THE SEC AND BIG TEN ARE CURRENTLY AT A STANDSTILL OVER THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF FORMAT
ATLANTA (AP) — Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey said Monday that despite frequent conversations with Big Ten counterpart Tony Petitti, the two leagues have yet to agree on the College Football Playoff format after this upcoming season and could leave it at 12 teams.
The disagreement doesn’t stem from a lack of communication. Sankey said he spoke with Petitti four times last week.
“We had a different view coming out of Destin around the notion of allocations,” Sankey said. “The Big Ten has a different view. That’s fine. We have a 12-team playoff, five conference champions. That could stay if we can’t agree.”
The Big Ten, which has won the last two national championships, favors a 4-4-2-2-1 format, giving four automatic bids to the SEC and Big Ten and awarding the ACC and Big 12 two bids apiece. The SEC, originally thought to be on the same page, switched gears at its spring meetings in Destin. The SEC favors five conference champions and 11 at-large bids, which would presumably favor the top conferences most seasons.
The CFP announced in May that teams in the upcoming playoff will be seeded strictly on where they are ranked instead of moving pieces around to reward conference champions. Last season’s jumbled bracket, the first with 12 teams, gave byes to Big 12 champion Arizona State and Mountain West champion Boise State, even though they were ranked 12th and ninth, respectively, by the playoff selection committee.
That system made the rankings and the seedings in the tournament two different things. The five highest-ranked conference champions will still be guaranteed spots in the playoff.
While the CFP contract from 2026 through the 2031 season requires the SEC and Big Ten to consult other leagues about prospective changes to the playoff system, it also provides them with the ability to impose changes they both want.
Now it’s a matter of getting on the same page.
“I think there’s this notion that there has to be this magic moment and something has to happen with expansion and it has to be forced — no,” Sankey said. “When you’re given authority, you want to be responsible in using that authority. I think both of us are prepared to do so. The upfront responsibility in this, maybe where some of the confusion lies, is we have the ability to present a format or format ideas, gather information, see if we can all agree within that room. We don’t need unanimity.”
BRIAN KELLY: TRANSPARENCY, CONSISTENCY KEY FOR COLLEGE SPORTS’ FUTURE
When asked about the leadership governing college sports, LSU head coach Brian Kelly highlighted “transparency and consistency” as paramount.
“Those two words are probably the most important thing as we continue to move forward,” Kelly said at Southeastern Conference media days on Monday.
The 63-year-old also placed responsibility on coaches and emphasized the moral aspect of NIL and the evolving landscape of college athletics.
“It’s got to start with us. I mean, we have to be the stewards of this. There has to be a moral high ground,” Kelly said. “I was at a speaking engagement a few weeks back, and every question about the NIL was trying to find a way around it, trying to find a way to bring in revenue in some other way.
“Sooner or later, we have to take a stand that transparency, consistency, ethics and morality are at the core of this.”
Kelly, who is entering his fourth year at LSU and 22nd coaching at the FBS level, has been candid about the effects of NIL on recruiting in the past. He’s said that prospects now prioritize money over on-field and off-field development when choosing a school.
LSU faced this reality firsthand when Bryce Underwood, the No. 1 overall recruit in the Class of 2025, flipped his commitment from the Tigers to Michigan in December. The quarterback will reportedly receive an NIL deal worth between $10.5 million and $12 million over four years.
Conversely, Kelly and his wife, Paqui, donated $1 million to LSU’s NIL collective Monday as part of their “Kelly Family Million Dollar Match Fund.” The Kellys launched this initiative shortly after Underwood’s flip and pledged to match fan donations to the school’s NIL collective up to $1 million.
While the Tigers lost out on their potential quarterback of the future, Kelly is focused on the man under center this season.
Garrett Nussmeier is entering his fifth season and second year as LSU’s starting quarterback. He produced 4,052 passing yards and 29 touchdowns last season, but led the SEC with 12 interceptions thrown.
Kelly is confident Nussmeier will take a leap, but recognized that comparing him to the Heisman-winning LSU quarterbacks of the past sets lofty expectations.
“When you’re comparing (Nussmeier) to Jayden Daniels and Joe Burrow, that’s a high bar for anybody, right?” Kelly said. “Garrett is at LSU because he loves LSU. He wants to lead our football team to a championship. If the Heisman follows with that, I think he’s good with that.”
One of Kelly’s primary goals is to set the tone for the season in the first week. During his team at LSU, Kelly is 0-3 in season openers. The Tigers kick off the 2025 season at Clemson.
“We needed to do some things differently this year. That is embrace the opener. Embracing it in the manner that this is a big game,” Kelly said. “It’s a tangible goal for our football team to want to be 1-0. That’s not, ‘Let’s warm up into the season.’ We want to be ready for this football game.”
SEC MEDIA DAYS: LSU, SOUTH CAROLINA, OLE MISS QUARTERBACKS IN SPOTLIGHT
ATLANTA (AP) — The opening day of SEC football media days Monday featured LSU, South Carolina, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt. The Commodores have Diego Pavia at quarterback going into his second season and the other three also have signal-callers entering pivotal seasons:
Will Garrett Nussmeier take the Year 2 LSU leap?
LSU quarterbacks have a history of taking an impressive jump from year one to two. Before spearheading two of the NFL’s most dominant offenses, Jayden Daniels and Joe Burrow came into their own during their second seasons in Baton Rouge. Is it Nussmeier’s turnn?
Nussmeier finished the 2024 season with a 64.2 completion percentage and 4,052 passing yards for 29 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Limiting turnovers is a big point of emphasis for Nussmeier approaching his final season at LSU.
“There’s no hiding from turnovers,” Nussmeier said. “As an anticipation player, there’s going to be some interceptions. The ones I need to eliminate are the ones that don’t need to happen, the ones where I’m trying to do too much, the ones where I’m trying to make a play when I don’t need to.”
Nussmeier understands the stakes are high, especially given the history of year two success for Burrow and Daniels. More than ever, he’s motivated to create his own legacy.
“Obviously with the track record that LSU quarterbacks have in the past, it’s not a thing of disrespect. I have a lot of respect for Jayden, a lot of respect for Joe and what they were able to accomplish in their second years, and also respectively in their first years. But as I said before, I’m me,” Nussmeier said. “I’m worried about improving myself, being the best I can be to lead us where we want to go.”
The season opener is Aug. 30 at Clemson.
High hopes for LaNorris Sellers and South Carolina
South Carolina went 9-4 in 2024, the program’s first nine-win season under coach Shane Beamer and just its second since 2013. The Gamecocks will have to replace most of their starting defense, but unlike plenty of SEC teams, they won’t have to worry about turnover at quarterback.
Redshirt sophomore Sellers returns after a breakout season, accounting for 3,208 yards and 25 total touchdowns, saving his best play for the end of the season with 16 total touchdowns and only three interceptions in November.
“I think we’re going to be better around LaNorris as well on the offense,” Beamer said. “(We have) more depth and competition at pretty much every position, I feel like that’s going to help him. He doesn’t have to be Superman for us.”
South Carolina closed the regular season with five consecutive wins, and lost two games by a total of five points against LSU and Alabama. The success down the stretch last season combined with Sellers’ return is the backbone of the optimism surrounding the Gamecocks and their chances of reaching the College Football Playoff after narrowly missing out last fall.
“We were four to five plays off,” Sellers said. “That showed us a little bit of success, and showed us that we can make the playoff and make a run for the trophy.”
Ole Miss prepares for a massive change under center
Ole Miss has the challenge of replacing one the most successful signal-callers in program history. Lane Kiffin’s Rebels went 21-5 over the last two seasons with Jaxson Dart under center. Now the offense belongs in the hands of redshirt sophomore Austin Simmons.
Simmons appeared in nine games last season mostly late in blowouts, but he did lead one touchdown drive against Georgia when Dart briefly went out injured.
“I’m really just focusing on building my own legacy rather than just focusing on the past,” Simmons said.
Simmons is a total 180 from Dart. He was not a full-time football player until this year, also playing with Ole Miss baseball in the spring before transitioning to football full-time. He was a Kiffin recruit as opposed to Dart, who arrived in the transfer portal.
Kiffin isn’t looking for another Dart.
“Austin has to make sure he doesn’t try to be Jaxson,” Kiffin said. “He’ll be fine. He’s got elite talent, does a great job, he’s maturing and did a great job when he came in in the Georgia game.”
Ole Miss went 10-3 last season, following an 11-2 mark in 2023. It was the first time Ole Miss has won double-digit games in consecutive seasons since 1959-60, and 2025 will be an opportunity to do so in three consecutive seasons for the first time.
LANORRIS SELLERS: SOUTH CAROLINA HAD ‘EVERYTHING I NEEDED’ AS RIVALS PURSUED
To LaNorris Sellers, the idea of entering the transfer portal wasn’t one worth overthinking.
The fast-rising quarterback is now considered one of the top prospects for next year’s NFL Draft, and with that national profile came attention from rival teams. Sellers’ father told The Athletic last month that the family heard offers as high as a two-year, $8 million deal to transfer to another school.
But Sellers, a native of Florence, S.C., didn’t budge.
“Everything I needed was in South Carolina,” Sellers said at Southeastern Conference media days Monday. “Like I grew up there. My family’s there. Anything I needed was an hour and five up the road for me. School pretty much takes care of rent and all that. So it’s not like you really need too much. You know what I’m saying? … There’s no point in me starting over.”
Head coach Shane Beamer added that Sellers is doing a summer internship in Columbia for his sport and entertainment management major. Sellers received high praise from Beamer, who said the quarterback “has not changed” since his ascent on the field.
“His life, his world has changed from last year at this time to right now because of what he did last season,” Beamer said. “But he’s got a great family around him. He came back in January knowing the things he needed to work on to get better at. He’s done a great job of working hard and improving, all while staying grounded and staying the same person.
“I think we’re going to be better around LaNorris as well on the offense, more depth and competition at pretty much every position I feel like. That’s going to help him. He doesn’t have to be Superman for us. Just continue to be the person he is, the leader that he is, and the player that he is, and watch him continue to take the next step.”
In his sophomore season — his first as a starter — Sellers completed 65.6 percent of his passes for 2,534 yards, 18 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He added 674 yards and seven scores on the ground.
Most notably, Sellers helped the Gamecocks upset intrastate rival Clemson 17-14 on Nov. 30. He threw for 164 yards and rushed for 166 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winning score on a third-and-16 play with 1:08 to go. The Gamecocks went 9-3 in the regular season before a Citrus Bowl loss to Illinois.
Beamer promoted Mike Shula to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, noting Monday that Shula has “literally been in the shoes that LaNorris is in as he was a starting quarterback in this conference … He’s already made us better as an offense on and off the field.”
Sellers will have some family even closer than Florence this year, as his younger brother, wide receiver Jayden Sellers, is a freshman on the 2025 team.
“Super excited to play with him,” LaNorris Sellers said. “Last time we played together with him was my senior (year of high school), which was year three years ago.
“I was always quarterback. He played pretty much everywhere. And in rec league he played running back, receiver, DB. He played that up until last year, senior year. I think he’s fully receiver now. But that’s all we used to do, throw a deep field run and he’d catch it.”
ARGUMENT OVER ‘VALID BUSINESS PURPOSE’ FOR NIL COLLECTIVES THREATENS COLLEGE SPORTS SETTLEMENT
Less than two weeks after terms of a multibillion-dollar college sports settlement went into effect, friction erupted over the definition of a “valid business purpose” that collectives making name, image likeness payments to players are supposed to have.
The new College Sports Commission sent a letter to athletic directors last week saying it was rejecting deals in which players were receiving money from collectives that were created solely to pay them and don’t provide goods or services to the general public for profit.
A lead attorney for the players responded by saying those instructions went against settlement terms and asking the CSC to rescind the guidance.
“This process is undermined when the CSC goes off the reservation and issues directions to the schools that are not consistent with the Settlement Agreement terms,” attorney Jeffrey Kessler wrote to NCAA outside counsel Rakesh Kilaru in a letter obtained by The Associated Press.
Yahoo Sports first reported details of the letter, in which Kessler threatens to take the issue to a judge assigned with resolving disputes involved in the settlement.
Kessler told AP his firm was not commenting on the contents of the letter, and Kilaru did not immediately respond to AP’s request for a comment.
Yahoo quoted a CSC spokesman as saying the parties are working to resolve differences and that “the guidance issued by the College Sports Commission … is entirely consistent with the House settlement and the rules that have been agreed upon with class counsel.”
When NIL payments became allowed in 2021, boosters formed so-called “collectives” that were closely tied to universities to work out contracts with the players, who still weren’t allowed to be paid directly by the schools.
Terms of the House settlement allow schools to make the payments now, but keep the idea of outside payments from collectives, which have to be approved by the CSC if they are worth $600 or more.
The CSC, in its letter last week, explained that if a collective reaches a deal, for instance, for an athlete to appear on behalf of the collective, which charges an admission fee, that collective does not have a “valid business purpose” because the purpose of the event is to raise money to pay athletes, not to provide goods or services available to the general public for profit.
Another example of a disallowed deal was one an athlete makes to sell merchandise to raise money to pay that player because, the CSC guidance said, the purpose of “selling merchandise is to raise money to pay that student-athlete and potentially other student-athletes at a particular school or schools, which is not a valid business purpose.”
Kessler’s letter notes that the “valid business purpose” rule was designed to ensure athletes were not simply being paid to play, and did not prohibit NIL collectives from paying athletes for the type of deals described above.
To prevent those payments “would be to create a new prohibition on payments by a NIL collective that is not provided for or contemplated by the Settlement Agreement, causing injury to the class members who should be free to receive those payments,” Kessler wrote.
REPORT: LOUISIANA TECH LEAVING CUSA FOR SUN BELT
Louisiana Tech is leaving Conference USA to become the 14th member of the Sun Belt Conference, ESPN reported.
Sun Belt officials reportedly approved the move on Monday to replace Texas State, which recently jumped to the Pac-12.
Louisiana Tech has been with Conference USA since 2013. The Bulldogs’ basketball programs and other sports besides football previously were part of the Sun Belt from 1991-2001 before joining the Western Athletic Conference from 2001-13.
The earliest date Louisiana Tech can join the Sun Belt is 2026. It reportedly will cost the school at least $5 million to negotiate an exit from Conference USA.
The Bulldogs’ football program has not finished above .500 since going 10-3 under former coach Skip Holtz in 2019. They were 5-8 last season under Sonny Cumbie.
The Louisiana Tech men’s basketball team has topped 20 wins in 11 of the past 13 seasons but has not been to the NCAA Tournament since 1991.
The women’s basketball team finished 18-16 last season and has not been to the NCAA Tournament since 2011.
