In the new Bizarro World of college sports, where everything is upside down, the inmates are running the asylum. The NCAA, once the cruel, stingy dictator, has lost control of the empire and the pendulum has swung the other way, putting “student-athletes” in charge. Let’s check in to see how it’s going.
Jayden Daniels, the former LSU quarterback and 2023 Heisman Trophy winner, has written (through his lawyer) a letter to his old beloved alma mater, telling the school to “cease and desist” — specifically, he wants to stop the school from giving his No. 5 jersey to a current LSU player and to stop using his name, image and likeness.
The school promised cornerback DJ Pickett that he could wear No. 5, but Daniels and his lawyer think the school owes it to him to retire the number. In essence, they believe Daniels, who played two seasons at LSU and three at Arizona State, owns the number in perpetuity.
An aside about retiring numbers: Schools can choose whether to retire a number and, if they choose to do so, it usually means the jersey is retired, not the number, there being only so many jersey numbers to go around for a 120-man roster. It is the prerogative of the school to bestow this honor; it is not the athletes’ place to bestow the honor on himself. This is something LeBron James would do, but no one else.
Anyway, it’s a PR nightmare. What was Daniels, or his mother-agent, thinking? Daniels’ request is being widely mocked. Following a 4-1 win over the Washington Nationals, the New York Mets posted a meme stating, “stopped at 4 out of respect for Jayden Daniels.” LSU fans posted a doctored photo showing an LSU practice in which every player was wearing No. 5. StubHub announced that it would “no longer offer tickets in groups of 5.” A NASCAR team posted on X, “Out of respect for Jayden Daniels, (driver) Corey Heim will no longer be running the No. 5 (car number) tonight at Richmond Raceway.”
Daniels is being trolled by multiple teams in the MSL, Major League Baseball, minor league baseball, the CFL and the NCAA.
This is going to leave a mark.
Who knows where this will lead. Is he going to demand that his former Baton Rouge landlord stop leasing his room to other students and make it a shrine? Does he have a reserved parking spot he wants retired? A favorite cafeteria tray or certain table at a restaurant?
None of this makes sense. As writer Jason Russell noted in Reason, Daniels is complaining about free marketing that benefits him.
Mississippi quarterback Trinidad Chambliss signals to teammates during the Fiesta Bowl Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Glendale, Ariz. | Ross D. Franklin, Associated PressTrinidad Chambliss, the Ole Miss quarterback, is not complaining. He’s recently bought a house on the Oxford Courthouse Square in downtown Oxford. He can afford it because he is paid more than $5 million to play college football — which is more than his predecessor, Jaxson Dart, is paid as the starting quarterback of the New York Giants.
Which is why he fought so vigorously for a SIXTH year of eligibility. The NCAA initially denied his request for the extra eligibility because he’d already played five seasons. But he lawyered up and, surprise!, a friendly judge in a Mississippi state court ruled in his favor.
So Chambliss will play this season for the Bulldogs and move into his new house on the town square in Oxford. “It’s got patios on every level,” said Chambliss, who said he considers it an investment. He explained, “Oxford is home; it’s going to be home for a lot of years to come now.”
You could take that to mean he’s going to sue for a seventh year of eligibility and beyond.
At least he found a good way to spend his newfound wealth; not so in the case of Brendan Sorsby. As a college quarterback — two years at Indiana, two years at Cincinnati — he was paid more than $1 million. He chose to spend $90,000 to bet on sports. He admitted that at Indiana he made more than 9,000 sports bets, at least 40 of them on his own team. The NCAA ruled him ineligible (he had transferred to Texas Tech for the upcoming season). It was a no-brainer. He admitted to breaking rules that are considered sacrosanct to the integrity of sports.
But wait. He filed for a temporary injunction in a friendly Texas state court, which granted an injunction — thus preventing the NCAA from stopping Sorsby.
With the inmates running the asylum, chaos reigns, and not everyone is sticking around to find out where all of this will lead. Dusty May, whose Michigan team won the NCAA basketball championship in March, left the school in June to coach the Dallas Mavericks. He was set to return to Michigan — as most coaches would after winning a championship — but he was so discouraged after attending Big Ten meetings, he packed it in.
“I was so excited for Big Ten meetings, like ‘We’re going to find some solutions,’” May told The Athletic. “I go there and I was just like, ‘Oh my, nothing’s getting fixed. Ever.’”
FILE - Michigan head coach Dusty May talks with the media following their win over Michigan State after a game in Ann Arbor, Mich., March 8, 2026. | Lon Horwedel, Associated Press
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