Mountaintop View 5-11-22. NCAA Sanctions, no more divisions? Combine Invites, POTW, Rankings

Another day, another round of links. Enjoy what we have for you today from around the conference and the college sports world in general.

Are NIL Sanctions upon us?

The big unintended consequence of NIL is that it has turned into boosters basically paying athletes to commit or transfer to their school by promising and arranging deals for them if they do. It’s not a surprise and it’s not new, but it also takes the fun out of things. SI reports that NCAA sanctions could be coming for schools caught taking part in this. The NCAA dragged their feet on NIL guidelines and now seems to be trying to backtrack after seeing how things unfolded over the past year. Update: the NCAA said it will begin enforcing rules going forward and if they discover anything that happened before, they will look into it. So... take that for what you will.

Down with divisions?

So the new rule could change things in a very positive way. It will loosen rules on conferences and remove the requirements to hold a conference championship game and exempt it from the maximum number of games. While no conference would stop having conference championships, it would allow more freedom in how they get there. Conferences would not have to have divisions or round-robin schedules. Due to this, we could see the return of annual rivalries and the top two teams playing for the conference title regardless of where they are located.

NBA Combine Invites

Players of the week

Aztecs continue to be ranked.

On the horizon:

• Later today: Peak Perspective: Examing Mountain West Future OOC Schedules
• Coming Thursday: Revisiting the 2018 Boise State Recruiting Class: Part 4