Just Google him: There’s more to Curt Cignetti than his viral moments
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Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior Writer
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — About two hours before kickoff against Michigan, Indiana fans lined The Walk, a path from Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall to Memorial Stadium that the team traverses before games. Two fans standing near the start of The Walk wore T-shirts that read “Google Me” on the front and “Football School” on the back.
The areas south of the stadium were filled and festive, which was nothing new. Indiana has had a good tailgating scene before games. Getting those fans inside the stadium, meanwhile, has often been a chore.
Curt Cignetti has changed that and just about everything at Indiana. He came in saying things that would make even the most ardent Indiana fans blush as crimson as their sweaters. But he has backed up the bluster, not just winning games at a historic rate, but changing how people feel about Indiana football, where confidence is at an all-time high entering this week’s clash at No. 2 Ohio State.
“This is going to sound so cheesy,” said Cignetti’s son, also named Curt, “but just to see the sentiment change on Twitter, how these fans have gone from being doom and gloom or doubting to, suddenly, they’re super confident we’re winning every game, it’s unbelievable.”
Curt Jr. stood outside of the stadium before the Michigan game, tailgating with his mother, Manette, sisters Carly and Natalie and other family and friends. Not since 1968 had Indiana, the team with the most losses in FBS history (713), been favored against Michigan, the team with the most wins (1,009). But Indiana opened as a two-touchdown favorite — befitting a team that had won its first nine games by 14 points or more and leading the FBS in scoring margin.
Late at night, Curt Jr., 33, who lives in Ohio, and Carly, 31, who lives in New Orleans, will occasionally search the family name on Twitter. The scrolling doesn’t come from vanity or a search for validation. They knew their father was a great coach long before he stepped foot on the Indiana campus 356 days ago and lit it ablaze.
Cignetti’s kids aren’t the only ones doing vibe checks.
“I know for a fact he does, too, not Googling himself, but the Indiana community,” Curt Jr. said of his dad. “He sends stuff to our group chat. He sees that it’s not just players that are buying in, but the community, and that’s been his goal the whole time.”
This fall, college football has discovered Cignetti, a 63-year-old lifer in the sport, who was at Elon six years ago, IU-Pennsylvania eight years ago, has never had a losing season and has Indiana at 10-0 for the first time and in the College Football Playoff hunt.
“I think he’s been a good coach for a long time,” former Alabama coach Nick Saban said on “The Pat McAfee Show” before IU played Washington. Cignetti was on Saban’s first staff from 2007 to 2010. “He just had success at programs that … people didn’t pay that much attention to. But if you evaluate his success rate, it was very, very good. Now he’s at someplace people notice.”
Cignetti’s results aren’t new, but two things are: The stage he occupies at IU and the soundtrack to his success, the viral quotes that have sent shock waves through Bloomington and beyond.
“Hey, look, I’m super fired up about this opportunity. I’ve never taken a back seat to anybody and don’t plan on starting now. Purdue sucks! But so does Michigan and Ohio State! Go IU!” — Curt Cignetti, Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Dec. 1, 2023
With 33 words in 25 seconds, interrupted by increasing bursts of roars, Cignetti changed the tenor at Indiana. Newly hired football coaches are often introduced at basketball games. They usually begin their remarks like Cignetti did that night. Sometimes they will poke at a rival.
But the pivot Cignetti made, not just to put down Purdue, which leads the all-time series with Indiana 77-42-6, but Big Ten heavies Ohio State and Michigan, which at the time were a combined 88-4-1 against the Hoosiers since 1968, was exceptionally bold.
“I was just shocked,” said Manette Cignetti, who joined her husband that night. “I did not expect anything like that. I just laughed. It was fun to be in the moment.”
Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson, a former student manager for Bob Knight’s basketball teams at the school, had heard a few spicy things said inside Assembly Hall through the years. Dolson had known Cignetti for only five days, connecting with him hours after announcing a coaching change.
During the interview and hiring process, Cignetti came across as “not arrogant, not cocky, but he’s extremely confident, he’s extremely authentic,” Dolson recalled. The declaration at center court didn’t directly connect with Cignetti’s personality, but it was done for a reason.
“Afterwards, he came up to me and said, ‘Hey, I got a little carried away, because I just wanted to see if our fans were asleep or were they dead,'” Dolson said. “And he said, ‘It’s good to see that they were just sleeping.’ From the start, he wanted to set a tone that it’s not the same doom and gloom. We can get this done.”
Cignetti needed only a few hours on campus earlier that day to assess the “hopeless” mood at IU. He had taken over a struggling program before, at Elon, an FCS team that was 12-45 in the five years before he arrived in 2017 and then proceeded to record consecutive top-20 finishes. When he arrived with Saban at Alabama in 2007, the program was coming off of a 6-7 season, and would go 7-6 in Saban’s first year before beginning its historic run.
Indiana seemingly had a steeper climb, both in its performance and confidence levels.
“It created a lot of buzz in Hoosier Nation,” Cignetti said of his basketball court battle cry. “I’m sure some people didn’t like it, and I’m sure people in Big Ten country thought I was a nut. But I think there was an excitement level before the season started. They were starving for success.”
Indiana offensive lineman Mike Katic wasn’t at Assembly Hall for Cignetti’s introduction, but he and his teammates soon got word of what their new coach had said. Cignetti’s message was for the fans — “something to turn their heads,” Katic said — but he struck a similar tone inside a locker room that had gone 9-27 during the previous three seasons.
Seven or eight players didn’t show for his first team meeting. Many had or would soon enter the transfer portal.
“I told them, ‘We’re going to win. We’ve won everywhere we’ve been. There will be no self-imposed limitations on what we can accomplish,'” Cignetti said. “They were listening. They were kind of slouched down in their chairs. They were probably beaten down a little bit.”
Katic and his teammates soon learned Cignetti-isms, phrases like “fast, physical, relentless” and “every play has a life of its own,” which the coach would pepper them with during the offseason.
“He took Saban’s process and made it his own,” one former Cignetti assistant said. “It’s a lot of the same foundational principles that Saban had. He’s not going to worry about anybody’s feelings.”
Cignetti brought seven assistants from James Madison, including all of his coordinators, and would add several key JMU transfers, including defensive linemen James Carpenter and Mikail Kamara, linebackers Aiden Fisher and Jailin Walker, wide receiver Elijah Sarratt, cornerback D’Angelo Ponds and running back Ty Son Lawton.
The newcomers helped shift the mood, but it started at the top.
“He had this swagger and this moxie to him that I hadn’t seen from a head coach in my career,” Katic said. “He didn’t say a whole lot, but we knew there was going to be a standard here, that it’s not going to be the old Indiana. This is a new Indiana. This is a whole new recipe and a whole new mantra to Indiana football.”
“It’s pretty simple. I win. Google me.” — Cignetti, signing day news conference, Bloomington, Dec. 23, 2023
Cignetti’s most famous line at Indiana, delivered in response to a question about how he would compile his first roster with key holdovers and talented transfers, is also instructive in understanding his life and career.
His father, Frank Cignetti Sr., is a 2013 College Football Hall of Fame inductee who went 182-50-1 at IU-Pennsylvania, twice reaching the Division II national title game. Frank was a high school coach before serving as an assistant at Pitt, Princeton and West Virginia, where he worked under Bobby Bowden and then replaced Bowden as head coach. Saban served as Frank Cignetti’s defensive backs coach at WVU in 1978 and 1979.
“We loved going to practice, we loved the games, oh my God, we loved being on the sideline, being in the locker room, being in the office,” said Frank Cignetti Jr., Curt’s younger brother and a longtime college and NFL coach. “Think about the people we were around, Bobby Bowden and Bowdens, Tommy, Terry and those guys.”
The Cignetti home on Dogwood Avenue in Morgantown, West Virginia, was a hub for athletic activity and competition. Frank Sr. never pushed his sons toward football, but they rushed to the sport.
In late 1978, Curt’s senior year of high school, Frank was diagnosed with lymphoid granulomatosis, a rare form of cancer.
“He was given his last rites twice,” Curt recalled. “But he beat it and lived 43 more years.”
Frank was fired after the 1979 season, despite a strong finish. He stayed out of football for two years to secure life insurance, Curt said, before taking the job at IUP, his alma mater, in 2011. Frank taught Curt that preparation breeds confidence, while lack of preparation breeds doubt and anxiety. Curt is a football grinder, arriving at his office before dawn, and ending his days watching film and devising schemes in the 35-year-old, teal beaded recliner that he has brought to his different coaching stops.
Frank Cignetti Sr. also taught the importance of positive energy and hope, which helped him as a coach and during his illness.
“We grew up in a household where there wasn’t much doom and gloom,” Frank Jr. said. “We had great belief in each other and ourselves.”
Curt has taken the Cignetti philosophy to the extreme at Indiana.
“If he was alive last year when I took this job, he’d have called me up [and said], ‘What are you doing?'” Curt said of Frank Sr., who died in 2022. “But my dad was a confident guy, hard worker, high character guy, would say what was on his mind. He’d think I’m half-crazy with some of the things I’ve said. I’d have been scolded. But it probably comes from him.”
After playing quarterback at West Virginia, Curt began his coaching career, making stops at Pitt, Davidson, Rice, Temple, Pitt again and NC State before joining Saban’s first Alabama staff in 2007 as wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator. He had jobs that he chose to pass up and was passed over for others.
As he approached his 50th birthday, he knew he didn’t want to be a career assistant, even for someone like Saban. The first opportunity to lead was a familiar one, IU-Pennsylvania, where his dad was a legend, his brother had played and where his wife had grown up. But there were risks.
“We had two kids that were in college, and it was a 60 percent [pay cut],” Manette Cignetti said. “It’s not about the money with me, but it’s: How do I make what [the kids] want to do happen?”
She told Curt: “You can’t take that job.'”
Saban had a similar reaction. You can get lost down there, he warned. But Cignetti had absorbed enough from the great coaches — Saban, Johnny Majors at Pitt, Frank Sr. — to know he was ready to be one. The pull eventually brought him back to IUP.
“You don’t see that move in this business,” he said. “I took a chance on me, and I woke up many mornings wondering what I’d done. But I was going to make it work.”
“Normally at these things, I stand up here and we’re picked to win the league. It’s just usually how it’s been. I have been picked next-to-last twice. We’re picked 17th out of an 18-team league, and I get it. The two times we were picked next-to-last, in 2022, we won the conference championship, and in 2017, we inherited an 8-45 team and … played for the conference championship. Now, I’m not into making predictions. That’s just a historical fact.” — Cignetti, July 25, Big Ten media days, Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis
Curt Cignetti didn’t always exude so much confidence. When he first got to IUP, he would come home after games and ask his family about players, playcalling and in-game strategy.
“I used to love that as a kid,” Natalie Cignetti, 28, said. “I feel like over time, he asked us less questions, because he gets it now and he doesn’t need anyone else’s opinion.”
Cignetti took over an IUP program that had slipped a bit, but quickly started winning. He won 12 games and reached the Division II quarterfinal in his second season and then won nine or more games in three of his final four seasons before leaving for Elon.
His next stop brought him to James Madison, a top FCS program. Percy Agyei-Obese, a James Madison running back for Cignetti from 2019 to 2022, remembered Cignetti saying how he had beaten JMU while at Elon, which had never defeated a top-5 team at the Division I level. Cignetti then led James Madison to the national final in his first season and then made the semifinals in consecutive years.
“Every year, he had the mindset of, ‘We’re going to win it all,'” Agyei-Obese said. “Whoever’s in front of us, we’re going to beat them, every single game. Even when we moved up to the FBS, it’s just like any team, we will beat them. He was not afraid, and that’s how my mindset was. Just him saying that game after game, that ‘We will beat this team, we’re going to win it all. They can put whoever they want. They can put Alabama in front of us. We will get the job done.'”
Former James Madison quarterback Cole Johnson said the Indiana version of Cignetti is the same guy who won big at JMU. The difference: Cignetti “wasn’t so outwardly confident” before.
“So much of that was kind of kept within the program,” Johnson said. “To see some of the stuff, ‘I win. Google me,’ I don’t think it’s him being cocky. It’s just the type of person he is.”
In 2022, James Madison transitioned to the FBS and the Sun Belt, and was picked to finish sixth in the seven-team East Division. The Dukes went 6-2 in league games, winning four by 22 points or more, and tying for first place.
Jeff Bourne, the longtime James Madison athletic director who hired Cignetti, recalled a decisive road victory in a game where the Dukes entered as a significant underdog. Before the bus ride home, Bourne approached Cignetti.
“We gave each other a big hug, and it’s like, ‘Can you believe that?'” Bourne said. “People didn’t give us a lot of credit that we could play at that level, and to dominate the way that we did was amazing.”
Bourne describes Cignetti as disciplined and organized, a “lifelong learner.” Cignetti didn’t hassle Bourne or complain about what JMU lacked, but spoke up about the things he really needed.
“He was never arrogant about it,” Bourne said. “It was just, ‘We need to be prepared in order to win.’ I just don’t think they come along often like him. He’s a really good leader, and good leaders can make some really special things happen.”
Cignetti thought he could keep winning at JMU and retire there. But when conversions accelerated at Indiana, including with Dolson and university president Pamela Whitten, he sensed the school wanted to change its trajectory.
The Big Ten’s media rights deal had caught his eye, and he believed that the mix of Indiana’s resources and his method and résumé would guarantee success. Indiana’s alumni network, one of the world’s largest, also got Cignetti’s attention.
“He said, ‘Scott, if I just have average resources, I will win,'” Dolson said.
There was another draw, too.
“People were like, ‘Don’t touch that job, you can’t win there,’ and that lit a fire in him,” Manette Cignetti said. “He was like, ‘Why can’t you win there? It doesn’t make any sense.’ He had a really good record, he likes his record, so that’s motivation to win, too.”
“I figured I had to make this trip up here, since we’ll be playing in this game next year.” — Cignetti, Dec. 1, Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, to Big Ten Network ahead of the 2023 league championship game
When the Hoosiers took the field against Michigan, a sellout crowd waved towels with Cignetti’s motto: “Fast, physical, relentless.” Many wore T-shirts and hoodies with “CIGNETTI,” modeled with the Marlboro cigarette logo and font, which are flying off the shelves at apparel stores near campus.
The scene looked different for Cignetti’s IU debut on Aug. 31. Indiana drew 44,150 for its opener but many left after the Hoosiers built a big halftime lead, leading Cignetti to wonder, “What’s going on here?”
The crowd actually dipped below 40,000 the following week but has swelled during Big Ten play. Indiana’s past three home games have been sellouts. The Michigan game drew 53,082 people.
“It just continues to grow and build,” Cignetti said. “It’s way over the top. It’s like a movement.”
Several hours later, Indiana clung to a 20-15 lead over Michigan, facing its first nail-biter of the season. Dolson and Whitten stood together on the Hoosiers sideline, watching nervously as fans roared and whipped their Cignetti-themed towels. The game carried extra tension for Cignetti and his family. Natalie’s boyfriend, Trent VanHorn, planned to propose to her on the field, ideally after a win. Curt learned of the plan the night before and, according to Manette, knew the pressure was on.
The Hoosiers prevailed, Natalie said yes and Curt tweeted a picture of the videoboard, which read: “Natalie, every day with you is 10-0. Will you marry me?” The good news continued during Indiana’s open week, as Cignetti agreed to a new eight-year, $72 million contract that more than doubled his annual salary.
Great way to cap off a gritty win!#GOIU pic.twitter.com/8xyr9Yov6H
— Curt Cignetti (@CCignettiIU) November 10, 2024
The coach reacted to the contract with another gem, telling Fox, “We’re the emerging superpower in college football. Why would I leave?”
Cignetti’s zingers are intertwined with his Indiana tenure, but, according to his family, also a bit misleading.
“You read people on the internet and they’re like, ‘I can’t stand Curt Cignetti. What an egomaniac,'” Carly Cignetti said. “That is like the complete opposite. But I get that it’s their impression of him if they’ve only seen the viral clips.”
Curt Jr. puts it this way: “When he got here, he just realized that everybody had this disproportionately negative view of what was possible. I honestly think it pissed him off. He’s very aware of: You need to change how people think. That’s why he did what he did.”
Curt Sr. also continues to be proven right. His proclamation with the Big Ten Network crew in December 2023 was greeted with chuckles and a clarification from host Dave Revsine, who asked Cignetti, “Are you willing to go on record with that prediction?”
“I am on record!” Cignetti replied.
No one is laughing now about Indiana getting to Indianapolis. The Hoosiers can essentially punch their title game ticket Saturday. Ohio State has won 29 straight against Indiana, the longest streak by a Big Ten team against a conference opponent. The Hoosiers are 12.5-point underdogs.
A win will all but guarantee Indiana’s first College Football Playoff berth. Even a competitive loss would make it tough for the selection committee to keep Cignetti’s crew out. Cignetti should sweep the national coaching awards.
The night before the Michigan game, Natalie Cignetti found her dad in his room, unplugging for a few minutes to eat dinner and watch TV. She asked him if he started to get excited about the playoff possibility. In typical coach fashion, Curt replied that he was only focused on the Michigan game.
If Indiana makes the CFP, though, Curt Cignetti won’t be surprised. He expected it and predicted it, and Hoosiers everywhere have listened.
“I’ve been around here a long time, and we’ve had some unbelievable moments,” Dolson said. “But relative to football, this is different. And it’s different because people’s confidence is different.”
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
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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Eli Lederman
Georgia beat Florida and Texas to its second five-star pledge in the 2026 class on Saturday with a commitment from tight end Kaiden Prothro, the No. 19 overall prospect in the 2026 ESPN 300.
Prothro, a 6-foot-7, 210-pound recruit from Bowdon, Georgia, is ESPN’s No. 2 overall tight end and viewed as one of the top pass catchers at any position in the current class. A priority in-state target for coach Kirby Smart, Prothro took official visits to Auburn, Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Texas before narrowing his recruitment to the Bulldogs, Gators and Longhorns last month.
He announced his commitment to Georgia in a ceremony at Bowdon High School, where Prothro has hauled in 89 passes for 2,034 yards and 35 touchdowns over the past two seasons.
Prothro arrives as the Bulldogs’ 17th ESPN 300 pledge in an incoming recruiting class that sits at No. 2 in ESPN’s latest class rankings for the cycle, joining quarterback Jared Curtis (No. 6 overall) as the program’s second five-star commit in 2026. He now stands as the top-ranked member of a growing Georgia pass-catcher class that also includes four-star wide receivers Brady Marchese (No. 62) and Ryan Mosley (No. 120) and three-star Craig Dandridge.
The Bulldogs, who produced six NFL draft picks at tight ends from 2019-24, have forged a reputation for developing top tight end talent under Smart and assistant coach Todd Hartley. Georgia signed ESPN’s top two tight end prospects — Elyiss Williams and Ethan Barbour — in the 2025 class, and Prothro now follows four-stars Brayden Fogle (No. 142 overall) and Lincoln Keyes (No. 238) as the program’s third tight end pledge in 2026.
Those arrivals, along with eligibility beyond 2025 for current Georgia tight ends Lawson Luckie and Jaden Reddell, could make for a crowded tight end room when Prothro steps on campus next year.
However, Prothro is expected to distinguish himself at the college level as a versatile downfield option capable of creating mismatches with a unique blend of size, speed and physicality in the mold of former two-time All-America Georgia tight end Brock Bowers. His father Clarence told ESPN that Georgia intends to utilize Prothro across roles, including flex tight end and jumbo receiver, and said scheme fit was a key driving factor in his son’s decision.
A three-time state football champion, Prothro caught 33 passes for 831 yards and 13 touchdowns as a sophomore in 2023. He eclipsed 1,200-yards in his junior campaign last fall, closing 2024 with 56 receptions (21.4 yards per catch) and 22 receiving touchdowns en route to a 13-2 finish and a third consecutive state championship. Prothro is also an All-Region baseball player and was credited with 20.7 points and 16.5 rebounds per game in his junior basketball season.
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