Grow Omaha Sports

Omaha Athletics announced the addition of a dedicated sports scientist and support unit last Friday. Dr. Billy Lozowski will head the department as the athletic department’s first-ever sports scientist. The sports science unit will work with the Mavericks’ athletics programs through research, data analysis and performance optimization to enhance student-athletes’ athletic performance and mitigate the risk of injury.

The Omaha Supernovas are elevating their partnership with Project Harmony Child Advocacy Center for the 2026 season. Project Harmony will once again serve as the presenting sponsor of the Rising Stars Kids Club, which experienced a 300-percent increase in membership from 2024 to 2025. Kids Club members received complimentary tickets to five Supernovas home matches during the 2025 season in an effort to expand reach and accessibility of volleyball in the region.

New for 2026, Project Harmony will spearhead the franchise’s first-ever Blue Out Night, which will take place on an April home match at the CHI Health Center. With support from Kiewit, Blue Out Night will shine a spotlight on National Child Abuse Prevention Month, observed each April. 

Former Bluejays Ryan Kalkbrenner and Jamiya Neal started off their NBA careers strong, helping the Charlotte Hornets win the NBA Summer League championship on Sunday. The feat foreshadows a bright future in the Queen City, as the trophy is the first-ever in the Hornets’ history. Charlotte has never won a Southeast Division, Eastern Conference or NBA title.

Ryan Kalkbrenner shined all Summer League, giving Hornets fans a glimpse of the talent and winning plays that he will bring to their young roster. Kalkbrenner averaged 9.7 points and 5.5 rebounds over six games and posted a game-high 15 points and nine rebounds when it mattered most on Sunday. Jamiya Neal did not play in Sunday’s championship game and will look to prove the value he can bring in training camp.

Creighton volleyball senior Ava Martin was named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s (AVCA) National Player of the Year Watch List on Tuesday. According to Creighton Assistant Athletic Director Rob Anderson, Martin’s 56 aces last season placed her second in the Big East and were the second-most in Creighton single-season history. Martin is one of 30 players on the list and the only Big East player revealed on Tuesday. Ten players are revealed each day through today, Thursday, July 24.

Union Omaha defeated Texoma FC in a group stage match of the USL Cup Wednesday night, 3-1. The final game of group stage play will be this Saturday, when the Owls welcome El Paso Locomotive FC. After group stage play, a draw will set matchups for the single-elimination knockout rounds, which begin three weeks later. The USL Jägermeister Cup will conclude with the Final on the weekend of Oct. 4.

The Omaha Storm Chasers are behind 0-2 in a series at the Syracuse Mets, falling 3-4 Tuesday and 4-8 Wednesday. The Storm Chasers have the opportunity to climb back tonight at 5:35 p.m. Omaha will return to Werner Park next week for a series against the Louisville Bats.

Upcoming Games

• Omaha Storm Chasers at Syracuse Mets | July 22 – July 27 | 5:35 p.m. Tonight
• Union Omaha vs. El Paso Locomotive FC | Saturday, July 26 | 7 p.m.
• Omaha Storm Chasers vs. Louisville Bats | July 29 – August 3 

Union Omaha head coach Dominic Casciato departed the club last week to become the head coach of the USL Championship club, Tampa Bay Rowdies. In the two-time Coach of the Year’s two full seasons as head coach, Union Omaha won two Players’ Shields and the 2024 USL League One Final. The move is a first for USL League One – no other USL League One head coach has transferred up to a USL Championship club.

Assistant coach Vincenzo Candela is serving as interim head coach. He won his first match in his new role Saturday against Charlotte Independence, 2-1. In that match, Union Omaha defender Charlie Ostrem took the lead in the Golden Playmaker race with his league-best fifth assist this season. The Golden Playmaker award is given to the USL League One player who provides the most assists in the regular season.

Fourteen of the Owls’ final 19 matches will be at home, starting with a regular-season bout against South Georgia Tormenta FC on Friday night at 6 p.m. Then, it’s back to USL Cup group-stage play on Wednesday, July 23 at 7 p.m. against Texoma FC.

The Edmonton Oilers announced the addition of Peter Aubry, an associate coach for Omaha hockey, to their staff on July 11. He will serve as the Oilers’ goaltending coach. Aubry spent the last two seasons with the Mavericks and helped coach goaltender Simon Latkoczy become the first Maverick to win the NCHC Goaltender of the Year.

Two Creighton baseball players, Nolan Sailors and Garrett Langrell, were selected on Day Two of the MLB Draft on Monday. Sailors, a Ralston High School alumnus, was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the fourth round, No. 128 overall. Langrell was selected by the San Francisco Giants in the 16th round, No. 476 overall.

Greg McDermott recently clarified his timeline for retirement on CBS Sports’ Inside College Basketball Now podcast with Jon Rothstein. Coach McDermott stated that he would wrap up his career “sometime in the next two to three years” and wants to ensure the job is in a good situation when he passes it to head-coach-in-waiting Alan Huss.

The Omaha Storm Chasers begin a short road stint against the Buffalo Bisons tomorrow, July 18 at 5:35 p.m. The Storm Chasers will remain in New York State next week for a series against the Syracuse Mets.

Upcoming Games
• Omaha Storm Chasers at Buffalo | July 18 – 20 | 5:35 p.m. Friday
• Union Omaha vs. South Georgia Tormenta FC | Friday, July 18 | 6 p.m.
• Omaha Storm Chasers at Syracuse | July 22 – 27 | 5:35 p.m. Monday
• Union Omaha vs. Texoma FC | Wednesday, July 23 | 7 p.m.

There has long been a divide on the matter of paying college athletes — and what a fair value for their performance truly is — between the NCAA and its student-athletes. You likely have a strong opinion on what an 18-year-old should be compensated for playing a sport, and the potential implications it may have on collegiate athletics and pure “amateurism.”

One side argues that free tuition, room and board through scholarships is more than a fair trade for student-athletes’ time and effort outside of the classroom. The other side points to the nonprofit organization that is the NCAA, which generated a record $1.4 billion in revenue in 2024, almost exclusively from ticket sales and media revenue generated by events showcasing its student athletes.

One month ago, a federal judge approved a $2.8 billion antitrust settlement that will allow schools to pay student-athletes directly for their name, image and likeness through licensing deals. The decision came from a lawsuit filed by Grant House, a former Arizona State swimmer, who sued the NCAA and “power five” athletic conferences. The suit further dismantles the power the NCAA has held over universities and student athletes’ earning power for decades.

In Year 1 – the 2025-26 academic year – schools can opt-in to share up to $20.5 million with student athletes, with that funding coming from sources such as media rights revenue, ticket sales and sponsorships. These funds would be distributed amongst the entire athletic department, with football and basketball likely to take the largest shares in most cases.

Last June, the Big East Conference struck a media rights deal that will earn each member university roughly $20 million to $23 million during the 2025-26 season. In the Big Ten Conference, each member institution earned more than $60 million exclusively from media-rights revenue in 2024, with 2025-26 revenue splits projected to rise to $75 million. Schools in these conferences earn disproportionate amounts of money, but in an attempt to level the playing field across college athletics, each school is limited to sharing just that $20.5 million with its student-athletes.

Sounds like a good plan, right? Student athletes get their rightful share of revenue that they help generate, and schools have a structured say in how that revenue is distributed. In addition, there’s now a salary cap in place to govern power conferences from outspending everyone else for top talent. A Deloitte-run NIL clearinghouse has even been established to review third-party NIL deals exceeding $600 to ensure legitimate agreements at fair market value.

One thing was forgotten though – What about everyone else? What about the military academies – Air Force, Army, Navy – which are barred by military rules from compensating student athletes through name, image and likeness? What about Ivy League schools, which do not provide athletic scholarships and focus on offering world-class academic opportunities first and sports as an extension?
What about schools like UNO, who have no monster media rights revenue coming in from the one-bid Summit League?

Let’s look at UNO’s situation. On June 27, Chancellor Joanne Li announced that the university would not opt-in to the terms of the House settlement for the 2025-26 academic year but will position the department to opt-in in future years when necessary. The university cited Title IX considerations, evolving NIL oversight and international financial and legal considerations among reasons for declining to opt-in this year.

But how can Omaha position itself to opt-in without a multimillion-dollar media rights payout each year? Would potential private donations be reliable, or even enough, to allow the Mavericks to opt into revenue sharing year after year? With third-party deals now monitored and restricted, how do you attract top athletic talent to your university without the promise of a structured payout from an approved party?

Plenty of universities that have opted-in won’t come close to the $20.5 million cap that will continue to swell, but they likely see no other option to remain competitive in this new era of collegiate athletics.

Chancellor Li has acted quickly on her plan to position UNO athletics for future success. On Tuesday, UNO announced that it had extended its contract with Opendorse, a leading NIL marketplace and software provider. Through the new partnership, Opendorse will provide on-site NIL education, an Omaha-branded NIL marketplace and access to ‘Team Builder’ – a software that will help the athletic department make data-driven decisions when structuring financial packages to recruit and retain student-athletes.

That’s a positive first step for UNO, but it does not answer the question of where a competitive level of funding will come from to ensure a thriving athletic department. While the arrival of NIL promised more parity and opportunity throughout collegiate sports, universities like UNO continue to be cast farther in the rearview mirror from their power-conference counterparts.

Three miles to the east, the same question arises for the aforementioned power conference counterparts. What about Creighton’s athletic department?

The Bluejays have more than enough cash reserves to opt-in, and an interesting edge presented itself when the House settlement was approved. Creighton, like many other Big East schools, has enough athletic revenue to spend up to the $20.5 million cap, but no football program to bleed the budget. The going rate for even a serviceable college quarterback is now anywhere from $1 million to $3 million, which will command up to 15 percent of the entire budget for many power-five athletic departments.

Without football, Creighton can focus on attracting top talent to multiple programs on the men’s and women’s side that are already nationally competitive. The Bluejays were one of only nine schools to make the NCAA tournament in volleyball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and baseball this year.

The next question to be answered is where will Creighton direct most of its spending? While revenue will likely be split more evenly between its whole athletic department compared to other schools, men’s basketball will still see large payouts across the country due to roster sizes and March Madness payout structures. With Creighton’s program thriving, how much of the pie will Greg McDermott receive in the final years of his career for a national championship push?

The House settlement will irreversibly change college athletics, but will the results be a net-positive for student athletes? Universities and athletes have been presented with the illusion of choice, financial prosperity and a level playing field. I’m not convinced that’s true for everyone.

How can a teenager truly have a free choice of where they will attend college if the difference in their compensation is hundreds of thousands of dollars? With all things being relatively equal, would you take a five-to-six-figure pay cut for one job versus another?

How can every school have a legitimate chance of competing for a national championship if they can now legally be outspent for top talent? While in the last few years schools like UNO and even Creighton were being outspent for talent by NIL collectives, it is now condoned under the veil of an equal playing field.

If a power conference program loses out on a five-star recruit because they don’t have enough money left in the budget, can they be trusted not to pay the next one under the table?

Omaha is a microcosm of the coin that is now college sports under the new House settlement. Over the next year, both UNO and Creighton’s athletic departments will navigate wildly separate realities.

For UNO: will it be able to form a foundation that will allow it to one day opt-in to revenue sharing, and if so, at a competitive level? Also, what is a competitive level in a one-bid conference like the Summit League?

For Creighton: how will it use its position as a non-football school to capitalize on talent acquisition in other sports, specifically men’s basketball?

Creighton athletics may have been dealt an upper hand in the ruling of the House settlement. I wish that I could say the same for UNO.

That said, a “Maverick” is defined as “an independent individual who does not go along with a group or party.” UNO stayed true to its moniker. With the decision to opt-out early to position the athletic department for future opportunity, perhaps the Mavericks will reap the rewards of their bullish move years from now.