MEDIA REPORTS ON BIG WEST, NCAA AND LEGAL MATTERS   

• The NCAA has launched a new PSA as part of its Draw the Line campaign to combat sports betting-related harassment against student-athletes. Airing throughout March Madness to coincide with Problem Gambling Awareness Month, the initiative addresses internal data revealing that nearly half of DI men's basketball players have experienced online, verbal, or physical abuse from fans over betting losses. (link) 
• ESPN networks recorded their most-watched men’s college basketball regular season since 2014-15, with overall viewership rising 25% year-over-year during the 2025-26 season. Across all nationally rated linear networks, ESPN networks accounted for 50% of live men’s college basketball game minutes viewed, delivering 26B minutes watched  More. (link) 
• Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger goes behind the scenes on Capitol Hill to analyze the impact of last week’s Saving College Sports roundtable. Plus lots more in relation to last Friday’s conversation at the White House… 
  • From a White House perspective, President Trump’s announcement of a plan to issue another executive order to govern college athletics came as a surprise to many in attendance. Dellenger notes “if Trump’s first executive order — released in July — is any indication, an executive order will have no impact on college sports. … Legal experts say there is a good reason for that: Congressional legislation and court rulings are law in this country — not executive orders. … Here's the bottom line: Even if Trump eventually releases another executive order — White House officials have called around seeking advice on the order — its true impact is likely to be minimal. In all likelihood, more of an impact will come from a smaller subgroup created out of the 50-plus person roundtable.”  
  • In the House, the SCORE Act is back on the agenda, perhaps getting brought to the floor for a vote as early as next week, but there’s a problem. In order for the bill to advance to the floor, lawmakers must first pass what’s called a “rule vote.” The House has a narrow, 218-214 Republican majority, meaning Republicans can only afford to lose one vote on party-line legislation. Passage of the bill in the Senate is even more daunting, requiring a 60-vote margin.  
  • Dellenger: “At Friday’s roundtable, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) made it quite clear that Senate Democrat leadership was preventing other Democrat lawmakers from agreeing to his long-discussed draft of a college sports bill. … There is belief that negotiations between Cruz and [Sen. Maria] Cantwell [D-WA] — thus far almost non-existent — are on the horizon. More. (link)  
  • According to Mississippi State President Mark Keenum, SEC presidents and chancellors are gathering this week in Nashville “with the hopes of starting to establish some real rules and guidance for the league and others, assuming Congress cannot establish federal legislation quickly enough on NIL.” Per ESPN’s Heather Dinich, “they aren’t expected to make any monumental decisions, but would like to get a framework started before the SEC holds its annual spring meetings in Destin, Fla. They are fed up with the status quo.” (link)  
  • ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips visited with the Charlotte Observer’s Scott Fowler about his takeaways from the roundtable: “Two things that were very important that came out of the meeting. One is that there is support from the President and the cabinet. And from what I understand, it’s bipartisan (support) for the SCORE Act (Congress’ Republican-backed effort to create a national NIL and college athletics regulatory structure), which is critical to the future of college athletics. We need federal legislation. Right now we have 36 disparate state laws that interpret NIL and other areas…. We need limited legal protection from all the lawsuits you see that are in the system. We have to get eligibility on track. Now, if young people don’t like the decisions that they’re getting from the NCAA when they’re not deemed eligible, they go to the local courthouse and talk to a favorable judge. And a lot of times, that judge has gone to the (same) school.” (link) 
  • Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark continues to support the SCORE Act: “It offers federal preemption, it offers limited liability protection so we can enforce the rules, which we currently aren't doing. It has great student-athlete protections. ... I think there's real momentum for the SCORE Act. And we need it. I've said it before, I think the SCORE Act is the best path forward. It provides us with the meaningful guiding principles when you think about federal legislation. While I've also said it's progress, it's not perfect.” (link) 
• Utah Valley in a statement regarding its ongoing legal dispute with the WAC revealed that the league is currently withholding approximately $2.3M in earned NCAA distributions while attempting to leverage the university's postseason eligibility over a contested $1M exit fee. Pushing back against the conference's public position and confirming the $1M was ultimately deposited into a court-overseen escrow account rather than paid as a direct settlement to the league, the university emphasized its legal right to depart without penalty: "Based on an agreement reached between the WAC and its members on June 21, 2024, UVU does not believe it is required to pay an exit fee in connection with its departure from the WAC; this is because the university fulfilled its obligation to remain in the conference through June 30, 2026. Nevertheless, the WAC sued UVU in Texas, seeking payment of a $1M exit fee, and has attempted on multiple occasions to bar UVU from the WAC postseason tournaments until it is paid. … UVU will continue to defend its student-athletes' rights to compete, and looks forward to a speedy resolution to the matter. " Full statement. (link) 
• Attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the House settlement are preparing for a conference call with the NCAA and power conferences to address mounting frustrations over the College Sports Commission's implementation of the revenue-sharing agreement, according to Sportico's Daniel Libit. Here’s what you need to know… 
  • The primary point of contention centers on the CSC's broad classification of "associated entities"—which accounted for 78% of total deal volume during the first two months of 2026—and the clearinghouse's attempt to exert jurisdiction over legitimate third-party NIL deals sourced by multimedia rights partners. 
  • While class co-counsel Jeffrey Kessler remains overwhelmingly positive about the settlement's impact, noting it will deliver billions of dollars to athletes, he emphasizes to Libit that the current administrative bottlenecks stem from conferences improperly stretching the definition of institutional involvement to restrict the free market: "One of the pillars of the House settlement was there would be no restrictions on third-party NIL payments not by the schools. Some people are saying if you hire [an MMR company like] Learfield to find [athletes] new NIL deals, it is an associated entity. False—that is not what the settlement provides for, and we always anticipated that schools would hire organizations like Learfield to find legitimate third-party NIL deals." 
  • Kessler also points out “the people who negotiated the deal—which were the NCAA and the P4 commissioners and their staff and attorneys—understood the deal very well. … It was a hard-fought negotiation, but not an unclear negotiation. Now, there are individual schools who I am sure talked themselves into fantasies about how they thought it would turn out.” Ultimately, Kessler notes that “I am not calling for the abolition of the CSC. I just think it needs to do its job more efficiently and adhere to the settlement.” (link) 
• In what marks the first major legal test of the College Sports Commission, a group of Nebraska football student-athletes has entered arbitration to challenge the rejection of more than $1M in third-party NIL contracts, according to Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger. Represented by Husch Blackwell, the athletes are appealing the CSC’s decision to block deals facilitated by the university's multimedia rights partner, Playfly, which were flagged for violating the policy against "warehousing"—purchasing an athlete's rights for future opportunities without outlining specific, timely deliverables. If the arbitrator rules in favor of the CSC, Dellenger notes the players could potentially invoke a state law protecting their right to earn compensation, further complicating an overwhelmed enforcement system operating without a universally signed participation agreement. (link) 
• Have a look at the new Aloha Stadium design that will be home to Hawaii football, courtesy of KHO News’ Sam Spangler, who notes the “renderings feature a 31K seat stadium base, and what the ‘wave’ addition would look like to bring capacity to 40K.” (link) 
• On Monday, as he readied for a trip to Nashville for the SEC men's basketball tournament, Greg Sankey appeared on television with host Paul Finebaum.  In an interview indicative of the current state of the industry, Finebaum and Sankey spent most of the nearly 30-minute interview talking about the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, Congressional legislation and, perhaps most notably, the league's movement toward creating its own in-house governance and enforcement model.  In fact, Sankey was more transparent with the third item than ever before. Yes, we knew the SEC was considering its own model of governance and enforcement, but a breakaway is not happening. At least, not yet, and perhaps not any time soon. (LINK) 

   QUOTE OF THE DAY   

"Every champion was once a contender that refused to give up." — Rocky Balboa 

As we enjoyed a great week in Henderson, I want to thank our staff, student-athletes, coaches, volunteers, administrators and fans who continue to make the Big West Basketball Championships such a special event each year. 

Championship environments are built by the people in the building — and the energy throughout Lee’s Family Forum last week reflected the passion that defines Big West basketball. 

I look forward to cheering on our champions and our postseason participants in their brackets this week and hopefully in the weeks to come! 

Dan