The Bible tells us that Moses came down from Mount Sinai with two tablets inscribed by the hand of God with what we know as The Ten Commandments. These 10 rules have formed the foundation for laws designed to keep societies safe and orderly for more than 5,000 years. The NCAA has laws designed to keep college football safe and orderly, too. They haven’t been around 5,000 years but for however long they’ve been in place, they aren’t working very well. What we have now is more than just failure to communicate. It’s utter chaos and until someone comes up with a new set of rules or a brand new organization, the chaos will only get worse. We aren’t that far from widespread panic because the NCAA has clearly lost its grip and no one trusts the organization to come up with a plan to get everyone on the same page with a sense of this is the way it’s supposed to be done. Oh, there are meetings going on left and right – one in Scottsdale, Arizona this week, for example – with everyone pitching in with some sort of proposal but good ideas are worthless unless a leader emerges to blaze a path out of the wilderness so the football playing schools can thrive in an all-new promised land. The Bible tells us that it took Moses 40 years to lead his people out of the wilderness to the promised land that was flowing with milk and honey. College football isn’t that lucky. If it takes 40 years to come up with a plan to fundamentally change the game for the better, the sport will have died and been left for dead in the desert. What college football needs in the worst way is for a new leader, a new organization and new rules. Now. Not later. Rather than Ten Commandments to bring order and safety to the college football society, here are The Ten Suggestions. Someone may have a better list than these. Someone may even have a more comprehensive list of say 20 or more suggestions to reform college football, but ten is a nice round number and a good place to start. THE TEN SUGGESTIONS 1. FOOTBALL SHOULD SECEDE FROM THE NCAA The NCAA may run a dandy tennis tournament and everybody loves the College World Series, the women’s gymnastics championships and the other big events but it’s pretty clear the organization is clueless when it comes to football. The evidence is in all these nonsensical socialistic one-size-fits-all rules. One size doesn’t fit all. The haves have and the have nots have not. The NCAA can’t seem to get that through its rather thick skull. There is also the matter of selective enforcement. We see how the NCAA will turn a blind eye to potential issues with Duke basketball or how they will overlook a mountain of evidence against North Carolina basketball, yet they will crush a non-blueblood. The same holds true with football. The 1984 case against Florida and Charley Pell is a perfect example that Gator fans can relate to. Rules were broken at Florida, but what was going on at Florida paled in comparison to what was going on at other SEC schools. The NCAA decided to make Florida a poster child for enforcement with some of the most severe sanctions in history while handing out the equivalent of parking tickets to bluebloods that were doing things 100 times worse. Just recently, the NCAA gave show cause to Nebraska coach Scott Frost for a pair of Level II violations. Parking tickets. Scott Frost got show cause for a couple of parking tickets because it wanted to nail Frost and Nebraska but didn’t have enough evidence. So, it hit Frost with penalties far more severe than the violations demanded because its investigators were either too lazy or too incompetent or – perish the thought – there wasn’t any more evidence to be had. What this tells us is we cannot allow the NCAA – in the name of reform – to come up with a new set of rules for football. No way. Ditch the NCAA completely. Secede. Form a brand new organization led by a commissioner who has the kind of power the NFL gave Pete Rozelle, the greatest commissioner in the history of sports. Tell the new commissioner to rule with an iron hand but do it fairly. Come up with a new common sense rule book that doesn’t require each school to have a compliance staff of a half dozen or so lawyers to determine what’s legal and what isn’t. Make the penalties for breaking the rules harsh. No blueblood exceptions. We can’t have a situation that causes a modern day Jerry Tarkanian to say, “The commish is so pissed off at Georgia that he’s giving Wake Forest two more years of probation.” The consequences of breaking the rules should be severe but fair. Even then, we know that some will still try to skirt the rules, but when they are caught, make sure the school and the coach responsible feel the pain for a long, long time. Not every school is going to have the same athletic budget or the same ability to raise money, but there can be an expanded College Football Playoff that double or even triples what the current CFP contract with ESPN pays out. Make sure there is an equitable distribution of the playoff money. The playoffs and the money they generate could also be the best way to deal with cheaters. Cheat and you get a 5-year ban on participating in the playoffs or getting a share of playoff revenue. Maybe the football schools would be happy to allow a “reformed” NCAA to handle all the other sports for which there are championships, but football has to go its own way. We cannot allow the NCAA to continue to have its fingerprints on anything remotely involved with college football. They’ve had decades to do keep up with the times and they’ve done absolutely nothing except keep college football wandering in the desert. 2. REDUCE MEMBERSHIP IN DIVISION I We have a Power Five made up of the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC plus Notre Dame that is about to expand from 65 to 69 teams when BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston join the Big 12. There is plenty of sentiment that the Power Five should have their own division and that they should only play Power Five members. But, is that the wise thing to do? If the Power Five haves of college football eliminate games with the Group of Five have nots, then the financial fallout will be quite a number of schools eliminating football altogether or cutting back on sports programs. Eliminating scholarships is not a good thing, so the Power Five schools will have to keep playing the Group of Five. However, there is a way to make this work out well for everybody concerned. Currently there are 130-plus teams in Division I and that number is expanding because D1AA members like James Madison, Sam Houston State and Jacksonville State have moved up with the promise of a few more D1AA teams joining Division I within another year or so. That’s way too many and basically unsustainable. Division I should be reduced to somewhere between 70-85 schools. You have the 69 that will be members of the Power Five, but you also have schools like San Diego State, Boise State, Army, Navy, Air Force and perhaps a handful of others that are capable of competing with most of the Power Five teams. Some of them could be absorbed into current conferences in the event of expansion. For example, if the Big 12 were to lose Kansas and Iowa State to the Big Ten, that would create an opening for two schools. Perhaps the Pac-12 will choose to expand to 14 teams. Another option might be to create a new conference from schools that belong to the American and Mountain West. Logistically, that might be a nightmare but it could bring in competitive schools and give them a chance to play at the highest level. It’s easy to say that Boise State or Navy could never win a national championship, but adding a few more teams wouldn’t hurt and it would always provide that Cinderella possibility when playoff time rolls around. It’s unlikely that Boise State could win a national championship, but impossible? At least give a chance. 3. CREATE A DIVISION IA AND A NEW DIVISION IAA With the reduction of Division I to perhaps 80-85 teams, there would be perhaps 50 former Division I schools that are certainly incapable of competing at the highest levels, largely because they don’t have the money. There is also at the D1AA level two or three conferences that are consistently better so they could merge to make a Division IA that would be about 80 schools. The new Division IA could have its own national championship which would certainly have an appeal not only to the members, but to recruits. Kids at Sun Belt and MAC schools, for instance, only have the incentive of a minor bowl game that no one watches on TV to entice their players and fans. But give them a national championship to play for? That’s a whole different animal. Do you think for one second that the coaches at Louisiana or Coastal Carolina wouldn’t tout their schools as potential national championship contenders if they were in a division of similar budgeted schools that don’t have Texas A&M-like facilities? Kids who currently are at schools like Toledo or Central Michigan will never have a chance to play for a national championship under the current format, but re-arrange things for a newly-minted Division IA and the recruiting landscape changes and so do fan expectations. Real national championships, by the way, not a phony one like UCF claims from 2017. The Missouri Valley Football Conference is home to North Dakota State, which has won nine of the last 11 D1AA titles. This new division would be a step up for NDSU and the other members of this D1AA powerhouse conference but it would offer a chance to win national titles against better competition. The Colonial Athletic Association and the Big Sky Conference would probably be good fits at this level, too. The new Division IA would be allowed to play paycheck games against the teams in Division I, so they would still have a chance to pick up millions in revenue. The new Division IAA would lose two or three conferences, but for the 80 remaining schools it would certainly be more competitive, so this would be a good move for everyone. 4. FOR DIVISION I, AT LEAST, MAKE FOOTBALL PLAYERS EMPLOYEES University of Miami shooting guard Isaiah Wong is the first NIL holdout because a transfer guard from Kansas State got an $800,000 deal. How long before that happens in college football? How long before we have our first strike when, say, an offensive line decides the QB and the wide receivers are getting all this NIL money and they (the OL) are doing the blocking and heavy lifting? You may think it will never happen, but did you ever think we would be in a situation where players are getting NIL deals worth millions? One thing that might help would be to make players employees and give them a salary with an ironclad contract that assures them they can get raises but can’t have their salary reduced. Sure, they would have to pay taxes, but it’s only a matter of time before the government decides scholarships and all the other benefits athletes get are taxable. Of course this also means a coach can fire players for breaking rules or failing to make minimum academic progress. Contracts can be written in ways to protect players from being randomly fired. A low on the rung tight end who suddenly has a breakout spring and a good season, could get quite a nice raise for the next season. Of course, that same player could be fired as well after failing to make progress after a couple of seasons. There are consequences for everything, but putting players on salary and making them employees has more benefits for everyone involved. 5. AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL, ELIMINATE COUNTERS The American Football Coaches Association recommends that the scholarship rules should be simplified. The NCAA mandates an 85-scholarship limit and 25 scholarships per year. Most coaches don’t have a real problem with the 85 scholarships. It’s the 25 per year that is at issue here because a school that only signed less than 25 the year before can count early enrollees back to the previous signing class. So, a school that signs only 18 in December and February could count seven early-enrollees for the next year and have them count back against the previous year. That would free them up to sign 25 high school, jucos or transfers in December or February. The way this is set up, it is also possible for a school to over-sign on scholarships and then pare down the roster after spring practice or during the summer to get to the 85-limit prior to fall camp opening up in August. Under the AFCA recommendation, a school can sign 40 players in December and January if it wants or needs, but at no time can it exceed 85 on scholarship. This makes sense for a school that, for example, sees a huge exodus after firing a coach in November or after the new coach’s first spring practice. A school that loses 20 seniors and then has 20 transfer out would be short 15 scholarships and at a severe personnel disadvantage, but with this new recommendation as the rule, the coach could sign 40 so that he would have 85 on scholarship. This is one of the truly good common sense rule proposals to come down the pike in a long time. 6. CREATE THREE WINDOWS FOR TRANSFERS Another very good recommendation by the American Football Coaches Association is to create three windows for players to enter into the transfer portal. The way it is right now, a kid can quit on his team and go into the portal during the season. So, first things first, eliminate in-season transfers completely by setting up three windows for kids to enter the portal. The first window would be from December 1 until the December 15 early signing day. The second would be from mid-January until the national signing day the first Wednesday in February. The third and final portal would be from mid-April until May 1. If a kid enters the portal during one of those three windows, he could be eligible to play immediately providing he’s in good academic standing. Kids will still be allowed to transfer out, but they’ll have to sit a year if they transfer outside the three windows. This way teams won’t get broadsided by a kid getting an NIL deal from some other school then leaving a week before fall camp opens or a week before the season opener. NIL deals for kids who have to sit a year are going to be few and far between so having three windows for transferring without sitting will definitely curtail some of the hanky panky that might be going on in the transfer portal. 7. FRESHMEN MUST COMPLETE AN ACADEMIC CALENDAR YEAR TO TRANSFER One of the plagues of the transfer portal is too many freshman impulsively leave after not getting to play in their first semester on campus. A better way to eliminate a good many of the freshman transfers is to make them spend a full academic year at the school they sign with before they can transfer without having to sit a year. Leave before they’ve been on campus from September until May and they have to sit a year. Exceptions only in case of family emergency or hardship. Also, any freshman who transfers who isn’t in good academic standing would be required to sit a year to get academics in order at the new school. 8. SIT OUT A YEAR IF A TRANSFER IS STILL TAKING REMEDIAL COURSES Since so many kids come to college from underperforming high schools, you can’t keep them from being given a chance to play college football if the school is willing to admit them in the first place. We’d probably be overwhelmed at the number of college football players in their first couple of years who are taking remedial courses. There should be a rule in place, however, that any kid still taking remedial classes who wants to transfer out will have to sit a year to focus on academics once he’s at his new location. If colleges and universities are truly serious about preparing kids for life after football, then they have to get them off the remedial courses and into real classes sooner and not later. Kids have to understand that they have to take their academics seriously so there will be no encumbrances if they feel the need to find a better place to play ball. 9. HAVE A REAL SPRING GAME AGAINST A D1AA OPPONENT Spring games are boring because they are glorified scrimmages. They could be and should be revenue events. The way to do that would be to first of all, eliminate games against D1AA teams during the regular season, then schedule a D1AA opponent in the spring. Have a real game. It would be a far better way to evaluate players for what they’ve accomplished during spring practice, and it might be a good way for coaches to scout potential transfers from D1AA as well. Players could get hurt, you might say. They get hurt during practice, far more in practice than in games (72 percent of concussions happen in practice, for example) so the get hurt argument isn’t very strong. In practice, players hold up and don’t hit hard because it’s a teammate or often take it easy on a buddy across the line. In a game like this, coaches could see their players go against someone that isn’t a teammate and get a far better evaluation. He's another example of how this could be a real spring event that fans from all over the state would want to be a part of. Let’s say Florida plays FAMU for the spring game. FAMU not only brings its band but 10,000 fans who want to see the Rattlers go against the mighty Gators plus want to take selfies inside and tailgate outside of one of college football’s iconic stadiums. Florida fans would flock to the game as well to see something other than a glorified scrimmage and to see the FAMU band. Or how about the following year, the Bethune-Cookman band. Are you kidding me? This would be an event, not just a spring game. The D1AA team would get its payday and the loss wouldn’t hurt them on selection Sunday for their playoffs. They wouldn’t have the worry of players getting hurt or discouraged during the season, which could result in a major loss against a D1AA foe the next week. And what if they spring the upset? Well, it won’t count against the Division I team (see Appalachian State over Michigan in 2007 or Georgia Southern over Florida in 2013) if it loses so it wouldn’t hurt in the playoff polls. 10. PUT SOME SORT OF STRUCTURE IN NIL TO PREVENT KIDS FROM SHOPPING AROUND We have a dilemma on our hands with NIL. Coaches, for the most part, believe kids should be able to get some money, but what they don’t like is that they’re selling themselves to the highest bidder. It’s bad enough that they’re doing it when they go into the transfer portal, but worse because now kids are doing it at the high school level when they are being recruited. You aren’t going to eliminate NIL deals. The Supreme Court in its 9-0 decision in NCAA v. Alston made that abundantly clear, but there has to be a way to put some structure and some rules in place that bring some sanity to the process. In the NFL or professional sports, they have strict rules to prevent tampering when a player is on the open market. There are no rules for high school kids or transfers so we have a form of unrestricted free agency that was never intended. Total chaos is the better description and it didn’t have to be that way. Had the NCAA had taken the time to put rules in place, there could be some sanity in the process but that would have meant the NCAA actually did something with a measure of common sense. What we have now is like trying to fly a 747 with only an owner’s manual and no flight lessons. Put some rules in place. Put some teeth into enforcement so that tampering is dealt with swiftly and severely. If there are no consequences like we have now then we have chaos, which we have in abundance. NIL is supposed to stand for Name, Image, Likeness, but since there are no rules in place, we have cheating going on like never before. Paying for players has always been a part of the college football landscape but it used to be against the rules. Now, thanks to NIL, we can say, “Now It’s Legal.” Charley Pell rolls over in his grave at the mere thought of what is going on these days and times.

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: EMORY JONES TRANSFERS TO ARIZONA STATE Former Gator quarterback Emory Jones has found a new home at Arizona State, where he will be the likely replacement for Jayden Daniels, who transferred to LSU. At Arizona State, Emory will find an offense that fits his skill set quite well. Last season Daniels threw for 2,380 yards (7.9 per attempt) and 10 touchdowns (10 interceptions) while running for 710 yards (5.14 per carry) and six touchdowns. Daniels started 29 games in three seasons at ASU. Jones spent three seasons as a backup before getting his chance to be the starter in 2021. In 13 games, Jones threw for 2,734 yards (7.9 per attempt) and 19 touchdowns (13 interceptions) while running for 758 yards (5.3 per carry) and four touchdowns. He finished his Florida career with 3,347 passing yards (7.7 per attempt) and 26 touchdown passes (14 picks) while running for 1,273 yards (5.4 per carry) and 10 touchdowns. Arizona State may turn out to be the best fit that Jones could have found because the offense is so similar to what he ran at Florida and he will be playing in a league that doesn’t have the dominating defenses that he ran into in the Southeastern Conference (only four Pac-12 defenses were ranked ahead of the Gators). Jones is a Georgia native whose closest game to his home state in 2022 will be a September 10 road trip to Oklahoma State. GOLDEN AND THE TRANSFER PORTAL It has been a busy week for Florida basketball coach Todd Golden, who welcomed a pair of transfer portal visitors from St. Bonaventure (Kyle Lofton and Osun Ossiniyi) in the transfer portal and is expected to host one of the top scoring guards in the portal from Missouri State (Isaiah Mosley) in a matter of days. First, the kids from St. Bonaventure. Point guard Kyle Lofton (6-3, 185), who averaged 12.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and a whopping 5.9 assists per game last year and big man Osun Ossiniyi (6-10, 220), who averaged 11.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.9 blocked shots per game, visited the Gators. Both Lofton and Ossinyi played four years at St. Bonaventure and have a COVID year at their disposal. For his career, Lofton has scored 1,613 points (13.9 per game) and has averaged 3.0 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game. He has a 5.2 to 2.4 assist to turnover ratio. Ossinyi has scored 1,100 points while averaging 9.9 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.7 blocked shots per game. He is a career 59.5 percent shooter who has taken three (count ‘em) three-pointers and made one. Total. Arizona, Tennessee, Purdue, Rutgers, and Seton Hall are also in the mix but Florida is thought to be in very good shape here. The Missouri State shooter is Isaiah Mosley (6-5, 201), who averaged 20.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists last year while shooting 50.4 percent overall from the field and 42.7 percent from the 3-point line. He hit 90.2 percent of his free throws and is a career 87.4 percent shooter from the foul line. Mosley, who has two seasons of eligibility remaining, has scored 1,434 points in his career at Mizzou State (15.9 per game) while averaging 5.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. He is a career 49.8 percent shooter and a 41 percent 3-point shooter. Mosley is being recruited by Kansas, Duke, Texas Tech, Mississippi State, Louisville and Texas among others but Florida is thought to be one of his three choices. The Gators remain in good shape for Washington State big man Efo Abogidi (6-10, 225), who averaged 8.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocked shots per game, and San Francisco point guard Khalil Shabazz (6-1, 170), who averaged 13.7 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists for Todd Golden last season. Abogidi is being pursued by Marquette, Texas, Texas A&M, Arizona, Houston and Wake Forest among others. UF BASEBALL: GATORS TRAVEL TO MISSSISSIPPI STATE This might be the oh what might have been series for both the Gators (26-18, 8-13 SEC) and Mississippi State (25-20, 9-12 SEC). Both the Gators and the Bulldogs, last year’s NCAA champs, were expected to be among this season’s elite teams left by veteran aces. Both teams are in a struggle to make the NCAA Tournament, however, in part because Florida lefty Hunter Barco and MSU righthander Landon Sims are on the shelf and facing Tommy John surgery. Pitching will be a major concern for both teams starting tonight when they face off in a critical SEC series in Starkville. The Gators find themselves in fifth place in the SEC East, a game behind South Carolina (23-20, 9-12 SEC) and two behind Vanderbilt (29-14, 10-11 SEC). Mississippi State is tied for fifth with Alabama (25-20, 9-12 SEC) in the SEC West, three games behind Auburn (31-14, 12-9 SEC), Texas A&M (28-15, 12-9 SEC) and LSU (30-14, 12-9 SEC), which are tied for second. Without Barco (5-2, 2.50 ERA, 69 strikeouts in 50-1/3 innings) the already young Florida pitching staff has had to go with sophomore Brandon Sproat (5-4, 4.39 ERA) as its Friday starter with Brandon Neely (2-0, 3.35 ERA) taking over the Saturday slot. As of Thursday, Florida hadn’t named a Sunday starter for the Bulldogs. Sims, the bullpen hero for Mississippi State’s run to the 2021 national championship, had a 1.15 ERA with 27 strikeouts in 15-2/3 innings before he was shut down for the season. The Bulldogs are expected to start Brandon Smith (3-3, 3.75 ERA) Friday, Preston Johnson (3-3, 5.52 ERA) Saturday and Cade Smith (4-2, 4.20 ERA) on Sunday. Florida comes into the game on the heels of an 18-3 non-conference win over South Florida in which the Gators hit six home runs, three by Jud Fabian (.279, 19 HR, 47 RBI). UF SOFTBALL: GATORS HOST A PAIR OF NON-CONFERNCE DOUBLEHEADERS The SEC portion of Florida’s softball schedule is complete so all the Gators (38-14, 13-11 SEC) can do is wait to see where they will be seeded for next week’s SEC Tournament in Gainesville. The Gators could finish as high as third in the final SEC regular season standings or drop to seventh depending on what seven other teams do. In the meantime, the Gators will be hosting a couple of non-conference doubleheaders tonight and Saturday. They face Mercer (24-23) of the Southern Conference at 5 p.m. and Florida Gulf Coast (16-31) of the Atlantic Sun Conference at 7:30 and then Saturday they will close out the regular season with FGC at noon and Mercer at 2:30 p.m. This will likely be a weekend for Tim Walton to get all his pitchers ready for the SEC Tournament. Lexie Delbrey (12-2, 2.27 ERA) definitely needs the work and both Rylee Trlicek (1-1, 2.15 ERA) and Haley Pittman (2-0, 3.71 ERA) could use some innings whether as starters or in relief. Elizabeth Hightower (12-7, 2.51 ERA) will probably get one start and Natalie Lugo (9-4, 2.15 ERA) might be used mostly as a closer. FLORIDA LACROSSE: GATORS PLAY FOR AAC CHAMPIONSHIP The 8th-ranked and top-seeded Gators (14-4) earned their way into the American Athletic Conference championship game with an 18-7 win over 4th-seeded East Carolina (9-9) Thursday behind four goals each by Emma LoPinto and Maggi Hall. Next up for the Gators is 3rd-seeded Vanderbilt (11-6), an 11-10 overtime winner over Temple in the other AAC semifinal. Should the Gators stop Vanderbilt, whom they beat 16-8 during the regular season, it will be their ninth straight conference tournament championship and their third in the AAC. UF TENNIS: MEN/WOMEN HOST NCAA FIRST, SECOND ROUNDS The Florida men’s quest to repeat as NCAA champs begins at 5 p.m. today when the Gators (23-2) take on fourth-seeded New Orleans in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Ring Tennis Complex on campus. Should the Gators win their opening round match, they’ll face the winner of 29th-ranked Miami and 45th-ranked South Florida Saturday at 5 p.m. The Florida women, meanwhile, are the 15th overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and the host of a regional that features South Alabama, Florida State and Florida International. The Gators (19-6) take on South Alabama Saturday at 2 p.m. If they win, they face the FSU-FIU winner at 1 p.m. on Sunday. SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL Alabama: Louisville coach Scott Satterfield has implied that Alabama may have tampered with wide receiver Tyler Hall before landing him as a transfer. “I think it’s not only him, it’s happened before here,” Satterfield said. “Last year we had a few guys that jumped into the portal and the next day they’re announcing where they’re going. You can look at that and know that something went on before they were in the portal.” Auburn: Former Auburn offensive coordinator Al Borges, who directed the offense in 2004 when the Tigers went 13-0 but didn’t have a chance to play for the national championship, thinks Auburn should be given a title that was vacated when Southern Cal went on probation for Reggie Bush. In the national championship game, Southern Cal beat Oklahoma 55-19. Borges said, “Did Reggie Bush’s playing for USC, is that the difference in 55-19, I don’t know. Maybe it is, but I doubt it. So we should be the national champions. I see no rational reason why we shouldn’t be. But you know, my version is a little slanted. To leave the 2004 championship vacated when there should have been, when there is a champion, I think is absurd. But I don’t make that call.” LSU: KJ Williams (6-10, 245), who averaged 18 points and 8.4 rebounds last season for Matt McMahon at Murray State, has followed his old coach to LSU. Missouri: Former Jacksonville State defensive end DJ Coleman (6-6, 245), a second team D1AA All-American, has transferred to Mizzou. He had 55 tackles including 5.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks last season. South Carolina: Jermaine Couisnard, who averaged 12 points, 2.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game last season is transferring to Oregon. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The Athletic is reporting that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff were in Washington Thursday to lobby for Federal legislation to regulate Name, Image and Likeness (NIL). In a Thursday night statement, Sankey said, "As we have observed activity emerge that is very different from original ideas around Name, Image and Likeness, it is important we continue to pursue a national NIL structure to support the thousands of opportunities made available for young people through intercollegiate athletics programs across the country." Translation: This thing is so out of control, the NCAA is absolutely clueless and we’re so desperate that we’ll even turn to Congress for help. Just how bad is it? One athletic director told Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, “We all know what is going on at some places, and it’s now the wild, Wild West. It’s out of control, and it’s been getting dramatically worse by the week, by the day, it seems.” One Power Five head coach told Feldman, “Do we really want to get into this world where we’re gonna induce kids that are 16 or 17 or 19 to choose their program and leave their high school or their college for what turns out to be a donor’s dollar?” What we have here is what the Brits would call a sticky wicket. On one hand, coaches aren’t exactly upset if one of their collectives offers a kid a deal that brings him to their school. They might truly believe that NIL is out of control, but they aren’t going to complain when NIL gets them their guy. They are, however, completely upset and it is totally out of control when that same kid gets a better deal to go somewhere else. We do need some rules and some regulations to deal with NIL for a host of reasons, among them how many 17 or 18-year-old kids are really equipped to make a decision that involves more money than he has ever seen and also because there is no way to be sure the kid is the one who is really going to benefit from the big deal. For now, however, we have a mess that is only going to get worse until someone comes up with answers that nobody seems to have at the moment.

Along with the transfers, two new coaching hires should also help in the growth and development of the Gators Women’s Basketball program. By LOREN MEADOWS GatorBaitMedia.com As the recruiting dead period begins for Women’s Basketball and #Kellys Kicks take a break from the trail, Gators Women’s Head Coach Kelli Rae Finley has already solidified her program with three transfers and two new assistant coaches. Two of the transfers, Leilani Correa and Ra Shaya Kyle, bring blue-chip level talent and depth, as well as scoring to the wing and post positions. The third transfer, KK Dean, will bring a physical presence to both guard positions. With these additions, the Florida Gators could feature a rotation that could go as many as 11 or 12 players deep as they enter conference play for the ‘22-‘23 season. A closer look at each transfer reveals what each could bring to the court. Ra Shaya Kyle (Jr., Purdue)--Standing 6-6, Kyle is a former Five-Star recruit from Marion, IN. Kyle, who had a modest campaign as a freshman, had doubled her scoring output during the early part of her sophomore season. Unfortunately a lower leg injury would sideline her eight games into the ‘21-‘22 season. When healthy, Kyle is an athletic post player with nice touch around the basket. She is active in the low post and gives guards a favorable target in half court sets and compliment to the versatility of Jordyn Merritt and the defense and rebounding Faith Dut. Lielani Correa (Sr., St. Johns)--Correa is the most decorated of the three transfers, with two All-Big East First Team selections as part of her resume. A former Five-Star recruit from Manchester, NJ, Correa has career averages of 15.7 points per game with five rebounds on 41 percent shooting. A slashing dribbler who can score from both sides of the floor, Correa is a quick-off-the-bounce shooter from the mid-range and three-point line. Averaging less than two fouls per game for her career will also allow Correa to be available late in games as she should be called upon to take on the role established by former Gator and WNBA selection Kiki Smith. Look for Florida to have one of the most efficient and exciting backcourts in the SEC as Correa is paired in the three-guard lineup alongside Zippy Broughton and Nina Rickards. KK Deans (Sr., West Virginia)-- Deans was All Big 12 Honorable Mention for three seasons as a Mountaineer. Deans is a downhill ball-handler with the strength and size to finish with contact at the rim. The ability to penetrate is complemented by a 34.8 percent 3-point percentage while an 82.5 percent career free throw percentage allows Deans to be an asset late in games as a ball handler and facilitator. Hailing from Greensboro, NC, Deans suffered a season-ending injury in January but will look to rehab and possibly be available at some point to bolster what should be an exceptional backcourt for the Gators. Along with the transfers, two new coaching hires should also help in the growth and development of the Gators Women’s Basketball program. Tamisha Augustin and Cynthia Jordan bring diverse experience and championship pedigree to Finley’s staff at Florida. Augustin has spent time coaching in the NBA G League under former NBA guard Jason Terry along with stops at Arizona and Mississippi State in the SEC. Coach Augustin is known as an elite recruiter and developer of talent who has been recognized as one of the nation’s most talented young minority coaches. Cynthia Jordan comes to Florida after 10 years as Director of Basketball Operations at South Carolina where she was a key part of two national championship teams under Coach Dawn Staley. Along with her duties as an assistant, Coach Jordan will also serve as the Gators recruiting coordinator. Her time under Coach Staley will be key as she will be tasked with identifying the next group of Florida Gators.

HBC heads to Birmingham with Matthews and Doering to get Saban award. (UAA photo) “I guess in the end I’ll be the winningest coach that wasn’t coaching at Alabama,” he said with self-amusement. “So that’s my record now, and I guess it ain’t too bad.” By BUDDY MARTIN GatorBaitMedia.com Editor Funny thing about Steve Spurrier’s athletic accomplishments: They appear even bigger in the rearview mirror. He hasn’t coached a college game since 2015, yet his name, likeness and image are everywhere, bigger than ever. From his name emblazoned across the stadium where he coached and played, to the statue on Lemerand where The Ambassador office resides, to the trophy case where the hardware is on display, as well remainder of his spoils from victory. The Spurrier’s Gridiron Grille Brand is in lights. The way Sinatra owned New York … Elvis once owned Las Vegas … and Dolly still owns Pigeon Forge, Steve Spurrier is King of Gator Nation and his royalty rocks Gainesville. About the only legacy thing left is to do change the name of Gainesville to Spurrierville. More validation came Spurrier’s way as he was bestowed a top honor from behind enemy lines. It seems his rivals and one-time enemies are starting to blow him kisses and send 21-gun salutes across his bow as they recognize the SEC’s third all-time winningest coach with their own personal honor. The latest is The Nick Saban Legacy Award, proof that the HBC’s empire is still growing. This was just another opportunity to pause and reflect on the remarkability of the HBC’s achievements. So many of them to covet. As I knew he would, when I inquired about his favorite, he begged off, struggling to come up with something other than a banal, “I guess it was the overall consistency.” That’s like saying you admire Elon Musk for his stock tips. There’s a lot more impressive stuff. Like Spurrier flipping the script on game strategy in the SEC. Or maybe the incredible act of vanquishing Florida’s most hated rival Georgia, a team that had been dominating the Gators until he arrived in 1990. And need I remind Steve how his Gators beat the Bulldogs 11 out of 12 seasons? He didn’t miss a beat. “We also beat LSU 11 out of 12,” he shot back. “And LSU was probably a little better than Georgia back then. We beat pretty much everybody. Our record in the SEC was 87 and 14. But we did lose to Tennessee four times.” After a bit of cajoling, he did admit that ranking second to Bear Bryant in SEC wins for a while was very special, but that he knew Saban would eventually catch him. Everybody was still a bit fuzzy on how that SEC victory race and who was second to Bear, including our crack GatorBait Research Team. So I made a call to one of the key members of the SEC office and found out. Saban spoke some kind words about Spurrier, who reciprocated with the most flattering comments ever about Alabama football. (University of Alabama photo) The bad news is that Saban caught and passed Spurrier when we weren’t looking during the Pandemic. “It was during the Covid years,” SEC Director of Information Chuck Dunlap told me. “Prior to that Coach Spurrier was indeed No. 2 to Coach Bryant.” Alabama’s 11 wins during an adjusted all-SEC schedule in 2020, plus the Tide’s eight league wins in 2021 pushed Saban to 140 conference victories, nine more than Spurrier’s 131. It was just a matter of time for Saban, although odds are against him overtaking Bear’s 159. That would likely take part of three seasons and Nick is 70 years old -- the age when Spurrier stepped down at South Carolina. In the end, Spurrier says he’s not sorry he retired at South Carolina when he did. “I guess in the end I’ll be the winningest coach that wasn’t coaching at Alabama,” he said with self-amusement. “So that’s my record now, and I guess it ain’t too bad.” The mere fact that the Birmingham Monday Morning Quarterback Club chose Spurrier for this honor at age 77, inviting him and former players Shane Matthews and Chris Doering, is indicative of how much respect he still proffers. Nick Saban didn’t hold back on his praise for Spurrier Monday night, either. “What Coach Spurrier did on and off the field was pretty much second to none," said Saban. “Steve was always sort of an icon in terms of great scheme offensively, really great play-caller, really hard to defend because he was really kind of unpredictable, but not unpredictable in a bad way but always very well-prepared. His offensive teams were very well-coached, really hard to defend what he did.” One stat alone would mandate that respect. In four outings, while Spurrier was coaching at Florida and South Carolina, his team beat Saban’s teams at LSU or Alabama three times. So beating the G.O.A.T. three out of four would make you the G.O.A.T. , right? Spurrier said no. “I never looked at it like that,” said Spurrier. “It wasn’t me coaching against the other coach. I was coaching against the other team – offense, defense, special teams.” Still, you cannot argue against the HBC’s success. Not even Saban will. “To be honest with you, we never had a whole lot of success against him if you really wanna look at the record,” the Alabama coach acknowledged. “He was someone that I always looked up to in terms of the success that he had, the program that he ran, the things that he did, the relationships that he made with players. So I have the utmost respect for him and still do.” The club also honored the late Eddie Robinson, hall of fame coach of Grambling. “I think he coached there for 57 years!” Spurrier exclaimed in respect for the late Grambling coach. Speaking of respect, Spurrier heaped it on Alabama, naming its football program as the G.O.A.T. His praise for the Crimson Tide football program as the standard for CFB was downright effusive, labeling it “the best ever – just always more or less has been for 100 years.” He ticked off the names of the ’Bama coaches who advanced the dynasty. “Bryant, Saban, (Gene) Stallings, Wallace Wade …” It’s not just the number of national championships they’ve won in Tuscaloosa, Spurrier said. “But because they do it the right way. Their guys don’t play dirty. They don’t hit you out of bounds. They don’t brag about knocking quarterbacks out of games – stuff like that. They PLAY the game. And if anybody hot-dogs around in an Alabama uniform, the coaches will jerk their butts out and put them on the bench! I mean they play clear, hard, fair – and I just admire the way they do it.” Since the Saban award was about legacy, I asked the HBC what it felt like when he first set foot on Gator soil in 1963. “I made my official visit in March,” he recalled. “I did not know where I wanted to go to school. If we’d had a National Signing Day in February like they do now, I might woulda signed with Ole Miss. In the sixties they were the best passing team in the SEC. “So I said, ‘heck, I’ll just wait until basketball season is over.’ And Coach (Ray) Graves started recruiting me. When I took my visit to Gainesville it was about 75 (degrees) there and 35 degrees in Johnson City. Coach Graves was a big factor. He said he’d give me a chance to play as a sophomore. And away we went.” Indeed, away they did go to unprecedented heights. God really did smile on the Gators. I have often wondered if the temperature were reversed and it had been a gloomy day in Gainesville, how history might have been altered. Who knows? Billy Napier’s team may have been playing on Tim Tebow Field instead.

By KYLE CURTIS GatorBaitMedia.com The No. 8 nationally ranked Florida Gator lacrosse team ended its regular season with some impressive hardware. After defeating the Eastern Carolina Pirates 16-4, Florida was able to clinch the regular-season title for the American Athletic Conference (AAC). The Gators are a part of the AAC for lacrosse because there is no women’s lacrosse in the SEC. The win adds to the momentum the Gators had going into the postseason. They had won 11-straight games along with finishing the year with a perfect conference record of 5-0. Being a new program of only 13 years, the Gators have shown no growing pains en route to becoming a powerhouse across the league. The Gators have not lost a conference game since April of 2015 and have finished undefeated in conference play nine times. As they entered post season hopeful of making a run, the Florida team blew out their opponent in Thursday's first round game, crushing East Carolina in Greenville, NC, 18-8, as two players scored four goals each -- Maggi Hall and Emmal LoPinto. Throughout the year, the Gators have been lifted by their defensive play which transitions nicely to their offense. The same went with their conference-clinching regular victory over the Pirates. The Gators held ECU to just 4-of-21 shooting while shutting them out in the first half in the previous game. Sarah Reznick recorded a save in her 46th straight game, which is good for the second-longest streak in program history. Reznick finished the night with a .667 save percentage allowing only two goals in her 44 minutes in the cage. The two goals allowed tied a career-best which she has achieved five times throughout her illustrious career. Julia Hammerschlag came in to relieve Reznick of her duties and finished up with one save while allowing two goals in nearly 16 minutes. The offense performed rather stellar as well. Emma LoPinto led the way with a hat trick of her own while Ashley Gonzales, Emerson Cabrera, Paisley Eagan and Janine Suris each added two goals of their own. Five other Gators also added a singular goal with an additional six dishing-out assists. With the finale of the season, plenty of Gators also received end-of-year awards. Six Gators were recognized for first-team all-conference with an additional three being recognized for second-team. Emma Lopinto, an attacker, took home freshman of the year accolades; Danielle Pavinelli was recognized as the attacker of the year; Emma Wightman won defender of the year; Sarah Reznick won goalkeeper of the year. All the accolades are for all women’s lacrosse athletes across the AAC. On top of all the players’ success, the coaching staff of UF also won coaches of the year respectively in their conference.

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: APPLEBY TRANSFERRING TO WAKE FOREST Tyree Appleby announced on Instagram that he will be transferring to Wake Forest for his final year of college eligibility. Appleby came to Florida as a transfer from Cleveland State, but as a UF graduate, he is eligible immediately at Wake Forest. Appleby averaged 10.9 points, 2.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game last season. In two seasons at UF, Appleby made 44 starts, scoring scoring 653 points in 59 games (11.1 per game). He had 207 assists (3.5 per game). At Cleveland State, Appleby scored 899 points, averaging 14.3 points per game. He continues his college career with 1,552 points, 339 rebounds and 504 assists. THE COLLEGE SPORTS EARTH IS ABOUT TO MOVE A week ago, the Big 12 Conference announced without too much fanfare that BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston would become full-fledged members of the league starting with football season in 2023. It didn’t move the sports needle too much, but it should have because what’s about to happen is probably a sign that SEC expansion will take place sooner and not later. First, the Big 12 moves. BYU was going to join the Big 12 anyway since it’s an independent and unencumbered by conference affiliations. UCF, Cincinnati and Houston, on the other hand, are leaving the American Athletic Conference which, according to Bret McMurphy, is negotiating its pound of going away flesh to the tune of a $17-20 million per school buyout. All three were hit hard financially by the pandemic and none have sufficiently recovered, so this is a huge expenditure. Where do they find the money? Second, when the four schools join the Big 12, there will be 14 teams in the league but only for a couple of years unless Texas and Oklahoma leave early for the Southeastern Conference. A two-year, 14-team schedule would be seriously awkward for a league whose ten teams have played every team in the league in football for each of the last few years and a home-and-home round robin in basketball. But, what if Texas and Oklahoma bolt early for the SEC? They both have buyouts in their contracts with the Big 12. On paper the combined buyouts would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $140 million. This is where the SEC and ESPN could step in and offer a helping hand. Start with ESPN. There is $160 million remaining on ESPN’s deal with the Longhorn Network, which just so happens to be owned by the University of Texas. The network is going to be dissolved when Texas bolts for the Southeastern Conference, so why not work hand-in-hand with the SEC and ESPN to pay the $140 million in buyout money to the Big 12? The SEC could kick in some bucks so that Texas winds up with a tidy profit, and that money will be regained once ESPN renegotiates its contract with the SEC, currently set to kick in with the 2024 college football season and worth $300 million a year ($20 million per SEC school per year and $20 million per year to the SEC). CBS pays the SEC $53 million a year to broadcast its games through the 2023 season, so there would be another buyout there. Considering the ad revenues that will be generated with Texas and Oklahoma joining the league, ESPN won’t have any problem managing $53 million for the final year of the CBS contract. ESPN will also have to rewrite its contract with the SEC. Some economists predict that with the new contract that includes Texas and Oklahoma, the SEC will be paying out something like $80-90 million per SEC school per year for media rights and bowl revenues. The $140 million of buyout money paid to the Big 12 would allow the league to pay the buyouts for UCF, Cincinnati and Houston to the American Athletic Conference. The AAC would then have the money it needs to pay the buyouts for Florida Atlantic, Charlotte, UAB, North Texas, Rice and UT-San Antonio to leave Conference USA to join the AAC. The departures of the six schools leaving for the American has gutted Conference USA, which also lost Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Miss to the Sun Belt, which also enticed James Madison to leave D1AA for its up and coming league. Conference USA’s survivors – UTEP, Florida International, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky, will be joined by Liberty and New Mexico State along with D1AA teams Jacksonville State and Sam Houston State in 2023. That’s a 9-team league that is stretched from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Lynchburg, Virginia, a fiscal nightmare when you consider travel expenses. So absorb all that for a moment because this is beyond the speculative stage and more along the realm of highly probable. By adding the four teams, the Big 12 is going to have the support it needs from the SEC and Notre Dame to remain one of the Power Five conferences but will the Big 12 keep its current members? Kansas, for example, draws bigger television ratings for midweek basketball games than ESPN gets for Saturday night football. That has to be very attractive to the Big Ten. Even with Kansas football so rotten, poaching the Jayhawks for basketball would be huge for the Big Ten. If Kansas were to leave for the Big Ten, you could almost bet that Iowa State would leave also, adding a decent football team to the Big Ten West. Even with a new TV deal with ESPN, Fox or both, the Big 12 isn’t going to pay out $39 million a school like it does now. The new Big Ten deal contract is going to mean an $85-90 million a year payout per school. Would Kansas and Iowa State stay put if they could pick up that kind of cash? Doubtful they would stay if invited to bolt for the Big Ten. The SEC, meanwhile, is going to emerge from this stronger than ever. The earth is going to move and the SEC will do some moving along with it, but make no mistake about it, when the dust settles here, Greg Sankey will still be the most powerful man in all of college sports and the Southeastern Conference will be the strongest league. UF SOFTBALL: GATORS DROP 2-1 HEARTBREAKER TO FSU Elizabeth Hightower made very few mistakes Wednesday night in Tallahassee, but the one she made in the bottom of the seventh inning was a killer for the Gators (38-14). Hightower (12-7, 2.51) allowed only six hits and walked just one batter but she gave up a leadoff homer to Jahni Kerr with the score tied 1-1 in the seventh and that was the difference in the game as Florida State (46-5) took a 2-1 win. The Gators scored their only run of the game in the second inning when Sam Roe and Katie Kistler got UF’s only two hits, but there was only one more scoring threat the rest of the game when Kendra Falby stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error with two outs. FSU pitcher Kathryn Sandercock (25-1) got a groundout to end the inning, extinguishing Florida’s last scoring chance. The Gators will play a pair of non-conference double-headers this weekend to end the regular season against Mercer and Florida Gulf Coast. Next week the Gators will host the SEC Softball Tournament. UF MEN’S GOLF: GATORS EARN A NO. 2 SEED Florida’s strong showing at the Southeastern Conference Championships earned the Gators a No. 2 seed in the Palm Beach Gardens Regional of the NCAA Championships. The three-day tournament begins May 16 at PGA National. The No. 1 seed will be familiar foe Vanderbilt, which beat the Gators 3-2 in the final match-play round for the SEC championship. Notre Dame is the No. 3 seed while FSU is the No. 4. South Florida earned the No. 7 seed. UF LACROSSE: GATORS BEGIN QUEST FOR AAC TOURNAMENT TITLE Already the American Athletic Conference regular season champions, the 8th-ranked and top seeded Gators (13-4, 5-0 AAC) take on 4th-seeded East Carolina (9-8, 2-3 AAC) today in the conference tournament in Greenville, North Carolina. The Gators have won the AAC tournament title all three years in the league. They’ve won 11 straight conference championships and have gone unbeaten in conference play nine times. Danielle Pavinelli was named conference Attacker of the Year, while Emma Wightman was Defender of the Year and Sarah Reznick was Goalkeeper of the Year. Emma LoPinto was Freshman of the Year and the Florida staff of Amanda O’Leary, Taryn VanThof and Regy Thorpe were named the Coaching Staff of the Year. MATT HAYES SAID IT … Jimbo Fisher can go off on a rant about how Texas A&M was totally above board when it landed its top-ranked recruiting class that some have gone out on a limb to call the greatest ever but Matt Hayes isn’t exactly buying it. Without addressing the rumor of $30 million spent on the recruiting class or even a much lesser amount, Matt Hayes in Saturday Down South plants a few seeds that cause inquiring minds to wonder just a teensy bit. “With deference to Jimbo Fisher’s passionate defense of the way his program recruits, money is increasingly becoming the factor in player procurement … The Aggies didn’t land 8 –EIGHT! – 5-star recruits in the 2022 recruiting class because of performance. This is the same program that hasn’t won a conference championship since 1998, and whose coach can’t match the resume produced by the previous coach (Kevin Sumlin), who was fired. “After the first 48 games as coach at Texas A&M: “Wins: Fisher (34), Sumlin (34) “Wins vs. ranked teams: Fisher (7), Sumlin (9) “Wins vs. ranked teams on the road: Fisher (0), Sumlin (5) “Yet somehow Fisher and his staff landed the greatest recruiting class ever. EVER.” SEC FOOTBALL Alabama: There is every good chance Alabama is going to land former Pitt wide receiver Jordan Addison from the transfer portal. Last season Addison caught 100 passes for 1,593 yards and 17 touchdowns. Addison has been working out with Alabama QB and Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young. Auburn: Wide receiver Dazalim Worsham, a former Under Armour All-American, is transferring in from Miami, where he played in one game in two years ... Safety Eric Reed Jr. is transferring to Georgia Tech. Tennessee: Former 5-star recruit Bru McCoy is transferring from Southern Cal to Tennessee. He caught 21 passes for 236 yards and two touchdowns in 2020 but didn’t play in 2021. He has three seasons of eligibility remaining. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The American Football Coaches Association has proposed a pair of rules changes that make very good sense as college football struggles to get a handle on NIL and the transfer portal as well as a few dozen other issues. At a time when it seems all college sports are on the verge of unraveling this is a time for some positive moves that can affect football, which generates the most income of any collegiate sport. Proposed are rules that would change the way scholarships are counted and the other has to do with establishing windows for players to transfer. The scholarship rule would eliminate 25 scholarships in a single year, counting backward to include players who early enrolled in the previous signing class and oversigning. With this proposal, scholarships would be limited to 85 at all times, so if a school lost 30 players in the portal, it could make up for it either signing high school, jucos or transfers. It’s a smart and overdue rule. Under current rules, kids can enter the transfer portal at any time, but with this new proposal the portal would be closed during the season and open during December after the regular season and up to early signing day; from mid-January to the February signing day; and between mid-April and May 1.

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: THE ERA OF DEEP POCKETS IS UPON US In Texas there is this saying that only God and the Longhorns have more money than the Aggies. There are rumors that Texas A&M spent somewhere around $30 million to land its 2022 football recruiting class, which is said to be one of the best in history. To make sure all these high priced newbies feel comfortable enough to play hard for their new alma mammy, the Aggies are investing another $120 million to upgrade their facilities, already among the top two or three in the entire nation. The Aggies have always had that kind of money, but now they have real plans to use the big bucks to win championships by spreading wads of cash among unproven high school kids and transfers looking for greener (pun intended) pastures. And, they figure, you can’t let this high priced talent play in anything less than the best facilities, now can you? When I see what they are doing at Texas A&M and to a lesser extent at Arkansas, which has quite a few billionaires willing to write large checks designed to create championships, I have to wonder how the Gators and most of the other schools in the SEC are going to compete? UF has a lot of wealthy boosters and alums, but can they compete with those in Aggieland or Sowbelly State? What particularly concerns me is that Florida is only now catching up to the upper half of the SEC when it comes to facilities. The $30 million recruiting figure – if true – is also a shock to the system. Texas oil money can cover that on a yearly basis. Arkansas can make cash calls to the Walton (Walmart) or the Tyson (chicken) or Reynolds (aluminum) people with little fear of coming up empty. Does Florida have that kind of money at its disposal? From where I sit, that is what it’s going to take to compete in the Southeastern Conference. Oh sure, getting an additional $25-30 million a year from the SEC is nice, but the Aggies and Razorbacks will be getting the same amount and they’ve got the mega donors ready to write checks for however much money they need to buy a championship. Florida will have to pony up or get left behind. So, welcome to the new college sports landscape where only those with the deepest pockets can figure to win championships. UF BASEBALL: FABIAN LIGHTS UP USF FOR THREE HOMERS Until Tuesday, Jud Fabian had never hit a grand slam at the University of Florida. The second of his three homers in Florida’s 18-3 win over South Florida came with the bases juiced. Later, he hit a third homer – the 50th of his UF career – to move past JJ Schwarz for fourth place on Florida’s all-time list. Fabian’s big night was good for a career-best eight RBI. In addition to Fabian’s 17th, 18th and 19th homers, BT Riopelle (13th), Mac Guscette (3rd) and Ty Evans (2nd) went deep for the Gators. Wyatt Langford went 3-4 with a pair of RBI and Sterlin Thompson went 2-3 with four RBI. Getting the win was Nick Pogue (2-2), who gave up three hits and two runs (only one earned) in four innings. Freshmen Tyler Nesbitt, Karl Hartman and Anthony Ursitti combined to limit the Bulls to three hits and one run over the final five innings. The Gators (26-18, 8-13 SEC) travel to Starkville this weekend to face Mississippi State (25-20, 9-12 SEC). UF SOFTBALL: GATORS TAKE ON NO. 2 FSU IN TALLAHASSEE Even though this isn’t an SEC game, tonight’s Florida-FSU softball battle in Tallahassee (is critical for the Gators (38-13), who have completed the conference portion of their schedule. The Gators are almost certain to host an NCAA regional, but to secure home field for the entire NCAA tournament, a resume-building win over FSU, a four-game sweep over Mercer and Florida Gulf Coast this weekend, and a good showing in the SEC Tournament will be a requirement. The Seminoles (45-5) are ranked 2nd nationally while the Gators are currently ranked 12th. SEC FOOTBALL: THE QB SITUATION AT ALL 14 SEC SCHOOLS Alabama: Bryce Young won the Heisman Trophy. He’s the best QB in the country again and will be everybody’s Heisman frontrunner. The battle is for the backup between redshirt freshman Jalen Milroe and true freshman Ty Simpson. Milroe has the edge because he spent a year in Bill O’Brien’s system. Arkansas: KJ Jefferson is the unquestioned No. 1 and will be on a lot of Heisman Trophy short lists in the fall. The backup will be Malik Hornsby, who thought about transferring out before he was convinced to stay. Behind those two are transfers Cade Fortin (South Florida) and Kade Renfro (Ole Miss). Auburn: Spring practice ended without a clear No. 1. Texas A&M transfer Zach Calzada started 10 games last year for the Aggies including the win over Alabama. T.J. Finley started five games at LSU in 2020 and three games for Auburn last year. He has the biggest arm. Third-year freshman Robby Ashford spent two seasons at Oregon without playing a down. He is the best dual threat. Lefty freshman Holden Beringer seems to be the QB of the future if he doesn’t get a baseball contract. FLORIDA: Anthony Richardson solidified his hold on the No. 1 QB job in the spring. Ohio State transfer Jack Miller III emerged as the backup with redshirt freshman Jalen Kitna still hanging around after the transfer of Carlos Del Rio-Wilson. Georgia: Stetson Bennett IV will always be the QB who led Georgia to a national championship. Kirby Smart loves him but redshirt sophomore Carson Beck has the bigger arm and is coming off an outstanding spring. Brock Vandagriff is a dual threat who was buried behind Bennett and Beck following the spring. Freshman Gunner Stockton will have to wait his turn. Kentucky: Last year’s starter Will Levis will start again with a new offensive coordinator. Redshirt sophomore Beau Allen is the backup followed by redshirt freshman Kaiya Sheron. LSU: The situation is complicated to say the least. Myles Brennan, who was once Joe Burrow’s backup, is healthy for the first time in nearly two years. Redshirt freshman Garrett Nussmeier got in four games last year, but he had an impressive spring. Arizona State transfer and two-year starter Jayden Daniels didn’t come halfway across the country to sit. True freshman Walker Howard was the nation’s No. 1 dual threat QB in high school. Mississippi State: No QB controversy here. Will Rogers has started two years and he will start in the fall. Former juco All-American and South Alabama transfer Chance Lovertich will battle it out for the backup job with redshirt freshman Sawyer Robertson, redshirt freshman Daniel Greek and true freshman Braedyn Locke. Missouri: Brady Cook started the bowl game and Tyler Macon got the start against Georgia. Neither one has impressed enough to keep Mizzou from searching high and low in the portal. They wanted JT Daniels but lost him to West Virginia. Now they’re after Baylor transfer Gerry Bohannon. Ole Miss: Sophomore Luke Altmyer had the most impressive spring, but Southern Cal transfer and Jaxson Dart will probably win the starting job in the fall. Kinkead Dean, who’s been a backup forever, will be the No. 3. South Carolina: Oklahoma transfer Spencer Rattler didn’t arrive to sit. He is the unquestioned No. 1, backed up by Luke Doty, who got starts last year before he was hurt. Behind them are redshirt freshman Colten Gauthier and true freshman Braden Davis. Tennessee: The Vols will run a Heisman-hype campaign for returning starter Hendon Hooker. Joe Milton III, the former Michigan starter who started two games at UT last year, is the backup. The QB of the future is freshman Taven Jackson. Texas A&M: This is another situation that won’t be settled until August and maybe not even then. Haynes King was last year’s starter until he got hurt in game two. Max Johnson started 12 games last year at LSU. Freshman Conner Wiegman was the No. 1 dual threat high school QB in the country last year. The three of them ended the spring pretty much in a dead heat. Vanderbilt: There isn’t a No. 1 yet, but the starter will be either Kenny Seals or Mike Wright, who split the reps in the spring. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Miami’s stud scoring guard Isaiah Wong is everything that is wrong with NIL. When Kansas State guard Nijel Pack was given an $800,000 deal that includes the use of a car when he transferred in, Wong issued a threat through his agent, Adam Pappas: Either pay me or I’ll transfer. As much as it pains me to say it, I don’t blame Wong. He’s simply a product of a system that has gone sideways because no one ever stopped to think things through before squeezing all the toothpaste out of the tube. Wong has every reason to believe he has serious value to Miami basketball. He averaged 15.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists and played lights out defense to lead the Hurricanes to their first Elite Eight appearance in school history back in March. A lot of experts consider Pack the top transfer in the country after a superb season in which he averaged 17.4 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists. K-State finished 14-17 and didn’t sniff the NCAA Tournament. From Isaiah Wong’s perspective, which is more valuable: Your team leader who got you to the Elite Eight or a guy who was really good for a bad team? So he says pay me or else I’m outta here. Assuming, of course, that there is someone out there stupid enough to fork out $800,000 for a basketball player. Minor little detail there. Now, John Ruiz, the Miami go-zillionaire, has already whipped out more than $5 million in NIL deals in an attempt to buy athletic greatness that Miami hasn’t sniffed in football or baseball in 21 years and since God created the heavens and the earth in all other sports. Perhaps Ruiz will give in to Wong’s demands and match the deal he gave Pack dollar-for-dollar. But what if he doesn’t? And what if no one else out there with more money than brains offers a deal that either matches or surpasses? Does Wong come back to Ruiz, hat in hand, and say, “Well, gee, John, old buddy, old pal, can’t you take a joke?” Would Miami forgive Wong and welcome him back after what can only be described as attempted extortion? Isaiah Wong is the first athlete that we know of who is doing the college sports version of pay me or trade me. Perhaps there have been others, but even if there are, their situations haven’t been nearly as publicized. As long as the rules – or lack of – are what they are for NIL, you can bet the family farm that Isaiah Wong is merely the trailblazer. There will be others who figure if he can do it, so can they. Imagine this scenario for a moment if you will: It’s the fall and three days before a big football game between a pair of ranked teams, the stud quarterback for one of the teams discovers through Twitter and then verifies that he’s underpaid by at least a couple hundred thousand dollars than his counterpart on the other ranked team. He calls his agent, who then calls the NIL people. After being told by the NIL benefactor that now is not the time or the place to be re-negotiating a deal, the agent advises the QB to go on strike unless a new contract can be written and signed before the 3:30 p.m. kickoff on Saturday. Don’t think it can happen? Well, think again, because the inmates now run the asylum. There is no question athletes should be compensated for their time and effort given the amount of money they generate for the school, but the NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, has allowed a bunch of 18-to-22-year-olds to have the keys to a kingdom they didn’t build. Until someone figures out a way to slow this runaway freight train down, there will be more pay me or I’m outta here athletes.

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: TRINITY THOMAS WINS HONDA AWARD Trinity Thomas took the next step toward the Honda Cup, issued annually to the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year, when she was named the 2022 recipient of the Honda Sports Award for gymnastics. Thomas is the sixth Florida gymnast in the last 11 years to win the Honda award for gymnastics (Bridget Sloan 2013, 2016; Kytra Hunter 2012, 2015; Alex McMurtry 2017). Thomas just completed the most dominant season in Florida gymnastics history when she won the NCAA all-around, uneven bars and floor exercise titles. Along the way, Thomas won the all-around title at every stop – Southeastern Conference, NCAA first and second rounds, NCAA semifinal and championship final. Thomas posted 12 perfect 10s this season, the second highest single season total in NCAA history. Thomas posted a 10 on floor in both the NCAA semifinals and championship final. She has 20 perfect scores for her career. She had a career Gym Slam (10 on each event) and a Sean Slam (at least one 10 on each event during the season). Thomas finished with the five highest all-around scores in the country including a 39.90, the fifth highest score in NCAA history; a 39.8125 equaling the NCAA semifinal record; and 39.8625, the second highest all-around in NCAA championship final history. UF BASEBALL: GATORS HOST SOUTH FLORIDA It’s getting down to crunch time for the Gators (25-18), who have only three SEC series remaining on the schedule. That makes non-conference games like tonight’s encounter with South Florida (23-20) at the Condron Family Ballpark critical for NCAA Tournament and seeding purposes. Counting tonight’s game, the Gators have 12 regular season games remaining before the SEC Tournament. To be comfortable heading into Hoover, the Gators need to have at least 33 wins under their belt. D1Baseball top 25: 1. Tennessee 40-4; 2. Oregon State 34-9; 3. Oklahoma State 31-13; 4. Arkansas 34-10; 5. Virginia Tech 31-10; 6. Miami 32-12; 7. Southern Miss 34-10; 8. UCLA 30-13; 9. Texas Tech 31-16; 10. Louisville 31-12; 11. Stanford 25-14; 12. Gonzaga 28-13; 13. Texas A&M 27-15; 14. Virginia 33-12; 15. UConn 37-8; 16. Notre Dame 28-10; 17. Texas State 34-11; 18. Maryland 35-9; 19. Auburn 31-14; 20. LSU 29-14; 21. Georgia Tech 27-18; 22. Georgia 30-14; 23. Florida State 26-15; 24. TCU 27-16; 25. UC-Santa Barbara 30-10 UF SOFTBALL: GATORS DROP TO NO. 13 Florida (38-13) dropped down to No. 13 in the latest D1Softball poll after taking two out of three on the road from LSU over the weekend. With the SEC portion of their schedule complete, the Gators will finish out their regular season this week, first with 3rd-ranked Florida State in Tallahassee on Wednesday and then a pair of doubleheaders with Mercer and Florida Gulf Coast Friday and Saturday. The Gators need to be at 41-42 wins prior to the SEC Tournament if they are to host an NCAA Regional. The Gators probably will have to make the SEC Tournament championship game to host a Super Regional as well. D1Softball top 25: 1. Oklahoma 45-1; 2. Virginia Tech 39-6; 3. Florida State 45-5; 4. Arkansas 39-8; 5. UCLA 39-6; 6. Oklahoma State 38-9; 7. Northwestern 38-7; 8. Alabama 39-9; 9. Washington 32-11; 10. Duke 36-7; 11. Arizona State 35-7; 12. FLORIDA 38-13; 13. Tennessee 35-14; 14. Texas 35-15-1; 16. Clemson 37-14; 17. Auburn 39-11; 18. Georgia 39-13; 20. Notre Dame 36-9; 21. Michigan 31-15; 22. San Diego State 33-12; 23. Louisiana 39-11; 24. Wichita State 31-13; 25. LSU 32-19 UF TRACK AND FIELD: MEN, WOMEN BOTH NO. 3 USTFCCA men’s top 25: 1. Texas; 2. Alabama; 3. FLORIDA; 4. LSU; 5. Texas A&M; 6. Georgia; 7. Oregon; 8. Texas Tech; 9. Southern Cal; 10. Stanford; 11. Baylor; 12. Tennessee; 13. BYU; 14. North Carolina A&T; 15. Kentucky; 16. Florida State; 17. Arkansas; 18. Washington; 19. Iowa; 20. Ohio State; 21. Arizona State; 22. Princeton; 23. Virginia; 24. California; 25. Oklahoma USTFCCA women’s top 25: 1. Texas; 2. Texas A&M; 3. FLORIDA; 4. LSU; 5. Texas Tech; 6. Arkansas; 7. Kentucky; 8. BYU; 9. Oregon; 10. Ohio State; 11. Baylor; 12. New Mexico; 13. North Carolina A&T; 14. Washington; 15. Arizona State; 16. Stanford; 17. South Carolina; 18. Oklahoma; 19. North Carolina State; 20. Ole Miss; 21. Southern Cal; 22. Auburn; 23. Duke; 24. California; 25. Colorado UF TENNIS: NO. 2 MEN; NO. 16 WOMEN HOST NCAA REGIONALS Florida’s 2nd-ranked men’s tennis team and 16th-ranked women’s tennis team will host NCAA regionals this weekend. The men (23-2), last year’s NCAA champs and 2022 SEC champions, will play host to Miami, South Florida and New Orleans. The Gators will face New Orleans at 5 p.m. Friday. The 16th-seeded women’s team (19-6) will host Florida State, Florida International and South Alabama. The Gators will face South Alabama (22-4) Saturday at 2 p.m. KELLY RAE SIGNS THREE TRANSFERS Florida women’s basketball coach Kelly Rae Finley signed three high profile recruits in the transfer portal – Leilani Correa (6-0, from St. John’s); KK Deans (5-8, from West Virginia); and Ra Shaya Kyle (6-6, from Purdue). Correa is a two-time All-Big East selection who averaged 17.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. She was a 4-star recruit out of high school. Deans averaged 14.5 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game at West Virginia. She was a 5-star recruit out of high school. Kyle only played in nine games for Purdue before suffering a season-ending injury. She averaged 11 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. She was a 5-star recruit out of high school. SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL Alabama: Eli Ricks, the stud corner who transferred in from LSU, was arrested Sunday in Mississippi for speeding, no car insurance and possession of marijuana. Arkansas: Connor Vanover (7-3, 230) is transferring to Oral Roberts. Auburn: Bruce Pearl will take the basketball team to Israel for three games over a 10-day stretch in late July and August. Kentucky: Guard Zan Payne, who played in nine games last season, is transferring out. He’s the son of former UK assistant, now Louisville head coach Kenny Payne, so we can all but pencil in his final destination. Mississippi State: Redshirt freshman safety Eldric Griffin is in the transfer portal. He played in one game last year. Griffin has four seasons of eligibility remaining. Missouri: Former Baylor quarterback Gerry Bohannon, who threw for 2,200 yards and 18 touchdowns in 2021, has visited Mizzou and has the Tigers on his transfer short list. Ole Miss: Theo Akwuba, who averaged 9.1 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game at Louisiana last year, is transferring to Ole Miss. Tennessee: Former Ohio State defensive back Andre Turrentine is transferring to Tennessee. A former 4-star recruit, Turrentine has four seasons of eligbility remaining. Texas A&M: Power forward Justus Marble (6-9, 245), who has two years of eligibility remaining, is transferring in from Michigan State where he averaged 6.4 points and 3.3 rebounds per game last year. Also transferring in is former Mississippi State small forward Andersson Garcia (6-7, 210). He averaged 4.3 points and 4.2 rebounds last season. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: It was the late, great Jerry Tarkanian who coined the phrase, “The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky it will probably slap another two years probation on Cleveland State.” Some might say Tark was a prophet, but not really. He simply understood that the NCAA plays its favorites whether it’s basketball or football. Certain programs are untouchable. Take Duke basketball for instance. In a 2018 basketball story in Golf Digest (of all publications) entitled “The new Zion Williamson scandal is the NCAA’s nightmare,” Shane Ryan wrote: “If there's a “too big to fail” school in college basketball, it's Duke University, and if there's a personality the NCAA desperately doesn't want to see tied to any kind of "corruption," it's Coach K.” In case you’re unaware or simply choose to ignore the reality, Zion Williamson went to Duke, which is a Nike school even though Nike officials openly texted that they paid him $35,000 to play on the EYBL summer AAU circuit. Zion’s stepfather asked Adidas representatives for jobs, money and housing in order to sway Zion to Kansas. His mama took money from both Nike and Adidas sources. Of course, Coach K didn’t know anything about it. Sure. Duke conducted its own investigation and found nothing. The NCAA, in its infinite wisdom said that was good enough for them to consider it case closed. I’m sure Roy Williams didn’t know anything about the academic scandal at North Carolina where stud basketball players got A in classes they didn’t even attend. The NCAA was so mad at Roy and Carolina hoops that it slapped women’s basketball with probation. I bring this up because Monday the NCAA gave Nebraska coach Scott Frost a show cause and a 5-day suspension from football DURING the 2022 season. Why? Because a special teams analyst got too involved in practice, film sessions and even offered advice during games. The NCAA says Nebraska exceeded the number of permissible coaches. Perish the thought! These penalties are for two Level II violations, which are minor violations. To give a coach a show cause for what amounts to parking tickets is a bit unprecedented even for the NCAA. More likely, the NCAA is getting back at Frost because the coach allegedly held off-campus workouts during the COVID-19 pandemic. That the workouts aren’t mentioned in the punishment against Frost basically means the NCAA may have known something went on but couldn’t prove it so they went after something that goes on at EVERY school that hires analysts or former coaches who need to go through the recycling bin before being allowed to hold down a real football job again. This is kind of like the way the NCAA was with players selling their football tickets for more than face value back in the 1970s and 1980s. When the NCAA wanted to nail someone (see Charley Pell), football tickets were the fall back when they either couldn’t find anything else or wanted to force someone to confess to heinous crimes. Florida had some major violations in 1984, but most of the 109 that made their way into the NCAA report were similar to when Dale Dorminey got gym shorts and a couple of T-shirts that he slept in because Eastern Airlines lost his luggage. He never gave the shorts or T-shirts back. Dorminey was also mentioned when UF assistant Hoss Adams bought him a Sprite and a pack of Juicy Fruit when the plane to take Dorminey back to Pensacola was late. Florida got some of the harshest penalties ever handed out by the NCAA, which considered giving UF the death penalty. In reality, what went on at Florida paled in comparison to what was going on at other schools in the SEC, which went by the motto “Sure, Everybody Cheats” back in those days. Now we have NIL, which stands for “Now It’s Legal.” Charley Pell rolls over in his grave on a daily basis. Friends of mine who write large checks to Southern Cal swear that if there had been cell phones back in 1980 Herschel Walker would have never gone to Georgia. They allege that John Robinson was on the tee at Bel Aire when Georgia gave Herschel’s dad a take-it-or-leave it offer, otherwise USC would have outbid UGa. Georgia did get caught by the NCAA for illegal recruiting of Herschel, but lost only two scholarships. Duke basketball and Coach K, Carolina basketball and Roy Williams, Scott Frost and Nebraska football, Charley Pell and UF, Georgia football and Vince Dooley – all examples of selective enforcement of the rules by the NCAA. The sacred cows of the college sports world have nothing to worry about. Everybody else beware. What happened today with Scott Frost is just one more example of why the revolution to ditch the NCAA can’t happen soon enough.

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: WHAT DO THESE NUMBERS TELL YOU? Georgia 15; LSU 10; Alabama 7; Ole Miss 6; Tennessee 5; Texas A&M 4; Kentucky 4; FLORIDA 3; Arkansas 3; South Carolina 3; Mississippi State 2; Missouri 2; Auburn 1; Vanderbilt 0. Those are the draft picks for every SEC school. The 65 draft picks once again lead the nation (Big Ten second with 48; Pac-12 and Big 12 tied for third with 25; and ACC with 21, which is just two more than the American Athletic Conference). What the SEC did was impressive and expected. What Florida did? That’s a different story. The three draft picks are the worst Florida draft since 2012 when Chris Rainey and Jaye Howard were the only two selected. This year, Kaiir Elam was taken first round by the Buffalo Bills, Zachary Carter third found by the Cincinnati Bengals and Dameon Pierce fourth round by the Houston Texans. There is no way to sugar coat what just happened. That seven SEC teams have more draft picks than the University of Florida is pathetic and should open eyes to the monumental task facing Billy Napier. We can say what we want about how NIL is changing the recruiting landscape, but kids are still going to be asking this question: How many players have you gotten in the league lately? Kids are going to the schools that prepare them for a shot at the NFL. That isn’t Florida, at least for now. Here is another sobering thought: Cincinnati had NINE (count ‘em) players drafted, three times more than the Gators. GOLDEN HAS THREE SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE With Elijah Kennedy entering the transfer portal, Todd Golden now has three scholarships available. He almost landed Johni Broome but the Morehead State transfer chose Auburn over the Gators. It’s almost a necessity to land at least one big guy. Another point guard wouldn’t hurt and then there is Riley Kugel, a likely signee and a high school teammate of Denzel Aberdeen. Three bigs to watch Tre Mitchell (6-9, 230): A year ago, it came down to Florida and Texas for Mitchell, who was brilliant at UMass. At Texas, Mitchell’s minutes went way down, in part due to injuries and because he was a bad fit for Chris Beard’s system. He went from 18.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per game to 8.7 and 4.0 at Texas. He’s in the portal again. He is a legit power forward who could complement Colin Castleton quite well. Efe Abogidi (6-10, 225): He played for Kyle Smith, Golden’s former boss at Columbia and San Francisco. He’s a legitimate rim protector who is a good shooter from 15 feet on in but terrible from distance. Kenneth Lofton Jr. (6-7, 270): As big as he is, he does have quick feet and nice range out to 15-17 feet with his jumper. He’s not going to dazzle above the rim, but he eats up space and is an outstanding rebounder. He averaged 16.5 points and 10.5 rebounds last season. Four wings/guards to watch Baylor Scheierman (6-6, 205): Florida is thought to be a longshot by most experts, but Florida and Kansas might be the best fits. He hit 50.8 percent of his shots, 46.9 percent on threes, while averaging 7.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists at South Dakota State, which went 30-5 last year. The consensus is he will play in the NBA someday. Kentucky has been ruled out according to reports. Khalil Shabazz (6-0, 170): He was Golden’s point guard at San Francisco last year where he averaged 13.7 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. He’s a terrific defender especially in the open court. Riley Kugel (6-5, 180, Orlando, FL Dr. Phillips): If he can make the grades (good chance) he will be a Gator. He’s a 6-5 wing who is still growing, a 4-star recruit who was released from his Mississippi State LOI. His recruiter at MSU was Korey McCray, now on the UF staff. Kugel averaged 16.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.4 rebounds per game at Dr. Phillips where he was a teammate of UF signee Denzel Aberdeen. John-Michael Wright (6-0, 186): Wright says the Gators are recruiting him and in the mix. At High Point, where he was All-Big South, Wright averaged 18.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game. UF BASEBALL: GATORS TAKE SERIES AGAINST KENTUCKY Friday and Saturday nights, the stars and planets aligned for the Gators (25-18, 8-13 SEC) as young pitchers got the job done and Florida’s hitters feasted on Kentucky (24-20, 7-14 SEC) pitching. Sunday afternoon, it was an all-too-familiar story as the hitters struggled and the Wildcats hammered out 11 hits against four freshmen pitchers for an 8-1 win. In winning 9-2 Friday night, sophomore Brandon Sproat pitched 5-1/3 shutout innings, Wyatt Langford hit his 14th homer and Sterlin Thompson his 8th. Freshman Jac Caglianone had three hits and three RBI. Saturday night, despite a 2-hour rain delay, four freshman pitchers limited the Wildcats to seven hits and Caglianone and Josh Rivera homered as part of an 11-hit attack. The Gators are in fifth place in the SEC East but with the 11th best record in SEC play at 8-13. With three SEC series remaining, the Gators have too much ground to make up to get the first day bye at the SEC Tournament in Hoover, but road series at Mississippi State (25-20, 9-12 SEC) and Missouri (24-17, 7-14 SEC) and the final home series against South Carolina (22-20, 9-12 SEC) are all winnable. If the Gators could go 7-2 in SEC play to get to 15-15, that would be an accomplishment. UF SOFTBALL: PITCHING COMES THROUGH TWO STRAIGHT VS. LSU After getting run-ruled by LSU Friday night, Florida pitching came through on consecutive games, which has to be encouraging for Tim Walton. Saturday, Lexi Delbrey and Rylee Trlicek gave up two hits as the 9th-ranked Gators (38-13, 13-11 SEC) bounced back with a 6-1 win over 19th-ranked LSU (32-19, 11-10 SEC). Sunday, Elizbeth Hightower, Rylee Trlicek and Natalie Lugo combined for a 6-hitter as the Gators took a 9-inning, 2-1, win over the Tigers on a home run by Cheyenne Lindsey. That Sunday win was particularly special because it gave Walton his 1,000th victory as a Division I head coach By winning the series in Baton Rouge, the Gators finish the regular season of SEC play at 13-11. They have a shot at finishing top four in the final regular season standings which would give them a first round bye in the SEC Tournament. Other UF sports: The 9th-ranked Gators (13-4, 5-0 AAC) won the American Athletic Conference lacrosse championship outright with a 16-4 win over East Carolina (9-8, 2-3 AAC) … McCartney Kessler was voted SEC Women’s Tennis Player of the Year by the coaches. Voted second team All-SEC and All-Freshman was Alicia Dudeney while Marlee Zein made second team All-SEC for the second time in her UF career. SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL Alabama: Offensive tackle Evan Neal (New York Giants) and wide receiver Jameson Williams (Detroit Lions) were the only two Bama players taken in the first round of the NFL Draft. Alabama had seven players drafted, which trailed Georgia (15) and LSU (10). Arkansas: Wide receiver Treylon Burks was taken 18th in the first round by the Philadelphia Eagles. The Razorbacks had three players taken total … Arkansas State defensive tackle Terry Hampton is transferring to Arkansas. Auburn: Corner Roger McCreary, a second round pick of the Tennessee Titans, is the only Auburn player drafted … The big news of the weekend was landing Morehead State big man Johni Broome (6-10, 240), who chose the Tigers over Florida. Georgia: The Bulldogs set an NFL record with 15 players selected in the draft including five defensive players in the first round … Mike White added Syracuse transfer Frank Anselem (6-10, 215) who averaged 2.6 points and 3.8 rebounds per game; North Texas transfer Mardrez McBride, who averaged 11.3 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.1 assists; and KyeRon Lindsay (6-8, 205), who signed with UNLV but was released from his LOI. Kentucky: Kentucky had four players taken in the NFL Draft … Keion Brooks (6-7, 210), who averaged 10.8 points per game last season is in the transfer portal … The Wildcats landed former Illinois State star Antonio Reeves (6-6, 190), who averaged 20.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and shot 39 percent from 3-point range last season. LSU: Led by Derek Stingley Jr., taken in the first round with the third pick by Houston, LSU had 10 players taken in the NFL Draft … Former LSU big man Efton Reid (7-0, 240) is transferring to Gonzaga. Mississippi State: Left tackle Charles Cross was taken by Seattle with the 9th pick in the first round is the headliner of the two MSU players taken in the NFL Draft … All-Ohio Valley Conference guard Eric Reed, who averaged 16.1 per game is transferring to Mississippi State … Cameron Matthews (6-7, 220) has pulled his name out of the portal and will return to MSU … Forward Andersson Garcia (6-7, 210) is transferring after averaging 4.3 points and 4.2 rebounds per game last year. Missouri: Two Tigers were taken in the NFL Draft … Guard Amari Davis (6-3, 170) is transferring to Wright State after averaging 9.0 points and 2.4 rebounds per game … Wide receiver Javian Hester is in the transfer portal. A former 4-star who was Mizzou’s top recruit in 2020, Hester caught 12 passes for 225 yards and two touchdowns in 2021. Ole Miss: Quarterback Matt Corrall wasn’t selected until the third round of the NFL Draft with the 94th pick by the Carolina Panthers. Ole Miss had six players taken in the draft. South Carolina: South Carolina had three players taken in the NFL Draft … Offensive lineman Jazton Turnetine, who started seven games last year, is in the transfer portal. Tennessee: Five Vols were taken in the NFL Draft … Justin Powell (6-6, 205), who transferred to Tennessee from Auburn last year, is on the move again. Powell was one of the top transfers in the country when he left Auburn after averaging 11.7 points, 6.1 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game. At Tennessee he only averaged 3.7 points and 1.5 rebounds. Texas A&M: Offensive lineman Kenyon Green, taken in the first round with the 15th pick by Houston, is one of four Aggies selected in the NFL Draft. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Keyontae Johnson graduated from UF Saturday and put his name in the basketball transfer portal Sunday. It seems odd that he is in the transfer portal, but he has steadfastly held to the hope that he will recover enough to play again from whatever it was that caused him to collapse in Tallahassee back in December of 2020. Johnson has a $5 million insurance policy that he took out prior to the 2020-21 season that pays off if he cannot play basketball again, which seems likely. He could play in a few games to test his health but if he plays more than the prescribed number, the policy would be completely nullified. Even if given a clean bill of health, it is difficult to imagine any school in the country willing to take a chance that Keyontae is healthy enough to play again. His collapse in Tallahassee brought back too many memories of Hank Gathers dying on the court at Loyola Marymount back in 1990. Although that happened 32 years ago, it’s still a vivid memory that will discourage anyone from taking a chance. There is also a legal matter that hangs over Keyontae’s head – a sexual assault allegation from February 26 – that remains under investigation. There has been no indictment nor is there any indication how long the investigation might take. Keyontae has always been looked up to as a young man of high character, so let’s give him the benefit of the doubt on this one, as troubling as the allegations may be. As inspirational as Keyontae Johnson has been the last couple of years, Todd Golden doesn’t have a scholarship to spare waiting on a miracle that can restore the health of this one time budding superstar. It’s best that Keyontae moves on and gets a fresh start somewhere else. Hopefully, there is someone with good judgment to guide him. He desperately wants to play again, but that probably isn’t what is best, not to mention there aren’t many opportunities to start life with $5 million in the bank.

I estimate between $25-$30M is what it cost for Florida to rid itself of the members of The ‘M Mistake’ Club — plus a couple of other minor indiscretions. The bulk of that went to Mullen, who was last seen working on his tan for TV while swilling a cold one and counting his $12M, or maybe doing the exchange rate for cryptocurrency. By BUDDY MARTIN GatorBaitMedia.com Editor In the fortune of sport, there are cycles governed by destiny, determination and flat-out chance. Which can lead to success or survival, or just plain surrender. Sometimes feast, sometimes famine -- sometimes in between. Sometimes maybe a touch of it all. Which leads us to what appears to be the state of things at latitude 29.651634, and longitude -82.324829. Commonly known as Hogtown, some 643 miles away from where Billy Napier once coached the Rajun Cajuns. Gainesville, where it might be asked: “Has Someone Left The Cake Out In The Rain?” This cake certainly wasn't left out in the rain. For a while now, The Sporting Life at UF has been celebratory for the most part since Kennedy was in the White House and Steve Spurrier was ballin’. (Having nothing to do with the color of our state. Never mind red or blue, it’s about the Orange & Blue which we speak.) But I ramble, so let’s fast forward from the Sixties to the Roaring Twenties Part 2. To paraphrase the HBC, God has, indeed, Smiled On The Gators since the early Sixties. Although some of the Millennials, Gen Xers, Gen Yers, Gen Zers – shall I take a beat here? – feel that God’s Smile on the Gators should be in perpetuity, because He Owes Us. Even the author of that phrase, Steve Spurrier, would laugh at that. Lately, to some it may feel more like Jimmy Webb’s 1968 McArthur Park lyric about The Cake getting rained on as a more accurate reflection of today’s mood. In other words, WTH is going on in Hogtown these days? My former high school football teammate and inveterate Gator fan Richard keeps asking me: “How come we keep losing coaches and how much have we paid these guys in severance?” Ponder that while we get back to the news of late: In the Scott Stricklin Era, the body count of coaches continues to mount. It went up by one with the axing of women’s soccer coach Tony Amato. Stricklin had already fired the head football coach and women’s basketball coach, all of whom were hired on his watch. And while he didn’t hire, nor fire, the men’s basketball coach, he might as well have driven Mike White to the county line because there was an angry mob trailing about which he could do nothing. In Gainesville, the halcyon days of yore have certainly come to a sudden halt, at least for the moment. Which is not to say The Cake cannot yet be sheltered from the rain. It’s just on pause for the moment, with a bit of a chippy attitude by some fans, perhaps. For the first time since Albert The Alligator was a pup and before Alberta was the apple of his eye, the football and basketball programs were – for a moment – run by headless horse people. Help is on the way. Capable help, too. We just don’t know HOW capable yet. Therein lies the conundrum. In the Undercover World of the Cruel Internet, hedge funds are already being conceived and perhaps even devised. How long before we see a “Fire Billy Napier” or “Fire Todd Golden” or even a “Fire Scott Stricklin”.com sticker? After all, isn’t there a darker side that occasionally rears it’s ugly head among We Are The Boys? You know that old saying about The Swamp: “Where only Gators get out alive … except the coaches who get chewed up and spit out.” Let me have this caveat: My words here are not meant to injure, maim, discredit, or read like a Hot Take. Nor am I attempting disrupt the current rebuild on Lemerand and Stadium, or stir up trouble for Stricklin. I both like and respect Scott and feel he is absolutely the right man for the job. The Good Ship Gator, however, is massive and cannot be easily turned around in the channel without a heavy cost. (The blockage of the Suez by the barge Coral Crystal the cost $400M a day.) So what about Richard’s question? I estimate between $25-$30M is what it cost for Florida to rid itself of the members of The ‘M Mistake’ Club — plus a couple of other minor indiscretions. The bulk of that went to Mullen, who was last seen working on his tan for TV while swilling a cold one and counting his $12M, or maybe doing the exchange rate for cryptocurrency. You might say he cooked up his own NIL deal in the Coaches Transfer Portal. Charge the miscalculation of Mullen to Stricklin. But raise your hand if you were among those guilty of believing in Fool’s Gold after the first two seasons. I certainly was. And Mullen had to go. The price for parting company with Jim McElwain, hired by Jeremy Foley and fired by Stricklin, was about $7.5M. Will Muschamp, hired on Foley’s watch, cost $6.3M. The most egregious mistake by Stricklin — but hardly the most expensive — was not properly vetting women’s basketball coach Cam Newbauer, who had more baggage at Belmont than Delta Airlines in the Atlanta airport on Thanksgiving week. Stricklin whiffed, but the exit cost was minor — at least in dollars when you consider football. According to the website Athleticdirectoru.com, in the period from 2005 to 2019, Florida spent $24,891,148 on football severance payments since the 2005 fiscal year, just ahead of Nebraska at $24,340,701. I’m no bean counter here, so I am just going with the flow of what I can see. Really, though, it matters not. And whatever that number may be, the ship had to be turned around. Call it CODB, cost of doing business. Clean up your mistakes and move on. Why? Because the people writing the checks want it done. They are the ultimate underwriters. And in the present-day promiscuity of money grabs, really $25-$30M is chump change. Not since Charlie Pell went to Ben Hill Griffin circa 1981, and got him to pony up $22M for the stadium and oligarch status in Gator Nation, has the money flowed like this. New facilities, new shine and perhaps a new day. How much? I can’t even count that high, but if Florida doesn’t play winning football, it won’t be because of a money shortage. Hugh Hathcock’s $12.6 M, plus Gator Collective’s deep pockets and the ingenuity and foresight of founder Eddie Rojas keep the green stuff rolling in. Gary Condron has raised $30M, including a recent $8M for the Condron Family Ball Park. I respectfully refer to them as the Gators’ Good Guy Oligarchs because of their generosity, wealth and influence, not given to I’ll-gotten gain as are the Russians. Because of their visibility. Unlike Ben Hill, a country boy at heart who cared more about eating barbecued ribs and collard greens and corn bread on his front porch in Frostproof than being paraded before the masses, these new, kind and gentle American oligarchs are being introduced by the coach at Gator Clubs while happily investing their millions in Gator annuities. However, while this may sound uber-generous, the fact is that when Griffin stroked that $22M check, according to my high -finance friend Rob, it was the equivalent of $90 million today. So keep it coming Boys (And Girls) of Ol’ Florida. You’ve got ways to go before you catch Ol’ Ben Hill. And by the way, that cake ain’t getting wet, because it’s just raining dollars.

By LOREN MEADOWS GatorBaitMedia.com Football Analyst Since 2013, the Florida Gators have had at least one player drafted in the first round in the National Football League Draft in all but one year. The 2019 draft would see five Florida Gators drafted but none in the first round. In that draft Jawann Taylor would be the 3rd pick of round two by the Jacksonville Jaguars. In the drafts to follow, former Gator CJ Henderson was taken with the ninth pick of the first round in 2020 by the Jaguars. 2021 would see the Gators have the most players drafted since 2017, highlighted by Kyle Pitts becoming the highest drafted tight end when he was taken fourth by the Atlanta Falcons and Kadarius Toney going to the New York Giants as the 20th overall pick . This year’s draft class for the Florida Gators is a mixed bag of talented, often injured, yet underused athletes that —based on their skill sets — could-be contributors on NFL rosters for multiple seasons. The highest rated prospect of the class was cornerback Kaiir Elam, who held his breath Thursday hoping for that first round bid, but realizing it was perhaps dicey. He could finally exhale about 2/3rds of the way through round one when the Buffalo Bills picked him at number 23. Elam brings a high level of intelligence and personality to the cornerback position which blends with obvious athleticism and physicality. Steady as a freshman contributor, Elam burst onto the scene with a game-sealing interception in Florida’s 2020 Orange Bowl victory over Virginia. The last two years, Elam prospered as a physical boundary corner who covered some of the nation’s best wide receivers. At 6-1½ 191 pounds, Elam possesses the size and strength to play with leverage at the line of scrimmage. His intelligence and feel for the game allow Elam to be patient against release moves, and mirror routes post releases. While many NFL passing games rely on cornerbacks to “take the bait,” Elam allows his eyes to maintain focus and rarely go for the double moves which he’ll frequently see at the next level. While only having five career interceptions in three years at Florida, Elam has an extremely high success rate when defending contested catches. This number can also be representative of opposing quarterbacks looking away from him to attack other defenders. Where Elam will need to improve is in evaluating the route combination of NFL offenses. In addition, Elam’s physicality could become a curse at the next level as the grabbing and holding allowed at the college level will draw immediate penalties on Sunday afternoons. Elam was clocked at 4.39 at the NFL combine and has plenty of top-end speed for the NFL. The key will be to not panic and use his hands excessively when dealing with some of the better vertical threats of his future opponents. Most importantly, Elam brings high character to a franchise exhibited by his academic success at Florida as well as his role as the Gators representative on the SEC Football Leadership Council. Prior to the draft, many experts had Elam as a sure-fire first round draft pick anywhere from pick 23 to 31 with the Chiefs, Buccaneers, Cardinals, and Bengals as possible landing spots. Two other former Gators are intriguing prospects in the 2022 Draft albeit for different reasons: Running Back Dameon Pierce: Weight room giant Dameon Pierce may have been one of the most underused athletes at Florida. It may be this limited usage that leads NFL teams to look at Pierce as early as the second Round. With only 329 carries in 39 games with the Gators, Pierce has shown the ability to stay healthy and available which is a premium at the pro level. Pierce is a downhill runner who processes running lanes quickly and rarely hesitates. He is a willing blocker in pass protection and finishes most runs. Pierce averaged a touchdown (13) every seven touches in 2021, and despite a small but solid physique (5-10, 218 pounds) has a knack for finding room on short yardage and in small spaces. The gift of limited usage could also be a curse as many teams may box him as a situational back as he only carried the ball ten or more times in nine career games. Draft experts have Pierce going as high as 29th to the Dolphins with the Eagles, Lions, Bears, Jets, Chiefs, and Falcons in Rounds 3 or 4. Linebacker Jeremiah Moon: At 6-5 and 248 pounds, Moon has intriguing length, athleticism, and range. While his development from edge rusher to linebacker was limited by three season ending injuries while at Florida, he has always been admired for his high level of character and the ability to prepare. A “team-first” guy, Moon could be an instant contributor on special teams who could develop into a situational passing down linebacker. Moon, while not always in position, is a sure tackler when presented the opportunity. His 40-inch vertical leap and 4.55 20-yard shuttle will keep many NFL front offices intrigued by his potential if health and lack of development are no longer an issue. Look for a Day 3 (sixth or seventh round) call for Moon with the Patriots, Jaguars, Bengals, Steelers, or Raiders. Other Possible Gator Draftees --DL Zachary Carter: Potential backup, eventual starter. Round 3 or 4 Seahawks, Vikings, Packers, Browns, Buccaneers. --RB Malik Davis: Practice Squad, special teams, possible 3rd down back. Round 6 or later undrafted. Cowboys, Vikings, Patriots, Buccaneers.

By FRANZ BEARD GatorBaitMedia.com The great roster rebuild has just entered the home stretch for Florida basketball coach Todd Golden. He’s already landed three quality transfers from the portal but with three open scholarships now that Elijah Kennedy announced his departure, things are about to get very interesting. Golden has already landed a pair of multi-position shooters in LSU transfer Alex Fudge and Belmont transfer Will Richard plus super quick point guard Trey Bonham from VMI. It’s one of the better transfer groups assembled this spring, but there is one glaring weakness and a couple of important decisions that have to be made. The weakness is in the front court. Golden has three returnees in All-SEC Colin Castleton, Jason Jitoboh and CJ Felder. As we discovered last year, it’s next to impossible to make it through an SEC season with fewer than four big guys so at least one is needed, preferably one with experience. Mike White had two outstanding big guys signed in Malik Reneau and Jalen Reed, but when White left for Georgia both asked out of their scholarship commitments. Reneau has since signed with Indiana and Reed committed Thursday to LSU. If there is one big guy that checks all the boxes for Golden it is Johni Broome, the Morehead State transfer who was the Ohio Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year. Boome has done an official visit to Florida that reportedly went very well. All indications are that Broome will be deciding between Florida, Auburn and Kentucky. If the Gators have an advantage, it will be the fact that Broome is a Plant City native who played high school ball at Tampa Catholic. Obviously, playing in Gainesville would make it easy for family and friends to attend games. There should be ample familiarity for Golden with Efe Abogidi, the Washington State transfer who played for Kyle Smith, one of Golden’s best friends and mentors. A rim protector like Broome, Abogidi doesn’t have elite offensive skills, but he’s a powerful rebounder. Is he willing to go cross country to a new location to play? And would having fellow Nigerian Jason Jitoboh on the roster be an advantage. From the standpoint of having a game that is the perfect fit for what Golden likes to do offensively, Texas transfer Tre Mitchell is the ideal guy. Florida was in the final mix for Mitchell last year before he transferred from UMass to Texas. One year in Austin and he’s ready to go again. The Mike White offense wouldn’t have worked all that well for Mitchell, but the way Golden spreads the floor and opens things up for a shooter should have an appeal. Florida recruited D.J. Jeffries hard out of high school in Mississippi, but he chose to go to Memphis for his freshman year. He transferred to Mississippi State last year, but is on the move again. He’s a stretch four guy who can score both inside and outside. This will be his second transfer and he’s nowhere close to graduating so would he be able to get a waiver to play immediately? Landing at least one big guy is a requirement, but does Golden go for two bigs and one guard/wing to balance out the roster? Two bigs would certainly take the pressure off Castleton, who has had surgery on his shoulder and now has a four-month rehab ahead of him. Bonham is the only pure point on this roster, but Golden’s point guard from San Francisco – Khalil Shabazz – entered the transfer portal Thursday. He only has one season of eligibility remaining but that would give UF two quick point guards who are excellent press defenders. Another point guard who lists Florida as a possibility is John-Michael Wright of High Point. He’s seriously quick but seems to be a Tyree Appleby clone – a shooting guard in a point guard’s body. The shooter that hasn’t dismissed Florida from his list of suitors is Baylor Scheierman of South Dakota State. Florida is thought to be a long shot since bluebloods like Kansas, Kentucky and Duke are pursuing him along with the likes of Baylor and Gonzaga, but Scheierman can play three positions and the point in a pinch. With Reneau and Reed gone from the recruiting class, Golden has only one high school signee in Denzel Aberdeen. Aberdeen’s high school teammate Riley Kugel was originally signed by Mississippi State but when Ben Howland was fired, Kugel asked out of his commitment. Florida got into the mix when Golden hired Korey McCray, the former Mississippi State assistant who was the lead recruiter for Kugel when he signed with the Bulldogs. By most estimates, Kugel is a mortal lock to Florida, but he hasn’t announced yet, so it’s still up in the air. These aren’t the only possibilities to fill out Golden’s Florida rebuild, but they’re solid possibilities. FOUR BIG GUYS IN THE PORTAL Johni Broome (6-10, 240, Plant City, FL): Broome is a dynamic shot blocker (3,9 per game) who is a good scorer (16.8) and rebounder (10.5). He has a nice fadeaway jumper from the corners and the elbows but he doesn’t venture out beyond the arc (0 attempts in his career). Because of the COVID year of 2020, he has two full seasons of eligibility remaining. He’s been on an official to UF and is thought to have UF on his shortest of short lists. Auburn and Kentucky are thought to be Florida’s biggest competitors. Efe Abogidi (6-10, 225, Lagos, Nigeria by way of Australia): He’s leaving Washington State where he played for Kyle Smith, whom Golden worked for at both Columbia and San Francisco. Also, he came to the US from Australia where Smith and Golden’s college coach Randy Smith recruit heavily, so this is a known quantity. He has two years of eligibility remaining. Averaged 8.1 points and 5.8 rebounds per game last year. Good rim protector. Midrange shooter, but bad from distance (career 25.5 percent). Tre Mitchell (6-9, 220, Pittsburgh, PA): The Gators nearly snagged him a year ago before he transferred from UMass to Texas where he and Chris Beard’s style were bad fits from the beginning. Mitchell went from 18.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per game to 8.7 and 4.0 last year. There is no question he could co-exist with Colin Castleton because he has an effective midrange game that stretches all the way out to the 3-point line where he launched 112 as a freshman in 2020 when he averaged 17.7 points per game. Mitchell would be an excellent fit if the Gators can land him second time around. Because of the COVID year, he has two seasons of eligibility. D.J. Jeffries (6-7, 225, Olive Branch, MS): He’s a former 5-star recruit and has the power forward skills that Golden likes because he can play the high post, shoot from the corners and from the 3-point line (39 percent when he was a freshman in 2019). He averaged 8.9 points and 4.2 rebounds last year at MSU after transferring from Memphis. The concern will be that this is his second transfer. Two years eligibility remaining. NOT BIG GUYS BUT … Baylor Scheierman (6-6, 205, Aurora, NE): This is the best offensive player in the transfer portal. At South Dakota State he averaged 16.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game while shooting 50.8 percent overall and 46.9 percent on his 3-pointers. He has two seasons of eligibility remaining. Everybody wants him, but the Gators are in the mix along with Kentucky, Duke, Arkansas, Gonzaga and UCLA. Florida might be considered a longshot, but the Gators’ chances might be better than anyone can imagine. John-Michael Wright (6-0, 186, Fayetteville, NC): Florida already has one point guard in Trey Bonham but Wright says the Gators are recruiting him. In the Big South Conference at High Point, he averaged 18.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game. Averaged taking 14.3 shots per game for his career, 5.8 from the 3-point line. He has a COVID year so he has two seasons of eligibility. Khalil Shabazz (6-0, 170, Seattle, WA): Shabazz was Todd Golden’s point guard at San Francisco, where he averaged 17.7 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists last season. Career averages are 12.0 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. He’s a career 79.1 percent free throw shooter. He has one year of eligibility remaining due to the COVID year. Riley Kugel (6-5, 180, Orlando, FL): He’s a high school senior and considered a likely Florida signee. He is versatile enough to play three positions including the point. Dr. Phillips won a state title when he was a junior and was runner-up this past season when Kugel averaged 16.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game. The roster as of April 28, 2022 BIG GUYS Colin Castleton (6-11, 240, 5th Year): He played all last season with a torn labrum, which caused him to miss six games and essentially play with one arm the last six weeks of the season. Because he had to have surgery, he did the wise thing by returning to UF for his COVID year. With two healthy shoulders, he should be even more effective next season. He’s made All-SEC two straight years. Averaged 16.2 points, 9.0 rebounds and 2.2 blocked shots per game. Jason Jitoboh (6-11, 285, 4th Year): Jitoboh was showing enormous potential during the time Castleton was injured when he suffered a season-ending eye injury that required surgery. He’s no threat to shoot from the outside, but he’s a huge space eater in the paint who has soft hands and a good basketball IQ. He averaged 4.1 points and 2.4 rebounds per game. He has two years remaining. CJ Felder (6-7, 231, 4th Year): Injuries and illness curtailed his effectiveness last season when he averaged only 3.5 points and 2.3 rebounds. He has a 7-1 wingspan and can guard multiple positions. He actually shoots well from 3-point range, which should make him a good fit in the new offense. It’s his fourth year, but he has two years of eligibility remaining. WINGS Niels Lane (6-6, 206, JR): He was the forgotten man on the bench until late season almost forced Mike White to play him. Given a chance, Lane emerged as a defensive stopper who wasn’t afraid to guard four positions on the floor. He got three starts, averaged 7.6 points per game in the final five games of the season and had an impressive 16 points and nine rebounds against Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament. He has to develop an outside shot but his defensive skills make him invaluable. Kowacie Reeves (6-6, 182, SO): The way he performed late season made everyone in the SEC question why Mike White hadn’t played him more. He averaged 5.5 points per game, but he opened eyes when he scored 21 second half points to help the Gators rally from a double digit deficit to force Texas A&M to overtime in the SEC Tournament. He is a former 5-star recruit that teammates say unequivocally will be a pro. Alex Fudge (6-8, 190, SO/TR): Fudge has the scoring range of a guard and a 7-foot wingspan that allow him to defend small and power forwards. A 5-star recruit out of Jacksonville Lee, Fudge spent his freshman year at LSU where he averaged 3.3 points and 3.2 rebounds. He can bomb away from deep and finish at the rim. GUARDS Myreon Jones (6-3, 175, 5th Year): He was a lost ball in the tall grass in Mike White’s stagnant offense, which has a lot to do with hitting only 32.1 percent of his 3-pointers. He should thrive in Golden’s offense, which spreads the floor and relies on constant motion. He averaged 8.3 points per game last season but was a double figures scorer two seasons at Penn State. Trey Bonham (6-0, 170, JR/TR): The attraction was mutual and obvious for this transfer from VMI. Bonham is a water bug quick point guard accustomed to playing at a breakneck speed, which is exactly what Golden was looking for. He’s a pass first, score second point who had a nearly 2-1 assist-to-turnover ratio last year at VMI. He excels at getting into the lane where he knows when to dump it down to the bigs and when to take it all the way to the rack. He averaged 13.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game last year at VMI. Will Richard (6-5, 195, SO/TR): Richard was one of the more highly sought prospects in the portal because he’s very capable of playing three positions, which makes him an ideal fit in Golden’s offensive and defensive schemes. He averaged 12.1 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.8 assists at Belmont, which won 25 games in the same league as Murray State and Morehead State. Denzel Aberdeen (6-4, 180, FR): Aberdeen played the point at Dr. Phillips but he’s more of a natural wing. Signed by Mike White last November, he hasn’t wavered from his commitment to Florida since the transition from White to Golden.