The Bold Type

The Bold Type, with Commissioner Dan Butterly - Feb. 23, 2026

Good morning, everyone — and welcome to another edition of The Bold Type.  

  

It’s one of those weeks that perfectly captures the full scope of what we do: reliving championship moments in the pool, national rankings and Big Wins across multiple sports, an Olympian bobsledder, exciting fan experiences taking shape in Henderson and critical national conversations underway that will shape the future of college athletics. 

From Hawai‘i sweeping the Swimming & Diving Championships, to six men’s volleyball teams ranked nationally, to meaningful momentum in Washington, The Big West continues to move forward with purpose — competitively, strategically, and collaboratively. 

  

There’s a lot here this week. Let’s get to it. 


 

   CONGRATULATIONS   

Another outstanding week across Big West campuses — congratulations to the following programs and student-athletes: 
  • To our three Big Wins over the weekend – Long Beach State softball knocked off No. 4 Oklahoma, Cal State Fullerton softball downed No. 14 Oregon and No. 16 Hawai’i beach volleyball opened the season with a 3-2 win over No. 1 UCLA! 
  • To Olympic bobsledder, Long Beach State track & field record-holder and alumna and Big West relay champion Azaria Hill, who took fifth in the two-woman bobsled as the brakeman for pilot Kaysha Love. Read more >>> 
  • To our women’s swimming and diving award winners highlighted by UC San Diego’s Eva Boehlke and Macie Wheeler of Hawai’i! Read more >>> 
  • To our men’s swimming and diving award winners with Karol Ostrowski of Hawai’i and GCU’s Omar Elsayed headlining the honorees! Read more >>> 
  • To UC Davis women’s basketball student-athlete Megan Norris who made the USBWA/AP National Player of the Week list! Read more >>> 
  • To Sacramento State University for their admission to the Mid-American Conference and their move to FBS football. Read more >>> 
  • To UC Santa Barbara baseball who is ranked No. 25 by Perfect Game, and receiving votes by USA Today and NCBWA! 
  • To Big West baseball programs currently receiving votes in the national polls! UC Irvine by USA Today, NCBWA 
    • Cal State Fullerton by USA Today 
    • Hawai‘i by NCBWA 
    • Cal Poly by NCBWA  
  • To our three men’s tennis teams ranked in the ITA men's team rankings! 
    • No. 20 UC Santa Barbara 
    • No. 55 Cal Poly 
    • No. 65 Hawai‘i 
  • To our two men’s singles tennis players ranked in the ITA men's singles rankings! 
    • No. 34 Dominique Rolland, UC Santa Barbara 
    • No. 107 Lucca Liu, UC Santa Barbara   
  • To our men’s tennis doubles pair ranked in the ITA men's doubles rankings! 
    • No. 84 Miguel Avendano & Lucca Liu, UC Santa Barbara 
  • To our three women’s tennis teams ranked in the ITA womn's team rankings! 
    • No. 31 UC Santa Barbara 
    • No. 51 Hawai’i 
    • No. 52 Long Beach State 
  • To all six men’s volleyball teams ranked in the latest AVCA National Collegiate Men's Volleyball Poll! 
    • No. 2 Long Beach State 
    • No. 3 Hawai’i 
    • No. 4 UC Irvine 
    • No. 10 UC San Diego 
    • No. 14 UC Santa Barbara 
    • No. 17 CSUN  
  • To our six women’s water polo teams ranked in the CWPA Women's Varsity Top 25 Poll! 
    • No. t-5 Hawai’i 
    • No. 10 UC Irvine 
    • No. 11 Long Beach State 
    • No. t-14 UC San Diego 
    • No. 18 UC Davis 
    • No. 23 CSUN
  • And to our amazing Players of the Week! 
    • Baseball - Cade Goldstein, UC Santa Barbara (field player); Jackson Flora, UC Santa Barbara (pitcher)
    • Men's Basketball - Hudson Mayes, UC San Diego 
    • Women's Basketball - Megan Norris, UC Davis 
    • Men's Volleyball - Kainoa Wade, Hawai‘i (offensive); Quintin Greenidge, Hawai‘i (defensive); Tread Rosenthal, Hawai‘i (setter); Andrej Jokanovic, UC Irvine (freshman)
    • Softball - Maalia Cherry, UC San Diego (field player); Isabella Alonso, Long Beach State (pitcher); Nina Sepulveda, Long Beach State (freshman) 
    • Men's Tennis - Timothy Li, Hawai‘i  
    • Women's Tennis - Shachf Liebermann, UC Santa Barbara 
    • Women's Water Polo - Daisy Logtens, Hawai‘i 


 

   BIG WEST SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS ROUNDUP   

Congratulations to our NINE student-athletes who have punched their ticket to the 2026 NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships. After impressive performances in the pool in Houston, where Hawai’i took home both the men’s & women’s team title. Our guaranteed NCAA participants next month are: 

Women 

  • Samantha Banos, UC Santa Barbara – 200 Butterfly, (1:56.44 AQ) 
  • Eva Boehlke, UC San Diego – 200 IM, (1:57.43 AQ) 
  • Chloe Braun, UC San Diego – 100 Breaststroke, (58.95 AQ) 
  • Asia Kozan, UC San Diego – 200 Freestyle, (1:45.52 AQ) 
  • Holly Nelson, Hawai‘i – 50 Freestyle,(22.28 AQ)   

Men 

  • Carter Dooling, GCU – 200 Breaststroke, (1:54.56 AQ) 
  • Karol Ostrowski, Hawai‘i – 50 Freestyle, (19.13 AQ); 100 Freestyle, (42.41 AQ); 100 Backstroke, (46.16 AQ) 
  • Vili Sivec, Cal State Bakersfield – 100 Butterfly, (45.91 AQ); 200 Butterfly (1:42.37 AQ) 
  • Tom Thalau, Hawai‘i – 200 IM, (1:43.93 AQ) 

The Division I Women’s College Swimming & Diving Championships commence March 18-21 at the Georgia Aquatic Center, while the Men’s College Swimming & Diving Championship will take place in the same location from March 25-28. 


 

   BIG WEST GAMES ON LINEAR TELEVISION ON SATURDAY   

  • Spectrum SportsNet | Feb. 28 at 2 p.m. – UC Irvine at UC Santa Barbara women’s basketball 
  • ESPN2 | Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m. – UC Santa Barbara at UC Irvine men’s basketball 

  
 

   STORIES OF OUR STUDENT ATHLETES   

The sun-soaked courts of UC Santa Barbara have become a second home for Raphaelle Leroux, sophomore women’s tennis player from Montréal, Quebec. Learn more on how the pre-med major has found a home far away from home on the Central Coast of California in the latest Bold Break video feature. Read more >>>


 

   THE BIG WEST CELEBRATES BLACK HISTORY MONTH   

Each Sunday during February, The Big West has been celebrating Black History Month as video installments with Chloe Clark and student-athletes hit our social media channels. This week’s video features Ryann Bennett of UC Davis women’s basketball.  See the series >>>   



 

   RED PANDA IS COMING TO THE BIG WEST BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS!   

The Big West Dunk Team and international sensation Red Panda will perform at halftime of the women’s and men’s basketball championship games, respectively. We look forward to having both acts entertain fans and add to the overall atmosphere of these games. If you haven’t seen either act in action, they are not to be missed! These acts are just a part of a host of fan-friendly initiatives including hotel offers, free parking, links to official merchandise and more. Read more >>> 


 

   PRESS RELEASE FROM THE NCAA - LATEST NCAA SETTLEMENT   

The NCAA has finalized the payment structure for the Ray settlement, totaling $303 million to be paid over a three-year period beginning this summer.  
 
To fund the $101 million annual payments across fiscal years 2026-28, $60.6 million (60%) will come from reductions to Division I revenue distributions and $40.4 million (40%) will come from the NCAA national office. The national office’s contributions include a combined $10 million from Divisions II and III.  
 
The overall structure was approved by the NCAA Board of Governors following recommendations from the Division I Finance Committee and the Board of Governors Finance and Audit Committee, as well as actions taken by the Division I Board of Directors, Division II Executive Board and Division III Presidents Council.  
 
The Division I Board of Directors also affirmed there will be no changes to the Division I revenue distribution formula or methodology because of the settlement.  
 
The NCAA reached an agreement to settle the Ray litigation in early November, which concerned the former Division I volunteer coach rule. This is the second volunteer coach case settled by the NCAA, as Smart v. NCAA was settled in fall 2025 and involved Division I volunteer baseball coaches. The NCAA national office fully funded the Smart case settlement of $50 million. The Ray settlement involves Division I volunteer coaches from all other sports that had the rule. (LINK) 

 

   VOLLEYBALL RULES CHANGES   

The NCAA has approved a sweeping set of rules changes for women's volleyball ahead of the 2026 season, highlighted by a new commercial asset that permits programs to place up to two 10-by-10-foot sponsor logos on the playing surface between the attack and end lines. Beyond the new revenue-generating court inventory, the Women's Volleyball Oversight Committee approved several measures designed to improve the pace of play, including limiting team bench swaps to only after the completion of the second set. The structural overhaul also brings the collegiate game closer to international standards by ruling any foot that completely crosses the center line as a challengeable fault, while concurrently approving an experimental rule that will allow the electronic transmission of live video directly to the bench area during conference matchups. Full rundown. (link) 

 

   FEDERAL ADVOCACY UPDATE: PROTECTING OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL DIVISION I INSTITUTIONS   

This week, the Coalition of 10 conferences continued active engagement on Capitol Hill. The discussion reinforced both progress — and the urgency — surrounding federal action impacting college sports. 

  

Key takeaways: 

  • Revenue disparity matters — and it’s finally being heard. 
    Coalition leaders walked through stark financial differences between Autonomy (A4) conferences and the rest of Division I. While CFP-4 schools receive less than 10% of their athletics revenue from institutional support or student fees, that figure rises to over 70% for many basketball-centric and FCS institutions. This context helped underscore why one-size-fits-all policy solutions simply don’t work for conferences like The Big West. 

  • Employment status remains a major concern — even if Washington views it as “future tense.” 
    Senate Democrats expressed hesitation about addressing student-athlete employment protections immediately, framing it as politically complex and potentially premature. Conference leaders pushed back, emphasizing that even minimum baseline employment models could cost institutions $3–4 million annually per campus — before fringe benefits, workers’ compensation, HR compliance, or collective bargaining considerations. For California schools especially, minimum wage laws and labor regulations would dramatically amplify that impact. 

  • Liability protection is now the most urgent issue in Congress. 
    Lawmakers increasingly view eligibility, transfer rules, and related legal exposure as the “house on fire.” There appears to be bipartisan willingness to pursue liability protection and a national NIL framework — areas seen as achievable near-term priorities. 

  • Coalition continues pressing the case for mid-major and non-football conferences. 
    Advocacy efforts remain centered on ensuring lawmakers understand that comparisons between A4 programs and conferences like The Big West are apples to oranges. The group will continue providing real institutional data to demonstrate how employment mandates or unfunded federal requirements could destabilize campuses already heavily supported by student fees and institutional dollars. 

  • NCAA messaging clarified — and corrected. 
    Conference leadership addressed recent NCAA communications that inaccurately suggested opposition from non-A4 conferences to prior federal proposals. That record was set straight, reaffirming that this coalition has consistently engaged constructively while advocating for equitable outcomes across all of Division I. 

Bottom line: 

Momentum is building in Washington, but the path forward remains complex. Liability protection and NIL standardization appear closest to action, while student-athlete employment continues to loom as a potentially transformational — and financially destabilizing — issue for institutions like ours. 

The Big West remains fully engaged, ensuring our voice — and the realities of our campuses — are part of every serious conversation. 

   


   MEDIA REPORTS ON NCAA AND LEGAL MATTERS   

  • Cal State Bakersfield has made a $1.1M investment to install a brand new artificial turf surface at Hardt Field through a combination of philanthropic donations – both by individual and corporate donors – funds raised at the annual Hot Stove Dinner and financial support from the University. The school has partnered with Sprinturf on the project and plans to break ground in May 2026, following the completion of the baseball campaign. (link)   
  • Big West Commissioner Dan Butterly joins the Competitive Kindness podcast to discuss leading through crisis and innovation in a resource-constrained environment. Here are key takeaways… 
    • On his "Moneyball" leadership style: "I'm a leader that is data- and analytics-driven in many ways. ... But you don't lead from a spreadsheet. You really have to lead from relationships. I tell people that want to get in the business, it's pretty much 10% of what you know and 90% it's the way you've treated people." 
    • As for building an aggressive culture: "Aggressive doesn't mean reckless to me. It means intentional and proactive. It's research led, it's informational. ... Innovation comes from giving people permission to try, fail, learn, and then try again. ... I want them to be leaders. I want to reward initiative and not perfection. Perfection is hard to achieve, particularly when you're dealing with the resources that you're competing against." 
    • Thoughts on innovation: "Innovation comes from giving people permission to try, fail, learn, and then try again. ... People won't innovate if they're afraid. They innovate if they're trusted. And I've hired amazing people that I can trust. In fact, that's why the Big West is the first conference ever to go fully remote." (link) 
  • U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) has introduced his National Blueprint for College Athletics, calling it a blueprint of commonsense ideas that can fix college sports and shape the conversation as Congress works on meaningful legislation to address these issues. It consists of four main pillars… 
    • Secure stability – by ending rulemaking by lawsuit; creating a narrow, conditional safe harbor to allow schools and conferences to adopt uniform, athlete-protective rules without the threat of litigation; replacing the current patchwork of conflicting state NIL laws with one federal standard to ensure competitive balance; and allowing conferences to choose their own governing bodies under federal oversight. 
    • Fix the framework – by recognizing college sports must remain a "time-limited educational opportunity" rather than a short-term professional career; restoring roster stability with a national one-time transfer rule; restoring eligibility standards to prevent older, professionalized rosters from displacing high school recruits and undermining development pathways; and aligning coaching transitions with transfer windows to minimize disruption to athletes’ academic and competitive lives. 
    • Protect players and non-revenue sports – by safeguarding nonrevenue sports by ensuring a certain number of varsity sports are maintained by schools; authorizing direct compensation from schools to student-athletes and permitting a governing body to adopt salary caps to ensure long-term financial sustainability; and protecting student-athletes from fraudulent deals and greedy agents. 
    • Put Fans First – by taking a look at the growing financial strain facing college sports; maximizing media rights value; and restoring stability. Full blueprint. (link, link) 
  • During a Q&A with media in Indianapolis, NCAA President Charlie Baker spoke on the challenges of player eligibility: “There’s no issue that's gotten the attention of Congress more than this one,” as well as on the constant battles the NCAA has faced in regard to rosters, NIL regulations and more, observing the association has a much better track record in court than is reflected in the media: “We win a lot more of those cases than we lose.” Here’s what else you need to know… 
    • Baker was non-committal about NCAA Tournament expansion in 2027: “I think there's some very good reasons to expand the tournament, so I would like to see it expand. For now, we're still talking to the various players in this one. You have to remember that some of the folks we're talking to are going through some pretty interesting corporate conversations of their own. And I think for us, we accept and acknowledge that, but we're still talking.” 
    • Regardless of what decision is eventually made on expansion, Baker outlined the event will remain with its 32-team auto-qualifier format, in addition to the at-large bids that fill up the field, believing the 36 at-large cutoff is too small for the number of teams that should get a crack on the biggest stage in the sport. Baker: “The more you do to create opportunities for the so-called bubble teams each year to get into the tournament, first of all, it puts some other really good teams that probably might belong there. But it also protects the AQs, right? Because I don't want to end up in a situation where people say we need to do something about the AQs because we're keeping too many good teams out of the tournament.” 
    • Senior VP of Basketball Dan Gavitt says expansion discussions for 2027 and beyond are on hold, per CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander, who adds: “this means we will not get ANY news about NCAA Tournament expansion before mid-April. Expansion could still happen in 2027, but it's no guarantee at this stage.” (link, link, link) 
  • Sacramento State President Luke Wood sits down with Front Office Sports to dissect the Hornets’ jump to FBS and the MAC. Here are his most notable takeaways… 
    • Where will the funding to pay the entry fees come from? “This is not coming from student fees. It's not coming from tuition, not coming from our state general fund. Football is paying for football. So game guarantees, corporate sponsorships, and also some other things that we've been able to put into place. Now, most people may not realize this because this is not normal in most places, but up until two weeks ago, our program, our football program, our athletic department did not have access to any revenue from merchandising, any revenue from pouring rights, any revenue from food and beverage, any revenue from parking. It's been owned by a third party and we've been able to pull all that away. So between that, corporate sponsorships and gain guarantees, we're confident that we'll be able to do this and that this is a wise investment for our university.” 
    • On what the move means for Sac State’s other programs, which will move to the Big West: “The Big West, we're excited about that. … We want to stay in the Big West. We think that's a great landing spot for us. And we've been investing in basketball, as you mentioned. We got [HC] Mike Bibby, we got [GM Shaquille O’Neal]. … I could go on down the line of all the amazing players that we have. And here's what the translation has been, because we moved into a new facility this year. In the first four basketball games of this season, just the first four home games, we generated more revenue than the last three seasons combined. We feel like the unique market niche for Sacramento State is having our sports in the Big West, having football in the MAC, and we'll be one of the few athletic departments in the country that actually generates revenue rather than bleeds revenue.” (link) 
  • The debate around collective bargaining continues as NCAA President Charlie Baker was asked yesterday why collective bargaining is not being pursued as a path to stabilization. Here’s what you need to know… 
    • Baker: “You'd have to get a federal law passed, first of all, in order to do that. Secondly, student-athletes don't want to do that. Third, when everybody says that, they don't talk about: are scholarships now taxable under that arrangement? Does this apply to all college sports? Because if it does, you're going to have kids in college sports who are going to have to write checks to their schools to pay for all the benefits they currently get that they don't get taxed on that become benefits that are taxable because they're employees. There's a lot to that issue that nobody ever talks about. I'm a former governor. I negotiated with 60 unions. I know a lot about how collective bargaining works, what's in it, what's out of it and all the rest. Saying that it's a simple answer to this is not a legitimate response. It's just not.”  
 

   QUOTE OF THE WEEK   

"And, similar to ski racing, we take risks in life. We dream. We love. We jump. And sometimes we fall. Sometimes our hearts are broken. Sometimes we don’t achieve the dreams we know we could have. But that is also the beauty of life; we can try. 

"I tried. I dreamt. I jumped." – Lindsey Vonn 

  

As you can see, this week reflects both the excellence of Big West student-athletes and the complexity of the environment The Big West and our institutions are navigating together. 

On the competitive side, our programs continue to deliver nationally — volleyball, water polo, tennis, baseball, softball, swimming & diving and basketball. 

On the operational and governance front, we’re actively engaged in conversations that will shape eligibility, NIL transparency, revenue sharing, and long-term sustainability — while continuing to advocate for equitable outcomes for basketball-centric and Olympic-sport conferences like ours.  

I remain grateful for your leadership, collaboration, and steady partnership as we work through these changes together. The Big West will continue to show up — in Washington, in national governance spaces, and most importantly, for our student-athletes and campuses. 

Thank you for everything you do each day to support The Big West. 

On a final note, please give a friend or family member you have not spoken with recently a call or send them a note to let them know you are thinking about them.  I learned yesterday of the loss of a great friend, who was also a former travel agent for the Mountain West Basketball Championships.  I corresponded with her recently, and it was great to connect. My family learned of the loss of another friend recently, and she was like a grandmother to my daughter.  To Ka 

  

Be bold! 

Dan