Conference realignment continues to rage out west, much to the confusion of many people in the rest of the country. Why didn’t the two Pac-12 schools and the Mountain West just merge? Why are there almost $150 million in exit fees to just recreate the Mountain West? Why are the conferences bracing for a court battle after a lawsuit filed by the Pac-12 on Tuesday?

Let’s answer your questions and explain how we got here.

Why does the Pac-12 need more schools?

The Pac-12 dropped to two members this fall when USC and UCLA left for the Big Ten (a move the schools announced in 2022), Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah left for the Big 12 (announced in 2023) and Stanford and Cal left for the ACC (announced in 2023). Those two remaining members were Oregon State and Washington State.

NCAA bylaws provide a two-year grace period for conferences to get back up to a required eight members to be a full conference. College Football Playoff leaders determined late last year that conferences must have eight members for their champions to be eligible for an automatic qualifying CFP spot, and the NCAA Division I Board of Directors announced the Pac-12 no longer had “autonomous” status, a designation that grants some leagues certain rule-making powers.

With the addition of Boise…

The latest twist in the Pac-12’s conference realignment efforts could next involve a courtroom. The Pac-12 on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the Mountain West, arguing that the tens of millions it owes the Mountain West in poaching fees due to a prior scheduling agreement between the two leagues amount to an antitrust violation.

Two weeks ago, the Pac-12 officially added four Mountain West schools — Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State — which would put the fee owed to the Mountain West at $43 million, on top of an estimated $18 million per school in exit fees.

“The Poaching Penalty saddles the Pac-12 with exorbitant and punitive monetary fees for engaging in competition by accepting MWC member schools into the Pac-12,” the complaint reads. “The MWC imposed this Poaching Penalty at a time when the Pac-12 was desperate to schedule football games for its two remaining members and had little leverage to reject this naked restraint on competition. But that does not make the Poaching Penalty any less illegal, and the Pac-12 is asking the Court to declare this provision invalid and unenforceable.”

In late 2023, the Pac-12 and Mountain West signed a 2024 football scheduling agreement, through which the Mountain West added Oregon State and Washington…

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…

In the record-breaking Las Vegas heat this July, the fate of a West Coast college football conference was in the air.

Inside one small conference room in the Bellagio, Boise State star running back Ashton Jeanty held court for any media who wanted to talk ahead of a season in which he has made an early case for Heisman Trophy consideration. Jeanty was in the room because Mountain West media days were being held within the sportsbook over at the Circa, and Jeanty couldn’t enter, as he is not yet 21 years old.

A few rooms down from Jeanty in the Bellagio, the two Pac-12 remnants held a cocktail hour, “After Hours with the Beavs and Cougs.” Washington State mascot Butch T. Cougar walked around in a red jacket with chest fur laid bare. It was not meant to be a night of mourning. Former Washington State quarterback Ryan Leaf said the Pac-12 defectors would regret their decisions. A few curse words were uttered over the situation the two schools found themselves in.

Pac-2 After Dark in Vegas is fully underway. pic.twitter.com/qSBUONAioR

— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) July 11, 2024

“If anybody has earned the right to drink, it’s the Pac-12,” new commissioner Teresa Gould told the crowd, which responded with cheers.

But in private conversations over those few days in…

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:

First-round (and even first-weekend) upsets in the women’s NCAA Tournament are rare, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see thrillers from Day 1.

Since the women’s tournament expanded to 64 games in 1994, only one No. 16 seed has brought down a No. 1 seed: Harvard over Stanford in 1998. A No. 15 seed or No. 14 seed has never won a tournament game. But the 12-5 matchup remains spicy with 26 upsets through the years. Some teams (Florida Gulf Coast and Belmont) have become particularly adept at these.

The first weekend will also bring us interesting style and personnel matchups. Who will move on? Who’s March Madness dreams will end quickly?

Our experts pick the most fascinating first-round games to watch:

(All times listed are Eastern)

11:30 a.m. Friday, ESPN2

Grace Raynor:  The Spartans’ 22 wins are their most since the 2015-16 season, and they’ve hung right in with some of the best teams in the Big Ten this year, losing on the road to Iowa by just 3 points and Ohio State by 5. North Carolina, meanwhile, gave South Carolina one of its tougher games earlier in the season when the Gamecocks won by just 7 points in Chapel…

Looking for the chalkiest region in the first round of the NCAA Tournament? Our model thinks it’s likely to be the East. Only two of six Bracket Breaker games have an upset chance of greater than 10 percent, and no team has more than a 28 percent chance of springing an upset.

Below is a game-by-game analysis of every first-round matchup with Bracket Breaker implications in the East. We’ve already examined the Midwest and the West and will break down the South on Wednesday and every potential second-round matchup. To qualify as a Bracket Breaker game, opponents need to be separated by at least five seeds (which is why we don’t cover the 8/9 or 7/10 games). Our analysis adjusts teams’ basic strengths according to how closely they statistically resemble favorites and underdogs from past tournaments and, where appropriate, by style matchups. We can’t tell you how to bet — that depends on how richly your pool rewards deep upsets and your tolerance for risk. But if you’re interested in how our model works, check out this piece.

And now, onto the upsets!

More Bracket Breakers: Men’s Top 10 Upsets | Midwest Region Preview | West Region Preview | Women’s Top 10 Upsets

Odds are from BetMGM. For more Underdogs, listen to Peter and Jordan’s podcast. For all our…

The Athletic has live coverage of Selection Sunday and the NCAA Tournament bracket reveal. 

(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.)

Pure. Chaos.

Madness came early on Saturday, leaving a trail of stolen bids, burst bubbles and flummoxed bracketologists in its wake. Now? Selection Sunday is here.

We know we have four legit bid thieves: NC State in the ACC, Oregon in the Pac-12 and two more coming Sunday in the A-10 and AAC. Drake’s upset over Indiana State in the MVC title game might end up as a fifth functional bid thief. Wild.

Get your March Madness printable bracket

The bracket reveal is mere hours away. In the meantime, we’ll do our best to calculate the bubble math and take stock of an absolutely wild day of college hoops.

Here’s my best estimation of where things stand entering Sunday:

• There are 32 automatic qualifying bids via conference champions. There are 36 at-large bids. Total of 68.

• At least 21 of those 32 conferences will be one-bid leagues, including the Ivy League championship between Brown and Yale on Sunday. So let’s start with 21.

• Give at least four bids to the ACC: AQ and three at-large locks….

(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.)

Conference tournaments are here and Selection Sunday is nigh, which means Bubble Watch is in full swing.

One day before the bracket is revealed, bid thieves are the big storyline. We know we will already have one in the Atlantic 10 with Dayton out of the mix. Three more are lurking between now and the selection show: North Carolina State in the ACC, Oregon in the Pac-12, and anyone other than Florida Atlantic in the AAC. How those shake out will be critical for a bubble that is nearly at capacity.

NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt suggested on Saturday morning that there were “at least another four or five spots” up for grabs as far as at-large bids. That might be overstating it a tad, and will of course depend on how those possible bid thieves shake out, but there are clearly still decisions to be made.

“We have 35 at-larges out of the 36 voted into the field”

NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball, Dan Gavitt, joins @TheAndyKatz to explain the scrubbing process and give a seed line update! pic.twitter.com/RIMaSEuHRQ

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB)

(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.)

It only took until the day before Selection Sunday, but finally we can say for sure who the top eight seeds will be in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

With Tennessee and Arizona losing on Saturday and North Carolina advancing to the ACC tournament, the Tar Heels will join Purdue, Houston and UConn on the top line. The only minor intrigue left there is whether Houston passes Purdue for the No. 1 overall seed.

Tennessee and Arizona will be on the No. 2 line, along with Marquette and Iowa State. The Cyclones beat Baylor to reach the Big 12 title game and have more than made up for a lackluster nonconference slate, while Marquette got to the Big East final without All-America point guard Tyler Kolek. Given the Golden Eagles’ impressive resume and insistence that Kolek will be back next week, a No. 2 seed is in order.

Clarity comes at the top, and the bubble continues to come into focus as well. Mississippi State and Texas A&M locked up spots by beating Tennessee and Kentucky, respectively. New Mexico beat Colorado State in the Mountain West semis and should be safely in. Colorado finally gets over…