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Credential for Notre Dame/BYU in a few weeks? Secured.

Reposted by Matt Brown

good morning @joanniesen.bsky.social and I built a big ol' report breaking down the finances of D1 softball. Where the money comes from, who is spending it, where budgets are increasing, how it relates to wins, and more: www.extrapointsmb.com/p/division-i...

extrapointsmb.com

Division I Softball Financial Intelligence Report

Our comprehensive analysis of Division I softball program finances, performance and competitive landscape across FY2024-25 and the 2025 season

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 8h

He didn't just vote on it, he was one of the lead writers of the bill! He's either been the second or third most influential Republican in the Senate on all recent college sports legislation!

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 9h

extrapointsmb.com

Division I Softball Financial Intelligence Report

Our comprehensive analysis of Division I softball program finances, performance and competitive landscape across FY2024-25 and the 2025 season

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 23h

1) because an athlete labor market with a soft, rather than hard cap benefits the Big Ten more than the SEC 2) espn supported the bill 3) the sec footprint isn’t uh, historically the most friendly to organized labor interests

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Reposted by Matt Brown

Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Buried in the PCSA after all sorts of paragraphs on conference realignment and athlete compensation regulation is an expansion of college athlete insurance. I'm trying to better understand who pays for it: www.extrapointsmb.com/p/what-s-the...

extrapointsmb.com

What's the deal with insurance in the PCSA?

... and a few other parts of the bill most people aren't talking about as often.

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Honestly, I have no idea. I understand that there are folks that point to Alston and say that future courts will look unkindly on athlete price fixing, but now that Trump supports it and who makes up this court…who knows man.

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Early versions of the bill had some of those protections that got taken out after lobbying. Sen Kennedy (R-LA) attempted to add an amendment to cap ticket price increases, but it failed. I think it’s fair to say fan concerns were not critical to the authors of the PCSA.

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

As messy and imperfect and sometimes gross as it is, college sports is the second largest college scholarship program in the country. More than 200K participate in D1 sports, and I’d say a majority really does care about school. It would make sense for Congress to take an interest!

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

okay I need to grab something to eat and take the blue line home, but i'll try to answer a few more of these on the train anyway, please read extra points, or better yet, bully the athletic administrators and academics at your alma mater into subscribing to it

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I know that's a very real concern in Washington, D.C, and I don't even think they're completely wrong. Higher education, in general, is facing some very tough headwinds right now that could take down many athletic departments (among other things). I do not think this bill addresses those well

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

My understanding is that if a school wants to spend to the "cap" AND spend all of their retention fund, at least $5M needs to go to women's sports. But that's $5M out of nearly $50M. The Trump admin explicitly stated that they do not believe rev share payments should be equal re: Title IX

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I don't think it really will. Limiting P4 conference membership to 20 and forcing P4 schools to play as indies for a few years could slow major realignment, but it also wasn't likely to happen in the near future anyway. I don't think the bill effectively prevents a potential superleague in a decade

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I think limiting transfers to 1 or 2 for most athletes will eventually put some downward pressure on transfer salaries/roster movement. But overall costs are unlikely to go down, and the realignment/media bundling stuff doesn't make sense to me. Lots in the bill doesn't align with current reality

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

To squeeze this into one skeet? 1) Racism 2) Coaches and ADs have powerful folks lobbying, and the players (mostly) don't) 3) Nobody in Congress really gives a flying fuck about free market economics...which makes sense, because most voters don't either.

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

IMO: * Lawmakers and their staff overwhelmingly are not ball knowers. That includes Ds. * Forcably defending athlete labor rights is not a political priority for more than, like, seven D Senators. * Cantwell, and many others, were horrified about what happened to Wazzu and want to prevent it (1/2)

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

In my professional opinion, functionally zero. Title IX enforcement still overwhelmingly comes from private litigation rather than the DOE/DOJ, there's no updated legal guidance on how House payments ACTUALLY fit with Title IX obligations, and nobody has enough data. That wasnt a focus of the PCSA.

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Honestly, I never got the sense that was really a driving factor here. The animating forces for the bill's authors (from both parties) wasn't to make college sports "more' amateur or get rid of athletes earning six+ figures from universities.

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

okay politics bluesky, what do you want to know about the PCSA? What it ACTUALLY does, what it says its gonna do, why so many Democratic lawmakers voted for it...whats the stuff that any of you are actually interested in? And its okay if the answer is "actually, nothing really."

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

extrapointsmb.com

What's the deal with insurance in the PCSA?

... and a few other parts of the bill most people aren't talking about as often.

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It’s always the ones you most suspect huh

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I think it’s fair to say that I’m tracking this particular bill more than 98 percent of Bluesky, and I don’t think Cruz’s staffers would even say that with a straight face. There are lots of reasons for GOP to want to get this over the finish line…but not to change anyone’s political fortunes

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The whole "Rivals is now trying to charge DII parents for evaluations" business is an example of college football enshittinifcation, right? Not enshittinifcation in the sense of "things get worse" but very specifically about a two-sided product declining on both ends sort of enshittinifcation?

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Reposted by Matt Brown

Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Michigan: hold my beer

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Pretty rude of Oklahoma to tank michigans strength of schedule like this

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Julian "Braxton Miller" Sayin

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

lmao THAT was disrespectful. That was a controller-throwing touchdown pass

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

a song about killing federal agents THAT DOLLY PARTON USED TO SING its the best fight song in the country imo and I'm dumbass from Ohio www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq94...

youtube.com

Dolly Parton ( Rocky Top )

YouTube video by DollyParton35Yrs

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

@aceanbender.com dunno if you have this, but I just got a huge FOIA dump from Michigan that includes all their game contracts and assistant coach contracts for WBB. Anything you'd want to know about?

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Brb gonna take the kids to their first college volleyball game

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

IMO, you should not bring an iced coffee to your job interview at BYU

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

the most bluesky response to this isn't "can I say something without everybody getting mad" the most bluesky response is "WELL ACTUALLY, THAT'S NOT LEATHER"

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

New York Journo Nerd Bluesky: Do you also have problems getting anybody in the state of New York to respond to FOIL requests, or am I uniquely terrible at getting the University of Buffalo to respond to goddamn anything I submit

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Quick correction to this post: Nielsen *does*, in fact, rate the Big Ten Network. It just doesn't include BTN data in their "most watched teams" weekly press releases or similar public comparative data. I regret the error! It's fixed in the story now.

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Cal hired Tosh Lupoi to be their new head football coach on Dec 4, 2025. Today, the school informed me that they STILL have not yet finalized a contract or term sheet with Lupoi. I know the UC system moves slowly on everything, but STILL. That's weird!

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

There’s only way that actually works. They have to organize and ask for it. I can’t do that for them, and neither can friendly academics, lawyers or even lawmakers IMO. It’s really fucking hard and unfair but I can’t see a union that can bargain worth a damn that wasn’t built by the labor itself

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I don’t know anything concrete, tbh. Bowls aren’t an industry that exactly embraces change, and I don’t think they want to do anything until they absolutely HAVE to. If the playoff doubles in size though, they’d legacy bowl model can’t work anymore. It’s showing cracks NOW

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

If UOC wanted to do that (and everything I’ve heard over the last three years is that they don’t want to unless they feel they have no choice), they’d need to be sustain 30M a year in total athletic expenses. Big lift, not impossible by any means.

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I expect it to pass on Monday evening. I do not expect the House to take it up until after the election, and then there’s just a shit ton of unknowns that have nothing to do with college sports. . I’d probably peg “doesn’t pass” as the slightly most likely outcome

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Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Torn cartridge + stress fracture on my right knee from July. Off crutches now, and give my full attention to stretches and everything, but the stationary bike and elliptical are boring. I’ll tweet through those if I can forget I’m sittting here pedaling at like, 35% power. WANT TO GO FAST

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