What’s it worth to shut up a supposed partner?

That’s not rhetorical. It’s a real question the ACC must consider — especially now, after news broke late Tuesday night that the league and its noisiest two schools, Florida State and Clemson, are discussing a proposal wherein both universities would drop their lawsuits against the conference. All the ACC has to do to make that so?

Oh, you know. Nothing too wild. Just adjust its revenue formula (again), embrace another unequal distribution model and funnel as many dollars as possible to its schools 1) with the biggest brand values and 2) that drive the most television viewership …

Aka, the two schools actively suing the league.

During a regularly scheduled meeting of ACC presidents and chancellors on Tuesday, there were discussions (among other topics) about alternate revenue models, a person briefed on the meeting confirmed. Hours after that meeting, ESPN and Yahoo! Sports both reported that FSU and Clemson would be open to staying in the league if financial adjustments — more like concessions — are made. Gee, how kind of them.

Then there’s the second part to Clemson and FSU’s supposed pitch, reported by ESPN: potentially shortening the league’s grant of rights, possibly to 2030, which aligns with the expiration…

Duke freshman forward Cooper Flagg, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, has signed a deal with New Balance, the apparel company announced Monday.

The deal — which was first reported by ESPN — will make Flagg one of New Balance’s signature athletes, likely including a signature shoe. Flagg joins Kawhi Leonard, Jamal Murray and WNBA rookie Cameron Brink as one of New Balance’s basketball headliners.

“I grew up wearing New Balance, and I appreciate their authentic connection to my community. The focus and growth of the brand in basketball and our shared values and history drew me in,” Flagg said in a statement. “From day one, it was clear that this would be a family-like partnership. I’m so excited to join this family and help them grow the category with young athletes.”

Cooper Flagg, The Intelligent Choice. pic.twitter.com/JvvvMM9lfm

— New Balance (@newbalance) August 26, 2024

Choosing New Balance wasn’t just a professional decision for Flagg, but a personal one, too: the reigning Gatorade National Player of the Year and five-star recruit grew up just 25 miles from New Balance’s manufacturing plant in Skowhegan, Maine.

Before every new school year, Flagg’s mother Kelly took him and his twin brother Ace to the factory’s annual tent sale, where…

On Jan. 19, two days after he became the most coveted football player in the NCAA’s transfer portal, and mere hours after he welcomed Ohio State coaches for a recruiting visit, Caleb Downs announced his change-of-address plans. The freshman safety who’d earned second-team All-America honors at Alabama committed to the Buckeyes. Not long after, Downs and his father began relocating to Columbus.

Getting there was simple enough. Getting around was another matter.

Some wheels needed to be put in motion.

“I get a call from someone on the coaching staff and they said, ‘Hey, I’m here with Caleb and his dad now. Are you looking to add somebody else to your team?’” says Rick Ricart, the CEO and owner of Ricart Automotive Group in Columbus. “Would you be willing to do a car deal for him?’”

For decades, these were shifty conversations. Local car dealerships had long been conduits for the whispered inducements coaches or boosters promised talented players. When discovered, scandal erupted. Repercussions were often stark. Then came the seismic summer of 2021, when changes to Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rules allowed college athletes to earn money without fear of NCAA sanctions.

Car dealers nationwide quickly exchanged leases and keys for players boasting about their new…

The Women’s College World Series field is set with softball’s final eight teams heading to Oklahoma City, Okla., to continue the chase for a national title.

The field is led by defending champion Oklahoma. The No. 2 Sooners will be joined by No. 1 Texas, No. 4 Florida, No. 5 Oklahoma State, No. 6 UCLA, No. 8 Stanford, No. 10 Duke and No. 14 Alabama. Oklahoma has won the past three championships and five of the past seven.

The WCWS opens play on Thursday: UCLA versus Alabama (Noon); Oklahoma versus Duke (2:30 p.m.); Texas versus Stanford (7 p.m.); Florida versus Oklahoma State (9:30 p.m.). ESPN will broadcast all four games.

The OKC 8⃣ #WCWS pic.twitter.com/4iFnwB1EKb

— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) May 27, 2024

How did the teams get here?

Texas: The Longhorns pulled out Game 3 of their Super Regional series against rival Texas A&M on Sunday and did most of their work in that series late in games, scoring 16 of their 20 runs in the sixth inning or later. The teams combined for a Super Regional record of 39 runs.

Oklahoma: The Sooners’ dynasty continues as they punched their ticket to Oklahoma City with a 2-0 series win over No. 15 Florida State. This year marks Oklahoma’s 12th WCWS appearance since 2010.

Florida: It was a record-setting day in Gainesville, Fla.,…

Congrats to South Carolina, which was the No. 1 team in all but one edition of this season’s rankings. The Gamecocks proved they were the best team in college basketball for all of 2023-24, just like last year, only this time they were able to cap their remarkable regular season with a national championship. South Carolina’s success was the primary validation of these power rankings, though the last poll did feature 15 of the Sweet 16 teams in the top 18 (apologies to Duke).

In case you’re interested in how well my first power rankings of 2023-24 held up, take a gander! Oregon State really came out of nowhere.

As we look ahead to 2024-25, a reminder that this is an indicator of how teams stand right now, though WNBA Draft decisions and transfers — keep an eye on Oregon State and Washington State following the dissolution of the Pac-12 — could substantially change the makeup of rosters. I’ve priced in some player improvement, particularly for younger players with high pedigree, but otherwise tried to assess these squads based on how the players finished this season. Let me know in the comments if you think I’m overlooking anyone.

Almost famous: Kentucky, Michigan State, Vanderbilt

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Why South Carolina over UConn?

South Carolina is losing Kamilla Cardoso, but otherwise…

On Monday, Tennessee announced that it was moving on from Kellie Harper, who went 108-52 in five seasons with the Lady Vols.

The move is a strong indicator that Tennessee understands the arms race happening in women’s basketball and doesn’t want to be left behind. With South Carolina at the top of the conference, and LSU — the reigning national champs — right there, too, there hasn’t been a ton of space at the very top of the league. However, moving on from Harper — who in four of five seasons finished third in the SEC — is a pretty strong statement that anything other than contending for the top spot isn’t good enough. And, with Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC next season, the league’s women’s basketball power only becomes stronger and deeper.

The big question here: Does Tennessee stick with another Pat Summitt-linked coach? Or after Holly Warlick (the Lady Vols’ head coach from 2012-19 who was a longtime Summitt assistant) and Harper (who won three national titles are a player for Summitt), is Tennessee going to step outside of the Summitt line?

The Lady Vols are legendary program that have helped lay the foundation of women’s basketball. They haven’t won a national title since 2008, but with the right coaching staff in place, this is a program…

PORTLAND — There was a UConn fan in the stands at Moda Center on Saturday night who pulled her long, blond hair back into a ponytail with braids in the front, just like UConn star guard Paige Bueckers.

She held up a sign: “Paige, am I doing this right?” and high-fived Bueckers as she ran from the UConn bench back to the locker room.

These days, everyone wants to be like Bueckers, who again starred for the No. 3 Huskies in a 53-45 win against No. 7 Duke on Saturday night that now advances the Huskies to their 22nd Elite 8 in the past 24 NCAA Tournaments. Bueckers scored 24 of her team’s 53 points on a night when the Huskies were particularly short-handed after forward Aaliyah Edwards picked up her fourth foul midway through the third quarter. UConn played just six players all night, but shot 40 percent from the field, compared to Duke’s 33-percent mark, and scored 23 points off 23 Duke turnovers — the difference in the game.

“I don’t know that I have one,” coach Geno Auriemma said, asked for an opening statement in the postgame newsconference.
Duke trailed 23-13 at the half after offense was hard to come by in the first two quarters. The Blue Devils went down by as many 20 points late in the third quarter, when UConn took a 42-22 lead.

“I think it was just…

The Athletic has live coverage of the NCAA Tournament.

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

The Sweet 16 matchups in the NCAA Tournament didn’t disappoint. Six of the eight games were decided by single digits, and a pair of No. 1 seeds were knocked out. Oh, and a No. 11 seed that once stood 17-14 overall entering the ACC tournament is still standing.

All four Elite Eight matchups offer plenty of intrigue: UConn vs. Illinois, Alabama vs. Clemson, Duke vs. NC State and Purdue vs. Tennessee. The Duke-NC State, Alabama-Clemson and Purdue-Tennessee games are rematches of games from earlier this season.

With the regional finals upon us, here are our latest NCAA Tournament power rankings for all eight remaining national title contenders. We will update this ranking after every round and until the Final Four begins. If the Sweet 16 was any indication, the eight teams left should put on quite a show. Which teams are in the best position to make a run at the championship? Here’s a look at where things stand.

PORTLAND, Ore. — There were times last year when they were both undergoing treatment to rehabilitate their injured knees when UConn forward Ice Brady can remember Paige Bueckers barely being able to walk.

Bueckers tore her ACL in August 2022 during a summer pickup game that sidelined her for the entirety of the 2022-23 season. This, after missing 19 games the season before with a tibial plateau fracture from a non-contact injury. She couldn’t help the Huskies when their streak of 14 consecutive Final Four appearances came to an end last season. Couldn’t give her head coach any on-court contributions in what became one of the most trying seasons of Geno Auriemma’s career.

So when Brady watched Bueckers drop 32 points, grab 10 rebounds and finish with 6 assists and 4 steals against Syracuse last week in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, she made sure to take it all in.

“After the last game, just watching everything back, I’m just amazed,” she said.

She wasn’t the only one.

“We have the best player in America,” Auriemma famously said last week. “And you know, (I’m) just saying that because the numbers in this world of analytics — the numbers say that she is.”

Welcome back to March, Paige Buckets.

Paige Bueckers is Paige Bueckers.

There is no…

The Sweet 16 field is set — mostly as we expected it but with some twists.

The left side of the bracket (Albany 1 and Portland 4 regions) includes every No. 1 through No. 4 seed, while the right side (Albany 2 and Portland 3 regions) low seeds include a No. 5 and a No. 7 seed.

Will more chaos ensue in the regionals? Will top seeds keep thriving? We’re here to break down the matchups and provide predictions.

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(All times Eastern)

Friday

Albany 1 | 2:30 p.m. | ESPN

The matchup between the Fighting Irish and Beavers is one of contrasting styles. Fueled by star freshman guard Hannah Hidalgo and an aggressive zone defense, Notre Dame likes to push the tempo and score in transition. The Irish are in the 90th percentile in pace and second nationally in fastbreak points percentage, per CBB Analytics. Hidalgo alone averaged 7.5 fastbreak points per game this season. That all is starkly different from how Oregon State has thrived this year. The Beavers, by comparison, are in the 19th percentile of pace and score only 5.4 fastbreak points a game. On offense, they are efficient from around the rim and from 3-point range. The tandem of junior guard Talia von Oelhoffen and sophomore forward Raegan Beers is especially tough to stop.

How the Beavers contain Hidalgo and guard Sonia Citron will…