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  • Andrea Adelson, ESPN Senior WriterMay 23, 2023, 08:00 AM ET

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    • ACC reporter.
    • Joined ESPN.com in 2010.
    • Graduate of the University of Florida.

ORLANDO, Fla. — There is multitasking. Then there is UCF quarterback/center fielder John Rhys Plumlee‘s version of multitasking, complete with a private plane, pickup trucks, golf carts, calendars, group texts, and a team of coaches, nutritionists, trainers and teammates standing ready to help.

Plumlee plays football and baseball for the Golden Knights and does so at an extremely high level. He’s the starting quarterback for a team transitioning into the Big 12 next season. He’s also the starting center fielder on the baseball team. Remarkably, he missed only one football practice and one baseball game this entire spring.

The result has been what Plumlee describes as “some of the coolest days of my life.” It would not have happened without a football coach who believed — six years ago — in what Plumlee wanted to do, then finally got a chance to follow through.

“I think, at a lot of places, what I did would not be possible, whether it’s too much on the baseball side or too much on the football side,” Plumlee said. “This has been my dream since I’ve been in second grade, and I’m getting to live my dream. It’s really, really fun.”

As UCF prepares to play in the American Athletic Conference baseball tournament starting Tuesday (ESPN+), Plumlee recently reflected on a wild four weeks split between spring football practices and the baseball regular season, a stretch that included playing a baseball game and the spring football game on the same evening. Handling both responsibilities required a herculean effort from many, but it all started with a meeting with Plumlee, UCF football coach Gus Malzahn and UCF baseball coach Greg Lovelady.

And a giant calendar.

“The stars really just aligned in terms of how do we make this happen?” Lovelady said. “When you start thinking about it, I think on the front end, you’re like, ‘There are going to be a ton of issues.’ But in reality, it worked out perfectly.”

This spring journey actually began in 2021, after Plumlee entered the transfer portal from Ole Miss. Plumlee had played baseball for two seasons there, but football had not gone as well as he had wanted. After early success at quarterback as a freshman, Plumlee was moved to receiver for 2021 because coach Lane Kiffin chose Matt Corral as his starter.

Plumlee entered the portal after that season ended, and he made it clear to any program that showed interest that he wanted to play quarterback again. But he also had another request: He wanted to continue his baseball career, too.

While he was the head coach at Auburn, Malzahn had recruited Plumlee out of high school. At the time, Malzahn had promised Plumlee he could play both sports if he signed with the Tigers. Now at UCF, Malzahn saw an opportunity to get a quarterback he always wanted, six years later.

Malzahn gave him a simple response: “Come on, I’ll let you play.”

Plumlee didn’t arrive at UCF until January 2022, too late to play baseball. So this spring was his first two-sport trial at UCF. It’s a unique position to be in with only a handful of other football/baseball players around the country, including Virginia quarterback/pitcher Jay Woolfolk.

In Plumlee’s case, UCF went to extraordinary lengths to ensure Plumlee was able to navigate his schedule to participate in nearly every spring football practice — including the spring game.

The first step was to compare practice schedules. The fact that football has morning practices and baseball practices or plays games in the afternoon and evening made figuring out logistics a little smoother.

But there were potential conflicts they pinpointed right away — a midweek baseball game at Miami on a football practice day; a road trip to East Carolina on a day UCF had a football scrimmage scheduled; and … the spring football game set for April 14, the same day the baseball team hosted Memphis. To make matters more challenging, those conflicts were scheduled over a 10-day span.

Plumlee refused to shortchange one sport in favor of another, so he asked everyone to work together so he could make every practice and every game. That included keeping track of his athletic-related activity hours so he did not go over limits set by the NCAA.

“To be honest, I was worried about him mentally and physically wearing down because he was beat up at the end of last year, but I’ve never seen anything like it. He got better every practice. He had great energy. It was something else just to watch,” Malzahn said. “It’s really amazing.”

On a typical football practice day, Plumlee would wake up between 5:45 and 6 a.m. and get to the facility around 6:30 to eat breakfast and get taped up. Team meetings started at 7:30 a.m., followed by offensive and positional meetings. At 9, players start heading to the field. By 11:15 a.m., practice would be done, and Plumlee would get treatment on whatever he needed — whether it was sore hamstrings, hips or shoulders.

Then he would eat lunch and head to baseball at 1 p.m. to do some early batting cage work. Team meetings at 2:15 or 2:30, then practice until 4:30 or 5. He would shower and go home to do his schoolwork and eat dinner — Plumlee had online classes to finish his interdisciplinary studies degree and graduated in early May. Lights out around 9:30 p.m.

“I think 99.9% of the country, you go from football in the morning, baseball in the afternoon, at 6 o’clock, you want to shower, get into bed and just get to the next day,” said tight end Alec Holler, one of Plumlee’s closest friends on the football team. “But instead, he’s moving on to the third part of his day, school. He had three extreme responsibilities, and he handled them really great.”

Holler called what Plumlee did this spring “unheard of and impressive” and noted that even when Plumlee was on the road with baseball, he would have his iPad with him watching football game tape and going over the new playbook. His football teammates cheered his decision to do both, and they wound up becoming newfound baseball fans in the process.

“A lot of people asked me, ‘How are you doing it?'” Plumlee said. “But I got up every day this spring excited — I get to go to football, and I get to go to baseball, and it’s going to be awesome. Now, obviously, I’m going to get tired. I was tired some days. But that’s when my teammates stepped in to get me through. The village that it took to make it happen, it shows that people care here at UCF. It was a whirlwind.”

To keep Plumlee fresh for both football and baseball, the training staff set up a group text message chain to keep each other in the loop, including associate athletics director for sports medicine Mary Vander Heiden and trainers Mackenzie Kennedy and Kaylee Shores.

“They were in constant communication to tell each other what we worked on,” Plumlee said. “Maybe one day I had tight hips, or I was sore and threw less during baseball practice. There was a constant line of communication that was happening. Without them, I don’t make it through the spring.”

On the strength side, Plumlee lifted with the football team but his regimen was tailored around what was going on with baseball. On game days, perhaps he did not lift with as much volume but there were certain sets and reps he had to do to maintain his weight and arm strength. Plumlee can recall only one time over that four-week span when his shoulder felt sore.

But tired? That was another matter. From April 4 to 14 proved to be the most challenging. On April 4, UCF had a football practice in the morning and a baseball game that night at Miami. After Plumlee finished practice, he showered and his lunch was packaged and waiting for him to eat on his road trip south.

Assistant director of football operations Kenny Yerves had his truck pulled up in front. Plumlee hopped in, and they made the four-hour drive down to Coral Gables for the game. He arrived five minutes before they started batting practice, then went 1-for-4 in a 14-3 loss.

Plumlee stayed the night and headed back to Orlando on Wednesday. On Thursday, he played in a football scrimmage in the stadium, then sprinted past everybody, showered, changed and went back into the truck with Yerves. This time, he was headed to the airport and a private plane to take him to Greenville, North Carolina, where a doubleheader against East Carolina was scheduled to begin later that afternoon.

“We drove right up to the plane,” Plumlee said. “I felt like a rock star. I was watching the pilots fly the plane, thinking, ‘Man this is really cool.'” He proceeded to take a nap, and when he woke up, they had landed. Plumlee arrived at the baseball stadium 30 minutes before the first pitch and played in both games, with three hits and two runs scored.

“I’m tired just thinking about it, and again, he played great, and I never felt, ‘What a day he’s had, he’s out of gas,'” Lovelady said. “He was ready to go when he showed up. I know it’s been a dream of his to do this, so he was excited about it all.”

The next week, UCF had its spring game planned. Lovelady agreed to move the start time for the home opener against Memphis to 5 p.m., and football agreed to start the spring game at 7:30 p.m., hoping Plumlee could play in both. When inclement weather forced the baseball game to start 30 minutes late, there were more than a few people — Plumlee included — who started sweating whether he would be able to make it to the football stadium right next door.

Luckily for him, UCF jumped out to a 10-3 lead in the seventh inning. At this point, everyone inside the baseball stadium could hear the music blaring from the football stadium.

Just beyond the outfield, the tailgating was in full swing, “You could feel the vibe from the football stadium from our stadium, so I’m sure that gets some juices flowing for him,” Lovelady said. “I told him it was all up to him. I’m not going to tell him what to do. I said, ‘You tell me, you want to go football, we’ll do that,’ and he was like, ‘I’m not missing the game.'”

Plumlee asked Lovelady whether he could go over to football after his at-bat in the seventh. Lovelady agreed. When it was his turn, Plumlee hit a single to first. He ended his day going 2-for-3 with 2 RBIs.

“I’m coaching first base, and he gets to first and I looked at him, and he looked at me, and I was like, ‘Now?’ He was like, ‘Yup!’ I was like, ‘All right, pinch runner.’ There he went, running off the field. It was pretty surreal just watching him run and go. You’re kind of watching the whole thing transpire in front of your eyes,” Lovelady said.

The UCF social media team was there to document it all, as Plumlee hopped on a golf cart with Yerves at the wheel and headed over to the football stadium and into the locker room to get into his football uniform.

Plumlee narrated his journey for the cameras, “Now we’re going to have to see how quick this quick change is going to be.” Yerves was there to help Plumlee put on his shoulder pads, and then Plumlee ran into the stadium, where the game had already started.

When he walked onto the field, the crowd welcomed him with a rousing ovation.

“I’m warming up, and everybody’s like, ‘Let’s go!’ You’ve got little kids screaming, ‘Let’s go, John Rhys!’ It was really cool. Because I remember being that age, looking up to athletes and thinking, ‘I want to be that guy one day, and so to have the roles reversed and a little guy looking at me is really cool. Really cool.”

Plumlee followed up his big performance in the baseball game with a big performance in the spring football game — completing 10 of 17 passes for 236 yards with two touchdowns. New offensive coordinator Darin Hinshaw and Malzahn made a concerted effort this spring to work on Plumlee’s downfield passing — and it showed in his performance. Malzahn also points out that last spring was the first time Plumlee had played quarterback since 2020.

“Now that he’s got a year under his belt, Darin has done a super job with his mechanics, he’s more accurate, his pocket awareness and calmness has really improved,” Malzahn said. “Throwing the ball vertically down the field was really our main emphasis in the spring, and he’s improved in that, too. It’s been good to watch.”

But maybe more impressive is what Plumlee has done on the baseball diamond this season.

“He didn’t see a live pitch for 18 months, and for him to come out here and do what he’s done, it’s pretty remarkable,” Lovelady said. “You’ve just got to be really talented and gifted. I thought his second-half numbers would be way better than his first-half numbers as he got into the rhythm of doing this every day.

“But man, he shot out right out of the chute ready to go. He was hitting .318 two months into the season. I was just flabbergasted. It’s really a testament to him, his ability, his work ethic and just his demeanor.

This is the first football-baseball athlete Lovelady has coached, and he would be willing to do it all over again — but he also noted how hard Plumlee has worked to make it all happen. “It’s not that easy, and he has made it look really, really easy,” Lovelady said.

This will be Plumlee’s last year of college football, and at some point he will have to make a decision about what path to take moving forward. At 6 feet, 200 pounds, he is undersized for the NFL, but Malzahn said, “I believe he’s capable of being an NFL quarterback.” Because of the COVID-19 year and his decision to enter the transfer portal, Plumlee could stay at UCF for at least one more season and continue playing baseball, where he is a late-round Major League Baseball draft possibility.

“I haven’t really thought that far ahead in the big scheme of things,” Plumlee said. “But football, this is my last year. We’ll have to see, but I’m looking to perform really good this year and do some big things and put myself in an opportunity to get drafted.”

Although Plumlee is now well past spring football season, a part of him thinks back to what he did over that four-week stretch with wonder.

“If we didn’t video half of it, you wouldn’t believe it,” Plumlee said.

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23XI, Front Row turn to courts to keep ’25 status

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July 14, 2025

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23XI, Front Row turn to courts to keep '25 status

  • Associated Press

Jul 14, 2025, 11:11 AM ET

The two race teams suing NASCAR over antitrust allegations filed for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction Monday to be recognized as chartered organizations for the remainder of 2025.

23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports are locked in a lengthy legal battle over the charter system, which is the equivalent of the franchise model in other sports. 23XI, owned by retired NBA great Michael Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, and Front Row, owned by entrepreneur Bob Jenkins, last September rejected NASCAR’s final proposal on extensions and instead filed an antitrust suit.

The case is winding its way through the court system but now with urgency: The teams are set to lose their charters Wednesday and in the latest filing, they allege NASCAR has indicated it will immediately begin the process of selling the six tags that guarantee entry into every race as well as monetary rewards and other benefits.

Should the teams have their six combined charters revoked, the drivers would have to qualify on speed to make each week’s race and would receive a smaller percentage of the purse. They might also have to refund money paid out through the first 20 races of the year.

NASCAR accused 23XI and Front Row of filing “a third motion for another unnecessary and inappropriate preliminary injunction” and noted it has made multiple requests to the teams “to present a proposal to resolve this litigation.

“We have yet to receive a proposal from 23XI or Front Row, as they have instead preferred to continue their damaging and distracting lawsuit,” NASCAR said in a statement. “We will defend NASCAR’s integrity from this baseless lawsuit forced upon the sport that threatens to divide the stakeholders committed to serving race fans everywhere.

“We remain focused on collaborating with the 13 race teams that signed the 2025 charter agreements and share our mutual goal of delivering the best racing in the world each week, including this weekend in Dover.”

Later Monday, Rick Ware Racing and Legacy Motor Club had a scheduled court date in North Carolina over their fight for a charter. Legacy, owned by seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, contends it had an agreement with RWR to lease one of its two charters in 2026.

RWR contends the agreement was for 2027, and it already has a contract with RFK Racing to lease that team a charter next season.

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New rules for EBUGs? 84 games? What to know about the NHL’s new CBA

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July 14, 2025

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New rules for EBUGs? 84 games? What to know about the NHL's new CBA

  • Multiple Contributors

Jul 14, 2025, 07:00 AM ET

The NHL’s board of governors and the NHLPA’s membership have ratified a new collective bargaining agreement. The current CBA runs through the end of the 2025-26 season, with the new one carrying through the end of the 2029-30 season.

While the continuation of labor peace is the most important development for a league that has endured multiple work stoppages this millennium, there are a number of wrinkles that are noteworthy to fans.

ESPN reporters Ryan S. Clark, Kristen Shilton and Greg Wyshynski break it all down for you here:

Draft recap: All 224 picks
Grades for all 32 teams
Winners and losers

When does this new CBA take effect?

The new NHL CBA is set to begin on Sept. 16, 2026 and runs through Sept. 15, 2030. Including the coming season, that gives the NHL five years of labor peace, and would make the fastest both sides have reached an extension in Gary Bettman’s tenure as NHL commissioner.

It’s also the first major negotiation for NHLPA head Marty Walsh, who stepped into the executive director role in 2023 — Shilton

What are the big differences in the new CBA compared to the current one?

There are a few major headlines from the new CBA.

First are the schedule changes: the league will move to an 84-game regular season, with a shortened preseason (a maximum of four games), so each team is still able to play every opponent while divisional rivals have four games against one another every other season.

There will also be alterations to contract lengths, going to a maximum seven-year deal instead of the current eight-year mark; right now, a player can re-sign for eight years with his own team or seven with another in free agency, while the new CBA stipulates it’ll be seven or six years, respectively.

Deferred salaries will also be on the way out. And there will be a new position established for a team’s full-time emergency backup goaltender — or EBUG — where that player can practice and travel with the team.

The CBA also contains updated language on long-term injured reserve and how it can be used, particularly when it comes to adding players from LTIR to the roster for the postseason — Shilton

What’s the motivation for an 84-game season?

The new CBA expands the regular season to 84 games and reduces the exhibition season to four games per team. Players with 100 games played in their NHL careers can play in a maximum of two exhibition games. Players who competed in at least 50 games in the previous season will have a maximum of 13 days of training camp.

The NHL had an 84-game season from 1992 to 1994, when the league and NHLPA agreed to add two neutral-site games to every team’s schedule. But since 1995-96, every full NHL regular season has been 82 games.

For at least the past four years, the league has had internal discussions about adding two games to the schedule while decreasing the preseason. The current CBA restricted teams from playing more than 82 games, so expansion of the regular season required collective bargaining.

There was a functional motivation behind the increase in games: Currently, each team plays either three or four games against divisional opponents, for a total of 26 games; they play three games against non-divisional teams within their own conference, for a total of 24 games; and they play two games, home and away, against opponents from the other conference for a total of 32 games. Adding two games would allow teams to even out their divisional schedule, while swapping in two regular-season games — with regular-season crowd sizes and prices — for two exhibition games.

The reduction of the preseason would also give the NHL the chance to start the regular season earlier, perhaps in the last week of September. Obviously, given the grind of the current regular season and the playoffs, there’s concern about wear and tear on the players with two additional games. But the reduction of training camp and the exhibition season was appealing to players, and they signed off on the 84-game season in the new CBA. — Wyshynski

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How do the new long-term injured reserve rules work?

The practice of teams using long-term injured reserve (LTIR) to create late-season salary cap space — only to have the injured player return for the first game of the playoffs after sitting out game No. 82 of the regular season — tracks back to 2015. That’s when the Chicago Blackhawks used an injured Patrick Kane‘s salary cap space to add players at the trade deadline. Kane returned for the start of the first round, and eventually won the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP in their Stanley Cup win.

Since then, the NHL has seen teams such as the Tampa Bay Lightning (Nikita Kucherov 2020-21), Vegas Golden Knights (Mark Stone, 2023), Florida Panthers (Matthew Tkachuk, 2024) also use LTIR to their advantage en route to Stanley Cup wins.

The NHL has investigated each occurrence of teams using LTIR and then having players return for the playoffs, finding nothing actionable — although the league is currently investigating the Edmonton Oilers use of LTIR for Evander Kane, who sat out the regular season and returned in the first round of the most recent postseason.

Last year, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said that if “the majority” of general managers wanted a change to this practice, the NHL would consider it. Some players weren’t happy about the salary cap loophole.

Ron Hainsey, NHLPA assistant executive director, said during the Stanley Cup Final that players have expressed concern at different times “either public or privately” about misuse of long-term injured reserve. He said that the NHL made closing that loophole “a priority for them” in labor talks.

Under the new CBA, the total salary and bonuses for “a player or players” that have replaced a player on LTIR may not exceed the amount of total salary and bonuses of the player they are replacing. For example: In 2024, the Golden Knights put winger Stone and his $9.5 million salary on LTIR, given that he was out because of a lacerated spleen. The Golden Knights added $10.8 million in salary to their cap before the trade deadline in defenseman Noah Hanifin and forwards Tomas Hertl and Anthony Mantha.

But the bigger tweak to the LTIR rule states that “the average amounts of such replacement player(s) may not exceed the prior season’s average league salary.” According to PuckPedia, the average player salary last season was $3,817,293, for example.

The CBA does allow an exception to these LTIR rules, with NHL and NHLPA approval, based on how much time the injured player is likely to miss. Teams can exceed these “average amounts,” but the injured player would be ineligible to return that season or in the postseason.

But the NHL and NHLPA doubled-down on discouraging teams from abusing LTIR to go over the salary cap in the Stanley Cup playoffs by establishing “playoff cap counting” for the first time. — Wyshynski

What is ‘playoff cap counting’ and how will it affect the postseason?

In 2021, the Carolina Hurricanes lost to Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference playoffs. That’s when defenseman Dougie Hamilton famously lamented that his team fell to a Lightning squad “that’s $18 million over the cap or whatever they are,” as Tampa Bay used Kucherov’s LTIR space in the regular season before he returned for the playoffs.

Even more famously, Kucherov wore a T-shirt that read “$18M OVER THE CAP” during their Stanley Cup championship celebration.

The NHL and NHLPA have attempted to put an end to this creative accounting — in combination with the new LTIR rules in the regular season — through a new CBA provision called “playoff cap counting.”

By 3 p.m. local time or five hours before a playoff game — whatever is earlier — teams will submit a roster of 18 players and two goaltenders to NHL Central Registry. There will be a “playoff playing roster averaged club salary” calculated for that roster that must be under the “upper limit” of the salary cap for that team. The “averaged club salary” is the sum of the face value averaged amounts of the player salary and bonuses for that season for each player on the roster, and all amounts charged to the team’s salary cap.

Teams can make changes to their rosters after that day’s deadline, provided they’ve cleared it with NHL Central Registry.

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The “upper limit” for an individual team is the leaguewide salary cap ceiling minus any cap penalties for contract buyouts; 35-plus players or players with one-way contracts demoted to the minor leagues; retained salary in trades; cap recapture penalties; or contract grievance settlements.

The cap compliance is only for the players participating in a given postseason game. As one NHL player agent told ESPN: “You can have $130 million in salaries on your total roster once the playoffs start, but the 18 players and two goalies that are on the ice must be cap-compliant.”

These rules will be in effect for the first two seasons of the new CBA (2026-28). After that, either the NHL or the NHLPA can reopen this section of the CBA for “good faith discussions about the concerns that led to the election to reopen and whether these rules could be modified in a manner that would effectively address such concerns.”

If there’s no resolution of those concerns, the “playoff cap counting” will remain in place for the 2028-29 season. — Wyshynski

Did the NHL CBA make neck guards mandatory?

Professional leagues around the world have adjusted their player equipment protection standards since Adam Johnson’s death in October 2023. Johnson, 29, was playing for the Nottingham Panthers of England’s Elite Ice Hockey League when he suffered a neck laceration from an opponent’s skate blade.

The AHL mandated cut-resistant neck protection for players and officials for the 2024-25 season. The IIHF did the same for international tournaments, while USA Hockey required all players under the age of 18 to wear them.

Now, the NHL and NHLPA have adjusted their standards for neck protection in the new CBA.

Beginning with the 2026-27 season, players who have zero games of NHL experience will be required to wear “cut-resistant protection on the neck area with a minimum cut level protection score of A5.” The ANSI/ISEA 105-2016 Standard rates neck guards on a scale from A1 to A9, and players are encouraged to seek out neck protection that’s better than the minimal requirement.

Players with NHL experience prior to the 2026-27 season will not be required to wear neck protection. — Wyshynski

What’s the new player dress code?

The NHL and NHLPA agreed that teams will no longer be permitted “to propose any rules concerning player dress code.”

Under the previous CBA, the NHL was the only North American major men’s pro sports league with a dress code specified through collective bargaining. Exhibit 14, Rule 5 read: “Players are required to wear jackets, ties and dress pants to all Club games and while traveling to and from such games unless otherwise specified by the Head Coach or General Manager.”

That rule was deleted in the new CBA.

The only requirement now for players is that they “dress in a manner that is consistent with contemporary fashion norms.”

Sorry, boys: No toga parties on game days. — Wyshynski

Does the new CBA cover the Olympics beyond 2026?

Yes. The NHL and NHLPA have committed to participate in the 2030 Winter Olympics, scheduled to be held in the French Alps. As usual, the commitment is ” subject to negotiation of terms acceptable to each of the NHL, NHLPA, IIHF and/or IOC.”

And as we saw with the 2022 Beijing Games, having a commitment in the CBA doesn’t guarantee NHL players on Olympic ice. — Wyshynski

Did the NHL end three-team salary retention trades?

It has become an NHL trade deadline tradition. One team retains salary on a player so he can fit under another team’s salary cap. But to make the trade happen, those teams invite a third team to the table to retain even more of that salary to make it work.

Like when the Lightning acquired old friend Yanni Gourde from the Seattle Kraken last season. Gourde made $5,166,667 against the cap. Seattle traded him to Detroit for defenseman Kyle Aucoin, and the Kraken retained $2,583,334 in salary. The Red Wings then retained $1,291,667 of Gourde’s salary in sending him to Tampa Bay for a fourth-round pick, allowing the Lightning to fit him under their cap.

Though the NHL will still allow retained salary transactions, there’s now a mandatory waiting period until that player’s salary can be retained in a second transaction. A second retained salary transaction may not occur within 75 regular-season days of the first retained salary transaction.

Days outside of the regular-season schedule do not count toward the required 75 regular-season days, and therefore the restriction might span multiple seasons, according to the CBA. — Wyshynski

Can players now endorse alcoholic beverages?

Yes. The previous CBA banned players from any endorsement or sponsorship of alcoholic beverages. That has been taken out of the new CBA. If only Bob Beers were still playing …

While players remain prohibited from any endorsement or sponsorship of tobacco products, a carryover from the previous CBA, they’re also banned from endorsement or sponsorship of “cannabis (including CBD) products.” — Wyshynski

What are the new parameters for Emergency Goaltender Replacement?

The NHL is making things official with the emergency backup goaltender (EBUG) position.

In the past, that third goalie spot went to someone hanging out in the arena during a game, ready to jump in for either team if both of their own goaltenders were injured or fell ill during the course of play. Basically, it was a guy in street clothes holding onto the dream of holding down an NHL crease.

Now, the league has given permanent status to the EBUG role. That player will travel with and practice for only one club. But there are rules involved in their employment.

This CBA designates that to serve as a team’s emergency goaltender replacement, the individual cannot have played an NHL game under an NHL contract, appeared in more than 80 professional hockey games, have been in professional hockey within the previous three seasons, have a contractual obligation that would prevent them from fulfilling their role as the EBUG or be on the reserve or restricted free agent list of an NHL club.

Teams must submit one designated EBUG 48 hours before the NHL regular season starts. During the season, teams can declare that player 24 hours before a game. — Shilton

What’s the deal with eliminating deferred salaries?

The new CBA will prohibit teams from brokering deferred salary arrangements, meaning players will be paid in full during the contract term lengths. This is meant to save players from financial uncertainty and makes for simplified contract structures with the club.

There are examples of players who had enormous signing bonuses paid up front or had structured their deals to include significant payouts when they ended. Both tactics could serve to lower an individual’s cap hit over the life of a deal. Now that won’t be an option for teams or players to use in negotiations. — Shilton

What’s different about contract lengths?

Starting under the new CBA, the maximum length of a player contract will go from eight years to seven years if he’s re-signing with the same club, and down to just six years (from the current seven) if he signs with a new team.

So, for example, a player coming off his three-year, entry-level contract could re-sign only with that same team for up to seven years, and he’ll become an unrestricted free agent sooner than the current agreement would allow.

This could benefit teams that have signed players to long-term contracts that didn’t age well (for whatever reason) as they won’t be tied as long to that decision. And for players, it can help preserve some of their prime years if they want to move on following a potential 10 (rather than 11) maximum seasons with one club. — Shilton

What does the new league minimum salary look like? How does it compare to the other men’s professional leagues?

Under the new CBA, the minimum salary for an NHL player will rise from $775,000 to $1 million by the end of the four-year agreement. Although gradual, it is a significant rise for a league in which the salary cap presents more challenges compared to its counterparts.

For example, the NHL will see its salary cap rise to $95.5 million in 2025-26, compared to that of the NFL in which Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott’s highest three-year average is $61.6 million.

So how does the new NHL minimum salary upon the CBA’s completion compare to its counterparts in the Big 4?

The NBA league minimum for the 2025-26 season is $1.4 million for a rookie, while players with more than 10 years can earn beyond $3.997 million in a league that has a maximum of 15 roster spots

The NFL, which has a 53-player roster, has a league minimum of $840,000 for rookies in 2025, while a veteran with more than seven years will earn $1.255 million.

MLB’s CBA, which expires after the 2026 season, has the minimum salary for the 2025 season set at $760,000, and that figure increases to $780,000 next season. — Clark

Is this Gary Bettman’s final CBA as commissioner?

Possibly. The Athletic reported in January that the board of governors had begun planning for Bettman’s eventual retirement “in a couple of years,” while starting the process to find his successor.

Bettman became the NHL’s first commissioner in 1993, and has the distinction of being the longest-serving commissioner among the four major men’s professional leagues in North America. He is also the oldest. Bettman turned 73 in June, while contemporaries Roger Goodell, Rob Manfred and Adam Silver are all in their early- to mid-60s.

That’s not to suggest he couldn’t remain in place. There is a precedent of commissioners across those leagues who remained in those respective roles into their 70s. Ford Frick, who served as the third commissioner of MLB, was 71 when he stepped down in 1965. There are more recent examples than Frick, as former NBA commissioner David Stern stepping down in 2014 when he was 71, and former MLB commissioner Bud Selig stepped down in 2015 at age 80. — Clark

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QB Retzlaff announces his withdrawal from BYU

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July 14, 2025

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QB Retzlaff announces his withdrawal from BYU

Jake Retzlaff announced on Friday that he’s withdrawing from BYU, formally initiating his transfer process from the school.

Retzlaff, BYU’s starting quarterback last year, said in an Instagram post that he made the “difficult decision” to withdraw and that he plans to “step away” from the BYU program. The post makes public what had been expected, as Retzlaff began informing his teammates and coaches in late June of his intent to transfer.

According to ESPN sources, Retzlaff’s path to transfer to a new school is not expected to come from the NCAA transfer portal. With Retzlaff just short of graduating, which would make the transfer process more traditional, he plans to simply leave BYU and then enroll at a new school.

That path is not a common one, but there’s precedent. That includes former Wisconsin defensive back Xavier Lucas leaving school this winter and enrolling at the University of Miami.

Retzlaff expressed his gratitude for his time at BYU, saying “it has meant more to me than just football.” He added that he’s “excited to turn the page and embrace the next chapter.”

BYU officials generally avoided the topic of Retzlaff at Big 12 media days this week, deferring to him to make a statement on his next move.

In a statement on Friday, BYU athletics said: “We are grateful for the time Jake Retzlaff has spent at BYU. As he moves forward, BYU Athletics understands and respects Jake’s decision to withdraw from BYU, and we wish him all the best as he enters the next phase of his career.”

Retzlaff’s departure comes in the wake of BYU’s planned seven-game suspension of him for violating the school’s honor code.

That suspension arose after he was accused in a lawsuit of raping a woman in 2023. The lawsuit ended up being dismissed on June 30, with the parties jointly agreeing to dismiss with prejudice, but Retzlaff’s response included an admission of premarital sex, which is a violation of the BYU honor code.

Retzlaff went 11-2 as BYU’s starting quarterback in 2024, throwing for 2,947 yards and 20 touchdowns. His departure leaves BYU with a three-way quarterback race this summer to replace him, with no clear favorite.

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