, and are far better than their record (5-7) suggests, having also gone 3-0 against the spread as a favorite. True freshman quarterback Kamario Taylor ran for 173 yards and two touchdowns in his first career start against Ole Miss, while the Demon Deacons’ inconsistent offense will be without leading-rusher Demond Claiborne.

Best bets: Georgia, Navy

This season: 116-131-1 (18-31) (entering Tuesday)

2014-24 record: 1,392-1,309-31

Why Trust New York Post Betting

Howie Kussoy has long been the New York Post’s main handicapper in college basketball (since 2011) and college football (since 2013).

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NIL

James Nnaji NIL signing with Baylor basketball has Nick Saban up in arms

Published

11 hours ago

January 1, 2026

Your Sports Nation

James Nnaji NIL signing with Baylor basketball has Nick Saban up in arms appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The 2025 college basketball season has been upended by the fact that a former NBA Draft pick, James Nnaji, joined the Baylor basketball program mid-season. James Nnaji was picked 31st in the 2023 NBA Draft, and after trades, the Knicks currently own his draft rights. The Bears added Nnaji because he has never played college basketball or the NBA, but the move has sent ripples through college basketball.

One of the biggest names in college sports and a legendary college football coach, Nick Saban, addressed the situation with Nnaji on the most recent episode of “The Pat McAfee Show.” Saban made clear that he likes that the players can make money, but he does not like the constant transferring and how muddied the eligibility rules are. He also said that he got a lot of complaints from John Calipari and Tom Izzo despite not being involved in basketball.

Saban said, “I want them to make money. I think they should make money, but there should be some restrictions on how they go about doing it, and the movement is as big an issue to me as the money itself. I mean, everybody being able to transfer at all times. I mean, that’s not a good thing.

“Now we even have a basketball player going to Baylor after he played in the NBA. I mean, you heard me say this before: you want a quarterback drafted by the New York Giants? He’s going to be playing for Penn State. What about that? How crazy it’s got. I got Calipari and Izzo blowing me up. I’m not even a basketball guy. Blowing me up about this kid.”

One massive reason Saban retired in the first place was the issues that have popped up in college football and college sports in general, related to the lack of guardrails on NIL and the excessive emphasis on the transfer portal.

Nick Saban has also been consistently trying to fix college sports. While the NCAA said no one who plays in the NBA will be eligible, Nnaji never played in the NBA, which is a big loophole.

Related: Tiffani-Dawn Sykes gets real on potential Virginia State move to the MEAC

Related: Caleb Wilson accomplishes North Carolina Tar Heels feat not seen in 30 years

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