MEDIA REPORTS ON BIG WEST, NCAA AND LEGAL MATTERS   

• To remain competitive in the evolving world of college sports, Maine will have to pay its student-athletes, per the Portland Press Herald’s Travis Lazarcyzk, who notes that idea is currently a tough sell, occurring at the same time the university announced budget cuts and a tuition increase. (link)  
• A breakdown of Men’s Basketball Sweet 16 roster spending by On3's Pete Nakos reveals that Arkansas, Duke, Houston, Michigan, St. John’s, and Texas all fielded rosters costing at least $10M this season. To remain competitive just below that top financial threshold, programs including Alabama, Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Purdue, Tennessee, and UConn constructed their current rosters within the $8M to $10M range. Meanwhile, several programs advanced to the second weekend with highly efficient budgets, highlighted by Iowa State spending roughly $6.5M and Nebraska fielding the lowest known payroll of the remaining teams at $4.5M. Nakos could not verify the exact roster total for Michigan State. (link) 
• Yahoo’s Dan Wolken describes the real villain behind the death of Cinderella in the NCAA Tournament. Wolken: “The transfer portal is an easy bête noire in this discussion. All the power conference schools are scouting mid-major rosters, and anyone who shows promise at a lower level is being offered big money to transfer.  (link)    
• “NCAA’s SCORE Act comes with constitutional and moral traps” The article contends that the NCAA-backed SCORE Act grants unlawful antitrust and employee exemptions, violates equal-protection principles, and relies on a misleading comparison of college athletes to prison labor, and therefore urges Congress to reject the bill.  (LINK) 
• Three California Baptist wrestlers have filed a Title IX lawsuit against the university over the elimination of their sport. The complaint argues that cutting men’s sports to reach substantial proportionality to comply with Title IX “cannot be squared with Title IX’s command of nondiscrimination.” (link) 
• In a newly published article for the Harvard Journal of Sports & Entertainment Law, Tulane Sports Law Director Gabe Feldman and Tulane Sports Law Program Manager Eric Blevins propose a radical restructuring of non-revenue collegiate athletics to shield institutions from ongoing antitrust and employment litigation. Here’s the framework… 
  • As the NCAA continues to lose historical judicial deference due to the staggering commercialization of top-tier programs, Feldman and Blevins argue that schools must formally decouple their Olympic sports from professionalized business models.  
  • To rebuild the legal firewall against the Fair Labor Standards Act and the National Labor Relations Act, the proposed "Enhanced Educational Model" (EEM) would treat athletic participation as a credit-bearing academic discipline, mirroring traditional performing arts programs.  
  • To explain how formally integrating athletes into the academy provides a robust defense against future employee classification efforts, Feldman and Blevins detail the ultimate utility of the academic pivot: "An EEM for college athletics can accomplish those goals. By embedding athletics within a rigorous academic curriculum, the EEM deepens the distinction between college and professional sports, strengthens procompetitive justifications under antitrust law, and improves the argument that athletes are students first, pursuing their sport within a rigorous academic curriculum and apart from the heavily commercial elements that courts have questioned under labor and employment law." (link) 
• Mountain West champion and Utah State Men’s Basketball HC Jerrod Calhoun reveals the Aggies went from $800K in NIL for last year’s roster to $2.4M this year. Calhoun: “We have a lot of great people, not just in Logan but all over this state and Aggie Nation.” (link)  
• A new report from The Collective shows collegiate women’s sports progress has plateaued in some ways, per SBJ’s Rachel Axon, with opportunities for female athletes proportionally lagging compared to their male peers and potentially in violation of Title IX, while impacting the pipeline from collegiate athletic careers to pro sports and the C-suite. George Mason Assoc. Professor Jacqueline McDowell: “We are seeing investments in women’s sports and we’re very happy to see those investments in women’s sports, but there’s more to the story than just growth. … There are definitely barriers that are resulting in women’s sports not growing to their full potential.” More details from the report… 
  • Looking at women’s participation and representation, the study found that: across all divisions, women make up about 43% of NCAA varsity athletes despite women accounting for 55% of the female undergraduate population; despite the growth of some emerging sports, women’s team sponsorship has largely stagnated since the late 1990s, at 8.89 per school; and with women virtually excluded from coaching men’s teams, they account for just 46% of head coaching positions for women’s teams. 
  • In addition, further Title IX challenges to NIL and revenue sharing are expected and attorney Arthur Bryant, who first sued a school under the law in the 1980s, expects more firms to devote attorneys and resources to those cases. Bryant: “You have schools blatantly violating Title IX in terms of NIL payments and revenue-sharing payments and the distribution of that money, and at the cost of millions of dollars, and schools are going to end up having to pay. It’s just a question of how fast and how quickly and how many women understand what’s going on and are willing to fight.” Full report. (link, link)  
• U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has introduced the Student Athlete Act Of 2026, aimed at altering rules pertaining to how many times a student-athlete can transfer without having to sit out a season. Here are the key details… 
  • The bill provides that a student-athlete “has five years of eligibility to play five years of intercollegiate athletics, regardless of injury or other events. … It also preserves the NCAA’s role in managing the transfer portal, while requiring that any athlete who transfers more than once sit out for the academic year in which he or she entered the transfer portal.” 
  • Tuberville: “Sixty to seventy percent of them (college programs) don't even look at high school athletes, they look at the portal and say ‘How can we win now? How can we bring players in?.’ It's going to bring the price down on a lot of these players in which to me, it's ok because they're going to be making money anyway. I'm all for them making money. But for them to keep selling themselves for $50K to $100K more, I think it's creating a huge problem. … We can't get into all the antitrust, the agents, we can't do that. That's gotta be handled by the NCAA. But one thing we can do is stop this transfer every year, and give these kids the chance to get a degree, and one time transfer if they have a death in the family, circumstances or don't get along with the coaches. But, if you use it, it's over with. But if you use it, you have to sit out a year, though most of them won't do that anyway.” 
  • On antitrust, the bill includes the following: “Notwithstanding any provision of the Sherman Act (15 U.S.C. 1 et seq.) to the contrary, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (or any successor organization) may establish rules relating to the transfer portal under this section.” (link, link - Full text)  
• UC Riverside officially introduced Greg Paules as its next AD during a press conference in which Paules outlined his mandate to elevate the Highlanders within the Big West Conference by prioritizing diversified fundraising, direct student-athlete support, and deep community integration. Paules also emphasized that athletic programs operate in lockstep with academic leadership and cannot exist off to the side. More of what you need to know… 
  • On integrating the athletic department as a campus partner rather than a siloed entity: "I think that's part of what attracted me here is I've seen the wave of what a new chancellor or new CEO can bring to a campus. ... It's not about athletics being off to the side as he builds out his leadership team. I plan to be very good friends with all of them and try to push this university forward." 
  • Building a diversified fundraising operation to generate new revenue: "I think if we rely on just one avenue of revenue creation, whether it be to find that billionaire who wants to champion this, we might strike out too many times. You have to have a funnel of many different routes of revenue. We have to build an army of fundraising and external relations members within that department." 
  • As for intelligently navigating the NIL and revenue-sharing landscape without overspending: "I don't think we're built here at UC Riverside to just keep up with the Joneses and try to throw money at problems. We're going to be really smart. ... Now because of the House settlement case, we can give more scholarships. So dedicating resources that go and touch our students, I think can have the biggest impact." (link)  
• Virginia Tech President Tim Sands’ op-ed for Inside Higher Ed on how Power 4 leaders need to act to create a more sustainable athletics future… 
  • “Within conferences, we have more options if we are willing to stand up for the student-athlete model at the risk of introducing temporary competitive disadvantages. A conference could elect to restrict transfers into or within the conference in support of academic progress, perhaps through the vehicle of institutional revenue-sharing contracts. A conference could also decide to unilaterally implement a common-sense transfer rule that balances freedom to transfer with academic progress.” 
  • “Power Four presidents and chancellors control the boards of their conferences and, through that channel, have a role in standing up to forces that would weaken the provisions of the House settlement. Booster collectives as they were designed in the presettlement era should not have a meaningful role in true third-party NIL.” 
  • “Presidents and chancellors should advocate for the preservation of the student-athlete experience as a proven leadership development program, recognizing that about three-quarters of Power Four student athletes and more than 90 percent of all DI athletes do not participate in sports that generate positive net revenue at their institutions. Presidents and chancellors are far from powerless, and with that power comes responsibility to act—the sooner, the better.” (link) 

   THE WEEK AHEAD   

This week I will be in Indianapolis attending an NCAA Cabinet meeting, Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee responsibilities, being part of the National Association of Basketball Coaches Board of Directors meeting, speaking to the NABC head coaches, presenting to men’s basketball general managers, meeting with ESPN on our active negotiation and lastly attending a couple of games at the NCAA Tournament and NIT.  I will also be accepting the Cliff Wills Award from the NABC on Friday, which I am still so humbled and grateful to be receiving. 

   QUOTE OF THE WEEK   

“Life’s a Climb. But the view is great.”  Miley Cyrus 

As we close this week’s update, it is clear that college athletics continues to face its share of mountains — legislative, legal and competitive. 

Some weeks feel like sprints. 

But many of the most important moments in our work feel much more like a climb. 

The work taking place in Washington, in NCAA governance rooms, and across our campuses is not easy — and it was never meant to be. It requires persistence, collaboration and a steady commitment to doing what is right for student-athletes and the institutions we serve. 

As the song reminds us, it is not simply about reaching the top — it is about how we navigate the climb together. 

And across The Big West, I continue to be grateful for leaders who show up every day prepared to do the hard work, make thoughtful decisions, and keep moving forward — one step at a time. 

The climb continues — and together, we will meet it. 

Wishing you all a productive week ahead. 

Dan