Brian Barrio

@NILnotNLI @GoodmanHoops I originally thought this, but for about a decade, the APR made a real difference in how seriously programs took academic progress. Not anymore.

@GoodmanHoops APR was always a meaningless metric, created solely for PR: ​A PR metric. ​It is as meaningless as the NCAA's fake grad rates, the GSR. ​In the next few days, you will read about pretty much every D1 school touting its high APR scores. Don't buy the hype.

So, lemme get this straight. We got kids jumping 4 places in 4 years with no transfer rules and Detroit Mercy gets hit with a postseason ban for APR??? C'mon, what in the HELL are we doing. You can't enforce the Academic Progress Report right now with the chaos that's allowed.

@GoodmanHoops I was thinking the exact same thing when I read this story. The APR was made for a different system, totally arbitrary to do this to struggling low majors right now. Good on you, Jeff, for saying this.

@ChristianDMZ @TheHughezy Insanity

@TheHughezy That’s being far too kind to Die Hard 2. I would rather watch Cutthroat Island

Die Hard 2 is barely decent?!

@OversteerTV @kurt_loder @itsjohntiller I missed that it said American. That settles it then, perfect list.

@BMBarrio @kurt_loder @itsjohntiller Neil Young is Canadian

New York Times magazine has published its list of “The 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters” What do we think folks? Have they missed anyone out? 😯

@kurt_loder @itsjohntiller Certainly you agree that Mariah Carey is a better songwriter than Neil Young, no?

@itsjohntiller Where to even frickin begin?

@CBB_Central Awful.

For those wondering what a new “First 12” might look like in a 76-team field:

@NILnotNLI This was predictable. You can't spend one dollar two times. If some players have to be paid now, the money has to be pulled from somewhere.

And we've got 2 more NCAA Olympic sports discarded by their host school. NCAA D3 Marian University has eliminated Men's & Women's Lacrosse. In just the past 2 WEEKS, we've lost 24 Olympic sports programs — 11 discontinued and 13 due to school closure. THIS IS A CRISIS

@BobIrvingCJOB Playing for 5 months to eliminate one team seems odd

Need some time to digest DRAMATIC changes made to the CFL schedule and playoff format for 2027. Love the Victoria Day weekend start and Nov 7 end of the season. 8 of 9 teams in the playoffs, seriously?? More games, more excitement says the league. Still digesting.

@DanWolken Teams currently tank to increase their odds from 11.5% to 14%, or is my math wrong? Why would they not tank under this system?

This is all just incredibly stupid. It will make things more confusing for fans, increase the prominence of luck and probably won’t change tanking to any significant degree because ultimately there are going to be bad teams

When I was a 1st time AD and had 3 young kids, @NECcommish was in town for a game and offered to watch the 3 of them that night so my wife and I could have a night out. No we didn't put her through that, but I've been a fan for life since then. What other commissioner is that selfless and kind? As good a person as there is in the business. Congrats!

@therealTM_1 @SethDavisHoops That's a fair point, but unfortunately many of the families in this thing don't have any experience navigating college, let alone college sports. And they're being preyed on by "agents" and coaches.

@BMBarrio @SethDavisHoops Shouldn't that blame be placed on the athelte and their parents. They could easily stay at the school and get a valuable degree.

The reason we have unlimited free agency is because in 2023 the NCAA denied a waiver to a basketball player at West Virginia. With the school's encouragement and support, the state AG recruited a dozen other states plus the US Dept of Justice to mount a legal assault on the transfer rule. That forced the NCAA to pass a new rule allowing players to transfer as often as they want without having to sit out. The reason we have zero salary cap is because despite many years of expensive legal wrangling to produce the House settlement, schools and coaches are basically operating as if it never happened. The CSC and NIL Go might as well be canasta clubs. It's a money laundering shell game with no enforcement and no proper scrutiny. The very same people who complain the loudest about the system are the ones who created it. As for a union and collective bargaining, not only is that legally improbable and logistically unfeasible, but the players have no incentive to create a CBA which would limit their freedom of movement and/or compensation. Players are making a killing off the current setup, which simply requires the NCAA to follow the law as it is currently written. Why would they want a CBA? And why is it a problem for so many people that players are finally benefiting from the exponential growth and profitability of this sport? Meanwhile, within the last few days at least three players, including two projected lottery picks, turned down the NBA to come back to college. Dozens of quality Euros are also playing in college. Rick Pitino and many others say the quality of play is better than it has been in decades. Coaches salaries are going up, players are finally making what they're worth, and TV ratings are through the roof. And now college hoops has legit free agency, which means many people are paying close attention to the sport at a time when they otherwise wouldn't. To call this "a great plan" is to suggest that all of this was planned. It was not. This is a full-scale disruption, and it was long overdue. Messy, chaotic, confusing and dizzying, yes, but on balance a much better system than the one it replaced IMHO.

@DanWolken So accurate

I’m not sure anyone in the history of humanity has been hoodwinked to the degree the people in college sports who signed off on this settlement were hoodwinked.

@GlobeBobRyan @TheNBABase @WindhorstESPN @hoopstonite Ratings are up for absolutely everything, since Nielsen altered how it measures viewership to capture all streaming views and also bars and other public places. That particular metric means nothing year-over-year in 2026.

@TheNBABase @WindhorstESPN @hoopstonite So why were attendance and ratings so good this year?

Nike is reportedly struggling to sell basketball shoes because NBA players "aren’t as popular as they used to be," per @WindhorstESPN Financial experts claim the lack of player popularity is now directly hitting Nike’s revenue and stock price. (Via @hoopstonite )

@DanWolken @CurtApsey @dennisdoddcbs The federal government doesn't tell the NFL it is required to provide comparable opportunities for other athletes with their revenue from football. Until and unless someone addresses the Title IX/revenue generation conundrum your comparison doesn't really work.

Curt, respectfully, this is the issue. The revenue picture looks much more like the NFL than anything else in the world. Your colleagues were slow to admit that but there’s no way to reconcile it with the old college model. The reason this hasn’t been solved is that people keep trying to say what this business isn’t when the path to sanity is starting with what it is

It sounds crazy perhaps but the top athletic departments are at $200 million in revenue. In the NBA and NFL, roughly 50% of the revenue goes to the players. Do the math.

@mikedolanny @MLB_PR Ted had more HRs following the 1951 season than Hank Sauer ever hit, and he remained active through 1960. Bad stat.

@MLB_PR Am I misreading this? Wouldn't Ted Williams have been one of the top 4 active home run hitters in 1956?

@MLBStats @EliasSports @Angels @Yankees Ted Williams had more HRs by 1951 than Hank Sauer hit in his career. This stat seems wrong.

@NILnotNLI Lawsuit #1: 5 year limit is an arbitrary restraint on the right of players to earn money Lawsuit#2: Maternity leave is an exception, why isn't PATERNITY leave Lawsuit #3: Pregnancy is a medical issue that prevents participation, so is my plaintiff's condition Lawsuit #4...

An NCAA proposal for changes to athletics eligibility:

@Super70sSports Looked bizarre in the Sox uniform AND refused an autograph for me when I was 12 and ran into him at a hotel. NEVER FORGET😅

It’s time for another “Doesn’t look right in that uniform” thread. I’ll start with this one that I’m frankly still processing …

@McCannSportsLaw @Sportico Have general taxpayers ever been found to have standing to challenge government waste in court? I thought no.

Fascinating case as a Rutgers alum who is a New Jersey taxpayer sues the school claiming it is wasting public money on athletics. There are some good sports business points raised, but case will face hurdles—especially as to standing. My @Sportico take: sportico.com/law/analysis/2….