• Cal State Bakersfield selects hoops alum Beau Redstone as its Men’s Basketball GM. (link) 
• Cal State Bakersfield inks a multi-year expansion of its agreement with Taymar Sales U. with the firm taking on a broader role that now encompasses ticket sales and operations as well as sponsorships. (link) 
• Women’s Flag Football is set to become the next NCAA championship sport as the Committee on Access, Opportunity and Impact is recommending all divisions sponsor legislation to add a national collegiate championship that is projected to begin in spring 2028. Per the NCAA, over 100 schools are planning to offer the sport in 2026-27. (link) 
• The Wall Street Journal’s Lindsay Ellis explores how the number of "A" grades in writing and coding courses has increased since the debut of ChatGPT. Cal senior researcher Igor Chirikov analyzed over half a million grades from 2018 to 2025 at a public university in Texas and discovered that professors in AI-exposed classes awarded 30% more A’s and fewer A-minus and B-plus grades. (link) 
• The Mercury News’ Jon Wilner digs into the Pac-12's FY25 finances, offering a look at the unprecedented financial state of the league during the transitional period with Washington State and Oregon State as the sole members. Here’s what you need to know… 
  • Overall, total conference revenue plummeted from $566.6M during the final year of the legacy Pac-12 to just $111.5M with WSU and OSU existing alone with a meager media rights agreement. The Cougars and Beavers received just $29.2M and $29.3M, respectively, marking a decrease of almost $6M from the average payouts received in years prior to the Pac-12’s implosion.  
  • The league started FY25 with $128M in net assets and ended with $65.8M, including $22.9M in cash. It generated $74.4M from the college football postseason, with the majority of that (believed to be $50M) coming from the Pac-12’s contract with the Rose Bowl that expired this year. TV-wise, the media rights arrangement with The CW (11 games) and Fox (two) brought in $3M and Pac-12 Enterprises produced $4.4M in revenue in its initial year of operation.  
  • From an expense standpoint, the league spent $31.6M on what it described as special projects (e.g., setting up the new conference); reported $133.2M in operating expenses; paid $10.5M to the Mountain West for a one-year scheduling agreement that became the source of an ongoing lawsuit over the so-called ‘poaching penalty’ included in the deal; and paid former Commissioner George Kliavkoff $6.1M, of which $5M was listed as severance. (link)  
  • The Bald Faced Truth’s John Canzano digs further into the Pac-12’s Form 990 that was released on Friday. Canzano: Former Commissioner George Kliavkoff’s “$4,966,609 severance payment jumped off the page at me. Combined with his base salary [($1,165,936)], Kliavkoff made a cool $6,142,410 in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025. He’s officially off the books now.” Current league boss Teresa Gould earned $1M according to the filing, plus a $350K bonus and another $160K in various other areas for a total of $1,516,043. (link) 
• The Pac-12 and Mountain West have reportedly reached a settlement in principle in the former’s lawsuit over $55M in poaching fees, per The Mercury News’ Jon Wilner, who adds: “No details, no docs and nothing finalized. Hearing scheduled for June 9.” (link) 
• The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Mark Zeigler shares the latest on the Mountain West-Pac-12 settlement. Zeigler reports the parties canceled a Tuesday discovery hearing before U.S. District Judge Susan van Keulen in San Jose and have until June 2 to file a formal notice of settlement. He adds: “The thought was that the Pac-12 would try to drag out the case and force concessions from the Mountain West as a July 1 deadline approached to initiate promised ‘incentive’ payments to its remaining members, most notably the elevated amounts pledged UNLV and Air Force. But then Pac-12 financials were released last week, and there are indications the ‘war chest’ left to Oregon State and Washington State by the departing 10 schools is rapidly depleting — meaning there might not have been enough to pay the full poaching fees if they lost the civil suit.” (link) 
• “The Big Ten and SEC should break away and do their own deal.” That’s what one power conference administrator told Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger in reference to college sports executives discussing ideas for reforming the College Sports Commission, including granting amnesty to all or a portion of NIL deals currently in the system, increasing the cap, adding a luxury tax or some other version of a financial penalty. Here’s what you need to know… 
  • As it turns out, per Dellenger, SEC and Big Ten leaders have been exploring separation from the NCAA “to operate their own governance system, enforcement arm and perhaps even only holding intraconference competition only” as a “way to set and enforce their own rules and potentially evade antitrust challenges considering their membership size.” 
  • Plaintiff’s attorneys Jeffrey Kessler and Steve Berman say they are open to increasing or eliminating the cap. “Kessler confirmed that conferences can make their own rules under the settlement, as long as policies do not conflict with the agreement itself. One conference could propose to plaintiff attorneys Kessler and Berman a higher cap. If they deem the change benefits the class of athletes, the lawyers can propose the change to the magistrate judge overseeing the agreement.” 
  • Florida AD Scott Stricklin believes the SEC may have no choice but to breakaway: “Federal law prevents us from setting unilaterally national standards. It seems like the only chance you have at setting a standard is a smaller subset of schools.” A recent ruling in Choh v. Brown University may pave the way for the self-governance model, having upheld the Ivy League's policy of prohibiting athletic scholarships, while affirming the dismissal of an antitrust lawsuit brought by former athletes. More. (link)    
• The ongoing negotiations between Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) might not just represent the final hope of passing a college sports bill in Congress this year, but for several years, per Ross Dellenger, who observes for On3 that with the House projected to flip to the Democrats in November, Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA) is expected to take the reins of the college sports issue. “Trahan has made clear her position on this issue in very public ways and it does not at all align with the NCAA and conferences. She has suggested athlete employment in the past, has been one of the loudest critics of the NCAA and power leagues, and was so against the SCORE Act that she held a panel earlier this week against the legislation – even after it was pulled from the floor.” Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti isn’t prepared to give up on D.C. lobbying efforts, adding: “We talk a lot about the effort and time [spent]. At some point, if we can’t get something, does it sort of stop?” More. (link) 
• Sportico’s Michael McCann analyzes the judicial rationale behind the $303M antitrust agreement between the NCAA and former DI volunteer baseball coaches, noting that U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb relied on a Ninth Circuit policy favoring class-action resolutions to approve the framework. McCann explains the plaintiffs avoided trial risks by settling, as a jury or appellate court could have rejected the antitrust claims by reasoning the coaches were never forced to volunteer. The judge also approved a 30% attorney fee allocation totaling $90.9M—which sits above the standard 25% circuit benchmark—and justified $25K incentive awards for the five named plaintiffs due to the career risks associated with suing the collegiate governing body. (link) 
• The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to take up Crowther v. Board of Regents of University System of Georgia, a case arguing that Title IX sex discrimination safeguards should be extended to college coaches and professors, while also tackling a persistent split on the question among circuit courts. (link, link) 
• The SCORE Act will not be brought to the House floor this week, per Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger. This comes as the Congressional Black Caucus came out earlier today in unanimous opposition to the legislation, noting it “cannot support legislation benefiting major athletic institutions that continue to remain silent while Black voting rights and Black political power are being systematically dismantled across the South.” Dellenger: “The college sports industry’s hope for legislation - at least in this Congress - now rests in negotiations between Sens. Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell that, while progressing, have not culminated yet in a deal.” (link, link, link) 
• Dellenger adds: “The CBC has transmitted formal letters to Greg Sankey, Jim Phillips, and Charlie Baker ‘demanding immediate engagement and a public response regarding the ongoing assault on Black political representation throughout the South and across the nation.’” (link)  
• With this week’s decision to again cancel a vote on the SCORE Act, Sportico’s Michael McCann questions why the NCAA can’t score a win through Congressional legislation, noting that since 2020, more than 40 bills to reform college sports have been introduced, but not a single one has advanced. Per McCann, there are two structural problems with the SCORE Act and bills like it. First, any such bill would face immediate legal challenge and potentially years of litigation if it became law. Second, even if the SCORE Act, or a bill like it, withstood legal scrutiny, it wouldn’t force NCAA member schools to comply with rules they’ve agreed to follow, an issue McCann observes is the biggest problem facing college sports. “Imagine a world where NCAA rules were entirely exempted from antitrust law and where college athletes could never become employees. Those developments would seem extraordinary, even tectonic, especially after nearly two decades of antitrust litigation and repeated college athlete employment efforts targeting the NCAA. Yet they wouldn’t stop colleges from circumventing rules that are designed to promote fair play and fair competition and are intended to ensure schools, coaches and athletes are treated similarly in similar situations.” More. (link) 
• U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA) held a press conference and said of the SCORE Act being pulled from the floor: “It happened because the coalition that's aligned with college athletes is stronger than the one fighting for the status quo or worse. … The financial pressure on athletic departments [is] real and it's being wielded on Capitol Hill as a weapon against the very athletes this bill claims to protect. What the SCORE Act would've delivered are massive handouts to the NCAA, SEC and Big Ten dressed up with modest concessions for a select group of athletes at the wealthiest schools.” Other notable comments… 
  • On what she’d like to see from the NCAA, Power Four conferences and others in order to support some of the initiatives they're pushing, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy reports that “more than anything, Trahan said the biggest thing is the involvement of athletes in the conversation.” (link) 
  • Michigan Women’s Basketball student-athlete Brooke Daniels and Maryland Women’s Basketball student-athlete Oluchi Okananwa pushed back against the oft-reported assessment that student-athletes don’t want to be employees. Daniels: “They don't want that employee status to be a thing because when you're an employee you get the right to unionize. … Being an employee pretty much formalizes that you have to have different agreements and approvals involving different people that are probably going to go against your underlying issues that you're trying to bring forward.” 
  • Okananwa: “It's honestly comical to have them say that we don't want to be seen as employees when we're kind of already operating as employee workers. I mean, our sport is at the center of everything that we do, especially with our time here at the university. Rightfully so, because it is something that we love and something that we 100% signed up for. But I think it's time and they know it's time to come to the truth, which is that we are employees. We should be treated as such and we should be brought to the table with employee rights.” (link) 
• On3’s Pete Nakos reports the “President's Roundtable on Fixing College Sports sent a memo to U.S. Sens. Cruz and Cantwell today, voicing strong support for completing bipartisan college sports reform.” From the letter: “The overwhelming majority of the President's Roundtable on Fixing College Sports is pleased to express its strong support to you to complete the bi-partisan college sports reform legislation. We would like to thank and applaud you both for your many months of effort in bringing this bill forward. Once passed by both chambers, a bill will be an enormous step forward in fulfilling President Trump's directive and effort to Save College Sports. We also encourage the House to pass college sports legislation. It is time for all interested parties to set aside past differences and coalesce around legislation in order to get it to the President's desk without delay. Our universities, student-athletes, alumni, and fans across the entire nation deserve nothing less. The Commissioners of the Big Ten and SEC have expressed their views directly to you.” (link) 

   QUOTE OF THE DAY   

"Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there." - Virginia Burden 

As we conclude another academic year and prepare for summer meetings, championships, and national governance discussions ahead, I continue to believe The Big West is exceptionally well positioned for the future. 

This conference continues to demonstrate that alignment, stability, competitive success, and meaningful national engagement still matter during one of the most transformational periods in the history of college athletics. Whether through championship performance, student-athlete achievement, national governance leadership or strategic institutional collaboration, The Big West continues to maintain a strong and respected voice nationally. 

Thank you again for your leadership, partnership, and commitment throughout this year. 

Good luck to all student-athletes and institutions competing this weekend at NCAA baseball, track & field and golf championships, safe travels to those attending upcoming meetings and events, and I hope everyone has an opportunity to enjoy a meaningful and restful remainder of the Memorial Day weekend with family and friends. 

And remember — strong conferences are not built simply during moments of stability. They are built through alignment, resilience, trust, and people willing to continue moving forward together during times of change. 

Have a great week everyone. 

Dan