
‘His main thing, the priority, is winning’: Only Juan Soto can decide if his future is with the Yankees
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7 months agoon
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff WriterNov 4, 2024, 07:00 AM ET
Close- ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
LESS THAN A year ago, the New York Yankees acquired Juan Soto, with outfielder Trent Grisham, from the San Diego Padres for five players headlined by right-hander Michael King. It was a hefty haul for one guaranteed season that became a bargain.
Soto belted a career-high 41 home runs while dealing with nagging hand and forearm injuries. He finished second in the majors behind teammate Aaron Judge in on-base percentage. He ranked third in OPS, third in wRC+, fourth in slugging percentage and fourth in fWAR. He and Judge were baseball’s most productive duo since Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig as the Yankees won 94 games, the American League East title and the AL pennant for the first time in 15 years. It was a platform year players dream about.
Along the way, Soto voiced his desire to become part of the team’s history while becoming a treasured figure in the Bronx. He embraced the roll calls in right field with air hugs. He punctuated his production with theatrics. He shuffled in the batter’s box. He stared pitchers down. He shook his head and nodded and smiled. His flamboyant relentlessness made every at-bat must-watch television. He did not yield a pitch, never mind a plate appearance. His inaugural year as a Yankee was unforgettable.
Now, though, it all might be over. The Yankees’ exclusive five-day window to negotiate and sign Soto ends Monday. Up next is a bidding war that could ascend well beyond $500 million. Surpassing Shohei Ohtani‘s heavily deferred $700 million deal in present-day value is possible.
Soto has repeatedly said he loved his time in New York. After the Yankees clinched the pennant in Cleveland, Soto’s father, also named Juan José Soto, raved in Spanish about his son’s experience as a Yankee.
“Spectacular. Spectacular,” Soto said during the Yankees’ on-field celebration. “The Yankees are the home of baseball. It’s the brand of baseball. And there isn’t anything like playing for the Yankees.”
Now, the younger Soto must decide whether he is going to play for them again.
FIVE NIGHTS AGO, Juan Soto, the son, sat atop the bench in the home team’s dugout at Yankee Stadium, dejected, watching the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrate their World Series title as his teammates and coaches gathered their belongings. He was still wearing his batting helmet. His bat was still in his hands.
After staring at the mosh pit in the middle of the diamond, he stood up, walked to one end, climbed a step toward the field, bowed his head, said a prayer, glanced to the heavens and touched his chest, then vanished into the clubhouse.
The Yankees’ season, an 8½-month odyssey, was over. Soto’s career in pinstripes might have ended with it.
An hour later, Soto, who became a free agent the next day, was bombarded with questions about his future. The 26-year-old right fielder did not indicate a preference to stay in the Bronx.
Did you think about that possibly being your last game as a Yankee? (You never know.) Do you want to return if the money is right? (I’m going to weigh my options.) Do the Yankees have an advantage in re-signing you because this year went so well? (Every team will have the same opportunity.) Does geography matter? (I don’t think so.) Do you expect the Mets to come after you? (I don’t know, but I’m open to all 30 teams.)
“Leaving any place that is a winning team is always hard, and definitely this place was really special,” Soto said that night. “It’s been a blast for me. I’ve been really happy. If I’m here or not, I’ve been really happy for the teammates that I have and the people that I get to know. This was a really special group, but at the end of the day, we will see what’s going to happen.”
The next morning, Scott Boras, Soto’s agent, told ESPN his superstar client’s priority is playing for a winner. That, according to Boras, means “a commitment by ownership to be competitive” and “a system that provides great players and great pitching.”
“Juan loves winning and winning organizations and a winning owner,” Boras said. “The geography part of it is that Juan and his loved ones are going to be comfortable. That’s what’s most important to him. And major league geography … Juan’s played on both: West Coast and East Coast. His main thing, the priority, is winning.”
The Yankees face stiff competition for Soto’s services. The New York Mets, boosted by billionaire owner Steve Cohen’s deep pockets, want him. The Toronto Blue Jays, the Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies figure to have interest. The Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants seek a franchise linchpin. The Washington Nationals, the organization that signed and developed Soto out of the Dominican Republic, would welcome a reunion.
“This is going to stay in my heart for the rest of my life,” Soto said after the World Series finale. “I don’t know how it’s going to be next year.”
THE REASON THE Yankees chose to mortgage some of their future for just one guaranteed season of Soto was never more clear than on Oct. 19, in the 10th inning of Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, with the AL pennant on the line.
It wasn’t just Soto’s go-ahead, three-run home run off Cleveland Guardians right-hander Hunter Gaddis, one of baseball’s top relievers in 2024. It was the meticulous chess game to reach that swing. Soto fouled off four straight off-speed pitches, two sliders and two changeups before seeing a fastball and attacking. It was Soto at his finest.
“What impresses me the most is how young he is and how locked in he is every single day, ready to work,” Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes said. “I can’t imagine myself being 25 years old and doing what he does, and being so responsible and creating a lot of sacrifice. Because being 25 in New York, and the success he had, it’s tough to keep it level-headed every single day.”
This was Soto’s way all through the year. He homered in his spring training debut in Tampa. He fired the game-saving throw on Opening Day in Houston. He smashed the homer that sent the Yankees to the World Series, where he batted .313 with a 1.084 OPS.
“The one thing Juan has shown us all year is that flair for the dramatic,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, “and knack for big situations.”
Yankees hitting coach Pat Roessler, who worked with Soto in Washington, marveled at the slugger’s work ethic. Soto, Roessler noted, has had the same routine since his days with the Nationals. He said Soto would work extra before or after games when he felt a tick off. He offered two reasons for Soto’s otherworldly hitting skill: an unreal ability to recognize pitches early and a compact swing he can repeat with extreme accuracy.
“I’ve never had a guy that could repeat his swing like that,” Roessler said.
That skill set made Soto a superstar by his 21st birthday and a World Series champion five days after that. It prompted the Nationals to offer him a 15-year, $440 million contract extension two years ago. When he declined, he was traded to San Diego. A year and a half later, Soto, a talent likened to Ted Williams, was traded again, to the Yankees — his third team in less than three years. It was a trade Boras insisted would not have happened if Padres owner Peter Seidler hadn’t died the previous month.
“Peter Seidler would have never traded Juan,” Boras said. “Economically, we were certainly very like in-kind thinking about who Juan Soto was and what his value was.”
The question now is whether Soto’s résumé will expand to a fourth club in less than four years.
“Anybody would be lucky to have him,” Cortes said. “I’m sure this organization is dying to have him back.”
Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe said he wanted Soto to return “as bad as you can probably want something.”
Veteran slugger Giancarlo Stanton, who has never been a free agent, didn’t have any advice for Soto, only a request with a smile: “Just stay with us.”
All indications are that Soto is open to staying — and just as open to leaving. He has waited for this moment for years, ready to be finished with bouncing back and forth from coast to coast — ready for a permanent home. Now it is time to reap the benefits of his success and test the market.
His season in the Bronx might have been spectacular. There might not be anything like playing for the Yankees. That doesn’t mean he will do it again.
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CFP format debate: Would SEC change cost bids? Does the 11+5 make the most sense?
Published
8 mins agoon
May 31, 2025By
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Bill ConnellyMay 31, 2025, 07:20 AM ET
Close- Bill Connelly is a writer for ESPN. He covers college football, soccer and tennis. He has been at ESPN since 2019.
Leave it to college football to take the silliest, most circuitous possible route to the easiest, most logical answer.
Though nothing’s official and things could take further silly turns, a read of recent tea leaves gives the impression that those in charge of how the College Football Playoff will look in 2026 and beyond are homing in on a straightforward, 16-team tournament with five guaranteed spots for conference champions and 11 at-large bids. After months of debates about different bracket structures and conferences getting multiple automatic bids, the conversation seems to have returned to a clean and easy bracket.
We’re going to pretend this means people are listening to me. When I wrote about this debate in March, I recommended skipping expansion to 14 teams and moving to 16, and I mocked the idea of multiple autobids. Granted, I also recommended putting six conference champions in the field and putting quarterfinal games in home stadiums, not just first-round games. I won’t hold my breath on those ideas (especially the former), but that’s still a pretty good batting average.
After a week of posturing from power conference leaders, let’s keep the conversation going. Here are some thoughts about what we’ve learned this week and the debates still to come
Moving to nine conference games might cost the SEC one to two playoff teams per year
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey talked a lot this week. He went on “The Paul Finebaum Show.” He talked about a scheduling partnership with the Big Ten. He increased the fines for field rushing. He talked about which playoff games should or will be on home campuses. He talked about how long this formatting process takes. He scoffed at being told to serve the good of the game. And he spent a long time telling everyone how hard the SEC’s schedules are:
On Thursday afternoon, the SEC provided members of the media with a six-page packet that included color-coded charts using multiple metrics to illustrate the league’s dominant schedule strength. Sankey said the task for determining the CFP’s strength of schedule component is striking a balance “between human and machine,” referring to the old BCS computer formula. … [The packet] included ESPN’s Strength of Record, Bill Connelly’s SP+, Kenneth Massey’s metric, ESPN’s Football Power Index and ESPN’s Strength of Schedule metric.
Sankey seemed to have two primary goals for bringing up strength of schedule. For starters, it seemed like he wanted to remind everyone that Alabama and its 9-3 record didn’t get into last year’s 12-team CFP despite strength-of-schedule numbers quite a bit stronger than those of higher ranked teams such as SMU (which had gone 11-2), Boise State (12-1) and Indiana (11-1). He said that decision left him with critical questions about the committee and its process.
“I do think there’s a need for change,” Sankey said of the ranking protocol Thursday at the conclusion of his league’s spring meetings. “… How do you make those decisions? It’s hard, and we trust the committee to do that, and I respect the people in there, so this isn’t a criticism of the people. This is wanting to understand the decisions. We have to have better clarity on the criteria that inform those decisions.”
Now, all the strength-of-schedule advantages in the world didn’t stop Alabama from losing to 6-6 Vanderbilt and 6-6 Oklahoma. In the latter game, Alabama couldn’t have looked less playoff-worthy, losing 24-3 to the Sooners. Maybe the Tide would have gotten in with a formula approach, but they showed no indication that they could make a playoff run at the end of the season. Plus, we know that the playoff committee took Alabama’s strength of schedule into account because it ranked the Tide ahead of 11-2 Arizona State, 10-2 Miami and 10-2 BYU, among others, despite how they looked at the end of the regular season. If Bama had lost to only one of Vandy or Oklahoma, the Tide would have almost certainly been in the field of 12. And they’d have definitely been in a field of 16 regardless, along with two other three-loss SEC teams (Ole Miss and South Carolina).
4:23
Greg Sankey discusses the hottest topics from the SEC spring meetings
Commissioner Sankey joins The Paul Finebaum Show to detail the conversations around possible CFP changes and conference schedules going forward.
Also, Sankey didn’t mention that the committee placed a one-loss Alabama team ahead of an unbeaten Florida State team in the CFP rankings just one year earlier. If we want to talk about a formula, let’s talk about a formula. But the SEC has been treated with extreme kindness by the committee on average.
(For the record, I’m all for a formula-based rankings system. I put out a BCS-like formula ranking in the home stretch of each season, and there’s value in the approach. People convinced themselves that they hated the BCS formula, but I will forever insist that the main reason they hated the formula wasn’t the formula — it was that the BCS selected only two teams to play for the title. With a lot more teams to choose now, a formula approach would work quite well.)
Beyond the attempts to work the referees, however, Sankey also discussed schedule strength as it pertained to the ongoing conversation about the length of the SEC’s conference schedules. The SEC plays eight-game conference schedules, while the other primary power conference, the Big Ten, plays nine-game schedules. Despite this difference, the metrics cited by the SEC above (including, yes, my SP+ rankings) are a pretty stark reminder that, between the SEC typically having far fewer easy matchups than the Big Ten and a solid rotation of annual out-of-conference rivalry games played by SEC teams against ACC programs — Florida against Florida State, South Carolina against Clemson, etc. — the average SEC schedule is already a decent amount tougher than the average Big Ten schedule. Using my recent post-spring SP+ projections as a guide, SEC teams project to have 13 of the 15 hardest schedules in the country despite eight-game conference slates.
Since Sankey serves at the discretion of SEC presidents and, to a degree, athletic directors, it made sense that Sankey wanted to push back on the mounting pressure to move to nine games.
“If we’re not confident that the decision-making about who gets in and why and what are the metrics around it, it’s going to be really hard for some of my colleagues to get to the nine games,” Texas A&M athletics director Trev Alberts said this week.
Why make your schedules harder if it will cost your conference playoff bids, right?
There are plenty of valid reasons for moving to nine games regardless of what it does to playoff status. For starters, it will likely increase the value of the SEC’s media rights contract, giving the league even more of a war chest. It would make teams’ home schedules even more exciting and, potentially, expensive. And most importantly, it would make the 16-team conference feel like an actual conference: With a nine-game schedule, you can play every team twice in four years. With eight-game schedules, those rotations take a lot longer. (Yes, this is being written by a Mizzou guy who’s bitter that LSU fans, with their tailgating prowess, have had a reason to come to Columbia only once in Mizzou’s 13 SEC seasons.)
Because we’re using numbers to prove that SEC schedules are already difficult, let’s use numbers to ask a different question: How much more difficult would nine-game SEC schedules be?
To answer this question, I did what I do: I ran a simulation. I created four years’ worth of nine-game SEC schedules based around the super-clean, super-easy idea of permanent conference rivalries: You assign every team three permanent, annual opponents, and they play six other opponents home-and-away over two years, then the other six over the next two. Voila, you’ve visited every stadium in your conference and hosted every conference mate at least once every four years. I’ve been floored that other huge conferences such as the Big Ten and Big 12 haven’t leaned further into the permanent rivals concept — the 16-team Big 12 isn’t making Farmageddon (Kansas State-Iowa State) an annual game, and the 18-team Big Ten didn’t set up annual games between all of its four new Western teams. Regardless, I set up permanent rivals for each SEC team.
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Alabama: Auburn, LSU, Tennessee
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Arkansas: Missouri, Texas, Texas A&M
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Auburn: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi State
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Florida: Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina
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Georgia: Auburn, Florida, South Carolina
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Kentucky: Florida, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
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LSU: Alabama, Mississippi State, Ole Miss
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Mississippi State: Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss
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Missouri: Arkansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina
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Oklahoma: Missouri, Texas, Texas A&M
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Ole Miss: LSU, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt
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South Carolina: Florida, Georgia, Missouri
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Tennessee: Alabama, Kentucky, Vanderbilt
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Texas: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M
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Texas A&M: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas
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Vanderbilt: Kentucky, Ole Miss, Tennessee
These pairings preserve all but one of the series that have been played 90-plus times (Alabama-Mississippi State is the one I couldn’t squeeze in, in part because MSU has four such series). They reconnect former Big 8, Big 12 and/or SWC rivalries such as Oklahoma-Missouri and Texas-Arkansas, but they don’t go too far in that regard — at this point, Missouri has played South Carolina as conference mates as many times as Texas A&M (13) and more than Texas (nine), and the teams from the two Columbias have played some strange and memorable battles already.
There’s obviously a pretty big difference in quality between, say, Auburn’s or LSU’s annual opponents versus that of Kentucky or Ole Miss. But remember: Six of a team’s nine conference games come from the rest of the pool. Over a four-year rotation, Auburn’s schedules are only a smidgen harder than Ole Miss’ on average.
A full nine-game Auburn schedule might look like this: Alabama, at Georgia, Mississippi State, at Oklahoma, South Carolina, at Ole Miss, Tennessee, at Vanderbilt, Texas A&M. Meanwhile, an Ole Miss schedule might look like this (common opponents in bold): at LSU, Vanderbilt, at Mississippi State, Arkansas, at Kentucky, Auburn, at Missouri, Georgia, at Oklahoma. One plays Alabama, the other plays LSU. One plays Kentucky, the other plays South Carolina. Over time, the schedule strengths will be pretty close.
Using existing nonconference games as much as possible (with a few necessary tweaks), here’s what the 2026 schedule might look like with nine total conference games and a 3+6 approach.
Because you’ve got some teams now playing five conference road games, it will be difficult to avoid handing teams some pretty rough patches — Alabama and Missouri playing four road games in five weeks late in the season, for example, or Kentucky starting with back-to-back conference road games. But it’s hard not to notice how every week is pretty loaded. Some hypothetical 2026 headliners:
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Week 1: Georgia at Ole Miss, Clemson at LSU, Miami at South Carolina, Texas A&M at Tennessee
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Week 2: Ohio State at Texas, Oklahoma at Michigan, Missouri at Kansas, Kentucky at LSU
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Week 3: Florida State at Alabama, Oklahoma at Texas A&M, South Carolina at Auburn, Florida at Kentucky
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Week 4: Tennessee at Georgia, Alabama at Florida, Arkansas vs. Texas A&M, LSU at South Carolina, Illinois at Missouri*
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Week 5: Georgia at Alabama, Auburn at Oklahoma, Florida at Texas, Texas A&M at South Carolina, Ole Miss at Missouri
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Week 6: Oklahoma vs. Texas, Tennessee at Auburn, Missouri at Georgia, South Carolina at Florida
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Week 7: Tennessee at Alabama, LSU at Texas, Auburn at Ole Miss, Oklahoma at Arkansas, Georgia at South Carolina
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Week 8: Arkansas at Ole Miss, Missouri at South Carolina, Oklahoma at Kentucky
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Week 9: Alabama at Texas, Georgia vs. Florida, Ole Miss at LSU, Missouri at Texas A&M
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Week 10: Alabama at LSU, Texas A&M at Auburn, Ole Miss at Oklahoma, Texas at Missouri
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Week 11: Auburn at Georgia, Texas at Arkansas, Florida at Texas A&M, Missouri at Tennessee
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Week 12: LSU at Florida, Georgia at Texas A&M, Missouri at Oklahoma, Alabama at South Carolina
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Week 13: The typical loaded rivalry week
(* Missouri is somehow scheduled to play at Illinois and Kansas in 2026, but because the Tigers drew a slate with five conference road games, I flipped the Illinois game out of pure convenience.)
Obviously, the real-life 2026 SEC slate will also feature a lot of these big-time games, but aside from a relatively paltry Week 8, every week has some huge, TV-friendly brand matchups. That’s an utterly loaded schedule.
It’s also a schedule that will, as athletic directors will surely notice, hand quite a few losses to good teams.
1:29
Paul Finebaum supports CFP moving to straight seeding in 2025
Paul Finebaum is on board with the College Football Playoff shifting to a straight seeding model starting this season.
Though I shared hypothetical 2026 schedules above, I wanted to use SP+ projections to look at a full four-year rotation and compare what it would produce from a wins-and-losses standpoint to what the current eight-game slate produces.
For the league’s elite teams, moving to nine games won’t make much of a difference. For instance, with its current schedule, SP+ projects Georgia to win 9.8 games on average, with an 84.9% chance of going at least 9-3 (the hypothetical cutoff line for SEC teams hoping to get into the field). But with an abridged, three-game nonconference schedule — for the most part, I shrank nonconference schedules by getting rid of teams’ second games against Group of 5 teams and leaving one game against a power-conference opponent, one against a G5 team and one against an FCS team — Georgia averages 9.7 wins over four simulated seasons, with a 79.6% chance of reaching 9-3 or better on average. There’s a bit less margin for error, but well-projected teams like Georgia will be in good shape, regardless.
For the league’s light heavyweights, however, things get trickier. Florida has a 43.7% chance of finishing 9-3 or better in 2025, but in a nine-SEC-games universe, that drops to 19.6%. Four others see their odds drop by at least 10%, and current long shots like Vanderbilt (10.2% chance of going 9-3 in 2025) see their odds almost completely vanish (0.1%).
Overall, an average of 6.2 SEC teams are projected to go 9-3 or better in 2025. In a nine-game universe, that average shrinks to 4.7. With a 16-team field, you could say that the league would go from expecting around six teams in the field to having four or five teams safely in and campaigning for some 8-4 teams. Meanwhile, the league would also go from an average of 13.4 bowl-eligible teams to just 11.4.
That’s not an insignificant change. There would be plenty of cases where an 8-4 team with an off-the-charts strength of schedule would also be in good shape, but the professed risk is real. Of course, that’s what the money’s for. Media rights revenue would probably rise with expanded conference schedules; plus, the SEC and Big Ten are already guaranteed a huge portion of future CFP money anyway, so if they lose a playoff team here or there, it’s only going to hurt so much. Still, it’s easy to see why SEC ADs and coaches, whose jobs (and, potentially, bonuses) might be dictated by CFP bids, might balk at making tough schedules tougher.
The SEC and Big Ten championship games are being rendered moot
Among the main reasons the Big Ten, in particular, was interested in a selection process that featured multiple autobids (a rumored four each for the Big Ten and SEC) were that it would allow the two conferences — plus, perhaps, the ACC and Big 12, which were likely to receive two guaranteed bids each in such a structure — to redefine Championship Weekend.
The Big Ten and SEC championship games provided little-to-no positive impact for their winners last year: Oregon beat Penn State in the Big Ten championship to earn a first-round playoff bye but drew a smoking hot Ohio State in the quarterfinals and lost, and Georgia beat Texas in the SEC championship but lost quarterback Carson Beck to injury and handed Gunner Stockton his first career start in a quarterfinal loss to Notre Dame. (Plus, there were almost no negative repercussions for losing these games. Penn State and Texas each dropped only one spot in the rankings, and when SMU lost to lower-ranked Clemson in the ACC championship game, the Mustangs fell only from eighth to 10th and still got in.) With autobids, you could create multiple play-in games and produce a new spectacle while avoiding handing extra injury risk to just your top two teams.
There’s logic in that, even if I didn’t think it outweighed the negatives of multiple autobids — that they would make the entire playoff look like a Big Ten-SEC invitational, render large portions of the regular season moot (nonconference games would have almost no impact on playoff bids, and if a No. 6 seed with an 8-4 record can steal an 11-1 No. 3 seed’s playoff bid, then what’s the point of any of this?) and sure looked like they were primarily designed to rake in extra television dough.
Recent brainstorming sessions reportedly produced ideas such as giving SEC and Big Ten champions a double-bye in a 16-team bracket, with a first round consisting of play-in games for the lowest-ranked of the 16 teams, but that ruins the point of a clean, easy 16-team playoff. But with a plain 16-teamer, the impact of the SEC and Big Ten championships will be the difference between getting a No. 1 and No. 4 seed. That doesn’t counter the injury risk.
Conference championships are valuable enough that I doubt conferences will willingly get rid of them. But they feel like a hindrance to the current process, and I wonder how conference leaders will square that circle. I have one idea, though, and it comes from the 2020 COVID season.
When the Big Ten initially announced it was returning to action that fall, it created an abbreviated eight-game slate for each team, followed by a championship weekend that was intended to feature extra cross-division games for each team across the East and West divisions — No. 2 East vs. No. 2 West, No. 3 vs. No. 3, etc. Granted, things got messy because of positive COVID tests and resulting cancellations, but the Big Ten still featured four games on championship weekend.
Maybe there’s something to the idea of playing a full slate of championship week games, even if they aren’t playoff play-in games? Maybe that becomes part of the regular-season slate, in which, after everyone has played eight conference games, the standings determine who you play for the ninth?
Using last year’s eight-game SEC standings (and adjusting to avoid rematches where possible), we could have sent Texas and Georgia to play for the SEC title in Atlanta while also having 6-2 Tennessee (the No. 3 team in the standings) host 5-3 LSU, 5-3 Alabama host 5-3 Texas A&M, and so on. That would keep everyone from playing an extra game, and it would create a lot of de facto playoff play-in games even if they weren’t officially called that.
The brainstorming on this can continue for a while longer, but there’s no doubting that, though I think a clean 16-teamer is the most favorable conclusion for this long debate, there are still downsides and wrinkles to iron out.

Four-star tight end Mark Bowman announced his commitment to USC on Friday, picking the in-state Trojans over Georgia, Ole Miss, Oregon and Texas.
Bowman, No. 24 in the 2026 ESPN 300, is ESPN’s No. 3 tight end prospect in the 2026 class.
The 6-foot-5, 225-pound recruit from California’s Mater Dei High School was previously a top-ranked prospect in the 2027 cycle prior to his reclassification into the 2026 class earlier this year. He now joins five-star USC pledges Elbert Hill (No. 15) and Keenyi Pepe (No. 17) among top-100 recruits currently committed to the Trojans’ incoming recruiting class.
Following a series of spring unofficial visits, Bowman narrowed his list of finalists to seven programs earlier this month: Georgia, Miami, Ole Miss, Ohio State, Oregon, Texas and USC. Prior to his pledge, he was scheduled to take official visits with Miami, Texas, USC, Georgia and Oregon from May 30 to June 20.
Bowman caught 32 passes for 435 yards with eight touchdowns in his sophomore season at Mater Dei. He lands with USC as the program’s third-ranked commit in the program’s 2026 class, which ranks No. 1 nationally in ESPN’s latest team recruiting rankings for the cycle.
Alongside running back pledge Shahn Alston II (No. 94) and wide receiver Trent Mosley (No. 179), Bowman now leads the collection skill position talents USC is set to add in 2026 around four-star quarterback pledge Jonas Williams (No. 155), who flipped from Oregon in February.
Bowman’s pledge comes as a late-spring recruiting boost for the Trojans after four-star outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 28 overall) pulled his pledge from the program earlier this month. Four-star cornerback R.J. Sermons, previously ranked as ESPN’s No. 28th-ranked prospect in 2026, reclassified into the 2025 cycle last week and will join USC this summer.
The Trojans enter the busiest stretch of the recruiting calendar next month with 13 ESPN 300 pledges. USC is set to host a key recruiting weekend starting June 6 with current commits Hill and Alston and four-star wide receiver Ethan Feaster (No. 23) and athlete Jalen Lott (No. 108) among the top prospects expected on campus.
Sports
Big 12 chief: Big Ten, SEC must serve all football
Published
8 mins agoon
May 31, 2025By
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Andrea AdelsonMay 30, 2025, 01:29 PM ET
Close- ACC reporter.
- Joined ESPN.com in 2010.
- Graduate of the University of Florida.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark reiterated his support for the 5+11 College Football Playoff model, saying Friday that even though the Big Ten and SEC are leading the discussions, those conferences have a “great responsibility” that goes with it.
Over the past several days, momentum has grown for an expanded 16-team playoff that would feature the top five conference champions as automatic qualifiers and 11 at-large teams, a model Yormark presented when the Power 4 commissioners met recently in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Another model that has been presented includes four automatic qualifiers each for the Big Ten and SEC, two each for the ACC and Big 12, and one for the top Group of 5 team. Both the Big 12 and ACC are against that model.
The Big Ten and SEC have the bulk of control over the playoff’s format in 2026 and beyond, something the other FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua agreed to last year when a new six-year deal for the CFP was announced.
“I think there’s real momentum for 5-11,” Yormark said at the conclusion of the Big 12 spring meetings. “Certainly, the public is voting yes for it, which I think is critically important. Yes, the Big Ten, the SEC are leading the discussions, but with leading those discussions, they have a great responsibility that goes with it, to do what’s right for college football and not to do anything that just benefits two conferences.
“I have a lot of faith in the process, and I think we’ll land in the right place.”
Yormark was asked why the Big 12 would be against a model that would guarantee two playoff spots for his conference.
“In talking to our ADs and coaches, we want to earn it on the field,” Yormark said. “The 5-11 might not be ideal for the conference, but it’s good for college football, and it’s what’s fair. We don’t want any gimmes. We want to earn it on the field. I feel very comfortable with that, and I feel the same way, and I’ve been very outspoken about it.”
Indeed, Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham, whose team made the CFP last season, said Thursday, “Every year is a new year. You never know who’s going to be good in college football, especially with the volatility with the portal. So anything that creates an open platform for teams like our guys last year to prove that they do belong, I’m in support of.”
He added, “Our coaches and our league want just the best teams, whoever those best teams are in college football that year, let’s have those best teams go and compete for a championship.”
TCU coach Sonny Dykes said the notion that conferences would get more than one automatic qualifier “doesn’t make any sense.”
“All anybody wants is to look up at the end of the year and see the best teams competing for a national championship,” Dykes said. “I don’t think that guaranteed bids does. That’s not how it works in pro football; that’s not how it works in any other sport. The AFC West gets four bids, and the NFC Central only two — that stuff doesn’t make any sense. It’s not good for the sport. I don’t think it’s good for the fans. It’s just not good for the game.”
Yormark said CFP leaders have until December to determine the future format. The FBS commissioners and Bevacqua are scheduled to meet June 18 in Asheville, North Carolina.
“We have some time now to work through the process,” Yormark said. “It is a process, but I do anticipate something getting done sooner than later.”
This is the second time in a week that Yormark has remarked about doing what is best for college football. After the commissioners agreed to move to a straight seeding model for the CFP, which will start in the 2025 season, Yormark said he hopes what’s best for college football is “the priority” moving forward. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips made similar remarks about his “responsibility” to the game.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey seemed to take umbrage with that, saying from SEC spring meetings earlier in the week, “I don’t need lectures from others about ‘good of the game.’ I don’t lecture others about good of the game.”
Asked for his response to that, Yormark said, “I agreed with Greg’s follow-up statement that I’d be entertained by it, and I was. We all have thick skin here. The neat thing about our relationship amongst the commissioners is we’re going to battle. That’s part of life. We’re going to agree to disagree. We’re kind of in that mode right now, but I have a lot of respect for my peers, and I know they have a lot of respect for me and Jim, and we’ll end up in the right place.”
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