Former Wisconsin/Miami quarterback Tyler Van Dyke has committed to SMU, agent Shawn O’Dare of Rosenhaus Sports announced Wednesday.

The fifth-year quarterback entered the transfer portal after appearing in three games this fall during his debut season with the Badgers before sustaining a season-ending injury against Alabama on Sept. 14.

Van Dyke, a three-year starter at Miami from 2021 to 2023, has 7,891 career passing yards and 55 career touchdown passes and has one year of eligibility remaining. He was ranked by ESPN as the 25th best quarterback in the transfer portal.

With 33 career games played, the 6-foot-4, 225-pound passer was one of the most experienced quarterbacks available in the 2024 portal cycle.

Benched in his final season at Miami in 2023, Van Dyke arrived at Wisconsin last offseason and was named the Badgers’ starting quarterback on Aug. 14 after a camp competition with sophomore Braden Locke. Van Dyke completed 43 of 68 passes for 422 yards and a touchdown in three starts to open the 2024 season, but he was sidelined for the rest of the season after sustaining a knee injury on the opening drive of Wisconsin’s 42-10 loss to Alabama in Week 3.

The 2025 season will mark Van Dyke’s sixth in college football. He first burst onto the scene at Miami in 2021, taking over for injured D’Eriq King and throwing for 2,931 yards with 25 touchdowns and six interceptions on his way to ACC Rookie of the Year honors.

But Van Dyke’s next two seasons with the Hurricanes were marred by injury and turnover struggles, headlined by a 2023 campaign in which Van Dyke threw a career-high 12 interceptions and was benched in favor of backup Emory Williams before regaining the starting role after Williams sustained a season-ending injury.

ESPN’s Eli Lederman contributed to this report.

DANIA BEACH, Fla. — While discussing the opportunity that awaits Penn State in the College Football Playoff, coach James Franklin said Wednesday that the showdown against Notre Dame is about “representing our schools and our conferences.”

Franklin then caught himself, realizing Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman was sitting just to his right.

“Or our conference, excuse me,” Franklin said.

Penn State will be representing the Big Ten against FBS independent Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl on Thursday night (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Hard Rock Stadium.

The Nittany Lions reached the Big Ten championship game before earning a No. 6 seed in the first 12-team CFP, while the Fighting Irish made the playoff as an at-large and earned the No. 7 seed despite playing in one fewer game.

Franklin said he thinks a larger CFP ultimately requires more uniformity around college football, including every team to be part of a conference and playing the same number of league games. Notre Dame, one of three remaining FBS independents, sees its status as central to the school’s identity and has resisted chances to join the Big Ten and other conferences over the years. The Fighting Irish compete in the ACC for most of their other major sports, and they have a scheduling agreement with the ACC in football.

“It should be consistent across college football,” Franklin said. “This is no knock at [Freeman] or Notre Dame, but I think everybody should be in a conference. I think everybody should play a conference championship game, or nobody should play a conference champion championship game. I think everybody should play the same number of conference games.”

Penn State reached the CFP by playing nine conference games as well as the Big Ten championship game against No. 1 Oregon, which defeated the Nittany Lions 45-37 on Dec. 7. The Big 12 also has maintained a nine-game league slate, while the SEC and ACC have stayed at eight conference games.

Franklin, who coached at Vanderbilt before Penn State, praised the SEC for remaining at eight league games, which the league’s coaches wanted. The SEC has repeatedly considered going to nine league games during Franklin’s time in the Big Ten.

“I was not a math major at East Stroudsburg, but just the numbers are going to make things more challenging if you’re playing one more conference game,” he said.

Franklin also highlighted other areas of the sport that could be made more uniform, including starting the season a week earlier to ease the strain of playing more games with an expanded playoff. He reiterated his desire to appoint a college football commissioner unaffiliated with a school or a conference, and once again mentioned longtime coach and current ESPN analyst Nick Saban as an option, along with former Washington and Boise State coach Chris Petersen, now a Fox college football analyst, and Dave Clawson, who recently stepped down as Wake Forest’s coach.

“We need somebody that is looking at it from a big-picture perspective,” Franklin said.

Freeman acknowledged that Notre Dame prides itself on its independence. He said the team uses the weekend of conference championships, when they’re guaranteed not to be playing, as another open week for recovery and other priorities.

Notre Dame ended the regular season Nov. 30 and did not play again until Dec. 20, when it hosted Indiana in a first-round CFP game. In helping craft the format for the 12-team CFP, former Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick agreed that if the Irish were selected, they would not be eligible to earn a bye into the quarterfinals.

Freeman noted that he doesn’t have a strong opinion on whether college football needs more uniformity.

“I’m a guy that just [thinks], ‘Tell us what we’re doing and let’s go, and you move forward,'” Freeman said. “I love where we’re at right now. [Athletic director] Pete Bevacqua and our Notre Dame administration will continue to make decisions that are best for our program.”

Franklin said his desire for greater consistency stems from the CFP selection process and the difficulty of committee members to sort through teams with vastly different paths and profiles, and determine strength of schedule and other factors.

“How do you put those people that are in that room to make a really important decision that impacts the landscape of college football, and they can’t compare apples to apples or oranges to oranges?” Franklin said. “I think that makes it very, very difficult.”

Former Baltimore Orioles left-hander Brian Matusz, the No. 4 pick in the 2008 MLB draft who spent almost his entire eight-year career with the Orioles, died Tuesday at age 37.

Matusz pitched in 279 games for Baltimore, making 68 starts. The only other major league team he played for was the Chicago Cubs, making a three-inning start on July 31, 2016.

“A staple in our clubhouse from 2009-16, Brian was beloved throughout Birdland, and his passion for baseball and our community was unmatched,” the Orioles said in a statement. “He dedicated his time to connecting with any fan he could, was a cherished teammate and always had a smile on his face.”

Our hearts are heavy tonight as we mourn the passing of former Oriole, Brian Matusz.

A staple in our clubhouse from 2009-2016, Brian was beloved throughout Birdland, and his passion for baseball and our community was unmatched. He dedicated his time to connecting with any fan he… pic.twitter.com/wNN3WkO8l4

— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) January 8, 2025

No cause of death has been disclosed.

Matusz, who eventually became a reliever, was most known for his success against Hall of Famer David Ortiz, who went 4-for-29 (.138) with 13 strikeouts in his career against Matusz.

He pitched in both the 2012 and 2014 postseasons for the Orioles.

Baltimore traded Matusz, who had a 12.00 ERA in seven games, to the Braves in May 2016, and Atlanta released him a week later. He signed with the Cubs, where he pitched in the minors except for the one big league start. His pitching career ended in 2019.

Matusz originally was drafted by the Los Angeles Angels in the fourth round in 2005, but he decided to go to the University of San Diego, where he won West Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year and was a two-time finalist for the Golden Spikes Award. He finished his college career as the school’s all-time leader in strikeouts, with 396.

Matusz would have been 38 on Feb. 11.