Montana changes course, opts in to NCAA's House settlement for this year
The recent settlement means athletic programs across the country are free to start paying millions to their athletes in one of the biggest changes in the history of college athletics. The deadline for schools around the country to opt out was Monday.
Advertisement
Montana was originally planning to opt-in during the 2026-27 academic year. The school this week explained that it switched after rosters were grandfathered into the final approved settlement so that roster cuts weren't necessary.
Athletic director Kent Haslam told MTN Sports the 'initial settlement had no provision for accommodating roster limits through what's now called 'designated student-athletes.' But as it unfolded, there was an opportunity to preserve our (current) roster limits by grandfathering in your current squad sizes. That completely changed our mindset.'
The settlement means schools will be able to make payments to athletes for use of their name, image and likeness (NIL). A handful of schools have decided to wait it out at least a year to see how things develop, including legal risks and Title IX concerns.
The Ivy League said in January that its eight schools — which do not award athletic scholarships — will not participate. Military rules prevent Navy, Air Force, and Army from compensating athletes through name, image and likeness deals. But alongside the academies are others choosing to watch the settlement unfold from the sidelines during year one.
Advertisement
Nebraska-Omaha and Montana were originally among the schools opting out. Rival Montana State has opted in, raising the recruiting stakes for two programs that are often among the best teams in the Football Championship Subdivision.
Haslam told MTN Sports: "Everything surrounding the House settlement we were ready for. We were excited for everything around revenue sharing and scholarship and financial and how that's restructured. The hesitancy was around roster limits, and once that got resolved and we could make sure that we were ready to do it, we opted in.'
___
AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
17 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Gold flat as easing trade tensions offset support from weak dollar
By Brijesh Patel (Reuters) -Gold prices held steady on Thursday after a sharp drop in the previous session, as easing trade tensions dented demand for safe-haven assets, overshadowing support from a weaker dollar. Spot gold was flat at $3,387.15 per ounce, as of 0138 GMT, after dropping 1.3% in the previous session. U.S. gold futures eased 0.1% to $3,492.50. "Yesterday, we saw gold prices seems like well might be building up for the next bullish run until the news came out on trade front, triggering some profit-taking," said Brian Lan, managing director at GoldSilver Central, Singapore. "We've seen the dollar has also weakened quite a bit, and of course, this also supports gold. So, I think this is a small retracement at this moment. We are, in fact, still quite bullish on gold." Signalling progress on tariffs, U.S. President Donald Trump struck a trade deal with Japan that lowers tariffs on auto imports. The European Union and the United States are nearing an agreement on a similar trade deal that would impose 15% tariffs on European imports, while waiving duties on some items, according to officials from the European Commission. Risk sentiment in the wider financial markets rose on the back of progress in trade talks and hopes that more deals could be in the offering. [MKTS/GLOB] Offering support to gold, the U.S. dollar index fell to a more than two-week low, making greenback-priced bullion less expensive for other currency holders. Investors also look forward to a rate decision from the European Central Bank due later in the day. Also on the radar, the U.S. weekly jobless claims numbers on Thursday and S&P Global's flash PMI data will be eyed to gauge economic health ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision next week. Spot silver slipped 0.3% to $39.16 per ounce, platinum was steady at $1,411.53 and palladium dipped 1% to $1,265.50.
Yahoo
17 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Bengals deemed a potential landing spot for Alabama Crimson Tide football coaching legend Nick Saban
The Cincinnati Bengals are approaching an uncomfortable crossroads as a franchise. Owner Mike Brown's reluctance to timely pay stars and improve the infrastructure around the team has not aligned with a squad led by an elite quarterback who is desperately trying to return to the Super Bowl. Beyond roster construction, particularly on defense, coach Zac Taylor has been a source of frustration for underachieving campaigns and some questionable late-game execution. If the Bengals have another substandard season, one national media talking head thinks the Bengals should part ways with Taylor and target a college football icon. In a recent episode of "The Herd," Nick Wright suggested Nick Saban should come out of retirement to take the headset in Cincinnati. "I think Nick Saban could be an interesting idea for Cincinnati," Wright said. "He has to coach up the defense and have someone to have as big a voice as Mike Brown. Let Joe and Ja'Marr handle the offense. If I'm Nick Saban and want to do this, I'm interested in having a contender immediately." Wright alluded to the fact that Saban still clearly has an elite football mind and has a sharp attention to detail, likely referring to his stellar work on ESPN's "College Gameday." Saban was just 15-17 as a head coach in the NFL during his brief stint with the Miami Dolphins two decades ago and could have a desire to prove he can succeed at the next level. At 73, the question is whether he wants the stress of running a professional organization when he could just continue his career as a beloved television analyst. If Saban wants a job, he's getting it.
Yahoo
17 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Oregon's Dan Lanning has his own idea to fix the College Football Playoff: Get rid of byes
LAS VEGAS — There's a lot going on in college football these days. There's a disagreement over the College Football Playoff format, debate over athlete compensation rules and uncertainty on the future of the transfer portal. But if Dan Lanning could change one thing, it wouldn't be associated with any of that. 'College football season should end Jan. 1,' the Oregon head coach told Yahoo Sports in an interview from Big Ten media days on Wednesday. 'That solves a lot of the problems that exist.' Shifting up the college football season — long a discussion point among college administrators — would result in what Lanning says will be a more condensed playoff, one spread across five weeks instead of seven, and one that does not, he said emphatically, include long byes for teams. After last season, he's done with those. His No. 1-seeded Ducks had 25 days off before a 41-21 loss to eighth-seeded Ohio State in the quarterfinals. 'All four teams that had a bye lost. There's something to that,' Lanning said. Lanning and three Oregon players spun through Day 2 of the three-day Big Ten football media days here on Wednesday as the defending conference champions and a team predicted to finish toward the top of the league again this year despite a host of departures and plenty of new faces (Oregon had 10 players drafted, including veteran quarterback Dillon Gabriel). [Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season] The Gabriel-led 2024 version of the Ducks romped through last season undefeated, beating Ohio State in a thriller at home and knocking off Penn State in the conference title bout. And then, in a stunning display at the Rose Bowl, they fell behind 34-0 to the Buckeyes in the rematch. While Ohio State was an 'unbelievable team,' Lanning said, it's pretty clear what happened. One team had a month off and the other had played the weekend before in the first round of the playoffs. Perhaps long, extended off time isn't such a positive. 'You saw a team that wasn't resting and a team that was,' Lanning said. 'In the second half, we were a much different team, but it was too much to overcome. So if there's anything that I would change, it's playing these games faster and sooner. College football belongs on Saturday, not the NFL.' Lanning's shot toward the NFL is a reminder of the growing animosity between those in college sports and the NFL, which continues to encroach on days traditionally reserved for college football. He's far from alone in this. The NFL began long ago playing games on Thursdays, normally exclusively for college football. Two years ago, they started to play on Black Friday, too. And starting the third Saturday in December, the league plays games on Saturdays in what's become a complication for college's new, expanded playoff. In fact, the two of the four first-round games competed with NFL games last December and both semifinals in January were scheduled on weekdays to avoid a head-to-head with NFL weekend playoff games. 'Look at Major League Baseball,' Maryland head coach Mike Locksley said. 'They spend $900 million on minor league baseball as a development league. The NFL is getting us for free. When I grew up, Thursday night used to be college football. Now it's two NFL games.' But back to Lanning. His idea of moving up college football's playing season is a long-discussed issue that may solve, as he says, several matters. Ideally, he believes college football should turn Week Zero into Week 1, shifting up the entire season by a week (conference championship games would presumably move to Thanksgiving weekend). The playoff could begin on the first or second weekend of December, the national semifinals would fall on New Year's Day and the championship game would be back in early January instead of Jan. 20 as it was last year (it's Jan. 19 this season). Conceivably, the first two rounds of the playoffs could be unencumbered — without competition from NFL games. And the postseason will mostly be completed by the time the new, single transfer portal period is established (the expectation for that is early to mid-January). 'It solves a lot, whether it's the portal being open during the season or what,' Lanning says. 'I just wish we played a similar playoff to every other model that exists in every other sport where you play every Saturday and you get knocked out. There might be byes, but it's not going to be more than 14 days off as opposed to what we had this past season.' Not long ago, College Football Playoff leaders seriously discussed the prospect of shifting up by a week the entire regular season. In fact, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said two years ago that a Week Zero shift should be considered. 'I don't know that anybody's ready to say we can't do it or we can do it,' he said then. However, since Phillips uttered those words, conversations around the prospect have faded. College leaders begrudgingly made the decision to take on the NFL head-to-head with those two first-round playoff games in December. These weren't just any ho-hum NFL games. The 1 p.m. kickoff, on NBC, was the Texans versus the then two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs and quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The 4:30 p.m. kickoff, on Fox, was one of the most attractive division rivalries of the last 20 years: Steelers vs. Ravens. 'They purposely scheduled aggressively against us,' one college football executive told Yahoo Sports then. But moving up the entire season is no easy task. There are long-term game contracts that would need adjusting, such as with venues for conference championship games. Normally played on the first weekend of December, title games would kick off Thanksgiving weekend to allow for, at the very least, an agreed-upon 12-day period between the final league title game and the first playoff game. There are plenty more hurdles, like convincing your primary network partner to go along with this. Over the last two years, ESPN executives have expressed to some CFP leaders their concern over how such a move would impact television windows around the holidays. More than 50 FBS games are played during the Thanksgiving week, many of them drama-filled rivalry meetings, like Auburn-Alabama, Michigan-Ohio State and Florida State-Florida. These are rating giants on a holiday week, generating eye-popping figures. If the schedule is shifted up, Thanksgiving week would feature just nine games, and while all of them are conference championships, five of those involve only Group of Five programs. That's not to mention the shifting of the traditional opening weekend, also built around a holiday (Labor Day). However, during Division I conference commissioner meetings last month in Asheville, North Carolina, administrators re-examined making Week Zero a permanent playing date for college football teams, but without moving up the entire season. It would provide an additional bye week for teams. For now, schools wanting to play on Week Zero must be granted a waiver by NCAA governance committees. Lanning would love to see that end, and for Week Zero to become Week 1, no more playoff byes and a postseason that ends before mid-January. 'If anyone ever asks me what's the one thing I could change in college football,' he said, 'it's always that.'
