When thinking about potential winners of the 2026 Heisman Trophy, it’s worth looking back at last year’s voting results: Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin finished in fourth place. His Buckeyes’ teammate, wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, was the top non-quarterback and was sixth. SEC stars Gunner Stockton (Georgia) and Trinidad Chambliss (Ole Miss) finished seventh and eighth, respectively. 

All of those players returned for another season of college football, which should make the upcoming Heisman race among the most exciting in quite some time. Not to mention there’s another handful of high-end, NFL Draft-worthy players who are likely to factor into the race: From Arch Manning at Texas to Dante Moore at Oregon, from Darian Mensah at Miami to Josh Hoover at Indiana. There is no shortage of worthy contenders. 

That’s on the field. On the sideline, we’re also considering likely candidates for Coach of the Year, which Indiana’s Curt Cignetti won in 2025 while coaching his Hoosiers to their first-ever national championship and a 16-0 record. He could be in the mix this year with another competitive-looking team. But he’s not among our preseason picks.

So ahead of the 2026 college football season, here are our picks for this year’s Heisman and Coach of the Year winners.

JUMP TO: Coach of the Year

2026 Heisman Trophy Predictions

Jeremiah Smith, Wide Receiver

Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith is looking to be the first wide receiver to win the Heisman since DeVonta Smith in 2020. (Photo by Ben Jackson/Getty Images)

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2026 Heisman Trophy odds: +1400

If he’s not an elite quarterback or a running back, a college football player has the same odds to win the Heisman as one certain Hoosier — Fernando Mendoza — did before the 2025 season. Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith isn’t a quarterback or running back. So it’s not a snowball’s chance in hell, but a snowball’s chance in lukewarm temperatures: Odds are it is probably gonna melt.

In most years, Heisman voters simply won’t choose you. In fact, 80 of the 90 winners of the Heisman have been quarterbacks or running backs. And the ones who weren’t? Wide receivers — every last one of them. Yes, I’m counting Michigan’s Charles Woodson and Colorado’s Travis Hunter as wide outs because Lord knows Heisman voters ain’t gonna ever let a player who only plays defense win their award. 

So now that we’ve eliminated 19 of the 22 positions on the field from consideration, I can safely say Jeremiah Smith ought to win this award if he puts together the kind of season he’s planning to in 2026: lead Ohio State to a second national title in three years and put up numbers that would make him undeniable, despite his position.

“I always felt like it was a quarterback award unless you have a crazy season like DeVonta Smith with 1,800 yards and 24 touchdowns,” Smith said at Big Ten media days last month.

See that? There? Smith knows the target, and he’s chasing it. — RJ Young

CJ Carr, Quarterback

CJ Carr enters his second season as Notre Dame’s starting quarterback. (Photo by Joseph Weiser/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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2026 Heisman Trophy odds: +700

The Heisman Trophy has essentially become a quarterback’s award. This season, there are plenty of quarterbacks to like from Arch Manning to Dante Moore to Darian Mensah and more. But CJ Carr stands out. He started all 12 games for the Fighting Irish last year and finished the season with 2,741 passing yards and 24 touchdowns, while leading the nation’s second-best scoring offense at 42.0 points per game.

After a productive first season, Carr is expected to take that next step. And when it comes to the Heisman, it’s helpful when your team is also really good. Notre Dame has the second-best odds to win it all this year, on DraftKings. The Irish have a favorable schedule with both Miami and SMU at home.

Carr will have plenty of opportunities to deliver Heisman moments while playing for one of the most visible brands in the sport. He has the poise and the name recognition — he’s the grandson of former legendary Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr. And if he can take that next step in his career and lead Notre Dame into the College Football Playoff, then the award is as good as his. — Laken Litman

Darian Mensah, Quarterback

Darian Mensah transferred between ACC teams from Duke to Miami (Fla.) during the 2026 offseason. (Photo by Samuel Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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2026 Heisman Trophy odds: +1150

Darian Mensah has had one hell of an offseason from his controversial transfer from Duke to some of the – ahem –  words he had about the whole situation during ACC media days.

Now that football is here, we can talk about his on-field skillset. I love what he brings to a Miami offense that should remain incredibly explosive with receiver Malachi Toney and tailback Mark Fletcher Jr. back in the fold. Throw in that Mensah is joined in Coral Gables by second team All-ACC performer Cooper Barkate from Duke and the weapons are there.

The other underrated piece in all of this is the return of offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson, who has brought innovation and stability that Miami hasn’t had on the offensive side in quite some time.

Mensah was a revelation at Tulane. He was impressive (and a lightning rod) at Duke. I think he cements his college football legacy with a Heisman at Miami. — Ben Portnoy

Jeremiah Smith, Wide Receiver

As Smith noted during Big Ten media days in late July, this will be his third and final season of college football. He arrived at Ohio State carrying one of the strongest recruiting profiles in recent memory — Smith was the first receiver to finish No. 1 overall in the 247Sports Composite rankings since former Missouri signee Dorial Green-Beckham in 2012 — and immediately justified the circus-like hype. In making 76 receptions for 1,315 yards and 15 touchdowns as a true freshman two years ago, Smith earned first-team All-America honors while simultaneously guiding the Buckeyes to their first national championship since 2014. His individual demolition of then-No. 1 Oregon in the Rose Bowl (seven catches, 187 yards, two touchdowns) and his game-winning reception on a deep pass from quarterback Will Howard in the national championship against Notre Dame will never be forgotten around Ohio State.

By that point, he was already the best wide receiver in the sport, smashing a host of program receiving records along the way. And when he mirrored that stratospheric level of production again last fall — this time snagging 87 passes for 1,243 yards and 12 touchdowns — Smith became a unanimous first-team All-America selection and finished sixth in the Heisman Trophy voting. No other wide receiver appeared in the top 10.

Both career achievement and real-time production will determine Smith’s Heisman case this fall. Smith is likely to be the best player at his position for a third consecutive season based on 2026 output alone. Sure, the award is only meant to encapsulate a single campaign. But sometimes, as in Smith’s case, sustained greatness deserves its own applause. — Michael Cohen

2026 Coach Of The Year Predictions

Lincoln Riley, USC

Lincoln Riley is entering his fifth season at USC and still seeking his first CFP appearance with the Trojans. (Photo by Jordan Teller/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images)

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Generally, this award goes to the coach who won the national title or did the most with the least. Gratefully, it’s not so out-of-touch and nauseating an electorate as the Heisman, but the list of candidates at preseason could be anybody — really. Run the table. Go undefeated. Win a conference title when you’re expected to have a bad year. There are as many ways to secure the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award as there are playcalls on first-and-goal. 

However, picking that guy in August is asking who could win this award if things go right: I’ll pick Lincoln Riley. 

Riley had the humility to recruit and hire a better coach than himself to captain his defense in College Football Hall of Famer Gary Patterson. Patterson is not only one of the best defensive minds the game has ever seen but has pulled off the feat of running the table (13-0, 2010), winning the conference title and coach of the year in 2009 as head coach at Texas Christian.

Riley hired Patterson to marry his 4-2-5 defense with an explosive offense in such a manner that USC can reach the CFP for the first time in its history and, perhaps, make some noise competing for the Big Ten title. — RJ Young

Steve Sarkisian, Texas

Steve Sarkisian and Texas are hoping to rebound after missing the CFP in 2025. (Photo by David Buono/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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Texas is looking for redemption after a disappointing 2025 season. Really up until last year, things were going according to Steve Sarkisian’s plan. In his third year in Austin, the Longhorns won the Big 12 championship and made their CFP semifinal debut. In Year 4, Texas made it back to the final four, where it lost to eventual champion Ohio State. But the program hit a speed bump in Year 5. Arch Manning didn’t live up to the hype as the team struggled for the first half of the season, looking suspect in games where they should have dominated. Manning hit his stride later on and Texas beat Texas A&M and Michigan to finish the season 10-3 after missing the playoff.

While the spotlight remains on Manning entering this season, it’s not like it was a year ago. Sarkisian has reloaded in the transfer portal, picking up star playmakers like Cam Coleman, Hollywood Smothers and Rasheem Biles. Sarkisian also parted with longtime defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski and hired Will Muschamp — who held the same position with the Longhorns from 2008-10 — to lead the unit.

Sarkisian believes he has a talented team, no doubt. But more importantly, he believes his players have learned from last year’s struggles, which he hopes shows up in their consistency, physicality and maturity. If everything clicks — and if Texas can stay healthy — it can make a deep run into the CFP and maybe even win it all for the first time since Vince Young led the program in 2005. — Laken Litman

Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame

Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame are looking to return to the CFP after missing the postseason in 2025. (Photo by Jeffrey Brown/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

–>

The 2026 season feels like a new beginning for Notre Dame. After three consecutive 10-win seasons, head coach Marcus Freeman eschewed interest from the NFL to sign an improved contract with the Fighting Irish last winter, infusing the program with long-term stability. The school recently completed, and opened, a new training facility that cost north of $100 million. The incoming high school recruiting class ranked among the top five in the country for the first time since 2013. Starting quarterback CJ Carr, who threw for 2,741 yards and 24 touchdowns in his debut last season, should be a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate this fall.

After an offseason spent fuming over last year’s perceived College Football Playoff snub, the bedrock is there for the Fighting Irish to return to the postseason. Freeman returns 14 starters from a group that was playing as well as any team in the country when the final CFP rankings were released, including eight starters on defense alone. Carr, safety Adon Shuler, cornerback Leonard Moore and nickel Christian Gray are among the best players in the country at their respective position. Incoming transfer wide receivers Mylan Graham and Quincy Porter, who both came from Ohio State, will be counted on to support returner Jordan Faison (640 yards, four touchdowns).

If the Fighting Irish can navigate a tricky road game at BYU in mid-October and a home game against Miami in early November, they should have a good chance to enter the postseason undefeated and Freeman should be in position to win Coach of the Year. — Michael Cohen

Steve Sarkisian, Texas

Steve Sarkisian and Arch Manning are trying to bring Texas back to the CFP semifinals. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

–>

If Indiana wins the Big Ten for a second consecutive year, Curt Cignetti might deserve this award in perpetuity, but I’m going to go with Steve Sarkisian.

Sarkisian has caught ample flack over red zone playcalling and the Longhorns’ inability to get over the hump in the postseason, but there’s too much talent in Austin this year for things to go completely off the rails — even with a nine-game conference schedule.

Cam Coleman might be generating more buzz than he already is if it weren’t for the existence of Jeremiah Smith. Colin Simmons, too, ought to be one of the most dominant defensive players in the country again this fall.

I was genuinely shocked Texas didn’t receive a single preseason No. 1 vote in this year’s Associated Press preseason poll. Sarkisian’s squad has its share of huge games on the schedule — Sept. 12 vs. Ohio State, Oct. 10 vs. Oklahoma and Nov. 14 at LSU — but the rest of the slate should be manageable as SEC schedules come.

As Arch Manning goes, this Texas team will go — and quarterbacks are Sarkisian’s calling card. The Longhorns have spent the cash and have a roster that can win a national championship. It’s on Sarkisian to put it all together. — Ben Portnoy

‘Fear Arch Manning’ USC a CFP sleeper, can Indiana repeat as National Champions, Notre Dame | FTF

–>

Source

This weekend marks the beginning of college football season, starting at Week 0.

Here are five contests to watch this weekend, along with what to know about Saturday’s games (odds via FanDuel Sportsbook as of Aug. 28).

This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports.

(All Times ET)

North Carolina vs. TCU (noon, ESPN)

Spread: TCU -8.5 
Moneyline: TCU -360, UNC +290
O/U: 46.5

What To Know: The very first game of Saturday’s Week 0 slate is a showdown between the Tar Heels and the Horned Frogs all the way at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. TCU is the heavy favorite. But all eyes will be on Bill Belichick as he tries to lead UNC to a bounce-back season after going 4-8 overall and 2-6 in the conference in 2025. FOX Sports betting analyst Will Hill also explains that bettors might want to keep their eyes on the quarterback play, since both squads are trotting out new starters at the position.

San Jose State @ No. 14 USC (3 p.m., NBC)

Spread: USC -38.5
Moneyline: TBD
O/U: 61.5

What To Know: Can the No. 14 Trojans open up their year with an emphatic win? Based on the odds, USC should easily roll over San Jose State. In fact, Will Hill believes the Men of Troy will “score seven or more touchdowns” as they host the Spartans. Back in 2023, SC put up 56 points on SJSU when the two squads faced off.

NC State @ Virginia (3:30 p.m., ESPN)

Spread: Virginia -4.5
Moneyline: Virginia -182, NC State +150
O/U: 51.5

What To Know: Virginia didn’t earn a preseason ranking in the AP or Coaches Poll, but the Cavaliers did get some votes in both and could be on the verge of breaking through. UVA, however, will give it a go with a new starting QB since last year’s starter signed an undrafted free agent deal with the Buccaneers.

Hawaii @ Stanford (7 p.m. ACCN)

Spread: Stanford -4.5
Moneyline: Stanford -192, Hawaii +158
O/U: 48.5

What To Know: Stanford led most of this game last season before falling to the Rainbow Warriors, 23-20. Can the Cardinal avenge their loss from 2025? Considering they’re playing on their home field and are returning more starters than Hawaii, the Cardinal could be in a good position to win this catchup straight up (SU).

Memphis @ UNLV (10 p.m., FOX)

Spread: UNLV -4.5
Moneyline: UNLV -184, Memphis +152 
O/U: 56.5 

What To Know: Week 0 ends with a nightcap on FOX featuring Memphis and UNLV facing off in Nevada. The UNLV Rebels come into this contest off a 10-2 regular-season record. Memphis went 8-4 in 2025, including a six-game winning streak to open up the season.

Source

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey started with the high points, winding his way through his usual football media days state-of-the-union address.

He pointed to the league winning a record 13 team national championships; that it was putting in additional programming to fight the growing influence of sports gambling; that its live viewership hours during football season accounted for 40% of those consumed by the Power Four leagues.

And then, the questions began.

“How real are the conversations within the SEC about potentially breaking away from the college structure as we know it?” a reporter queried.

“They’re real,” Sankey answered flatly. “People have talked about that. They’ve opined about the frustrations that bring them to the point of saying we should look at something significantly different. I do not believe that is a leverage point. I think that’s just honest communication.”

The threats of a “breakaway” are, in fact, quite real.

Angst from administrators and presidents has pushed the SEC and, to a lesser degree, the Big Ten to a point where each has explored what self-governance at the conference level might look like — sentiments that have been broadcast more publicly over the past six months.

At SEC media days in July, league Commissioner Greg Sankey answered questions about the future of college sports regulation and even potentially breaking away from the NCAA. (Photo by Parker S. Freedman/Getty Images)

–>

Stakeholders have fundamentally taken issue with the lack of actual enforcement of rules laid out in the House settlement and by the College Sports Commission and NCAA. 

The solution, at least to some, is to take on more regulation at the conference-level and allow leagues to set their own rules around eligibility, revenue-sharing caps and other pieces to college sports’ ever-evolving jigsaw puzzle of a future structure.

But as eligibility lawsuits litter the news cycle, the SEC, in particular, is providing an early test case for how feasible regulating anything at the league level in this new era ultimately is.

And it’s a fight brewing on the bayou that has everyone paying attention.

“I can’t speak for the entirety,” one league source told me, “but I would say [the SEC’s] charge is to defend the rules that everyone voted on as members.”

Where Else Could This Drama Play Out Than Baton Rouge?

There are certain places that are almost too good, too cliché, too Spielbergian to be the setting for the stories they tell. Louisiana, college sports and a good old-fashioned power struggle are certainly that.

These are complicated times in Baton Rouge; times wrought with regime changes and political interference — albeit that can often be the norm around these parts.

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA – MARCH 24: Head Coach Lane Kiffin and Associate Head Coach Kevin Smith of the LSU Tigers in action during spring practice at the LSU Football Operations Center on March 24, 2026 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Gus Stark/LSU/University Images via Getty Images)

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Gov. Jeff Landry was squarely involved in running off athletics director Scott Woodward and football coach Brian Kelly in October 2025. Then in March, Gov. Landry pushed to get men’s basketball coach Matt McMahon fired and to bring controversial castoff Will Wade back to town as McMahon’s successor.

There was also the live mascot debacle of 2024 — another Landry-driven agenda item intended to return a living, breathing tiger to the sidelines in Death Valley.

Even earlier this month, the governor’s residence played host to a meeting of LSU boosters to discuss a new-look equity approach to fundraising for the school’s athletic programs.

So, of course, it was in a Baton Rouge courtroom last week when a Louisiana state judge granted a handful of athletes an additional year of eligibility, including several players who had recently signed NFL contracts. To little surprise, two of those athletes — tight end Dae’Quan Wright and defensive lineman Zxavian Harris, formerly of the Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints, respectively — were expected to head to LSU and play for Lane Kiffin, their former head coach at Ole Miss.

Dae’Quan Wright suited up for the Browns in a preseason game against the Buffalo Bills last week. Could he be returning to college football this fall? (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images)

–>

These reprieves were matched in gravity and wide-ranging condemnation via a separate ruling from a different Louisiana judge on Tuesday that granted an additional year of eligibility to former All-American basketball player RJ Luis Jr. After starring for St. John’s, Luis went undrafted in the 2025 NBA Draft, signed a two-way contract with the Utah Jazz and played in three NBA preseason games.

“These athletes generated value under the prior framework and should not be denied the additional year the NCAA itself created for others,” attorney Darren Heitner, who represents Wright, told me. “Roster and portal management gets messy for schools, but that is a problem of the NCAA’s own making.”

Exiting the courtroom on Monday, a smile crested on Luis’ face in a moment captured by a local reporter. It was there in the lobby of this place of law and order that his past and future collided.

Adorning a purple polo and thrusting his arms wide, Wade, the Tigers’ second-term head coach, offered Luis a full embrace with a smirk to match.

No consternation here. LSU got its star.

“Because of these rulings, they’re either going to play for you or they’re going to play for someone else around the country,” Kiffin said at a press conference on Monday. “So we’ve made the decision to recruit [Harris and Wright] like probably most people are.”

That those in Baton Rouge are flashing smiles can’t be said for the rest of College Sports, Inc.

LSU coach Lane Kiffin argues that if he doesn’t recruit star players deemed eligible by the courts, they’ll wind up playing for someone else. (Photo by Gus Stark/LSU/University Images via Getty Images)

–>

The Big Ten was the first league to pass a sweeping ban on professional athletes returning to college sports. The SEC, Big 12 and ACC have since followed suit, while conversations persist elsewhere across the FBS.

The SEC pulled together a call among its presidents and chancellors on Monday ahead of two days of pre-scheduled meetings between that group and the league’s athletics directors. It closed the evening by pushing out a statement condemning the situation.

“Fundamentally, everybody needs to move on,” a second Power Four source told me. “If you’re going to support and believe in NCAA rules, then you better start playing by them yourself.”

These are not new issues, of course.

It’s only six months past that Alabama basketball player Charles Bediako was brought back from professional basketball, granted an injunction and swiftly dismissed again. It was that action that prompted the usually buttoned-up and generally savvy Sankey to sign an affidavit supporting the NCAA against the Crimson Tide hooper.

That this saga is bubbling up on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River once more, however, isn’t so much about LSU or two football players or even the omnipresent college sports villains that are Kiffin and Wade. No, this is about grander aspirations and efforts to control an ecosystem that has proved to be ungovernable as it currently exists.

“We’ve got a simple choice to make: Do we want to be governed or not?,” Texas A&M athletics director Trev Alberts posited during SEC spring meetings in May. “We are sending a very strong message that college athletics refuses to be governed. That’s all I can say.”

   Is Regulation At The Conference Level Possible?

The Big Ten and SEC have been embroiled in conversations about how to best operate within an uncontrollable world for months. 

Their hopes for order currently reside on Capitol Hill, where the Protect College Sports Act remains in limbo until the Senate returns from its recess on Sept. 14. That has its own challenges.

Where the buck stops in the lingering eligibility lawsuits ought to provide at least some clarity around leagues’ longer-term ambitions and whether regulation at the conference level is possible.

Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti, who recently signed an extension through 2033, isn’t talking breakaway, but he recognizes the need to create a set of rules to regulate the new college sports landscape. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)

–>

“‘Breakaway’ is a word that creates a lot of emotion,” Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said from the pulpit at his own football media days last month. “I’ve never heard that anybody doesn’t want to play anybody else. We want to schedule more good games that our fans expect.

“We’ve just got to get to a system that allows us to do that.”

Buried in the jargon of the SEC’s wider ban on professional athletes on Tuesday night was a note that Sankey is “authorized to enforce this expectation with penalties against member institutions.” A shot across the bow, perhaps.

The league’s bylaws include language that prevents players from transferring intra-conference outside the portal window. LSU’s additions of Wright and Harris would run directly counter to that edict. As would former Kentucky basketball player Mark Mitchell’s move to Missouri, which comes after he won his own eligibility lawsuit granting him an extra year two weeks ago.

The SEC itself has also now been thrust into the legal proceedings as attorneys amended their complaint in Louisiana state court on Thursday evening to include the league and Sankey.

So the standoff has started — and whether the SEC can actually enforce its own rules is where this story really begins.

Laissez les bons temps rouler. Let the good times roll.

MORE COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Source

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey started with the high points, winding his way through his usual football media days state-of-the-union address.

He pointed to the league winning a record 13 team national championships; that it was putting in additional programming to fight the growing influence of sports gambling; that its live viewership hours during football season accounted for 40% of those consumed by the Power Four leagues.

And then, the questions began.

“How real are the conversations within the SEC about potentially breaking away from the college structure as we know it?” a reporter queried.

“They’re real,” Sankey answered flatly. “People have talked about that. They’ve opined about the frustrations that bring them to the point of saying we should look at something significantly different. I do not believe that is a leverage point. I think that’s just honest communication.”

The threats of a “breakaway” are, in fact, quite real.

Angst from administrators and presidents has pushed the SEC and, to a lesser degree, the Big Ten to a point where each has explored what self-governance at the conference level might look like — sentiments that have been broadcast more publicly over the past six months.

At SEC media days in July, league Commissioner Greg Sankey answered questions about the future of college sports regulation and even potentially breaking away from the NCAA. (Photo by Parker S. Freedman/Getty Images)

–>

Stakeholders have fundamentally taken issue with the lack of actual enforcement of rules laid out in the House settlement and by the College Sports Commission and NCAA. 

The solution, at least to some, is to take on more regulation at the conference-level and allow leagues to set their own rules around eligibility, revenue-sharing caps and other pieces to college sports’ ever-evolving jigsaw puzzle of a future structure.

But as eligibility lawsuits litter the news cycle, the SEC, in particular, is providing an early test case for how feasible regulating anything at the league level in this new era ultimately is.

And it’s a fight brewing on the bayou that has everyone paying attention.

“I can’t speak for the entirety,” one league source told me, “but I would say [the SEC’s] charge is to defend the rules that everyone voted on as members.”

Where Else Could This Drama Play Out Than Baton Rouge?

There are certain places that are almost too good, too cliché, too Spielbergian to be the setting for the stories they tell. Louisiana, college sports and a good old-fashioned power struggle are certainly that.

These are complicated times in Baton Rouge; times wrought with regime changes and political interference — albeit that can often be the norm around these parts.

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA – MARCH 24: Head Coach Lane Kiffin and Associate Head Coach Kevin Smith of the LSU Tigers in action during spring practice at the LSU Football Operations Center on March 24, 2026 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Gus Stark/LSU/University Images via Getty Images)

–>

Gov. Jeff Landry was squarely involved in running off athletics director Scott Woodward and football coach Brian Kelly in October 2025. Then in March, Gov. Landry pushed to get men’s basketball coach Matt McMahon fired and to bring controversial castoff Will Wade back to town as McMahon’s successor.

There was also the live mascot debacle of 2024 — another Landry-driven agenda item intended to return a living, breathing tiger to the sidelines in Death Valley.

Even earlier this month, the governor’s residence played host to a meeting of LSU boosters to discuss a new-look equity approach to fundraising for the school’s athletic programs.

So, of course, it was in a Baton Rouge courtroom last week when a Louisiana state judge granted a handful of athletes an additional year of eligibility, including several players who had recently signed NFL contracts. To little surprise, two of those athletes — tight end Dae’Quan Wright and defensive lineman Zxavian Harris, formerly of the Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints, respectively — were expected to head to LSU and play for Lane Kiffin, their former head coach at Ole Miss.

Dae’Quan Wright suited up for the Browns in a preseason game against the Buffalo Bills last week. Could he be returning to college football this fall? (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images)

–>

These reprieves were matched in gravity and wide-ranging condemnation via a separate ruling from a different Louisiana judge on Tuesday that granted an additional year of eligibility to former All-American basketball player RJ Luis Jr. After starring for St. John’s, Luis went undrafted in the 2025 NBA Draft, signed a two-way contract with the Utah Jazz and played in three NBA preseason games.

“These athletes generated value under the prior framework and should not be denied the additional year the NCAA itself created for others,” attorney Darren Heitner, who represents Wright, told me. “Roster and portal management gets messy for schools, but that is a problem of the NCAA’s own making.”

Exiting the courtroom on Monday, a smile crested on Luis’ face in a moment captured by a local reporter. It was there in the lobby of this place of law and order that his past and future collided.

Adorning a purple polo and thrusting his arms wide, Wade, the Tigers’ second-term head coach, offered Luis a full embrace with a smirk to match.

No consternation here. LSU got its star.

“Because of these rulings, they’re either going to play for you or they’re going to play for someone else around the country,” Kiffin said at a press conference on Monday. “So we’ve made the decision to recruit [Harris and Wright] like probably most people are.”

That those in Baton Rouge are flashing smiles can’t be said for the rest of College Sports, Inc.

LSU coach Lane Kiffin argues that if he doesn’t recruit star players deemed eligible by the courts, they’ll wind up playing for someone else. (Photo by Gus Stark/LSU/University Images via Getty Images)

–>

The Big Ten was the first league to pass a sweeping ban on professional athletes returning to college sports. The SEC, Big 12 and ACC have since followed suit, while conversations persist elsewhere across the FBS.

The SEC pulled together a call among its presidents and chancellors on Monday ahead of two days of pre-scheduled meetings between that group and the league’s athletics directors. It closed the evening by pushing out a statement condemning the situation.

“Fundamentally, everybody needs to move on,” a second Power Four source told me. “If you’re going to support and believe in NCAA rules, then you better start playing by them yourself.”

These are not new issues, of course.

It’s only six months past that Alabama basketball player Charles Bediako was brought back from professional basketball, granted an injunction and swiftly dismissed again. It was that action that prompted the usually buttoned-up and generally savvy Sankey to sign an affidavit supporting the NCAA against the Crimson Tide hooper.

That this saga is bubbling up on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River once more, however, isn’t so much about LSU or two football players or even the omnipresent college sports villains that are Kiffin and Wade. No, this is about grander aspirations and efforts to control an ecosystem that has proved to be ungovernable as it currently exists.

“We’ve got a simple choice to make: Do we want to be governed or not?,” Texas A&M athletics director Trev Alberts posited during SEC spring meetings in May. “We are sending a very strong message that college athletics refuses to be governed. That’s all I can say.”

   Is Regulation At The Conference Level Possible?

The Big Ten and SEC have been embroiled in conversations about how to best operate within an uncontrollable world for months. 

Their hopes for order currently reside on Capitol Hill, where the Protect College Sports Act remains in limbo until the Senate returns from its recess on Sept. 14. That has its own challenges.

Where the buck stops in the lingering eligibility lawsuits ought to provide at least some clarity around leagues’ longer-term ambitions and whether regulation at the conference level is possible.

Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti, who recently signed an extension through 2033, isn’t talking breakaway, but he recognizes the need to create a set of rules to regulate the new college sports landscape. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)

–>

“‘Breakaway’ is a word that creates a lot of emotion,” Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said from the pulpit at his own football media days last month. “I’ve never heard that anybody doesn’t want to play anybody else. We want to schedule more good games that our fans expect.

“We’ve just got to get to a system that allows us to do that.”

Buried in the jargon of the SEC’s wider ban on professional athletes on Tuesday night was a note that Sankey is “authorized to enforce this expectation with penalties against member institutions.” A shot across the bow, perhaps.

The league’s bylaws include language that prevents players from transferring intra-conference outside the portal window. LSU’s additions of Wright and Harris would run directly counter to that edict. As would former Kentucky basketball player Mark Mitchell’s move to Missouri, which comes after he won his own eligibility lawsuit granting him an extra year two weeks ago.

The SEC itself has also now been thrust into the legal proceedings as attorneys amended their complaint in Louisiana state court on Thursday evening to include the league and Sankey.

So the standoff has started — and whether the SEC can actually enforce its own rules is where this story really begins.

Laissez les bons temps rouler. Let the good times roll.

MORE COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Source

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey started with the high points, winding his way through his usual football media days state-of-the-union address.

He pointed to the league winning a record 13 team national championships; that it was putting in additional programming to fight the growing influence of sports gambling; that its live viewership hours during football season accounted for 40% of those consumed by the Power Four leagues.

And then, the questions began.

“How real are the conversations within the SEC about potentially breaking away from the college structure as we know it?” a reporter queried.

“They’re real,” Sankey answered flatly. “People have talked about that. They’ve opined about the frustrations that bring them to the point of saying we should look at something significantly different. I do not believe that is a leverage point. I think that’s just honest communication.”

The threats of a “breakaway” are, in fact, quite real.

Angst from administrators and presidents has pushed the SEC and, to a lesser degree, the Big Ten to a point where each has explored what self-governance at the conference level might look like — sentiments that have been broadcast more publicly over the past six months.

At SEC media days in July, league Commissioner Greg Sankey answered questions about the future of college sports regulation and even potentially breaking away from the NCAA. (Photo by Parker S. Freedman/Getty Images)

–>

Stakeholders have fundamentally taken issue with the lack of actual enforcement of rules laid out in the House settlement and by the College Sports Commission and NCAA. 

The solution, at least to some, is to take on more regulation at the conference-level and allow leagues to set their own rules around eligibility, revenue-sharing caps and other pieces to college sports’ ever-evolving jigsaw puzzle of a future structure.

But as eligibility lawsuits litter the news cycle, the SEC, in particular, is providing an early test case for how feasible regulating anything at the league level in this new era ultimately is.

And it’s a fight brewing on the bayou that has everyone paying attention.

“I can’t speak for the entirety,” one league source told me, “but I would say [the SEC’s] charge is to defend the rules that everyone voted on as members.”

Where Else Could This Drama Play Out Than Baton Rouge?

There are certain places that are almost too good, too cliché, too Spielbergian to be the setting for the stories they tell. Louisiana, college sports and a good old-fashioned power struggle are certainly that.

These are complicated times in Baton Rouge; times wrought with regime changes and political interference — albeit that can often be the norm around these parts.

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA – MARCH 24: Head Coach Lane Kiffin and Associate Head Coach Kevin Smith of the LSU Tigers in action during spring practice at the LSU Football Operations Center on March 24, 2026 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Gus Stark/LSU/University Images via Getty Images)

–>

Gov. Jeff Landry was squarely involved in running off athletics director Scott Woodward and football coach Brian Kelly in October 2025. Then in March, Gov. Landry pushed to get men’s basketball coach Matt McMahon fired and to bring controversial castoff Will Wade back to town as McMahon’s successor.

There was also the live mascot debacle of 2024 — another Landry-driven agenda item intended to return a living, breathing tiger to the sidelines in Death Valley.

Even earlier this month, the governor’s residence played host to a meeting of LSU boosters to discuss a new-look equity approach to fundraising for the school’s athletic programs.

So, of course, it was in a Baton Rouge courtroom last week when a Louisiana state judge granted a handful of athletes an additional year of eligibility, including several players who had recently signed NFL contracts. To little surprise, two of those athletes — tight end Dae’Quan Wright and defensive lineman Zxavian Harris, formerly of the Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints, respectively — were expected to head to LSU and play for Lane Kiffin, their former head coach at Ole Miss.

Dae’Quan Wright suited up for the Browns in a preseason game against the Buffalo Bills last week. Could he be returning to college football this fall? (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images)

–>

These reprieves were matched in gravity and wide-ranging condemnation via a separate ruling from a different Louisiana judge on Tuesday that granted an additional year of eligibility to former All-American basketball player RJ Luis Jr. After starring for St. John’s, Luis went undrafted in the 2025 NBA Draft, signed a two-way contract with the Utah Jazz and played in three NBA preseason games.

“These athletes generated value under the prior framework and should not be denied the additional year the NCAA itself created for others,” attorney Darren Heitner, who represents Wright, told me. “Roster and portal management gets messy for schools, but that is a problem of the NCAA’s own making.”

Exiting the courtroom on Monday, a smile crested on Luis’ face in a moment captured by a local reporter. It was there in the lobby of this place of law and order that his past and future collided.

Adorning a purple polo and thrusting his arms wide, Wade, the Tigers’ second-term head coach, offered Luis a full embrace with a smirk to match.

No consternation here. LSU got its star.

“Because of these rulings, they’re either going to play for you or they’re going to play for someone else around the country,” Kiffin said at a press conference on Monday. “So we’ve made the decision to recruit [Harris and Wright] like probably most people are.”

That those in Baton Rouge are flashing smiles can’t be said for the rest of College Sports, Inc.

LSU coach Lane Kiffin argues that if he doesn’t recruit star players deemed eligible by the courts, they’ll wind up playing for someone else. (Photo by Gus Stark/LSU/University Images via Getty Images)

–>

The Big Ten was the first league to pass a sweeping ban on professional athletes returning to college sports. The SEC, Big 12 and ACC have since followed suit, while conversations persist elsewhere across the FBS.

The SEC pulled together a call among its presidents and chancellors on Monday ahead of two days of pre-scheduled meetings between that group and the league’s athletics directors. It closed the evening by pushing out a statement condemning the situation.

“Fundamentally, everybody needs to move on,” a second Power Four source told me. “If you’re going to support and believe in NCAA rules, then you better start playing by them yourself.”

These are not new issues, of course.

It’s only six months past that Alabama basketball player Charles Bediako was brought back from professional basketball, granted an injunction and swiftly dismissed again. It was that action that prompted the usually buttoned-up and generally savvy Sankey to sign an affidavit supporting the NCAA against the Crimson Tide hooper.

That this saga is bubbling up on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River once more, however, isn’t so much about LSU or two football players or even the omnipresent college sports villains that are Kiffin and Wade. No, this is about grander aspirations and efforts to control an ecosystem that has proved to be ungovernable as it currently exists.

“We’ve got a simple choice to make: Do we want to be governed or not?,” Texas A&M athletics director Trev Alberts posited during SEC spring meetings in May. “We are sending a very strong message that college athletics refuses to be governed. That’s all I can say.”

   Is Regulation At The Conference Level Possible?

The Big Ten and SEC have been embroiled in conversations about how to best operate within an uncontrollable world for months. 

Their hopes for order currently reside on Capitol Hill, where the Protect College Sports Act remains in limbo until the Senate returns from its recess on Sept. 14. That has its own challenges.

Where the buck stops in the lingering eligibility lawsuits ought to provide at least some clarity around leagues’ longer-term ambitions and whether regulation at the conference level is possible.

Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti, who recently signed an extension through 2033, isn’t talking breakaway, but he recognizes the need to create a set of rules to regulate the new college sports landscape. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)

–>

“‘Breakaway’ is a word that creates a lot of emotion,” Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said from the pulpit at his own football media days last month. “I’ve never heard that anybody doesn’t want to play anybody else. We want to schedule more good games that our fans expect.

“We’ve just got to get to a system that allows us to do that.”

Buried in the jargon of the SEC’s wider ban on professional athletes on Tuesday night was a note that Sankey is “authorized to enforce this expectation with penalties against member institutions.” A shot across the bow, perhaps.

The league’s bylaws include language that prevents players from transferring intra-conference outside the portal window. LSU’s additions of Wright and Harris would run directly counter to that edict. As would former Kentucky basketball player Mark Mitchell’s move to Missouri, which comes after he won his own eligibility lawsuit granting him an extra year two weeks ago.

The SEC itself has also now been thrust into the legal proceedings as attorneys amended their complaint in Louisiana state court on Thursday evening to include the league and Sankey.

So the standoff has started — and whether the SEC can actually enforce its own rules is where this story really begins.

Laissez les bons temps rouler. Let the good times roll.

MORE COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Source

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey started with the high points, winding his way through his usual football media days state-of-the-union address.

He pointed to the league winning a record 13 team national championships; that it was putting in additional programming to fight the growing influence of sports gambling; that its live viewership hours during football season accounted for 40% of those consumed by the Power Four leagues.

And then, the questions began.

“How real are the conversations within the SEC about potentially breaking away from the college structure as we know it?” a reporter queried.

“They’re real,” Sankey answered flatly. “People have talked about that. They’ve opined about the frustrations that bring them to the point of saying we should look at something significantly different. I do not believe that is a leverage point. I think that’s just honest communication.”

The threats of a “breakaway” are, in fact, quite real.

Angst from administrators and presidents has pushed the SEC and, to a lesser degree, the Big Ten to a point where each has explored what self-governance at the conference level might look like — sentiments that have been broadcast more publicly over the past six months.

At SEC media days in July, league Commissioner Greg Sankey answered questions about the future of college sports regulation and even potentially breaking away from the NCAA. (Photo by Parker S. Freedman/Getty Images)

–>

Stakeholders have fundamentally taken issue with the lack of actual enforcement of rules laid out in the House settlement and by the College Sports Commission and NCAA. 

The solution, at least to some, is to take on more regulation at the conference-level and allow leagues to set their own rules around eligibility, revenue-sharing caps and other pieces to college sports’ ever-evolving jigsaw puzzle of a future structure.

But as eligibility lawsuits litter the news cycle, the SEC, in particular, is providing an early test case for how feasible regulating anything at the league level in this new era ultimately is.

And it’s a fight brewing on the bayou that has everyone paying attention.

“I can’t speak for the entirety,” one league source told me, “but I would say [the SEC’s] charge is to defend the rules that everyone voted on as members.”

Where Else Could This Drama Play Out Than Baton Rouge?

There are certain places that are almost too good, too cliché, too Spielbergian to be the setting for the stories they tell. Louisiana, college sports and a good old-fashioned power struggle are certainly that.

These are complicated times in Baton Rouge; times wrought with regime changes and political interference — albeit that can often be the norm around these parts.

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA – MARCH 24: Head Coach Lane Kiffin and Associate Head Coach Kevin Smith of the LSU Tigers in action during spring practice at the LSU Football Operations Center on March 24, 2026 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Gus Stark/LSU/University Images via Getty Images)

–>

Gov. Jeff Landry was squarely involved in running off athletics director Scott Woodward and football coach Brian Kelly in October 2025. Then in March, Gov. Landry pushed to get men’s basketball coach Matt McMahon fired and to bring controversial castoff Will Wade back to town as McMahon’s successor.

There was also the live mascot debacle of 2024 — another Landry-driven agenda item intended to return a living, breathing tiger to the sidelines in Death Valley.

Even earlier this month, the governor’s residence played host to a meeting of LSU boosters to discuss a new-look equity approach to fundraising for the school’s athletic programs.

So, of course, it was in a Baton Rouge courtroom last week when a Louisiana state judge granted a handful of athletes an additional year of eligibility, including several players who had recently signed NFL contracts. To little surprise, two of those athletes — tight end Dae’Quan Wright and defensive lineman Zxavian Harris, formerly of the Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints, respectively — were expected to head to LSU and play for Lane Kiffin, their former head coach at Ole Miss.

Dae’Quan Wright suited up for the Browns in a preseason game against the Buffalo Bills last week. Could he be returning to college football this fall? (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images)

–>

These reprieves were matched in gravity and wide-ranging condemnation via a separate ruling from a different Louisiana judge on Tuesday that granted an additional year of eligibility to former All-American basketball player RJ Luis Jr. After starring for St. John’s, Luis went undrafted in the 2025 NBA Draft, signed a two-way contract with the Utah Jazz and played in three NBA preseason games.

“These athletes generated value under the prior framework and should not be denied the additional year the NCAA itself created for others,” attorney Darren Heitner, who represents Wright, told me. “Roster and portal management gets messy for schools, but that is a problem of the NCAA’s own making.”

Exiting the courtroom on Monday, a smile crested on Luis’ face in a moment captured by a local reporter. It was there in the lobby of this place of law and order that his past and future collided.

Adorning a purple polo and thrusting his arms wide, Wade, the Tigers’ second-term head coach, offered Luis a full embrace with a smirk to match.

No consternation here. LSU got its star.

“Because of these rulings, they’re either going to play for you or they’re going to play for someone else around the country,” Kiffin said at a press conference on Monday. “So we’ve made the decision to recruit [Harris and Wright] like probably most people are.”

That those in Baton Rouge are flashing smiles can’t be said for the rest of College Sports, Inc.

LSU coach Lane Kiffin argues that if he doesn’t recruit star players deemed eligible by the courts, they’ll wind up playing for someone else. (Photo by Gus Stark/LSU/University Images via Getty Images)

–>

The Big Ten was the first league to pass a sweeping ban on professional athletes returning to college sports. The SEC, Big 12 and ACC have since followed suit, while conversations persist elsewhere across the FBS.

The SEC pulled together a call among its presidents and chancellors on Monday ahead of two days of pre-scheduled meetings between that group and the league’s athletics directors. It closed the evening by pushing out a statement condemning the situation.

“Fundamentally, everybody needs to move on,” a second Power Four source told me. “If you’re going to support and believe in NCAA rules, then you better start playing by them yourself.”

These are not new issues, of course.

It’s only six months past that Alabama basketball player Charles Bediako was brought back from professional basketball, granted an injunction and swiftly dismissed again. It was that action that prompted the usually buttoned-up and generally savvy Sankey to sign an affidavit supporting the NCAA against the Crimson Tide hooper.

That this saga is bubbling up on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River once more, however, isn’t so much about LSU or two football players or even the omnipresent college sports villains that are Kiffin and Wade. No, this is about grander aspirations and efforts to control an ecosystem that has proved to be ungovernable as it currently exists.

“We’ve got a simple choice to make: Do we want to be governed or not?,” Texas A&M athletics director Trev Alberts posited during SEC spring meetings in May. “We are sending a very strong message that college athletics refuses to be governed. That’s all I can say.”

   Is Regulation At The Conference Level Possible?

The Big Ten and SEC have been embroiled in conversations about how to best operate within an uncontrollable world for months. 

Their hopes for order currently reside on Capitol Hill, where the Protect College Sports Act remains in limbo until the Senate returns from its recess on Sept. 14. That has its own challenges.

Where the buck stops in the lingering eligibility lawsuits ought to provide at least some clarity around leagues’ longer-term ambitions and whether regulation at the conference level is possible.

Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti, who recently signed an extension through 2033, isn’t talking breakaway, but he recognizes the need to create a set of rules to regulate the new college sports landscape. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)

–>

“‘Breakaway’ is a word that creates a lot of emotion,” Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said from the pulpit at his own football media days last month. “I’ve never heard that anybody doesn’t want to play anybody else. We want to schedule more good games that our fans expect.

“We’ve just got to get to a system that allows us to do that.”

Buried in the jargon of the SEC’s wider ban on professional athletes on Tuesday night was a note that Sankey is “authorized to enforce this expectation with penalties against member institutions.” A shot across the bow, perhaps.

The league’s bylaws include language that prevents players from transferring intra-conference outside the portal window. LSU’s additions of Wright and Harris would run directly counter to that edict. As would former Kentucky basketball player Mark Mitchell’s move to Missouri, which comes after he won his own eligibility lawsuit granting him an extra year two weeks ago.

The SEC itself has also now been thrust into the legal proceedings as attorneys amended their complaint in Louisiana state court on Thursday evening to include the league and Sankey.

So the standoff has started — and whether the SEC can actually enforce its own rules is where this story really begins.

Laissez les bons temps rouler. Let the good times roll.

MORE COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Source

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey started with the high points, winding his way through his usual football media days state-of-the-union address.

He pointed to the league winning a record 13 team national championships; that it was putting in additional programming to fight the growing influence of sports gambling; that its live viewership hours during football season accounted for 40% of those consumed by the Power Four leagues.

And then, the questions began.

“How real are the conversations within the SEC about potentially breaking away from the college structure as we know it?” a reporter queried.

“They’re real,” Sankey answered flatly. “People have talked about that. They’ve opined about the frustrations that bring them to the point of saying we should look at something significantly different. I do not believe that is a leverage point. I think that’s just honest communication.”

The threats of a “breakaway” are, in fact, quite real.

Angst from administrators and presidents has pushed the SEC and, to a lesser degree, the Big Ten to a point where each has explored what self-governance at the conference level might look like — sentiments that have been broadcast more publicly over the past six months.

At SEC media days in July, league Commissioner Greg Sankey answered questions about the future of college sports regulation and even potentially breaking away from the NCAA. (Photo by Parker S. Freedman/Getty Images)

–>

Stakeholders have fundamentally taken issue with the lack of actual enforcement of rules laid out in the House settlement and by the College Sports Commission and NCAA. 

The solution, at least to some, is to take on more regulation at the conference-level and allow leagues to set their own rules around eligibility, revenue-sharing caps and other pieces to college sports’ ever-evolving jigsaw puzzle of a future structure.

But as eligibility lawsuits litter the news cycle, the SEC, in particular, is providing an early test case for how feasible regulating anything at the league level in this new era ultimately is.

And it’s a fight brewing on the bayou that has everyone paying attention.

“I can’t speak for the entirety,” one league source told me, “but I would say [the SEC’s] charge is to defend the rules that everyone voted on as members.”

Where Else Could This Drama Play Out Than Baton Rouge?

There are certain places that are almost too good, too cliché, too Spielbergian to be the setting for the stories they tell. Louisiana, college sports and a good old-fashioned power struggle are certainly that.

These are complicated times in Baton Rouge; times wrought with regime changes and political interference — albeit that can often be the norm around these parts.

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA – MARCH 24: Head Coach Lane Kiffin and Associate Head Coach Kevin Smith of the LSU Tigers in action during spring practice at the LSU Football Operations Center on March 24, 2026 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Gus Stark/LSU/University Images via Getty Images)

–>

Gov. Jeff Landry was squarely involved in running off athletics director Scott Woodward and football coach Brian Kelly in October 2025. Then in March, Gov. Landry pushed to get men’s basketball coach Matt McMahon fired and to bring controversial castoff Will Wade back to town as McMahon’s successor.

There was also the live mascot debacle of 2024 — another Landry-driven agenda item intended to return a living, breathing tiger to the sidelines in Death Valley.

Even earlier this month, the governor’s residence played host to a meeting of LSU boosters to discuss a new-look equity approach to fundraising for the school’s athletic programs.

So, of course, it was in a Baton Rouge courtroom last week when a Louisiana state judge granted a handful of athletes an additional year of eligibility, including several players who had recently signed NFL contracts. To little surprise, two of those athletes — tight end Dae’Quan Wright and defensive lineman Zxavian Harris, formerly of the Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints, respectively — were expected to head to LSU and play for Lane Kiffin, their former head coach at Ole Miss.

Dae’Quan Wright suited up for the Browns in a preseason game against the Buffalo Bills last week. Could he be returning to college football this fall? (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images)

–>

These reprieves were matched in gravity and wide-ranging condemnation via a separate ruling from a different Louisiana judge on Tuesday that granted an additional year of eligibility to former All-American basketball player RJ Luis Jr. After starring for St. John’s, Luis went undrafted in the 2025 NBA Draft, signed a two-way contract with the Utah Jazz and played in three NBA preseason games.

“These athletes generated value under the prior framework and should not be denied the additional year the NCAA itself created for others,” attorney Darren Heitner, who represents Wright, told me. “Roster and portal management gets messy for schools, but that is a problem of the NCAA’s own making.”

Exiting the courtroom on Monday, a smile crested on Luis’ face in a moment captured by a local reporter. It was there in the lobby of this place of law and order that his past and future collided.

Adorning a purple polo and thrusting his arms wide, Wade, the Tigers’ second-term head coach, offered Luis a full embrace with a smirk to match.

No consternation here. LSU got its star.

“Because of these rulings, they’re either going to play for you or they’re going to play for someone else around the country,” Kiffin said at a press conference on Monday. “So we’ve made the decision to recruit [Harris and Wright] like probably most people are.”

That those in Baton Rouge are flashing smiles can’t be said for the rest of College Sports, Inc.

LSU coach Lane Kiffin argues that if he doesn’t recruit star players deemed eligible by the courts, they’ll wind up playing for someone else. (Photo by Gus Stark/LSU/University Images via Getty Images)

–>

The Big Ten was the first league to pass a sweeping ban on professional athletes returning to college sports. The SEC, Big 12 and ACC have since followed suit, while conversations persist elsewhere across the FBS.

The SEC pulled together a call among its presidents and chancellors on Monday ahead of two days of pre-scheduled meetings between that group and the league’s athletics directors. It closed the evening by pushing out a statement condemning the situation.

“Fundamentally, everybody needs to move on,” a second Power Four source told me. “If you’re going to support and believe in NCAA rules, then you better start playing by them yourself.”

These are not new issues, of course.

It’s only six months past that Alabama basketball player Charles Bediako was brought back from professional basketball, granted an injunction and swiftly dismissed again. It was that action that prompted the usually buttoned-up and generally savvy Sankey to sign an affidavit supporting the NCAA against the Crimson Tide hooper.

That this saga is bubbling up on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River once more, however, isn’t so much about LSU or two football players or even the omnipresent college sports villains that are Kiffin and Wade. No, this is about grander aspirations and efforts to control an ecosystem that has proved to be ungovernable as it currently exists.

“We’ve got a simple choice to make: Do we want to be governed or not?,” Texas A&M athletics director Trev Alberts posited during SEC spring meetings in May. “We are sending a very strong message that college athletics refuses to be governed. That’s all I can say.”

   Is Regulation At The Conference Level Possible?

The Big Ten and SEC have been embroiled in conversations about how to best operate within an uncontrollable world for months. 

Their hopes for order currently reside on Capitol Hill, where the Protect College Sports Act remains in limbo until the Senate returns from its recess on Sept. 14. That has its own challenges.

Where the buck stops in the lingering eligibility lawsuits ought to provide at least some clarity around leagues’ longer-term ambitions and whether regulation at the conference level is possible.

Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti, who recently signed an extension through 2033, isn’t talking breakaway, but he recognizes the need to create a set of rules to regulate the new college sports landscape. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)

–>

“‘Breakaway’ is a word that creates a lot of emotion,” Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said from the pulpit at his own football media days last month. “I’ve never heard that anybody doesn’t want to play anybody else. We want to schedule more good games that our fans expect.

“We’ve just got to get to a system that allows us to do that.”

Buried in the jargon of the SEC’s wider ban on professional athletes on Tuesday night was a note that Sankey is “authorized to enforce this expectation with penalties against member institutions.” A shot across the bow, perhaps.

The league’s bylaws include language that prevents players from transferring intra-conference outside the portal window. LSU’s additions of Wright and Harris would run directly counter to that edict. As would former Kentucky basketball player Mark Mitchell’s move to Missouri, which comes after he won his own eligibility lawsuit granting him an extra year two weeks ago.

The SEC itself has also now been thrust into the legal proceedings as attorneys amended their complaint in Louisiana state court on Thursday evening to include the league and Sankey.

So the standoff has started — and whether the SEC can actually enforce its own rules is where this story really begins.

Laissez les bons temps rouler. Let the good times roll.

MORE COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Source

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey started with the high points, winding his way through his usual football media days state-of-the-union address.

He pointed to the league winning a record 13 team national championships; that it was putting in additional programming to fight the growing influence of sports gambling; that its live viewership hours during football season accounted for 40% of those consumed by the Power Four leagues.

And then, the questions began.

“How real are the conversations within the SEC about potentially breaking away from the college structure as we know it?” a reporter queried.

“They’re real,” Sankey answered flatly. “People have talked about that. They’ve opined about the frustrations that bring them to the point of saying we should look at something significantly different. I do not believe that is a leverage point. I think that’s just honest communication.”

The threats of a “breakaway” are, in fact, quite real.

Angst from administrators and presidents has pushed the SEC and, to a lesser degree, the Big Ten to a point where each has explored what self-governance at the conference level might look like — sentiments that have been broadcast more publicly over the past six months.

At SEC media days in July, league Commissioner Greg Sankey answered questions about the future of college sports regulation and even potentially breaking away from the NCAA. (Photo by Parker S. Freedman/Getty Images)

–>

Stakeholders have fundamentally taken issue with the lack of actual enforcement of rules laid out in the House settlement and by the College Sports Commission and NCAA. 

The solution, at least to some, is to take on more regulation at the conference-level and allow leagues to set their own rules around eligibility, revenue-sharing caps and other pieces to college sports’ ever-evolving jigsaw puzzle of a future structure.

But as eligibility lawsuits litter the news cycle, the SEC, in particular, is providing an early test case for how feasible regulating anything at the league level in this new era ultimately is.

And it’s a fight brewing on the bayou that has everyone paying attention.

“I can’t speak for the entirety,” one league source told me, “but I would say [the SEC’s] charge is to defend the rules that everyone voted on as members.”

Where Else Could This Drama Play Out Than Baton Rouge?

There are certain places that are almost too good, too cliché, too Spielbergian to be the setting for the stories they tell. Louisiana, college sports and a good old-fashioned power struggle are certainly that.

These are complicated times in Baton Rouge; times wrought with regime changes and political interference — albeit that can often be the norm around these parts.

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA – MARCH 24: Head Coach Lane Kiffin and Associate Head Coach Kevin Smith of the LSU Tigers in action during spring practice at the LSU Football Operations Center on March 24, 2026 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Gus Stark/LSU/University Images via Getty Images)

–>

Gov. Jeff Landry was squarely involved in running off athletics director Scott Woodward and football coach Brian Kelly in October 2025. Then in March, Gov. Landry pushed to get men’s basketball coach Matt McMahon fired and to bring controversial castoff Will Wade back to town as McMahon’s successor.

There was also the live mascot debacle of 2024 — another Landry-driven agenda item intended to return a living, breathing tiger to the sidelines in Death Valley.

Even earlier this month, the governor’s residence played host to a meeting of LSU boosters to discuss a new-look equity approach to fundraising for the school’s athletic programs.

So, of course, it was in a Baton Rouge courtroom last week when a Louisiana state judge granted a handful of athletes an additional year of eligibility, including several players who had recently signed NFL contracts. To little surprise, two of those athletes — tight end Dae’Quan Wright and defensive lineman Zxavian Harris, formerly of the Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints, respectively — were expected to head to LSU and play for Lane Kiffin, their former head coach at Ole Miss.

Dae’Quan Wright suited up for the Browns in a preseason game against the Buffalo Bills last week. Could he be returning to college football this fall? (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images)

–>

These reprieves were matched in gravity and wide-ranging condemnation via a separate ruling from a different Louisiana judge on Tuesday that granted an additional year of eligibility to former All-American basketball player RJ Luis Jr. After starring for St. John’s, Luis went undrafted in the 2025 NBA Draft, signed a two-way contract with the Utah Jazz and played in three NBA preseason games.

“These athletes generated value under the prior framework and should not be denied the additional year the NCAA itself created for others,” attorney Darren Heitner, who represents Wright, told me. “Roster and portal management gets messy for schools, but that is a problem of the NCAA’s own making.”

Exiting the courtroom on Monday, a smile crested on Luis’ face in a moment captured by a local reporter. It was there in the lobby of this place of law and order that his past and future collided.

Adorning a purple polo and thrusting his arms wide, Wade, the Tigers’ second-term head coach, offered Luis a full embrace with a smirk to match.

No consternation here. LSU got its star.

“Because of these rulings, they’re either going to play for you or they’re going to play for someone else around the country,” Kiffin said at a press conference on Monday. “So we’ve made the decision to recruit [Harris and Wright] like probably most people are.”

That those in Baton Rouge are flashing smiles can’t be said for the rest of College Sports, Inc.

LSU coach Lane Kiffin argues that if he doesn’t recruit star players deemed eligible by the courts, they’ll wind up playing for someone else. (Photo by Gus Stark/LSU/University Images via Getty Images)

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The Big Ten was the first league to pass a sweeping ban on professional athletes returning to college sports. The SEC, Big 12 and ACC have since followed suit, while conversations persist elsewhere across the FBS.

The SEC pulled together a call among its presidents and chancellors on Monday ahead of two days of pre-scheduled meetings between that group and the league’s athletics directors. It closed the evening by pushing out a statement condemning the situation.

“Fundamentally, everybody needs to move on,” a second Power Four source told me. “If you’re going to support and believe in NCAA rules, then you better start playing by them yourself.”

These are not new issues, of course.

It’s only six months past that Alabama basketball player Charles Bediako was brought back from professional basketball, granted an injunction and swiftly dismissed again. It was that action that prompted the usually buttoned-up and generally savvy Sankey to sign an affidavit supporting the NCAA against the Crimson Tide hooper.

That this saga is bubbling up on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River once more, however, isn’t so much about LSU or two football players or even the omnipresent college sports villains that are Kiffin and Wade. No, this is about grander aspirations and efforts to control an ecosystem that has proved to be ungovernable as it currently exists.

“We’ve got a simple choice to make: Do we want to be governed or not?,” Texas A&M athletics director Trev Alberts posited during SEC spring meetings in May. “We are sending a very strong message that college athletics refuses to be governed. That’s all I can say.”

   Is Regulation At The Conference Level Possible?

The Big Ten and SEC have been embroiled in conversations about how to best operate within an uncontrollable world for months. 

Their hopes for order currently reside on Capitol Hill, where the Protect College Sports Act remains in limbo until the Senate returns from its recess on Sept. 14. That has its own challenges.

Where the buck stops in the lingering eligibility lawsuits ought to provide at least some clarity around leagues’ longer-term ambitions and whether regulation at the conference level is possible.

Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti, who recently signed an extension through 2033, isn’t talking breakaway, but he recognizes the need to create a set of rules to regulate the new college sports landscape. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)

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“‘Breakaway’ is a word that creates a lot of emotion,” Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said from the pulpit at his own football media days last month. “I’ve never heard that anybody doesn’t want to play anybody else. We want to schedule more good games that our fans expect.

“We’ve just got to get to a system that allows us to do that.”

Buried in the jargon of the SEC’s wider ban on professional athletes on Tuesday night was a note that Sankey is “authorized to enforce this expectation with penalties against member institutions.” A shot across the bow, perhaps.

The league’s bylaws include language that prevents players from transferring intra-conference outside the portal window. LSU’s additions of Wright and Harris would run directly counter to that edict. As would former Kentucky basketball player Mark Mitchell’s move to Missouri, which comes after he won his own eligibility lawsuit granting him an extra year two weeks ago.

The SEC itself has also now been thrust into the legal proceedings as attorneys amended their complaint in Louisiana state court on Thursday evening to include the league and Sankey.

So the standoff has started — and whether the SEC can actually enforce its own rules is where this story really begins.

Laissez les bons temps rouler. Let the good times roll.

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In Driver’s Eye with James Hinchcliffe, the six-time INDYCAR winner will bring you inside the mind of a racer while breaking down the nuts and bolts of the sport for fans.

And then there were two…

Two is an important number heading into Milwaukee. Two race weekends left in the 2026 INDYCAR season. Two races at the famed mile-long flat track this weekend. And the No. 2 car is very much the car to beat.

Rather than focus on Josef Newgarden’s oval prowess so far in 2026, or how Pato O’Ward, Scott McLaughlin and Christian Rasmussen are recent Milwaukee Mile winners, or that we are nearly done with INDYCAR racing for a while, I want to dig into the doubleheader specifically. 

Doubleheaders are a massive challenge for teams and drivers alike. Strategically, physically, mentally — both driver and crew get pushed to the limit. Making the double on the fourth consecutive weekend on the road adds another element of wear and tear — both on man and machine. 

Let’s look deeper into what INDYCAR teams are facing this weekend.

Kyle Kirkwood and Josef Newgarden racing during INDYCAR’s 2025 Milwaukee Mile race. (Photo by Michael L. Levitt/Lumen via Getty Images)

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Doubleheaders are great value for fans and loved by promoters, but a lot of drivers are lukewarm on the concept at best. The biggest reason that drivers aren’t the biggest fans is the sporting fairness across the season. Allow me to explain.

If you happen to have a particularly good car at whatever track is hosting an INDYCAR doubleheader, you’ve automatically got a baked-in competitive advantage for two races. Double the chance to make up some points. To any team that struggles at said track, it feels like an unfair advantage. 

If I’m Rahal Letterman Lanigan, I want a doubleheader at Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course. Andretti Global would love it to be a street track. Team Penske wouldn’t be mad with a short oval.

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin smashes a creampuff in ECR’s Christian Rasmussen’s face after Rasmussen’s 2025 Milwaukee win. (Photo by Michael L. Levitt/Lumen via Getty Images)

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Because of this, no matter where a doubleheader is held, one team will feel elated, and the others will all feel slighted. If every track can’t be a doubleheader, then none should.

That’s the position of an inherently competitive group of people! 

But this is the reality: We have had doubleheaders for a number of years, and they provide tremendous value for fans. I am sure, at some point in the future, INDYCAR will aim not to have any, but for now, it’s the schedule. 

SURVIVING 250 MILES ON MILWAUKEE’S OVAL — TWICE 

So how do drivers and teams best cope with such a grueling weekend?

While two races on consecutive days is draining for every member of the team, the drivers no doubt have it the worst. 

I’ve written at length in this column about the physical demands of driving an Indy car. How no power steering and triple-digit temperatures can sap every ounce of energy out of you.

After a typical race weekend, a driver has at least four days to recover before getting back behind the wheel. And those first days back in are pretty mild with practice and qualifying. It’s a full week before you are subjected to a race distance again.

A full week to rest, rehab, rehydrate and prepare. 

Following a race like last weekend on the streets of Washington, D.C. — the longest street race we’ve had — drivers will be beat up from the bumps, blistered from the steering wheel and mentally exhausted from not just a long race, but also a long weekend full of extra media and commitments.

At Milwaukee, drivers have less than 24 hours to accomplish the same recovery.

This track is tough with just nine degrees of banking in the turns. The corners are fast, and the drivers don’t get much rest, given the short straights. 

A view of the start of last season’s Milwaukee Mile race. (Photo by Michael L. Levitt/Lumen via Getty Images)

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Your grip, your shoulders, your neck and core can be burning by the final stint of a race here. You want nothing more than a massage and an ice bath after. A good night’s rest would be nice, too.

The latter might be a pipe dream. Especially after an oval race, your adrenaline has been running so high for so long, despite being physically exhausted, it is often hard to sleep the night after a race. 

At Milwaukee, you have no choice.

You’ve got to get fluids in you. You’ve got to rest as best as you can. You’ve got to tend to any ailments that might have popped up in the first race — like oval elbow.

When you are turning left 500 times, your right elbow is often thrown into the right side of the tub under the extreme G force, which can bruise and even wear down your skin. It’s not uncommon for drivers to tear off their suits and be greeted by a big red circle on their right arm.

I went so far as to build extra padding into the right elbow of my oval suits when I was racing. It helped — but only so much. When you wake up the next morning, all of those sore spots really make themselves known, and you shudder thinking of having to put them through it all again.

Pato O’Ward and his No. 5 Arrow McLaren team during a pit stop at Milwaukee in 2025. (Photo by Perry Nelson/Lumen via Getty Images)

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A huge contributor to how beat you are at the end of a race is how well your car is handling. When the car is hooked up, everything feels easier. You are relaxed, you loosen your grip and you let the car do a big chunk of the work for you.

If the team misses the mark on the setup, it is exponentially more physically and mentally draining. The car feels like it’s trying to crash you every lap. You tense up. You grip the wheel tighter. All of those things drain your energy much faster. 

And with so little practice, if you roll off with a less-than-ideal car, the chances of it being significantly better by the second race are slim. So you’re in for a double dose of torture.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE FAST: MILWAUKEE

Milwaukee is a great place to go racing. Opening in 1903, it’s the oldest racetrack we race on — yes, it predates Indianapolis Motor Speedway — and it’s a unique challenge. 

The start of a 1952 AAA race — a 20th century INDYCAR precursor — at the Milwaukee Mile. (Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images)

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Being so flat, it almost feels more like two really fast road-course corners than an oval. Naturally, that means drivers with road-racing backgrounds tend to prefer this place over higher-banked tracks.

The corner radii are so tight that the fastest and preferred line is actually about a car width off the bottom of the track. There is also a different pavement on the first lane that doesn’t offer as much grip. 

To pass on most short ovals, you need to be comfortable going up high. At Milwaukee, you actually need to get the car working down low.

It’s not an easy thing to do because the unique track configuration provides a completely different feel, so a setup compromise is needed to be good in both lanes.

Me and Tony Kanaan douse 2012 Milwaukee winner Ryan Hunter-Reay with champagne after our podium finishes. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)

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I always loved racing at Milwaukee. It really feels like you are on the limit in a totally unparalleled way compared with other ovals. 

The lack of banking means you have less vertical load and more lateral load, throwing you into the right side of your seat so hard you can feel your organs moving in your rib cage. The two lanes lead to some great side-by-side racing, and a good result there always felt extra rewarding.

1 FOR THE ROAD

Even with the tough weekend that Alex Palou and his No. 10 team endured in D.C., it’s still their title to lose. But we did see just how big of a swing in points can materialize when one driver wins while their rivals post a DNF.

Alex Palou leading last weekend’s D.C. race before ultimately finishing three laps behind the leaders. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

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Remember what happened to Palou at Phoenix Raceway in March? He wrecked after only 21 laps and fell to an unusual fifth place in the standings.

So, while 91 points is a massive cushion with three rounds to go — the season finale is at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on September 6 — anything can happen at this type of race. If Palou and his No. 10 team struggle in one or both Milwaukee events, his once seemingly guaranteed fifth INDYCAR title in six seasons could slip away.

We’re down to the wire, almost at the white flag on the 2026 season, drama in the championship race is brewing. Trust me, you won’t want to miss Saturday’s and Sunday’s races on FOX!

MORE DRIVER’S EYE:

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INDYCAR heads to the Midwest this weekend for a doubleheader at Milwaukee on FOX. 

The first race is the Snap-on Maker and Fixers 250 (Saturday, Aug. 29 at 2:30 p.m. ET) and the second is Snap-on Milwaukee Mile (Sunday, Aug. 30 at 1 p.m. ET).

Will Alex Palou have a dominant weekend and clinch his fifth INDYCAR title, or will he have another ill-fated weekend like the one he had at the Freedom 250?

Here are the odds at FanDuel Sportsbook for Saturday’s race as of Aug. 28.

This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports.

Snap-on Maker and Fixers 250

Josef Newgarden: 3/1 (bet $10 to win $40 total)
Alex Palou: 17/5 (bet $10 to win $44 total)
David Malukas: 11/2 (bet $10 to win $65 total)
Kyle Kirkwood: 8/1 (bet $10 to win $90 total)
Scott McLaughlin: 17/2 (bet $10 to win $95 total)
Pato O’Ward: 9/1 (bet $10 to win $100 total)
Christian Rasmussen: 9/1 (bet $10 to win $100 total)
Will Power: 12/1 (bet $10 to win $130 total)
Felix Rosenqvist: 18/1 (bet $10 to win $190 total)
Marcus Ericsson: 20/1 (bet $10 to win $210 total)
Scott Dixon: 20/1 (bet $10 to win $210 total)
Christian Lundgaard: 20/1 (bet $10 to win $210 total)
Alexander Rossi: 30/1 (bet $10 to win $310 total)
Marcus Armstrong: 30/1 (bet $10 to win $310 total)
Rinus Veekay: 40/1 (bet $10 to win $410 total)
Santino Ferrucci: 40/1 (bet $10 to win $410 total)
Graham Rahal: 60/1 (bet $10 to win $610 total)
Louis Foster: 75/1 (bet $10 to win $760 total)
Caio Collet: 80/1 (bet $10 to win $810 total)
Romain Grosjean: 100/1 (bet $10 to win $1,010 total)
Dennis Hauger: 100/1 (bet $10 to win $1,010 total)
Mick Schumacher: 100/1 (bet $10 to win $1,010 total)
Kyffin Simpson: 150/1 (bet $10 to win $1,510 total)
Nolan Siegel: 150/1 (bet $10 to win $1,510 total)
Sting Ray Robb: 300/1 (bet $10 to win $3,010 total)

Here’s What You Need To Know About The Oddsboard:

The Favorite

Josef Newgarden is at the top of the oddsboard to be an outright winner this weekend.

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If Josef Newgarden got into Winner’s Circle this weekend at the Milwaukee Mile, it would be his third victory of the season. He won at Phoenix back in March and then again at Gateway in June. Even though he’s at the top of the oddsboard, Newgaren acknowledged that this track can be challenging. “You have to figure out how to get through traffic,” he explained earlier this week. “That’s always going to be the case on a short oval.”

One To Watch

Will Alex Palou clinch his fifth INDYCAR title this weekend at the Milwaukee Mile?

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Even if Alex Palou doesn’t end up winning on Saturday or Sunday, he’s still in a good position to clinch the INDYCAR championship before the series says goodbye to the Midwest. Bettors eyeing Palou’s outright winner’s odds might want to note that he has never won at Milwaukee. In 2024, he finished fifth and then 19th at the two races there. In 2025, he finished second when the series went to the track for one race.

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