NCAA adopts new rules regarding NIL, infractions
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Dan Murphy, ESPN Staff Writer
PHOENIX — The NCAA Division I Council voted Wednesday to adopt new rules designed to help athletes avoid unscrupulous agents and unfavorable terms in name, image and likeness contracts.
Starting in August, the NCAA will provide athletes with standardized contract recommendations for NIL deals and aggregated data to help schools and athletes have a more realistic picture of the going rates for endorsement deals. The association also plans to create a voluntary registry of credible and trusted agents that will be based largely on feedback from the athletes who have worked with them in the past.
“We don’t want to do anything to get into the way of student-athletes trying to activate their NIL rights, but we do want to assist them in essentially protecting themselves,” MAC commissioner and Division I Council vice chair Jon Steinbrecher said. The council voted on the new rules during the NCAA’s annual convention this week.
In addition, the council formally proposed new rules that, if passed, will be able to help facilitate deals between athletes and NIL collectives — a move that would likely return some degree of control over roster management back to athletic departments and teams on campus. The schools, and any associated NIL collectives, will still be prohibited from negotiating deals with recruits or transfers before they enroll.
The council is expected to vote on those proposed changes before the start of the next academic year after gathering feedback from school leaders.
While these changes represent a significant shift in NIL policy that previously tried to keep schools at a lengthy distance from endorsement activity, they may quickly become moot if the NCAA decides to adopt even more progressive rule changes in the coming year. Last month, NCAA president Charlie Baker proposed a far more dramatic new policy shift that would, among other changes, allow schools to pay athletes directly to promote their universities through name, image and likeness deals.
Baker’s proposal was designed to start a conversation rather than establish specific policies. The NCAA Division I board of directors is expected to vote later this week on whether to formally begin discussing those changes. If they decide to proceed, those changes could be in place as soon as fall 2024.
“We’ve only had a few conversations [about Baker’s proposal],” Steinbrecher said. “I don’t know why I’d be scared about any of this. Let’s focus on it. Let’s think about what it means to us and how we want to help craft this. But let’s move forward.”
Council members are optimistic that the rules put in place this week will remove some bad actors from the NIL marketplace. There is currently no comprehensive source of public data to provide a clear picture of how much athletes are making from their deals. Aggregate and anonymous data shared by all NCAA members — there is no plan to share the details of specific deals signed by athletes — could help both schools and athletes have a more realistic picture of what to expect when negotiating deals with companies and NIL collectives.
The standardized contract templates are not yet finalized, but are likely to include suggestions for terms of NIL deals, such as making sure no contracts last longer than an athlete’s college career or that an agent doesn’t take an exorbitant percentage of the proceeds.
Morgyn Wynne, an Oklahoma State softball player and one of two athletes on the Division I Council, said the rules adopted Wednesday are “extremely necessary” to help athletes navigate their endorsement options.
“We were very supportive of the things that were put out for student-athlete protections,” Wynne said. “I don’t believe that there really are any concerns that should follow any of those.”
Among other items, the council also voted Wednesday to adopt stiffer penalties for individuals who violate NCAA rules. Moving forward, coaches who are suspended will be required to stay away from their teams on days between games in addition to missing games themselves. Schools who hire coaches with show-cause penalties from past violations could receive penalties, and the NCAA plans to create a public database of individuals with a history of Level 1 or Level 2 violations.
Baker, who took over as the association’s president in March, is expected to address his proposed changes and other major issues in college sports at his first annual state-of-the-union style address to the convention Wednesday night.
All signs pointed to the Florida Panthers finishing off the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 4, but the Canes kept the series rolling with a 3-0 win on Monday.
Will the Panthers finish the story in Game 5? Or will the Hurricanes send the festivities back to South Florida again?
Here are matchup notes heading into Wednesday’s Game 5 from ESPN Research, as well as betting intel from ESPN BET:
More on Game 4: Recap | Grades
Matchup notes
Florida Panthers at Carolina Hurricanes
Game 5 | 8 p.m. ET | TNT
The Panthers’ odds to win the series are now -1600, adjusted from -5000 heading into Game 4. The Hurricanes’ odds have shifted to +750 (adjusted from +1500) after their win. The Panthers’ odds to win the Cup are now +105 (previously -110), while the Canes’ are now +1800. Sergei Bobrovsky is the leading Conn Smythe candidate in this series at +200, followed by Aleksander Barkov (+800).
Game 4 was the Canes’ first win in the round since Game 7 of the 2006 Eastern Conference finals against the Buffalo Sabres, snapping a 15-game conference finals losing streak. It was the longest losing streak in NHL playoff history for a team in the round preceding the Stanley Cup Final. The Hurricanes are now 4-4 all-time in Game 4s when trailing 3-0 in a best-of-seven series.
Frederik Andersen made 20 saves for his fifth career playoff shutout, his second with the Hurricanes. He joins Cam Ward (four), Kevin Weekes (two) and Petr Mrazek (two) as goaltenders with multiple playoff shutouts in Whalers/Hurricanes Stanley Cup playoffs history.
Carolina’s Logan Stankoven scored playoff goal No. 5 in the second period. He joins Erik Cole (six in 2002) and Warren Foegele (five in 2019) as the only rookies in Whalers/Hurricanes history to score at least five goals in a single Stanley Cup playoffs year.
Sebastian Aho scored an empty-net goal in the third period, his 32nd career playoff tally. That extends his own franchise record for career goals in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Panthers were shut out for the second time this postseason; both games were at home — the other instance was Game 6 of the second-round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Florida went 0-4 on the power play in Game 4, and the team is now 0-8 with the man advantage in the last two games of this series after going 4-for-5 in Games 1 and 2.
Though he hasn’t scored a goal in the past two games, Sam Bennett has a team-leading nine this postseason. That is two shy of the franchise record in a single playoff year, currently held by Matthew Tkachuk (2023) and Carter Verhaeghe (2024).
Scoring leaders
GP: 16 | G: 6 | A: 9
GP: 14 | G: 5 | A: 9
Houston Astros right-hander Ronel Blanco will have surgery on his right elbow and will miss the remainder of the 2025 season, the team announced Wednesday.
The starter had sought a second opinion after being placed on the injured list last week with inflammation in the elbow.
The Astros said Blanco — who is 3-4 with a 4.10 ERA, 48 strikeouts and 20 walks in nine starts this season — is anticipated to return at some point during the 2026 season.
Blanco, 31, is among a long list of starting pitchers on the injured list for the Astros. Right-hander Hayden Wesneski underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery last week, while right-hander Spencer Arrighetti has been out since April after breaking his right thumb in a batting practice mishap.
Houston is also without right-handers Luis Garcia and Cristian Javier, who are both still recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Blanco is in his fourth major league season, all with the Astros. In 2024, he finished 13-6 with a 2.80 ERA in 30 games (29 starts). He threw his only career complete game in his season debut on April 1, no-hitting the Toronto Blue Jays in a 10-0 win.
The Associated Press and Field Level Media contributed to this report.
The Breeders’ Cup world championships are returning to New York in 2027 at the rebuilt Belmont Park, following a massive renovation project to revitalize one of the most important horse racing tracks in the country.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, along with officials from the Breeders’ Cup and the New York Racing Association, announced Wednesday that the track on the edge of Queens and Nassau County on Long Island will stage the event in the fall two years from now.
“We wrote the governor of New York a letter in 2023 that simply said, ‘If you build it, we will come,'” Breeders’ Cup Limited president and CEO Drew Fleming said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. “And so we’re very honored to keep our word and have a wonderful Breeders’ Cup world championship here in 2027 to showcase the new development and investment in Belmont Park to our fans from across the globe.”
Keeneland in Lexington was revealed as the 2026 host.
Belmont Park was last home to the Breeders’ Cup in 2005, the fourth time in two decades after also being there in 1990, 1995 and 2001. A goal of the $455 million teardown and reconstruction was to attract the major event.
“It was always part of the plan: We weren’t going to redevelop Belmont Park without Breeders’ Cup in mind, so it was always part of the initial goals,” NYRA president and CEO David O’Rourke told the AP by phone. “Getting the championships back to New York is big from an economic point of view and probably one of the most important [things], if not the most important. It gives our trainers and horsemen a chance to compete on their home tracks. I think it’s great. It’s been over 20 years.”
Hochul said in a statement that the redevelopment is bringing thousands of jobs and $1 billion in long-term economic activity to Long Island.
“Thanks to the investments we are making at Belmont Park, the long held dream of bringing the prestigious Breeders’ Cup back to New York will soon be a reality,” Hochul said.
The Breeders’ Cup has been at a Kentucky or California track every year since 2008. Del Mar outside San Diego has it this year as a back-to-back host and for the fourth time since 2017.
Santa Anita outside Los Angeles, Keeneland and Churchill Downs in Louisville — home of the Kentucky Derby — have become the regular sites for the two-day festival featuring the best thoroughbreds in the world and tens of millions of dollars’ worth of races. It’s shifting back to the Eastern time zone for the next two years.
“California is and has always been a wonderful spot to have the Breeders’ Cup with Santa Anita Park and Del Mar, but one of the missions of the Breeders’ Cup is to grow the sport, and one of the ways we do this is hosting world championships at various venues across the United States,” Fleming said, adding that he expects the event to generate $100 million for the New York economy.
While NYRA has not announced a location for the 2026 Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown is set to return to its old home by 2027, after a multiyear stint at historic Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York during renovations.
With the Belmont at Belmont Park shifting back to an annual occurrence, it is possible the track known for greats like Secretariat and Seattle Slew rumbling down the stretch to the finish line with fans roaring might get back in a regular rotation.
“The best part about working for the Breeders’ Cup is that nothing is off the table,” Fleming said. “New York City has some of the finest accommodations and restaurants and entertainment in the world, so it’d be a natural fit that we would be at Belmont Park frequently.”
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