College Football

A number of commissioners, head coaches and athletic directors from the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12 and ACC all met with members of Congress on Wednesday to "lobby for federal NIL guidelines," according to ESPN's Heather Dinich.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken said she wanted the potentially landmark House vs. NCAA settlement to be reworked before she approves it. If or when approved, the settlement would allow colleges to directly make NIL payments to athletes, alongside approving $2.8 billion in damages that former and current athletes have sought from the NCAA.

College athletics have already been changed drastically by the addition of NIL and the transfer portal. Schools being allowed to directly pay the athletes via NIL packages would be another enormous change to college athletics.

According to Steve Berkowitz of USA Today, Wilken has concerns about aspects of the settlement, such as team-by-team roster limits, putting in place a review system for NIL deals worth over $600 from non-school entities, and the due process for future athletes who weren't a part of drawing up the current settlement (which is set to last for 10 years).

Lawyers on both sides of the settlement are expected to report back to Wilken in a week with alterations to the agreement.

"We're kind of in a seminal moment," ACC commissioner Jim Phillips told reporters on Wednesday. "We're trying to find something that has sustainability to it. It's a modernization of college sports. I think for all of us, we are passionate about access and affordability to higher education... at the heart of this thing is opportunities for young men and women. Times have changed, and whether we like all the things that have occurred, or we don't, we find ourselves in a position where we are major stewards of the future of college sports."

Alongside Phillips, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark were in Washington D.C. on Wednesday. Auburn men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl and Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian also were in attendance.

"We've been here repeatedly," Sankey said of the commissioners. "The reality is the timing of the House settlement, the new Congress and when we planned really months ago to be here, there was a nexus of issues. We know there's conversations taking place. We've educated, I think, effectively members of the House and Senate, and we need to keep pushing and to do that with our universities is much healthier than simply doing that as commissioners and doing so in a coordinated way across the four conferences."

Bill Belichick is back on the sidelines after a year away from coaching in 2024.

But rather than coaching a team full of NFL players, Belichick is coaching at the college level for the first time in his career. The legendary coach is in the midst of his first spring practice at North Carolina, and the team dropped some of his best mic'd up moments on Wednesday:

It seems like Belichick is more than comfortable in Chapel Hill, and he'll look to have a winning team ready by the time the season rolls around.

The Tar Heels are coming off a 6-7 season that saw them part ways with Mack Brown, who was at the helm for six seasons. North Carolina has never been known for its success on the football field—the Tar Heels have had just one season with 10 or more wins this century—but Belichick will try to change that tradition.

While he has no prior collegiate coaching experience, his six Super Bowl rings as Patriots head coach mean he should have a good chance of finding success at the college level.

Jordan Hudson revealed on Instagram that she will be competing in the Miss Maine USA pageant, representing her hometown of Hancock.

Hudson is the girlfriend of UNC football head coach Bill Belichick, who won eight Super Bowls (two as the New York Giants' defensive coordinator, six more as the New England Patriots' head coach) during his 49-year stint in the NFL (1975-2023). After a year away, Belichick is now heading to college.

Hudson and Belichick previously met on a Feb. 2021 flight from Boston to Florida. TMZ reported that they were dating in June 2024.

Hudson previously earned first runner-up honors at Miss Maine 2024. She'll now look to take the crown at the main event, which will take place on May 10-11 in Portland.

Auburn head football coach Hugh Freeze provided an update Tuesday on the prostate cancer diagnosis he received back in February.

According to ESPN's Chris Low, Freeze said doctors told him the cancer is "low aggressive," which prompted him to decide to undergo treatment rather than immediately having surgery.

"I'm only 55. We're a family of faith, and I just didn't feel like it was time to rush into surgery," Freeze said. "I'm at peace with it."

Freeze's plan is to be re-examined in January 2026, at which point surgery could be back on the table as an option if treatment proves ineffective.

Coming off his second season at Auburn, Freeze is focused on trying to get the Tigers back on track.

Auburn has now finished with a losing record in four straight seasons, including a 5-7 mark last season and a 6-7 record in Freeze's first year at the helm in 2023.

The last time Auburn had four or more losing seasons in a row was when they had five straight from 1946 to 1950.

Auburn also hasn't had a 10-win season since 2017, which suggests the program has fallen well behind other top schools in the SEC such as Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, LSU and rival Alabama.

While early returns haven't been great, there is still reason to believe Freeze is the right man for the job at Auburn.

Freeze was a winner at every one of his head coaching stops before Auburn, going 10-3 in one season at Arkansas State, 39-25 in five seasons at Ole Miss and 34-15 in four seasons at Liberty.

Each of Arkansas State, Ole Miss and Liberty had a record of .500 or worse the season before Freeze took over, and they all had winning records in his first season with the school.

Despite the lack of results thus far at Auburn, Freeze told Low that he doesn't feel "any sense of panic," and believes the Tigers are "on our way to getting where we want to be and where we should be."