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Utah State is raising all sports ticket prices, adding courtside seats in the Spectrum | Sports

As the arms race of money in college sports continues, Utah State is looking to raise funds in any way possible for its athletics department. On Tuesday morning, the university announced it is raising prices on season and single-game tickets for all sports that require paid admission. Additionally, courtside seats will be added to the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum for men’s and women’s basketball games. The university cited a need to “(help) Utah State, its coaches and student-athletes succeed in the new era of intercollegiate athletics” as the reason for the increase in pricing. Furthermore, the press release states that the increase is meant to “attract top talent to Logan and ensure the sustainability of its athletics department.” The release also stated that the university will “continue to modernize its programs and explore opportunities for revenue generation.” Among these modern methods of revenue generation is the inclusion of a “recruitment and retention fee” that will be part of the price increase. This kind of fee is an increasingly common add-on to tickets by many institutions, the first known example coming from the University of Tennessee last September when it implemented a “talent fee” on its tickets. There were not many

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NCAA is optimistic about its post-House system, everyone else should be skeptical | Opinion

In the wake of the historic House settlement that is reshaping how collegiate sports will be organized and run on a far-reaching scale, leadership in the NCAA is proudly proclaiming it now has the guardrails everyone has been asking for that will stabilize college sports. But even while the NCAA and its leadership are proclaiming they have the tools to finally police its league, skepticism does and should remain among onlookers. Many details about these new enforcement systems were reported by Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports in an article last Friday. The Deloitte clearinghouse, or “NIL Go,” received its first semi-public showcase. NIL Go was created as a direct result of the House settlement which will enable universities to sign athletes to outright contracts and pay them through revenue sharing up to a cap of $20.5 million per school (that number will rise over the years as it’s directly tied to the revenue generated by power conference schools). The hope is that revenue sharing contracts will eliminate the faux NIL payments that are merely de facto salaries under the guise of being name, image and likeness deals between businesses and athletes. A true NIL deal is meant to involve some

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Tier list of the toughest games on Utah State’s football schedule | Sports

Utah State’s 2025 football season features a good mix of games projected to be tough and those expected to be far easier. So which games are which? That’s what we’ll be examining today, going through all 12 games on the schedule and ranking them 1-12 on how hard each will be and going a bit further by dividing them into tiers to group similarly-tough games together. In aiding the creation of this ranking, I took four different 1-136 FBS rankings — ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI), Bill Connelly’s SP+, Phil Steele’s preview magazine and the Kelley Ford (KFord) rankings — to create an average preseason ranking for each team. This forms the backbone of the ranking, but whether the game is played at home or on the road factored into the rankings and ensures this isn’t just a pure numbers-based thing. Let’s start from the easiest and work our way to the toughest. Win-or-be-embarrassed games These are all home games against teams ranked really low (and also the one FCS game on the schedule). Losing one of these would be quite the frustration. 12. Week 4 vs McNeese Average Preseason Rankings — N/A All-Time Series — First-ever Meeting Last year,

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Utah State football breakout candidates, transfers to watch for | Sports

Amidst the ongoing chaos in the college athletics landscape with the finalization of the House Settlement and what appears to be the final stages of the Pac-12 securing a media rights deal, Utah State football continues its offseason preparations for what it hopes will be a rebound season. Roughly 65 percent of the Aggies’ roster comprises of newcomers, with only 31 percent of the team’s 2024 production returning for 2025 (and a significant portion of that returning production is accounted for by two players, Ike Larsen and Bryson Barnes). There are a lot of new faces to learn and stars yet to emerge. It can be difficult to predict, but here’s a list of players to keep an eye on as the offseason progresses and when the season actually begins. We’ll separate this analysis into players who were on the roster last year and should have bigger roles and/or higher production this year, and then the newcomers that could step in and be key players right away in their position group. Returning Player Breakouts John Miller | Sr. | LB It’s a little tricky to call John Miller a true breakout player considering he finished fourth on the team in

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Pac-12 is on the verge of media deal, is it also getting its Power 5 status back? | Sports

After months of uncertainty and waiting, things may finally be settling down for the Pac-12. Fans of the eight institutions currently on the path to be in the storied conference starting in 2026 have only had speculation and a lackluster level of detail regarding the future of their league. On Monday, Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, reported that each of the eight known future member schools — Oregon State, Washington State, Utah State, Boise State, San Diego State, Fresno State, Colorado State and Gonzaga — had all signed the Grant of Rights and membership agreements. Dellenger said this move “is a signal that the league is finalizing a new media rights package that is expected in the coming days.” Dellenger further reported that the media rights package could include as many as four different partners, though no specific potential media partners were named. Speculation has turned largely toward media companies such as ESPN, CBS, The CW, FOX and Turner Sports. The first three in that list are of particular note as they form the core of the one-year media deal for the current two-member Pac-12 with Oregon State and Washington State. CBS and The CW will broadcast 11 OSU and

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Utah Valley set to join Big West Conference for 2026-27 athletic year | Sports

OREM, Utah (AP) — Utah Valley is joining the Big West conference for the 2026-27 athletic year, giving the league a presence in that state for the first time since Utah State ended a 27-year run in 2005. The conference said Wednesday it remained open to the possibility of adding a 12th member but anticipated being an 11-school league when Utah Valley and California Baptist officially join July 1, 2026. The Big West doesn’t have football, and Hawaii and UC Davis are leaving to join the Mountain West Conference in 2026-27. Hawaii has been a football-only member of the Mountain West since 2012. UC Davis has been a football-only member of the Big Sky Conference. Utah Valley is leaving the Western Athletic Conference, and the Wolverines will compete in 13 Big West-sponsored sports, including men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball. “Their addition expands our geographic footprint into a vibrant and strategically significant region, while elevating the level of competition across the board,” Big West Commissioner Dan Butterly said. Utah Valley will be the largest school in the Big West with an enrollment of 47,000. Barring further realignment, Utah Valley will replace Hawaii as the only school in the conference

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Utah State and 4 others are officially leaving the Mountain West for PAC-12 | News

In 13 months Utah State University’s 13-year membership in the Mountain West Conference will end. Anticipating changes, Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez set a deadline, requiring schools withdrawing to make their plans known by June 1 or their required exit fee would grow from $18 million to $36 million. In an electronic notice dated Thursday, May 29, USU interim president Alan L. Smith wrote the school “intends to resign its membership in the Mountain West Conference, effective June 30, 2026.” The letter included a $5,000 wire transfer to serve as a deposit toward the school’s exit fee. Additionally, Utah State athletics issued the following statement about the announcement. “Utah State University informed the Mountain West in writing of its decision to depart the conference on May 29, 2025, and paid the mandatory deposit for exit fees. Utah State will compete in the Mountain West in 2025-26 and begin competition in the Pac-12 in the fall semester of 2026.” Beginning in the fall of the 2026-27 academic year Utah State will join the “new” Pac-12 with Oregon State, Washington State, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State. The PAC-12 has announced Gonzaga is joining in men’s basketball and

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Ranking Mountain West football head coaches | Sports

In the month May, two national sports outlets have released rankings of football head coaches. Athlon has a Mountain West-specific ranking by Steven Lassan while Sporting News ranked every head coach from all 136 FBS teams for the 2025 season. Let’s have a look at those rankings and see how the 12 coaches of the Mountain West stack up based on the national perspective. We’ll go in order of the average rank between Athlon and Sporting News’ publications. T-1 — Troy Calhoun (Air Force) Athlon MW Rank: 2nd Sporting News National Rank: 69th (2nd in MW) Coaching Record: 135-89 Record at Current School: 135-89 (19th year) Calhoun has been around nearly as long as the Mountain West itself (or at least it kind of feels like that since he didn’t start at Air Force until 2007, eight years after the MW got started). He’s been a model for consistency with only two of his 18 seasons having less than five wins (one of those was when the Falcons went 3-3 in the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season). Perhaps the onset of NIL and the transfer portal will find a way to slow Calhoun down, but until then, Air Force will be

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Analyzing Utah State’s spring transfer portal additions | Sports

As of the initial publishing of this article, Utah State has added 10 players via the spring transfer portal, and that may be the end of the additions depending on the accuracy of the Aggies’ online roster and its own reporting of high school recruits. These additions can provide a glimpse into the needs that USU head football coach Bronco Mendenhall felt he needed to address. Following the conclusion of spring ball Mendenhall said his staff had identified the “exact needs” of the team and that they were “very specific and intentional,” though he chose not to share specifics. But in looking through the list of transfers, it’s easy to see what those needs were. Mendenhall and his staff clearly targeted the defensive line and defensive backfield with their spring portal additions. The Aggies have added four defensive linemen and three defensive backs. With Utah State having ranked 129th in points allowed per game and 130th in yards allowed, it’s fairly obvious the team needs every boost it can possibly find for the entire unit. A somewhat unusual fact about the transfer class — though maybe not that unusual when you think about who USU’s head coach is now —

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Utah State to make eight national TV appearances in 2025 football season | Sports

LOGAN — Utah State football will appear on national television eight times this fall, including a home finale broadcast on CBS, the program announced Thursday. The Aggies’ 2025 broadcast schedule includes five home games and three road matchups slated for national distribution, with two Friday night contests on Merlin Olsen Field in Logan. Highlighting the slate is Utah State’s Mountain West matchup against Boise State, which will air on CBS on Friday, Nov. 28 at 2 p.m. It marks the third time in five years the rivalry has received national CBS coverage, including previous broadcasts from Logan in 2021 and Boise in 2022. Five of Utah State’s games will air on CBS Sports Network. That coverage begins with the season and home opener against UTEP on Saturday, Aug. 30 at 5:30 p.m., followed by home matchups against San José State on Friday, Oct. 17 (7 p.m.) and Nevada on Saturday, Nov. 8 (5:30 p.m.). The Aggies’ road games at UNLV (Nov. 15) and Fresno State (Nov. 22) will also air on CBSSN. Utah State’s non-conference game at Texas A&M on Sept. 6 will be televised on the SEC Network at 10:45 a.m. Mountain Time. The Aggies will host Air Force

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