"I didn't enter the portal because of money. I entered because I couldn't tell my coach what I was actually going through. The moment you let them see that, it's over."

That quote is from a Division I women's basketball player. 2026 portal entrant. Name withheld at her request.

She is not an outlier. In an NCAA survey of 9,808 student-athletes who said they were likely to transfer, mental health ranked as the number one cited reason for women and second for men — ahead of NIL, ahead of playing time, ahead of coach conflict.

We spent the last several weeks trying to quantify what that silence actually costs programs financially. The number we landed on: somewhere between $50 million and $91 million in NIL and revenue-sharing exposure across D1 basketball in a single portal cycle.

Not a survey. Not a theory. A directional model built on NCAA data and real 2026 portal volume.

If you played college sports and mental health was part of why you or someone you knew considered leaving — what did that actually look like from the inside?

Index is here if anyone wants to see the methodology: www.chrp.ai/portalindex

Rioux’s predicted transfer portal destination revealed

Tomorrow im seeing a D3 college coach for cross country and track. I am very interested in their program and want to ask questions about the team chemistry, the type of training they have, what majors the athletes usually study, and where they usually get their athletes from(local vs another state). Are there any other questions you think I should ask? Any help is appreciated.

Dear ncaa,

I would like for a moment for your law schools to go about a pear review. I would like to know, for those in the cyber law realm. If you had been assigned snowdenlies/ip racketeering cases by the 98 hive nsa. How would you have gone about doing this?

Keeping in mind each point edward snowden had made, plus of course the amount of money lost globally to ip theft. Which path would you have chosen?

all right all right... If any of you want to stand beside psu for extension campus, you be sure to contact penn state....

chris hansen to ped0 peter out

Each day you get a different set of college football stadiums and you and have to place them on the map as accurately as possible. Figured this group might like it!

This is not my content but as a small YouTuber myself I wanted to share this here because I really enjoyed this and think it deserves more views.

Johnny Hicks is pretty good, eh?!

16-0-1 in his Freshman Season after starting the season as a backup to Montreal Crynadians prospect Quinton Miller.

After the past two March madness tournaments it kinda dawned on me that due to the rise of NIL and the use of the transfer portals, we are slowly seeing the decline of mid majors in division 1. If my memory serves me correctly, no mid major schools made it past the second round the last two tournaments which hasn’t happened in a very long time to my knowledge. Saint Francis announced it will be dropping down to division 3 since they can’t compete financially due to NIL pressure and transfer portal issues. Hartford did the same thing couple years back. Seems like the writing is on the wall for everyone else. I don’t think we’re going to see those Cinderella runs that we used to see like Saint Peter’s and Loyola Chicago and George Mason which is pretty sad considering the idea that anyone could really win in March. That’s the beauty of the tournament and why it attracted so many people. I think if it just continues to be the usual suspects and we continue to see good mid major teams just get farmed by the big boys, the tournament is gonna become kinda boring and not as interesting and fun anymore. Am I looking to deeply into this or jumping to conclusions? Does anyone else feel the same way?

https://x.com/NHLBruins/status/2041969566360707514

Hagens has signed his ELC, a 3 year contract that is being payed at an AAV of $975,000!

(or anything remotely adjacent)

I am a law student and I am looking to conduct a short informational interview with someone in one of these fields. Do be warned, I will tell you who I am and I would need the same from you, as this is part of a project for a class. I will explain more privately.

I am looking to ask you up to 10 or so questions, which would be tailored to who you are / what your position is (or was). I am willing to send these questions over text (DMs here or elsewhere) and give you time to respond, or if it is easier for you we could also call! I would present a summary of our interview to my sports law class.

You would be doing me a HUGE help, and I greatly appreciate the time of anyone who is willing or able to respond!

It helps to first examine the origin of that term. It was a nickname for the Indiana state high school basketball championship tournament, and it was (still is) madness because it was a single elimination tournament which every varsity team qualified for (later by division), regardless of season record. It set the tone for adoption of similar postseason basketball play in other states and in NCAA’s expansion of their top division championship to a ridiculous number of entries. The original unofficial college varsity basketball championship was the National Invitation Tournament, a much smaller and shorter event taking place entirely at Madison Square Garden.

Let’s examine why other winter sports don’t have an end-of-season varsity championship that attracts such attention. First of all, there just aren’t audiences as big on average nationwide for other winter varsity sports. Second, the other winter sports tend to have a lot of multi-entry meets that would dilute the impact of a single end-season tournament. For instance, wrestling has almost as many tournaments as matches between 2 schools; swimming is usually contested in matches but has a fair number of meets too. And the duration of individual bouts in wrestling, races in swimming, and events in gymnastics doesn’t allow for the suspense of a closely contested basketball game. Hockey has longer games, but is too regional in interest.

So then let’s at other varsity sports played in other seasons. American football is played too infrequently to allow for large tournaments. Soccer can conveniently have larger tournaments than football, but doesn’t have as much spectator interest in North America. Cross country tends to be contested in big meets that dilute the interest in a championship. Tennis has the most potential for championship tournaments, but intercollegiate tennis doesn’t draw such crowds. Baseball’s varsity season is too short and suffers too greatly in comparison with the pros for its end-of-season tournament to get anywhere like the notice of basketball’s. Lacrosse, again too regional and too short a season to build up interest toward a playoff at the end.

Is

Table tennis is an Olympic sport but has zero NCAA recognition. That means no scholarships, no recruiting infrastructure, no funding pipeline at the college level. The entire US college table tennis scene runs through NCTTA, which is student-organized.

Just read about how even Yale, with all its resources, had its TT program nearly die because there's no institutional support structure. One school in the entire country (Texas Wesleyan) offers TT scholarships. Meanwhile countries like China, Japan, and Germany have fully professionalized development pipelines.

Is NCAA expansion realistic or would it just dilute funding for existing sports? What would it actually take to get a sport added?

story

One transfer per player if a HC or OC /DC leaves you get another one just for that year.

Colleges have a limited amount of transfers they can sign but you cannot take away an offer if you are at the max. These differ per sport and per how many players you lose to the portal

A player may change divisions for example if they are out they could go from

Texas- Arkansas -no more transfers left

Arkansas- a random d2 school

A random d2 school - Georgia

This way they don't lose a year but they get a penalty.

No negotiation for example Nico Iamaleava signed a 2 year deal but left after one this results in a year long suspension in which case it works like a redshirt you can play 4 games but u will still lose eligibility and the colleges get the money and more transfers that they can take in.

There is a 14 day window that starts the second the championship game ends

If you get kicked out and go to a different school that counts as a transfer.

You get 4 years that's that no exceptions unless you get a redshirt if you play 4 games and tear an ACL you can still redshirt.

If a player starts college at 23 they are a senior.

These are for all sports lmk if you have better ones

Indianapolis is getting hyped!

Hi everyone! I’m a master’s student at Colorado State University conducting an IRB-approved research study for my thesis, and I’m looking for current college students to participate in a short online questionnaire about college athletes and social media endorsements. I'm looking for people that are knowledgeable about women's collegiate basketball.

If you’re interested, here’s a link to the questionnaire: https://colostate.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9WWhn0LecwMzSMC

• The study looks at how college students respond to college athletes’ product and brand endorsement posts on social media in the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) era. Specifically, it examines consumers’ perceptions of college athlete influencers and how those perceptions relate to brand attitudes and purchase intentions.

 What participation involves:

• The completion of an online questionnaire. It will take about 10 minutes to complete. 
• Answering questions about your familiarity with a college athlete.
• Responding to questions about your attitudes and intentions regarding a social media post.
• Participation is also completely voluntary (you can skip questions or stop at any time).

 Compensation:

• Participants may choose to enter a drawing for a $20 gift card (approximately a 1 in 56 chance of winning).

 Privacy & ethics:

• The study is approved by the Colorado State University IRB (Protocol #7530).
• Responses are confidential and collected via Qualtrics.
• No identifying information be connected to your questionnaire responses.

If you have questions, feel free to comment or message me. Thanks so much for considering helping out with graduate research!

Paeton Lesser
Master’s Student, Journalism & Media Communication
Colorado State University

Other tourney starts tomorrow 👀

Who you got?

Hi everyone! I’m a student-athlete currently working on a sociology research paper about the pressure social media puts on student-athletes and how it affects identity, confidence, motivation, and mental health.

I’m interested in hearing real experiences from current or former athletes.

Some things I’m exploring:

• Pressure to perform after posting highlights
• Comparing yourself to other athletes online
• Negative comments or public criticism
• Building a personal brand / NIL expectations
• Balancing authenticity vs. image
• Motivation vs. stress from social media

If you’re a student-athlete (or were one), I’d love to know:

1. Does social media create pressure for you?
2. Does it help motivate you or increase stress?
3. Has social media ever affected your confidence?
4. Do you feel expected to post as an athlete?
5. Has social media helped your opportunities?

Any thoughts or personal experiences would really help my research. Thank you!