The Bold Type

The Bold Type, with Commissioner Dan Butterly - Nov. 17, 2025

Good morning, everyone!   

I was very fortunate to spend my Friday in the pouring rain in Santa Barbara at The Big West Men’s Soccer Championship match featuring the No. 2 seed UC Irvine versus No. 1 seed UC Santa Barbara. Thank you to UC Santa Barbara for hosting an outstanding championship match, and to every fan that weathered the rain to attend the championship.  I know our student-athletes were greatly appreciative of your support.   

Congratulations to the champion Anteaters, who will learn their NCAA seed and opponent at 10 a.m. today on NCAA.com. Read more >>> 

Song for today is “November Rain” by Guns and Roses.  I have always loved this song with the combination of an orchestra with a power ballad, and it fits the actual weather we faced in California over the weekend.  

   

Let’s get to The Bold Type. 


 

   CONGRATULATIONS   

  • To Cal Poly women’s soccer for their valiant effort against No. 1 overall seed Stanford on Friday night, where the Mustangs struck first in the game before falling, 3-1. Read more >>> 
  • Kudos to Cal Poly student-athlete and women’s soccer Championship MVP Jessie Halladay and head coach Bernardo Silva during post-championship interviews dedicating their victory to the Cal State Fullerton team. 
  • To Lucca Liu and Dominique Rolland of UC Santa Barbara who qualified for the 2025 NCAA Men’s Tennis Singles Championship! The competition will take place this week, Nov. 18-23 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla., with both men opening up play on Tuesday afternoon. Read more >>> 
  • To Cal Poly junior Kelli Gaffney who will represent The Big West as an individual qualifier in the 2025 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships, hosted by Missouri at Gans Creek Cross Country Course on Saturday, Nov. 22. Read more >>> 
  • To all our men’s and women’s cross country student-athletes who competed at the NCAA West Regionals on Friday. The Big West had a combined three All-Region honorees, two in the women’s 6K and one in the men’s 10K, to highlight the league’s performance. Read more >>> 
  • To our FIVE men’s water polo programs ranked in the latest CWPA poll! 
    • No. 7 Long Beach State 
    • No. 8 UC Davis 
    • No. 11 UC Santa Barbara 
    • No. 13 UC San Diego 
    • No.  15 UC Irvine 
  • To our amazing Players of the Week & Month! 


 

   GET TICKETS NOW FOR THE 2025 BIG WEST WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP    

With one week remaining in the regular season, individual session tickets for The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2025 Outrigger Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship are on sale now at BigWest.org/WVBtix! Read more >>> 

Congratulations to host Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara who clinched their spots in the field this week! There are still two more spots up for grab heading into the last two games of the exciting regular season.



   2025 BIG WEST MEN’S WATER POLO CHAMPIONSHIP   

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The matchups and seedings are officially set for the 2025 Big West Men’s Water Polo Championship, hosted by UC Irvine at the Anteater Aquatics Complex from Nov. 21–23. Six programs will compete over three days for the conference crown and the league’s automatic berth into the 2025 National Collegiate Men’s Water Polo Championship. Make your plans to join us this week – seats are limited! Read more >>> 


 

   THE BIG WEST ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH SIGNATURE RINGS   

The Big West announced today a new partnership with Signature Championship Rings, a leading provider of custom championship and recognition jewelry, which becomes the Official Championship Ring Provider of The Big West. Read more >>> 

Through this collaboration, Signature will showcase its craftsmanship and customer service across Big West marketing platforms throughout the academic year, and we hope to see many of our champions sporting new bling from our newest partners.  

  
 

   PROTECTING THE INTEGRITY OF COLLEGE ATHLETICS   

This week, The Big West joined institutions across Division I in urging the NCAA to rescind its recent policy change permitting professional sports wagering by NCAA participants. Based on discussion during the Directors of Athletics meeting during our November meeting, on behalf of our member institutions, I submitted a formal letter to NCAA President Charlie Baker emphasizing the need to maintain clear separation between collegiate athletics and all forms of sports wagering. 

For decades, the NCAA’s message — “Don’t Bet on It” — has represented our shared commitment to integrity, education, and student-athlete welfare. The Big West remains steadfast in upholding those values and advocating for national policies that protect the foundation of intercollegiate competition. 

  
 

   THANK YOU TO OUR BROADCAST PARTNERS   

As we head towards the conclusion of our fall championship slate, our championship broadcast partner Earl Miller Productions is worthy of our thanks and gratitude. The team at Earl Miller, led by producer Max Casanova, produced our men’s and women’s soccer championship matches along with the entirety of The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2025 Outrigger Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship this fall. We appreciate the EMP crew and the hard work and cooperation of our event hosts at CSUN, UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach State for making these broadcasts first rate.  

Also, sending a big round of applause to our early-round soccer hosts who aired The Big West postseason on ESPN+: UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly, Cal State Fullerton and CSUN. Additionally, the Anteaters’ production team will be broadcasting part of our upcoming Big West Men’s Water Polo Championship to give fans even more opportunities to follow their favorite teams. 

As basketball season heats up, we’re also thankful to our partners at Spectrum SportsNet. This season Spectrum SportsNet will carry 14 Big West men’s and women’s games, providing our conference with expanded reach to linear TV audiences in most Big West markets. This week Big West institutions who will produce games on Spectrum SportsNet met with their programming and operations staff. Spectrum SportsNet staffers Evan Kitagawa, Bonnie Wilson, Kara Burnham, Dave Meyer, Becky Spradlin and David Ewing all provide critical support throughout the season and we appreciate their efforts. 

  

  

   ANOTHER NCAA LEGAL SETTLEMENT   

As with prior settlements, there will be financial implications for conferences and institutions. 

The Board of Governors authorized NCAA staff to reach an agreement to settle the Ray v. NCAA volunteer coach class action litigation a few months ago and the NCAA is pleased to report an agreement has been reached. Plaintiffs’ attorneys publicly filed a copy of the settlement agreement with their motion seeking preliminary approval moments ago. 
 
In the event the Court preliminarily approves the settlement, plaintiffs’ attorneys will be responsible for providing class members with notice of the settlement agreement and a fairness hearing will be held, likely in 2026, before the settlement agreement can finally be approved. Should the court approve the settlement, the NCAA will pay $303M over three years. As part of the agreement, plaintiffs agreed to release any claims against Division I conferences and member schools for conduct during the Class Period regarding the issues about volunteer coaches raised in the litigation, including claims for unpaid wages and benefits, damages for lost opportunities or restraint of trade.  The Class Period ends on June 30, 2023, the last day the Division I volunteer coach bylaws were in effect. 
 
The DI Board and the Board of Governors and the respective finance committees will discuss financing the multi-year payments, likely through a combination of revenue distribution reductions, net assets, and National office contributions. NCAA revenue distributions to institutions likely will be negatively impacted as soon as May 2026. We will keep you informed as the BOG, DI Board and respective finance committees develop the financial plan for these payments.  
 
The NCAA recently settled a similar class action lawsuit, Smart v. NCAA, brought by volunteer baseball coaches for $49M. To finance that settlement, the NCAA national office found savings and increased revenue to avoid reducing distributions.  The Ray class action was filed by coaches who served as volunteer coaches in sports other than baseball from March 2019 to July 2023. As recently as 2019, the DI board of directors debated but took no action to change volunteer coach bylaws. 
 

 

   DIVISION I BOARD OF DIRECTORS STATEMENT ON ELIGIBILITY   

Division I eligibility requirements promote collegiate athletics and advance the fundamental purposes of the schools the student-athletes attend. The eligibility requirements also allow the NCAA member schools to provide opportunities for hundreds of thousands of student-athletes to launch their adult lives, making way for new prospective student-athletes to begin their collegiate experience every year, as they have done for almost 120 years. 
 
While the rules provide opportunities for institutions to seek limited waivers of these rules in extraordinary circumstances, these waiver requests need to be filed in good faith for the system to work as intended. 
 
The eligibility rules are applied fairly and consistently, a commitment that must continue. That is why the NCAA and its member institutions expressly reaffirmed their commitment to eligibility rules in the House settlement, incorporated core tenets of the rules in the settlement and its release provisions, and reflected those same principles in the rules implementing the settlement. 
 
Consistent application of the rules is essential for the effective planning and administration of programs across all institutions and conferences.  The rules also provide clear notice to the future, younger athletes who hope to be recruited by Division I institutions about when they will have their opportunity to compete. 
 
The trend of more than 70 student-athletes rushing to the courthouse to seek injunctive relief against eligibility rules is troubling as it concerns stability and predictability for member institutions and future student-athletes.  Although the NCAA has prevailed in many of these cases in which preliminary injunctions against the NCAA’s eligibility rules were denied, any Court-ordered exceptions outside our bylaws create uncertainty and undermine the Association’s mission. 
 
Coaches and other athletics department officials who encourage these lawsuits, and even support them on the premise that it is to benefit only one student-athlete, are undermining the very rules their schools have voted to approve and abide by, and are depriving future student-athletes of meaningful opportunities to compete. 
 
The Division I Board will explore fair ways to hold accountable institutions electing to not follow the rules that they have supported. 

 

   MEDIA REPORTS FOCUSED ON NCAA AND LEGAL MATTERS   

  • Remote Control: How The Big West Is Forging Ahead… Remotely (LINK) 
  • U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken has overruled objections from 2025-26 House settlement class members to the settlement’s injunctive relief portion. Wilken writes the objections, which largely centered around Title IX, were already addressed and left open the door for future Title IX litigation on revenue sharing. Sportico’s Michael McCann adds: “Wilken wrote she can't edit a settlement—it's a contract between parties—and to the extent Title IX claims are pursued, they should be brought against individual schools, including those that share most of the revenue with male athletes. I expect we'll see many Title IX lawsuits on that front. Keep in mind, this ruling is only at the district court (trial) level. Over the next year or so, the Ninth Circuit will review these and other arguments as the settlement is challenged at the appellate level.” Full opinion text. (link, link)  
  • President Donald Trump wants “very powerful caps” to limit college athlete salaries so that universities won’t “go out of business.” In an interview on The Pat McAfee Show, Trump also explained that he fears “lesser” sports also are being discontinued because of revenue sharing. “It is a very serious problem because even football, when they give quarterbacks $12M, $13M, $14M — I read a couple of them — and all of a sudden you’re going to see it’s going to be out of control, and even rich colleges are going to go bust. … (link) 
  • University of California CIO Jagdeep Singh Bachher this week confirmed that “we just made an offer to buy 10% of the Big Ten. … I hope it goes through by…the 21st of November.” Baccher, who made the comments at a conference in Toronto, declined to elaborate on the UC Investments bid following his remarks, but told the audience: “I think the future for our young generation is the one thing that glues people to technology and content: sports. … That creates a whole unique set of opportunities: eSports, media, entertainment, tech. I actually call it cultural capital, not even venture capital or private equity. There’s an incredible opportunity set there. So that’s where I’ve been just immersed in that whole area. It’s been a lot of fun.” (link) 
  • The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) has called a meeting of Big Ten trustees and regents on Friday to discuss the league’s capital proposal, per Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger, who notes: “ACTA is recommending Big Ten presidents abstain from a vote until their boards fully review the capital deal.” (link) 
  • An anonymous Big Ten school official weighs in on the perceived lack of transparency regarding the league's $2.4B financial arrangement, remarking: “There's a piece of this that is just ridiculous. So whatever anybody thinks about the deal, the idea that there hasn't been transparency is laughable. There have been hundreds of hours. This has been an item on a weekly AD agenda for over a year. There have been meetings with presidents, individual meetings with institutions, with agreement to come and make multiple presentations. And those have happened at institutions where they've been requested for more detail and information, and that level of engagement directly with ADs and presidents and boards depending on what institution needed what. This commentary that this is a last-minute deal that hasn't had any discussion behind it is just completely a farce. My level of frustration is about these other things that have an impact on where the Big Ten and where [Commissioner] Tony [Petitti], frankly, positions himself, and I think are harmful, and they're not accurate, and nobody's talking about that piece. I honestly cannot recall a time in which we have been together via zoom or in person, certainly, where this hasn't been a topic of discussion.” (link)  
  • Conference USA Commissioner Judy MacLeod joined the league’s C-USA Insider podcast. With the hoops season getting underway, MacLeod believes the league’s men’s and women’s teams have “incredible depth” and multi-bid NCAA Tournament potential, underscoring the importance of strong nonconference opportunities like Liberty’s Field of 68 title and Western Kentucky’s Battle 4 Atlantis berth. Speaking more broadly, MacLeod credited league members with making the necessary investments to remain competitive: “We decided we’re not going to put rules in from the get-go. We’re going to take a moment, see if we can evaluate the landscape, and then see where we fit. So we actually hired an outside consultant to help us understand the landscape and where everyone sat and what people were spending, to be really honest. Then we went through the process with our ADs and our board, and our board sat in a room, president to president, and decided to commit to some standards in this league. I think that’s really important and it’s going to guide us for the next three years.” (link) 
  • The NCAA Board of Directors sent a memo to member schools Thursday regarding eligibility standards. From the memo: “While the rules provide opportunities for institutions to seek limited waivers of these [eligibility] rules in extraordinary circumstances, these waiver requests need to be filed in good faith for the system to work as intended. The eligibility rules are applied fairly and consistently, a commitment that must continue. … The trend of more than 70 student-athletes rushing to the courthouse to seek injunctive relief against eligibility rules is troubling as it concerns stability and predictability for member institutions and future student-athletes. … Coaches and other athletics department officials who encourage these lawsuits, and even support them on the premise that it is to benefit only one student-athlete, are undermining the very rules their schools have voted to approve and abide by, and are depriving future student-athletes of meaningful opportunities to compete. The Division I Board will explore fair ways to hold accountable institutions electing to not follow the rules that they have supported.” More. (link)   
 

   QUOTE OF THE DAY   

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” – credited to Dolly Parton 

  

Rainy days should be spent at a Big West Championship with good friends and great competition.  I had a great time watching UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara compete for The Big West Men’s Soccer Championship title Friday. We have two more championships over the next two weeks, with men’s water polo taking place this week at UC Irvine and The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2025 Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship starting next Wednesday (Thanksgiving Eve) at Long Beach State.  Please join us in supporting our Big West student-athletes! 

Stay warm. Stay dry. Take care of those that take care of our student-athletes.  

  

Have a great week! 
Dan