Gonzaga will join the Pac-12 in 2026, giving the conference one of the nation’s premier basketball programs as it continues its rebuild.

Gonzaga, as a non-football school, won’t be a full Pac-12 member, meaning the conference still has seven full members. But for the Pac-12, it’s an addition of a men’s basketball program that reached the national championship game in 2017 and 2021 and has made 25 consecutive NCAA Tournaments. Gonzaga’s women’s basketball program also has 15 tournament appearances since 2007 and made the Sweet 16 in 2024.

Gonzaga, located in Spokane, Wash., is joining the Pac-12 from the West Coast Conference, where it had been since 1979.

“Following discussions with Pac-12 member presidents, I believe membership will represent an opportunity to participate in building a conference that imagines new, forward-thinking ways to support student-athletes in a rapidly changing collegiate sports landscape,” Gonzaga President Thayne McCulloh said in a statement. “Partnerships with a new group of universities can also assist in our student recruitment and enrollment efforts, create opportunities for academic collaboration with new faculty colleagues, and attract more students who value an excellent education distinctively rooted in our Jesuit identity…

The dramatic conference realignment tug-of-war between the Pac-12 and Mountain West remained ongoing and unstable late Monday night. After four American Athletic Conference schools announced Monday they would remain with the league following a strong push from the six-member Pac-12, sources briefed on the situation told The Athletic that Utah State agreed to become the fifth Mountain West member to join the Pac-12, bringing the reconstructed league that began September with just two schools up to seven members by 2026.

But neither the Mountain West nor the Pac-12 can remain at seven members long-term and would need to return to at least eight schools to remain recognized as an NCAA and Football Bowl Subdivision conference beyond 2026.

The Mountain West spent the weekend working to get its eight remaining members committed to each other through a grant of rights or other financial agreements, with more than $111 million in exit fees and poaching fees set to come the league’s way from the Pac-12. Air Force, which was receiving interest from the AAC and the Pac-12, committed to stick with the Mountain West. Other Mountain West schools began to do the same.

But Utah State didn’t. Instead, the Aggies opted to move forward with the Pac-12, got an offer and accepted it, putting…

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…

(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.)

Four days, 48 games (well, technically 52 when including the First Four), and a weekend devoid of sleep and full of basketball. Now we’re down to the final two weekends of play. The Sweet 16 is set, and the matchups are exquisite.

So many varying and contrasting styles face one another. Some games present clashes of rosters with similar ethos and questions alike.

There’s a beautiful yet gut-wrenching duality of the NCAA Tournament, which is largely what makes it one of the most compelling phenomena in sports. The tournament is about testing mettle, seeing what a team can do on the fly with limited time in heightened scenarios in front of huge crowds. The stakes elevate and much of what is known and practiced can go out the window because of a random heater by a backup two guard from an unheard-of town in Minnesota.

Great teams with years of legacy and expectation can fall because of an off night. A team that struggled with injury and inconsistency all year might just hit the right groove at the right time, find confidence and ride that high to a Final Four.

Watching that team make a run…

The Sweet 16 in the women’s NCAA Tournament is almost entirely built of the top four seeds in each region. Only three teams (No. 5 Colorado, No. 5 Baylor and No. 7 Duke) won on the road in the second round to advance to the Sweet 16. My model projects the likelihood of upsets now that we’re in the tournament’s second week.

South Carolina is, of course, the overwhelming favorite. The Gamecocks won the national title in 42.4 percent of my simulations. They made the Final Four more than 70 percent of the time.

My projected favorite in the other regions are Texas, UConn and UCLA. UConn is only the No. 3 seed in Regional 3 in Portland, but No. 2 Ohio State lost in the second round and my model does not rate USC as highly as its No. 1 seed.

UCLA is the favorite in Regional 2 in Albany ahead of No. 1 seed Iowa. The Hawkeyes are a strong favorite against Colorado in the Sweet 16, but would be an underdog in my model against either UCLA or LSU in the Elite Eight. That region is balanced among the top three teams with Iowa, UCLA and LSU all making the Final Four in more than 25 percent of my simulations.

Before getting into the numbers, it’s worth explaining what you’re looking at. I created a college basketball model to project the outcomes of games. I take several metrics into…

The Utah women’s basketball team changed hotels out of safety concerns before its first NCAA Tournament game after reporting that racist slurs were shouted at the team, according to Utes coach Lynne Roberts and a police report filed in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Utah played Saturday and Monday in Spokane, Wash., where Gonzaga hosted first- and second-round games. The team arrived at its hotel in Coeur d’Alene, about 30 miles east of Spokane, on Thursday. The alleged incidents occurred while the team was walking to and from dinner that night in Coeur d’Alene.

While the team, band and cheerleaders walked to a restaurant for dinner, a truck revved its engine and a person yelled the N-word toward the team, according to a statement from Roberts, Utah athletic director Mark Harlan and Deputy A.D. Charmelle Green. After dinner, around 6 p.m. local time, two pickup trucks revved their engines and sped by members of the team, according to the police report. The trucks then turned around and individuals inside yelled the N-word toward the team, according to a report from KSL.com, a Salt Lake City TV station.

Utah worked with the NCAA and Gonzaga to move to a hotel in Spokane on Friday, Roberts said Monday.

“For our players and staff to not feel safe in an NCAA Tournament environment,…

The full NCAA Tournament bracket has been released with UConn leading the way as No. 1 overall.

(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.)

Eight double-digit seeds secured first-round upsets in the NCAA Tournament to bust brackets across the country. But when the dust settled on the opening weekend, only one double-digit seed was left standing in the Sweet 16: No. 11 NC State in the South Region.

Despite a season filled with so many evenly-matched teams, every No. 1 and No. 2 seed is still alive in the Sweet 16 for the first time in five years and just the fifth time since the NCAA Tournament began seeding in 1979. Of the 16 games involving one or two seeds, only three were decided by single digits.

With the Sweet 16 upon us, here are our latest NCAA Tournament power rankings for all 16 remaining national title contenders. Consider this our re-seeding of the Sweet 16, if you wish. We will update this ranking after every round and until the Final Four begins. Many of the top-seeded teams have looked dominant. Which one is in the best position to make a run at the championship? Here’s a look at where things stand:

Today, we will finish our first-round NCAA Tournament previews with a look at the second day of matchups and potential upsets in women’s March Madness.

A reminder: Our statistical model Slingshot, developed with help from the Furman University Mathematics Department, begins by estimating the strength of all Division I teams according to their scoring margin per 100 possessions and their strength of schedule. We then adjust those basic power ratings for how strongly teams carry traits associated with successful tournament teams of the past. For underdogs, these characteristics generally include tactics that widen the variability of a team’s play, such as shooting lots of 3-pointers and working to force turnovers. For favorites, it’s just the opposite: Higher seeds cruise to wins when they cut risks and avoid chaos. Then we estimate matchup results. We still don’t have the same depth of historical data for women’s basketball as we do for the men’s side, but we’re getting there.

Now, on to Saturday’s games!

More Bracket Breakers: Upset projections for Friday games

Odds are from BetMGM. For more Underdogs, listen to Peter and Jordan’s podcast. For all our March Madness coverage, check out our content hub. 

No. 6 Syracuse Orange vs. No. 11 Arizona Wildcats

Upset…

The full NCAA Tournament bracket has been released with South Carolina leading the way as No. 1 overall.

(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.)

After months of anticipation, thousands of games played in and out of conference, and some truly wild conference tournaments, the NCAA Tournament is here. Selection Sunday has come and gone. Advance scouts are done, processed and getting applied in final practices.

Throughout March Madness, The Athletic will present its Power Rankings. After every round, we’ll release an updated rankings reflecting how teams are playing. Keep in mind, these are not reflections of seedings, although there may be some crossover between where teams are seeded and how they’re performing.

Our inaugural power rankings admittedly looks pretty close to chalk, as many of the teams were seeded by the selection committee in a way that was reflective of recent play. However, the Tennessee Volunteers make a surprise appearance despite being a No. 6 seed. The Lady Vols play No. 11 Green Bay, a dangerous mid-major, in Saturday’s first round.

Gonzaga is just outside of my rankings consideration after dropping the…

(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.)

We feel 100 percent confident in at least one of our bracket picks after Tuesday: Wagner is going to Dayton.

The Seahawks, who ended the regular season 13-15 and were the No. 7 seed in the Northeast Conference tournament, upset Merrimack to clinch a bid to the NCAA Tournament. (Please, explain to us again why the tournament needs to be expanded so more teams have “access?”) The NEC ranked second-to-last among conferences this season, and you’d be hard-pressed to find an NCAA Tournament team with worse metrics than Wagner: 303rd in the NET, 293rd in KenPom, 11-10 (!) in Quad 4. That’s a No. 16-seed-play-in-game team if we’ve ever seen one.

What, you were hoping for a more interesting bracket update? Sorry, but Tuesday was relatively calm. We did get five more auto qualifiers, including Wagner and highlighted by Saint Mary’s beating Gonzaga in the WCC. Yes, the Zags really were in trouble of missing the tournament in early February. They aren’t now. We didn’t even change the seeding for either team (Gaels are No. 6 seed, Gonzaga a 7), though you could convince us either side…