The 15th-ranked Bruins lost two games against Southeastern Conference teams in the span of 12 hours on Tuesday, ending their season rather abruptly after six straight postseason wins.

UCLA dropped a pair – first 9-5 in the completion of Monday’s suspended game against sixth-ranked LSU, then a 7-3 loss to No. 3 Arkansas in an evening elimination game at Charles Schwab Field Omaha.

The losses bounced the Bruins (48-18) from their first CWS appearance since 2013.

“It feels somewhat easy when you’re here, but I think everybody knows how difficult it is to get here,” UCLA head coach John Savage said. “I’m just so proud of our guys.”

After scoring three runs in the first inning on Monday night before a lengthy weather delay against LSU, UCLA scored in just two of 15 frames on Tuesday.

LSU (50-15) got stellar pitching Tuesday morning from freshman Casan Evans and did enough at the plate to advance into Wednesday’s Bracket 2 final.

Star shortstop Wehiwa Aloy drove in three runs for Arkansas (50-14) in the nightcap – two coming on a first-inning home run – to support a Razorbacks pitching staff that ran their scoreless streak to 18 innings before a few late ones for the Bruins.

“Disappointing day for sure,” Savage said. “Tough day. Tough circumstances. But at the end of the day, you know, you’ve got to give credit to LSU and certainly Arkansas.”

Arkansas will meet LSU again – the two squared off in their Saturday CWS opener – on Wednesday at 4 p.m. PDT. Arkansas will need to beat the Tigers twice in two days to advance to the best-of-three championship series.

With their backs against the wall for the first time this postseason, the Bruins were aggressive from the start. Dean West and Roch Cholowsky both singled to open the game and moved into scoring position on a long flyout.

Roman Martin walked to load the bases, but AJ Salgado lined out to shortstop and West was caught trying as straight steal of home, a play that was reviewed and confirmed by the narrowest of margins.

After ducking that early shot, Arkansas threw a roundhouse of its own with a couple of quick runs in its half of the frame.

Leadoff hitter Charles Davalan greeted UCLA starter Cody Delvecchio, who was making his first appearance since the end of March, with a quick single. Aloy, the SEC Player of the Year, then belted a 377-foot, opposite-field home run into the bullpen in right – his 21st homer of the season.

“Just a really solid job by our offense, getting on base,” Razorbacks coach Dave Van Horn said. “And Wehiwa got the big hit, gave us a cushion. Went oppo and hit it really hard.”

Added Aloy: “Got it pretty good and put some runs on for the team.”

With the lead in hand, starter Zach Root (9-6) then settled in. The junior left-hander retired the next six in a row – including four straight strikeouts at one point in that stretch – and faced the minimum through the next four innings.

He got into trouble in the fifth when Payton Brennan singled to open the frame and Phoenix Call later walked. But West was called out on strikes to end that threat.

Root covered the first five innings, striking out five and giving up just three hits on 87 pitches, just three days after being pulled in the second inning of Arkansas’ loss to LSU.

“He went out today and just proved why he’s one of the best left-handed pitchers in the country,” Van Horn said of Root. “If we get to play long enough, maybe he’ll get to pitch again.”

Aiden Jimenez followed Root with three shutout innings of his own to make it 18 straight zeroes that Razorback pitchers put up, a span that included Monday’s historic no-hitter by Gage Wood.

Logan Maxwell gave the Hogs some breathing room in the seventh, driving in a pair on a double to left. They tacked on two more in the eighth – one on a wild pitch that scored Cam Kozeal, and another via a Justin Thomas Jr. double to left.

UCLA capitalized on uncharacteristic blunders to break through against Will McEntire in the ninth. Mulivai Levu tripled leading off and scored when third baseman Brent Ireland couldn’t come up with a grounder. McEntire’s wild throw to first on a comebacker and a wild pitch brought in two more runs, before McEntire shut the door to keep the Hogs alive.

Delvecchio went four respectable innings in his first appearance back after missing more than two months while academically ineligible.

The junior right-hander struck out three and limited the damage from seven Arkansas hits. He was charged with three earned runs, the last of which came when Aloy tripled to center against reliever Ian May.

UCLA used eight pitchers in all against LSU, tying a CWS record. Seven Bruins pitched against Arkansas in the night game.

With one of the younger rosters in the NCAA tournament, the Bruins were already talking about getting back to Omaha.

“Going out the way we did, nobody was happy in terms of how that ended,” Savage said. “But at the same time, just in terms of what they accomplished as a group, I think they just like almost staying out on the field.”

In the early game …

LSU 9, UCLA 5: Leading 5-3 after three complete innings before play was suspended on Monday night, the Tigers jumped on UCLA reliever Wylan Moss when play resumed on Tuesday, tallying a pair of runs with two outs in the fourth.

Derek Curiel singled to left and Ethan Frey walked before back-to-back RBI singles from Steven Milam and Jake Brown extended the lead.

A Daniel Dickinson blooper to right drove in another for the Tigers in the seventh.

They got 4⅓ innings of steady pitching from Evans. The right-hander out of Houston struck out five and scatted four hits to earn his fifth win of the season.

Evans, who had three starts this season, threw 68 pitches just three days after closing out Saturday’s 4-1 opening-round win over Arkansas with a scoreless ninth inning for his team-leading seventh save of the year.

UCLA eventually chased Evans with two on in the eighth via a Mulivai Levu one-out single and a Roman Martin hit by pitch. Freshman lefty Cooper Williams replaced Evans and added to the troubles with a walk of AJ Salgado.

Two ground balls to second – first an RBI groundout by Payton Brennan, then a Blake Balsz infield hit – produced a pair of runs. After Cashel Dugger walked to again load the bases – with the sophomore representing the tying run – LSU went back to its bullpen in the form of 6-foot-8, 252-pound sophomore Chase Shores.

The big right-hander needed just one pitch to get his team out of the jam, getting No. 9 hitter Phoenix Call on a groundout to short.

Jared Jones, who had a three-run home run in the first inning on Monday, tacked on an insurance run with a two-out single to center against UCLA closer Easton Hawk in the bottom of the eighth.

LSU was 7 for 15 in the game with two outs.

Shores had a clean ninth with three groundouts for the save.

The 15th-seeded Bruins lost to sixth-seeded LSU, 9-5, on Tuesday morning in the resumption of a winner’s bracket game that was postponed after a lengthy weather delay on Monday night.

The first loss of the postseason puts UCLA into a 4 p.m. PDT elimination game against third-seeded Arkansas back at Charles Schwab Field Omaha later in the day Tuesday (ESPN).

Leading 5-3 after three complete innings Monday night, the Tigers jumped on UCLA reliever Wylan Moss in their first cracks Tuesday, tallying a pair of runs with two outs in the fourth.

Derek Curiel singled to left and Ethan Frey walked before back-to-back RBI singles from Steven Milam and Jake Brown extended the lead.

A Daniel Dickinson blooper to right drove in another for the Tigers in the seventh.

They got 4⅓ innings of steady pitching from freshman Casan Evans. The right-hander out of Houston struck out five and scatted four hits to earn his fifth win of the season.

Evans, who had three starts this season, threw 68 pitches just three days after closing out Saturday’s 4-1 opening-round win over Arkansas with a scoreless ninth inning for his team-leading seventh save of the year.

UCLA eventually chased Evans with two on in the eighth via a Mulivai Levu one-out single and a Roman Martin hit by pitch. Freshman lefty Cooper Williams replaced Evans and added to the troubles with a walk of AJ Salgado.

Two groundballs to second – first an RBI groundout by Payton Brennan, then a Blake Balsz infield hit – produced a pair of runs. After Cashel Dugger walked to again load the bases – with the sophomore representing the tying run – LSU went back its pen in the form of 6-foot-8, 252-pound sophomore Chase Shores.

The big right-hander needed just one pitch to get his team out of the jam, getting No. 9 hitter Phoenix Call on a groundout to short.

Jared Jones, who had a three-run home run in the opening inning Monday night, tacked on an insurance run with a two-out single to center against UCLA closer Easton Hawk in the bottom of the eighth.

LSU was 7 for 15 in the game with two outs.

Shores had a clean ninth with three groundouts for the save, pushing LSU into Wednesday night’s Bracket 2 final and one win away from the weekend’s best-of-three championship series.

UCLA, meanwhile, now must come back later in the day Tuesday. The Bruins tied a tournament record for pitchers in a game with eight, that after using six in Saturday’s opening-round victory over Murray State.

That’s where the 15th-seeded UCLA baseball team found itself Monday night when weather halted play against No. 6 seed LSU at the College World Series.

After a delay just shy of two hours at Charles Schwab Field Omaha, the winner’s bracket game was suspended with LSU leading, 5-3, in the fourth inning.

It will resume Tuesday at 8 a.m. PT (ESPN).

Thunderstorms in the area put an end to a game that started with a bang, as the teams traded crooked numbers in the first inning.

UCLA did its damage in the three-run frame by putting the ball in play. Four hits – three of the infield variety – led to a trio of runs, with an RBI double by Roman Martin the lone big blow.

The Tigers answered back with the long ball.

One batter after Jake Brown drove home a run with the third single of the inning for the Tigers, junior Jared Jones went opposite field for a three-run homer to deep right center, a blast with an exit velocity of 110 mph. It was the 21st homer of the season for the 6-foot-4, 246-pound first baseman.

The seven runs in the first inning matched a tournament high this season.

LSU added another in the third as Frey, who opened the inning with a walk, came around to score on a two-out single by infielder Luis Hernandez.

The winner of Tuesday’s resumed game will improve to 2-0 in the bracket and into a Wednesday evening game, one win away from a trip to the best-of-three championship series that concludes the eight-team event.

A loss, however, means a doubleheader on Tuesday, with a 4 p.m. PT elimination game against No. 3 seed Arkansas – a 3-0 winner over Murray State in the other game on Monday – to stay alive.

After using six pitchers in Saturday’s opening round victory over Murray State, UCLA again went to the bullpen early on Monday.

Starter Landon Stump went two innings, but he was replaced by Chris Grothues after issuing a pair of walks to open the third inning. Grothues struck out three in his inning of work, but allowed the single to Hernandez that plated LSU’s fifth run.

A four-run fourth inning led the 15th-seeded Bruins to a 6-4 victory over unseeded Murray State in the opener for both at Charles Schwab Field Omaha.

It puts UCLA (48-16), now 6-0 in the postseason, into a winner’s bracket game against No. 6 seed LSU (49-15) on Monday at 4 p.m. PT. LSU defeated third-seeded SEC rival Arkansas, 4-1, in Saturday’s evening game.

“Yeah, you want to win the first game, no question about it,” UCLA coach John Savage said. “But we’ve got a long, long ways to go.”

His club got the always-important opening win thanks to a fast start from the offense – the Bruins tallied runs in three of the first four frames on the way to a 6-0 lead – and some timely outs from the bullpen behind starter Michael Barnett.

The junior sputtered through the first, walking two before getting a good bounce and a fortunate call to navigate a scoreless opening frame.

UCLA grabbed a lead in the bottom of the inning, but plated just one – a Roman Martin walk with the bases loaded – and left the bases loaded after each of the first four batters reached base against Murray State starter Nic Schutte.

A nation-leading 64th double play of the season got the Bruins out of the second inning, and the offense generated another run in their half on Dean West’s single to right that scored Cashel Dugger.

Barnett again worked into and out of trouble in the third, giving up back-to-back singles to create traffic before getting a pair of flyouts to left.

“He threw up three zeroes. I don’t know if they’ve been the prettiest zeroes, but they’re zeroes,” Savage told ESPN during an interview in the third inning. “At this level, zeroes are zeroes.”

Barnett put up the game’s first 1-2-3 inning in the fourth, needing just 11 pitches to get his team back in the dugout quickly.

And the offense again responded.

Back-to-back singles by Phoenix Call and West set up the Bruins in the fourth before sophomore shortstop Roch Cholowsky laid down a safety squeeze for his team-leading 80th RBI of the year.

Savage said it was a play Cholowsky, who earlier this week was named the Perfect Game Player of the Year, called on his own.

“But you know what, it’s a baseball play,” Savage said. “It led to four runs, kind of the difference in the game.”

After Mulivai  Levu was hit by a pitch, Martin singled to center to drive in his second run of the game and keep the rally going. AJ Salgado brought home two more before the inning was over with a double to right, pushing the lead to 6-0.

Staked to a big lead, Barnett got a pair of quick outs in the fifth. But a two-out single and four-pitch walk by the next two Murray State batters ended his outing due to what Savage said were leg cramps.

“Very hot out there today,” Savage said. “I think our guys dealt with that a little bit.”

A Bruins bullpen that hadn’t allowed a hit in 29 at-bats entering the day saw that streak snapped on right-hander Wylan Moss’ second pitch.

Carson Garner singled to right, a run charged to Barnett, to get the Racers (44-16) on the board. They nearly added more, but West made a diving catch in left to prevent any additional damage.

Murray State chipped into the lead again in the sixth, with a Luke Mistone single chasing Moss. Will Vierling greeted reliever Ian May with a single of his own, and Tauken flew out to bring in Mistone and make it a 6-2 game.

The Racers had a chance to get closer in the seventh, with Jonathan Hogart and Dustin Mercer starting the inning with singles against Jack O’Connor – the third of five UCLA relievers to throw Saturday.

But long flyouts by each of the next two batters – including one to the warning track – helped put out the fire before August Souza came on for O’Connor to get the final out of the frame on a lineout to center.

It wasn’t, however, the end of the Murray State threat.

After again putting the first two on, this time against Souza to start the eighth, both would score on a pair of groundouts to pull within two.

But Bruin freshman closer Easton Hawk shut things down in the ninth, punctuating his eighth save of the season with a pair of strikeouts in a perfect frame.

“Hard-fought win,” Savage said. “Murray State is very competitive. We knew when we put up a four in the fourth, they probably wouldn’t blink an eye, and they didn’t. They kept battling back.

“It wasn’t an easy victory.”

UCLA improved to 27-1 this season when scoring first, the best mark in Division I.

“That’s as good a defensive team and display that I’ve seen,” Murray State coach Dan Skirka said. “The play in the first, up the middle, the double play that they turned in the second, the sliding catch in left, the catch at the wall in right – they just made that look easy on the defensive side.”

Murray State, making its first appearance at the CWS, will play in an elimination game against Arkansas (48-14) on Monday at 11 a.m. PT.

Asked about their initial thoughts of Omaha, both Skirka and Hogart complimented the atmosphere. Saturday’s game drew 24,346.

“Obviously, it’s baseball heaven here,” Mercer said. “I was talking about it yesterday – I walked around (and) I never felt famous before until I got here.”

This time it just happens to be the last one of the season.

The longtime UCLA head coach brings the 15th-seeded Bruins to the College World Series – the program’s first appearance since 2013 – beginning with Saturday’s 11 a.m. PT opener against Murray State.

And he’s hoping the Bruins can leave the same way they did 12 years ago – as national champions.

“It’s been a long time since we have been back here,” UCLA sophomore outfielder Dean West said at Thursday’s introductory press conferences. “And we want to come back here, put our name back out there on the map and show everyone what West Coast baseball has to offer.”

They’ll get that chance thanks in large part to a strong finishing kick.

UCLA has won 13 of its last 15 games, including all five in the postseason. The Bruins went 3-1 at the Big Ten Tournament, played in the same Charles Schwab Stadium in Omaha that they’ll be in Saturday, losing to Nebraska in the title game. Since then, UCLA has outscored its opponents by a combined 50-16 tally.

All that momentum heading from Westwood to the Midwest has the Bruins (47-16) as a trendy sleeper pick out of their side of the eight-team bracket.

“It’s really special,” shortstop Roch Cholowsky said of UCLA returning to the CWS. “We’ve got a special group of guys. We’ve dealt with a lot of adversity through the year. Just getting back to Omaha where the Bruins should be is really special to us.”

The sophomore, who earlier in the week was named the Perfect Game College Player of the Year, is “as good a player as we’ve had,” according to Savage.

“He’s just a winning kid,” he said. “His feel for the room, his feel for his teammates, his feel for games. His IQ, baseball IQ is extremely high.”

Cholowsky’s 23 home runs are the most by a UCLA player since 2000. He won both the Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awards in the Big Ten, the first Bruin to win the equivalent honors (in any conference) in program history.

He’s the anchor of a defense that Savaged called “championship level, clearly,” after a two-game sweep of UTSA in the Los Angeles Super Regional last weekend.

The UCLA staff has done its part, too, putting up 16 consecutive scoreless innings entering the MCWS. Savage said Thursday that junior right-hander Cody Delvecchio will be back in the mix the rest of the way as well.

Delvecchio, who started the first game of the season for the Bruins, hasn’t pitched since the end of March while academically ineligible.

“As of now, it looks like he is eligible,” Savage said. “He is with us. He’s certainly going to be able to be a big piece out of the bullpen for us.”

Delvecchio made 16 appearances out of the bullpen a year ago, with a 2.42 ERA over 26 innings. He was 1-3 with a 6.82 ERA in a typical Friday night’s starter role this season.

Matched up on the same side of the bracket with fellow national seeds No. 3 Arkansas and No. 6 LSU – the SEC cohorts meet in the 4 p.m. game on Saturday – will make for an all-hands-on-deck approach on the mound for UCLA.

But don’t forget about Murray State, Savage said. The unseeded Racers (44-15), who won the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and are making the program’s first CWS appearance, have his full attention.

“I looked at Murray State and they had to go through Ole Miss. They had to go through Duke. They had to go through Georgia Tech. That’s all I need to know,” said Savage, who is in his 21st season in Westwood. “I don’t need to think that they’re a Cinderella story. They’ve got really good players. They are very well-coached. They’ve got pro players.”

COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

Who: No. 15 seed UCLA (47-16) vs. Murray State (44-15)

When: Saturday, 11 a.m. PT

Where: Charles Schwab Field, Omaha, Neb.

TV: ESPN

What could possibly go wrong?

That depends. If you are an Olympic sport athlete, or you play at a mid-major or low-major school that doesn’t exactly reap those profits, or your sport is one that is suddenly on the chopping block thanks to the legally mandated commitments that were part of last week’s $2.85 billion settlement of the House v. NCAA lawsuit, there is no guarantee the gravy train will be stopping at your dorm.

The $2.85 billion, incidentally, is separate from the profit-sharing component. That’s the amount in damages that will go to past players, primarily football and men’s and women’s basketball players, over the next 10 years.

Current players will share a pool with a $20.5 million limit per university, over and above scholarships, with the amount increasing in future years. The breakdown is generally 75% of that amount to football players, 15% to men’s basketball players, 5% to women’s basketball players and 5% to other athletes. (Title IX challenges, anyone?)

And yes, there will almost certainly be fallout.

The major conferences, defendants in the lawsuit – including the reconstituted Pac-12, with holdovers Oregon State and Washington State joined by six teams in the summer of 2026 – are locked into the profit sharing agreement. Beyond that, individual institutions can either opt in or opt out and stay within the old rules, and you can just imagine where the competitive advantages will fall in that case.

“The schools that are not required to opt in have the benefit of waiting a year and seeing how this plays out, learning from mistakes that are made by those who’ve been required to do it from day one, and then (can) make a decision next year about whether or not they want to opt in,” said Victoria Jackson, an associate professor at Arizona State and sports historian.

So what happens if your program can’t afford to opt in and finds itself looking up at the programs who do?

This process has pretty much completed the de-fanging of the NCAA, which basically will run tournaments and disburse profits from the March Madness TV contract and little else. It has no role in the college football playoff, and what once was a robust enforcement mechanism that zealously pursued (and occasionally caught) entities who were offering under-the-table money now has little to do.

According to The Associated Press, 153 NCAA rules were eliminated to allow schools to provide direct benefits to athletes under the settlement.

The new system is going to be run by something called the College Sports Commission with assistance from Deloitte’s NIL GO clearinghouse, which will inspect individual name/image/likeness (NIL) deals of $600 or more to make sure they’re actually fair market value and not play-for-pay mechanisms.

Supposedly, the CSC has enforcement power; to enforce what, we don’t know. That seems to be the last vestige of the old college athletics mindset that someone, somewhere is getting an unfair advantage – and, indeed, it could lead to influential people attempting to bypass the system. Anyone for the old days of suitcases and FedEx envelopes full of cash?

That, Jackson said, reflects “what a stupid business this all is, and also a refusal to just admit that college football at the top of the pyramid is professional sports. Because they refuse to just outright professionalize college football, they’re dragging all of the (other) sports into this crappier, bad, far from optimized business model.

“… What are you when you’re a professional track and field athlete? You’re funding yourself through prize money and endorsement contracts and appearance fees if you’re among the top tier. And you don’t have to report your third-party NIL deals with USA Track and Field or the (U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee). This idea that everything is going to have to be run (through the clearinghouse) feels wrong, and the continuing of the policing of athletes that’s unnecessary.”

With the amount of change that has already taken place, her vision of spinning off football from college athletic departments makes sense: Keep the tradition and emotion and history, but with a different business model and, potentially, additional revenue streams.

“Football shouldn’t be supporting those other things,” she said. “Or if football is, let’s make sure it’s the industry that’s doing it, not the football players’ deserved cut of that money.”

Jackson talked of a conversation with then-UCLA quarterback Chase Griffin at a House subcommittee hearing, and of how he said he was proud that his sport helped support, for example, the gymnastics team on campus.

“And I’m like, why are we expecting Chase Griffin to pay for this?” she said.

Another possible trend to come out of this settlement: Attrition, especially among the Olympic sports – a euphemism for what used to be called “non-revenue” sports, but accurate given the college system’s outsized importance to Olympic teams here and elsewhere. Grand Canyon eliminated men’s volleyball a few weeks ago, and other campuses might either eliminate whole teams or trim roster sizes.

Interestingly, Jackson said she was on a panel with NCAA president Charlie Baker a few weeks ago. He told her that after attending the NCAA men’s swimming and diving championships last spring and seeing the success of college athletes last summer in Paris, “We should have been marketing the NCAA national championships as a preview of the Olympic Games.”

Such irony. The NCAA is only decades behind the Olympic movement in scrapping amateurism.

jalexander@scng.com

Conference commissioners lauded a judge’s approval of a $2.8 billion antitrust lawsuit settlement as a means for bringing stability and fairness to an out-of-control college athletics industry but acknowledged there would be growing pains in implementing its terms.

In a 30-minute virtual news conference on Monday, commissioners of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC renewed their call for congressional action to supplement and even codify the settlement and emphasized that cooperation at every level of college sports would be necessary to make it work.

They said it was too early to address how violators of rules surrounding revenue sharing and name, image and likeness (NIL) agreements would be punished and noted newly hired College Sports Commission CEO Bryan Seeley would play a major role in determining penalties.

The new era of college athletics has arrived after U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken gave final approval on Friday night to what’s known as House vs. NCAA. Beginning July 1, each school can share up to about $20.5 million with their athletes – those payments will be in addition to scholarships and other benefits the athletes already receive. Beginning June 7, athletes have to report third-party NIL deals of $600 or more to the College Sports Commission, which will analyze them to make sure they pay appropriate “market value” for the services being provided by athletes.

Some of the topics addressed Monday:

Binding conferences to terms

The conferences drafted a document that would bind institutions to enforcement policies even if their state laws are contradictory. It would require schools to waive their right to pursue legal challenges against the CSC. It also would exempt the commission from lawsuits from member schools over enforcement decisions, instead offering arbitration as the main settlement option.

Consequences for not signing the agreement would include risking the loss of league membership and participation against other teams from the Power Four conferences.

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said the document remains a work in progress but that he’s gotten no pushback from his schools.

“I look to get that executed here in short order,” he said, “and know it will be very necessary for all the conferences to execute as well.”

Directives on revenue sharing

There has been no directive given to individual schools on how to determine the allocation of revenue-sharing payments, commissioners said. It’s widely acknowledged that athletes in football and basketball are expected to receive the majority of the money.

“I know for all five of us no one is forgetting about their Olympic sports and continuing to make sure we’ve invested a high level for all of our sports,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said.

College Sports Commission CEO

The commissioners said Seeley, as MLB executive vice president of legal and operations, was uniquely qualified to lead the CSC, which is charged with making sure schools adhere to the rules.

“Culture doesn’t change overnight,” Seeley told The Athletic over the weekend. “I don’t expect that to happen overnight, but I do think that the schools that have signed on to the settlement want rules and want rules to be enforced. Otherwise they wouldn’t have signed on to the settlement. I think student-athletes want a different system. So I think there is a desire for rules enforcement. There’s a desire for transparency.”

Sankey said Seeley is well-versed in areas of implementation, development and adjustment of rules and in NIL disputes requiring arbitration.

Yormark said: “You want people not to run away from a situation but to run to a situation. He ran here, and he’s very passionate to make a difference and to course correct what’s been going on in the industry.”

Skepticism about enforcement

Deloitte’s “NIL Go” program and LBI Software will track NIL deals and revenue-sharing contracts, and the commissioners shot down skepticism about the ability of those tools to enforce terms of the settlement. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said football and basketball coaches he spoke with in February were unanimous in wanting regulation. Sankey said he has asked the same question at every level – including up to the university presidents.

“If you want an unregulated, open system, just raise your hand and let me know,” Sankey said. “And universally, the answer is, ‘No, we want oversight. We want guardrails. We want structure.’ Those individuals don’t have the luxury to just say that in meeting rooms, period. They don’t have the luxury to just be anonymous sources. They have a responsibility to make what they’ve sought – what they’ve asked for – to make it work.”

Congressional action

NCAA president Charlie Baker has been pushing Congress for a limited antitrust exemption that would protect college sports from another series of lawsuits, and the commissioners want a uniform federal NIL law that would supersede wide-ranging state laws.

“We’re not going to have Final Fours and College Football Playoffs and College World Series with 50 different standards,” Sankey said, “so that’s a starting point.”

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said the willingness of administrators to modernize the college athletics model should prompt federal lawmakers to move on codifying the settlement.

Sankey’s meeting with Trump

Sankey confirmed a Yahoo Sports report that he and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua played golf with President Donald Trump on Sunday. Sankey said he appreciates Trump’s interest in college sports and that it was helpful to share perspectives on the path forward. Trump reportedly considered a presidential commission on college sports earlier this year.

Sankey declined to disclose details of their talks.

“I think those are best left for the moment on the golf course,” he said.

Even with a multitude of questions still looming, Phillips said college athletics is in a “much better place” than it was 48 hours ago, before the settlement was approved.

“What’s not debatable is that this new model does bring stability and fairness to student-athletes in college sports,” Phillips said. “We’ve been in an unregulated environment with no rules and no enforcement. It has paralyzed the NCAA in Indianapolis, and we’re responsible for certainly some of that. We’re now going to have a foundation and structure laying out those rules. The new structure provides our student-athletes with more opportunities and benefits than ever before.”

After sputtering through its worst season in two decades, the UCLA baseball team completed a 180-degree spin in 2025, advancing to the College World Series for the first time in 12 years with a 7-0 victory over UT-San Antonio on Sunday afternoon at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

UCLA finished 19-33 last season, including 9-21 in its final season in the Pac-12, but will bring a 47-16 record to Omaha, Nebraska for the eight-team CWS that begins Friday. UCLA will face first-time CWS qualifier Murray State (44-15) on Saturday at 11 a.m. PT in its opener.

“We had a really tough year last year. We really could have had some guys leave, but I think they saw the heart of the program,” UCLA coach John Savage said. “They felt that they could turn the needle and, at the end of the day, that’s what they did. They did it together.”

The Bruins, the No. 15 national seed, won their 11th game in a row on Sunday, sweeping the best-of-three super regional with pinpoint pitching, stellar defense and clutch hits from their most important player to one who started just two previous games this season.

Toussaint Bythewood, a junior outfielder from Encino who mainly served as a seldom-used right-handed pinch-hitter this season, was in the lineup at designated hitter and he delivered a clutch two-out, two-strike single in the fourth inning that broke a scoreless tie.

Roch Cholowsky, UCLA’s starting shortstop and one of 25 semifinalists for the Golden Spikes Award, which annually goes to the best amateur baseball player in the United States, dropped an RBI single into right-center field in the fifth to score UCLA’s second run.

The Bruins tacked on two more runs in the eighth and three in the ninth, more than enough for the Bruins’ pitching staff, which blanked UTSA (47-15) over the final 16 innings of the super regional.

“We got outstanding pitching this weekend,” Savage said. “We had a bunch of naysayers saying that they questioned our pitching. You can’t question that now.”

UTSA’s leadoff batter reached base in four of the first five innings off UCLA starter Landon Stump, but he kept the Roadrunners from crossing the plate.

Savage went to left-hander Chris Grothues (4-1) after Stump hit No. 9 hitter Andrew Stucky to start the fifth, and Grothues got Norris McClure to hit into a double play – the Bruins’ nation-best 63rd of the season – before striking out Mason Lytle looking, pumping his fists at his side as he departed the mound.

Grothues did not allow a hit over 2⅔ innings of relief. Cal Randall relieved him with two outs in the seventh, but catcher Cashell Dugger threw out Jordan Ballin trying to steal to end the inning.

After a delay to replace the home plate umpire for medical reasons, August Souza pitched a 1-2-3 eighth for the second consecutive day, and Easton Hawk did the same in the ninth.

It added up to five innings of no-hit relief on Sunday and nine shutout innings for the bullpen for the weekend.

“They pounded the zone pretty good,” Savage said of the relievers. “It just seemed like we were very competitive. Came back into counts, won a bunch of 3-2 counts. … It was just a 9-on-1 operation.”

UCLA put its leadoff batter on base for the second time in the fourth when Roman Martin singled to right. He was erased on a double-play grounder, but Payton Brennan followed with an opposite-field line drive that left fielder Caden Miller misjudged, allowing the ball to carry over his head for a double.

Bythewood then fought off a two-strike pitch and dumped a soft single into right field, scoring Brennan from second for a 1-0 lead.

“He was ready for that opportunity, came up with a huge hit,” Savage said. “So happy for Touissant and his game today.”

The Bruins put their lead-off batter on base again in the fifth when No. 9 hitter Phoenix Call reached on a bunt up the first base line. He was sacrificed to second and then scored when Cholowsky lined a single into right-center field for a 2-0 lead, one pitch after UTSA coach Pat Hallmark paid a mound visit.

“I ran out and told him not to throw a strike to Roch, and he threw a strike,” Hallmark said.

AJ Salgado started the eighth with an opposite-field double off the glove of McClure at third.

Brennan then hit a line drive off UTSA pitcher Braylon Owens, and the ball caromed into foul territory. UTSA first baseman Lorenzo Morresi tried to flip the ball to Owens covering first, but the ball got away, allowing Salgado to continue home for a 3-0 lead.

Call then delivered a sacrifice fly to center to stretch it to 4-0.

Brennan came through with his third hit of the game in the ninth, lining an opposite-field two-run single to left to make it 6-0, and Bythewood followed with an RBI groundout for a 7-0 lead.

“They played clean baseball, and they’ve got a lot of talent,” Hallmark said. “They deserved to win.”

The Bruins surrendered a home run on the second pitch of the game, gave up another run on a trick play more often seen at the Little League level and failed to capitalize on their own prime scoring opportunity in the second inning.

But there were still seven innings to go, plenty of time for UCLA right-hander Michael Barnett and the offense to right the ship in the 5-2 victory at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

The Bruins own a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three matchup heading to Game 2 on Sunday at noon. A win will advance UCLA to the eight-team College World Series for the first time since 2013.

“A nine-inning game is a long game,” said UCLA coach John Savage, who earned his 50th postseason victory at the school. “I always tell them, there’s plenty of opportunities that are still on the table.”

Barnett (12-1) bounced back from the unwelcome start to allow two runs and six hits over six innings. The junior right-hander struck out one and didn’t walk a batter.

“A little adversity early on doesn’t matter,” Barnett said. “This team is built off adversity, and myself being able to recover from that is really special.”

Roman Martin had two hits and drove in three runs for No. 15 seed UCLA (46-16), which has won 10 in a row.

The Bruins didn’t capitalize after putting runners on second and third with no outs in the second off UTSA right-hander Zach Royse, but they came through in the third.

Back-to-back one-out singles by Dean West and Roch Cholowsky put runners on the corners. Mulivai Levu then lined a two-strike pitch into the right-field corner for an RBI double that cut the lead to 2-1.

Levu came in ranked third in the nation and tops in the Big Ten with 84 RBIs.

Martin then tied the score 2-2 when he drove in Cholowsky with a ground out to third.

The Bruins moved ahead 3-2 in the fourth after loading the bases with one out on singles by Payton Brennan, Cashel Dugger and No. 9 hitter Phoenix Call, followed by a sacrifice fly from West.

UCLA missed opportunities to expand its lead in the fifth and sixth innings, but put runners on the corners with one out in the eighth before Martin delivered a two-out two-run triple into the right-center field gap to make it 5-2.

“Every game is going to be a dogfight,” Savage said.

Barnett, who came in ranked third in the nation in wins and No. 1 in the Big Ten, did not have his first clean inning until the fifth.

Jack O’Connor relieved Barnett to start the seventh and tossed a 1-2-3 inning. August Souza retired all three batters he faced in the eighth, and Easton Hawk did the same in the ninth.

The Bruins did not walk a batter or commit an error.

“They didn’t give us anything,” UTSA coach Pat Hallmark said.

UTSA (47-14) came in with confidence after upsetting second-seeded Texas to win its regional last weekend.

Barnett had allowed just seven home runs in 75⅓ innings coming into the game, but Mason Lytle lined the second pitch over the fence in left to give UTSA a 1-0 lead and get his side of the stadium roaring in approval.

“They jumped on us, no question about it,” Savage said. “They had a lot of momentum and, to Michael’s credit, he calmed that down a little bit.”

UCLA appeared to catch a break when UTSA catcher Andrew Stucky overran second base on a single to right by Ty Hodge that would have loaded the bases with one out in the second inning.

Stucky got tagged out in a rundown for the second out, but the Roadrunners stole a run during the ensuing at-bat when Caden Miller broke for home as Dugger was throwing the ball back to Barnett, and he beat Barnett’s return throw with a head-first slide for a 2-0 lead.

“The steal of home, I think it was a lesson learned,” Savage said. “Throwing the ball from his knees, not throwing firm enough. They picked up on that.”

Former UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi, left, joins her former coach Valorie Kondos Field, known as Miss Val, for a class on leadership on Monday, Mar. 10, 2025, at UCLA in Westwood. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

Valorie Kondos Field, retired UCLA women’s gymnastics team head coach and author of “Don’t Wait to Dance”, teaches a graduate level class on leadership on Monday, Mar. 10, 2025, at UCLA in Westwood. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

Students attend a graduate level class on leadership taught by Valorie Kondos Field, who led UCLA’s women’s gymnastics team to seven national titles as head coach, on Monday, Mar. 10, 2025, at UCLA in Westwood. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

Valorie Kondos Field, who led UCLA’s women’s gymnastics team to seven national titles as head coach, converses with students in a graduate level class on leadership on Monday, Mar. 10, 2025, at UCLA in Westwood. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

Former UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi participates in a leadership class taught by her former coach Valorie Kondos Field on Monday, Mar. 10, 2025, at UCLA in Westwood. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

Valorie Kondos Field, retired UCLA women’s gymnastics team head coach, addresses students in a graduate level class on leadership on Monday, Mar. 10, 2025, at UCLA in Westwood. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

UCLA Bruins basketball player Angela Dugalic, center, chats with groupmates in a class taught by former gymnastics coach Valorie Kondos Field on Monday, Mar. 10, 2025, at UCLA in Westwood. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

Valorie Kondos Field, retired UCLA women’s gymnastics team head coach, addresses students in a graduate level class on leadership on Monday, Mar. 10, 2025, at UCLA in Westwood. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

Life and death. Senior citizen sex. Alex Rodriguez and performance-enhancing drugs.

This is Education 472: Introduction to Philosophies of Coaching. Valorie Kondos-Field is in charge – and it’s a learning environment unlike any other.

“She’s just so … herself,” UCLA women’s basketball player Charlisse Leger-Walker said. “The very first class, I thought she was crazy.”

Kondos-Field, known affectionately as Miss Val, won seven NCAA championships and collected more than 800 victories in her 29 years as head coach of the UCLA gymnastics team. She’s returned to the school as an educator in the School of Education and Information Studies’ Transformative Coaching and Leadership graduate program.

A team of educators has developed a curriculum to give Bruins the tools they need to transition from student – or student-athlete – to coach. EDUC472 is a small but influential piece.

“The main point of the class is to get these young adults to start thinking about what their values are and instructing their leadership values, moral foundation, cultural foundation and style,” Kondos-Field said.

“You have to be authentic, otherwise you will never be a leader worth following.”

Bringing the outside in

On the last day of class, Kondos-Field stands with poise at the front of a classroom in Moore Hall as students and guests funnel in. Balenciaga pumps are on her feet, graffitied with fluorescent, inspirational words and the year “2019.”

A wedding ring is on her left hand and a 2010 national championship ring is on the other. Not a hair is out of place.

There are two main objectives for today’s three-hour class: discussion of Kondos-Field’s first book, “Life Is Short, Don’t Wait to Dance” – she has a second in the works – and final presentations. Each student has prepared a 2-minute speech explaining their coaching philosophy.

It feels more like a gathering than a class. Former UCLA gymnast and NCAA champion Katelyn Ohashi leans on a table while Kondos-Field’s 90-year-old roommate, Beverly, is seated on the other side of the room and looking refined in a turquoise sweater and sepia-tinted sunglasses.

“She has made me reframe my thoughts of what getting older is,” Kondos-Field tells the class, referring to Beverly.

Guests are critical to the course’s effectiveness. Students read a book per week about a particular coach, then guests are invited to discuss the subject matter with the group.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has made an appearance. Former Bruin and NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo and baseball icon Alex Rodriguez have stopped by.

“If we’re studying say, Pete Carroll, that week,” Kondos-Field said, “Alex doesn’t speak to Pete, but Alex Rodriguez comes in and talks about how to move from being a player, a student, to choreographing your life. Crafting your life.”

There is one regular face in the class – Director of New Initiatives Arif Amlani, who has a background in philosophy and philosophy of education. Amlani has co-taught the class for six years, although at this point he sees himself as playing more of a supportive role.

He teams up with Kondos-Field to connect leadership techniques with ancient philosophy passed down through centuries. The unexamined life is not worth living, as Socrates said.

“I have full confidence in her and the wisdom that she imparts,” Amlani said. “I am perfectly OK letting her do her thing.

“And conversely, there might be times when I do my thing. I have a very different style and I’ll talk about very different kinds of things. I might go more into philosophical issues. We have that understanding and, really, it’s by design. We have full confidence in each other.”

A strength space

UCLA running back Anthony Frias II is laughing and holding his phone in front of him, the screen facing the class.

Instagram’s algorithm showed him a postgame interview of classmate and former Bruins softball player Sharlize Palacios. Her teammates stacked bats in her arms and topped them with a Squishmallow before placing a box of Reese’s Puffs cereal on her head.

Palacios shakes her head as wide smiles spread to everyone who sees the clip.

Before class had even started, the group was applauding Leger-Walker and Angela Dugalić as they walked into the room. The women’s basketball players were returning to campus fresh off a Big Ten Conference Tournament victory over USC.

“Being in the grad classes, everybody is so curious about the other sports,” said Leger-Walker, who sat out this past season recovering from a torn ACL. “They’ve come out to our games and then the next day, they were all congratulating us. It just builds that sense of community at UCLA, and it’s pretty special. Everyone’s genuine about supporting each other.”

The dialogue flows freely in Education 472 but Kondos-Field is always at the forefront. She requires that all students stand up when they speak and if there are guests in the room, they introduce themselves and name the sport that they play.

Even in the Zoom-based first class of the semester, Kondos-Field asked the students to unmute themselves as she called on each of them. Leger-Walker recalls being good-naturedly pestered by her instructor until she turned her camera on during that class, a purpose she now understands.

“It’s very interactive, very discussion-based, very opinion-based and because it’s a graduate class, people aren’t afraid to speak up and share their opinion and share their perspective,” Leger-Walker said.

“Honestly, it’s probably one of the top three classes I’ve had in my entire college career so far. And that’s five years, so that’s a lot of classes.”

Athletes of the same sport sit together in the U-shaped seating arrangement but intermingle with each other during group work, asking questions about others’ sports or what their future might hold.

Casual conversations swirl into silly ones and juxtapose themselves with words of emotional depth, revealing to students that vulnerability doesn’t have to be a weakness.

An in-class anecdote from Kondos-Field: She once declined a dinner invitation from a group of gymnastics friends because she thought gymnastics gossip might end up dominating the conversation.

Instead, she planted herself on the couch beside Beverly. They worked on knitting projects in their pajamas, watched tennis and “talked about older people having sex,” she recalled.

Later in the class, Beverly reflects on her experience with cancer and Kondos-Field adds details about her own challenges while going through breast cancer.

Dugalić shares that she and her brother didn’t always have a basketball to play with while growing up. In another class, Joshua Swift delved into the hurt of being cut from the football team two days after the season had ended.

“It was riveting,” Kondos-Field said. “It was one heartbeat in that class, listening to Joshua Swift stand up and share his pain with everyone.”

Even Alex Rodriguez lets down his defenses when he enters Moore Hall.

“He always knows I’m going to throw him hardballs,” Kondos-Field said. “I start every time he’s in class – I go, ‘Why did you do it? Let’s talk about the performance-enhancing drugs. Why did you do it?’ And he gets really vulnerable, he gets really humble.”

Gray areas brighten and blurred lines in communication snap into focus. Tough conversations aren’t just unavoidable – they’re welcomed. But don’t call it a safe space. In the words of Kondos-Field, it’s a strength space.

Not just a degree

Colleges and universities across the country offer many coaching-related degrees, but none are as intensive as the Transformative Coaching and Leadership program at UCLA.

It was launched in fall 2019 and built on former UCLA men’s basketball coach John Wooden’s adage that coaching is teaching, creating a win-win situation for the university.

The master’s program was a perfect match for graduate student-athletes who wanted to pursue coaching or leadership positions. On the other side, it allowed UCLA to attract and retain student-athletes.

“After hearing about that program, it was definitely another check box that I could put for UCLA,” said Leger-Walker, who transferred from Oregon State a year ago.

Jessica Clements, the leadoff hitter on the Bruins’ softball team, had a similar experience. The 2024 Big West Player of the Year at Cal Poly had her pick of schools, but Coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said the Transformative Coaching and Leadership experience made UCLA a top choice.

Clements will finish playing this season, then be a graduate manager next season before beginning her search for a coaching job.

“It’s everything she could possibly want,” Inouye-Perez said. “Academics, athletics, the experience as an athlete, the experience as a grad manager, transformative coaching, a leadership master’s program.

“And then she wants to be able to fly it out there and figure out where she could land a coaching position, which I believe is going to be very, very easy for her.”

There are two UCLA gymnasts in the program who are taking Kondos-Field’s class: Carissa Clay and Chae Campbell – or “Chae girl” as Kondos-Field affectionately calls her during class.

“I’ve seen them both grow in the way that they communicate and the confidence that they hold themselves with and also how they show up as a leader,” Bruins gymnastics coach Janelle McDonald said.

“It’s a great opportunity for people to be able to continue their education and their sport, but also just learn a lot about life.”

Transactional vs. transformative

Sue Enquist was a transactional head coach when she helmed the UCLA softball team for 18 seasons. She was tough on her players but empowered them, and won 10 NCAA championships between 1982 and 2004 as a result.

“I loved it,” said Inouye-Perez, who won three national championships as a player under Enquist.

“She’s, like, man, if I were to coach the way I did back then versus understanding what’s needed today, I’d be a whole different coach today than I was back then,” Inouye-Perez recalled.

Enquist, along with Kondos-Field, is now embracing transformative coaching, which emphasizes athlete growth while still putting emphasis on success.

Transformative – sometimes called transformational – coaching sees sports beyond winning and losing, supporting athletes as they undergo difficult situations in order to create personal growth.

“Everybody coaching today should definitely understand what transformative means,” Inouye-Perez said, “because if you’re not, you put yourself at risk of not only not succeeding, but also being fired for not getting the fact that you no longer can be transactional. Everyone’s looking for everyone to have a quality experience, to learn and grow and be better people.”

The current generation of college students has likely experienced a mix of the transactional, do-as-I-say coaching style and transformative coaching. The future, as Inouye-Perez and those in the Transformative Coaching and Leadership Program believe, is the latter due to its ability to meet the mental and physical needs of this generation’s student-athletes.

“If we were teaching this class in the ’80s, a lot of people in the class would not have experienced what transformational leadership feels like,” Kondos-Field said.

“But this generation has experienced both. And now, guess what? Since you’ve experienced both, you get to choose. You don’t get to just say ‘because that’s how I was coached.’ Or ‘that’s how I was parented.’ It’s a choice.”

Philosophies built to last

It’s time for the grand finale of Education 472. The last task of the last class is for each student to present their personal coaching philosophy in 2 minutes.

Kondos-Field proudly tells the class that Cam Brown, a former student and women’s basketball player, had secured a job offer by reciting her philosophy during an interview. Dugliać, equally proud, films her instructor retelling the story on her phone to send to Brown.

“The interesting part is I tend to overcoach,” Kondos-Field said. “I tend to give them too much information. And Dr. Amlani, he’s like, let them figure it out.”

The ways in which this group of students figured out the coaching philosophy assignment are myriad.

Swift has a central theme – “Keep it G” – and involves pillars that all begin with the letter G. Beach volleyball player Natalie Myszkowski talks about the importance of preparation and how “the dumbest you can look in the rain is wet.”

Swimmer Joanie Cash shows a graphic of a blue-and-yellow bridge that she had created to demonstrate the pillars of her philosophy. Leger-Walker gives an energetic and clear presentation, but not before she discloses that she struggled to decide which leadership style they learned about was her favorite.

“I don’t think that I’ve ever sat down to this extent and thought about leadership the way I have this quarter,” Leger-Walker said. “It can be such a general term thrown out there. Like, what is a leader? Everybody has a different perspective on it, but I didn’t realize how complex it truly was.”

Kondos-Field tells them in a brief, spirited lecture that she was never afraid of getting fired while she was coaching at UCLA and that she would still hold true to her own coaching philosophy today – which includes no chewing gum and no hair ties on wrists, of course.

And she is steadfast in that as an educator, which will forever resonate with her students.

“Everyone is different 100%,” Leger-Walker said, “but there are so many different ways and different skills and different experiences that you can draw from to really have your own philosophy so that you stay true to that.

“No matter what.”