Four-star safety Zech Fort, ESPN’s No. 39 overall in ESPN Junior 300, committed to Georgia on Thursday, landing as the top-ranked member in the Bulldogs’ 2026 recruiting class.

Fort ranks as ESPN’s No. 5 safety in the 2026 cycle. Originally from Bellflower, California, Fort is a multiyear captain at Florida’s IMG Academy, where he completed his junior season this past fall. The 5-foot-11, 195-pound defender picked Georgia over Alabama, Notre Dame and Ohio State, with Florida and Florida State rounding out the top six Fort announced earlier this month.

Fort built tight relationships with Bulldogs assistants Travaris Robinson and Donte Williams, and took multiple trips to Georgia throughout his recruiting process. His most recent visit to the school came late last fall during the Bulldogs’ 31-17 win over Tennessee on Nov. 16.

Fort is now the highest ranked of five prospects pledged to coach Kirby Smart’s 2026 class. He follows wide receiver Vance Spafford (No. 83 overall) and in-state cornerback Jontavious Wyman (No. 127) as the Bulldogs’ third ESPN Junior 300 commit in the cycle. Georgia also holds 2026 pledges from three-star tight end Lincoln Keyes and junior college defensive tackle Seven Cloud, who will not join the program until after next season.

Georgia remains involved in the recruitment of five-star 2026 quarterback Jared Curtis (No. 4 in ESPN Junior 300) after he pulled his commitment from the program last fall. Four-star running back Derrek Cooper (No. 18 overall) was another high-profile exit from the program’s 2026 class last year.

Fort’s commitment continues a pipeline from the IMG Academy to Georgia under Smart. If he signs with the Bulldogs later this year, Fort will be the 11th IMG Academy graduate to join the program since the 2021 recruiting cycle, headlined most recently by four-star 2025 signee Dominick Bailey and five-star prospect Ellis Robinson IV in the 2024 class.

Georgia holds signatures from 15 ESPN 300 prospects in its 2025 class, which ranks No. 2 in ESPN’s latest class rankings ahead of national signing day on Feb. 5.

ESPN has agreed to pick up its option to continue broadcasting ACC sports through 2036, the network and conference announced Thursday.

The agreement is a critical step toward securing stability for the conference. With the television deal settled, the ACC is now working toward a settlement with Clemson and Florida State that could end those schools’ ongoing lawsuits against the conference.

ESPN had until Feb. 1 to pick up the option on a 20-year contract signed in 2016 that helped launch the ACC Network. Had ESPN declined, the partnership would have ended after the 2027 season.

“We are pleased to extend our media rights agreement with the ACC through 2036, continuing our longstanding relationship,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement. “We remain committed to serving the ACC, its member schools, student athletes and fans via comprehensive live game coverage, storytelling and broad exposure across our unprecedented array of networks and platforms, including ACC Network. The ACC is a pillar of ESPN’s leading commitment to college sports and we are thrilled to continue the partnership over the next decade.”

After ESPN agreed to pick up the option, a decision the ACC board of directors voted to approve Wednesday, sources said the conference is working on additional “value adds,” which could include creating more marquee matchups in football and men’s basketball to maximize content on the networks that would help pave the way toward the new revenue distribution model and a settlement with Clemson and Florida State.

Multiple athletic directors told ESPN this could also involve using the ACC’s relationship with Notre Dame to strategically create more games against the conference’s top-tier teams. Earlier this month, Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua said he was open to playing more games against Clemson in the future. Notre Dame currently plays five to six regular-season football games against the ACC annually and is a member of the ACC in all other sports.

Negotiations surrounding the option ran in conjunction with discussions between the ACC and Clemson and Florida State on a new revenue distribution model aimed at alleviating the schools’ biggest concerns over financial disparities with peers in the Big Ten and SEC, both of which have more generous TV contracts signed over the past two years.

Under the proposed plan, a percentage of the ACC’s television revenue would be included in a “brand” fund, and that money would then be distributed to schools that annually generate the most revenue for the conference in football and men’s and women’s basketball — with Clemson, Florida State, Miami and North Carolina likely at the top of the pyramid, sources told ESPN.

Should that agreement be finalized — something sources said is not imminent but was closely tied to the ESPN option — Clemson and Florida State would be expected to drop their lawsuits.

“We appreciate the ongoing partnership with ESPN and their enduring commitment that further solidifies the ACC as a premier league in all facets,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said in a statement. “The extension showcases the importance of our long-standing relationship, and I want to personally thank the entire ESPN team for their leadership and dedication to our collective future.”

Clemson had been cautious in its legal filings to note that its lawsuit was not a move to leave the ACC but rather to determine the costs of doing so. Though Florida State has been more vocal in its desire to test the waters, athletic director Michael Alford has maintained that the Seminoles never declared their intention to leave the ACC and only wanted to explore their options.

Whether either school would have had a landing spot in the aftermath of a departure remained a point of conjecture, but securing their media rights, which each member school signed over to the league in 2016, would have been a critical part of moving to any other conference.

ACC sources suggested a vote to support the new revenue distribution plan may not be unanimous, but one conference administrator said a cut in distribution would likely be worthwhile if it meant stability in the coming years as college athletics works its way through a volatile series of existential shifts in its amateurism model. Multiple administrators who spoke with ESPN noted the severe impact that the collapse of the Pac-12 had on Oregon State and Washington State, and the observably diminished values of those programs has helped spark interest in negotiating a settlement.

The new brand distribution fund would be in addition to the ACC’s “success initiatives,” which the league approved in 2023. That pool of money is funded via revenue from the expanded College Football Playoff and additional payouts from ESPN that derive from the conference adding new members Stanford, California and SMU in 2024. SMU agreed to forgo its TV revenue for its first nine years in the ACC in exchange for an invitation to the conference, while Cal and Stanford agreed to take a 30% share.

The ACC’s success initiatives, which went into place this year, provide additional revenue to schools that play in the postseason. The brand initiatives would also be accessible to any ACC school, though the biggest names would have a clear leg up. Specific metrics have not been finalized.

Between the brand and success initiatives, it is expected that the ACC schools that maximize both revenue streams could close the gap with Big Ten and SEC schools to as little as a few million annually.

As far back as February 2023, Florida State’s Alford started pushing for the ACC television money to be distributed to the teams that bring the most brand value and television ratings. Alford said then, based on a market valuation that he had commissioned, that Florida State contributed roughly 15% of the value in the ACC’s media rights deal but received only 7% of the distributions. At the time, the conference had 14 full members.

The ACC has been in litigation with Florida State and Clemson for more than a year, with both schools filing lawsuits in their home states in hopes of extricating themselves from a grant of rights agreement that, according to Florida State’s attorneys, could mean paying as much as $700 million to leave the conference. The ACC countersued both schools to preserve the grant of rights agreement through 2036.

Clemson and Florida State have argued that the ACC television contract, which earns the conference about half of what the Big Ten receives from Fox, puts the schools at a significant financial disadvantage compared with rivals in the SEC and Big Ten, making it impossible to consistently compete for national championships.

As part of the settlement, Clemson and Florida State are asking the ACC to agree to reduce penalties for exiting the grant of rights after 2031, when TV contracts for the Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 are set to expire.

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy’s revised contract with the school, approved Friday, includes a reduced salary and buyout, as well as provisions that require him to be more involved in fundraising and possibly his own succession plan.

The Oklahoma A&M Colleges Board of Regents, which oversees Oklahoma State, approved the agreement Friday. Gundy’s salary will drop by $1 million and he will earn $6.75 million in the first year of a four-year term that ends following the 2028 season. He has led Oklahoma State since 2005 — only Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz has led the same FBS program longer — but comes off his worst season, as the Cowboys went 3-9 and winless in Big 12 play.

There were tense discussions about Gundy’s future following the season before the sides reached an agreement on a revised contract. Gundy, a former Oklahoma State quarterback, is 169-88 at his alma mater with a Big 12 title and 10 AP top-20 finishes.

The deal includes a provision that Gundy, at the request of athletic director Chad Weiberg, be more involved in fundraising and donor initiatives. His salary reduction will be applied toward athlete revenue sharing when the House v. NCAA settlement goes into effect later this year.

Another provision in the agreement, also at Weiberg’s request, would call for the possible identification and development of a coaching successor, and helping with a coaching transition.

Gundy would be owed $15 million if fired during the next three years and $10 million if fired during the final year of the term. His previous contract called for him to receive a percentage of his remaining compensation if fired.

Gundy, 57, reshaped his coaching staff during the offseason, hiring coordinators Todd Grantham (defense) and Doug Meacham (offense), and other new assistants.