FWAA

T Justin Williams By Justin Williams The Athletic (Fourth in a series) The House v. NCAA settlement, granted final approval Friday, has been touted as a means of restoring order to this Big Money Era of college sports. Starting this summer, Power 4 and other Division I schools can begin directly paying their athletes via an annual revenue sharing pool capped at roughly $20.5 million per school in year one.

Wilson Alexander By Wilson Alexander Advocate/Times Picayune (Fourth in a series) Around noon on Nov. 17, several of Lane Kiffin’s family members, including his ex-wife, walked out of a private hangar at the Baton Rouge airport. They climbed into a black Chevrolet Suburban and were driven through the city for the rest of the day, getting a feel for where they might live as he considered the LSU job. A little more than a week later, Kiffin is still the primary target in LSU’s coaching search.

Justin Williams By Justin Williams The Athletic There will be scant traces of last season Saturday when Oklahoma State football travels to face No. 6 Oregon. Aside from head coach Mike Gundy and the Cowboys’ customary orange-and-black uniforms, the roster and coaching staff have been largely overhauled, stripped to the studs and refurbished. But the turmoil of the 2024 season still lingers. Oklahoma State ended last year with a 52-0 loss to Colorado on Nov. 29.

Wilson Alexander By Wilson Alexander The Advocate/Times Picayune (Third in a series) Inside an area of the home locker room designated for the head coach, Brian Kelly met with top LSU athletic officials Saturday night after a 49-25 loss to Texas A&M to discuss the future of the team. They asked what adjustments Kelly would make on offense after losing three of the previous four games, the latest a second-half collapse that emptied out Tiger Stadium.

Justin Williams By Justin Williams The Athletic (Second in a series) About the same time Nick Saban and other talking heads started grumbling about two teams from outside the power conferences reaching the College Football Playoff, Bob Chesney was in a room full of underdogs, blinking away tears of joy. James Madison University, 12-1 Sun Belt Conference champion just four years into playing at the Football Bowl Subdivision level, earned the 12th and final spot in this year’s 12-team Playoff.

Wilson Alexander By Wilson  Alexander The Advocate/Times-Picayune (Second in a series) MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Ed Orgeron walked shirtless with his wife past bright yellow and pink restaurant awnings and the nearby ocean. The two of them made their way down a path that traces the shoreline here on a sunny Saturday morning, then circled back behind the workout equipment and volleyball courts on Muscle Beach as they continued their route.

Wilson Alexander By Wilson Alexander Advocate/Times Picayune (First in a series) Early last week, LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry sent Lane Kiffin a message. Ole Miss had been jumped by Oregon in the College Football Playoff rankings even though it had not played a game the weekend before, and Ausberry wanted to tease him a little bit. What he said encapsulated the way LSU tried to sell Kiffin on the job. “Teams don’t jump LSU,” Ausberry said.

Justin Williams By Justin Williams The Athletic (First of a series) Somewhere high above the plains of West Texas, the Big 12 championship trophy sat buckled safely beside Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire, headed home to Lubbock. McGuire’s wife, Debbie, stayed behind in Dallas with family following the Red Raiders’ conference title win over BYU on Dec. 6. It saved her husband from a difficult decision on seating arrangements. “The trophy was strapped into her seat,” said McGuire.

Justin Williams Wilson Alexander Dallas (FWAA)--Justin Williams of The Athletic and Wilson Alexander, now of On3, are the co-recipients of the FWAA's Steve Ellis Beat Writer of the Year Award for the 2025 season.

DALLAS (FWAA) – Brett Ciancia, the founder and owner of Pick Six Previews, is the seventh winner of the Edward Aschoff Rising Star Award, which is presented annually by the Football Writers Association of America. The award is named after Edward Aschoff, the beloved ESPN college football reporter who died on Christmas Eve in 2019 on his 34th birthday from previously undetected Stage 4 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in his lungs.