Based on the standards in Athens, Georgia had a down year in 2024. Paul Finebaum now thinks the Bulldogs could have a hard time correcting that in 2025 with Gunner Stockton being the Bulldogs’ QB1.

Finebaum, in an appearance on Friday morning on ‘First Take,’ named how Georgia and Alabama each follow up last season in this upcoming season as one of his top storylines going into kickoff this fall. However, that came with his doubts about the ‘Dawgs with Stockton set to be their starting quarterback.

“It was a disappointing year and, as I say that, I’m like checking myself. Georgia won the SEC Championship but it still fell flat because they looked so bad against Notre Dame, completely blowing up in the final seconds of the first half and the opening stanza of the second half,” Finebaum said. “Kirby Smart needs to bounce back but I’m not sure it’s going to be easy because Gunner Stockton is not an elite quarterback. He’s serviceable and that is about it.”

Stockton, having made seven appearances in his collegiate career to that point, was forced into action due to the elbow injury to Carson Beck in the biggest games of the season in the second half against Texas in the SEC Championship and versus Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl as their quarterfinal in the College Football Playoff. In that game and a half, Stockton was 32-48 (66.7%) for 305 yards, a touchdown, and an interception while showing some mobility as well.

Considering all things about the spot he found himself in, that’s fine play from Stockton, especially leading an offense that struggled throughout last season at times, regardless of who was taking snaps at quarterback. Still, taking the place of your injured starter as the backup isn’t the same as being the full-time starting quarterback.

That said, even if no one else is confident in what Stockton can do, Georgia at least seems to be. The Bulldogs eventually didn’t add anyone from the transfer portal this offseason to compete with him, while all indications are that Stockton will be the starter over the other two options on the roster in Ryan Puglisi or Ryan Montgomery. They’ll need that belief in him now if they’re going to make up for — despite winning the conference and being the second overall seed in the playoff — what was technically their worst season in six years.

Stockton is as big of a question mark at quarterback as Georgia has had in its tenure under Smart. It’s now on him to have the answers, starting next week at SEC Media Days and come kickoff to the season in seven weeks’ time on August 30th.

The House Settlement is set to change a lot of things in the world of college athletics.

With that will come the rise of revenue sharing allowing college programs to distribute money to student athletes, but the world of NIL isn’t necessarily going away either.

But with the settlement will come some guardrails and will allow for a certain amount of matchmaking for those real NIL opportunities.

“You know, the old system of donors just throwing money into one big collective bundle, thus the name collectives. And then making up some reason to pay for play is very much the target of the settlement implementation. They want to eliminate that,” Athletic Director Wren Baker told 3 Guys Before the Game.

But would be permitted are any kind of forward-facing business that has goods and services for sale that want to do deals with student-athletes according to Baker.

Those deals have to pass the Deloitte Clearinghouse if they’re greater than $600 according to Baker.

“You just put the deal in and it’ll kick you out a range of compensation,” Baker said. “So you have really three options. If you kick in a deal and the range of compensation is $100,000 and you had signed this deal for $200,000 you can either go back and make the deal $100,000. You could change the amount of activity that you were going to do for the $100,000 potentially to make more value creation there. Or you could shift some of that deal.”

Auburn head football coach Hugh Freeze doesn’t think Paul Finebaum, and similar talking heads, understand the nuances of NIL in the modern recruiting landscape.

Freeze called out Finebaum by name for criticizing him for not signing every in-state receiver, given that he has already committed to time and salary for players already on the program’s payroll. He also took issue with criticism of his golfing habits.

To Freeze, Finebaum and his ilk are assuming things are still like the old days, when in reality, college football functions more like pro sports. Freeze hammered home the point by using Jackson Arnold and Deuce Knight as an example of why he wouldn’t get another quarterback.

“The other thing that nobody talks about–and y’all may, I don’t listen to much–I’m not on social media, my daughter does it… ‘Well, Freeze is not getting this receiver in-state.’ Do y’all realize, on paper, I am not losing a single receiver? This is not like the old days where you sign 25 guys and then figure out who the 85 are. This is actually a salary cap world and I like our receiver room. How do I go and make offers to receivers at numbers that these other schools are when, come January, I kind of want to keep the one I have. I don’t think the Finebaum’s of the world or any of them think about all of that. They just say he’s playing golf and not recruiting,” Freeze told David Pollack on the “See Ball Get Ball” podcast, per On3.

“There are just a lot of dynamics into it right now. I’m confident that our staff–we have not changed a single approach with our recruiting, people love it when they come to Auburn. But, there are just a lot of dynamics that go into their decisions currently. Come August 1, everybody has to put this in writing now and we will see where everything shakes out after that. How in the world are you going to convince a third 5-star quarterback to come to you when you have Jackson Arnold and Deuce Knight? If we’re really operating under a true salary cap where we have no idea what an NIL value is until they decide that, which is our interpretation of the new rules, how do you do that?”

Freeze’s recruiting may be over-scrutinized right now, but given the number of high-level recruits he brought on that ended up elsewhere in short order, perhaps he was being overrated before.

His results on the field don’t speak for themselves. Not in a good way, anyway.

He doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt from people like Finebaum. That’s earned by not making him look like a fool for having faith in the Tigers the last two years.

A familiar name and face in the Bluegrass is set to hold a massive role in college basketball this season at the national level. Samford Director of Athletics Martin Newton, the son of the late C.M. Newton and a former Kentucky men’s basketball staff member, has been named chair of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee for the 2026-27 season.

He will serve as vice chair this season alongside Sun Belt Conference commissioner and 2025-26 chair, Keith Gill.

Newton has been at Samford since 2011, leading the Bulldogs to 87 regular-season and postseason Southern Conference championships over the past 14 years. As a student-athlete, he was an honorable mention All-Southern Conference basketball player and earned a degree from Samford in 1983. After his playing days, he spent over a quarter century in marketing with major shoe companies before joining John Calipari at Kentucky as his director of operations for men’s basketball.

In two years in Lexington, Newton managed budget, fundraising, compliance, scheduling, marketing and academic support for the men’s basketball program under Coach Cal. From there, he was hired as AD at Samford and has become one of the best in the country at his job.

”Samford University is not only bringing home one of their own, but they are getting one of the brightest and most progressive athletic administrators I have ever been around,” Calipari said of Martin’s departure at the time. “(He) has been a huge asset for the University of Kentucky basketball program over these past two years and on a personal level he has become a dear friend and trusted confidant. …

”This is the greatest part of occupying the seat I have at UK — seeing our staff members reach their dreams and further their own careers. Everyone at UK wishes Martin all the best and we thank him for all his hard work and dedication.”

His father, C.M. Newton, was a legendary college basketball player, coach and administrator, who served on the DI Men’s Basketball Committee from 1992-99 and chaired it his final two years as AD at Kentucky. He played from 1948-51 under Adolph Rupp and won the ’51 championship as a Wildcat, then served as AD from 1989-2000 where he added three sports — men’s and women’s soccer and softball — and expanded facilities and grew revenues in response to the increasing financial pressures of college athletics. Kroger Field’s playing surface is named C.M. Newton Grounds in his honor after he helped expand the stadium, along with the baseball stadium, while also acquiring a golf course, building softball and soccer complexes, a new tennis stadium and the Nutter Field House.

He was also known for hiring Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith — the latter, along with Bernadette Mattox — marked the first two African-American head coaches for UK men’s and women’s basketball, respectively.

C.M. Newton, a Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee in 2000, passed away in 2018. Now, his son is continuing to follow in his footsteps well.

“It is a tremendous honor to be elected to this prestigious position by my colleagues on the committee,” Martin Newton said. “When I was appointed to the committee in 2022, I considered it one of the highlights of my professional career, not only for the opportunity it presents but because I got to follow in my father’s footsteps. To further follow those steps by taking a leadership position within this group is a bit surreal. My family and I feel an extraordinary sense of pride to have this opportunity.”

Certainly making his father and the University of Kentucky proud.

Sun Belt Conference Commissioner Keith Gill has officially begun his tenure as Chair of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee for the 2025-26 season, following the committee’s annual summer meeting in Savannah, the Sun Belt Conference announced on Friday.

Gill’s appointment marks the culmination of a five-year term on the committee that began in the 2021-22 season. He previously served as Vice Chair during the 2024-25 campaign.

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The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee is tasked with one of college sports’ most high-profile responsibilities: selecting, seeding and bracketing the field for March Madness. The 87th Division I Men’s Basketball Championship will conclude with the Men’s Final Four in Indianapolis on April 4 and 6, 2026, marking the ninth time the city has hosted the event.

This season’s Final Four weekend is set to feature an expanded slate of basketball action. The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) semifinals will be held Thursday, April 2, at Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse. The NIT championship game, along with the NCAA Division II and III national championships, will take place Sunday, April 5, at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Joining Gill on the 2025-26 committee are newly-elected Vice Chair Martin Newton of Samford, Mark Coyle of Minnesota, Irma Garcia of Manhattan, Stu Jackson of the West Coast Conference, Arthur Johnson of Temple, Zack Lassiter of Abilene Christian, Lee Reed of Georgetown, Chad Weiberg of Oklahoma State, John Wildhack of Syracuse, and Tom Wistrcill of the Big Sky Conference.

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