Morning Edition
October 19, 2026
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The Bulletin Board...
“We are not sitting here trying to be choir children. And so, did I have a problem with what Pat did? I did not. I did not.”
Dan Bartholomae
Michigan State AD to the Detroit News’ Tony Paul, expressing support for Football HC Pat Fitzgerald’s actions toward the officials during the Illinois game last week.
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A member of the Air Force passed away from his injuries after he fell as part of a pregame ceremony for UTSA's annual Salute to Armed Forces & Veterans game, before the Roadrunners’ football game against Navy on Saturday. Nellis Air Force Base Public Affairs issued a statement saying the service member, who was assigned to the 6th Combat Training Squadron, Detachment 2, was injured at the stadium and died at a local hospital. From UTSA: “We are deeply saddened by the incident that occurred at the start of tonight’s football game. Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with the soldier who was affected, his family and his military colleagues.” (link, link)
American Commissioner Tim Pernetti was onsite in San Antonio and met with both member institutions, and a working group to review the information available and discuss next steps. On3’s Brett McMurphy: “One important distinction in the Alamodome tragedy: The American Conference, who understands a little something about the military academies, followed casualty update protocols from [the] Air Force, in alignment with UTSA & Navy, about game continuation. Military notification protocols exist for a reason. Families come first.” (link)
The American addressed decision-making, timelines and protocols for continuation of play in a statement and added: "All of us at the American Conference are heartbroken by the death of the U.S. Air Force service member who took part in the pregame demonstration at the Alamodome on Oct. 17. We extend our deepest condolences to his family, friends, teammates and members of the 57th Wing who had the privilege of serving with him. We honor his service and join the military community in mourning his loss.” (link)
ESPN's Heather Dinich added from a source who worked in lockstep with conference and Nellis AFB: "The league wanted to protect the Air Force’s next-of-kin notification process and the family’s privacy was central to how the league handled its communication.” (link)
Michigan State AD Dan Bartholomae expressed support for Football HC Pat Fitzgerald after Fitzgerald, in the parlance of Top Gun, was seen “keeping up foreign relations” with officials during the Spartans’ 38-37 loss to Illinois earlier in the month. According to The Detroit News' Tony Paul, the incident occurred after a disputed offsides ruling on an apparently successful late-game onside kick recovery, leading Fitzgerald to wave his arms to rally the crowd before briefly extending his middle finger toward the officiating crew. While Fitzgerald publicly apologized during his weekly press conference—acknowledging he got caught up in the moment—Bartholomae embraced the competitive fire: "We are not sitting here trying to be choir children. And so, did I have a problem with what Pat did? I did not. I did not. In fact, I appreciated that got the crowd riled up. ... That's the kind of energy that I want. I think you have to have a little bit of fire in your belly." (link)
San Francisco AD Brent Blaylock sat down with College.town’s Kristen Eargle to discuss his first 90 days leading the Dons' athletic department and the realities of modern collegiate administration. Key comments…
➤ "10 years ago, leaders were mostly asked to manage within an established model. They could generally go to bed and know what to expect the next day or the next month or next year. Today, we're being challenged to constantly reimagine what we have to do while continuing to deliver on a core mission. … Leadership is evolving from going from having a strict way of doing things to instead applying a core group of principles that can be adapted in this ever-changing environment."
➤ On finding perspective amid the demands of the profession: "I don't think that there's much to having a true work-life balance. You can never turn off the work brain and certainly can't turn off the personal side of things as well. ... my wife's also, she's incredible with that ... she does often remind me that, 'Hey, you guys aren't exactly curing cancer there.' And it does make you say, 'You know what? You're right. We can do that a different way.'" (link)
The DI Women’s Volleyball Committee has announced its Top 16 rankings, lead by Nebraska, Pittsburg, Kentucky & Wisconsin in the top four spots. That quartet is followed, in order, by Florida, SMU, Louisville, TCU, BYU, Oregon, Vanderbilt, Texas, UCLA, Penn State, Washington & Purdue. (link)
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh Volleyball HC Dan Fisher shared his thoughts on the NCAA’s proposed December transfer portal, which would fall right before the Sweet 16: "I'm really, really disappointed in this recommendation. In almost every other sport, the NCAA has found a way to get the portal out of the season. For whoever's listening, I hope we can put some pressure on the powers that be so they can do the right thing for the 200 to 250 student-athletes still remaining. We have a chance to align ourselves with the football portal window. It's not perfect, but it's better than the current scenario." Kentucky HC Craig Skinner also voiced his support for Fisher’s position. (link)
Data from 95 Power 4 and Notre Dame games this season reveals a projected correlation between roster spending and on-field success, according to The Athletic's Emily Giambalvo and Yuriko Schumacher. Teams wielding a budget advantage of at least $5M win 68% of their matchups, while those with a gap of at least $10M secure victories 79% of the time. The analysis breaks down win rates across specific budget disparities, with teams winning 55% of games (23-19) with a $5M to $10M gap, 86% (12-2) with a $10M to $15M gap, 79% (15-4) with a $15M to $20M gap, and 75% (15-5) with a gap of at least $20M. Upsets remain possible, evidenced by Oklahoma State (roughly $20M) defeating Oregon and Kentucky beating Texas A&M and LSU, but most of the 12 programs who have at least a 35% chance of reaching the College Football Playoff, per Austin Mock's October 17 estimates, sit at the top of the spending hierarchy. (link)
ESPN College GameDay is staying in the Beehive State, making the trip from Provo to Salt Lake City for Saturday’s Utah-Houston matchup. (link)
The SEC fined Tennessee $500K for fans storming the Neyland Stadium field after the Vols’ victory over Alabama on Saturday. (link)
The Michigan Board of Regents approved two major athletic and medical infrastructure projects totaling $184M, including a $29M, 28K-square-foot Men's Gymnastics Training Center and a $155M, 100K-square-foot Sports Medicine Institute. Designed by Integrated Architecture and funded through Intercollegiate Athletics resources, the new gymnastics venue adjacent to the Bahna Wrestling Center features dedicated practice areas, locker rooms, recovery spaces, and staff offices to replace the team's current practice space in the Coliseum building, which is slated for demolition ahead of its planned fall 2028 completion. Additionally, the Nathan and Catherine Forbes Sports Medicine Institute in south Ann Arbor will feature 34 exam rooms, an ambulatory surgery center, physical therapy, performance training, and procedural spaces for regenerative therapies, with SmithGroup serving as architect ahead of its fall 2028 opening. (link, link, link)
Ole Miss has received a $2M gift from Karen and Bruce Moore to support a new golf complex that will bear their name. The facility, expected to be completed by fall 2027, will include administrative and coaches' offices, and player lounges designed to enhance the experience and development of both men's and women's golf student-athletes. (link)
Missouri has received a “significant gift” from alumni Denny and Carla Boyd to support improvements for the competition pool and aquatic area in the MU Recreation Center. (link)
The Athletic’s Eno Sarris explains how the Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers are implementing modern analytical frameworks and developmental technology to establish sustainable, high-efficiency competitive models. Both franchises rank among the top ten MLB organizations in R&D investment, leveraging tools like KinaTrax markerless biomechanics tracking, Edgertronic high-speed cameras, and pitching lab tech—highlighted by Milwaukee's $60M Spring Training facility renovation in 2019. The Rays revolutionized pitching usage by introducing the "opener" strategy in 2018, while the Brewers have maximized roster construction by prioritizing elite catcher defense, deeper contact points for clutch hitting, and fielding rosters with shorter, highly agile position players. Sarris notes both clubs continue to exploit market inefficiencies across pitch design, outfield jump metrics, and base-stealing math to consistently outperform higher-spending rivals: "These two organizations are relentless in their pursuit of the edge, any edge. ... These two organizations are always at the forefront of pitch design because they value the insights borne of data from cutting-edge technology and have the personnel in place to implement it." (link)
A Los Angeles hospitality group used a $60K trade on Kalshi to offset revenue lost after the Los Angeles Dodgers failed to reach the World Series, per Reuters, which notes: “The group, which operates 25 bars, many of them near the Dodger Stadium, made a $60K trade on Kalshi if the team did not advance. The position returned nearly twice the original stake, Kalshi said, helping make up for business the bars would have received from additional playoff games. The trade points to a small but growing use of prediction markets by businesses seeking protection against risks that conventional financial products may not cover.” (link)
A network of Super PACs financed by DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics, and Bet365 has injected nearly $100M over the past year into state legislative elections to advance gambling industry interests. The sportsbook operators utilize the Win for America PAC to distribute capital to bipartisan affiliates, recently allocating $5.9M to the Republican-aligned American Conservative Fund PAC and $2.7M to the Democrat-aligned American Future PAC from a $9.65M contribution. The PAC also executed substantial investments in mailers and television through political consulting firms like Sway ($347K) and Targeted Platform Media LLC ($194K). The advertising campaigns intentionally omit any mention of sports betting, instead leveraging hot-button political issues to influence the state lawmakers responsible for regulating online casinos and establishing corporate tax rates. (link)
Morning Edition
October 18, 2026
Missouri Valley Conference Commissioner Jeff Jackson addressed media members during the league’s hoops media day late last week. Key comments…
➤ Maintaining roster continuity despite national transfer portal trends: "Whether it's the culture that has been built, the villages that our institutions have built in support of the student-athletes, the level of competition they get to participate in … I think all those things matter. When young people are making a decision, not every decision is a transactional decision. ... It’s much more about being transformational than transactional. And I think the Valley emulates that."
➤ Why an odd number of member schools impacts non-conference basketball scheduling: "When we have an even number, we can use 20 windows in order to complete our schedule. When we have an odd number, we need 22 windows. So when you're looking at it from just a sport of basketball by having an odd number, we almost lose two weeks of our season."
➤ Evaluating potential expansion candidates to reach an even number of members: "It is just solving a math problem and we've been able to solve that math problem for the last couple of years. So, it's not something that we have to, but I think if the right institutions came across that would afford us an opportunity to get to an even number and manage some of the things that we're looking at in a more efficient fashion, I think our board will give that great consideration." (link)
Big West Commissioner Dan Butterly weighed in on the DI Cabinet’s recent approval of a proposal to shift the playing season in men’s collegiate soccer to a year-round model…
➤ “Because the Cabinet did not approve the proposal with 75% of the vote, it will now go into a 30-day rescission period, during which any of the eligible Division I schools or conferences can submit a vote to defeat the proposal. At the end of the 30-day window, if two-thirds of DI members (at least 245 schools and/or conferences) do not rescind the rule change, it will take effect, and the men’s soccer season will move to the year-round model starting with the 2027-28 academic year.”
➤ “I strongly believe this should be only those institutions that sponsor men’s soccer, but based on this release, it seems it is based on the FULL NCAA membership. … While awaiting the conclusion of the 30-day rescission period, the oversight committee will begin exploring implementation of the new rules by working with NCAA staff and broadcast partners to identify when the championship might occur during the spring semester. The Division I Women’s Soccer Oversight Committee reviewed the proposal and ultimately declined to propose a similar change in women’s soccer.”
➤ “The rescission period ends at 5 p.m. ET on November 6. Membership action can make a difference. The previously approved change permitting betting on professional sports was rescinded after two-thirds of Division I member schools supported rescission.” (link)
The recent decisions by Penn State, Tennessee, and Ole Miss to leave Nike for Adidas highlight an evolving college apparel market driven by direct cash guarantees, dedicated NIL marketing budgets, and expanded retail opportunities, according to Sport & State's Gus Wilson. D1.takeaways…
➤ While the defections feature lucrative contracts—including a 10-year, $300M agreement for Penn State and deals reportedly worth over $20M and $10M annually for Ole Miss and Tennessee, respectively—the inclusion of built-in ambassador networks allowing athletes across all varsity sports to access promotional dollars provided a distinct competitive advantage.
➤ The movement goes both ways, as Nike recently secured Miami (FL) and South Carolina, indicating the Swoosh is more focused on the ROI for its sponsorships than simply winning bidding wars.
➤ Sports business consultant Russell White: "Nike, you know, is king. Their guarantee plus cash amount is not always going to be the largest number out there. If Adidas or Under Armour comes in with a big offer, that can swing those decisions. ... I don’t think it’s as much somebody coming and knocking Nike off as much as it is maybe a calculated decision on their end of maybe culling the herd a little bit. Nike is allowing itself to be challenged. There are probably schools that are not money makers, not huge positives for them other than brand awareness.” (link)
After yesterday’s football win over Indiana, Ohio State released renderings outlining a major renovation and expansion of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. The plan in Columbus is to target an upgrade of the 39-year-old facility that will expand the weight room, team meeting spaces, locker rooms, training areas, and office complexes, with construction estimated to begin in roughly 18 months. Football HC Ryan Day: "When you look at our facility, we have completely outgrown it.” Buckeyes AD Ross Bjork: “When I think about this investment, it's really about what's required to maintain and also innovate in the modern era to support our student-athletes." No construction timeline released. (link)
Wake Forest Baseball HC Tom Walter is currently on leave, according to Deacons Illustrated. D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers reported that the program is in the midst of an internal investigation, and that Walter’s return is TBD. Rogers puts Walter’s chances of returning to lead the program at 50-50. (link)
The Athletic's Justin Williams and Grace Raynor take a look at how former Alabama Football HC Nick Saban, LSU HC Lane Kiffin, and Indiana HC Curt Cignetti are leveraging their national popularity to star in marketing campaigns for brands like Aflac, DoorDash, Dr Pepper, and State Farm. The national endorsements provide corporate partners a direct conduit to television ratings that trail only the NFL, capitalizing on the reality that head coaches often remain more marketable than inherently transient student-athletes in the modern NIL era. Aflac CMO Garth Knutson on why coaches eagerly pursue the brand partnerships despite earning salaries that reach $10M annually: "The Aflac gig is a fraction of that. A small fraction of it. ... Other coaches who have won national championships in college football reach out, sometimes directly, and want to be in this campaign. It’s about the visibility." Knutson adds of Saban: “Unless you were an Alabama fan, when he was still coaching, he was Darth Vader. And now in retirement, he’s Switzerland. He’s not only more visible than before, he’s more likable because people are seeing who he really is.” (link)
North Dakota State Assoc. AD for Marketing and Fan Engagement Cam Bastian joined the NACMA Timeout Podcast with Fairfield Assoc. VP/Deputy AD Zach Dayton to outline the department's transition to the Mountain West and the FBS, detail its recent Under Armour football jersey auction, discuss state-wide fundraising campaigns and more. Check it out…
➤ Managing the rapid six-month transition timeline to the Mountain West: "The change and the transition was a lot quicker than even some of the more recent conference realignment that we’ve seen over the last few years. ... We went from finding out we were going to be FBS in February to competing in FBS by August. And it seems like most of these other teams have had a year to a year-and-a-half of lead up to be able to prepare for, ‘all right, what are we doing about our ticket sales strategy or revenue generation or how are we going to cover some of these national media stories?’ ... And here we are, we're saying, 'All right, we got six months to figure this out and to make it happen.'"
➤ Testing the jersey auction concept before working with Under Armour on the Battle of the Basins Trophy matchup: "We actually trial ran everything last year with women's basketball. We did a pink jersey for breast cancer awareness last February with Athletics Admin and it went really well. We ended up having really good fundraising obviously for that one. ... So that was a great opportunity for us to really test the waters, you know, 15 basketball jerseys are a little bit different than an entire football team. We had a chance to test it, see how our fans would respond and react and saw a lot of positive things come out of it. And so, we knew that, ‘hey, football is something that we want to consider.’" (link)
Prairie View A&M Provost/SVP for Academic Affairs Aashir Nasim penned an op-ed in Sports Business Journal questioning the long-term brand damage inflicted on HBCUs by scheduling guarantee games against top-tier FBS programs. The 15 HBCU-FBS guarantee games scheduled for this season will generate an estimated $6.9M for visiting athletic departments, but Nasim posits that the widening economic divide fueled by NIL and direct revenue sharing has turned these contests into televised exhibitions of financial inequality rather than competitive football: "The check is easy to calculate. The value of what HBCUs bring with them — their athletes, brands, histories and institutional reputations — is considerably harder to measure. We know what the market is willing to pay us to play the game. The more important question is whether we fully appreciate the value of what we are selling in return." (link)
Davidson, Wake Forest and Wichita State’s women’s basketball programs are teaming up with analytics and video platform ShotTracker to help support player tracking, live game analytics and natural-language scouting. (link, link, link)
Encore Sports & Entertainment CEO Nick Kelly, Next League Chief AI & Innovation Officer Shripal Shah, Dirigo Advisory Founder John Brody and Crakes Media President Pat Crakes visited with JohnWallStreet Founder/CEO Corey Leff on The Sports Advisors podcast for a wide-ranging conversation analyzing the decline of regional sports networks, the structural shift away from the pay TV bundle and more. Here are some takeaways…
➤ Kelly on advising properties to finalize media rights negotiations ahead of major league windows: "If I'm anybody else who has the opportunity to start an early conversation, I'm doing it as soon as I can. ... Once the NFL gets their partners and exhausts a lot of the resources, what's left? ... If I'm the colleges, if I'm all the big conferences, I'm racing to beat the NFL first and then the MLB is kind of in its own, it has a different calendar, the summer. … [The] NHL's got its deal coming up. As much as you can get out in front of the NFL is what I’d try and do.”
➤ Brody: "Sports is still the most lucrative, the most well established, the safest place for advertisers to put their investment and for distribution companies to invest. It's just not going to continue to just explode and go to the moon. It may not be two times, three times, four times, but cream still rises and those top properties are very well positioned for growth. The NBA just did an enormous new national media deal within the last 24 months. … Sports is still the prime real estate."
➤ Shah on reducing dependence on media rights revenue through unified fan data profiles: "One login, every fan, every door, right? Tickets, app, mixed use, concession. If you can have one profile that works not only in your walls, but those associated with you, that's going to make it the easiest way for everyone to be able to access the data, drive incremental spend, and that's going to create an ecosystem effect. That will allow you to generate more short-term revenue and long-term revenue because the data profiles will allow you to then give you more fidelity when you're doing your media rights deal, which is a long-term play, but locally you'll have the ability to have a much more robust secondary revenue stream." (link)
ESPN has launched ESPN JV, a new YouTube channel targeting younger fans and families through interactive challenges, memorable sports highlights, and appearances by Disney characters and famous sports figures. The digital destination features "The Sports Explorers," an original animated series developed in partnership with WSC Sports' creative production unit, WSC Studios. The launch builds on ESPN's recent alternative broadcast strategies that incorporated properties like Marvel, Toy Story and Big City Greens into live telecasts. ESPN VP of Multi-Platform Video Celia Bouza: "ESPN JV is about creating an exciting entry point into sports for the next generation of fans. By combining ESPN’s connection to the biggest moments and personalities in sports with creative, interactive storytelling, we’re building a destination where kids can explore their interests, discover new sports and develop a lifelong love of the game.” (link)
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Athletics Academic Advisor / Education Support Specialist II (Longwood University / Farmville, VA): More details HERE.
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Senior Associate Athletics Director, Business & Financial Strategy (Athletics CFO) (The George Washington University / Washington, DC): More details HERE. What would it cost to move to Washington? Click HERE.
Human Resources Business Partner (HRBP) (University of Minnesota / Minneapolis, MN): More details HERE.
Assistant Athletic Director, Business Operations (La Salle University / Philadelphia, PA): More details HERE.
Director of Athlete Compensation (Clemson University / Clemson, SC): More details HERE.
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General Manager, Athletics (Florida Gulf Coast University / Fort Myers, FL): More details HERE.
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Men's Assistant Coach (Swarthmore College / Swarthmore, PA): More details HERE.
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Assistant Director of Strategic Communications (University of North Carolina at Charlotte / Charlotte, NC): More details HERE.
Assoc. Director, Communications - Multiple Sports (Baseball Primary) (Texas Tech University / Lubbock, TX): More details HERE.
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Director of Athletic Compliance (Ball State University / Muncie, IN): More details HERE.
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Associate Director / Director of Major Gifts-Utah State Athletics (Utah State University / Logan, UT): More details HERE.
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Director of Premium Seating (Texas A&M University 12th Man Foundation / College Station, TX): More details HERE.
Director OR Senior Director of Donor Experiences and Special Events (Virginia Athletics Foundation) (University of Virginia / Charlottesville, VA): More details HERE.
Major Gift Officer, Athletics Development (Villanova University / Villanova, PA): More details HERE.
Donor Stewardship and Engagement Specialist (Duke University / Durham, NC): More details HERE.
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Senior Associate Athletics Director, Business & Financial Strategy (Athletics CFO) (The George Washington University / Washington, DC): More details HERE. What would it cost to move to Washington? Click HERE.
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General Administration
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Associate Athletic Trainer (Middle Tennessee State University / Murfreesboro, TN): More details HERE.
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Account Executive, Ticket Sales (University of Arizona / Tucson, AZ): More details HERE.