Texas Tech made it official with the hire of Kellen Buffington:

While operating The TB5Reports, Buffington helped identify and scout highly successful players like Mike Miles, Cade Cunningham, Anthony Black, Cason Wallace, Keyonte George and Jordan Walsh among others many others for NBA front offices and collegiate programs throughout the country. He also founded The Blueprint5 in 2013 which is a basketball program for young men in inner-city neighborhoods and was a juvenile detention officer for three years within the Dallas Juvenile Justice department.

Dave Campbell’s Texas Football’s Mike Craven ranks the quarterback position in the state of Texas and Texas Tech is 2nd behind Texas.

It’s preseason awards season as defensive tackle Jaylon Hutchings was named to the Bronko Nagurski Trophy and Outland Trophy watch lists. Also quarterback Tyler Shough was named to the Maxwell Award watch list.

Red Raider Sports’ Justin Apodaca has major storylines and breakout candidates for Texas Tech football as preseason camp is set to start:

Breakout Player: LB Jesiah Pierre

Pierre flashed a ton in 2022 at the OLB position, sometimes coming off the edge for the Red Raiders, but in 2023 he will be moving back to a position he played earlier in his collegiate career, inside linebacker.

He and Jacob Rodriguez have some major shoes to fill after the departure of Krishon Merriweather and Kosi Eldridge, the tandem that racked up 203 total tackles last season.

Pierre is the most athletic in the linebacking corps and will be in position to make a ton of plays for the Red Raider defense in 2023.

This is wild. Des Moines Register’s Travis Hines and Randy Peterson report that Iowa State Hunter Dekkers is accused of betting on Iowa State 26 times and had 366 wagers on Draft Kings overall. Through his attorney, Dekkers is saying that he will plead not guilty.

Wildcat Authority’s Jason Scheer reports on the Pac-12 deal:

The Pac-12 held a meeting on Tuesday morning in which George Kliavkoff was able to finally present numbers. There were three different deals presented, but the one that Kliavkoff felt the strongest about was led by Apple with a base in the low $20 million range.

As we previously reported, the deal includes heavy incentives that are based on subscriptions directly related to the Pac-12. The base number of the deal is considerably low compared to other Power 5 conferences, but the selling point would be that if the Pac-12 hits certain subscription number, it could possibly surpass the Big 12 base.

Sources indicate that those subscription numbers would have to be substantial in order to get to that level.

The problem with the offer is that it makes it difficult for athletic departments to figure out their budgets without knowing exactly how much they can spend. Additionally, the base of $20 million isn’t enough.

Yahoo!Sports’ Ross Dellenger also reports that the Pac-12 is near an end:

The presentation actually featured at least two proposals, one less lucrative than the other, depending on the amount of subscription-based incentives met and the addition of outside linear partners, such as ESPN and Fox, who would share in the broadcasting rights of marquee games.

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One source described the presented TV deal as not suitable enough to keep all three within the league. After a year of TV negotiations — with miscalculations and missteps along the way — could the deal somehow get better over a matter of days?

“If we had a good deal, we’d have presented it earlier,” says one league source.

And so, what now? The decision from Arizona, Arizona State and Utah could have a cataclysmic impact on the college sports landscape, spanning coast to coast and impacting as many as five leagues.