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…

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 first game of the 2024 women’s NCAA Tournament featured near-madness. No. 8 seed North Carolina led No. 9 seed Michigan State by 12 points with less than four minutes to play. Then, poof. UNC committed four turnovers, missed five free throws and allowed the Spartans to cut the lead to 1 with only eight seconds remaining. UNC still advanced, but perhaps the tight ending was a harbinger of what’s to come over the next three weeks. With wild finishes, timely shooting (and untimely mistakes), upsets could be aplenty.

As The Athletic did during conference tournaments, we’ll be providing briefings to keep you on top of the most important developments in the first and second rounds. Live blogs will follow starting in the Sweet 16. Here’s what you need to know about Friday’s first-round games:

As the bracket was revealed last Sunday night, LSU’s Hailey Van Lith seemed to make a prediction about her old school. If the Tigers and Louisville —the team Van Lith transferred from after three seasons — won their first-round games, they would meet in Baton Rouge in the second round. But Van Lith was caught on video appearing to say (in so many words) that she didn’t expect a reunion.

“Middle Tennessee is gonna whoop they ass”- Hailey Van Lith

The first major upset of the 2024 women’s NCAA Tournament is in the books.

The No. 6 Louisville Cardinals, the only team in the country to advance to the Elite Eight each of the last five seasons, were upset by No. 11 Middle Tennessee 71-69 despite holding an 18-point lead in the first half. The Blue Raiders slowly chipped away until taking the lead for good with 6:49 to play, completing the third-largest comeback in tournament history.

It is the first time Louisville has lost in the first round since 2006 and the first time the program has failed to win an NCAA Tournament game under coach Jeff Walz, who had previously been 14-0 in the opening game.

Walz, who owns a reputation as one of the finest tournament coaches in the game because of his ability to make adjustments, instead was on the receiving end of a coaching masterclass. Middle Tennessee stretched out the Cardinals as the game wore on and got center Olivia Cochran in foul trouble, which opened up a hole in the middle of Louisville’s defense. Jalynn Gregory and Savannah Wheeler torched the Cardinals from deep (combining for seven 3-pointers) and paraded to the foul line, making…

Over the last month, The Athletic connected with more than 35 head coaches across women’s basketball to get their candid opinions on an array of topics from the changing tides in the sport to the best coaches in the game to the greatest women’s college basketball player of all time. These coaches, who hail from power conferences and high mid-majors, were granted anonymity so they could speak openly without fear of retribution from their own programs or the NCAA. Throughout the week, we’re sharing coaches’ thoughts on the most pressing issues in their sport.

Head coaches’ jobs are all-encompassing in college basketball. They have to recruit, and in the age of the portal, re-recruit. They have to scour opposing rosters to find players who would be suitable transfers. They work with athletic departments for appropriate facilities and accommodations. There’s an entire ecosystem under their purview.

Of course, the most important part of their role is putting together the product that shows up on the court. That job is multi-faceted in and of itself. Beyond spearheading player development, coaches design the offensive schemes, the defensive game plans and make adjustments when necessary. This is the part that’s easiest for their peers to evaluate because the results…

(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.)

During the season in this space, we often like to begin with a bit of pop culture or history or some other random bit of nonsense unrelated to college basketball. So, uh, is it OK if we just do that for the entirety of this final installment?

Because we’re going to be totally transparent here. For the first time in six years of making mock brackets for The Athletic, we go into Selection Sunday with no earthly idea of what the selection committee is going to do. Oh, sure, there are always small surprises, but for the most part, the field is obvious except for maybe one slot.

Not this year. After one of the wildest Championship Week Saturdays we can remember, which included two power-conference bid thieves and a still-hard-to-believe outcome in the American, we find ourselves utterly confused by the bubble. And whether North Carolina will hold on to that final No. 1 seed or if surging Iowa State will take it. At least we’re not alone:

Been doing this since 2006. It’s never been this hard for the committee, not only because of how close so many of these teams are, but because of 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.)

With just a few days until Selection Sunday, much of the bracket is set. Outside of the upcoming Ivy League championship, no other mid-major conference tournament is likely to influence the at-large bids, with perhaps the exception of Middle Tennessee.

Though some teams are essentially locked into the field because of their strong resumes, which teams have the most ability to fluctuate in seeding?

You can look at many and say, “Yeah, that’s a tourney team,” but also simultaneously be unsure of where that team may concretely be seeded. I have projections and ideas, but with how open-ended the criteria for seeding is, that leaves room for intrigue when looking at a select few cases.

Multi-bid conferences

What makes West Virginia so hard to judge?

The Mountaineers had a stellar…

All season, we’ve been tracking the progress of transfers throughout the country, highlighting the players who made the best choices for themselves and their programs and have had the most impact at their new programs. We tried not to limit our scope and instead shine a light on transfers whether they suited up for the nation’s top teams or unranked squads or anywhere in between.

But it’s March, and that means our focus has narrowed to the players who are in a position to meaningfully affect outcomes in the NCAA Tournament. Most of these transfers picked their new teams for a chance to win; they’ve done plenty of that during the regular season, but this is when they’ll forever etch themselves in the memories of their fan bases. Even as they’re only in the first year at their new schools, it’s important to remember that what happens in March is never forgotten.

With that in mind, here’s a look at the transfers who have the best chance of making a difference during the Madness:

1. Te-Hina Paopao

South Carolina guard

Key Stats: 11.1 ppg, 3.7 apg, 47.1 3-pt %

Strengths: Shooting, shooting, shooting. And veteran leadership.

Question marks: interior scoring, foul drawing, forcing turnovers

Paopao isn’t the sole reason South Carolina has jumped from shooting 31 percent on…

The first major domino has fallen in the coaching carousel. Kentucky announced Monday morning that Kyra Elzy was fired following her fourth season in Lexington. The Wildcats, who won the SEC tournament in 2022, had gone 6-26 in the last two seasons.

The move by Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart is interesting because it comes at a significant cost to the Wildcats. Elzy signed a contract extension after winning the 2022 SEC tournament that would keep her as head coach through the 2026-27 season. By removing Elzy now, Kentucky’s athletic department will be paying out the remainder of her contract — $2.475 million — unless both parties agree to different terms or she is hired elsewhere before the end of her contract in June 2027. Kentucky is also completing an $82 million renovation of Memorial Coliseum that is expected to be ready for the 2024-25 season — in time for a new women’s basketball era.

Barnhart isn’t messing around. He sees what’s going on in the women’s basketball world and doesn’t want his program to be left behind. Kentucky is paying significant money to get rid of Elzy, so expect the Wildcats to swing for the fences here to return to relevancy in a deepening SEC and national landscape.

Names to watch

Jeff Walz, Louisville head coach

Even if…

We’ve reached the end of the regular season for all major conferences, and if you — like me — thought that was going to bring more clarity about the hierarchy within college basketball, those hopes have not come to fruition. The seeding jumble is as chaotic as ever, and on a night-to-night basis, only South Carolina can reliably be counted upon to emerge with a victory.

How about those Gamecocks? They completed a second consecutive undefeated regular season, and the year before that featured only one regular-season defeat. They have cycled through multiple starting lineups over the past few weeks, experimenting with different combinations of their nine-player rotation, and have still been as dominant as ever. They have a target on their back every night as opponents try to be the first to slay the giant, and they continue to excel, time and time again.

Oh, and they managed to facilitate a reunion between Kamilla Cardoso and her mom and sister, as she was able to play in front of them for the first time in the U.S. since immigrating as a teenager.

Family over everything @kamillascsilva pic.twitter.com/Qh1opAgli0

— South Carolina Women’s Basketball (@GamecockWBB) March 2, 2024

Even though South Carolina didn’t win the national title in 2023, it’s hard to look back…