Loren Tate

Champaign

Sports Columnist at The News-Gazette (Champaign, IL)

@news_gazette sports columnist & @wdws1400 sports host

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Articles

Cubs, Illini football and basketball fuel high hopes for 2025

1 week ago | theintelligencer.com | Loren Tate

Edwardsville Intelligencier LogoHearst Newspapers LogoCorrelation between Cubs success and Illini? Lots of smiles going around these days. High expectations are growing from the legion of Cub fans who also cheer for Illini football and basketball teams. This is unusual. In 100-plus years they, as a group, seldom entered the summer months with such high hopes. We'll see stumbles, for sure, but all three look promising at this point.
Tate | The friendly confines of spring optimism

1 week ago | news-gazette.com | Loren Tate

Lots of smiles going around these days. High expectations are growing from the legion of Cub fans who also cheer for Illini football and men’s basketball teams. This is unusual. In 100-plus years they, as a group, seldom entered the summer months with such high hopes. We’ll see stumbles, for sure, but all three look promising at this point. Scanning through the decades, on those occasions when the Cubs fought out of the doldrums, Illini football or basketball tended to be down.
Tate Explaining college sports in 2025 [The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill. :: CM-Tate-Explaining-college-sports-in-2025-0429]

2 weeks ago | big10central.com | Loren Tate

Apr. 29—CHAMPAIGN — Let's try the impossible today ... to simplify, insofar as possible, the tangled mess of college sports as we look ahead to the 2025-26 school year. With TV income reaching stratospheric heights, and past athletes not receiving their fair share, former Arizona State swimmer Grant House became the lead litigant among multiple antitrust suits against the NCAA. Rather than go to trial, the NCAA agreed to a settlement that was to be resolved this month.
Tate Explaining college sports in 2025

2 weeks ago | sports.yahoo.com | Loren Tate

Apr. 29—CHAMPAIGN — Let's try the impossible today ... to simplify, insofar as possible, the tangled mess of college sports as we look ahead to the 2025-26 school year. With TV income reaching stratospheric heights, and past athletes not receiving their fair share, former Arizona State swimmer Grant House became the lead litigant among multiple antitrust suits against the NCAA. AdvertisementRather than go to trial, the NCAA agreed to a settlement that was to be resolved this month.
Tate | Explaining college sports in 2025

2 weeks ago | news-gazette.com | Loren Tate

CHAMPAIGN — Let’s try the impossible today ... to simplify, insofar as possible, the tangled mess of college sports as we look ahead to the 2025-26 school year. Q: How did this chaos happen? A: With TV income reaching stratospheric heights, and past athletes not receiving their fair share, former Arizona State swimmer Grant House became the lead litigant among multiple antitrust suits against the NCAA. Rather than go to trial, the NCAA agreed to a settlement that was to be resolved this month.
Tate | Testing Gus Phan's patience

3 weeks ago | news-gazette.com | Loren Tate

CHAMPAIGN — Old friend Gus Phan has fallen out of love. His engagement with college basketball was once an intimate relationship. It grew serious way back in the 1950s, and he remained fully committed for seven-plus decades. Yes, for 70 years the sport had a grip on him. Every winter, the Illini men’s basketball schedule controlled his thoughts, his plans. Until now. What he sees is a system gone crazy ... out of control. He woke up one morning to a land of unrecognizable lineups.
Tate Pep in their step this spring

4 weeks ago | sports.yahoo.com | Loren Tate

Apr. 15—CHAMPAIGN — Bret Bielema knows his football X's and O's. The Illini head coach is fully up to date in handling training regimens as well as game-day oversight. But his greatest strength is roster retention in a chaotically mobile age of unlimited transfers and pay-for-play.
Tate | Pep in their step this spring

4 weeks ago | news-gazette.com | Loren Tate

CHAMPAIGN — Bret Bielema knows his football X’s and O’s. The Illini head coach is fully up to date in handling training regimens as well as game-day oversight. But his greatest strength is roster retention in a chaotically mobile age of unlimited transfers and pay-for-play. Bielema’s bonding skills became apparent early in his first go-around here (2021) when Casey Washington and Owen Carney, each with a leg out the door, were talked into returning to the weak group of Lovie Smith’s leftovers.
Tate Money outweighs loyalty these days in college sports

1 month ago | sports.yahoo.com | Loren Tate

Apr. 8—Brad Underwood's responsibility, as the Illini men's basketball coach, is to weave the talents of his athletes into a productive relationship ... meshing individual skills, creating favorable matchups and taking advantage of the best assets. However, his athletes may have a more personal considerations, that of displaying individual skills more attractive to the next level, hopefully the NBA. AdvertisementAdd the influence of the new pay-for-player era, and conflict is inevitable.
Tate | Money outweighs loyalty these days in college sports

1 month ago | news-gazette.com | Loren Tate

Brad Underwood’s responsibility, as the Illini men’s basketball coach, is to weave the talents of his athletes into a productive relationship ... meshing individual skills, creating favorable matchups and taking advantage of the best assets. However, his athletes may have a more personal considerations, that of displaying individual skills more attractive to the next level, hopefully the NBA. Add the influence of the new pay-for-player era, and conflict is inevitable.