Matt Baker, who is now with the Athletic, reports the following:
"Athletes who are being recruited by NCAA schools will now have the ability to negotiate name, image and likeness (NIL) compensation under the terms of a proposed settlement of an antitrust lawsuit brought by the states of Tennessee and Virginia against the NCAA in 2024.

"If approved by a judge, the NCAA will stop enforcing rules prohibiting NIL from being used as a recruiting inducement. The NCAA also will not adopt any new rules banning NIL in recruiting.

"The changes come after a federal lawsuit was filed in January 2024 by the attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia after an NCAA inquiry into potential recruiting/NIL violations surrounding Volunteers quarterback Nico Iamaleava. He was a five-star recruit whose multi-million-dollar recruiting process drew national attention. Florida, New York and the District of Columbia eventually joined in the suit against the NCAA.

"In February 2024, a federal judge sided with the states, granting a preliminary injunction that kept the NCAA from enforcing its rules. The state and association announced in January that they were settling the case before filing the proposed terms Monday."

Athletic Article

Let's go back a year or so, after the courts forced NIL upon collegiate athletics.

After being defeated and forced to comply with NIL, the NCAA could only offer NIL "guidelines" to member institutions: 1. No pay for play and 2. And don't use NIL as a recruiting inducement.

Immediately, my lawyer buddies - including @AllNoles -- predicted those "guidelines" would be contested in court and now that they have been, the NCAA has to back off enforcement.

Our legal buddies were right from a legal perspective. Absolutely.

What the NCAA tried to do with its voluntary group of members was to issue "guidelines" to follow... a last-ditch appeal to college coaches to follow higher angels. The NCAA had to know those guidelines would be ignored by the coaches competing for recruits to save their jobs. And once the NCAA tried to "enforce those guidelines" they were legally doomed.

I think this leads collegiate athletics deeper into the wild west AND closer to either making them employees so the schools can collective bargain compensation, or to a legislative solution, a carve out or an anti-trust exemption for colleges.

What do you think?

Four-star QB Bowe Bentley was on campus yesterday and another four-star QB Landon Duckworth has set up an official visit with FSU. But there is another name that could be thrown in the ring in the event of some QB dominoes.

This is premium content. Please subscribe to view.

Stanford announced Troy Taylor has been dismissed. It's possible an interim head coach will be taking over for the season.

FSU travels to Stanford on Oct. 18

Login to view embedded media

Florida State (18-1) wraps up a lengthy homestand with a Tuesday matchup against Mercer (14-7) at 6 p.m. There will be a live stream on ACC Network Extra.

FSU will start freshman left-hander Payton Manca (1-0, 2.45 ERA). Mercer will throw senior right-hander Jeb Johnson (2-0, 3.77 ERA).

We'll seek out an update postgame on Evan Chrest, who has not pitched since suffering an apparent arm injury last week against Florida.

I'm also curious postgame to hear from Link Jarrett about BJ Gibson and if the receiver/outfielder will travel to Coral Gables for the Miami series, which starts on Thursday night.

FSU's 2025 baseball stats

We'll have updates from FSU-Mercer below in the thread.

The biggest game to date of the 2025 Florida State baseball season has arrived.

The fifth-ranked Seminoles (15-0) are hosting the seventh-ranked Florida Gators (15-2) Tuesday night at Dick Howser Stadium (6 p.m. on ACC Network Extra). It's the first top-10 matchup in the rivalry since 2019.

FSU leads the all-time series over the Gators 134-127-1 and enters this game on a three-game winning streak after sweeping UF last year by a combined 45-15 margin with a pair of run-rule victories.

The Seminoles will start junior right-handed pitcher Evan Chrest for his fourth midweek start of the season. He's got a 2.87 ERA over 15.2 innings this season and is coming off a stellar game vs. North Florida where he allowed one run on four hits over six innings.

Florida will start Clemson transfer and redshirt junior RHP Billy Barlow. He's also starting his fourth midweek game of the season and has a 2.51 ERA over 14.1 innings.

FSU starting lineup


Florida starting lineup


I'm here at Howser and will have updates once the game gets underway at the top of the hour.

On the first weekend of ACC play, the Florida State baseball team plays its first doubleheader of the 2025 season Saturday afternoon.

The No. 5 Seminoles (16-1) close out their weekend series vs. Boston College (7-7) with a two-game set on Saturday starting at 1 p.m.

After he was scratched last Friday due to a reported illness, FSU ace Jamie Arnold is back on the mound for Game 1 of the doubleheader. The awards contender has a 1.12 ERA and a 2-0 record through three starts this season with 24 strikeouts to two walks over 16 innings with just seven hits allowed. BC will counter with senior LHP Tyler Mudd (0-1, 6.75 ERA) on the mound in Game 1. He's allowed 11 earned runs over 14.2 innings this season with 14 strikeouts to eight walks.

In Game 2 of the day, slated for about 45 minutes after the first game concludes, FSU will throw sophomore LHP Wes Mendes (3-0, 0.89 ERA) against a TBD starter for Boston College.

Here are the lineups for Game 1

FSU


BC


I'll be here all day with updates for the full doubleheader.

FSU sports information:

Florida State junior guard Ta’Niya Latson and senior forward Makayla Timpson were among the 50 finalists for 10-member Women’s Basketball Coaches Association NCAA Division 1 Coaches’ All-America team.

The WBCA, founded in 1981, is the professional association for coaches of women’s and girls’ basketball at all competition levels. The WBCA provides opportunities, coaching and educational resources, and advocacy while recognizing excellence in the sport through awards and programs. It plays a key role in growing the game by fostering leadership and networking among coaches.

Latson became the fastest to score 2,000 points in Florida State basketball history and closed out the season as the nation's leading scorer with 25.2 points per game. She set the FSU single-season scoring record on Monday night, passing the mark that Sue Galkantas set in 1981-82 (710), finishing with 731 points.

Timpson owns the FSU career record for double-doubles (46) and rebounds (1,094). She also set FSU single-season record in blocks (103) and rebounds (350), passing her own marks she set as a junior. Timpson also leads Power 4 players with an average 3.12 blocks per game.

Both Timpson and Latson earned AP All-American honors and were named All-ACC First Team. Timpson also made her third All-ACC Defensive team.

NCAA Division I head coaches who are WBCA members may nominate players from their own teams for Coaches’ All-America. They then vote for the top players in their respective regions from among those players who are nominated. The WBCA NCAA Division I Awards Committee, which is composed of head coaches from each region who are elected by their peers, may select up to 12 additional at-large finalists from the remaining pool of nominees.

The committee will meet in Tampa in conjunction with the annual WBCA Convention to select the 2025 WBCA NCAA Division I Coaches’ All-America team to be announced on April 3.

Happy for Cal. Great guy

Login to view embedded media

FSU sports information:

The sixth-seeded Florida State women's basketball team (24-8, 13-5 ACC) will play third-seeded LSU (29-5, 12-4) on Monday at 6 p.m. (ESPN) in the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.

After defeating 11th-seeded George Mason (27-6, 14-4 A10) 94-59 in the first round on Saturday night, the Seminoles earned the first NCAA Tournament victory since 2019 and defeated the Patriots in their first-ever meeting, scoring the second-highest total in a March Madness game in FSU history. Coach Brooke Wyckoff earned her first NCAA Tournament program win.

The No. 22 Seminoles and No. 10 Tigers have meet 10 times, only once in the postseason back in 2007. Florida State won the last meeting 70-62 on the road in 2019, but LSU holds the series lead 6-4.

With the second-highest scoring offense in the nation at 87.4 points per game, the Noles are led by Ta’Niya Latson, who is the nation’s leading scorer at 25.0 points per game.

The game will air on ESPN and the Seminole Sport Network can be found at 96.5 The Spear, Seminoles.com and Sirius XM.

Luke Petitbon readily acknowledges he doesn't want to reflect or compare what Wake Forest and Dave Clawson did the last few years to what he's experiencing now at Florida State with Mike Norvell and a new coaching staff.

But in discussing the Seminoles' practices through four days of spring practice, Petitbon feels the physicality. And embraces it.

"Practices are physical here for sure," said Petitbon, a two-year starter at Wake. "It’s nice having guys like Darrell Jackson to go against every day. He’s getting me so much better. It’s why I came to a place like Florida State, to go against the best. That’s the biggest thing. Going against those type of guys is something I really appreciate and I think will make us all better in the long run."

Will have some more notes from coach Norvell later tonight. He announces DB Edwin Joseph will miss the spring with what he calls a "small injury."

After 12 straight games at home, the Florida State baseball team is playing its first road game in over three weeks Thursday night.

The No. 5 Seminoles (18-2) will look to bounce back from Tuesday's 9-3 loss to Mercer with a three-game weekend series at Miami (13-9) which begins Thursday night at 8 p.m. with FSU's first nationally-televised game of the season on ACC Network.

FSU began ACC play last weekend with a home sweep of Boston College while Miami opened ACC play on the wrong end of a sweep at Wake Forest last weekend. FSU is 162-136-4 all-time vs. Miami and is swept the Hurricanes last season in Tallahassee. However, FSU was swept in its last trip to Coral Gables back in 2023.

FSU will start redshirt junior LHP Joey Volini (5-0, 0.92 ERA) in his first road start of the season after his first five FSU starts came in home games. Miami is set to throw sophomore RHP Nick Robert (2-3, 6.08 ERA), who allowed six earned runs on eight hits over five innings in his first ACC start last week at Wake.

I'm not there in Coral Gables this weekend but I'll throw in starting lineups once they're available and be posting remote updates all weekend long once the series gets underway tonight.

Rivals100 Edge Jake Kreul made it back on campus for another look at Florida State on Thursday and the four-star had some positive things to say about his visit. The new coaching staff (and returning) really made a point to let him know how much of a priority he is to them as they battle 11 other teams for one of Kreul's five official visits.

This is premium content. Please subscribe to view.