The Bold Type

The Bold Type, with Commissioner Dan Butterly - Nov. 9, 2026

Good morning! 

  

Over the past week, we have tipped off men’s and women’s basketball seasons, opened our soccer championships on Wednesday and had a four-match semifinal day on Saturday, seen singles and doubles competition in fall tennis nationals qualifying events, had two teams punch their tickets to the 2026 Big West Women's Volleyball Championship and crowned co-champion in the pool in advance of the 2026 Big West Men's Water Polo Championship. It’s hard to believe we’re already wrapping up fall sports and getting winter competition underway. 

Following Tuesday’s elections, there is considerable speculation about whether the House will take up the Protect College Sports Act before the end of this Congress. This week, I’ll speak with our lobbyist and meet with members of the House to hear their perspectives on the bill’s prospects. 

There’s plenty still to sort out in college athletics. We’ll keep gathering information, working through each decision as it comes and, as I often say, “Keep Moving Forward.” 

This week’s music comes from David Pearson, California Baptist University’s faculty athletics representative and Dean of the College of Health Science. As David pointed out, there are plenty of “Good Times Bad Times” in the life of an athletics administrator. Thank you for sharing your musical talents with us, David!  

  

Let’s get to The Bold Type.  

  


 

   THE BIG WEST – IN CASE YOU MISSED IT   

Chloe Clark talks championships, taking us through the soccer brackets and how the volleyball standings are shaping up with our first to teams locked into spots for The Big West postseason. 


 

   CONGRATULATIONS!  




   THE WOMEN'S SOCCER FINAL IS SET AS TOP TWO SEEDS CLASH ON SATURDAY   

Championship Central >>> 

No. 1 seed Utah Valley and second-seeded UC San Diego will kick off on Saturday, Nov. 14 at 5 p.m. MT/4 p.m. PT from Orem, Utah to crown a first-time winner of The Big West women's soccer championship.  

The Wolverines defeated No. 5 Cal Poly while the Tritons took down the Titans in Saturday's semifinal. In Wednesday's first round matchups, The Mustangs advanced after a game-winning goal with four seconds remaining in double overtime at No. 4 seed California Baptist while Cal State Fullerton got through sixth seeded CSUN 1-0.  



 

   UC SANTA BARBARA HOSTS CAL STATE BAKERSFIELD FOR MEN'S SOCCER TITLE   

Championship Central >>> 

No. 2 seed UC Santa Barbara needed penalty kicks to advance to their 11th Big West Championship match, playing No. 2 seed UC Irvine to a scoreless draw on the road before the 4-2 PK decision on Saturday night on the road. The Roadrunners also found success away from home, upsetting top-seeded Utah Valley in Orem, Utah 1-0 to earn the right to compete for their first Big West men's soccer trophy.  

The 2026 Big West Men's Soccer Championship finale is set for a 7 o'clock kick on Friday, Nov. 13 from Harder Stadium in Santa Barbara, Calif. 





   "JOURNEY OUT WEST" WITH DAN TORTORA   

Friday's guest on “Journey Out West” was UC Riverside Director of Athletics Greg Paules.  This Friday, Nov. 13, the guest will be UC Irvine Director of Athletics Paula Smith! 

 Wake Up Call starts at 6 a.m. PT daily, with Journey Out West each Friday beginning at 7:15 a.m. PT. You can listen live at MIXLR Internet Radio | YouTube | Facebook 




 

   SPEAKING OF "JOURNEY OUT WEST"   

Dan Tortora will take advantage of all of the great content that was produced at The Big West Council meetings by broadcasting interviews with Big West athletics directors and conference staff Nov. 9–13. 

His "Signing Day" video with me kicked things off yesterday and fresh content will come out all week long along with Friday morning's usual segment. Here's this week's schedule: 

  

Monday, Nov. 9 

Noon – Jared Sumsion, Utah Valley & Micah Parker, California Baptist 

1 p.m. - Cheryl Wong, Big West Associate Commissioner for Championships and Sport Administration 

  

Tuesday, Nov. 10 

Noon – Paula Smith, UC Irvine & Greg Paules, UC Riverside 

1 p.m. - Kevin Rorke, Big West Chief Financial Officer 

  

Wednesday, Nov. 11 

Noon – Shondell Reed, Cal State Fullerton & Ryan Swartwood, CSUN 

1 p.m. – Jessica Lantz, Big West Chief Communications Officer 

  

Thursday, Nov. 12 

Noon – Andy Fiske, Cal State Bakersfield & Mark Orr, Sacramento State 

1 p.m. - Tom Davis, Big West Chief Marketing Officer 

  

Friday, Nov. 13 

Noon  – Bobby Smitheran, Long Beach State 

1 p.m.  - Dan Butterly, Big West Commissioner 

  

You can listen live at MIXLR Internet Radio | YouTube | Facebook 



 

   THE BIG WEST CHAMPIONSHIP HEADS TO ONT FIELD IN 2027   

Read more >>> |

The Big West Baseball Championship will take flight in 2027, landing at ONT Field in Ontario, Calif., May 26-30. The five-team event moves to the Inland Empire after two seasons at campus sites and will be contested at a professional baseball venue for the first time since the championship returned in 2025 following a 27-year hiatus.  

ONT Field, home of the Ontario Tower Buzzers, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Single-A affiliate in the California League, hosted its first professional baseball game on April 2, 2026. The new 6,000-seat ballpark was named BaseballParks.com’s 2026 Ballpark of the Year. 




 

   HELP THE BIG WEST CELEBRATE NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH  

With November here, we are excited to celebrate Native American Heritage Month and highlight the stories of student-athletes, coaches, staff and alumni across The Big West! 

If you are interested in sharing your story about your Native American heritage, family traditions, and how their culture connects to their experience in sport, please head to BigWest.org/NAHM to participate. If you have any questions or to participate in a different forum, please reach out via email here.  

  
 

   NCAA CABINET MEETING UPDATE FROM NOVEMBER 5TH MEETING    

Interim Policy Related to The Use of Commercial Trademarks and Logos in Fall 2026 NCAA Championships Competition. The NCAA Division I Cabinet discussed an interim policy related to the use of trademarks or logos on student-athletes’ uniforms and apparel during the Fall 2026 NCAA championships. The NCAA Division I Cabinet Subcommittee will discuss next steps during its November 11 meeting. 

  

NCAA Division I Proposal Nos. 2026-57 and 2026-59 – Football – Out-of-Season Activities and Preseason Practice Period. The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision Oversight Committee and Football Championship Subdivision Oversight Committee previously adopted (subject to cabinet review), and the cabinet took no action on Proposal Nos. 2026-57 and 2026-59, respectively, which are now considered adopted and final. The proposals modify football out-of-season activities and preseason practice period legislation. The proposals are effective January 1, 2027. 

  

Update on Rescission Period for Proposal No. 2026-27 – Playing and Practice Seasons – Men’s Soccer – Redistribution of Men’s Soccer Playing Season Model. The cabinet received an update on the rescission period for Proposal No. 2026-27, which closes on Friday, November 6 at 5 p.m. Eastern time. The cabinet will discuss whether to consider emergency action to modify the effective date of the men’s soccer playing season model to August 1, 2028, at a future meeting, if the proposal is not rescinded. 

  

Update on Proposal No. 2026-68 – Athletics Eligibility – Postseason and Regular Season Competition – Initial Enrollment at Midyear and Roster Lock Concept. The cabinet received an update on the House defendant conferences’ discussions on the roster lock concept and discussed potential implications related to Proposal No. 2026-68. The defendant conferences will continue discussing the roster lock concept and whether to recommend legislation through the settlement related legislative process. It was noted that Proposal No. 2026-68 may be amended to apply only to basketball. Pending potential action by the defendant conferences on the roster lock concept, the cabinet will consider Proposal No. 2026-68 in January. 


 




  
   MEDIA REPORTS ON THE BIG WEST, NCAA,  LEGAL AND LEGISLATIVE MATTERS   

  • Democrats won back control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in Tuesday’s midterm elections, securing an estimated 255 seats in the House, well beyond the 218 needed to become the majority party, according to NBC’s Scott Wong. (link); As for what it means for college sports, former Fox Sports President Bob Thompson offers one perspective: “[The Protect College Sports Act] had House issues before today. Those issues just got a whole lot worse today.” (link); Also of note, former Texas Tech/Auburn/Ole Miss Football HC Tommy Tuberville was elected as the new Governor of Alabama. (link) 
  • Maryland men’s soccer coach Sasho Cirovski spent 13 years fighting to revolutionize college soccer. Now, less than a month after achieving his goal, he is fighting to keep it alive.  The opposition is gaining momentum. As of Monday afternoon, 186 Division I schools had submitted requests to rescind the proposal, according to Drake athletic director Brian Hardin and Big West commissioner Dan Butterly, both vocal opponents of the change. (LINK) 
  • More from GOAL’s Tom Hindle on the coalition of Division I institutions that is expected to meet the 241-vote threshold required to overturn the recently approved two-semester men's college soccer model before Friday's deadline… 
    • Because voting rules allow schools without men's soccer programs to participate in the rescission period, over 80 non-sponsoring institutions joined the opposition, citing potential workload strains on sports information directors and fears of setting a precedent for other sports. 
    • Hindle also points out that he was told “a crucial surprise ‘no’ vote from an ACC Athletic Director in an October meeting, without the knowledge of his MSOC head coach, dragged out the process. The committee was shocked. Had that AD voted ‘yes,’ the proposal would have been automatically implemented.” (link) 
    • Sports Illustrated’s Bryan Fischer reports that no vote “came from Pitt's Allen Greene. Big 12 also entirely abstained from voting for the proposal, causing it to come up short in the first DI Cabinet vote and entering the rescission process.” (link) 
  • The NCAA joined the Bad Actor Program to combat a surge in online abuse directed at college athletes by sports bettors, and Sportico's Michael McCann explains the initiative—established by IC360 and Signify Group—monitors threatening social media behavior and shares investigative data with sportsbooks like Fanatics to ban offending users. The harassment faced by student-athletes intersects with broader campus trends, as a 2023 commissioned study found 67% of on-campus college students engaged in sports betting. President Charlie Baker affirmed the association's intent to utilize the new monitoring partnership to curb the escalating digital hostility: “We are committed to working with stakeholders across the sports betting ecosystem to eradicate this horrific behavior that plagues sports far too often.” (link) 
  • House settlement plaintiffs’ attorneys are petitioning a federal court to approve $18.6M in fees and expenses after logging more than 3,430 hours monitoring and enforcing the settlement during its first year, per Sportico’s Daniel Libit. The request filed by Hagens Berman and Winston Taylor asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins to award them $3.81M for “monitoring and enforcement” work, $14.82M in incentive fees tied to the student-athlete revenue-sharing pool and just over $200K in related out-of-pocket expenses. Under the settlement, attorneys Jeffrey Kessler and Steve Berman may seek annual payments of up to 1.25% of the amount of money schools spend on athlete revenue-sharing. “In their latest petition, however, the attorneys are ultimately seeking a lower rate of 0.75%. Kessler and Berman also noted they are not seeking compensation for nearly $2.73M in additional billable work they performed over the past year. That work included addressing pending appeals of the final settlement approval and ‘responding to an enormous volume of inquiries’ from class members regarding sale of their claims to third-party claims purchasers.” All funds, including backpay damages to class members, remain in escrow until the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejects challenges to the settlement. (link) 
  • The College Sports Commission has published aggregated and anonymized student-athlete compensation figures from the College Athlete Payment System (CAPS), which records rev-share payments from schools to student-athletes, and the NIL Go clearinghouse. During the first year of revenue sharing under the House settlement through June 30, 2026, the CSC recorded $1.77B in direct school-to-athlete payments in CAPS, while 46,478 NIL deals were cleared in NIL Go with an aggregate value of $582.49M through August 31, 2026. CSC CEO Bryan Seeley: “This is the first time compensation data of this kind has been published for college sports. The CSC is making this aggregated, anonymized information available to student-athletes, schools, and the public to help people make better informed decisions while preserving the confidentiality of individual agreements.” The report covers different ranges varying by sport and breaks down percentile-level institutional and non-institutional distributions across football position groups, men’s and women’s basketball and other varsity sports within the A4 leagues and for non-A4 institutions. Full NIL Go payment and school rev share compensation reports. (link, link)  
  • Democrats capturing House and Senate majorities during Tuesday's midterm elections have reduced the odds the Protect College Sports Act passes during the lame-duck Congressional session to between 5% and 10%, according to Colorado State FAR/Sacred Cow BBQ publisher Kyle Saunders. More… 
    • Projections showing House Democrats securing at least 258 seats leave incoming leadership with minimal incentive to advance the Senate-passed bill or accept a compromise before January, when incoming committee chairs such as Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), who previously labeled the 2025 SCORE Act “nothing more than a major giveaway” to the NCAA and the conferences, take control of markups.  
    • Outgoing House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) faces internal math challenges given a 218-member majority, compounded by at least 21 House Republicans who formally requested alterations to the bill's 20-member conference cap and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise's (R-LA) push to add an explicit ban on classifying student-athletes as employees. Amending the text would force a return to the Senate, where staff warned the legislation was “a final product” and threatened counter-amendments capping coach, AD and president salaries if conference realignment restrictions were altered.  
    • More Saunders: "When Congress can’t act collectively, the people who need rules tend to write their own, and the courts write the rest. ... So if the bill dies on January 3, college sports absolutely still gets governed in 2027. Conference commissioners, a settlement judge, state courts and a few governors will do it, one rule and one injunction at a time, and the next Congress starts over with House committees led by people who called the last version 'a giveaway.'" (link) 
  • More takeaways following Tuesday’s election results… 
    • Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has told staff he won’t run for House GOP leader, per Colorado State FAR/Sacred Cow BBQ publisher Kyle Saunders, who notes “the Speaker who’d have to whip the college sports bill in the lame duck has no leadership future to whip for. And its House sponsor, Michael Baumgartner (R-WA), is in a race too close to call.” (link) 
    • Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman observes it’s “going to be REALLY hard for House Republican leadership to get people back to Washington for the lame duck.” (link)
  • Writing for On3, Ross Dellenger dives into how the Democrats flipping both Congressional chambers impacts the potential passage of the Protect College Sports Act, with New York Yankees President/College Sports Council Vice Chair Randy Levine stating: “The answer is nobody really knows. This was always a bipartisan bill.” More… 
    • With Republicans clinging to a four-seat House majority for the next two months and more than 25 ousted GOP incumbents set to be relocated to makeshift basement cubicles, Capitol Hill aides warn absent lawmakers could sink floor votes across the remaining 20 scheduled working days. Texas Tech Board of Regents Chair Cody Campbell: “The challenge is that a lot of these guys who got booted may not show up to work.” An anonymous House staffer adds: “There’s just no incentive to pass the bill unless Trump can get (House Speaker) Mike Johnson to put it on the floor and have the entire Republican caucus show up as they are getting evicted.” 
    • The legislation also faces internal resistance from more than 20 lawmakers opposed to conference realignment restrictions urged by ACC programs such as Florida State and Miami (FL), while incoming Democratic majorities and presumptive Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) leave House Democrats with little reason to advance the Senate-passed measure before January. An anonymous senior Democratic House aide: "If you want a quote, here it is: the NIL bill is dead on f****** arrival. They’ve only got to get four Republicans. It’s just a different environment. The Republicans need us now and they want the bill more than we do." 
    • Another source suggested to Dellenger that Democrats might want college sports legislation off their proverbial plates before a new Congress arrives, which could pave the way for an attempt to overturn President Trump’s policies around healthcare and tariffs. Campbell adds: “(The election results) make it clear that something has to be done in this lame duck session, so people will finally feel the urgency to stop screwing around and playing games.” (link) 




 

   QUOTE OF THE DAY   

"Whatever we accomplish is due to the combined effort" - Walt Disney 

We have a full week ahead, with Big West Men’s and Women’s Soccer Championship matches this Friday and Saturday, basketball across the conference, the final weekend of the men’s water polo regular season, the home stretch of women's volleyball and NCAA Cross Country Regional competition on tap.  

This is always an exciting time for our student-athletes, coaches staff and administrators across the conference.  I want to thank The Big West staff for their tremendous work during this hectic month of November. You keep the focus on our student-athletes and their experience, and it is a true honor to be a part of this outstanding team.   

  

Thank you, and have a great week.  

Dan