Toledo, Conference Realignment, Florida, and More!

CFB Roundup – July 24, 2024

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4-Star WR Kamren Flowers Commits to Toledo

4-Star WR Kamren Flowers committed yesterday to Toledo over Wisconsin, Michigan State, Penn State, Miami, and others.

The WR from Ann Arbor, MI becomes the 3rd highest rated recruit in school history in the 247Sports era, and is the highest rated recruit for Toledo since 2012.

Flowers is rated as a 4-star by ESPN and is considered by ESPN to be the 38th WR in the country. He is ranked as the 367th nationally ranked prospect and 57th ranked WR according to the On3 industry composite rankings.

This is Toledo’s 15th commitment for a 2025 class which ranks 70th and 1st in the MAC.

Big Ten Commissioner: We’re Comfortable Not Expanding For Now

At Big Ten Media Days, Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti did not outright rule out expansion, but he shared that he’s comfortable with the Big Ten being where it is and not expanding beyond the 18 teams it currently has.

For Petitti, the fit adding the 4 schools the Big Ten did made sense, and now the Big Ten feels like it’s positioned in the right direction moving forward.

“I think we’re really comfortable where we are. We’ve got to get this conference right and that’s what our focus is.”

Several Defendants in Jaden Rashada’s Suit Filed Motions to Dismiss

Former Florida staffer Marcus Castro-Walker, Florida booster Hugh Hathcock, and Florida Head Coach Billy Napier have all filed motions to dismiss in the lawsuit which Jaden Rashada filed against all of them.

The lawsuit centers around Rashada relying on the promise of the 4-year, $13.85M contract with Florida’s NIL collective which was later voided.

Napier’s motion to dismiss argues that there is nothing in the complaint which supports that any potential wrongdoing involved Napier.

The timing referenced in the complaint is especially important, as Rashada’s abandoning of Miami’s alleged $9.5 million deal for Florida’s supposedly more lucrative offer was more than a month before Napier apparently became involved according to the complaint.

Wisconsin Promoting 24-Year-Old Max Stienecker to General Manager

Stienecker has been the Director of Player Personnel for Luke Fickell’s teams dating back to their time at Cincinnati together.

Stienecker is viewed as one of the fastest rising starts in college football as he’s expected to be the youngest GM in the Power 4, and possibly at any level of college football.

Rose Bowl Optimistic of Keeping Traditional Jan. 1 Date

The Rose Bowl has historically been on January 1st or January 2nd, with the National Championship between Texas and USC being the most recent time it did not fall on one of those two dates.

With College Football Playoff expansion potentially threatening that, the Rose Bowl is optimistic that it can retain the time slot it so highly values.

When the College Football Playoff expanded to 4 teams, the Rose Bowl reportedly kept its foot down on playing on January 1st regardless of if it was a playoff game that season or not.

Ryan Day on Ohio State’s CFP Aspirations

Ohio State’s Ryan Day is not shying away from the high expectations he (and most of the rest of the country) is placing on the Buckeyes – win the National Championship.

Day said that there’s a great opportunity for Ohio State this year and great excitement around the program. Day pointed out that there were 10 to 12 guys who could have gone to the NFL but came back to Ohio State, and they did not come back just to play, they came back to win.

Big Ten Commissioner Anticipates House Settlement To Be Filed This Week

Tony Petitti and the Big Ten are anticipating the settlement to the House case to officially be submitted this week. The settlement pays $2.77B in damages to athletes over 10 years. The other portion of the settlement is agreeing to revenue sharing, which allows institutions to pay athletes $20-22M annually.

One of the biggest concerns from an administrative perspective is that with a ceiling comes the need for some sort of reporting system and assurance no schools are going over what will essentially function as a salary cap. This also means there will need to be some sort of understanding on what enforcement looks like, not to mention the possibility of antitrust or collective bargaining concerns that come with an artificial salary cap.

Ohio State’s Ryan Day Updates QB Competition

With fall camp coming up, Ohio State’s Ryan Day updated where things stand in the QB competition for the Buckeyes. The understanding from the outside was that Will Howard and Devin Brown had a slight lead on Lincoln Kienholz, Julian Sayin, and Air Noland.

Day shared at Big Ten Media Days that Brown and Kienholz were the only ones who had spent any time in the system, so Howard, Sayin, and Noland were playing catchup. Now, everyone is starting to get a feel for the offense and within the first two weeks of the season, Day expects to know who his starting QB is for the season.

Michigan’s Sherrone Moore: I plan on being here a long time

Michigan’s Coach Sherrone Moore recently shared that he has a goal to win at Michigan and coach there for a long time.

“I want to win a lot of games. I want to win a lot of football games, win a lot of championships, and there’s gonna be some adversity at some point. So, I asked the fans the people around us to support our players because nobody wants to win more than they do, but our job is to win and they want to continue to do that a high level,” Moore said.

The biggest difference as the head man, Moore said, is that he’s now having to manage the organization on a daily basis, rather than focusing so much on football all the time. It’s about keeping the alignment and process the same for everyone, he said.

SMU QB Preston Stone: SMU is Entering ACC Guns Ablazing

SMU QB Preston Stone shared at ACC Media Days that he thinks SMU fits in well to the culture and talent of the ACC, and that SMU plans to enter the conference “guns ablazing.”

Stone sees the SMU roster as having “a great culture of guys that have that selfless mentality of we’re going to step up to the plate and play for each other each Saturday.”

Other Commitments/Decommitments

3-Star ATH Trey Glasper commits to Oregon State.