Colleges

Eight SMU “megadonors” have raised $50M “for the school’s athletes, signaling a dramatic escalation in college sports’ donor-fueled financial arms race to recruit and retain the best players.” The gift to SMU’s Student-Athlete Benefit Fund will “support scholarships, NIL advancement and revenue shar...

Texas Tech’s naming-rights deal with AT&T for the school’s football stadium “expires in June” and company reps recently “withdrew from consideration for a new naming agreement,” according to Don Williams of the LUBBOCK AVALANCHE-JOURNAL. The venue has been named Jones AT&T Stadium since 2006...

INDIANAPOLIS – Inside the Pat Summitt room at the NCAA’s downtown offices, a quote from the legendary Tennessee head coach was plastered on the wall above our heads as we nestled into our respective seats:

The NCAA unveiled the payment structure for the $303M Ray settlement. It will be paid over a three-year period beginning this summer, with the NCAA paying $101M annually for three years. Of that, $60.6M (60%) will come from reductions to Division I revenue distributions and $40.4M (40%) will come fr...

NCAA SVP Dan Gavitt said Thursday that talks about potential expansion of the NCAA Tournament field will be paused, and an answer is not expected until after this year’s tournament, at the earliest. Speaking at the organization’s headquarters, NCAA President Charlie Baker told reporters, “I think th...

The Univ. of Michigan has “hired” Athletes First GM Dave Peloquin as the school’s next football GM, according to Barkley Truax of ON3. Peloquin has “spent the better part of a year” heading the collegiate division of Athletes First‘s College Representation Division. Prior to that, he spent 21 years ...

LSU AD Verge Ausberry said that the school is “not stopping looking for different ways to generate revenue” after recently signing a seven-year, multimillion-dollar jersey patch deal with Woodside Energy, according to Wilson Alexander of the New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE. Making more money has “become ...

The stakes have “never been higher for women’s hockey” than with Thursday’s U.S.-Canada gold medal game at the Milan Cortina Games due to players coming back to the PWHL, according to Katie McInerney of the BOSTON GLOBE. This is the first Olympics where players will go back to a league that “offers ...

Oak View Group and the Univ. of Kansas announced this morning that the members-only Naismith Club at Allen Fieldhouse will open this summer.

The Univ. of Miami has selected Legends Global as venue manager for Watsco Center, the 8,000-capacity home of Hurricanes basketball that opened in 2003.