Arizona
WHL player commits to ASU, challenging NCAA
Braxton Whitehead of the Western Hockey League’s Regina Pats has received a verbal commitment for the 2025-26 season from Arizona State University’s Division I program despite NCAA eligibility rules that prevent any player who has appeared in a major junior hockey game from playing college hockey.
This is the first NCAA commitment for a Canadian Hockey League player since a proposed class action suit was filed against the NCAA and 10 universities in August claiming that the eligibility rules violate antitrust laws. The suit seeks to allow players to play hockey in both major juniors and college, which would be a dramatic shift in the player development landscape.
Whether or not that suit is successful, Whitehead and Arizona State are both confident those restrictions will be lifted before he joins the Sun Devils in 2025.
“[ASU’s] slogan is ‘Be the Tradition’ and I think they love the idea of me being a trailblazer throughout all this and paving the way with NCAA and CHL relations,” Whitehead told ESPN on Thursday. “I’m very hopeful that [the rules] will turn over before the 2025-26 season.”
The NCAA has deemed anyone who played in the CHL — composed of the WHL, the Ontario Hockey League and the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League — as ineligible because there are players who have signed professional contracts with NHL teams playing in those leagues. CHL players are also paid a monthly stipend that’s capped at $250.
NCAA Bylaw 12.2.3.2 states that “an individual shall not be eligible for intercollegiate athletics in a sport if the individual ever competed on a professional team.”
In August, OHL player Rylan Masterson challenged that rule. He filed a proposed class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Western New York against the NCAA and 10 universities for what the suit termed a “group boycott” of Canadian junior players. It said the boycott “prevents competition between the CHL and NCAA for top-end players and thus artificially suppresses compensation for players and artificially creates less competitive leagues,” which it argued was “illegal under antitrust laws.”
Whitehead, a 20-year-old forward, is entering his fifth and final season with the Pats. He has played 195 games in the WHL, scoring 52 points in 52 games last season.
The Arizona State men’s hockey program declined comment, citing NCAA rules about discussing players before they’re officially signed.
There has been increased debate in college hockey about dropping restrictions on CHL players, especially after NCAA name, image, and likeness rules were loosened in 2021. Supporters of changing the CHL rules pointed to well-compensated athletes in other sports — such as Olympic swimmers — who had retained their NCAA eligibility; and pointed out that some college hockey programs welcomed players who had played professional games overseas without the NCAA barring them from playing in college.
“Anyone who loves hockey and developmental leagues has been watching what’s been happening in the NIL space and in the transfer portal space, trying to imagine if this will have implications on the future of how junior hockey players develop,” WHL commissioner Dan Near said. “I think this could be the first domino to fall in that regard.”
For Whitehead, it was the proposed class action lawsuit that really laid the groundwork for the Arizona State commitment.
The proposed class action suit wasn’t unexpected by the NCAA. In 2023, during a review of its policies, the NCAA determined there was a legal vulnerability in a potential “group boycott” of Canadian junior players. But the programs’ coaches never took formal action to drop the rule before the suit was filed.
While dropping the restrictions would deepen the talent pool for NCAA hockey, there is fear among some coaches that elite talents would opt not to play college hockey without having the current pressure point of losing eligibility if they chose Canadian juniors instead.
“It has forced kids’ hands at an early age to decide which path they want to take,” said Near.
Whitehead said he has wanted to play college hockey in the U.S. since growing up in Alaska. The proposed class action suit “sparked my interest,” he said. Whitehead sent out several letters to NCAA programs — including Arizona State, his No. 1 choice.
“I kind of hit the lottery with the timing of all that’s going on right now,” he said. “I think [the suit] gave me that extra step just to put myself out there and try something that’s never been done before.”
Whitehead informed his teammates in Regina about his commitment Thursday, after rumors has swirled about it in the dressing room.
“I know my teammates really well, and they’re always supportive of pursuing new things. Once I kind of got the jitters out of the way, they were all just really happy,” said Whitehead, adding that there’s interest among some of them to “follow in my footsteps” to NCAA commitments.
Whitehead’s commitment to ASU could open the floodgates for CHL players. According to one NCAA hockey source, some college programs are “already allocating recruiting budgets” to send scouts to CHL games this season to recruit players.
“We’re thrilled that one of the post-graduation options for WHL players could be the NCAA, if this thing were to change,” Near said. “The more options our players have coming out of our league, the better.”
ESPN’s Kristen Shilton contributed to this report.
In arguably the biggest game in the history of Texas State football, G.J. Kinne’s Bobcats fell 31-28 in a tightly contested game before a nationally televised audience on Thursday.
The Bobcats (2-1, 0-0 Sun Belt) entered the game as 2.5-point favorites over the Sun Devils (3-0, 0-0 Big 12) and jumped out to a two-score lead in the first half behind three Jordan McCloud touchdown passes.
Kenny Dillingham’s club battled back to even the game at 21-21 entering halftime, as Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt connected with wide receiver Jordyn Tyson on a 52-yard touchdown pass – followed by Leavitt calling his own number and scoring on a seven-yard TD run.
The game was decided by a pair of second-half turnovers by Texas State, which paved the way for the go-ahead 22-yard field goal by Arizona State kicker Ian Hershey.
Here are three takeaways from the contest:
Jordan McCloud
Texas State’s quarterback played a near flawless contest, going 28-of-43 passing with four touchdowns and one interception. McCloud was able to spread the football around with Arizona State keeping Bobcats’ star receiver Joey Hobert relatively in check, as Hobert finished with seven receptions for 44 yards and didn’t record a touchdown.
Texas State’s defensive stars
In a game that was projected to be a high-scoring affair, Texas State’s defensive stalwarts showed up. Defensive back Chris Mills recorded eight tackles along with an interception and a pass breakup. Edge Ben Bell had five tackles, one sack and three quarterback hurries.
Timely turnovers
With 9:10 left in the game, Bobcats’ running back Ishmail Mahdi fumbled at the Texas State 23-yard-line, which was recovered by the Sun Devils – opening the door for the Hershey field goal. On the Bobcats’ next possession, McCloud was picked off by Arizona State’s Xavion Alford.
The Bobcats will have a bye week before traveling to face Sam Houston State on September 28.
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Week 1 of the 2024 NFL season was underwhelming for many of the league’s top rookies. Few performances, however, were more underwhelming than that of wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr.
Harrison, the No. 4 overall pick in this year’s draft, had just one reception for four yards in his NFL debut. He was targeted just three times.
After the game, Cardinals offensive coordinator Drew Petzing put the onus on himself to get his potential superstar wideout the ball. And this week, two former Cardinals wide receivers had some advice for Petzing and the rest of the Arizona staff.
Read more: Marvin Harrison Jr. Fantasy Football Owners Won’t Love Cardinals’ Comments on Star WR
Brooke Sutton/Getty Images
In an interview with longtime Cardinals beat writer Kent Somers, former Cardinals wide receivers Roy Green and Frank Sanders discussed how Arizona could better unlock Harrison. They also urged fans to remain optimistic about their star wide receiver.
“One of the great things he has is a great quarterback,” the two-time Pro Bowler Green said to Somers. “He has all the ability in the world. He’s going to be OK, without question. He’s going to be OK.”
What can Arizona do to get him more opportunities?
“When you have safeties on the backside, those are the guys who had to cover me,” Green said. “Once I get six to seven yards down the field, it’s all about the safety now. With the right play action, he’s got half the field and he’s not going to cover me.
“I think Marvin can do that same thing, particularly with the way we (the Cardinals) are running the football with (James) Conner. Play action is going to give (Harrison) opportunities to make big plays.”
While play action was one solution from Green, Sanders wants to see Harrison go in motion to create some mismatches. Harrison didn’t go in motion once across his 55 snaps in his debut.
“It’s exactly what Dallas is doing with CeeDee Lamb, what Minnesota is doing with Justin Jefferson, what the Raiders are doing with Mr. (Davante) Adams,” Sanders said. “They are putting them in the slot and moving them around consistently. They have them in motion running zip, zang, zoom, zing.
“They are trying to get a mismatch with their No. 1 guy vs. the defense’s nickel coverage or their dime back. But if your offense is not that, then you’re going to be trying to change everything to accommodate one person.”
While it was a disappointing first game for Harrison and the Cardinals, there’s plenty of reason for optimism. Harrison is coming off back-to-back seasons at Ohio State in which he accumulated more than 1,200 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns. He was considered by some to be one of the greatest wide receiver prospects ever.
“Everybody knows he’s a hard worker and he’s going to do what he’s supposed to do,” Green said. “He has a chance to be special.”
Harrison’s next opportunity will be on Sunday in an NFC West battle with the Los Angeles Rams. The Cardinals will likely have made some adjustments to get their talented wideout more opportunities.
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A pair of Big 12 rivals meet up in one of college football’s two games involving ranked teams on the same field, as No. 20 Arizona travels to No. 14 Kansas State in a battle of Wildcats on Friday.
While it’s a matchup of Big 12 teams, it’s not actually a Big 12 conference game thanks to a scheduling technicality, but it’s still a good litmus test to see where these teams are in what figures to be a more competitive league championship race later on.
Arizona played close against Northern Arizona a week ago as its vaunted passing attack led by Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan didn’t produce like it usually does, but it came out with the 21-10 victory.
Likewise for Kansas State, which held off an upset-minded Tulane team on the road last weekend, needing some timely defensive plays to get out of New Orleans unscathed and undefeated.
What do the experts think of the matchup? Let’s turn to the SP+ prediction model to get a preview of how Arizona and Kansas State compare in this Week 3 football game.
So far, the simulations are siding pretty definitively with the home team in this matchup.
SP+ predicts that Kansas State will defeat Arizona by a projected score of 35 to 25 and will win the game outright by an expected 9.3 points.
The model gives Kansas State a strong 72 percent chance of victory in the matchup.
SP+ is a “tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency” that attempts to predict game outcomes by measuring “the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football.”
How good is it this season? So far, the SP+ model is 47-44 against the spread with a 51.6 win percentage.
Kansas State is listed as a 7.5 point favorite against Arizona, according to the lines at FanDuel Sportsbook, which set the total at 59.5 points for the game.
FanDuel lists the moneyline odds for Kansas State at -255 and for Arizona at +205.
If you’re using this projection to bet on the game, you should take…
Other analytic tools also favor Kansas State to hold serve at home against Arizona.
That includes the College Football Power Index, a computer prediction model that uses data points from both teams to simulate games 20,000 times to pick winners.
Kansas State comes out the projected winner in 73.2 percent of the computer’s simulations, while Arizona emerged triumphant in the remaining 26.8 percent of sims.
The index favors Kansas State to be 9.5 points better than Arizona on the same field in both teams’ current composition, also enough to cover the spread.
Kansas State is projected to win 9.1 games this season and sits in second-place among Big 12 teams with a 27.6 percent chance to qualify for the College Football Playoff.
Arizona is ninth in the Big 12 with a 5 percent shot at the 12-team playoff as the computers cooled off on its expectations after last week’s game, with the Wildcats expected to win 7 games.
When: Fri., Sept. 13
Time: 7 p.m. Central
TV: Fox network
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