The remade Pac-12 is introducing a scheduling wrinkle in 2026.
The conference announced Wednesday night that it will have a flexible schedule for the final week of the football regular season. Week 13’s matchups will officially be decided after Week 12, though they were tentatively announced on Wednesday night with Boise State visiting Utah State, Texas State at Colorado State, San Diego State at Fresno State and Oregon State at Washington State.
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With eight teams in the conference, each team plays seven conference games by playing everyone else once. A repeat matchup is needed for an eighth conference game. And with that in mind, the Pac-12 said it’s introducing the flex scheduling so it can “retain the right to adjust matchups based on the best interests of the league, including College Football Playoff considerations at that time.”
Simply put, if the Pac-12 has a chance to bolster a team’s playoff position late in the season, it’s going to do that by tweaking the schedule.
The schedule can’t change en masse, however. The four home teams listed above will play at home no matter what in Week 13 to ensure they have a fourth conference game at their own stadiums. The only teams that can be moved around are the road teams. And the Pac-12 said it will make any changes no later than the Sunday after Week 12 concludes.
Oregon State and Washington State had competed in a two-team Pac-12 for the past two seasons after they got hung out to dry when the conference effectively dissolved in the summer of 2024. Four teams went to the Big Ten, while four others went to the Big 12, and Stanford and Cal joined the ACC.
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Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State have all joined the Pac-12 from the Mountain West while Texas State came over from the Sun Belt. The Mountain West will have nine members in 2026 as Northern Illinois joins as a football-only member.
The eight-team Pac-12 will have its games on CBS, CBS Sports Network, USA and the CW in 2026 and beyond. The conference title game is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 4, on CBS.
Things have not gone well so far this season in Manhattan, Kansas, and Wildcats fans look like they’re simply done with Jerome Tang.
A large group of students threw brown paper Aldi bags on their heads during Kansas State’s 91-62 loss to Cincinnati at Bramlage Coliseum on Wednesday night. The message was clear. The students were looking for just more than $18.5 million to buy out the rest of Tang’s contract.
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It’s no wonder that, after the blowout loss that dropped the Wildcats to 1-10 in Big 12 play, Tang erupted on his program and took only two quick questions.
It would take more than $18.5 million to buy out the rest of Jerome Tang’s contract at Kansas State, which would set a record in the sport. (Scott Sewell-Imagn Images)
(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / Reuters)
“I’m embarrassed for the university. I’m embarrassed for our fans, our student section. We have practice at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning. We will get this right. I have no answers and no words.”
Tang is in his fourth season with the Wildcats this fall. He led the team to the NCAA tournament in his first campaign running the program, which he took over from longtime coach Bruce Weber, and they climbed as high as No. 5 in the national rankings.
But it’s been a steady decline ever since. The team hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament the last two years, and now sit at just 10-13 with seven games left in the regular season. The Wildcats have lost five straight and only just barely snuck out their one conference win late last month against Utah after a late go-ahead bucket from PJ Haggerty. The Wildcats, without a remarkable run both over the next few weeks and in the Big 12 tournament, are going to miss the NCAA tournament once again.
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But getting rid of Tang isn’t that simple. Tang’s buyout is the 12th-largest in all of college basketball, according to the Capital-Journal, and would set a record for the largest buyout in the sport’s history if Kansas State pulls the trigger. Wake Forest currently holds that record with the nearly $14.7 million buyout it gave Danny Manning in 2020. Jerry Stackhouse was believed to have received more than $15 million when he was fired from Vanderbilt, but terms of his buyout are not publicly known.
While Wildcats fans may not like it, they are very likely stuck with Tang for another year. And by the sounds of it, they’ll have a very different roster next fall.
The Winter Games have begun in Italy. From the rink to the slopes, a new generation of stars has emerged to chase gold. We’ll keep you connected to all of the thrilling moments and top stories as we track the medal race each day of the Games.
The United States is up to 12 total medals so far in Italy, and will have several opportunities to add to that count in Day 6 of the 2026 Winter Olympics.
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Here are the top five things to watch on Thursday at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics:
1. Team USA gets started in men’s hockey
NHL players are officially back at the Olympics for the first time since 2014, and Team USA’s cohort get started at 3:10 p.m. ET against Latvia.
The Americans enter the Olympic tournament as co-favorites alongside Canada. This could very well be the best team in U.S. history, with Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, the Tkachuk brothers, the Hughes brothers and reigning Hart trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck forming a strong core.
2. Chloe Kim goes for Olympics’ first snowboarding 3-peat
There is exactly one snowboarder in Olympic history with three gold medals: Shaun White. Kim has a chance to join him in that club Thursday, while going for the Olympics’ first three-peat in snowboard halfpipe (White won his in 2006, 2010 and 2018).
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Going into the final, Kim sits in top position after leading all competitors in qualifying with a score of 90.25. The health of her shoulder, dislocated a month before the Games, was one of Team USA’s biggest storylines going in, but she looked perfectly fine while throwing down a 1080 on Wednesday.
Fellow American Maddie Mastro also qualified for the final.
3. Breezy Johnson continues her heater
The biggest Team USA skiing star of this Olympics hasn’t been Mikaela Shiffrin or Lindsey Vonn, who have won a combined 192 World Cup events. Instead, it’s been Breezy Johnson, a 30-year-old with exactly zero World Cup wins over a decade-long career.
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Johnson landed a surprise gold in the women’s downhill, then proved it wasn’t a fluke with the best downhill time in the women’s combined event (but missed out on a medal because of Shiffrin’s lackluster slalom). Thursday will be her final day of competition in the Super-G. Considering she reached her first career podium in that event just two weeks ago, underestimate her at your own peril.
4. Americans try to break men’s moguls drought
The United States hasn’t won a medal in men’s moguls since 2010 — its last gold was Jonny Moseley in 1998— but 23-year-old Nick Page could be in striking distance after a fifth-place finish in the first round of qualifying on Wednesday.
Dylan Walczyk also made it through qualifications in seventh place, while Charlie Mickel and Landon Wendler will be trying to reach the medal round in the second round of qualifications after just missing out with the 11th and 12th fastest times.
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5. Kristen Santos-Griswold’s redemption tour reaches its final leg
Santos-Griswold was one of two Americans to emerge from the heats Tuesday, winning her qualification race with a time of 42.767. She has three more rounds ahead of her on Thursday, but a win would be one of the best stories of the Olympics.
Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026 (Day 6)
All times ET.
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Alpine Skiing
Super-G
5:30 a.m.: Women’s final (USA Network)🏅
Cross-Country Skiing
10 kilometers
7 a.m.: Women’s final (USA Network coverage begins at 7:15 a.m.; airs on NBC at 4 p.m.)🏅
Curling
Women’s round-robin
3:05 a.m.: South Korea vs. USA (airs at 9:15 a.m. on USA Network), Japan vs. Sweden, Italy vs. Switzerland, Canada vs. Denmark
1:05 p.m.: China vs. Great Britain, Italy vs. South Korea, Denmark vs. Japan, Sweden vs. USA (airs at 9:30 p.m. on USA Network)
Men’s round-robin
8:05 a.m.: Norway vs. Germany, USA vs. Switzerland (airs at 5 p.m. on CNBC), Great Britain vs. Sweden
Freestyle Skiing
Moguls
4 a.m.: Men’s qualifying (USA Network)
6:15 a.m.: Men’s final (USA Network coverage begins at 6:45 a.m.; airs on NBC at 12 p.m.)🏅
Hockey
Men’s pool play
6:10 a.m.: Switzerland vs. France
10:30 a.m.: Czechia vs. Canada (USA Network)
3:10 p.m.: USA vs. Latvia (USA Network), Germany vs. Denmark
Women’s pool play
8:20 a.m.: Finland vs. Canada — rescheduled
Luge
12:30 p.m.: Team relay final (NBC coverage begins at 12:45 p.m.)🏅
Short Track
2:15 p.m.: Women’s 500m and men’s 1000m finals (USA Network)🏅
Skeleton
3:30 a.m.: Men’s runs 1, 2 (airs on USA Network at 1:45 p.m.)
Snowboarding
Snowboard cross
4 a.m.: Men’s qualifying (USA Network coverage begins at 4:35 a.m.)
7:45 a.m.: Men’s final (USA Network coverage begins at 8:35 a.m.)🏅
Halfpipe
1:30 p.m.: Women’s final (NBC)🏅
Speed Skating
5000 meters
10:30 a.m.: Women’s final (airs at 1 p.m. on USA Network)🏅
One of the biggest names in women’s snowboarding, Chloe Kim, will be competing for the gold medal at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics on Thursday in the women’s half-pipe final. 25-year-old Kim came in first place during the qualifying round and is pursuing her third straight gold medal in the event despite a recent shoulder injury that some feared might show her down. She will be joined in the final by her American teammates Bea Kim and Maddie Mastro. The women’s half-pipe snowboarding final airs Thursday at 1:30 p.m. ET on Peacock and NBC. (A re-air will also be broadcast on USA at 2 a.m. Friday morning for you night owls.)
Read on for a complete schedule of every Team USA Snowboarding event at this year’s games, a rundown of who’s competing, and how to watch all the action. And if you want to learn even more about every event at this year’s Winter Games, here’s a guide to everything you need to know about the Milano Cortina Games.
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How to watch the women’s snowboarding half-pipe final:
For $17 monthly you can upgrade to an ad-free subscription which includes live access to your local NBC affiliate (not just during designated sports and events) and the ability to download select titles to watch offline.
Where to watch the women’s half-pipe final on TV:
Women’s snowboarding coverage on Thursday will be broadcast on NBC, which you can stream on DirecTV, Hulu + Live TV and more. You can also catch a re-air on USA at 2 a.m. Friday.
How to watch Olympic snowboarding for free without cable:
Who is on the Team USA Snowboarding team?
These are the athletes on Team USA’s snowboarding team:
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2026 Team USA Olympic Snowboarding Schedule:
Thursday, February 12
Men’s Snowboard Cross: Qualifying: 4 a.m. (Peacock, USA)
Men’s Snowboard Cross: Finals: 7:45 a.m. (Peacock), re-air at 8:35 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.(USA)
Ever since that miraculous win in 1980, it feels like Olympic ice hockey holds an extra-special place in the hearts of American audiences. This year, the Team USA men’s and women’s ice hockey teams will be comprised of some of the very best professional and amateur players the country has to offer. The women’s action kicks off early on Feb. 5, with the gold medal final on Feb. 19, while the men’s tournament runs from Feb. 11-22.
Read on for a complete schedule of every Team USA hockey game at this year’s games, a rundown of who is playing, and how to watch all the action. And if you want to learn even more about every event at this year’s Winter Games, here’s a guide to everything you need to know about the Milan Cortina Games.
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How to watch ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics
For $17/month, you can upgrade to an ad-free Premium Plus subscription, which includes live access to your local NBC affiliate (not just during designated sports and events) and the ability to download select titles to watch offline.
Where to watch ice hockey on TV:
Team USA men’s and women’s ice hockey coverage will generally be split between NBC and USA, which you can stream on DirecTV, Hulu + Live TV and more.
For $17 monthly you can upgrade to an ad-free subscription which includes live access to your local NBC affiliate (not just during designated sports and events) and the ability to download select titles to watch offline.
Who is on the Team USA hockey teams?
These are the athletes on Team USA’s men’s team, including their hometowns and professional teams:
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Jake Sanderson (Whitefish, Mont./Ottawa Senators)
Brock Faber (Maple Grove, Minn./Minnesota Wild)
Matt Boldy (Millis, Mass./Minnesota Wild)
Kyle Connor (Shelby Township, Mich./Winnipeg Jets)
Jack Eichel (North Chelmsford, Mass./Vegas Golden Knights)
Jake Guentzel (Woodbury, Minn./Tampa Bay Lightning)
Noah Hanifin (Northwood, Mass./Vegas Golden Knights)
Connor Hellebuyck (Commerce, Mich./Winnipeg Jets)
Jack Hughes (Canton, Mich./New Jersey Devils)
Quinn Hughes (Canton, Mich./Minnesota Wild)
Clayton Keller (St. Louis/Utah Mammoth)
Jackson LaCombe (Eden Prairie, Minn./Anaheim Ducks)
Dylan Larkin (Waterford, Mich./Detroit Red Wings)
Auston Matthews (Scottsdale, Ariz./Toronto Maple Leafs)
Charlie McAvoy (Long Beach, N.Y./Boston Bruins)
J.T. Miller (East Palestine, Ohio/New York Rangers)
Brock Nelson (Warroad, Minn./Colorado Avalanche)
Jake Oettinger (Lakeville, Minn./Dallas Stars)
Jaccob Slavin (Erie, Colo./Carolina Hurricanes)
Jeremy Swayman (Anchorage, Alaska/Boston Bruins)
Tage Thompson (Orange, Conn./Buffalo Sabres)
Brady Tkachuk (St. Louis, Mo./Ottawa Senators)
Matthew Tkachuk (St. Louis, Mo./Florida Panthers)
Vincent Trocheck (Pittsburgh, Pa./New York Rangers)
Zach Werenski (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich./Columbus Blue Jackets).
The athletes on Team USA’s women’s team are:
Hilary Knight (Sun Valley, Idaho/Seattle Torrent)
Kendall Coyne Schofield (Palos Heights, Ill./Minnesota Frost)
Lee Stecklein (Roseville, Minn./Minnesota Frost)
Cayla Barnes (Eastvale, Calif./Seattle Torrent)
Alex Carpenter (North Reading, Mass./Seattle Torrent)
Megan Keller (Farmington Hills, Mich./Boston Fleet)
Kelly Pannek (Plymouth, Minn./Minnesota Frost)
Caroline Harvey (Salem, N.H./University of Wisconsin)
Abbey Murphy (Evergreen Park, Ill./University of Minnesota)
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🚨 Headlines
🥇 Olympic highlights: Team USA won five more medals on Wednesday, including golds for 21-year-old Jordan Stolz in 1000m speed skating and 20-year-old Elizabeth Lemley in moguls. The others were all silver, for married figure skaters Madison Chock and Evan Bates (ice dance), alpine skier Ryan Cochran-Siegle (super G), and freestyle skier Jaelin Kauf (moguls).
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🏀 Hall of Fame finalists: First-time nominees Blake Griffin, Candace Parker, Mike D’Antoni and Kelvin Sampson headline the candidates for The Naismith Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026. Doc Rivers and Amar’e Stoudemire are among the bigger names getting a second look for induction.
⚾️ Hamate bone woes: Diamondbacks RF Corbin Carroll, Mets SS Francisco Lindor and Orioles 2B Jackson Holliday have all broken their hamate bone and will need surgery. The hand injury is common among baseball players because the knob of their bats rest up against the bony protrusion.
🏈 Bowl game consolidation: The Detroit-based GameAbove Sports Bowl has been canceled, joining the Bahamas Bowl and LA Bowl as the third bowl game to be axed in the last 12 months as college football’s postseason skews increasingly away from tradition and towards the playoff.
🏀 Clark headlines Team USA: Two years after being a controversial snub from the U.S. Olympic team, Caitlin Clark will finally make her senior national team debut after being named to the World Cup qualifying roster alongside Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese and other WNBA stars.
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🇺🇸 Spotlight: Men’s hockey team
(Mallory Bielecki/Yahoo Sports)
The first best-on-best Olympic hockey tournament since 2014 is officially underway, and Team USA takes the ice today with a squad full of NHL stars looking to deliver the Americans’ first gold medal since 1980’s “Miracle on Ice.”
Meet the team: The 25-man roster comprises eight defenders, nine wingers, five centers and three goalies, with 18 NHL teams and 12 states represented. There are also two sets of siblings (Hughes and Tkachuk), which is pretty awesome. Well done, parents.
Defenders: Brock Faber, Wild (hometown: Maple Grove, MN); Quinn Hughes, Wild (Canton, MI); Jackson LaCombe, Ducks (Eden Prairie, MN); Charlie McAvoy, Bruins (Long Beach, NY); Jaccob Slavin, Hurricanes (Erie, CO); Zach Werenski, Blue Jackets (Grosse Pointe Woods, MI); Noah Hanifin, Golden Knights (Norwood, MA); Jake Sanderson, Senators (Whitefish, MT)
Wingers: Brady Tkachuk, Senators (St. Louis); Matthew Tkachuk, Panthers (St. Louis); Matt Boldy, Wild (Millis, MA); Dylan Larkin, Red Wings (Waterford, MI); Clayton Keller, Mammoth (St. Louis); Jake Guentzel, Lightning (Woodbury, MN); Tage Thompson, Sabres (Orange, CT); J.T. Miller, Rangers (East Palestine, OH); Kyle Connor, Jets (Shelby Township, MI)
Centers: Jack Eichel, Golden Knights (North Chelmsford, MA); Auston Matthews, Maple Leafs (Scottsdale, AZ); Jack Hughes, Devils (Canton, MI); Vincent Trocheck, Rangers (Pittsburgh); Brock Nelson, Avalanche (Warroad, MN)
Collision course? 21 of those 25 players also represented the U.S. at last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off, where the Americans made the title game before falling to Canada in overtime. They’ll bring that chemistry with them to Milan, where the odds suggest we could be headed for a title game rematch: Canada (+100 to win at BetMGM) and the U.S. (+190) are heavily favored over the field.
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Tournament format: 12 teams have been split into three groups. They’ll each play a round-robin, with the three group winners and the fourth-best team advancing directly to the quarterfinals. The remaining eight teams then face each other for one more qualifier to complete the final eight.
The field: Group A (Canada, Czechia, Switzerland, France); Group B (Slovakia, Italy, Sweden, Finland); Group C (USA, Germany, Latvia, Denmark)
Team USA’s schedule: The Americans play Latvia today (3:10pm ET, USA), Denmark on Saturday and Germany on Sunday. The quarterfinals are next Wednesday, the semifinals next Friday and the gold-medal match is on Feb. 22, the final day of the Games.
We’ll be spotlighting America’s best athletes throughout the Games. Follow Team USA’s progress on their homepage, and for in-depth Olympics coverage, go to ours.
Kim during Wednesday’s qualifier. (Oliver Weiken/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
🏂 Snowboard Halfpipe, Women’s Final
Eight years ago, Chloe Kim burst on the scene as a teenage phenom; today at Livigno Snow Park (1:30pm ET, NBC), she’ll try to become the first snowboarder in Olympic history to win three straight gold medals. And judging by Wednesday’s qualifier, which she dominated despite having torn her labrum last month, the other 11 finalists will have their hands full trying to dethrone her.
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What she’s saying: “I knew I could do it,” said Kim, referencing her shoulder injury. “I’ve been doing this for 22 years. Muscle memory is a thing. I might be better at snowboarding than I am at walking.” Friendly reminder, re: “doing this for 22 years” — she’s only 25!
🏒 Men’s Hockey
Team USA’s group stage opener against Latvia (3:10pm, USA) is one of four games today. The others: Switzerland vs. France (6:10am, Peacock), Czechia vs. Canada (10:40am, USA) and Germany vs. Denmark (3:10pm, Peacock).
The favorites: Canada won three of the first five Olympic tournaments featuring NHL players (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014), including each of the last two. Today we’ll get our first look at their squad led by former Hart Trophy winners Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, as well as teen phenom Macklin Celebrini.
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🏂 Snowboard Cross, Men’s Final
Nick Baumgartner, 44, is already the oldest snowboarding medalist in Olympics history after winning mixed team cross in Beijing. Now, back for his fifth Winter Games, he’s out to prove age is just a number when he straps on his board for today’s final (7:45am, Peacock).
How it works: Unlike most snowboarding events, cross is a race in which competitors speed through a course filled with curves and jumps. The 32-man final is elimination style, with the top two finishers in each four-man race advancing until just four remain for the championship run.
⛸️ Short Track Speed Skating, Women’s 500m Final
Connecticut native Kristen Santos-Griswold is back for another shot at gold four years after the podium was stolen from her in Beijing. She’s already advanced to the quarterfinals (2:15pm, USA), with the title race coming a little over an hour later.
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Flashback: Four years ago in her Olympics debut, Santos-Griswold was in position to win a medal with less than a lap to go in the 1000m final. But when Italy’s Arianna Fontana attempted an aggressive pass, the two skaters became entangled and spun out on the ice, and she ended up finishing fourth. “The hardest part about this sport,” she said recently, “is that kind of concept of, you can be the best, you can be the fastest, and things just don’t work out for you.”
🥇 Medal events
🎿 Freestyle Skiing: Men’s Moguls, Final (6:15am, Peacock)
Pebble Beach, you’re gorgeous. (Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
More to watch:
⛳️ PGA: Pebble Beach Pro-Am (11:45am, ESPN+; 3pm, Golf) … Defending champion Rory McIlroy makes his season debut against the likes of Scottie Scheffler and red-hot Chris Gotterup in the first signature event of the year.
🏀 NBA: Bucks at Thunder (7:30pm, Prime); Mavericks at Lakers (10pm, Prime) … Final day of games before the All-Star break.
🏀 NCAAW: No. 17 TCU at No. 12 Baylor (7pm, ESPN); No. 4 Texas at No. 5 Vanderbilt (7:30pm, SEC+) … Commodores guard Mikayla Blakes leads the nation in scoring (25.9 ppg).
🏁 NASCAR: Duels at Daytona (7pm, FS1) … Two 60-lap, 150-mile qualifying races will set the grid positions for this weekend’s Daytona 500.
Got plans tonight? Gametime is the best place to score last-minute tickets to the events happening in your city. Get tickets now!
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❤️ Why we love sports
Josh and Michael Strahan at Giants training camp in 1994. (Josh Hyman)
Josh Hyman (Forest Hills, New York):
In the 1990s, my formative teenage years, I grew up a New York Giants fan, which is to say the next decade was about to be rough. I first became a fan during the legendary years of #89 Mark Bavaro catching passes all over the field and running defenders over, or carrying them on his back to the end zone.
Free agency was a newer thing in the early 90s, so when Bavaro left to go play with the Browns and then eventually the Eagles, I was confused and heartbroken. How could he? The Eagles? (Did Saquon call him for advice?)
By 1993, I understood how it all worked and was still a huge Giants fan. Then my father took me to a game that season where the Giants beat the Eagles soundly, 21-10. Bavaro played in that game but it seemed that nobody in the building remembered him. Not even boos. Just a ghost of Super Bowls past.
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After the game, I spotted Bavaro in the parking lot. Nobody was swarming him. Nobody even recognized him. It was so strange but here he was, strutting right toward me. Rambo in the flesh!
Mark Bavaro runs the ball against the Redskins during a regular season game in 1986. (Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
Short, stout, baby-faced, 16-year-old me ran over and asked him for an autograph to which he looked me up and down wearing Giants blue, smiled and obliged. This was before the days of cell phones and selfies, just game programs and Bic Pens.
I gave him my game program and he turned to a page in the book that had a picture of him wearing Eagles green and #86. But when he signed my book, he signed it “Mark Bavaro, #89”
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It was epic. It was like his heart never left the Meadowlands. He knew and I knew that he was always going to be a New York Football GIANT, no matter how the business of the NFL or free agency worked. Then he gave me a high-five and walked off to his car without anyone else saying a word to him.
That day, Mark Bavaro got another moment to be a New York Giant as his legendary #89, and I got my favorite autograph story ever.
✍️ Submit your story: Do you have a fondest sports memory? Or an example of sports having a profound impact on your life? If you’d like to share, email me at kendall.baker@yahooinc.com. We’ll keep sharing your stories until they run out!
📸 Layers of the Games
(Hector Vivas/Getty Images)
Through the combination of multiple images from a fixed camera, Getty Images’ “Layers of the Games” series shows the quickfire drama that unfolds in a single game or a day of competition during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
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Above: Women’s Freestyle Slopestyle
(Hector Vivas/Getty Images)
Above: Women’s Parallel Giant Slalom
(Hector Vivas/Getty Images)
Above: Men’s Freestyle Slopestyle
(Pauline Ballet/Getty Images)
Above: Ice Dance, Rhythm Dance
🏆 Seattle trivia
(Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
The Seahawks held their Super Bowl parade on Wednesday to celebrate the city’s fourth “Big Four” championship (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL), with the first coming all the way back in 1917 when they won the Stanley Cup.
Question: What was the name of that 1917 championship team?
(A) Seattle Pilots
(B) Seattle Rainiers
(C) Seattle Metropolitans
(D) Seattle Rangers
Answer at the bottom.
🏀 The season of the Red Hawks
Montclair State is the No. 1 team in Division III. (Elian Saldivar/The Montclarion)
The only undefeated team in Division I men’s basketball? The Miami (Ohio) RedHawks, who are 24-0 and ranked No. 23. The only undefeated team in D-III men’s basketball? The Montclair State (NJ) Red Hawks, who are 23-0 and ranked No. 1 for the first time ever.
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Breezy Johnson’s eventful week saw another highlight on Thursday when the downhill skier got engaged to boyfriend Connor Watkins at the base of the super-G run in Cortina D’Ampezzo.
According to NBC News, as skiers from other countries were gathered near the finish area, Watkins dropped to his knee and proposed. After Johnson said “yes,” her U.S. teammates and skiing officials nearby cheered.
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“I mean, that was my hope!” Johnson told NBC’s Cara Banks when asked if she dreamt of getting engaged at the Olympics. “But it’s definitely a lot more crazy with everything just happening all at once, and the reality of it is so different than the way you imagined, and so much better.”
Watkins said he was hoping he could find a place in the finish area to propose the way he wanted. “And it turned out we could, and we’re just super excited,” he said.
The life milestone for the 30-year-old Johnson, who won gold in the women’s downhill on Sunday, came shortly after she crashed out of Thursday’s super-G and did not finish. That came one day after the team of Johnson and Mikaela Shiffrin failed to medal in the women’s combined.
U.S. cross-country skier Jessie Diggins captured bronze in a gutty effort during Thursday’s women’s 10km.
Dealing with bruised ribs suffered in a fall during Sunday’s 20km skiathlon, Diggins battled through the pain to finish in third with a time of 23:38.9. The Swedish duo of Frida Karlsson and Ebba Andersson won gold and silver, respectively.
“I just wanted to cross the finish line with nothing left, to control my own effort, that’s what I did out there,” Diggins told TNT Sports after the race. “I’m grateful and lucky that it was enough for bronze but I’m so proud of myself just for getting to the finish line. .. I felt like I was skiing out of my body the whole time, trying to fight for every single second and to leave it all out there. Just getting to the finish line was going feel like a gold medal, no matter what.”
The 34-year-old Diggins has won gold before with a first-place finish at the 2018 team event in Pyeongchang. Four years ago in Beijing, she took home silver in the 30km freestyle and bronze in the individual sprint.
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The three-time overall world champion has said this will be her final Olympics and retirement will be official following the season finale in Lake Placid, New York, in March. Diggins has 33 career World Cup wins and reached the podium 87 times.
It’s a tantalizing idea for fans still irate that controlling owner Patrick Dumont rubber-stamped the increasingly infamous Luka Dončić trade. It also does not appear to be happening.
“The Dumont and Adelson families remain fully committed to the Dallas Mavericks franchise and to the Dallas community. They remain focused on building a championship organization for the long term.
“The team is not for sale and the families look forward to expanding their ownership stake over time.”
It’s the second half of that last sentence which might hold the biggest significance. As Townsend notes, the Adelson/Dumont family bought a 69% stake of the Mavericks from Cuban in 2023, while Cuban retained 27% of the team. However, there is a provision in the agreement that allows the Adelsons to buy another 20% of the team from Cuban within the first four years of ownership, leaving him with as little as 7%.
So here’s that statement, translated into simple terms: Cuban is about to own a smaller piece of the Mavericks, not larger.
Mark Cuban probably isn’t getting control of the Mavericks back. (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)
(Richard Rodriguez via Getty Images)
Cuban himself expressed skepticism that any deal could happen, telling the News he also doesn’t think. the Adelson/Dumont family would sell. This apparently isn’t even the first time he’s been approached:
“I get asked fairly often if I would be part of a group if they could buy the team,” he wrote to The News. “I tell them all the same thing: I don’t see them selling.”
It’s understandable why the fan base would be so ready to hear a sale is in the works. It’s not like Cuban nailed every decision when he was majority owner, but the team was, for the most part, competitive and stable in his two-plus decades at the wheel. He handed over a Mavericks franchise that reached the NBA Finals in its first season under the Adelsons, and it’s all fallen apart in the two years since.
The Mavericks traded Dončić and bet big on 32-year-old Anthony Davis and 33-year-old Kyrie Irving forming an immediate contender. It didn’t work out. Davis is now a member of the Washington Wizards, Irving still hasn’t played since tearing his ACL nearly a year ago (while playing more minutes than any player in the NBA) and the Mavericks are 19-34.
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The only thing that has landed right for the Mavericks is a pingpong ball, which is hard for anyone to take credit for (Harrison tried, though). Maybe Cooper Flagg, the result of that pingpong ball, will lead a new era of competitive basketball teams, but the rub for the Adelson/Dumont family is they’ve already shown what can happen when they receive one of those.
Sam Darnold and Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s chemistry brought Seattle to a Super Bowl. A connection between a receiver and quarterback can change an offense, and with it, ignite your fantasy football lineup. Analyst Joel Smyth goes over six top QB-WR connections from the 2025 season.
Sam Darnold & Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Seahawks
The epitome of a QB-WR connection: Darnold & Smith-Njigba. JSN led the entire NFL in receiving yards on an offense that ranked 26th in passing attempts. A ridiculous 35.8% target share, which led the NFL, resulted from Smith-Njigba being the immediate focus of Darnold. Not only did Darnold target Smith-Njigba on his first read at the highest rate in the NFL, but his 44.6% mark is the best since Fantasy Points Data began tracking it in 2021. When Darnold dropped back, getting Smith-Njigba the ball was the first focus. And it worked. Seattle’s Offensive Player of the Year led the NFL in yards per target, as their connection equaled 11.0 yards on average.
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Joe Burrow & Tee Higgins, Bengals
In a shortened sample due to injuries, the connection between Burrow & Higgins shows why Cincinnati chose to pay up for their receiver last offseason. Higgins lines up on the outside 87% of the time, is consistently facing press coverage and is not an easy target/screen WR. There is no way he should be near the top of the NFL in catchable target rate, and yet, with Burrow on the field, he’s exactly that. At a staggering 90.3%, it would be the highest in the NFL despite a 15(!) yard average depth of target. The next five WRs ranked behind him have an average depth of target of only 6.7 yards. Even Ja’Marr Chase’s rate was only 79.2%.
Burrow is the perfect quarterback for Higgins. The back-shoulder fade connection is unbeatable, and Higgins is able to get to his spot where Burrow can give him a chance no matter what the defense throws at them. It showed in 2025 with Rams’ Davante Adams being the only WR ranked higher in touchdowns per target.
Matthew Stafford & Puka Nacua, Rams
Adams has a great connection with Stafford, but Nacua’s is on a different level. Stafford had an impressive passer rating of 110.7 when targeting Adams, but it jumped to 127.3 when targeting Nacua, the highest in the NFL. It’s simple: when Nacua is on the field, Stafford and the Rams want to get him the ball. Although he runs fewer routes and isn’t on the field as consistently as some top WRs around the league, when he is running a route, Nacua is targeted 36% of the time, the highest rate in the league. That number was 38% in 2024, the highest of the last decade. In the Sean McVay offense, where Nacua runs the second-highest percentage of horizontally breaking routes, paired with Stafford being able to hit him in areas with plenty of YAC to be had, the next-level upside is found. In terms of fantasy, it led to 5.4 PPG over expected, a 54% increase over the second-best WR.
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Caleb Williams & Luther Burden III, Bears
Burden was the talk of dynasty fantasy football in the last month of the 2025 season after a mini-breakout. He was limited throughout the season, but when on the field, he produced with Williams leading the way. Burden fits the Ben Johnson offense very well, as Johnson used him in a versatile role with easier targets for Williams to complete. The accuracy issues have been the downfall for the Bears quarterback early in his career; however, with Burden’s role, that issue is completely flipped. The difference between Williams’ catchable target rate to any player compared to only when targeting Burden is the largest gap of any WR in the NFL. Rome Odunze ranked dead last in 2024 in catchable target rate and third-to-last in 2025. With Burden at the same position but in a different role, his catchable target rate sits at 90.0%, the best rate of any receiver in the league.
Lamar Jackson & Zay Flowers, Ravens
A surprising name on the list given Jackson’s down year, but Flowers excelled with Jackson on the field. Simply in yards per route, Flowers’ 2.72 with Jackson would rank third best in the NFL, behind only the top two receivers of 2025: Smith-Njigba and Nacua. The connection is best shown by his catch rate. How often is a receiver catching his targets? Flowers ranks seventh among WRs at 70%, even though he saw fewer screens in 2025 and more downfield targets. With scrambling being a large part of Jackson’s game, it’s important to note that once he is outside of the pocket, Flowers was his go-to man, leading all WRs in scramble receiving yards.
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Jordan Love & Christian Watson, Packers
The connection was short-lived, but a healthy Watson showed he can be a force in the Packers offense when available. With Love in at quarterback, Watson tied Smith-Njigba at 2.19 fantasy points per route in 2025, the highest mark in the NFL. Their downfield connection on vertical routes has always been apparent, but would you believe me if I said Watson led the NFL in targets per route on horizontally breaking routes? The only player above Smith-Njigba, as he continues to show his fantasy upside is legit in the Green Bay attack.
