College Athletics Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Shepherd University Football Team Heads To Division II Semifinal Game

This weekend, Shepherd University’s loyal fans in the Eastern Panhandle will cheer on their football program when they play in the Division II semifinals with hopes for a national championship berth.

College football in West Virginia is usually associated with the West Virginia Mountaineers and Marshall Thundering Herd. But this weekend, Shepherd University’s loyal fans in the Eastern Panhandle will cheer on their football program when they play in the Division II semifinals with hopes for a national championship berth.

The trip to the semifinals is the second for the Rams in as many years. The school is tucked away in a small town in the Eastern Panhandle, but like other small towns across the country, the success of their school’s sports teams is something many of the locals rally around.

“I’ve been to every single game, I haven’t missed a game,” Shepherd University student and student section leader Amelia Jenkins said. “I was in Connecticut when we started and I’ll be in Colorado on Saturday to cheer on the Rams.”

Fans like Jenkins were outside the school’s student center Thursday afternoon to see the team off in hopes for a road win against the Colorado School of Mines.

The team is led by quarterback Tyson Bagent, who was last season’s recipient of the Harlon Hill trophy – Division II football’s answer to the Heisman, which names the best player in the country. This season, he broke the record for most career touchdown passes in college football history, regardless of division.

“It’s good to know that all the work’s not going unnoticed,” Bagent said. “Also, I think it’s important for the younger people in my family to see what’s possible and kind of give them inspiration and motivation to do their thing.”

After his Harlon Hill campaign, Bagent had offers to transfer to Division I schools like West Virginia University and the University of Maryland, but ultimately decided to stay close to home. Despite playing at a smaller school, he’s gotten attention from scouts as a potential NFL draft pick.

“I’m from this area, I’ve always lived in this area,” he said. “So I mean, it’s all I know. And so for me to be an inspiration and kind of a motivating factor to the people in this area means everything to me.”

The team’s success is in part because of its coaching staff, led by head coach Ernie McCook. He was a coordinator with the program for years before he took over from longtime coach Monte Cater in 2018. Cater had more wins than any other active coach across college football before his retirement. McCook has continued the team’s level of success, but credits it to the school’s commitment to athletics.

“I think athletics is the front porch of every university and our success on athletic play and the playing field helps open up our university to a lot of different people,” McCook said.

The Rams have kept competitive by recruiting from local high school football powerhouses like Martinsburg High School, where Bagent was originally spotted.

“Seventy five percent of our alumni will live within 100 miles of the university,” he said. “So we’re able to have a lot of alumni support to help us and support us in recruiting.”

This year’s postseason saw Shepherd University beat the University of New Haven, as well as conference foes Slippery Rock and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. IUP handed the Rams a rare loss earlier in the season during the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championship game.

Last season, the Rams beat the University of Findlay, Notre Dame College in Ohio and Kutztown University on their way to the semifinals before falling to eventual champions Ferris State University.

The semifinal game is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Saturday and will be broadcast on streaming service ESPN Plus.

Cleared To Earn Money, College Athletes Tap Creative Sides

Will Ulmer doesn’t have to hide anymore.

The Marshall offensive lineman, all 6-foot-4 and 300 pounds of him, unleashed a year’s worth of energy in his first on-stage performance since the start of the pandemic, playing guitar and belting out songs in his Kentucky baritone for a modest crowd outside a Huntington ice cream store.

His keychain fastened to a belt loop and a can of smokeless tobacco bulging from a back pocket, Ulmer spent an hour singing country favorites along with one he wrote before finishing up with his spin on a West Virginia favorite, John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”

This time, he used his real name, too.

The NCAA’s decision to allow athletes to be paid for their fame and celebrity has led to scores of deals big and small from coast to coast since July 1. Sponsorships and endorsements are the most common, but there has been another welcome wrinkle: Ulmer and other athletes are now able to show off their creative, artistic sides and earn some money while they’re at it.

For Ulmer, it means being able to play his music at gigs without masking his identity under the pseudonym “Lucky Bill.” For Nebraska volleyball player Lexi Sun, it has meant helping design sports apparel. For SMU defensive back Ra-Sun Kazadi, it means he can sell his art.

“College athletes for the longest time haven’t really had a lot of opportunities to make money,” Ulmer said. “I think this is a great one for me. But it’s not really about the money.”

Like Ulmer, Kazadi sees his craft as an extension of himself. His works are a wide-ranging assortment that includes paintings of athletes, civil rights leaders, Egyptian Queen Nefertiti and the late rapper Tupac Shakur. Among his digital works is Emmy-winning actress and singer Zendaya.

A junior, Kazadi, who goes by Ra, has been painting only since high school. Some works are lighthearted and fun. Some were done as stress relief. Others reflect a certain point in his life. He also runs a separate non-profit group to promote social justice and community conflict resolution.

“My art, it is me,” Kazadi said. “Hopefully when people see it, they kind of see me. They kind of see what I’m thinking, how I’m feeling. So I feel like a lot of what I don’t say is communicated through my art.”

Before the NCAA change earlier this summer, Kazadi wasn’t allow to connect his face to his work. A Texas law that debuted last month letting students to profit off their name, image or likeness “has made a huge change in my life,” in part through art sales off his website.

He’s also showcasing his work at art shows, landed a sponsorship-mentorship deal with a custom art company, is working with real estate companies and interior designers, and there’s been greater curiosity from high schools seeking to have him paint murals on their campuses.

The post-NIL interest has been so profound that Kazadi is mulling the possibility of hiring someone to help him out.

“It’s definitely helped me navigate the art world and helped me know that it’s actually a possibility,” he said.

Sun wanted her deal with volleyball apparel company Ren Athletics to allow her personality and style to shine through in the launch of her clothing line — a black sweatshirt with her name and a golden outline of the sun’s rays.

“They gave me like an open slate to create whatever I wanted and I was just super excited about that freedom and being able to take advantage of that,” Sun said.

It quickly sold out. Company spokeswoman Natalie Hagglund said the Sunny Crew shirt was the biggest promotion in the company’s nearly 10 years in business and that additional products with Sun’s name are under consideration.

Sun also struck an endorsement deal with Nebraska-based jeweler Borsheims. Sun, who is pursuing a master’s degree in advertising and public relations, said she has picked up some business skills.

“I would say that’s the biggest thing: Just with NIL in general, I think the experience of being able to have these interactions and business conversations of making a deal and what these meetings look like and all of those things,” she said.

Nebraska is among dozens of schools with formal NIL programs and many have arrangments with companies eager to hook up athletes with various brands. Some have put their business schools to work helping athletes take advantage of the new market. Indiana recently posted a NIL directory of all Hoosier athletes. At Duquesne, Jordon Rooney was hired as the first Division I personal brand coach.

Back at Marshall, Ulmer’s teammate, defensive lineman Kyron Taylor, started Foreigner Clothing LLC last year. The line that includes T-shirts and sweatshirts features a scorpion, which both is Taylor’s astrological sign and represents the “new life” his father was given when he moved to the United States from the Caribbean, he said.

Taylor’s promotional work includes using other athletes on social media as brand ambassadors. Everything remains on a small scale, but Taylor is constantly jotting down new ideas. He estimates sales are about a dozen per week. Orders are shipped from his home, which is one positive aspect from living alone — no complaints from roommates about tripping over inventory.

“I live by myself so I can have storage for my brand,” he said.

Supreme Court Win For College Athletes In Compensation Case

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday the NCAA can’t limit education-related benefits — like computers and paid internships — that colleges can offer their sports stars, a victory for athletes that could help open the door to further easing in the decades-old fight over paying student-athletes.

Schools recruiting top athletes could now offer tens of thousands of dollars in education-related benefits that also include study-abroad programs and graduate scholarships. However, the case doesn’t decide whether students can simply be paid salaries for the benefits their efforts bring — measured in tens of millions for many universities.

The high court agreed with a lower court’s determination that NCAA limits on the education-related benefits that colleges can offer athletes who play Division I basketball and football violate antitrust laws.

The case is important in the short term for students who may see schools competing for talent by sweetening their offers with a variety of education-related benefits. It’s also important in the long term because it sets the stage for future challenges to NCAA rules limiting athletes’ compensation.

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the court that the NCAA sought “immunity from the normal operation of the antitrust laws,” an argument the court rejected. Gorsuch said that allowing colleges and universities to offer “enhanced education-related benefits … may encourage scholastic achievement and allow student-athletes a measure of compensation more consistent with the value they bring to their schools.”

Under current NCAA rules, students cannot be paid, and the scholarship money a college can offer is capped at the cost of attending the school.

The NCAA had defended its rules as necessary to preserve the amateur nature of college sports, preventing a blurring of the line between them and professional teams, with colleges trying to lure talented athletes by offering over-the-top benefits. A lower court had upheld the NCAA’s limits on scholarships and cash awards, and the high court wasn’t asked to weigh in on those.

Writing for only himself, Justice Brett Kavanaugh signaled where Monday’s decision may lead. He said there are “serious questions” about whether the NCAA’s other restrictions on compensating athletes can stand. Kavanaugh wrote that “traditions alone cannot justify the NCAA’s decision to build a massive money-raising enterprise on the backs of student athletes who are not fairly compensated.”

“Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate. … The NCAA is not above the law,” wrote Kavanaugh, who as a college student played on Yale’s junior varsity basketball team.

The case was brought by former athletes, including West Virginia football player Shawne Alston. It followed a separate, earlier lawsuit brought by athletes including former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon and NBA legends Oscar Robertson and Bill Russell where an appeals court concluded NCAA rules aren’t exempt from antitrust law. That case ended with the Supreme Court declining to weigh in.

As a result of Monday’s ruling, the NCAA itself can’t bar schools from offering Division I basketball and football players additional education-related benefits. But individual athletic conferences can still set limits if they choose.

“It is our hope that this victory in the battle for college athletes’ rights will carry on a wave of justice uplifting further aspects of athlete compensation,” said Steve Berman, an attorney for the former college athletes, in a statement following the ruling. “This is the fair treatment college athletes deserve.”

The court’s ruling comes at a time when the NCAA has already been debating how to amend its rules to allow college athletes to profit from their names, images and likenesses, often abbreviated NIL. That would allow athletes to earn money for sponsorship deals, online endorsement and personal appearances.

NCAA President Mark Emmert last week urged member schools to pass a long-stagnant names-and-images reform proposal before the end of the month. If they don’t, he will take action himself, he said.

Emmert told The Associated Press on Monday that the high court’s ruling makes going about the NIL reforms “more complicated” but “doesn’t mean we can’t and we shouldn’t.”

An NCAA governing body with the power to adopt changes is scheduled to meet this week. Meanwhile, six state laws that allow athletes to receive names-and-images compensation will go into effect July 1. The NCAA has asked Congress for help in the form of a federal law, but lawmakers are nowhere near passing legislation.

The players associations of the NFL, the NBA and the WNBA had all urged the justices to side with the ex-athletes, as did the Biden administration.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday of the athletes: The “decision recognizes that, as with all Americans, their hard work should not be exploited.”
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Associated Press writers Ralph D. Russo and Josh Boak contributed to this report.

WVU Coach Holgorsen Gets 5-year Contract Extension

West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen has been rewarded with a five-year contract extension after the Mountaineers’ best Big 12 finish since entering the conference in 2012.

Athletic director Shane Lyons announced the extension in a statement Saturday after No. 14 West Virginia beat Baylor 24-21. The five-year package is worth $18.6 million plus incentives.

Holgorsen was rewarded as West Virginia completed a 10-2 regular-season Saturday, finished third in the Big 12 and was ranked in the Top 10 on separate occasions. He is 46-30 at West Virginia in six seasons.

“I am pleased and happy that he wants to continue to lead the Mountaineer football program,” Lyons said in the statement. “Part of my job is to give him the resources to succeed, and we will continue to work together closely to bring the very best to West Virginia football.”

The 45-year-old Holgorsen earned $2.9 million this season, including a base salary of $250,000. The statement said he’ll earn $4 million plus incentives over the final year of the contract in 2021.

West Virginia President E. Gordon Gee said it’s gratifying to see the football team’s growth during Holgorsen’s tenure

“We want to ensure we keep that momentum going,” Gee said. “We look forward to watching even further success under his leadership.”

Holgorsen hadn’t received a contract extension since signing a six-year deal in August 2012 after winning the Orange Bowl in his first season in 2011. His contract was set to expire next year.

After going 10-3 in 2011, Holgorsen went 26-25 in the next four seasons and his job security came under scrutiny.

He was told in December 2015 by Lyons following the end of a 7-5 regular season that he could keep his job. Lyons said later that Holgorsen declined to accept an offer for a contract extension and that no further discussions would be held until after the 2016 season.

But the two sides didn’t wait quite that long. West Virginia, picked to finish seventh in the league this season, won its first six games and was in Big 12 title contention until being eliminated by Oklahoma on Nov. 19.

“We’ve been working on it for quite a while,” Holgorsen said. “I put my head down and I give my coaching staff credit. They weren’t worried about it. I wasn’t worried about it.”

Holgorsen said he’s been excited about the future for some time and the contract “puts some things to rest and it will help with recruiting. So I’m excited about that.”