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The Division I Council approved changes to the recruiting calendar Thursday, hoping to cater to more of a work-life balance for football coaches across all divisions.

The new rules were proposed by the oversight committee in early April and will now go into effect for FBS teams Aug. 1. Among the larger changes in guidelines include creating a contact period from April 15 to May 29 that will consist of 140 total recruiting days for a program’s coaching staff.

The current rule accounts for 168 days from April 15 to May 31, so the new rules reduces the number of allowable recruiting days by 28. It also changes the current evaluation period to a contact period, which would allow coaches to have in-person contact with recruits they are evaluating.

The council is also reducing the number of evaluation days in September, October and November by nine recruiting days from 42 to 33. The rule states that only authorized off-campus recruiters can visit a prospective student-athlete’s school and on only one calendar day during this period.

The council wanted to standardize the procedures for coaches making telephone calls, texts and sending recruiting materials to prospects. All activities will now be allowed on June 15 at the conclusion of a prospect’s sophomore year of high school. The council is, however, eliminating the restrictions on the number of phone calls a program can make once they are able to contact recruits.

The previous rule did not allow coaches to contact recruits over the phone until Sep. 1 of their junior year.

Coaches will legally be allowed to have off-campus in-person contact with recruits after Jan. 1 of the prospects’ junior year in high school. That essentially gives coaches the opportunity to go to a recruit’s high school and have contact with them nearly 11 months prior to when they are currently allowed. It limits the contact only to the recruit’s school, however, and does not include in-home visits.

The current rule states that coaches can’t have contact with junior prospects until July 1, following the completion of the recruit’s junior year of high school. But the way the calendar is made up, there is a dead period starting in July running through August, then an evaluation period, which does not allow contact with recruits, from September through Nov. 27.

As it stands now, coaches aren’t able to have contact with juniors until the contact period opens in December, even though the rule states they should be able to in July. That discrepancy was part of the clean-up with the new rule.

The new rules also state that schools will be allowed up to two off-campus contacts with an individual prospect during the January contact period of the recruit’s junior year and one off-campus contact during the spring contact period. That lowers the number of contacts from two to one in the spring duration.

In addition, the council is changing the dead period that starts before the February signing period. It will run from the first Monday of the signing day week to the first Sunday in March, after going from Jan. 30 to Feb. 28 this current year. All of these changes were implemented in hopes to modernize the recruiting calendar and adapt to the ongoing changes that coaches and recruits are experiencing in the current recruiting landscape.

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Wisconsin fires offensive coordinator after 2 years

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Wisconsin fires offensive coordinator after 2 years

Wisconsin fired offensive coordinator Phil Longo on Sunday, a day after the Badgers’ 16-13 home loss to No. 1 Oregon.

In a statement, Badgers coach Luke Fickell thanked Longo for his two seasons with the program, while adding, “We are not where we need to be and believe this decision is in the best interest of the team.”

Wisconsin ranks 97th nationally in scoring and 102nd in passing while operating an Air Raid-style offense that Longo brought with him from North Carolina and other stops.

The Badgers, who lost starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke to a season-ending injury Sept. 14, had only three points and 88 yards in the second half against Oregon, which rallied from a 13-6 deficit entering the fourth quarter.

Wisconsin ranked 101st nationally in scoring in Longo’s 23 games as coordinator and failed to eclipse 13 points on its current three-game losing streak. Quarterback Braedyn Locke had only 96 passing yards against the Ducks.

Fickell did not immediately announce an interim coordinator for Wisconsin’s final regular-season games against Nebraska and Minnesota.

Fickell had long targeted Longo for a coordinator role, going back to his time as Cincinnati’s coach. Longo, 56, oversaw productive offenses at Ole Miss, North Carolina, Sam Houston State and other spots but never consistently got traction at a Wisconsin program that had operated dramatically differently on offense before his arrival.

“This team still has a lot in front of us and I am committed to doing everything we can to close out this season with success,” Fickell said in his statement.

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4-star QB Jones, former FSU commit, picks Florida

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4-star QB Jones, former FSU commit, picks Florida

Four-star quarterback Tramell Jones Jr. has committed to Florida, he told ESPN on Sunday, joining the Gators’ 2025 class four days after pulling his pledge from Florida State.

Jones, a four-year starter at Florida’s Mandarin High School, is ESPN’s No. 9 dual-threat passer in the Class of 2025. After multiple trips to Florida throughout his recruitment, Jones returned to campus Saturday, taking an official visit with the Gators during the program’s 27-16 win over LSU. A day later, Jones stands as the lone quarterback pledge in a 2025 Florida class that includes five pledges from the ESPN 300.

“I pretty much saw everything I needed to see when I visited last spring — I just love everything around the campus,” Jones told ESPN. “And then hanging out with the guys yesterday, seeing the camaraderie with each other, that really just sealed it for me.”

Jones was the longest-tenured member of Mike Norvell’s 2025 class at Florida State before his decommitment from the Seminoles on Thursday morning.

Jones’ exit came days after Norvell announced the firings of three assistant coaches on Nov. 10, including offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Alex Atkins. Jones was the first Florida State commit to pull his pledge in the wake of the staff shakeup but marked the Seminoles sixth decommitment since the start of the regular season, joining five ESPN 300 recruits who have left Norvell’s recruiting class across the program’s 1-9 start.

Jones’ commitment follows a key late-season victory for Billy Napier on Saturday and marks the Gators’ first recruiting win since athletic director Scott Strickland announced on Nov. 7 that Florida would stick with the third-year coach beyond the 2024 season.

Uncertainty over Napier’s future had weighed down Florida’s recruiting efforts in the 2025 class as the Gators began November with the No. 39 class in ESPN’s latest team rankings for the cycle. But Jones’ pledge comes as a boost for Florida one day after the Gators hosted a handful of high-profile flip targets, including five-star offensive tackle Solomon Thomas (Florida State pledge) and four-star wide receiver Jaime Ffrench (Texas pledge).

When Jones signs with Florida, he’ll arrive on campus flanked by fellow in-state offensive talents in four-star wide receivers Vernell Brown III (No. 44 in the ESPN 300) and Naeshaun Montgomery (No. 115), as well as four-star running back Waltez Clark (No. 223). Florida is also set to sign a pair of in-state defenders from the 2025 ESPN 300 between four-star defensive end Jalen Wiggins (No. 68) and four-star cornerback Ben Hanks Jr. (No. 121).

With Jones’ commitment, Florida has another jolt to its momentum on the recruiting trail as the Gators seek to chart a strong finish in the 2025 cycle next month. More imminently, Florida will host No. 11 Ole Miss on Saturday.

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Ted Williams’ 1946 MVP award sells for over $500K

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Ted Williams' 1946 MVP award sells for over 0K

A rare souvenir postcard picturing Hank Aaron as a rookie with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro Leagues sold for nearly $200,000 at a baseball memorabilia auction that also included Ted Williams’ 1946 AL MVP award, which went for $528,750.

The Aaron postcard from the scrapbook of scout Ed Scott, who discovered Aaron, went for $199,750 following a bidding war that soared past the pre-sale estimate of $5,000-$10,000, Hunt Auctions said.

The auction included 280 items from Williams’ personal collection that had been held by his daughter, Claudia, who died last year. Among the other items were a silver bat awarded for his 1958 batting title, which sold for more than $270,000, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom presented to him by fellow naval aviator George H.W. Bush, which went for $141,000.

The sale also included items from the collection of Rutherford Hayes Jones, the business manager of the Washington Giants, one of the earliest Black baseball teams. The trove was discovered in 2001 in a suitcase, where it had been unseen for 40 years.

A first batch of items from Claudia Williams’ collection went up for auction in 2012 at Fenway Park and garnered more than $5 million.

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