The Deal: J Batt
In this episode of The Deal, Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly sit down with Georgia Tech Athletics Director J Batt to discuss the current upheaval in college athletics. In their conversation, taped in front of a live audience during March Madness, Batt explains how his athletics department is helping students navigate new rules around 'name, image and likeness,' the transfer portal and potential revenue-sharing opportunities.
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New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
A strategy for pacing out your bets on Belmont Stakes day
It's a cliché, but betting — especially on Belmont Stakes day — is a marathon, not a sprint. Becoming a profitable handicapper is not just about picking winners and finding an edge. A pillar of success in betting is managing two things — your bankroll and your emotions. We'll start with bankroll management. Your bankroll refers to the amount of money you have allocated for betting. In other words, the amount of money you would be comfortable losing. For some people, that number could be high. For others, it could be quite low. Bet with your head, not over it. When it comes to a day such as the Belmont Stakes, bankroll management becomes even more important because, in all likelihood, you're going to want to have some scratch in your pocket to bet the headliner at 7:04 p.m. That means you're going to essentially have two separate pools of money: one for the Belmont Stakes and one for the undercard, which gets underway at 10:45 a.m. and features seven other stakes races. It's a magnificent day for railbirds, but it can get spoiled quickly if you're not in control of your impulses. And what makes this day of racing especially tricky for those who may struggle with keeping their emotions in check when it comes to betting is that there is a really tempting 'chase' opportunity in the Belmont Stakes. The 2025 Belmont is headlined by two clear favorites, No. 7 Journalism (8-5) and No. 2 Sovereignty (2-1). Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty gets a bath on June 6, 2025 in preparation for Saturday's Belmont Stakes. Getty Images There will be plenty of casual punters who will plan on ending their day with a big bet on one or both of these horses. If you've been betting long enough, you know this feeling. Perhaps it was on Day 1 of March Madness or the first Saturday of the college football season, but we've all dealt with the temptation of chasing a day of losses with one final bet on a 'sure thing' late in the night (it's why Hawaii football games attract an unusually large number of bets during the fall). Nobody wants to be lectured about betting, or see someone get on their soapbox, but any seasoned gambler will say that resisting the urge to chase their losses was a huge step in the right direction. For the purposes of using a round number, let's say you have a bankroll of $200 for Saturday. Immediately, you should decide how much of that you want to leave for the Belmont Stakes. Mike Repoli is the owner of Uncaged who is running in Saturday's Belmont Stakes. Jason Szenes / New York Post Sticking with the round numbers, we'll put $20 aside for the Belmont (along with stashing away any profits from earlier wins), allowing us $180 to gamble with on the full menu of races leading up to the main event. But there's also a chance you're going to want to be a part of the Mandatory Payout Pick 5, which begins with the Jaipur (Race 9, 4:08 p.m.) and wraps up with the Belmont Stakes. By entering the Pick 5, you not only give yourself a shot at a life-changing amount of money, but you'll also have action on each race, so long as you're still in it, without having to bet anymore. We can put $54 aside for the Pick 5, which allows you plenty of room to build a decent ticket, and leaves you with $126 to bet on the rest of the races. It's not the most exciting part of the game, but mapping out a strategy like this before you enter the gates Saturday will go a long way in helping you walk out feeling like a winner.
Fox News
4 hours ago
- Fox News
Ex-Yankees star Alex Rodriguez says Aaron Judge 'needs' an October moment to be a true franchise legend
For the New York Yankees, it is always World Series or bust. Of course, the Bronx Bombers have 27 titles to their name, and that includes a record 18-year drought from 1978 to 1996. But, after a new dynasty won four titles in five years, expectations changed once again. The Yankees, still, are a perennial postseason team, not having finished under .500 since 1993. Former MLB star Alex Rodriguez knew all about the expectations when he went from the Texas Rangers to the Yankees in 2004. Rodriguez made the postseason in all but three of his seasons with the Yankees (not including when he missed the 2014 season due to suspension). But today, he is part owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx. And while on the diamond, anything short of a title was a failure, he admits that as an owner, "you have to adjust" your expectations. "At the end of the day, it's so hard to win, and there's so many different resources. The days of the Yankees winning four out of five years, those days are long gone, because the business models have changed, people are competing from a different point of view, the league structures are different, whether it's the luxury tax in baseball, there's different elements that are pushing and pulling," Rodriguez said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital. "But I think that winning is more being one of the most respected organizations sports to treating your fans an impeccable way, your players or organization, and then your partners, your sponsorships and stuff like that, and then having a consistent winner that has an opportunity to strike every year. So I think when you think about winning and bust-or-nothing, it's more about the behavior of an organization versus just black and white winning a championship." But the Yankees still have All-Star Aaron Judge, who, if it weren't for the Houston Astros' Jose Altuve in 2017, would be vying for his fourth MVP Award. His regular-season numbers are astonishing, but so are his postseason stats… in the opposite direction. Since the start of the 2022 season (entering Thursday), Judge has MLB highs in WAR (30.9), home runs (178) and OPS (1.124). But in October, he's hit just .205 with a .768 OPS. Rodriguez was polarizing in New York from day one — he was the superstar shortstop with the largest sports contract of all time who didn't exactly praise Yankees great Derek Jeter in a now-infamous quote — whereas Judge is much more universally loved, being a homegrown Yankee. However, that love is not unanimous because of Judge's postseason struggles. And if he wants to be forever in Yankees lore, Judge "needs" to find success in October, according to Rodriguez. "I mean, I'm probably the one guy that can answer this from a personal experience more than anybody," said Rodriguez, who notoriously struggled in autumn with the Bombers before carrying the Yankees to their 2009 World Series title. "I can tell you that for me, 2004 was just an absolute debacle, being up 3-0 against the [Boston] Red Sox and then losing four in a row. And for five years, I basically did not sleep comfortably, until five years later in '09, we brought it home and dropped the hammer. So I think he needs a moment like that. I think he will get one. I think being part of the Yankees and that lore is you're going to get cracks at it every single year. So that's on his side, the talent's on his side, and the more at-bats, the more reps he gets, the chances increase. And when he does, it's going to be such an enormous win for everybody, and it's going to be an elephant off his back." The Yankees, though, didn't exactly fare well in their World Series rematch last week against the Los Angeles Dodgers. They dropped two of the three games, including one contest where they were trounced 18-2 (both of the Yankees' runs came on solo Judge homers). Rodriguez is a partner with Lysol, which cleans up the stink — and the Yanks certainly could have used some in Los Angeles' Chavez Ravine. The ex-Yankees slugger recently surprised a local umpire in Miami Beach with some Lysol. "Umpires are unsung heroes of the game, and it was great to show my appreciation for the work they do on and off the field," he said. "Lysol is just an incredible company to partner with. We've had a tremendous partnership, and one of the things we want to do is make impact in the community and recognize people that often don't get recognized." One player's impact that the Yankees are certainly missing is that of right-handed pitcher Gerrit Cole. And while the rotation has been a pleasant surprise, even with Cole's Tommy John surgery and Rookie of the Year Luis Gil's lat injury, an incomplete Yankees team is no match for the reigning World Series champs, Rodriguez thinks. "I think if you zoom out, I think it's obvious to me with enough data points that the National League is far superior than the American League. So that's one macro thought. And then obviously, the Dodgers have the Yankees' number," Rodriguez said. "It was great that they were able to salvage the series by at least winning one game and not getting swept. But look, when you have someone like Gerrit Cole hurt, the Yankees can still get through some pedestrian teams in the American League, but it's obvious that when you play the Dodgers, you need your full team and then some, and even that may not be enough." Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
12 hours ago
Federal judge approves $2.8B settlement, paving way for US colleges to pay athletes millions
A federal judge signed off on arguably the biggest change in the history of college sports Friday, clearing the way for schools to begin paying their athletes millions of dollars as soon as next month as the multibillion-dollar industry shreds the last vestiges of the amateur model that defined it for more than a century. Nearly five years after Arizona State swimmer Grant House sued the NCAA and its five biggest conferences to lift restrictions on revenue sharing, U.S. Judge Claudia Wilken approved the final proposal that had been hung up on roster limits, just one of many changes ahead amid concerns that thousands of walk-on athletes will lose their chance to play college sports. The sweeping terms of the so-called House settlement include approval for each school to share up to $20.5 million with athletes over the next year and $2.7 billion that will be paid over the next decade to thousands of former players who were barred from that revenue for years. The agreement brings a seismic shift to hundreds of schools that were forced to reckon with the reality that their players are the ones producing the billions in TV and other revenue, mostly through football and basketball, that keep this machine humming. The scope of the changes — some have already begun — is difficult to overstate. The professionalization of college athletics will be seen in the high-stakes and expensive recruitment of stars on their way to the NFL and NBA, and they will be felt by athletes whose schools have decided to pare their programs. The agreement will resonate in nearly every one of the NCAA's 1,100 member schools boasting nearly 500,000 athletes. 'Approving the agreement reached by the NCAA, the defendant conferences and student-athletes in the settlement opens a pathway to begin stabilizing college sports,' NCAA President Charlie Baker said. Wilken's ruling comes 11 years after she dealt the first significant blow to the NCAA ideal of amateurism when she ruled in favor of former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon and others who were seeking a way to earn money from the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) — a term that is now as common in college sports as 'March Madness' or 'Roll Tide.' It was just four years ago that the NCAA cleared the way for NIL money to start flowing, but the changes coming are even bigger. Wilken granted preliminary approval to the settlement last October. That sent colleges scurrying to determine not only how they were going to afford the payments, but how to regulate an industry that also allows players to cut deals with third parties so long as they are deemed compliant by a newly formed enforcement group that will be run by auditors at Deloitte. The agreement takes a big chunk of oversight away from the NCAA and puts it in the hands of the four biggest conferences. The ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC hold most of the power and decision-making heft, especially when it comes to the College Football Playoff, which is the most significant financial driver in the industry and is not under the NCAA umbrella like the March Madness tournaments are. The deal looked ready to go since last fall, but Wilken put a halt to it after listening to a number of players who had lost their spots because of newly imposed roster limits being placed on teams. The limits were part of a trade-off that allowed the schools to offer scholarships to everyone on the roster, instead of only a fraction, as has been the case for decades. Schools started cutting walk-ons in anticipation of the deal being approved. Wilken asked for a solution and, after weeks, the parties decided to let anyone cut from a roster — now termed a 'Designated Student-Athlete' — return to their old school or play for a new one without counting against the new limit. Wilken ultimately agreed, going point-by-point through the objectors' arguments to explain why they didn't hold up. 'The modifications provide Designated Student-Athletes with what they had prior to the roster limits provisions being implemented, which was the opportunity to be on a roster at the discretion of a Division I school,' Wilken wrote. Her decision, however, took nearly a month to write, leaving the schools and conferences in limbo — unsure if the plans they'd been making for months, really years, would go into play. 'It remains to be seen how this will impact the future of inter-collegiate athletics — but as we continue to evolve, Carolina remains committed to providing outstanding experiences and broad-based programming to student-athletes,' North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham said. The list of winners and losers is long and, in some cases, hard to tease out. A rough guide of winners would include football and basketball stars at the biggest schools, which will devote much of their bankroll to signing and retaining them. For instance, Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood's NIL deal is reportedly worth between $10.5 million and $12 million. Losers, despite Wilken's ruling, figure to be at least some of the walk-ons and partial scholarship athletes whose spots are gone. Also in limbo are Olympic sports many of those athletes play and that serve as the main pipeline for a U.S. team that has won the most medals at every Olympics since the downfall of the Soviet Union. All this is a price worth paying, according to the attorneys who crafted the settlement and argue they delivered exactly what they were asked for: an attempt to put more money in the pockets of the players whose sweat and toil keep people watching from the start of football season through March Madness and the College World Series in June. What the settlement does not solve is the threat of further litigation. Though this deal brings some uniformity to the rules, states still have separate laws regarding how NIL can be doled out, which could lead to legal challenges. NCAA President Charlie Baker has been consistent in pushing for federal legislation that would put college sports under one rulebook and, if he has his way, provide some form of antitrust protection to prevent the new model from being disrupted again.
