• Sacramento State announced plans to add women’s flag football as its 22nd intercollegiate sport. The program’s inaugural club season is set to begin during the 2026-27 academic year before transitioning to Division I in 2027-28. (link) COMMISSIONER NOTE:  We congratulate Sacramento State on announcing women's flag football as its 22nd intercollegiate sport. The addition reflects the continued growth of women's sports opportunities nationally and aligns with the NCAA's increasing focus on emerging sports. 
• The WCC is set to pay UC Santa Barbara $10M in total to join the league, with $4M owed within ten days of the membership agreement. UCSB will get paid $1.5M at the end of FY28, FY29 and FY30 and $500K after FY31, FY32 and FY33. The Gauchos will also pay $1.5M as an equity buy-in payment. (link) 
• In a guest column for Extra Points, KC Smurthwaite analyzes AI’s fit in the future of college sports, observing it’s quickly becoming a workflow tool, creative assistant, copy editor, transcription service, tagging system, first-pass reviewer and, in some corners, a staffing strategy. (link) 
• The Protect College Sports Act passed today’s vote of the Senate Commerce Committee by a 19-9 margin. The legislation can now head to the Senate floor. (link) Here’s what you need to know from today’s markup… 
  • A significant change has been made to the Protect College Sports Act’s anti-expansion provision, per Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, who notes the stipulation, which at first effectively targeted just the SEC and Big Ten, now applies to all leagues earning $700M in revenue, down from $1B. That alteration now incorporates both the Big 12 and ACC, with the former expected to reach the $700M revenue plateau next year and the latter already there. In addition, the bill’s language would freeze conference membership if it were to become law. It would also prohibit any outside entity from poaching member schools if the media rights of those consolidated schools exceed the $700M mark in revenue. (link, link) 
  • CBS’ Brandon Marcello reports that one of the bill’s amendments “adds a strong sentence: the Protect College Sports Act can't be used as an avenue to break, change or get out of a media rights contract that already exists if the bill passes.” Another one introduced by Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) says “players would not be allowed to use app-based event prediction markets, such as Kalshi and Polymarket, for games.” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) filed what Marcello deemed an “interesting” amendment, stating “a conference can designate an entity under its control for enforcement, which it already has (CSC), but it would also extend antitrust shield to any new organizations on conference-enforcement level (remember, discussions of self-governance).” (link, link, link) 
  • Dellenger brings attention to an amendment proposed by Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) “that applies to departments generating $80M in revenue. It requires schools to use only athletic revenue/donations to compensate coaches earning at least $500K.” (link) 
  • Cantwell says that those who believe no congressional legislation will somehow lead to collective bargaining must realize that a federal mandate would be necessary in some states for athletes to be deemed employees, which, she says, isn’t “going to happen anytime soon.” (link) 
  • In a memo to schools, the NCAA highlighted two targeted changes to the legislation, per Dellenger: broadening the state preemption provision to avoid state laws impacting enforcement; and strengthening the applicability section so it applies to pending legal cases over eligibility. (link) 
  • The SEC and Big Ten issued a joint statement after today’s PCSA mark-up/amendment session: “We continue to believe revisions are needed to secure our support for the bill. Despite our sustained engagement and good faith efforts, these critical revisions have not been accepted. We are encouraged that several Commerce Committee members share our concerns and support these recommendations. We will continue working with stakeholders to ensure the PCSA delivers meaningful protections for student-athletes and lasting stability for college sports.” (link) 
  • The AFL-CIO Sports Council, a coalition of leaders from 10 professional sports unions, including the NFL, NBA, WNBA and MLB, have come out with major criticisms of the Protect College Sports Act, per Front Office Sports’ Amanda Christovich. (link, link) 
  • On3’s Pete Nakos observes that if the PCSA is brought to the Senate floor for a vote, it would mark the furthest any college legislation has made it so far. He also notes timing-wise that the Senate’s summer recess starts Aug. 7, granting a 50-day window to hold a vote. (link) 
• As part of its collective bargaining discussions, Major League Baseball is proposing making high school players ineligible for the domestic draft, increasing the minimum domestic draft age to 20 and shortening the draft from 20 to 12 rounds. (link) 
• The Sun Belt is reportedly exploring raising its exit fee to as much as $25M, per CollegeAD, which notes Commissioner Keith Gill is leading the charge and is expected to meet with league CEOs over the coming weeks to discuss the idea as conferences continue to search for ways to protect themselves from potential future realignment moves. Not everyone’s on board, however, with one Sun Belt source saying the biggest issue is the gap in TV revenue between the league and the American Conference, which recently discussed raising its own exit fees during league meetings. “The payout is higher for the American. The TV deal in the Sun Belt is not good.” That’s led some around the league to question whether a $25M exit fee makes sense given current conference revenue levels. (link)  
• College Sports Commission CEO Bryan Seeley tells The Athletic’s Ralph Russo that while the enforcement agency has come a long way in the year since its founding, it’s certainly not far enough to please everyone. “We have made a ton of progress. Now, if you’re an athletic director or a coach, and you need to win this year, that doesn’t resonate with you, that we have made a lot of progress in year one, and we’ve got more to do. You need the system to be fully functioning, or you need to know that rules are going to be enforced, and how they’re going to be enforced right now.” More from Seeley…  
  • At the outset, Seeley believed the CSC’s job was to enforce rules in a system designed to crack down on booster-funded collectives that were using NIL as a de facto pay-for-play relationship as well as to keep schools from working around the cap. That’s not exactly how it’s gone so far. “I expected that the rules coming out of the settlement were the rules, that they were mostly agreed upon by schools, and that the job would just be a lot more focused on just enforcing those rules as they exist and trying to combat circumvention via investigations. Certainly that has been a big part of the job, but a lot of the job has also been trying to adapt as schools very quickly offered compensation to student-athletes that was unrealistic under existing rules, and managing and trying to deal with the ways in which schools tried to go about getting that compensation to student-athletes, even though it didn’t comply with the rules.” 
  • Raising the rev-share cap or creating exceptions to help schools retain student-athletes could provide some immediate relief, per Seeley, but he feels that shouldn’t be the focus. “My overall concern is that the pressure to get money to football athletes will potentially lead to short-term fixes that do not solve the long-term problems. That is what I’m trying to avoid. Schools need some certainty here, and that is not going to occur if we just change rules based on behavior every time behavior doesn’t match the rules.” More. (link)  
• SBJ’s Terry Lefton gets feedback from a number of leaders in the space on jersey patches and how sponsors are approaching the new option. Some key comments… 
  • JMI Sports Properties President Paul Archey: “It’s a difficult space to navigate right now, because, like a lot in colleges, new rules and structure are developing. The most obvious thing is the opportunity because it’s inventory no one’s had before.”
  • Tigris Sponsorship & Marketing President Matt Yonan: “It’s early, obviously, but today we’re thinking that there are 10-15 schools that can sell basketball and football separately and have success. We think most schools will bundle all sports.”  
  • Oak View Group President of Global Partnerships Dan Griffis: “We’ve done the math and our projections are that it definitely makes more sense to separate basketball and football at most schools. Unbundling the two will give you 140% more. … A blueblood school could get $3M to $5M for a basketball patch alone, but there are schools that will find it easier to activate with one partner, so …”  
  • Playfly Sports EVP/Global Partnerships Paul Asencio: “We’re trying to sell those bundled — you don’t want anyone cherry-picking the best sports at any school. The college market is already crowded, and across sports there’s lots of jersey patch inventory, but the interest is there, because other than the NFL, college sports are the last to allow this. Our conversations have been good, and so far, it’s not so much of the staple brands in sports, it’s new money. ... We’ve had a lot of conversations with CEOs and COOs who are alums or have kids at the school or both. That makes it different than the other patches.” (link) 
• Idaho Gov. Brad Little has announced the formation of the Governor's Working Group on College Athletics, a targeted effort to examine how the state’s four-year institutions can remain competitive as the national collegiate athletics landscape undergoes significant change.  (link)  

   IN CLOSING   

As we approach the conclusion of June, there is no shortage of evidence that college athletics continues to evolve at a rapid pace. From legislative developments in Washington, D.C., to emerging sports opportunities, media growth and continued investment across our campuses, the landscape remains dynamic and demanding. 

What continues to encourage me is that The Big West is not simply reacting to change. We are actively participating in the conversations, making strategic decisions and positioning ourselves for long-term success. 

The growth of our championships, the continued expansion of our ESPN+ audiences, the accomplishments of our student-athletes and the engagement of our member institutions all demonstrate that this conference continues to move forward with purpose and momentum. 

Thank you to our campuses for their leadership, partnership and commitment to our student-athletes.  Thanks to our athletic trainers, sports communications staffs, facility managers and game operations personnel who I hope are finding opportunities for some well-deserved downtime this summer. 

As we continue navigating a rapidly evolving collegiate athletics landscape, I am reminded that progress is not measured by how much has changed around us, but by how intentionally we continue moving forward. The Big West continues to do exactly that. 

Stay cool and have a great week ahead. 

Dan