It’s a bad day to be an Ohio State gymnast

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Hey there,

Today’s edition has highs and lows. The highs: JuJu Watkins just signed one of the biggest endorsement deals in women’s basketball history. The lows: Ohio State’s men’s gymnastics team is bearing the brunt of budget cuts at the school. Oh, and the D-I Council just voted through some new rules, which include eliminating the National Letter of Intent. It’s all coming up right now – let’s get into it!

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— Cole, Justin and Collin

The Big 3

JuJu Watkins’ Record Breaking NIL Deal

JuJu Watkins, USC’s superstar guard who currently holds a $567K NIL valuation, just signed one of the biggest endorsement deals in women’s basketball history. The agreement’s terms aren’t public, but one can guess that her valuation is set to jump as a result of the agreement.

Watkins was named first-team All American after her freshman season in L.A., averaging over 27 points a game for the Trojans. She also earned ESPN’s Best Breakthrough Athlete award over LSU gymnast Haleigh Bryant, NFL rookie of the year C.J. Stroud, and NBA rookie of the year Victor Wembanyama. 

Watkins is already building national brand recognition, and at the perfect time. Women’s basketball has never been more popular, which, down the road a bit, could potentially take her into the Caitlin Clark/Angel Reese stratosphere of NIL value. (More)

Ohio State Men’s Gymnastics to Eliminate Scholarships

Ohio State is officially terminating its men’s gymnastics scholarship program. The team will still exist, but athletes will no longer be able to receive scholarships for their participation.

As you may have guessed, this has to do with the other changes happening in the college sports world, like the House Settlement. In late August, Ohio State Athletic Director Ross Bjork said that “some sports may start to look and act a little bit more like a club sport, but yet compete at the Division I level and still travel and still compete.”

At Ohio State, men’s gymnastics are bearing the burden of tight budgets, but the sport’s seen a significant nationwide decline in recent years. In 1981, there were 59 DI gymnastics programs. Now, there’s only 12. (More)

D-I Council Votes Massive Changes Through

Big changes just got passed by the NCAA’s Division I Council: First, the transfer portal has been shortened from 45 days to 30 days. Second, the National Letter of Intent is officially gone.

First let’s talk about the portal shortening. Just two years ago, the portal stayed open for 60 days. After backlash from last season’s transfer portal insanity, though, the time period has been limited even further, from 45 to 30 days – a shorter period, but even more pressure packed into those thirty days.

As for the NLI, Mit Winter was quick to point out that the letter itself may be gone, but many of its components will continue to exist via compensation agreements like NIL, scholarships, and more. A big week in college sports, to say the least. (More)

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Sponsorship Section

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

Braden Smith

• School: Purdue 

• Sport: Basketball

• Position: Guard

• Class: Junior

•  Accolades: 

• First-team All-Big Ten and Honorable Mention All-America accolades.

• Named one of five finalists for the Cousy Award, given to the nation's top point guard.

• Averaged 12.0 points, 7.5 assists, 5.8 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game, while playing a school-record 1,327 minutes and starting all 39 games.

• NIL: He recently topped the NIL Store’s charts as the highest earner in July—the only basketball player to do so.

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NIL BLITZ

♦️ Apparently Kansas State is top-five in the country in NIL resources

♦️ Here’s how Vanderbilt’s upset over ‘Bama could affect their NIL war chest

♦️ Dr. Pepper signs Oklahoma, Texas stars to NIL deal ahead of the Red River Rivalry game

♦️ The House Settlement only allows for four years of payments… which means there’s no reason for a redshirt senior to stay in school 

♦️ Cincinnati baseball coach: “90 percent of quality everyday players that transfer walked away with some sort of NIL at their school.”

♦️ Northwestern is officially “all in” on NIL 

♦️ Terrelle Pryor is piling on the lawsuit that seeks to recoup NIL earnings from the NCAA

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Today’s Poll Question:

Last Edition’s Poll Results:

Will Messi be worth $50 million per year over the next two years if he brings the MLS title to Inter Miami?

• Yes - 32%

• No - 68%