KSR Today: House Settlement, Malachi Moreno and Camp SZN

The plan was to get the morning started with updates on Malachi Moreno’s appearance in the 2025 Kentucky/Indiana All-Star Game and the start of camp season for the Wildcats — Mark Pope’s Father/Son and Father/Daughter Camps take place on Saturday and Sunday, respectively — among other weekend notes. It was pretty cool seeing Moreno’s new UK teammates support him at Lexington Catholic on Friday, right?

Then Judge Claudia Wilken decided to change college athletics forever, approving the NCAA’s landmark settlement that will allow schools to pay student-athletes directly for the first time ever starting July 1. Signing off on the deal a little past 9 PM ET on Friday, we’ll also see $2.8 billion in NIL backpay for players who suited up between 2016-2024, along with new roster rules and an enforcement arm that will include a clearinghouse for future NIL agreements.

Now, the entire opinion is 76 pages — found here, for anyone interested in climbing that mountain — so I’ll do my best to lay things out as they relate to UK Athletics and your favorite teams on campus.

Roster Limits

• Football – 105
• Men’s and women’s basketball – 15
• Baseball – 34
• Men’s and women’s soccer – 28
• Softball – 25
• Volleyball – 18

Revenue Sharing

Schools will be able to share $20.5 million with athletes starting July 1 with total revenue increasing annually over the 10-year settlement to as high as $32.9 million in 2034-35. Though details for UK Athletics have not yet been finalized/announced, power conference programs expect revenue sports to make up 90 percent or so (football and men’s basketball) of that money with other sports making up the other 10 percent. That breaks down to, loosely:

• Football – 75 percent
• Men’s basketball – 15 percent
• Women’s basketball – 5 percent
• Other sports (baseball, softball, volleyball, etc.) – 5 percent

The SEC reportedly planned to put spending caps on each sport, specifically limiting men’s basketball to roughly $3M with the football figure exceeding $13.5M, but Kentucky fought against it.

“Kentucky Basketball specifically was a pretty big voice in the room to make sure that those standards weren’t set as a policy because Kentucky, obviously, wants to spend more [in basketball],” Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports said on The Matt Jones Show. “… It was kind of derailed. And so now, it’s kind of anything you want.”

Enforcement

NIL Go, the new clearinghouse for all NIL deals, will run through Deloitte with third-party agreements of $600 or more now going through an official approval process. A fair market value will be established for compensation ranges, and if not approved, student-athletes can alter the deal or schools can make up the difference by dipping into their revenue-sharing pool. Failure to earn approval could result in athletes being deemed ineligible.

The enforcement staff will also monitor cap circumvention and tampering, among other violations, potentially leading to suspensions, revenue-sharing pool reductions and fines.

Simple enough? Probably not — but that’s what this time is for, all of us learning together on the fly. On3’s Pete Nakos and Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports dug deeper into the House settlement approval and what it means late Friday night. You’ll feel smarter reading their breakdowns, trust me.

Moreno earns MVP in front of Wildcat teammates

Beyond the world of college athletics flipping upside down on Friday, it was also a big night for a future (current?) Wildcat. Malachi Moreno, who moved in this week ahead of summer workouts and his freshman season at Kentucky, was named MVP of the KY/IN All-Star Game at Lexington Catholic High School.

It came in a losing effort, unfortunately, but Moreno dominated with 22 points, 14 rebounds, four blocks, and three steals in 39 minutes, shooting 7-12 from the field and 7-8 from the line while also going 1-1 from three. Kentucky came up short, but the state’s Mr. Basketball still left with some hardware.

Tough loss, but strong performance for Malachi Moreno — MVP of the 2025 KY/IN All-Star Game

22 points, 14 rebounds, four blocks and three assists pic.twitter.com/4yu1tg1U9Q

— Jack Pilgrim (@JackPilgrimKSR) June 7, 2025

Moreno was joined by new teammates Jayden Quaintance, Jaland Lowe, Denzel Aberdeen, Reece Potter, Jasper Johnson and Trent Noah — all in attendance to support the McDonald’s All-American in his final high school event before college.

Kentucky’s Father/Son Camp begins today

As much as we’d like to think all of the Wildcats rushed back to campus for Moreno’s all-star appearance, there’s much more in store this weekend for all of the players — namely the start of camp season! From 9 AM to 4:30 PM, boys between the ages of 7-17 and their fathers will receive hands-on instruction from Mark Pope and the new roster at the Joe Craft Center and Historic Memorial Coliseum. That will feature shooting, dribbling and passing drills to go with a tour of the basketball facilities and much, much more.

From there, it’ll be the Father/Daughter Camp on Sunday, also between 9 AM and 4:30 PM.

Last year was the first time we got to meet the likes of Lamont Butler, Amari Williams, Andrew Carr, Koby Brea, Jaxson Robinson and Ansley Almonor. Time to see the new guys in blue and white.

Don’t forget about the Belmont Stakes

No, there won’t be a Triple Crown this year, but the Belmont Stakes is still a much-watch event on Saturday. That’s because Derby winner Sovereignty and Derby pre-race favorite Journalism are going head-to-head at Saratoga Race Course — one of the most beautiful tracks in the country.

The race will be 1 1/14 miles with a $2 million purse, post time set for 7:04 PM ET on Fox.

Nick Roush has everything you need to know about the race (with more to come). Until then, check out the post positions and odds:

Post	Odds	Horse	Jockey	Trainer
1	10	Hill Road	Irad Ortiz Jr.	Chad Brown
2	2	Sovereignty	Junior Alvarado	Bill Mott
3	6	Rodriguez	Mike Smith	Bob Baffert
4	30	Uncaged	Luis Saez	Todd Pletcher
5	15	Crudo	John Velazquez	Todd Pletcher
6	4	Baeza	Flavien Prat	John Shirreffs
7	8/5	Journalism	Umberto Rispoli	Michael McCarthy
8	30	Heart of Honor	Saffie Osborne	Jamie Osborne

Big-time news for the Bat Cats

Worried about the transfer portal gutting Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament roster under Nick Mingione? Don’t be. The Bat Cats received some massive return commitments on Friday just days removed from an appearance in the Regional Final.

Jacob Rudner of Baseball America broke the news that standouts Tyler Bell, Ben Cleaver, Ryan Schwartz and Nate Harris would all return to Lexington in 2026. Shortly after, Derek Terry of Bat Cats Central added that second baseman Luke Lawrence would also return next season, giving Kentucky five core pieces to work with as the program fights for a return to Omaha.

Mingione shared optimism regarding returning talent to close out the season, and now, it’s official.

“I’m really excited about next year’s team,” Mingione said. “I think if guys continue to grow and develop and we bring all of this back. Depending on what happens with the draft, if you told me we were a preseason top 10 team in the country, I could believe it. That’s how highly I think about the guys we have coming back offensively. I really believe, depending on how all of this works with the portal, we have a chance to be special next year.”

We’re already counting down the days.

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That’s all for now, BBN. Enjoy your weekend!