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UCLA and Virginia Tech kicked off the coaching carousel season in college football Sunday when they moved on from DeShaun Foster and Brent Pry, respectively, after 0-3 starts.

Athletic directors generally don’t want to make these dramatic changes and give up on a season in September, and they try not to unless the results are truly disastrous. In both cases, blowout home losses to Group of 5 opponents in Week 3 made delaying the inevitable untenable. Now it’s up to interim coaches to try to salvage the rest of the season while coaching searches begin in earnest.

In this era of college football, though, the factors an athletic department must weigh before firing a head coach extend far beyond just the cost of the buyout. Players can now immediately enter the transfer portal. Recruits decommit as soon as they hear the news. Even the highest-profile vacancies require major roster rebuilds.

Here’s a closer look at the fallout programs now deal with when a head coach gets fired early in the season.

Can players enter the transfer portal now?

The head coaching changes at UCLA and Virginia Tech triggered a 30-day window for players to enter their names in the NCAA transfer portal and start exploring a move. There’s no obligation to decide right away, as these players will also still have the option to enter the portal after the season.

Virginia Tech cornerback Dante Lovett was the first to take advantage of this flexibility Tuesday, putting his name in the portal after playing in three games in a reserve role for the Hokies this season. Coaches can now begin contacting and recruiting him to join their program in January. Technically, a player could enter their name in the portal and keep playing with their current team, but that’s not something a coaching staff typically tolerates.

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But can they actually play for a new team right away?

No. The NCAA does not allow players to compete for multiple teams in the same season. If a player enters the portal in September and chooses a school on the quarters system that can still get them enrolled this fall, they could start practicing with their new team but could not play in a game. UCLA is one of the few Power 4 schools on the quarters system and doesn’t start classes until Sept. 25.

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What happens to NIL money if players leave midseason?

This is a new layer of complexity for players contemplating leaving their team during the season. This is the first year where players have entered into agreements directly with their school, rather than a third-party NIL collective. The language in revenue-sharing agreements varies from conference to conference and school to school but can include clawback provisions to help programs recoup some money when players transfer out.

In April, Arkansas’ NIL collective retained an attorney to try to enforce the buyout provisions in NIL agreements with two players, Madden Iamaleava and Dazmin James, who transferred. How enforceable these buyout provisions are remains to be seen, but players who want to transfer out right must factor in these complications tied to their compensation.

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What about redshirting?

In 2018, the NCAA amended its rules to give players an opportunity to play in four games during their redshirt year. Players can now also play in bowl games and the College Football Playoff without those postseason appearances counting toward the four-game limit. Ever since that rule changed in 2018, we’ve seen players who are unhappy with their roles announce four games into their season that they’re going to redshirt and leave their team to pursue a transfer. Making a coaching change three games into the season is certainly going to motivate some players to consider that option if it’s available to them.

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Could an entire team jump into the portal and redshirt?

No. Players can redshirt one season during their college career, so those who have already taken one can’t opt out after four games and get this season back. The only exception is players who suffer season-ending injuries within their first four games. Those players can apply for medical redshirts and, if approved, get that year back. Sure, it’s possible that a large group of players could opt out of the rest of the season, but there’s not much incentive to do so if they have already redshirted in previous seasons.

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What does history tell us about these moves?

The FBS programs that experience the most roster attrition are almost always the ones going through coaching changes. Purdue and Marshall both saw more than 50 scholarship players depart their programs this offseason during their transitions to new coaching regimes. Now that players are allowed to make unlimited transfers and coaches can sign as many as they want each year, there’s more roster turnover across college football than ever.

Last season, no Power 4 programs made a coaching change until North Carolina fired Mack Brown on Nov. 26. We did see 10 Group of 5 jobs open before then, starting in late October. At Kennesaw State, 25 scholarship players entered their names in the portal within a week of Brian Bohannon’s departure. Eleven of those players later withdrew from the portal and stayed in the program, but that many players exploring transfers in mid-November becomes a major challenge for whoever takes the job next.

In 2023, Michigan State fired Mel Tucker on Sept. 27 and had eight scholarship players enter the portal in October and November. Texas A&M moved on from Jimbo Fisher that year on Nov. 12 but lost only one before the season was over. Whether they officially go in the portal or not, players on these teams tend to quickly find out whether other schools are interested, especially now that more and more of them have agents.

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What about high school recruits?

In short, it’s open season. Schools were permitted for the first time to extend written revenue-sharing contracts to high school recruits on Aug. 1. By rule, however, those deals cannot be formally signed until the early signing period opens Dec. 3. Even in instances where recruits are receiving early payments through state-to-state NIL laws, there’s very little — if anything at all — that can bind a given high school prospect to a program before December.

Few recruitments are even fully closed until a prospect puts pen to paper. But an in-season coaching change offers committed prospects a clear path to fully reopen the process. At UCLA, seven members of the nation’s 21st-ranked 2026 recruiting class decommitted in the 48 hours after Foster’s exit. If questions have been swirling over a head coach’s future — as was the case at both UCLA and Virginia Tech — there’s a good chance recruits and their representatives have already been in touch with other programs for weeks by the time he’s officially fired.

As of Sept. 17, all but three of the prospects inside the 2026 ESPN 300 hold a commitment. Included in that trio are offensive tackles Johnnie Jones and Thomas Wilder, who pulled their pledges from UCLA and Virginia Tech, respectively, hours after Foster and Pry were let go. Given the thin pool of elite uncommitted 2026 recruits, prospects returning to the open market — especially at premium positions such as quarterback and offensive tackle — hold some leverage at this point in the cycle. Conversely, after many top programs expended the bulk of their revenue-share budgets for the 2026 class this summer, those same recruits might struggle to command the same dollar amounts they were previously set to earn with their former programs.

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Will these schools move quickly to hire a coach?

Probably not. By moving on from their coaches in September, UCLA and Virginia Tech have given themselves a head start on the 2025 coaching carousel. From here, the pair of schools will be able to spend the coming weeks and months hiring search firms, gauging national interest in their openings and building a pool of candidates, all out in the open.

That’s helpful. But hiring a sitting head coach or coordinator in-season — particularly one doing well enough in another job to warrant consideration — is exceedingly difficult. Texas Tech boldly tried to pull this off during the 2021 season, firing coach Matt Wells after a 5-3 start and pursuing UTSA’s Jeff Traylor while his Roadrunners were 8-0. The Red Raiders ended up hiring Baylor assistant Joey McGuire, who left the Bears with three games left in the regular season to get a head start in Lubbock.

The 2022 coaching carousel started early with Nebraska, Arizona State, Georgia Tech, Colorado and Wisconsin firing their coaches by the first week of October. In each instance, though, those programs didn’t hire successors until the end of the regular season. Unless UCLA and Virginia Tech gravitate toward out-of-work candidates, it might not be until late November that either makes a hire.

Additionally, the openings at UCLA and Virginia Tech feature major question marks surrounding future administrative leadership, available resources and broader university support for football. Any candidate with serious interest in either job will want answers, meaning the two schools must likely solve other problems before identifying their next head coaches.

The essence of President Donald Trump’s pitch to the American people last year was simple: they could have it both ways. They could have a powerful, revitalised economy and “mass deportations now”. They could build new factories and take manufacturing jobs back from foreign competitors as well as expel every person who, in their view, didn’t belong in the United States. They could live in a “golden age” of plenty – and seal it away from others outside the country with a closed, hardened border.

Trump told Americans there were no trade-offs. As the saying goes, they could have their cake and eat it, too. Even better, eating the cake would, on its own, produce more cake – no need for new ingredients or the skill, time and labour necessary to make something new.

In reality, this was a fantasy. Americans could have a strong, growing economy, which requires immigration to bring in new people and fill demand for labour, or they could finance a deportation force and close the border to everyone but a small, select few. It was a binary choice. Theirs could be an open society or a closed one, but there was no way to get the benefits of the former with the methods of the latter.

Millions of Americans embraced the fantasy. Now, about eight months into Trump’s second term, the reality of the situation is inescapable. As promised, Trump began a campaign of mass deportation. Our cities are crawling with masked federal agents, snatching anyone who looks “illegal” to them – a bit of racial profiling that has, for now, been sanctioned by the Supreme Court. The jobs, however, haven’t arrived. There are fewer manufacturing jobs than there were in 2024, thanks in part to the president’s tariffs and, well, his immigration policies.

We got a vivid glimpse of what it looks like for harsh immigration policies to undermine growth and investment this month, in Georgia, when immigration officials detained hundreds of South Korean nationals working at a battery plant in a small town outside Savannah. On September 4, a large detachment of federal, state and local law enforcement descended on an electric vehicle battery plant operated by Hyundai and LG Electronics. The raid, which the administration described as one of the largest-ever single-location enforcement operations conducted by the Department of Homeland Security, was aimed at just four people. Officials detained nearly 500, the large majority of whom were South Korean workers brought to the plant to assist with its construction.

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While it appears that some workers had entered the US illegally or were present on expired visas, lawyers for others say their clients had the legal right to work in America. The workers, who were held for more than a week, described terrible conditions.

“Their waists and hands were tied together, forcing them to bend down and lick water to drink,” The Hankyoreha daily newspaper in South Korea, reported. “The unscreened bathrooms contained only a single sheet to cover their lower bodies. Sunlight barely penetrated through a fist-sized hole, and they were only allowed access to the small yard for two hours.”

The consequences of this raid go beyond the trauma inflicted on the workers. The South Korean public is furious, not the least because it came just weeks after the country’s government promised to pour billions of dollars into new investments in the US. “If US authorities detain hundreds of Koreans in this manner, almost like a military operation, how can South Korean companies investing in the US continue to invest properly in the future?” asked Cho Jeongsik, a lawmaker from the liberal governing Democratic Party.

In August 2025, ESPN and World Wrestling Entertainment announced an exciting new deal that will bring WrestleMania to ESPN’s direct-to-consumer streaming service starting in 2026.

The deal includes two-night events, such as WrestleMania and SummerSlam, plus other WWE premium live events including Royal Rumble, Survivor Series and Money in the Bank. WWE will produce the events for ESPN platforms, which will serve as their exclusive U.S. domestic home.

On the heels of this new development, ESPN is excited to showcase the first Wrestlepalooza event in September. The occasion will mark the first Premium Live Event (PLE) from WWE on ESPN. Check out more information on the festivities below:

When and where will Wrestlepalooza take place?

Wrestlepalooza will be held at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Sept. 20.

What is the event schedule?

*All times Eastern

Sept. 19

3-4 p.m. – Wrestlepalooza special – ESPN2

Sept. 20

3-5 p.m. – Road to Wrestlepalooza – ESPN Unlimited

5-7 p.m. – Wrestlepalooza pre-show – ESPN Unlimited

7 p.m. – Wrestlepalooza 2025 – ESPN Unlimited

Following the event, there will also be post-show coverage.

How can fans tune in to Wrestlepalooza?

Wrestlepalooza will be available in the ESPN App exclusively to subscribers with an ESPN Unlimited plan. A replay of the full event will be available shortly after the conclusion of the post-show.

Fans can catch all of the action in the official streaming hub. For more information on ESPN direct-to-consumer offerings, check out this FAQ and customer care guide.

Netflix subscribers in certain countries can also tune in live on Netflix. International fans can find more streaming information here.

Which WWE stars will be participating in Wrestlepalooza?

John Cena will face off against Brock Lesnar in the main event. Other matchups on the fight card include:

How can fans access more WWE coverage from ESPN?

Fans can check out the WWE hub page for breaking news, schedules and other updates.

RIYADH: Two endangered Eurasian griffon vultures, satellite tagged and released by Prince Mohammed bin Salman Royal Reserve, have traveled 245,632 kilometres, through eight countries, in the past 29 months.

This real-time data is the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia. Released for International Vulture Awareness Day it raises awareness of the global conservation crisis facing vultures and reinforces the need for cross-border conservation co-operation to ensure the species’ survival.

The vultures were released on April 3, 2023. The first vulture has journeyed 119,499km to date from the reserve in northwest Saudi Arabia, through Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran.

In winter 2023, the vulture returned to southwestern Saudi Arabia, travelling via the reserve, and then in spring 2024 migrated north where it has since remained in the mountains of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

To date it has reached altitudes of 6,527m above sea level, speeds of 123kph and experienced air temperatures ranging from 9C to 54C.

The second bird flew from the reserve to Iraq, reaching a maximum altitude of 9,029m above sea level (that is three times the altitude of a light aircraft) and a maximum flight speed of 128kph, before settling in Turkey and Iran.

It has travelled 126,133 km to date, traversing Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey and Iran.

These behaviors show that individuals of the same species can behave very differently, some migrating and others becoming resident, indicating the need for different management strategies.

“This tracking data represents the first comprehensive study of Eurasian griffon vulture movements in Saudi Arabia and beyond, providing real-time baseline information that was previously unavailable to conservationists,” said Andrew Zaloumis, CEO of Prince Mohammed bin Salman Royal Reserve.

“The data reveals these birds have traveled the equivalent of six circumnavigations around the Earth in less than 2.5 years — an incredible distance that underscores the opportunity and urgent need for regional conservation strategies to ensure their long-term survival.

“At a time when the IUCN is reporting that 16 of the world’s 23 vulture species are at risk of extinction, migratory bird populations must be managed as meta-populations across borders if we are to secure their future.”

The reserve fitted solar-powered satellite transmitters to both birds to monitor dispersal and migration patterns after release.

The satellite tags will fall off after about 3 years, when the Teflon tape holding them naturally decomposes.

The birds were tagged as part of the reserve’s efforts to understand the movement of large migratory species, specifically throughout Saudi Arabia, where little information exists.

The satellite tags provide real-time data on migration routes, utilisation of habitats, critical stopover points, and congregation areas. This information is critical to filling knowledge gaps in the movements of vultures, throughout the reserve, and regionally.

Vultures face a global conservation crisis. Despite their essential role in maintaining ecosystem health and preventing disease outbreaks by acting as nature’s “clean-up crew,” all vulture species are now classified as threatened on the regional IUCN Red List.

Highly susceptible to poisoning, both intentional and accidental, vultures are also under threat from habitat loss, illegal poaching for trade, and electrocution from power lines.

Thanks to this data, the reserve can inform and implement management strategies.

The tagged birds provided information on the presence of resident and migratory vultures which then aided in the reserve monitoring program focussing and targeting specific locations in the reserve.

As a result, the reserve monitors the habitat of tagged and untagged vulture populations, and their habitats are afforded the highest level of protection under the reserve’s zonation plan.

The discovery in September 2024 of four active Eurasian griffon vulture nests in three separate breeding colonies is testament to the reserve’s conservation work and role as a sanctuary for the Kingdom’s natural heritage.

The reserve is committed to sharing its findings with the local and global scientific and conservation community and has published eight peer-reviewed papers to date with five more in drafting.

Through Saudi Arabia’s commitment, alongside 132 other countries, to the Convention on Migratory Species, which promotes the conservation of migratory animals and their habitats across national borders, more than 150 species are registered, including Griffon vultures.

This new data can globally aid in the research to secure and support migratory species through contributions to species-specific action plans, working groups and regional assessments.

Through collaboration with global organisations such as BirdLife International, this data can facilitate the establishment of Important Bird Areas or Protected Areas and inform local and regional conservation strategies with fellow royal reserves, protected areas and regional conservation partners.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman Royal Reserve, one of eight royal reserves, stretches from the lava plains of the Harrat to the Red Sea in the west, connecting Neom, Red Sea Global, and AlUla. It is home to the Public Investment Fund’s Wadi Al-Disah project and Red Sea Global’s Destination AMAALA. 

 

The British economy is in the doldrums and families have to deal with high prices, so it’s no surprise that Trump’s visit is controversial. A YouGov and Sky poll this week found that 45 per cent of voters think the president should not have been invited. Only 30 per cent say it was the right thing to do, while 25 per cent are unsure.

Still, Trump has vocal supporters for this visit. Some gathered outside Windsor Castle to cheer for Trump, even though they will not get to see him because security is so tight. Other supporters came out to speak their mind to the protesters at the rally that moves toward Westminster.

“I admire the way he’s against net zero, which I don’t like, and I admire the way he’s trying to sort the border out,” one of the Trump supporters tells me on Regent Street. “He’s not perfect but we’ve got to work with him, and I want him to know we’re not all against him.” This protester, or anti-protestor, is a large man and asks to be called Maximus, but will not tell me his real name.

Another Trump supporter tries to provoke the protesters as they move down the street near Oxford Circus, so the police step in. Within seconds, they gather around him and move him a block away from the crowd, to avoid any potential for violence. They do not stop him voicing his support for Charlie Kirk, the conservative American murdered in Utah last week.

“I’m here to stick up for Charlie Kirk,” this man tells me. His name is Danny Tommo. “I’m a British patriot. I’m here to show the left for what they are – they cannot debate, they just want to commit violence. I’m also here to say that Trump is welcome anytime.”

Tommo is outnumbered at this protest, but he and his allies have supporters in the community. He is a long-time associate of right-wing activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and who organised the Unite the Kingdom march that mobilised up to 150,000 people on the streets of London last weekend. The big issues at that march included opposition to asylum seekers.

It is hard to be exact about the numbers at the Stop Trump Coalition rally, but Reuters is reporting that authorities put the count at about 5000. That is a long way short of the conservative rally last weekend.