Good morning!
On Saturday night, we crowned our final champions of the fall at The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2025 Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid on the campus of Long Beach State. Congratulations to Cal Poly for winning The Big West women’s volleyball titleand the automatic qualfication into the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship. A big thank you to The Big West and Long Beach State’s staff and volunteers for hosting the championship over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Best of luck to the Mustangs as the take on No. 5 seed BYU on Thursday at 5 p.m. from the Galen Center in Los Angeles. Read more >>>
I am hopeful that many of you enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends. The time between Thanksgiving and the end of the year is a special time to spend with family and friends, create memories, and prepare for the gift giving season. As you get older, I have learned you look less for material things and more for creating memories. As you prepare for Cyber Monday or shopping in the weeks ahead, consider adding experiences to your gift giving this season, whether that is taking your family to Disneyland, or sharing experiences with our student-athletes during the regular season and Big West Championships. The more fans that are in the stands, the better the experience for our student-athletes, while also creating fun memories with your family and friends. Upcoming Big West Championships can be found via our website here.
For our student-athletes winning Fall Big West Championships, and to those of you that will celebrate future championships with us, the song of the day is "Celebration" by Kool & The Gang.
This week, The Big West will host our Fall meetings, inclusive of our Faculty Athletics Representatives, Senior Woman Administrators, Directors of Athletics and Board of Directors (Chancellors and Presidents). There is a lot on each meeting agenda as we look toward a bigger, bolder Big West. We look forward to the discussions, decisions and spending time with each other.
Let’s get to The Bold Type!
CONGRATULATIONS
- To the 2025 Big West Cross Country Award winners! Read more >>>
- To the 2025 All-Big West Men’s Water Polo award winners, with student-athletes from all six institutions earning distinction. Read more >>>
- To the fifty-one Big West student-athletes representing eight member-institutions who were honored as members of the College Sports Communicators (CSC) 2025 Academic All-District® Men’s and Women's Soccer Teams! Read more >>>
- To Big West Champion UC Davis men’s water polo, who will play No. 3 seed and host Stanford in the First Round of NC Water Polo Championship on Friday, Dec. 5, at 6 p.m. at Avery Aquatic Center. Read more >>>
- To the student-athletes and head coach who were featured on the 2025 All-Big West women’s volleyball awards listings! Read more >>>
- To the UC San Diego men’s basketball program who won the ESPN Invitational with wins over Temple, Bradley and Towson three straight days! Read more >>> UC San Diego men’s basketball has now won 22 straight non-NCAA Tournament games.
- To UC Santa Barbara men’s basketball who claimed the title at the 2025 Resorts World Las Vegas Classic on Saturday after wins over Lehigh and Seattle U! Read more >>>
- To our amazing Players of the Week!
THE BOLD BREAK BY CHLOE CLARK: LONG BEACH STATE'S LOGAN KING
From Newmarket, Ontario, to Long Beach, California, Logan King’s journey has been one of cultural adaptation and athletic development.
Off the court, King has navigated new foods, social norms, and the pace of life in Southern California. On the court, the redshirt freshman has adjusted to a faster, more intense playing style and a heightened athletic standard, making a mark in The Big West in a first collegiate season. Read more >>>
LET BIG WEST BASKETBALL CONFERENCE PLAY BEGIN!
This Thursday beings conference play for Big West women’s and men’s basketball – what we officially call "Bold Week". Please join us in-person or watch on ESPN+ as the race to the Credit Union 1 Big West Basketball Championships begins.
Our first Spectrum SportsNet game of the year is this Saturday, Dec. 6, featuring Long Beach State at defending champion UC San Diego women's basketball at 1 p.m. PT.
THE SCORE ACT TO BE VOTED UPON
The House of Representatives announced last Wednesday it plans to hold a floor vote on The SCORE Act (H.R. 4312), possibly as soon as December 3, 2025.
If you click the link within this message, you can see the summarized sections of the SCORE Act. Noteworthy are changes that have been rumored and negotiated, including the student-athlete representation being a ‘minimum of 20%’ (silent on other percentages for groups) and the minimum sport sponsorship provision factoring in those with 14 or 15 sponsored sports.
This bipartisan bill is also overwhelmingly supported by the NCAA membership, including school and student-athlete leaders across all three divisions and subdivisions, because it effectively tackles our three priorities: ensuring student-athletes are not employees of schools, preempting patchwork of state laws, providing liability protection – priorities student-athlete leaders from all three divisions are advocating for. Check out the most recent section by section of the bill.
The bill also establishes student-athletes' rights to healthcare, scholarship protections, NIL monetization and safety standards – all in line with current NCAA policies.
MEDIA REPORTS FOCUSED ON NCAA AND LEGAL MATTERS
- Triple Crown Sports announced the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC) won’t be held in 2025. (link)
- The Men's and Women's Basketball Oversight Committees have proposed that the notification-of-transfer windows open for 15 days starting after the conclusion of the 2026 Men's and Women's Final Fours. Under the proposals, which need DI Cabinet approval and would go into effect in April 2026, the DI women's basketball notification-of-transfer window would open April 6-20, while the men's would open April 7-21. (link)
- Texas attorney general Ken Paxton has dispatched a three-page letter to the seven power conference schools within the Lone Star State urging them not to sign the College Sports Commission’s participation agreement – “a document that binds the 68 power league programs together under new enforcement rules, most notably requiring them to waive their right to sue over infractions decisions” and “only enforceable if all members of the Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and ACC sign.” (link, link)
- Former Tennessee Men’s Basketball student-athlete Zakai Zeigler is continuing his lawsuit against the NCAA, attempting to recoup what he says are millions of dollars in NIL payments he would have earned by being permitted to play another season for the Vols instead of overseas, per the Knoxville News Sentinel’s Tyler Whetstone. While the complaint fails to outline the damage amount Zeigler is seeking, his original filing cited analysis from Spyre Sports Group claiming he could have earned up to $4M if eligible for the 2025-26 campaign. Whetstone: “In denying his request, U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Crytzer wrote Zeigler failed to show the Four-Seasons Rule ‘produces substantial anticompetitive effects in the market.’ So Zeigler's legal team scrapped that argument and focused instead on how they say the Four-Seasons Rule violates the Sherman Antitrust Act and a similar state law because it is an unlawful restraint on the market. (link)
- The Third Circuit Court issued a mandate overturning the lower court's preliminary injunction for Rutgers safety Jett Elad. Boise State Asst. Professor Sam Ehrlich: “But in doing so, the court overturned their prior ruling (Smith) that NCAA eligibility rules must be noncommercial and not subject to antitrust. The court's decision overturning the district court's decision was based on the lower court's failure to define the relevant market, holding that courts must consider the changes in market circumstances post-Alston. This is a clear pyrrhic victory for the NCAA. (link, link)
- In the latest House settlement development, former Cal Poly swimming student-athletes Scott Iannaccone and Abigail Leight have filed an appeal to U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken's order overruling objections to the continuation of the Injunctive Relief Settlement. (link)
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” — William Arthur Ward
I hope you all enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday!
Dan