MEDIA REPORTS ON NCAA AND LEGAL MATTERS   

• The NCAA won a road game Monday. An Alabama judge denied University of Alabama basketball player Charles Bediako's petition for an injunction that likely would have allowed Bediako to play the rest of the season despite Bediako signing multiple NBA contracts and having played in the NBA's G League.  By denying the injunction, Judge Daniel Pruet probably gave similarly situated players – in multiple sports – second thoughts about trying to mount a legal challenge to try to come back to college after going pro. (LINK) 
• Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger reports a coalition of 10 non-FBS conferences sent a letter to Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) today “in continued support that student-athletes should not be considered employees.” They warn that “without this protection, our members will face financial pressures leading to the real possibility of participation opportunities and athletic programs being lost, most likely impacting Olympic and women's sports. Addressing employment status, along with reasonable, precise liability protection that allows college sports to create and enforce rules tethered to an academic framework and timeline are the most critical components to stabilize and strengthen college sports. Letting legal outcomes dictate the enforcement of athletic and academic eligibility rules is very damaging to the ecosystem, while negatively impacting opportunities for matriculating high school graduates. … Ultimately, it is our collective responsibility to preserve the uniquely American institution of college athletics. A system committed to maximizing opportunity and benefits for hundreds of thousands of young men and women to access a college education, while creating future societal leaders, must be protected. Our coalition stands ready to work with you in finding a bipartisan path forward.” Full letter. (link) 

• ScienceLine’s Avril Silva examines the worsening shortage of athletic trainers in the collegiate and secondary school ranks, noting that practitioners are being driven away by low pay, high burnout, and a lack of respect. Here’s what you need to know.. 

  • Despite requiring a master's degree and facing an average student loan debt of $62K, university athletic trainers earn an average salary of $58,820—nearly $38K less than occupational therapists with similar qualifications. A 2024 report found that in 15 states, average pay for ATs was below the livable wage, contributing to a retention crisis where early-career professionals are leaving the field in droves.  

  • With the Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting only 3,800 new qualified trainers to meet a demand of 24K new jobs over the next decade, experts like Old Dominion Associate Professor Julie Cavallario warn that the funding model—often tied to university hospitals or faculty lines rather than athletic departments—needs a fundamental overhaul.  

  • Former Gettysburg (DIII) trainer Lauren Fry is skeptical such an overhaul is in the works, positing: "Until more catastrophic injuries and, unfortunately, deaths happen, that’s when people are going to start waking up and saying, ‘okay, we need athletic trainers.’ … Until our athletic trainers stop accepting those types of jobs and start demanding more and less hours or more support help, I think that we’ll continuously see the downfalls of this career path." (link) 

• UCLA finished FY25 $21.6M in the red, thanks in part to the first installment of the annual $10M “Calimony payments,” sent directly to Cal. The Bruins received $30M in institutional support and the Big Ten’s media rights agreement distribution of $61.3M was “approximately three times the cash UCLA received in the final year of its Pac-12 existence,” per The Mercury News’ Jon Wilner. Reported expenses ($173.4M) were slightly higher than a year ago ($170.9M) but revenues jumped nearly $30M to $151.8M. Travel costs increased by $5M to $14.5M, spending on “support personnel” jumped by $4.3M, football ticket revenue jumped $2M to $10.4M but men’s basketball ticket revenue dipped to $6.7M, and the Bruins recorded $12.5M in facilities and administrative expenses, compared to $30.5M the year before. More from Wilner. (link) 
• Front Office Sports’ Ellyn Briggs explores the rapid professionalization of collegiate creative media teams, which have evolved into "full-blown production studios" to drive recruiting, sponsorship, and donor engagement in the NIL era. The strategy is paying dividends at the Group of 5 level as well: Tulsa’s viral "Portal House" social campaign generated 2.5M impressions in a single day and helped secure 22 transfer commitments, while FIU quadrupled its creative staff to achieve a top-10 national growth rate on Instagram. (link) 
• Saint Joseph’s AD Jill Bodensteiner, this time on what the A-10 can do to gain more NCAA Tournament bids: “We're right in that sweet spot where we're a tough ask for Power 4s to take because we're really good. We have some really good teams that could knock off Power 4 and they want decent NET games, but not the ones that can beat you. And so it's really a conundrum. I think, obviously, we've tried a lot of different things, but we need to keep trying because we need more teams in the top. (link)  

• Extra Points’ Matt Brown caught up with Charleston Southern AD Jeff Barber seeking to gain insight into the “why” behind CSU’s decision to add women’s flag football and its plans for piecing together a conference schedule with participating teams currently spread out all over the country. Here’s what you need to know… 

  • One of the reasons flag football specifically stood out was cost. Brown: “You don’t need a 50K-seat mega-stadium to house a flag football team ... or at least, not yet. The playing surface is a little smaller than a conventional tackle football field (40 by 80 yards), and many institutions already have several of those turf fields handy on campus. … You also don’t need to purchase truckloads of specialized, expensive equipment, like you might for starting a hockey or lacrosse program. Flags, cones and cleats aren’t especially expensive, which means schools really only need to be on the hook for scholarships, support, travel and coaches.”  

  • As to who they’re gonna play, Barber isn’t too worried about not having enough teams available, although he declined to mention any other possible “expansion candidates” for future flag football programs. Brown: “The sport does have one major scheduling advantage over tackle football. … Unlike tackle programs, flag football teams can (and often do) play multiple games in a day, or at least over the course of a weekend. It’s entirely possible for multiple schools to travel to one location and set up some sort of multi-team event (MTE) to get multiple games. That way, schools don’t need to automatically budget for a dozen road trips a season.” (link)  

•  SBJ's Abe Madkour reflects on the angst permeating college athletics following NACDA's Mid-Winter Meetings and writes: “One president from a Big 12 school with whom I spoke recently said he spends nearly 90% of his time on sports, far more than he was prepared for or thought he would. The reason is that athletics is such a high-profile, visible tool for his institution’s success and growth. (link) 
• The Big 12 has issued Oklahoma State a $50K fine “following its investigation into inappropriate chants which referenced the Mormon religion that occurred during Wednesday’s men’s basketball game. The Big 12 Conference will not tolerate any behavior that targets or demeans others.” (link)  
• The DI Cabinet approved a formal timeline to review existing legislation for potential decentralization and deregulation, following directives from the DI Decision-Making Working Group. The Cabinet will evaluate a recent legislative audit to determine which rules must be maintained as national standards and which can be deregulated or decentralized, referring specific areas to appropriate subject-matter committees like the Academics and Eligibility Committee. Despite this comprehensive review process, the Cabinet confirmed that sport oversight committees will retain the ability to advance time-sensitive or critical legislative changes independent of the broader decentralization timeline. (link) 

   QUOTES OF THE DAY   

“For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.”  Credited to Harry F. Banks 

“The road to success is always under construction.”  Credited to Lily Tomlin 

 

   LET’S CLOSE IT OUT   

As always, thank you to our schools for their continued leadership on behalf of our student-athletes and campuses. 

After reading this week’s national coverage on the growing shortage of athletic trainers, I’m reminded just how essential these professionals are to everything we do — from injury prevention and mental health support to day-to-day care that often goes unseen. Their work is demanding, their hours are long, and their impact on student-athlete well-being is immeasurable. 

Please take a moment this week to thank the athletic trainers and sports medicine staffs on each of our games. They are foundational to the success of our programs and the health of the young people we serve. 

Wishing you all a great week ahead — and thank you for everything you do to support Big West student-athletes. 

Dan