Author: nfltalk

  • Power Four schools could face expulsion from conferences if they don’t sign binding contract, per report

    Power Four schools could face expulsion from conferences if they don’t sign binding contract, per report

    Leaders from the Power Four conferences are circulating a binding document that would radically transform rules enforcement in college football, according to Yahoo Sports. 

    The contract would create the College Sports Commission, a new entity geared toward rules enforcement. Power Four schools would be required to sign the contract or risk being expelled from their leagues and having member schools refuse to play games against them. Additionally, it would limit the ability for schools to sue over enforcement decisions, radically transforming the outlook of the new era of college athletics. 

    If the document is signed, it would create legitimate enforcement power that would put an end to the largely unregulated market that exists in the present environment. Notably, it would make schools subject to decisions by an NIL clearinghouse, which would judge whether outside NIL contracts represent true “market value.” It would also ensure that all power conference schools fully comply with the upcoming House v. NCAA lawsuit settlement, which is expected to be finalized in the coming days and will allow direct pay-for-play for the first time in history. 

    CEO to oversee college sports rules enforcement after House v. NCAA settlement is finalized, per report

    Carter Bahns

    The potential agreement comes in the wake of a wave of legal complications at the state level. Multiple states have considered legislation that would prevent the settlement from being legally enforceable in their states. Notably, Tennessee passed a law last week that would…

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  • Bears rookie Luther Burden III bemoans NFL Draft slide, says teams ‘gotta pay’ for passing on him

    Bears rookie Luther Burden III bemoans NFL Draft slide, says teams ‘gotta pay’ for passing on him

    Luther Burden III spent the final year of his college football career as a projected first-round NFL Draft pick. Even after his production tumbled in his final season at Missouri, the 2023 All-American wide receiver still figured to be a Day 1 selection. Instead, Burden slipped out of the first round and the Chicago Bears scooped him up with the No. 39 overall pick. The underwhelming result did not sit well with Burden, he said after the draft.

    Four wide receivers flew off the board before Burden. Tetairoa McMillan, Emeka Egbuka and Matthew Golden each heard their names called in the first round, while Jayden Higgins preceded the former SEC standout in the second round. In turn, Burden had a message for the teams that looked elsewhere for a rookie pass-catcher.

    “That’s staying with me forever,” Burden said. “Everybody who passed up on me gotta pay.”

    Although his draft position came as a disappointment, Burden has a chance to become one of the faces of an exciting, young Bears offensive core. He links up with second-year quarterback Caleb Williams as a potential catalyst for a unit that ranked 31st in the NFL last season in passing yards.

    “I feel like he’s a great quarterback,” Burden said last month of Williams. “I feel like great quarterbacks need great receivers. So, perfect fit.”

    The Bears boast a crowded receiving corps with DJ Moore and Rome Odunze back for the 2025 season. Burden will contend with that tandem for targets in a new system, which first-year coach Ben Johnson brings with him from the Detroit Lions. The former offensive coordinator orchestrated the highest-scoring unit in the NFL last season and unleashed an explosive aerial attack, which torched defenses for just shy of 4,500 passing yards.

    Burden was an immediate impact addition to the Missouri roster in 2022 after he moved up to college as a five-star recruit from the high school ranks. It was not until the…

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  • Jaguars plan to practice with Dolphins this summer

    Jaguars plan to practice with Dolphins this summer

    Jaguars head coach Liam Coen shared some information about the team’s training camp plans during a Monday press conference.

    Coen was asked if the team is going to have any joint practices as they prepare for the 2025 season. Coen said that the team will work with the Dolphins before the two teams face off in Miami during the final week of the preseason.

    “One as of right now,” Coen said. “Miami.”

    The Jaguars will host the Steelers on August 9 in their preseason opener and they will travel to New Orleans to play the Saints on August 17. The game against the Dolphins is set for August 23.

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  • UNC basketball program watches five-star prospect Toni Bryant

    UNC basketball program watches five-star prospect Toni Bryant

    The UNC basketball program watched a few different prospects over the weekend

    2026 5⭐️ Toni Bryant had the following schools into watch him this weekend, source told @LeagueRDY:

    Missouri (head coach)
    LSU (head coach)
    Miami (head coach)
    Kansas State (head coach)
    Kentucky
    Cal
    USF
    Kansas
    North Carolina
    Duke
    NC State
    Ole Miss
    Ohio State
    Texas
    Gonzaga… pic.twitter.com/Wf8lONvCAJ

    — Sam Kayser (@247HSHoops) May 18, 2025

    This past weekend was a big one in the evaluation period in college basketball as the AAU circuit ramped back up.

    For the North Carolina Tar Heels, they were busy on the recruiting trail. We saw Hubert Davis keep an eye on a pair of 2027 recruits on Friday and now we know UNC was in to watch another top prospect in the 2026 class.

    The Tar Heels were among a lot of teams that were watching five-star recruit Toni Bryant on the AAU circuit this past weekend. Among those teams that were watching Bryant were blue bloods Duke, Kansas, and Kentucky as well as programs like Purdue, NC State, Arizona, Ohio State, Texas, LSU, Kansas State, and Miami.

    Bryant has a total of 21 offers in his recruitment, including one from North Carolina back in February. His recruitment is starting to pick up as the AAU circuit rolls on and he will have heavy interest from a lot of other programs as we move on.

    The 6-foot-9, 215-pound Bryant is ranked No. 10 nationally, the No. 3 power forward and the No. 1 player in the state of Florida per the 247Sports recruiting class.

    Follow us @TarHeelsWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.

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  • Cowboys hit with bizarre scheduling quirk that NFL has never seen before, plus 21 other 2025 schedule oddities

    Cowboys hit with bizarre scheduling quirk that NFL has never seen before, plus 21 other 2025 schedule oddities

    Getty Images

    There are always some crazy quirks when it comes to the NFL schedule, and this year is no different. Although the league office does its best to make all 32 teams happy, the fact of the matter is that making everyone happy just isn’t possible when you’re putting together a schedule that consists of 272 games. 

    Some teams will be happy about the quirks on their schedule while plenty of other teams won’t be. 

    So who got the craziest quirks? That’s a great question. Let’s find out. 

    Here are 22 of the weirdest quirks on the 2025 NFL schedule, starting with the Dallas Cowboys, who got hit with two quirks that the NFL has never seen before.

    Cowboys hit with most brutal stretch ever. Someone in the NFL scheduling department must have wanted to see the Cowboys suffer this season, because they got handed a brutal stretch that will go on for SIX WEEKS. Starting in Week 12, the Cowboys will face the Eagles, Chiefs, Lions and Vikings in consecutive games, which will make Dallas the FIRST team in NFL history to play four straight games against teams that all won at least 14 games in the prior season. The Cowboys will also face the Chargers and Commanders in that stretch, so they’ll also become the first team in NFL history to play six straight games against teams that all won at least 11 games in the prior season. Basically, the Cowboys have a nightmare schedule.  Thirsty Thursday. It’s starting to seem like the NFL is trying to permanently move every Cowboys game to a Thursday. Dallas has a total of four Thursday games this year, which is the NFL record for most Thursday games in one season. The action starts in Week 1 against Philadelphia. After that, the Cowboys have a Thanksgiving game against the Chiefs, a Week 14…..

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  • First 12-team College Football Playoff delivered massive success, but flawed seeding model must be addressed

    First 12-team College Football Playoff delivered massive success, but flawed seeding model must be addressed

    When the 12-team College Football Playoff format was revealed nearly four years ago, there were plenty of detractors. Could the FBS really produce more than four true national title contenders? Would it devalue the regular season? Can the sport deliver a consistently compelling postseason product?

    After an exciting super-sized season of college football, the answer is a resounding yes. Ohio State battled back from a devastating loss to Michigan to produce one of the most impressive four-game runs in college football history. The championship game against Notre Dame went down to the wire and legends were born.

    Neither Ohio State nor Notre Dame would have even made the four-team playoff under the previous rules. Instead, the pair combined to beat every other member of the top eight head-to-head and plow their way to an undisputed national title game that was decided on the field.

    And even among the teams that didn’t contend for a championship, returns were incredible. SMU, Tennessee, Boise State and Indiana all elevated themselves after earning trips to the CFP. Arizona State cemented itself as a rising program by taking Texas to double-overtime. Even teams like South Carolina and BYU benefitted from major chatter during breakout seasons. In a four-team playoff world, all those teasm would have been deemed irrelevant down the stretch. Instead, America got a good, hard look at around two-dozen playoff contenders.

    Granted, Ohio State and Notre Dame were hardly plucky underdogs despite entering the field as the 7- and 8-seeds. 

    “The only CFP Cinderella you’ll ever get is a Goliath being given a third chance posing as a lower seed,” As CBS Sports’s Josh Pate wrote in a social media post after the game. 

    In terms of winning a national…

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  • Rivals Camp Series: Position MVPs from Atlanta

    Rivals Camp Series: Position MVPs from Atlanta

    RIVERDALE, Ga. — The Rivals Camp Series made its annual stop in Atlanta on Sunday and many top prospects put together impressive performances. Here is a breakdown of the MVPs from the event:

    MORE FROM ATLANTA: Top performers from Saturday’s Rivals Combine Series event

    CLASS OF 2025 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Team | Position | State

    CLASS OF 2026 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Team | Position | State

    CLASS OF 2027 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Team | Position | State

    TRANSFER PORTAL: Full coverage | Player ranking | Team ranking | Transfer search | Transfer Tracker

    QUARTERBACK: Jayce Johnson

    Johnson captured MVP honors in a stacked field of passers from the Southeast competing in Atlanta. Johnson throws with torque and is extremely accurate — throwing short and intermediate passes and also attacking downfield. The four-star prospect layered throws and was able to balance his touch with his fastball, and was consistently placing the ball anywhere he wanted on the field Sunday.

    RUNNING BACK: Andrew Beard

    Beard upped his stock in a big way by earning MVP honors on Sunday. Beard was exceptional catching the football out of the backfield and was routing up opposing linebackers, who struggled to keep pace with speed and quick cuts. The four-star prospect is a three-down playmaker and proved as much in Sunday’s camp setting.

    RECEIVER/TIGHT END: Kaiden Prothro

    Prothro was nearly unguardable and won MVP in a highly-competitive field of pass-catchers. The four-star standout has elite hands and is a mismatch working outside the numbers and also in the middle of the field. We love his catch radius, his ability to play above the rim and the competitiveness to win on contested balls and dominate in the red zone.

    OFFENSIVE LINE: Gabriel Osenda

    Osenda saw reps on both the left and right tackle spots and was equally as dynamic in both spots. At 330 pounds, the Tennessee verbal played with excellent bend and feet, used leverage and finished at the end of reps. Osenda has made drastic leaps and bounds with his…

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  • 2025 NFL schedule: Top game for every week of regular season, from juiced opener to Jayden vs. Caleb Part 2

    2025 NFL schedule: Top game for every week of regular season, from juiced opener to Jayden vs. Caleb Part 2

    The path has been laid forward by the NFL this week after unveiling the entire regular season schedule for 2025. While various nuggets about the schedule leaked out leading up to Wednesday’s release, it is still an avalanche of information that comes across the wire. With that in mind, it’s understandably hard to digest each and every facet of an 18-week schedule, but we’re here to help ensure you don’t miss out on some of the more notable contests on the docket. 

    While there are going to be more than one game that’ll garner national attention in a given week, we’ve combed through each week’s slate and identified one contest in particular that stands out above the rest. Of course, because we’re looking for the top games each week, there will be a lot of teams rearing their heads multiple times, like the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs. That said, when the slate is a bit more muddled, we’ll try to bring other games to the forefront. 

    Let’s dive into the games that you should have circled each week this season. 

    Week 1: Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles

    Thursday, Sept. 4, 8:20 p.m. ET (NBC)

    This one is pretty obvious. Sure, the opening Week 1 slate is loaded with high-profile games (like Baltimore vs. Buffalo on “Sunday Night Football”), but the opener has the juice. Philadelphia is set to unveil its latest Super Bowl championship banner and begin its title defense. First up to challenge them will be the Dallas Cowboys, who’ll be led by first-year head coach Brian Schottenheimer. Dak Prescott will also be making his return after last year’s season-ending injury and will have a new weapon in George Pickens, so there is no shortage of storylines here. 

    Week 2: Philadelphia Eagles at Kansas City Chiefs

    Sunday, Sept. 14, 4:25 p.m. ET (Fox)

    We don’t have to wait long into the season to get a Super Bowl LIX rematch. After coming up just short of a three-peat and being shellacked in the…

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