Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.
Lots of announcements to share today!
First, I’m hitting the road again. I will be in State College, PA on Feb. 2 and 3, speaking to more journalism classes and doing some #research for future stories. I’m also going to visit St. Bonaventure on February 16 and 17.
Most people, when setting up campus visits in the month of February, would try to go someplace slightly warmer than Chicago. I am not like most people. I am stupid.
I mentioned my travel scheduled here (a) so folks in those areas who want to meet up for lunch or have me talk to students/staffers/etc. can drop me a note and (b) to remind my readers that I am more than happy to work with students and college classes. It’s one of my favorite parts of the job.
I’ll speak to any class for free if I’m just popping in via Zoom (and I’m doing a few more of those this month, as well). If my schedule allows, I’m also happy to find a way to visit in person, even without an honorarium, but then I would need help to take care of travel expenses. And of course, I’d certainly prefer it if those classes were using Extra Points Classroom.
But, TL;DR, if you’re in Happy Valley or Buffalo-ish, drop me a line! And in March, I hope, I’ll find my way to at least one campus that’s slightly warmer than the Extra Points HQ of Chicago.
Collegiate Ticketing: Build the season that fans want
Colleges are realizing something important. The strongest signals for fan demand, student engagement and alumni intent all show up in one place: the ticketing journey. Every purchase, add-on and seat choice reveals what people value long before the season starts.
Acing 2026 and 2027 is no longer about selling more tickets. It is about creating one connected experience across athletics, arts and student life. Most campuses still run separate systems that fragment data, duplicate effort and make it hard to see the full picture.
A modern ticketing platform changes that. It unifies signals from every event and turns them into real insights you can act on. Marketing teams get clarity on who responds to what. Finance teams get clean, accurate flows without manual work. Fans get a simple journey that feels consistent across the entire campus.
Schools already using this approach are seeing the shift: Higher cart values through smarter add-ons. Better retention through memberships. Stronger cross-event engagement because all departments share the same view.
In other news, we have a lot of stuff going on around here besides the Extra Points newsletter. We have the Classroom and the Extra Points Library (which has added more than 200 new documents over the past three weeks). But we also have games! Athletic Director Simulator 4000 sits behind our paywall, but Who’s That Football Team and Stadium Concessions Simulator are completely free.
Today, I’m excited to announce a new addition to our free game library: NIL Agency Tycoon 95.
In NIL Agency Tycoon 95, you’re trying to build a college athlete representation empire. You try to pitch various athletes to become your clients, track down marketing gigs for them, negotiate contracts and finagle revenue sharing deals with collectives.
It’s a big resource management game, where you have to juggle internal investments (new offices, marketing staff, NCAA certifications), athlete recruitment and the struggles of attempting to pull off enough successful marketing campaigns with Division III baseball players to actually pay your rent.
I wanted to do something a little different from other games, keeping our focus on college sports industry management, realism and humor, while also trying a new graphical style and different gameplay mechanics.
What are our plans for NIL Agency Tycoon 95?
My plan is to keep this game free and to push multiple updates over the next two to three weeks. There’s only so much I can do to test the game balance formulas without dozens of people playing. With more user data, I can tweak the sliders and math to make sure the game remains challenging but fun. I’ll be monitoring how people play and making adjustments based on feedback and experiences.
I think we also want to test and see if it makes sense for us to expand the game — pay artists for more graphics/sounds/features — or keep things are they are.
I don’t anticipate developing any additional games for the next few months. Beyond writing and reporting, I want to focus on supporting the four games we have to make them as strong as possible before attempting new game projects. I have lots of ideas that aren’t just resource management simulators or trivia games, but those ideas take time and capital, and we don’t have enough of those to do everything we want. Yet.
I hope you enjoy, and I’d love to hear what you think of the game!
Speaking of writing, don’t worry, we have plenty of that, too:
Friend of the Newsletter Katie Lever checked in with Sarah Fuller to talk about her experiences playing football at Vandy and how they’re shaping her career goals now:
I made a few calls to try to better understand where the college sports apparel patch marketplace is looking right now and what schools should be considering before they sign contracts.
The Big Ten is winning on the field. The SEC is winning with TV ratings. Here’s why, plus some analysis about whether you should actually care.
And, oh yeah, we have a super cheap version of Extra Points Library, perfect if you’re a student or fan.
I’m currently working on a few stories about college flag football, athletic department debt and, yes, mid-major conference realignment, which I hope to share next week and beyond.
You can support our work and make sure you get everything we make by subscribing to Extra Points. A premium sub is just $9 a month, and you get four newsletters, access to ADS4000 and much more.
Thanks for reading, everybody. I’ll see you on the internet, and out on campus.
