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Tennessee
University of Tennessee chancellor calls on land-grant universities to lead
Donde Plowman wants state flagship universities to seize the moment and take the lead in the national conversation about higher education.
“No one is better positioned than the land-grant universities to remind people why higher education matters,” she said.
Plowman, chancellor of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has led the state’s flagship land-grant research university since 2019. She was the guest speaker Thursday for the 2024 James F. Patterson Land-Grant University Lecture at The Ohio State University.
The lecture honors former Board of Trustees member Jim Patterson and supports his mission for a vibrant university fulfilling its land-grant mission in an ever-changing world. The lecture brings to campus a prominent figure to speak to the range of challenges facing land-grant institutions.
Plowman said the challenge universities face now is a sharp decline in confidence in higher education.
“I hear the criticisms, you hear the criticisms. It’s usually the same three things: Universities are elitist, and they’re out of touch. Degrees are unattainable. They’re unaffordable, and they’re really not worth it anyway,” she said. “We spend our time on esoteric research for academic journals instead of for the … everyday people in the states we serve.”
Plowman said despite this, land-grant universities have a chance to change the narrative because of their connection to their communities. It begins with the more than 160-year-old mission started with the Morrill Land Grant College Act of 1862 and the clear mandate of education, discovery and community engagement, she said.
Land-grant universities, often through county extension services, have built up deep and decades-long relationships and trust in the community.
“Finally, it’s a sense of pride and promise that the state’s land-grant university actually belongs to everyone. It’s the people’s university,” she said. “Ask the people in your communities what they think about higher education, and there’s a decent chance they’ll scoff at you. Ask them what they think about The Ohio State University, and they will beam at you.
“Volunteers is synonymous with Tennesseans. Buckeyes is just another word for Ohioans. That kind of identity and pride is enviable. These advantages are unique to land grants. They provide us opportunities to rise above the criticism we hear about the value of higher education.”
At Tennessee, Plowman is working to put her words into practice. She has overseen a 19% increase in enrollment, even as enrollment has dropped dramatically at many other universities. The university has also set new records in student retention, alumni giving, state support and research expenditures.
Plowman said land-grant universities need to continue to make college an affordable option for students and their families. They need to make sure students are completing their degrees and leaving with applicable skills and workforce-ready knowledge.
She said land-grant universities also lead with applied research.
“It’s how we learn about problems and then leverage our expertise and capabilities to solve them – from University of Tennessee faculty helping locate hidden graves with forensic anthropology to using AI to detect sepsis sooner,” she said.“From Ohio State, it’s faculty building better prosthetics for amputees, to developing new technology to detect wildfires. The discoveries we make improve the lives of Volunteers and Buckeyes and people everywhere.”
Land-grant universities were created by law to deliver a practical education to everyday citizens and to democratize knowledge, Plowman said. Now is the time to keep that commitment and act as leaders in higher education.
“The leadership that Ohioans need from you, Ohio State, looks different than the leadership that Tennesseans need from the University of Tennessee,” she said. “But whatever it looks like, this is the time to be ourselves, unapologetically ourselves. To respond to the criticisms … because this is the moment for land-grant universities to step up and change the narrative.”
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Patrick Murphy is confident in Alabama softball underclassmen on big stage at WCWS
Patrick Murphy is confident in his Alabama softball underclassmen on the big stage at the Women’s College World Series.
Two teams who feel fated to face off will play each to open each other’s respective Women’s College World Series.
The Texas Longhorns and Tennessee Lady Vols square up in a battle of block Ts and oranges, with two of the sport’s eminent aces potentially facing off in Teagan Kavan and Karlyn Pickens.
Texas, the defending national champions, defeated the Lady Vols 2-0 in last year’s semifinals to advance to the Women’s College World Series final. It’s a massive game for Tennessee, which is looking to avoid dropping into the loser’s bracket as it did in 2023 and 2025. The goods news? Oklahoma isn’t in this field, which is the team that dropped Tennessee in both of those showings.
With that being said, Texas is a softball superpower in its own right. Led by Katie Stewart, the Longhorns have some big bats. Tennessee will need production from its bats if it is to win this opening matchup.
Watch Texas vs Tennessee live with Fubo (free trial)
Here’s how to watch Texas-Tennessee in a high-profile matchup.
What channel is Texas vs Tennessee softball on today?
Game 2 of the Women’s College World Series will air on ESPN. Streaming options for the game include the ESPN app (with a cable login) and Fubo, the latter of which offers a free trial to potential subscribers.
Watch 2026 NCAA Softball Tournament live with Fubo (free trial)
Texas vs Tennessee softball start time today
- Date: Thursday, May 28
- Time: 2:30 p.m. ET, 1:30 p.m. CT
- Location: Devon Park (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
Game 2 of the Women’s College World Series is set to begin Thursday, May 28 at 2:30 p.m. ET.
WCWS bracket, schedule 2026
All times Eastern
Thursday, May 28
- Game 1: No. 11 Texas Tech vs. Mississippi State | Noon | ESPN (Fubo)
- Game 2: No. 7 Tennessee vs. No. 2 Texas | 2:30 p.m. | ESPN (Fubo)
- Game 3: No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 8 UCLA | 7 p.m. | ESPN2 (Fubo)
- Game 4: No. 5 Arkansas vs. No. 4 Nebraska | 9:30 p.m. | ESPN2 (Fubo)
Friday, May 29
- Game 5: 7 p.m. | ESPN2 (Fubo)
- Game 6: 9:30 p.m. | ESPN2 (Fubo)
Saturday, May 30
- Game 7: 3 p.m. | ABC (Fubo)
- Game 8: 7 p.m. | ESPN (Fubo)
Sunday, May 31
- Game 9: 3 p.m. | ABC (Fubo)
- Game 10: 7 p.m. | ESPN2 (Fubo)
Monday, June 1
- Game 11: Noon | ESPN (Fubo)
- Game 12 (if necessary): 2:30 p.m. | ESPN (Fubo)
- Game 13: 7 p.m. | ESPN2 (Fubo)
- Game 14 (if necessary): 9:30 p.m. | ESPN2 (Fubo)
Wednesday, June 3
- WCWS finals Game 1: 8 p.m. | ESPN (Fubo)
Thursday, June 4
- WCWS finals Game 2: 8 p.m. | ESPN (Fubo)
Friday, June 5
WCWS finals Game 3 (if necessary): 8 p.m. | ESPN (Fubo)
ANTIOCH, Tenn. (WZTV) — Federal prosecutors say a Tennessee man spent months exchanging thousands of messages with a 14-year-old girl in rural Colombia before flying overseas to sexually exploit her in person.
Now, Ramon Arellano Sandoval, 64, of Antioch, has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, a federal jury convicted Arellano Sandoval in February 2026 of attempted sex trafficking of a minor and attempted production of child sexual abuse material.
Investigators said Arellano Sandoval communicated with the victim through thousands of text and video messages while knowing she was underage.
Prosecutors said he repeatedly requested sexually explicit videos from the girl and paid her electronically to produce the material.
Authorities said the communication eventually escalated beyond online contact. According to court records, Arellano Sandoval later traveled from the United States to Colombia, where prosecutors said he engaged in commercial sex acts with the minor victim.
U.S. District Judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz II sentenced him to 360 months, or 30 years, in prison.
“Today’s 30-year sentence makes clear that distance is no shield from justice,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said in a statement. “If you use the internet, money, or international travel to prey on a child, we will find you, prosecute you, and seek the full measure of federal punishment.”
Arellano Sandoval was convicted of attempted sex trafficking of a minor and attempted production of visual depictions involving the sexual exploitation of a minor.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Tennessee’s legal fight against prediction market platform Kalshi is now heading to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, setting up for a growing national battle over whether sports event contracts are federally regulated financial products or simply sports betting dressed up.
The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office argues the answer is obvious.
If users are wagering on the outcome of sporting events, the state says it should fall under Tennessee’s sports gambling laws and not federal commodities regulation.
Gaming attorney and sports betting legal expert Daniel Wallach said the legal question goes far beyond whether the activity resembles gambling.
“If sporting events are what you are investing in or wagering on, that’s a straight-out sports bet,” Wallach said. “But the question in this case isn’t turning on whether it’s gambling, it’s whether the CFTC, the federal agency which oversees the commodities markets, was ever given exclusive jurisdiction to regulate sports gaming on commodities markets.”
At the center of the case is the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates commodities markets.
Tennessee argues Congress never intended for federal swap regulations created after the 2008 financial crisis to open the door to nationwide sports wagering products.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti framed it bluntly in court filings:
“Kalshi can call their bets ‘swaps’ all they want, but everyone who so much as glances at the platform understands that this is sports gambling.”
Wallach said Kalshi and the CFTC are relying on an extremely broad reading of federal commodities law.
“Congress never intended for CFTC to wield that kind of power and the premise that Kalshi and CFTC are relying on are based on the definition of what constitutes as a swap under the Commodity Exchange Act,” Wallach said. “That’s a very broad definition, which sweeps into it anything that has potential financial consequences.”
The courts, however, are no longer speaking with one voice.
A federal judge in New Jersey sided with Kalshi and allowed the contracts to continue operating there.
But in Ohio, a federal court raised serious questions about whether Congress ever clearly authorized the CFTC to regulate sports gambling products at all.
“The Ohio district court ruled the exact opposite way and said Congress did not clearly envision or authorize the CFTC to regulate sports gambling,” Wallach said.
Meanwhile, in Tennessee, a federal judge denied the state’s request for a preliminary injunction, meaning Kalshi can continue operating while appeals move forward.
The ruling did not decide the broader legal question permanently. Instead, it determined the state had not yet met the legal threshold required for emergency court intervention while the case proceeds.
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And as the litigation unfolds, the industry itself keeps expanding.
“There are over 20 CFTC designated exchanges and brokers that are offering sports events contracts in all 50 states… Kalshi, crypto.com, Coinbase, Robinhood,” Wallach said. “They’re everywhere.”
What began as a dispute over one platform is quickly evolving into something larger: Whether Congress unintentionally created a federal pathway around state sports betting laws.
Legal observers said when federal courts begin reaching different conclusions on the same issue, it can increase the chances of higher appellate review and potentially eventual review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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