Category: College sports

College Sports Roundup: Conference realignment, San Diego State’s future, and more from the College Wires

The Big 12 and AAC officially welcomed new member institutions on Saturday, an update to San Diego State’s future, and more from the College Wires.

Oct 18, 2022; Kansas City, Missouri, US; Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark interviewed during the womens Big 12 Basketball Tipoff event at the T-Mobile Center. William Purnell-USA TODAY Sports

Now that the calendar has flipped to July, the Big 12 Conference and American Athletic Conferences have officially welcomed new member institutions.

The Big 12 welcomed four new full-time members in BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati, and Houston. They will join Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech, and West Virginia as members of the conference.ย Oklahoma and Texas are also members of the conference for the 2023-2024 academic year but will depart on July 1, 2024, for the SEC.

BYU comes to the Big 12 after being independent from 2011 through this past academic year. The university was most recently a member of the Mountain West Conference from 1999 through 2021.

Central Florida, Cincinnati, and Houston all come to the conference after being part of the American Athletic Conference since its beginning in 2013.

On Friday, AAC commissioner Mike Aresco released a statement on the departure of Central Florida, Cincinnati, and Houston.

“As we witness renewal as well as change in welcoming six new schools on July 1, I want to take a moment to thank and congratulate our three departing schools, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF for all the contributions they have made to our conference and to wish them much success in their new conference.”

Aresco also commented on the achievements that the three schools had while as part of The American will “always be a lasting legacy for The American” and that the conference “will be rooting for them in the new home,” with the exception of whenever they may see them again in a competition setting.

While the AAC says goodbye to those institutions, they also welcome six new universities into the fold in; Charlotte, FAU, North Texas, Rice, UAB, and UTSA. They will join the conference’s nine remaining members in East Carolina, Memphis, Navy, South Florida, SMU, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa, and Wichita State.

Notably Navy is only part of the conference for football only while Wichita State only competes in the AAC for basketball and Olympic sports.

Beyond the Big 12 and AAC welcoming their new institutions, there is an update on the future of San Diego State, and more from the College Wires discussed in today’s roundup.

Friday Recruiting Roundup: Official visit season wraps up, commitments, and more from the College Wires

What schools have some of the top classes as the first official visit window closes and more from around the College Wire network.

As June comes to an end, it means the first official visit window of the 2024 recruiting cycle has come to an end.

Once the clock strikes midnight and the calendar flips to July 1, it will be a dead period in college football for most of the remainder of the summer. Prospects at the end of the month can visit campuses again as many schools will hold one last camp, a recruiting bash, and other events for recruits to attend, but then once again will be a dead period until the start of the 2023 college football season.

As we enter June, it is a consensus that the Georgia Bulldogs find themselves leading the way in the team recruiting rankings.

Georgia holds commitments from top prospects such as quarterback Dylan Raiola, CB Ellis Robinson IV, DB Peyton Woodyard, and LB Demarcus Riddick among others.

Other programs that are having strong classes thus far include the Florida Gators who had themselves a massively successful June. So have the Stanford Cardinal who have skyrocketed up rankings across the recruiting industry with a huge June on the recruiting trail.

Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, and Oregon are all programs with consensus top-10 classes as well.

Programs like Clemson, USC, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Alabama, Oklahoma, and others are all sitting strong entering July but will have some work to do going forward to move up the team rankings.

With the month wrapping up, its also a great time to take a look at what’s going on across the College Wire network on the recruiting trail

College Sports Roundup: DI Council proposes multiple changes, college sports viewership is up, and more from the College Wires.

The D1 Council made several significant poroposals on Wednesday, college sprots viewership is up, and more.

Nov 5, 2022; Louisville, Kentucky, USA; James Madison Dukes running back Percy Agyei-Obese (31) celebrates a touchdown with wide receiver Kris Thornton (8) and offensive lineman Cole Potts (66) during the first half against the Louisville Cardinals at Cardinal Stadium. Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports

On Wednesday, the DI Council proposed a quite significant change when it comes to membership requirements for FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision)ย  schools. While this won’t affect any schools currently in the FBS, it could become quite a barrier for FCS (Football Championship Subdivision)ย  programs looking to move into the FBS.

Part of the requirement changes would include; “90% of the total number of allowable scholarships over a two-year rolling period across at least 16 sports, including football”. The total amount of scholarships that a school offers each year would have to be at least 210 and equate to at least $6 million of aid.

The biggest change however would be to increase the transition fee for each school from $5,000 to $5 Million. This is a significant monetary investment for any university to take.

The union also proposed removing football attendance requirements as well.

Notably, while these requirements have been proposed and could be approved in the near future, the new requirements would not go into effect prior to August 1, 2027.

Since 2010, 14 schools have made the jump from FCS to FBS with James Madison, Sam Houston, and Jacksonville State being the last three programs to do so.

Last December, it was reported by ESPN that 10 FCS schools, Stephen F. Austin, Abilene Christian, Utah Tech, Southern Utah, Tarleton State, Austin Peay, Eastern Kentucky, Central Arkansas, and North Alabama were looking to create a new football-only conference, and move up to the FBS level for the 2025 season. UT Rio Grande Valley would also be a member of that conference as they expect to launch a football program in 2025.

 

College Sports Roundup: LSU wins it all, Men’s Basketball transfer portal updates

LSU claims natoinal title No. 7 plus men’s college basketball transfer portal updates

Jun 26, 2023; Omaha, NE. LSU Tigers catcher Jared Jones (22) and shortstop Jordan Thompson (4) and catcher Hayden Travinski (25) and second baseman Gavin Dugas (8) pose with the national championship trophy after the win against the Florida Gators at Charles Schwab Field Omaha. Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

The 2022-2023 collegiate athletic calender is officially complete. On Monday night, the LSU Tigers defeated the Florida Gators 18-4 en route to the program’s seventh national championship and first since 2009.

With the national championship, LSU became the first school in collegiate sports history to win both a baseball and basketball national championship in the same year. The LSU Women’s Basketball team previously won the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship earlier this year over Iowa 102-85.

The Tigers would go down 2-0 in the first inning on Monday but would quickly recover, with 11 unanswered runs over the next six innings before adding on seven runs over the course of the eighth and ninth innings to put the game away for good.

The Tigers’ 24 hits in the game are the most in College World Series history, breaking the previous record of 23 which was tied by the Gators on Sunday in a 24-4 win.

The Tigers now have the second most national championships in NCAA history with seven, only behind USC’s 12. Texas has the third most with six while Arizona State is fourth with five.

But now with the completion of the 2022-2023 academic year, athletic schedules. The short wait begins for collegiate sports to pick back up as fall sports begin their preseason training in late July and early August in preparation for their starts in late August and early September.

Beyond LSU winning the College World Series there are also several notable college basketball transfer portal updates to pass along.

Jun 26, 2023; Omaha, NE. The LSU Tigers hold aloft the national championship trophy after winning the College World Series against the Florida Gators at Charles Schwab Field Omaha. Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

 

College Sports Roundup: Happy Gilmore, Athletes becoming employees

It was a queiter day around the college sports landscape on Friday but here is what you may have missed.

Friday was a quieter day across the college sports landscape. There were no sporting events, leaving only some general news stories to pass along this Saturday morning.

We’ll start off with a sport we usually don’t cover, golf.

On Friday, golfer, Happy Gilmore, and yes that is his name, announced his commitment to Ball State to continue his academic and golfing career. Gilmore a current senior at Bloomington South in Bloomington, Indiana made the announcement on Twitter.

Adam Sandler who of course played the fictional Happy Gilmore in the 1996 comedy classic even quote-tweeted Gilmore’s post on Twitter, saying “Go get ’em Happy. Pulling for you.”

According to teamhappygilmore.com, Gilmore’s actual name is Landon James Gilmore. However, after winning a long-drive competition at nine years old, Gilmore earned the nickname of Happy after a heckler yelled the name at him. It was at that point that Gilmore first saw the Happy Gilmore movie and the rest is history.

Gilmore played on the US Kids Tour and Golf Week Junior Tour. With Bloomington South, Gilmore helped his school place fourth in the 2021 IHSAA State Tournament.

Now Gilmore will continue his career not too far away from home at Ball State.

Beyond Gilmore’s commitment to Ball State, we saw roster attrition at West Virginia beginning, one popular head coach saying he believes athletes could become employees sooner than later as well as the top stories from around the college sports wire.

College Sports Roundup: LSU outlasts Wake Forest, NBA Draft, LSU placed on probation, and more

LSU outlasts Wake Forest in thrilling elimination game, the NBA Draft had a few surprising picks and LSU football and basketball has been put on probabiton.

Thursday was a packed day of sports news from around the college sports world, leaving plenty of things to go over in today’s college sports roundup.

Starting with the College World Series will be an all-SEC College World Series Championship Series.

On Thursday night, the No. 5 LSU Tigers thanks to a two-run home run by Tommy “Tanks” White defeated the No. 1 Wake Forest Demon Deacons in one of the best pitching duels you’ll ever see in college baseball. LSU’s Paul Skenes and Wake Forest’s Rhett Lowder went pitch-for-pitch through seven innings on Thursday night as the two showed why they’ll both likely be high first-round picks in next month’s MLB Draft.

Lowder was great, pitching seven innings and allowing just three hits and a pair of walks while striking out six. Skenes, however, was even better. Over in today’s age, an unheard of 120 pitches, Skenes allowed just two hits and one walk over eight innings pitched while striking out nine.

It would take 11 innings to ultimately find a winner. After Demon Deacons’ reliever, Michael Massey allowed a base runner in the bottom of the 11th inning, the Demon Deacons turned to closer Camden Minacci to face Tommy White.

On Minacci’s first pitch to White, White clobbered a hanging offspeed pitch in the middle of the zone to give LSU the 2-0 victory and advance the Tigers to the Championship Series to take on the Florida Gators. Surprisingly, this will be the first time that LSU has played Florida all season. The two did not meet in the regular season or SEC Tournament.

Beyond the thrilling LSU vs Wake Forest game, there was also plenty of other news including more coming out of Baton Rouge. The NBA draft took place in Brooklyn with some surprising picks, the LSU Football and Basketball programs were placed on probation, and more.

College Sports Roundup: College World Series, Hancock to step down, and more

Another eventful day around the college football world on Wednesday.

It was another eventful day in college athletics on Wednesday as the College World Series is set for a decisive game between Florida and Wake Forest on Thursday, College Football Playoffs executive director Bill Hancock preparing to step down, Penny Hardaway was suspended, Joey McGuire climbing cranes for fun and more.

Starting with the College World Series, the LSU Tigers defeated Wake Forest on Wednesday 5-2 to force a decisive second game between the two on Thursday. The winner of the matchup will advance to the College World Series final set for this weekend and will face off against the Florida Gators who took down TCU to get to the College World Series Final.

The Gators will have a nice rest advantage heading into the finals as they will have been off since Tuesday.

Check outย LSU Wireย andย Gators Wireย for more on the College World Series.

Beyond the College World Series, College Sports Wire takes a look at several other major news stories from Wednesday including College Football Playoffs executive director Bill Hancock preparing to step down in 2025, Joey McGuire climbing a construction crane, and more.

College Sports Roundup: College World Series rolls on, Zak Herbstreit, and more

All the latest news from Tuesday found in one spot in the latest College Sports Roundup

The college sports world continues to turn and Tuesday while an overall quiet day still had its’ fair share of news stories.

The College World Series continued on as we saw the elimination of a pair of programs on Monday, meaning there are only four teams left as we saw the departures of Tennessee and Oral Roberts, joining Stanford and Virginia in that regard.

That being said, both Florida and LSU remain in the hunt for a national championship as do TCU and Wake Forest. The tournament will continue on Wednesday as No. 2 Florida takes on TCU and No. 1 Wake Forest will battle No. 5 LSU.

Check out LSU Wire and Gators Wire for more on the College World Series.

College Sports Wire checks in on the top stories from Tuesday including an Ohio State player being hospitalized, the Mountain West rejecting San Diego State Universities’s request for a withdrawal extension, and more.

College Sports Roundup: NBA mock, MLB mock, and West Virginia

Check out today’s top stories with the College Sports Roundup.

Despite being in a bit of a slow period in college sports, there is no shortage of headlines.

The College World Series is currently in full swing with the Wake Forest Demon Deacons awaiting the winner of the LSU-Tennessee rematch. In the other bracket, the Florida Gators will face the winner of Oral Roberts-TCU. Those matchups will take place on Jun. 20.

Check out LSU Wire, Gators Wire, and Vols Wire for more on the College World Series.ย 

College Sports Wire checks in on the top stories over the weekend, including Bob Huggins abruptly resigning from his post in Morgantown. We also look at who are the top projected picks for the upcoming MLB and NBA drafts.

Which schools had the most athletic revenue in 2022?

Which universities saw the most revenue from their athletic departments this past year?

Earlier this week, USA TODAY Sports released its annual NCAA Finances: Revenue and Expenses by School database.

The database shows the revenue and expenses of 230+ public schools at the Division I level. Every public school at the Division I level has the obligation to release the data while private schools and those under state exemptions are not.

This year, five schools totaled revenue of over $200 million and 49 totaled over $100 million in revenue.

Power Five programs take up each of the first 51 spots in the rankings with UCF being the first non-Power Five program to make the list at No. 51. The Knights totaled $89 million in revenue this past year.

Power Five programs below Central Florida include Washington State and Oregon State at No. 53 and No. 54 respectively.

Beyond that there are not too many surprises when it comes to what athletic departments brought in the most revenue.

The Big Ten and SEC dominate the top 12 with 10 of the 12 universities being in one of the two conferences. The other two universities in the top-12 that are not members of either conference will be in the near future.

If anything the figures show very much what we have long thought of the college sports landscape. The Big Ten and SEC are miles ahead of the other conferences. The ACC is in a distant third while the Pac-12 and Big-12 will be in quite a bit of trouble once schools such as Oklahoma, Texas, UCLA, and USC leave their respective conferences.

Notably, neither UCLA nor USC’s revenue and expenses numbers are released. UCLA is exempted from doing so while USC is a private university.