The Unofficial Furman Football Page

NCAA Division I Council proposes cutting transfer portal window in half


The NCAA Division I Council proposed changes to the transfer period windows that would reduce the total number of days that student athletes can enter the transfer portal from 60 down to 30.

As it stands now, there is a transfer window in college football that starts the day after the College Football Playoff teams are announced, which was Dec. 4 in 2022, and is open for 45 days. Another transfer window is open in the spring from April 15 to April 30.

For winter sports, there is a 60-day window that begins with a given sport's championship selection and there is a 45-day window for spring sports that begins with that sport's championship selection, as well.

The transfer windows were created this past year to limit the timeframe for which athletes can transfer from school to school.

Undergraduate student-athletes must enter their name in the transfer portal during those windows to be granted immediate eligibility at their next school of choice. They are not required to transfer within those dates, as long as their name is entered prior to the closing of the respective transfer window.

A total of 2,224 Division I football players entered the transfer portal this past winter and 1,373 entered in the spring. The Council says in its release that they have data from this past year that indicates most student-athletes enter the portal at the beginning of the transfer window.

With the proposal, oversight committees and the Division I Student Athlete Advisory Committee will gather additional feedback and offer possible amendments this summer. The Council will then consider a final vote during its October meeting.

NCAA tables vote for summer basketball


A proposal to allow college basketball exhibitions in the summer months has been tabled, according to a release by the NCAA's men's and women's basketball oversight committees on Wednesday.

The Basketball Summer Initiative, a movement to create a bigger offseason spotlight for the sport, has gained momentum in recent years, resulting in a discussion about the possibility of limited competition in the summer, including two exhibitions, scrimmages or "tournament-style" matchups for teams that would be open to the public.


But the oversight committees for men's and women's basketball said they would continue to "review" the proposal without voting on it for the 2023-24 legislative session. According to the release, 47% of men's basketball coaches and 59% of women's basketball coaches who were polled did not support the summer basketball proposal. Those numbers were even higher among leadership: More than 60% of collegiate administrators polled did not support the summer basketball proposal.



But the majority of college basketball players, on men's and women's teams, supported the concept. Nearly 70% of men's college basketball players and 63% of women's basketball players who were polled either "somewhat or strongly" supported the measure.

The committees said, however, that the sport has other priorities right now.

The transfer portal, the future of name, image and likeness rights and potential expansion of the NCAA tournament have all warranted significant discussion and investment within the sport this year.

"We appreciate the membership's time and openness to exploring concepts to continue to grow excitement in women's basketball, while also enhancing the skill development of our student-athletes," said Kathy Meehan, senior deputy athletic director at St. John's (New York) and chair of the women's basketball Summer Initiative Working Group, in a statement. "We understand the challenges schools are navigating in the current landscape, and those should be prioritized at this time; however, we hope to restart this important dialogue in the near future."

Sion James, a Tulane basketball player and a member of the men's basketball oversight committee, said players deserve an opportunity to compete in the summer.

"This concept would enhance the summer experience for Division I basketball players," said James, per the release. "We would receive another opportunity to gauge our development while experiencing the joy of low-pressure basketball. The game is becoming more unscripted, so the successful players are the ones who improve their feel for the game by playing in live action in addition to their one-on-zero workouts."

Some nonprofit NIL collectives may not qualify as tax-exempt


The rapidly expanding landscape of nonprofit, donor-backed collectives paying college athletes to promote charities has been hit with a potentially seismic disruption.

A recent 12-page memo from the Internal Revenue Service determined that, in many cases, such collectives may not qualify as tax-exempt if their main purpose is paying players instead of supporting charitable works.

If the collectives aren't tax-exempt, the donations they collect that are used to pay quarterbacks, point guards and pitchers may not be, either.

"There's a high likelihood we will cease operations, within the next period of months," said Gary Marcinick, founder of the Cohesion Foundation, a collective formed to connect Ohio State athletes with charities for name, image and likeness (NIL) promotional deals. "In our space, we are donor driven. ... It's not only a game changer, it's a game ender, I think, in the vast majority of cases."

The collectives were born out of the massive change that hit college sports in 2021 when athletes were allowed to earn money in ways that had been prohibited for decades.

Some collectives -- and there are dozens of them -- are set up as for-profit entities that help connect athletes with endorsement deals as the new market swelled into the millions and NIL became a recruiting tool. Opendorse, a company that partners with schools to help initiate, track and monitor NIL deals, projected nearly $1.2 billion flowing through the industry in 2023.

The nonprofit model was an attractive option for some donors and entrepreneurs, who tout such things as appearances at sports camps and fundraisers and social media promotions for select charities. There are an estimated 80 such collectives.

Charities gained exposure from star athletes who earned money. And donors got the promise of a tax-deductible donation.

According to the IRS, those collectives already granted tax-exempt status don't lose it as a result of the June 9 memo. But it does lay out new guidelines for how they are expected to operate if they want to keep it.

"These collectives may face future examinations or enforcement action by the IRS," the agency said without elaboration.

"The big question is whether this memo will spook donors enough that they will no longer want to donate to nonprofit collectives, and schools enough that they tell donors not to donate to them," said Mit Winter, a sports law attorney in Kansas City, Missouri, who tracks issues in the college athlete marketplace.

Congress has also been watching. A bipartisan bill filed in 2022 would limit tax deductions for bankrolling nonprofit NIL collectives, but it has yet to pass.

The IRS was granting tax-exempt status to collectives for more than a year before issuing the memo that determined, in many cases, paying players isn't merely incidental to the charitable cause but "is the very justification for the organization's existence."

"The only question was to what extent would the IRS would put its thumb on the scales. It was pretty clear many of these organizations were pushing the boundaries," said Brian Mittendorf, an accounting professor at Ohio State with a concentration on nonprofits.

"The IRS memo put a line in the sand," Mittendorf said. "Paying college athletes is not a charitable purpose. Paying an athlete and doing some charitable work on the side, is also not a charitable purpose."

The IRS warning should not have come as a surprise, said Jason Belzer, founder of Student Athlete NIL, which operates several commercial collectives for schools across the country.

"All of these nonprofits were paid solely for paying student athletes, not for doing the charitable work," Belzer said. "That's racketeering."

The NCAA has raised concerns about the collectives, but the federal government is a different story when it comes to enforcing rules that have been somewhat murky when it comes to athlete compensation.

"The IRS," Belzer said, "is not the NCAA."

Eventually, annual financial disclosures required by state and federal regulators will show how much money is collected, spent and to whom. Because these organizations are so new, many of those records haven't been filed yet.

Marcinick said Cohesion has partnered nearly 80 Buckeyes athletes from multiple sports for NIL deals totaling more than $1.5 million. Partner charities include the Ronald McDonald House, Special Olympics, an area food bank and drug and emotional abuse support groups.

"Unfortunately, there are bad actors out there. They have used [nonprofit status] as a way to harvest donations that have nothing to do with a charitable purpose," Marcinick said. "We're a good actor. ... We're paying the price for others."

On June 9, Ohio State's all-Big Ten defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau hosted a football camp for about 80 children backed by the Boys & Girls Club of Central Ohio and the Lindy Infante Foundation, which helps local nonprofits create and improve youth sports programs.

"He talked to the kids, went to every station, signed autographs," said foundation President Stephanie Infante, calling the IRS memo potentially "devastating" if it effectively ends partnerships like that one.

"It was such a great day and great event," Infante said. "Nonprofits struggle as it is. To be able to interact and get involved with athletes who are reaching out ... It's been such a great opportunity for athletes to get involved in their community."

Not everyone is ready to back out of the marketplace.

The Texas One Fund, a multi-pronged collective that includes the Horns With Heart program and its promise of $50,000 for scholarship offensive linemen, intends to keep doing business as usual. The Texas One Fund has long had a disclaimer that a donation could be tax deductible but advice should be sought from a tax attorney.

Texas One Fund will show any nervous donors the group's March 2022 IRS letter granting nonprofit status, said Patrick Smith, the collective's president.

"All we can do is continue to perform the mission of our [nonprofit]," he said. "If that whole thing is disallowed. It would be sad for the charities we are helping out."

Texas One Fund also has a new connection with the university that should help keep the money flowing in. Starting July 1, donors can earn loyalty points with the school-affiliated Longhorn Foundation for season-ticket selections and upgrades.

"I don't know what effect the memo will have on NIL giving," Smith said. "Whether it's a [nonprofit] or not, money is still going to flow to college athletes."

CAA renamed Coastal Athletic Conference amid new membership


The Colonial Athletic Conference has been renamed the Coastal Athletic Conference, the league announced Thursday.

Known as the CAA, the league has retained that familiar moniker and will keep the same logo. The league has expanded out of its initial Northeast and Mid-Atlantic footprint in recent years amid conference realignment, and sources said the name change was put in place to reflect both the expansion and modernization of the league.

"The Conference's new name represents a culmination of its efforts over the past three years to expand its membership, solidify its geographic footprint and affirm its long-standing mission through a new vision statement which emphasizes that CAA institutions work together to advance nationally competitive college athletic programs -- coupled with outstanding academic programs -- that empower student athletes as whole persons who strive at the highest level in every aspect of their lives," CAA commissioner Joe D'Antonio said in a statement. "Our new name is reflective of the Conference's continuity and unity, as well as each institutions' commitment to be United in Excellence."

The league has been discussing this change for nearly a year, according to sources.

The CAA, which was founded in 1979, is best known nationally as a basketball league that includes programs such as Charleston, Delaware and Towson. The league's heyday in basketball included runs to the Final Four by former members VCU (2016) and George Mason (2006).

The league's football membership varies from the basketball membership, as it stretches from Maine to Elon, Campbell and North Carolina A&T in North Carolina. Schools such as Villanova, Rhode Island and New Hampshire also play football in the CAA.

The basketball footprint stretches from Northeastern in Boston to Charleston in South Carolina. Recent additions to the league have included Campbell, North Carolina A&T, Monmouth, Hampton and Stony Brook.

FU Hoopla wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 20, 2023 11:33 am

CAA renamed Coastal Athletic Conference amid new membership


The Colonial Athletic Conference has been renamed the Coastal Athletic Conference, the league announced Thursday.

Maybe they got tired of being called "Colonizers".

The following excerpts from several articles published before and after George Washington University (an early member of the Atlantic Ten Conference) decided to drop their “Colonials” nickname perhaps provide some additional insight into the CAA’s recent decision.
So now, is the University of South Carolina going to decide that they need to change the name of their arena to something besides Colonial Life Arena (CLA)? Will Colonial Life and Accident Insurance Company need to follow suit (or change their own name and guide USC to do the same with the name of its arena)?
While a slew of professional and collegiate athletic teams have recently changed their names to do away with racially charged titles, George Washington University has joined the move by changing the nickname for its teams.
Known as "Colonials," the university's sports teams were the source of controversy when students said the name had a negative connotation regarding violence toward Native Americans and other colonized people.
The final four nickname options … are "Ambassadors," "Blue Fog," "Revolutionaries" and "Sentinels."
… calls for the change of the moniker began in 2018 when students launched a petition urged university officials to change the "extremely offensive" name that ended with nearly 550 signatures. In 2019, the student body held a referendum where around 54% of students voted in favor of changing the name, according to the newspaper.
Students and alumni criticized the Colonials moniker during the Diversity Summit in the fall of 2019 at an event hosted by the "Anything But Colonial Coalition," citing the nickname reinforced a “divisive hierarchy” and made the University “complicit” in centuries of colonial violence and repression, according to The Hatchet.
The Hippo served as an unofficial mascot for the university, according to the student newspaper, but due to trademark troubles, was never official.
This renaming joins the many athletic teams who have recently undergone brand changes due to negative racial connotations, including Cleveland pro baseball team's change from Indians to Guardians and the Washington football team's change from Redskins to Commanders.
While some athletic teams are changing their names, some teams, like the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs, argue their teams' original names are crucial to their history.
"While the origin of the team's name has no affiliation with American Indian culture, much of the club's early promotional activities relied heavily on imagery and messaging depicting American Indians in a racially insensitive fashion," the Kansas City Chiefs website says. "Over the course of the club's 60-plus-year history, the Chiefs organization has worked to eliminate this offensive imagery and other forms of cultural appropriation in their promotional materials and game-day presentation."
While there are still growing calls for the Kansas City Chiefs to change their name, they have not budged and instead established an American Indian Community Working Group in 2014 that banned headdresses and face paint at games and retired the use of Warpaint as an ambassador of the Chiefs, among other things.
As for George Washington University, the board of trustees will announce a new nickname for its athletic teams by the 2023-24 academic school year. The university mascot, George 1, that's been around since 1948, will remain the same.
“For supporters, the term refers to those who lived in the colonies, especially
those who fought for independence against England and, with bravery, courage, and
against all odds, secured democracy for the United States. It embodies the spirit of George Washington,” the committee’s report said. “For opponents, ‘Colonials’ means colonizers (both here and abroad) and refers to those who stole land from indigenous groups, plundered their resources, murdered and exiled Native peoples, and introduced slavery into the colonies.”
The report concluded: “Given this offense and harm and given that those who would retire the moniker comprise a little over half of the university community, the moniker can no longer serve its purpose as a name that unifies.”
The move comes two years after the school renamed its student center — formerly called the Cloyd Heck Marvin Center and named for the ex-university president who advocated for segregation.
“We have a great opportunity to conduct an inclusive process that will determine how we as a community want to come together around a unifying moniker and showcase ourselves as a distinguished and distinguishable university,” president Mark S. Wrighton said in the release. “I am very excited for our next steps together.”
Not everyone is on board with the decision.
“We believe that the Colonial mascot does not uphold colonialism, rather it is meant to honor the colonists of the Continental Army who fought against tyrannical colonialism in the establishment of our nation,” the GWU College Republicans said in a statement. “These colonials fought against foreign rule, they weren’t advocates of the practice of colonialism. The erasure of the Colonial mascot is an erasure of the sacrifice made by those who dedicated their lives to the creation of our great nation.
“We are also deeply troubled with the possibility that this could snowball into the changing of the University’s name itself, which we remain in vehement opposition to. We look forward to any collaboration or inquiries to resolve this issue.”
… the name Colonials offends a broad cross-section of the campus community, particularly international students and faculty who come from areas still fresh with memories of colonialism.
The term “colonial” denotes a power relationship of one group over another, which in the American experience includes the history of conquest and enslavement of American Indian and African people by Europeans. The University has seemed to admit this legacy by eliminating the name Colonial Invasion from the annual basketball tipoff and by cautioning students from wearing clothing with “Colonials” on it while traveling abroad outside of Europe.
Clearly, this is not an association that an institution like GW, which prides itself on embracing diversity and inclusion, should want to keep. Yet, change is hard and one common defense of the Colonials name is tradition. Specifically, the name, its defenders argue, is a tribute to our University’s namesake, George Washington. … a professor charged with teaching and lecturing on George Washington, including for a course that is taught annually at the Mount Vernon estate … [has written that] that Washington never called himself a “Colonial.”
The word “colonial” was almost never used during Washington’s life in the 18th century. The American people who lived under British rule were known as colonists and subjects of the British crown, but never colonials. In fact, the few times that Washington used the term it was mostly in a pejorative sense. During the Revolutionary War, Washington condemned the effectiveness of military units organized by the states, commonly known as militia, in contrast to his national Continental Army. On a handful of occasions, he used Colonial as a substitute for state, including when referring to militia units. In February 1777, for example, he denounced recruiting efforts that favored these state “Colonial” forces over his Continental Army as “fraught with every evil – manifestly injurious to the common cause – and an indirect breach of the union.” In short, the Colonial Army, though a term Washington never actually used, was antithetical to what he prized most in a military.
Instead, during the Revolution and after, Washington tirelessly promoted the American Union. If he had a guiding political ideology, it was America itself. Washington battled against the provincialism of his countrymen who continued to harbor the highest loyalty for their states, which was a colonial mindset in the way he used the term. Through the U.S. Constitution, he hoped to make the United States one unified nation rather than a confederacy of 13 sovereign states. Likewise, Washington promoted the idea of a national university during his presidency to bring young people from around the country to the federal district to train new American citizen leaders. That vision remains GW’s deepest connection to George Washington, except today the principle includes not just America but the world.
Why, then, would … [George Washington University] stubbornly cling to a nickname that not only offends current and prospective students and faculty but also has nothing to do with George Washington?
The name Colonials began in 1926 as the brainchild of longtime faculty member and administrator Elmer Louis Kayser. As my fellow historian and GW writing professor Phillip Troutman has uncovered, Kayser chose “Colonials” at the height of America’s Colonial Revival, a cultural movement manifested in architecture and historical preservation. Kayser did not intend for the nickname to be offensive, but times and values change.
Just three years ago, Amherst College dropped “Lord Jeff” as its mascot. Named after Lord Jeffery Amherst, an 18th-century British general who sought to infect Native Americans with smallpox, the mascot had outlived its utility for Amherst’s students. At first glance, Colonials appears more benign than Lord Jeff or the racist Washington Redskins football team name. Yet, as a mindset, colonialism subsumes both these and other offensive nicknames.…
The word “colonial” was almost never used during Washington’s life in the 18th century. The American people who lived under British rule were known as colonists and subjects of the British crown, but never colonials. In fact, the few times that Washington used the term it was mostly in a pejorative sense.

South Carolina change the name of their arena?

What about their nickname?

Can’t get more aligned with the toxic male patriarchy than what they have now!

Although…thinking on it further…their Women’s Teams’ nickname could, perhaps, be a tribute to transgender women. So…maybe they need to keep it… “it” being the nickname, that is…in this particular context.

FUBeAR wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 20, 2023 11:38 pm

South Carolina change the name of their arena?

What about their nickname?

Can’t get more aligned with the toxic male patriarchy than what they have now!

Although…thinking on it further…their Women’s Teams’ nickname could, perhaps, be a tribute to transgender women. So…maybe they need to keep it… “it” being the nickname, that is…in this particular context.

Actually, my wish was that my post about “colonial” would result in some serious comments about that matter and the CAA’s (plus GWU’s) name change, instead of silly comments about USC’s semi-vulgar nickname. And I hope no one brings up what non-FU people think of when we FU people say “FU”.

affirm wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 22, 2023 12:14 am

FUBeAR wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 20, 2023 11:38 pm

South Carolina change the name of their arena?

What about their nickname?

Can’t get more aligned with the toxic male patriarchy than what they have now!

Although…thinking on it further…their Women’s Teams’ nickname could, perhaps, be a tribute to transgender women. So…maybe they need to keep it… “it” being the nickname, that is…in this particular context.

Actually, my wish was...

affirm wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 22, 2023 12:14 am

FUBeAR wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 20, 2023 11:38 pm

South Carolina change the name of their arena?

What about their nickname?

Can’t get more aligned with the toxic male patriarchy than what they have now!

Although…thinking on it further…their Women’s Teams’ nickname could, perhaps, be a tribute to transgender women. So…maybe they need to keep it… “it” being the nickname, that is…in this particular context.

Actually, my wish was that my post about “colonial” would result in some serious comments about that matter and the CAA’s (plus GWU’s) name change, instead of silly comments about USC’s semi-vulgar nickname. And I hope no one brings up what non-FU people think of when we FU people say “FU”.

There is nothing about FU that singles out any one race/gender/heritage/etc..., it can be used towards any type of human on planet earth when necessary with total equality in meaning

Right on, Bro. "FU" is an equal-opportunity m-f.

In my thinking, FU means Furman University. Or Fairfield University. Or Fordham University.
Still waiting for some others to weigh in with comments, pro or con, supportive or against, GWU and/or CAA moving to remove Colonial(s) from their name(s) in relation to racism or slavery or aggression or possibly other negative connotations.
Is the history of “13 original colonies” being removed from all history books and teaching?