The power conferences this week sent to their members the initial cap number for Year 1 of athlete revenue sharing, per a memo obtained by @YahooSports.

For the 2025-26 sports year (starting July 1), schools are to operate under a *projected* cap of $20.5 million, the memo says The $20.5 million - lower than what some expected - could increase when final 2024-25 reporting figures are released in the spring. The cap is 22% of P4 revenues in the previous year.

The cap has built-in escalators (4% in Year 2 and Year 3 + a re-calculation in Year 4).

A thread on the NCAA’s settlement in the House case.

The settlement - negotiated by plaintiffs seeking back-NIL pay and NCAA/power leagues - has 3 main parts:
1) $2.8B in back-pay to former athletes
2) $20B+ in rev-share to future athletes
3) New roster rules & enforcement arm $2.8B in back-pay.
- spread over 10 years
- from NCAA + school distribution (NCAA Tournament money)
- distribution determined using a formula based on a player’s value
- $2.3B goes to P4 FB/MBB players (avg of $120K a player over 10 years)
- Back-payments begin as soon as May

Rob Sine, CEO of Blueprint Sports, which operates UNLV's collective, tells @YahooSports that the collective never agreed to a $100,000 deal with QB Matthew Sluka.

It made a payment of $3,000 to Sluka & were discussing a monthly payment of $3,000 before QB’s decision this week. Matthew Sluka’s agent, Marcus Cromartie of Equity Sports, first introduced himself via email to UNLV collective officials in late August, Sine says.

Cromartie wrote to officials that he was seeking more NIL opportunities thru the collective for his client.

A thread on the NCAA’s historic 10-year settlement agreement that will pay back-damages of $2.8 billion, at least $15 billion in rev-share & reshape the governance, enforcement & scholarship structure of major college athletics.
🧵 Back Damages
- How much: $2.776 billion over 10 years
- From: NCAA national office (40%) & schools (60%)
- To: 15-25,000 DI athletes who played from 2016-2020ish
- Distribution: “Allocation formula” used, with estimated 90% to P5 FB/MBB players (~6K athletes)

Five Michigan football coaches at the center of the recruiting violations during the COVID dead period have reached an agreement on penalties with the NCAA. "The negotiated resolution also involved the school's agreement that the underlying violations demonstrated a head coach responsibility violation and the former football head coach failed to meet his responsibility to cooperate with the investigation."

NCAA president Charlie Baker is proposing the creation of an FBS subdivision that permits schools to directly compensate athletes thru a trust fund & NIL, sources tell @YahooSports.

It is perhaps the most revolutionary concept introduced in NCAA history.
bit.ly/4a68NIY Charlie Baker outlined the groundbreaking proposal in a letter sent to DI members & obtained by @YahooSports.

Members of the new FBS subdivision are permitted to strike NIL deals with their own athletes, but the most impactful change is the trust fund. bit.ly/4a68NIY

It’s Egg Bowl Week. One of the most beautifully dirty rivalries there is - steeped in pettiness, espionage & pure hatred.

Here's our traditional Thanksgiving Week Monday thread on a rivalry that made me fall in love with college football. The petty goes back to the founding of one of the schools in 1878.

Mississippi A&M, now Mississippi State, was created 30 years after the University of Mississippi “because of the disdain dirt farmers had for Ole Miss,” per archives.

In many ways, nothing has changed.

It’s final: ACC presidents have approved expansion to add Stanford, Cal and SMU, sources tell @YahooSports, ending a month-long saga into an issue that divided the league. The expectation entering the meeting this morning was that at least one member - NC State - planned to support the expansion proposal, giving the league the necessary 12 votes for expansion.

The SEC’s scheduling dilemma is over: The league will play 8 conference games in 2024 when Texas & OU join in what is likely to be a short-term format with a play to eventually get to 9.

Before officials arrived here in Destin - as we reported Monday - this was the trajectory. Division place is eliminated, as expected. Two top teams from the standings play in the title game.

The one Power 5 non-conference game requirement remains.

As is tradition, a thread on the Egg Bowl, which is the dirtiest, ugliest, most awesome rivalry I’ve ever been around.

It is rooted in posturing, pettiness & espionage.

It is the type of series that makes college football both unique and better than any other sport.

(1/13) The petty goes back to the founding of one of the schools in 1878.

Mississippi A&M, now Mississippi State, was created 30 years after the University of Mississippi “because of the disdain dirt farmers had for Ole Miss,” per archives.

In many ways, nothing has changed.

(2/13)

In
- 12-1 or 13-0 Georgia
- 13-0 Ohio State/Michigan winner

????
- 13-0 TCU
- 12-1 USC
- 11-1 Ohio State/Michigan loser
- 11-2 LSU
- 12-1 Clemson I do think an undefeated P5 champion (TCU) gets into the playoffs. And I think - *think* - a one-loss Pac-12 champion this year gets in.

But would the committee leave out a two-loss SEC champion? What if Michigan-Ohio State was a tight, one-score game decided on the final play?

The UVA community gathers here in the basketball arena today for a memorial to celebrate the lives of Lavel Davis, Devin Chandler and D’Sean Perry. 😔

Takeaway from LEAD1 AD summit in DC on NCAA football governance: the preference is to keep FBS within the NCAA with a streamlined FBS-only policy-making group.

The momentum to split FBS from the NCAA is fading, as many have expected the last few weeks. The Transformation Committee is exploring the FBS governance issue, and the goal is to find a way to keep FBS under the NCAA umbrella with more authority given to it, such as an FBS-only board, etc.

Despite buzz lately of an FBS split, the AD support for it isn’t there.

#LSU is hiring Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly as its next head coach, sources confirm to @SINow, as @PeteThamel reported. @SInow @PeteThamel Personally, I doubted the day-long buzz, mostly because Notre Dame still has a real chance at making the Playoff.

These are unprecedented times.

In a span of about 36 hours, we've had two of the most high profile college head coaching moves in the modern history of the sport.

OSU muffed a punt. Sooners return it for a TD.

Oklahoma is suddenly up two scores in Bedlam. Lincoln Riley's Sooners have scored 16 unanswered points on three scores: (1) by its offense after an interception; (2) by its defense on a forced fumble-safety; (3) by its special teams on a muffed punt recovery in the end zone.

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby tells @SINow that he has documented evidence that ESPN tried to encourage an unnamed conference to add Big 12 members in an effort to destabilize the league so Texas & OU could avoid exit fees.

"It is tortious interference," he says. @SInow Bowlsby: "It causes me to further suspect they (ESPN) had their hands all over the Texas and Oklahoma move to the SEC. They were was deceptive as you can possibly be. There are right and wrong ways to these things. They sought to deceive us from the very beginning."

Hush Blackwell, the law firm #LSU hired to investigate sexual assault allegations, is revealing its report today in front of the Board of Supervisors.

Scott Schneider, from Hush Blackwell: "The university's Title IX office, up to today, has never been staffed appropriately." Scott Schneider on #LSU’s Title IX reporting process: “One survivor described it as it was designed to put victims in position to give up because they were worn down by the process.”

A Jackson State spokesman tells @SInow that the school has narrowed its list of head coaching candidates to three.

Deion Sanders, the spokesman says, is not one of them.

A hire is expected to be announced next week.

JSU OC TC Taylor remains a strong candidate, per source. @SInow NEWS: Multiple Jackson State sources tell @SInow the school is finalizing a deal with Deion Sanders to make him their next head coach, despite the university refuting @KennRashad's report.

A hangup getting smoothed out: Sanders is under contract with Under Armour. JSU is Nike.

White House officials held a briefing on the role the president played in helping Big Ten resume college football this fall.

"The president is honored and humbled he was able to make a difference in this and is excited these players can pursue their dreams." White House official says, while the president hasn't necessarily reached out to other conferences, he wants "everybody to reopen. It’s not just about the Big Ten. He’s willing to provide resources to anybody reconsidering to play football. ... This is not a political thing.”

At 10 am, the fourth Congressional NIL hearing is scheduled to begin.

@SInow obtained testimony of the three NCAA witnesses, including Wisconsin chancellor Rebecca Blank, who writes to lawmakers "We’re not running sports to primarily make money."

bit.ly/2RpgXVA @SInow Other NIL news from y'day via a survey the NCAA sent to schools.

A proposal would prohibit athletes from referencing their school/using logos in commercials & bans them from endorsing sports gambling outlets/those conflicting with a school’s “values.”

bit.ly/32su2DT

It's the 15-year anniversary of the storm or storms.

I was in college then. But I visited home that weekend. As Katrina approached, family urged me to return to school. On the drive from Biloxi to Starkville, mom called.

"Water is over the piers."

Was 12 hours before landfall. That night, the Mississippi State student newspaper staff gathered for a hurricane party. As Katrina obliterated my home, I partied. Young fools, we were.

I lost communication with my family for 2 days, only ghastly images of my home available on TV.

Were they OK? I didn't know