Stewart Mandel

Wednesday’s news that is finally getting marks the culmination of a long, contentious saga for Bush and . It’s also the final nail in the coffin for a century-plus era that stigmatized any athlete who dared receive anything of value beyond their scholarship. Advertisement The famed USC running back’s exile dated to a 2010 infractions case in which a pair of wannabe agents arranged for Bush’s family to live rent-free in a house in San Diego and a sports marketer feted Bush and his family with…

I’m old enough to remember when April was a fairly sleepy time in college football, save for spring games (which themselves can put you to sleep). But now, every second of every day is another , another list of finalists or another defensive end saying he fled Pitt because … . Advertisement Great content all around. Note: Submitted questions have been edited for clarity and length. Max Olson had an interesting piece about how different programs view the transfer portal. What are your thoughts ab…

Happy Spring Portal Window, for all who celebrate. I’m here to field your questions on all things college football. Post them here. Please include your city.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — At his postgame news conference following ’s 30-24 loss to last November, Buckeyes coach Ryan Day looked defeated and despondent. He surely realized at that moment that despite winning 88 percent of his games as a head coach, he and his program would now be defined by their unthinkable three-year losing streak to the Wolverines. Advertisement Four-plus months later, sitting in his office at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, the 45-year-old Day is smiling, giddy and seemingly at…

Greetings, football enthusiasts. We’re going to get into some timely spring football storylines this week, but this is my first mailbag since last week about a group of sports execs proposing an 80-team “Super League” for college football. Note: Submitted questions have been edited for clarity and length. Advertisement The talk of a Super League has many fans of a certain age getting nostalgic when they view the potential new/old conferences. As someone who misses some of these old rivalries, I…

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — In the roughly 30 seconds it takes to walk from the entrance to headquarters to the office occupied by coach Kalen DeBoer, you will pass at least a dozen poster-board-sized pictures of the coach’s predecessor. In most of them, Nick Saban is hoisting a national championship trophy. Advertisement At lunch on this random early April afternoon, the restaurant’s TV shows “The Paul Finebaum Show.” The host is interviewing draft prospect . A bright red graphic beneath him reads “Ni…

The day after a proposed breakaway 80-team college football league by a group of sports executives calling their vision “ Tomorrow,” offensive coordinator Chip Kelly raised a lighthearted question. “Do I get credit because they’re taking my idea?” he joked. Last December, while still ’s head coach, that the nation’s major programs should go “independent” from their conferences in football and form a 64-team conference. He even had specific details in mind: Teams would be split into eight-team…

One league overseeing college football’s highest level. No more conferences as we’ve known them. Playoff berths being decided solely on the field. Promotion and relegation for smaller schools. Players being paid directly. NIL and the transfer portal, managed. A group of influential leaders wants to make all this happen soon — and they are pitching it as the best way forward for a sport they believe needs saving. Advertisement Several college presidents, Roger Goodell’s primary lieutenant at the…

I was pleased to see a few March Madness-college football combo questions came in even without my prompting. But first, let’s hold our first discussion in months about a coach who drives many of you mad. Note: Submitted questions have been edited for clarity and length. Last offseason, these mailbags were filled with questions. Now it’s like he’s become a ghost (notwithstanding his this week). How do you view Year 2 of the Coach Prime era? Is his almost sole reliance on the transfer portal to…

You can find more of The Athletic’ s coverage of the men’s NCAA Tournament and women’s NCAA Tournament . On Wednesday, I boarded a flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas for the explicit purpose of watching college basketball. Not to attend an actual basketball game, mind you. Those flights were headed to Omaha, Neb., and Charlotte, N.C. In my case, I am spending several hundred dollars for the privilege of sitting (or standing) in various sportsbooks and viewing parties to watch NCAA Tournamen…