BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Flau’jae Johnson will return to LSU for her senior season. Johnson declared her intention to play one more season for the Tigers and coach Kim Mulkey in an interview with Front Office Sports. There had been some speculation that Johnson would enter the transfer portal after she passed on the WNBA draft. She even teased the possibility earlier this month on social media, instead announcing she would join rapper BossMan Dlow for four shows on his spring tour. Johnson averaged a career-high 18.6 points last season for the Tigers, who advanced to the Elite Eight of the women’s NCAA Tournament.
UNDATED (AP) — The judge overseeing the sprawling $2.8 billion antitrust lawsuit settlement involving the NCAA and the nation’s five largest conferences has delayed final approval of the plan until it is modified to address concerns about roster limits. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken signaled she is ready to approve the rest of the settlement but wants both sides to come up with a way to not harm current athletes who will lose their spots on teams. The settlement calls for scholarship limits to be replaced by roster limits. Some attorneys argued that Wilken's order could throw college sports into chaos.
UNDATED (AP) — The surprise transfers of brothers Nico and Madden Iamaleava have prompted fresh questions about contracts and name, image and likeness buyouts for athletes in a college sports landscape looking increasingly like the pros. Nico Iamaleava, who led Tennessee to the College Football Playoff last season, walked away from a reported $2.4 million NIL contract to join UCLA. Arkansas freshman quarterback Madden Iamaleava entered the portal this week to join his brother, according to multiple media reports. Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek says he would support efforts by the Razorbacks’ NIL collective to enforce buyout clauses in athlete contracts.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Florida coach Todd Golden officially filled two open spots on his staff by promoting analytics director Jonathan Safir and hiring New York University head coach Dave Klatsky. Safir and Klatsky replace John Andrzejek and Kevin Hovde. Andrzejek left to take the head coaching job at Campbell, and Hovde took over at Columbia. Florida also formally added Princeton transfer guard Xaivian Lee and incoming freshman CJ Ingram. Lee averaged 16.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.4 assists last season and will be a much-needed ball handler for Florida, which lost guards Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Will Richard to graduation and backup Denzel Aberdeen to the transfer portal.
