SEATTLE (AP) — Grand Canyon University and Seattle University will join the West Coast Conference beginning with the 2025-26 season, giving the conference 11 full members for the first time in its history. The two schools are currently affiliated with the Western Athletic Conference. The current WCC membership is mostly based in California. The only two schools outside of the state that are currently full members are Gonzaga and Portland. Grand Canyon and Seattle will compete in 14 of the 16 sports offered by the WCC, but most of the attention will be on basketball.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The University of California Board of Regents is expected to accept a recommendation that UCLA pay University of California at Berkeley $10 million a year for six years as a result of the Bruins’ upcoming move to the Big Ten and the demise of the Pac-12. The recommendation was made by UC president Michael Drake and will be voted on during a regents meeting Tuesday at UC Merced. In order for the Regents to affirm UCLA’s move to the Big Ten in December, 2022, the university agreed to pay UC Berkeley between $2 million and $10 million because of how the move would affect the Cal athletic program.
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Stanford will now play on Tara VanDerveer Court. The school is naming the court inside Maples Pavilion for the Hall of Fame coach who retired in April as the winningest coach in college basketball. There will be an unveiling and celebration for the court at a home game in November. In addition, the 70-year-old VanDerveer will be honored by having her name associated with one of the assistant coaching positions - 'The Tara VanDerveer Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach." VanDerveer’s final day of work was Wednesday. She departs with 1,216 career victories over 45 years at Idaho, Ohio State and Stanford.
UNDATED (AP) — The NCAA has approved a waiver that will allow men’s and women’s basketball programs to pay for unlimited official recruiting visits to help teams deals with roster depletion caused by transfers, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press. The Athletic first reported the approval of a blanket waiver by the men’s and women’s basketball oversight committees. Currently, men’s basketball programs are allowed 28 official visits over a rolling two-year period. The number for women’s programs is 24. The waiver is effective immediately and the NCAA Division I Council will consider eliminating the cap on official visits in basketball permanently in June.
UNDATED (AP) — Two Republican congressmen have introduced a bill that would provide the NCAA, college conferences and member schools with federal protection from legal challenges that undercut their ability to govern college sports. The Protect the Ball Act is sponsored by Reps. Russell Fry of South Carolina and Barry Moore of Alabama. The bill is intended to provide legal safe harbor for the entities that run college sports, which has been under siege from antitrust lawsuits. Fry and Moore are members of the House Judiciary Committee. The NCAA and power conferences are considering a settlement in an antitrust case that could cost billions in damages.
UNDATED (AP) — Colleges and universities are having a difficult time hiring, recruiting and retaining members of their athletic training staffs because of a number of below-market conditions, a survey shows. The survey, by the National Athletics Trainers’ Association and the American College of Sports Medicine, of 1,120 athletic trainers at all collegiate levels identified four areas of most common concern: compensation, organizational culture, burnout and increased work responsibility, according to a joint statement. Among the findings, more than 50% of athletic trainers were caring for more than 100 student-athletes and 65% had been given additional responsibilities without a pay increase.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Athletic departments across the country are trying to figure out the best way to manage the name, image and likeness landscape when it comes to athletes earning endorsem*nt money. Michigan is the 18th school to hire a NIL general manager in a partnership with Altius Sports Partners. It will give the company more than $250,000 a year Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel says it’s the right time to bring in a company that has had three years to develop strategies and NIL connections.
UNDATED (AP) — A settlement being discussed in an antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA and major college conferences could cost billions and pave the way for a new compensation model for college athletes. An agreement has not been finalized and questions about how exactly a new system would work remain unanswered. It is also unclear if new rules could withstand further legal scrutiny, but it appears college sports is heading down a revolutionary path with at least some schools directly paying athletes to participate. How much could be heading their way, who gets paid and who and what could stand in the way?
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