On the X/C Course

The @USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week ‼️#WreckEm pic.twitter.com/ynOFw4Xo5Y

— Texas Tech Track & Field (@TexasTechTF) October 7, 2024

On the Court

BOUNCEMAN 😤#TTW | @DevanCambridge pic.twitter.com/1Ct40hAIoD

— Texas Tech Basketball (@TexasTechMBB) October 7, 2024

I was a bit concerned that Cambridge was not in a good spot based on prior reports and it appears that he is doing just fine.

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Nathan Giese on Grant McCasland being mentioned for the Baylor job if Scott Drew were to have left for Kentucky:

McCasland now intends to continue that upward trajectory

“I just feel like this is the right time,” McCasland said, “and we’re at the right place and we’ve got a roster that I believe in and a place that I feel like we can win a national championship. And we’ve never done that in men’s basketball, and that’s honestly something that really sticks with me.

“I believe in this place and I believe that we can do it here, and there’s no place I’d rather be.”

Texas Tech’s Wes Bloomquist with a really long article about how the current team developed a love for basketball. This is such a small part, but good stuff and recommend.

Eemeli Yalaho, sophomore from Jyväskylä, Finland: “My first team was with other kids who were four years older than me. It was fun, but tough. The only basket I scored that entire year was at the very end of the season in a tournament. It was just one basket but I still remember it giving me a feeling that I could do it.”

Christian Anderson, freshman from Atlanta, Georgia: “I fell in love with the game right away. As far back as I can remember. My life has always revolved around the game. Watching my dad play basketball was where I first started loving the game. I remember watching him play in Germany with my siblings and wanting to be just like him.”

JT Toppin, sophomore from Dallas: “I was a football player until middle school. I didn’t start playing basketball until I was about 13. I made the switch. I didn’t make my seventh-grade team but I tried again the next year and made the eighth-grade team. I just kept working and fell in love with the game.”

On the Gridiron

Via Texas Tech, the Baylor game is set for a 3:00 p.m. kickoff broadcast on ESPN2 and Tahj Brooks was named the Big 12 Co-Offensive Player of the Week.

ESPN on the topsy-turvy nature of the Big 12:

If you want to appreciate the unpredictable nature of this new 16-team edition of the Big 12, just check the conference standings. There are five teams that have yet to lose a conference game. Those teams were picked to finish 6th, 7th, 9th, 11th and 13th in the league’s preseason media poll.

Iowa State and BYU are still undefeated and among the biggest beneficiaries of all the Saturday chaos at the top of the polls, rising to No. 11 and No. 14 respectively in the new AP Top 25. Texas Tech is off to a 3-0 start in conference play after a late-night road win at Arizona. West Virginia started the year 1-2, but just dominated Oklahoma State in Stillwater. And Dillingham’s Sun Devils pulled off one of the best wins of his tenure, a last-minute comeback to defeat Kansas.

The struggles of the Jayhawks (1-5) and Cowboys (3-3) have been genuinely surprising given all the talent they returned for 2024, and TCU (3-3) is heading in the wrong direction. But that’s the nature of this conference: Evenly matched teams, close games and upsets aplenty.

In the Courtroom

CBS Sports’ Shehan Jeyarajah, USA Today’s Steve Berkowitz, and Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger on the judge giving preliminary approval of the House vs. NCAA case. This may be a lot of noise to you (it is for me), but it was pretty big news yesterday. From the USA Today article about what yesterday means:

The decision moves the NCAA and the conferences closer to funding a $2.8 billion damages pool for current and former athletes over a span of 10 years and sets the stage for a fundamental change in college sports — Division I schools being allowed to start paying athletes directly for use of their name, image and likeness, subject to a per-school cap that would increase over time.

However, the settlement process is not over, and potentially far from it.

The process of officially notifying current and former athletes of the terms and claims procedures is set to begin on Oct. 18. Those who would be covered by the agreement will have the opportunity to object or opt out by Jan. 31, 2025. And a final approval hearing has been scheduled for April 7, 2025.

And from the Yahoo article:

Though not solving all of the woes in the industry, the settlement is expected to move college sports closer to a more professionalized model — a move to stave off court rulings and state laws that continue pushing college administrators to share more of their revenue with athletes.

However, the settlement does not completely avoid some future legal challenges, does not prevent athletes from being deemed employees and still may need the assistance of Congress. NCAA and college leaders, as they have for the last five years, continue to lobby on Capitol Hill for more protections.

No school is required to share revenue with athletes, and schools can choose to opt out of the settlement. Commissioners of several basketball-only playing conferences and those in the FCS say they do not expect many or any of their schools to opt into the settlement. Several programs in the Group of Five ranks are not expected to share much, if any, revenue with athletes as many of those schools are hamstrung financially and use student fees and state tax dollars to operate their athletic departments.

The settlement moreso targets the revenue-producing football schools of the power conferences. For months now, power league administrators have worked to devise strategies for the impending revenue-sharing concept, creating contract templates with athletes, re-organizing their booster collectives and adding personnel for deal negotiations.