Welcome to Tuesday, where the Big Ten has set up shop in the high-rent district of college athletics. Three straight football national champions. Men’s and women’s basketball national titles, ending long dry spells for the conference. Money and the transfer portal are working, not for every school, but for enough of them.

ROSTER KEEPS SHRINKING

Let’s reset the Purdue women’s basketball program.

Seven players in the portal, not the most in the country, by the way. Tennessee doesn’t have a returning player on the roster. Iowa State has watched eight enter their names in the portal. The Boilermakers aren’t alone. Purdue has four returning players (as of Tuesday morning), three of whom played last season. One is Taylor Henderson, who suffered a season-ending injury on the first day of official practice. The three - McKenna Layden, Saige Stahl, and Avery Gordon - scored a combined 230 points and started 17 games.

Yes, Katie Gearlds is starting over again. Gearlds has revenue-sharing money but minimal NIL resources. It’s a tough sell, given the program's three straight losing seasons and Gearlds’ future status and contract situation.

She added an assistant coach on Monday (Emily Ben-Jumbo from Xavier, but has ties to current assistant April Phillips) and will add another in the future. Gearlds will have four assistant coaches, and each one likely will have a slash title (assistant coach/recruiting strategy, the one attached to Ben-Jumbo). Let the buzzwords begin.

How much this helps remains to be seen. Purdue will add players to boost the roster, but no idea what the finished product looks like as of April 7.

SEARCHING

Nearly half of the top 50 recruits from the 2025 class are in the portal. Can the Boilermakers land one or two to improve the talent level?

OLD FACES ON THE MOVE

Rahunda Jones (Michigan State). Mary Ashley Stevenson (Stanford). Sophie Swanson (Virginia Tech). Three players who transferred out of Purdue are now back in the portal. They were part of a five-player class that was ranked No. 21 in the nation by ESPNW in 2022. Emily Monson left for Middle Tennessee State. McKenna Layden remains with the program.

Would Gearlds want to run it back with any of the three? Not suggesting she should, just asking the question.

FORMER BOILER OUT AT BUTLER

Austin Parkinson, who played for Gene Keady at Purdue, is out as Butler’s women’s basketball coach. Parkinson was 54-73 with the Bulldogs. He came to Butler after serving as IUPUI’s head coach.

Before you ask, the chances are slim that Parkinson is a candidate for an assistant’s job at Purdue.

PIERCE SIGNS

Matt Painter officially added Camden Pierce to the 2026-27 roster.

The 6-foot-7 Pierce transferred from Princeton. He’ll likely fit in at the power forward spot. As a sophomore during the 2023-24 season, Pierce was selected as the Ivy League Player of the Year. He played three years at Princeton and has one season left. Pierce visited Duke, Gonzaga, Louisville, and Connecticut.

PURDUE BASEBALL

Won its fourth consecutive series in Big Ten play over the weekend, taking two of three from Illinois. It’s the first time since 2012 that the Boilermakers have done that.

They host Bradley on Tuesday before resuming conference play at Northwestern this weekend.