Sponsored by Brent Campbell, Fighting Texas Aggie Class of 1998. Brent is a Commercial Real Estate Broker, serving all of Central Texas and specializing in sales, leasing & development. He leads a retail acquisition and sales team and was recognized by the Austin Business Journal as a Commercial Real Estate Heavy Hitter in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020 & 2023.

In the last 22 years, he has closed deals with a total transactional value of over $375 million and has leased more than 4.5 million square feet. Brent currently serves as the president of the board of directors for Habitat Homes, Inc. and Pathways Youth and Family Services. He is a former president of the Heart of Round Rock Neighborhood Association and a former member of the Round Rock Zoning Advisory Committee, the Round Rock Business and Retention Committee, and the City of Round Rock Ethics Commission, which has led him to begin developing in Williamson and Travis County.

An Austin native, Brent lives in Round Rock where he and his wife have raised four boys. Brent works for Don Quick and Associates, Inc. in Round Rock, TX and can be reached at brent@donquick.com.

1. Women’s tennis, softball and track and field (both men’s and women’s) may not get the attention that football, basketball and baseball do, but they all have one thing in common: they’re all ranked number one in the nation in their respective sports this week. Aggie athletics as a whole is having a great run, but it’s up to the big three programs to get it together in order for this to truly be a golden era of Texas A&M sports.

2. One thing that has been said more than once since the basketball change is that “all the (A&M) coaches like each other,” and that wasn’t the case a couple of years ago. So far as I know, the only head coaches gone since 2023 are the football, basketball and baseball coaches. Knowing what everyone now knows about their personalities, is anyone actually surprised that this might be the case?

3. The spring football transfer portal opens officially tomorrow, and it would not be a surprise if there is a surge in entries compared to past springs. With the prospect of a settlement of the House v. NCAA lawsuit, which would include “a fairer and more transparent review and enforcement process” for NIL, some players and collectives are trying to get ahead of the curve by throwing (and going after) larger amounts of money around right now — because they may not be able to do so later.

4. I don’t think any big names from A&M are going in the portal. In fact, I’m really not sure any players will. The players that went in after last season were all buried on the depth chart, so most all of the remaining players can legitimately compete for playing time. But we’ll find out tomorrow for sure.

5. The Aggie baseball team has played eight games in April. They have scored 101 runs in that time. One of those games includes being no-hit and shut out, which makes those numbers even more insane. A&M is averaging 12.6 runs per game this month, which includes four games that have been run-ruled. They play Tarleton tonight, so the numbers could get even more ridiculous.

6. It isn’t a coincidence that A&M’s offensive explosion coincides with Bear Harrison and Kaeden Kent getting red hot and Caden Sorrell returning to the lineup. So far this month Harrison is hitting .434 with three homers, 16 RBI, 15 runs scored and eight walks - with no strikeouts. Kent has hit .413 with 3 homers, 12 RBI and 13 runs scored while raising his average from .210 on March 30 to .277 going into tonight’s game. Since returning to the lineup March 29, Sorrell is hitting .361 with five homers, 13 RBI, 9 runs scored and 9 walks. Add in Blake Binderup breaking out as the SEC player of the week (.538, two doubles, two homers, 10 RBI) and all of a sudden the Aggie offense isn’t just salty, it’s a juggernaut. Oh, and Jace LaViolette hasn’t really gone off yet.

7. The big news in college sports of late has been the Nico Iamaleava debacle with Tennessee. Iamaleava’s father and handler may end up being the saving grace for college football, because they have possibly pushed things to the breaking point. If Tennessee says, “enough of this crap,” you know the majority of other programs have already gotten there. And, frankly, that’s what has to happen. It’s basic economics, and the you can’t go beyond what the market will bear. And $4 million a year for a very mid quarterback is way beyond market value. Nico Iamaleava is not worth $4 million a year. He may not be worth 4 million Yen a year, and his father, especially, is an idiot for how he approached this.

8. Iamaleava’s “representatives” really did think they’d get Oregon or USC or Colorado to get involved and pay up. They didn’t. Then they tried UNC. No. So now it looks like Iamaleava is down to the likes of Texas Tech, Syracuse and UCLA, and none of them are going to pay $4 million, much less the $2 million he was getting at Tennessee. As someone on Twitter quipped today, “schools waiting for Nico to go on sale.” Serves them right.

9. Iamaleava will always be the the poster child for overvaluing one’s talent, but he’s not the first one. I know of a very highly-regarded running back from the Houston area who ended up being close to a bust who’s brother was notorious for being his bagman. He ended up going to one school because everyone else got sick of the game, then transferred to another program known for being big in the NIL game, then left early for the NFL. He’s already been cut by the NFL team that drafted him and didn’t see the field at all last year. I have heard multiple instances of a player going through warmups and then refusing to play in a game in an effort to renegotiate. That went about as well as you’d expect. If those efforts were to come out publicly from the programs involved, the backlash would be even more severe against players who are deemed mercenaries.

10. Colorado has announced that they’re retiring the numbers of Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders. Not retiring their jersey, a la Wade Taylor, the number. And, bluntly, that’s absolutely stupid.

Hunter you can make a case for; he’s a once in a generation player who won the Heisman. There is absolutely no case for Sanders besides his dad is the coach.

But let’s look at this — Colorado hasn’t retired the numbers of Michael Westbrook or Kordell Stewart. Both of those guys were major contributors on far better teams than any Deion Sanders has had. Both Stewart and Sanders were second-team All-Americans, but you don’t hear anyone calling for his number to be retired.

Texas A&M has retired one number, 44 for John David Crow. And that was recently. They haven’t retired 9 for Dat Nguyen, 40 for Von Miller, 13 for Mike Evans or 2 for Johnny Manziel — all more impactful players at the college level than Shedeur Sanders.

Florida hasn’t retired 15 for Tim Tebow.

Virginia Tech didn’t retire 2 for Michael Vick.

Georgia hasn’t retired a number since 1985, when they retired Herschel Walker’s.

Alabama has never retired a number.

But, if any program is going to put style over substance right now, it’s Colorado. Maybe that approach will make them a top flight team again eventually, but retiring the number of a quarterback who had a combined record of 13-12 and never even won a bowl game is idiotic.