Imagine being a player, coach or fan of West Virginia today. 

You were just told Sunday night that your team was No. 69, missing the NCAA men’s basketball tournament by a hair. You learn that the last team in the field was North Carolina, a blueblood with one win all year against an NCAA tournament-quality team – way back in December against UCLA. 

And as you try to make sense of something seemingly so absurd, you hear that the North Carolina athletics director, Bubba Cunningham, is the chairman of the men’s basketball selection committee.

What are you going to think? Does that smell like a fair outcome where everything was on the up-and-up? 

I want to be clear about one thing before we talk about what happened Sunday and the decision to include North Carolina in the field despite a 1-12 record against so-called “Quad 1” opponents in the NCAA’s somewhat complicated NET rankings. 

I first met Cunningham more than 15 years ago, back when he was the athletics director at Tulsa, and have talked to him dozens of times since then. From everything I’ve learned about Cunningham over all these years, I have zero reason to doubt his integrity and have always held him in high regard among his peers.

REGIONAL PREDICTIONS:East | West | Midwest | South

LEFT OUT: Six teams snubbed by the NCAA men’s tournament

I also believe that both Cunningham and the other members of the selection committee did everything by the book, which means that he left the room when North Carolina came up for discussion and wasn’t allowed to vote for or against its inclusion. 

And still … it’s a miserable look for this entire process. So miserable that maybe it’s time for the NCAA to ditch the model of athletics directors and conference commissioners choosing who gets in, because these kinds of sticky situations are going to happen. And the consequences are so immense for schools and conferences that every single piece of this needs to appear independent and pristine to the public. 

Unfortunately for Cunningham, this isn’t going to pass that test – even if neither he nor the committee did anything wrong. 

“As the vice chair, I managed all the conversations we had about North Carolina, and we had quite a few,’ Sun Belt Conference commissioner Keith Gill said on CBS, sitting next to Cunningham as he answered the obvious question about the potential conflict of interest. 

‘All the policies and procedures were followed,” Cunningham said. 

Is that good enough? 

Probably not for West Virginia, which had wins over Gonzaga, Arizona, Kansas and Iowa State but still found itself on the wrong side of the line.

Now, it’s important to point out that these decisions on the margins of the NCAA tournament field are always going to be fraught because by definition, the teams involved have mediocre résumés.

If you want to make a case for North Carolina, you can based on the predictive metrics like KenPom.com, where the Tar Heels are ranked No. 33 and West Virginia No. 53. In fact, among all the teams that were sweating out Selection Sunday, North Carolina had the best numbers in the power rankings. 

But they didn’t have wins as good as West Virginia or Indiana, and didn’t take advantage of multiple opportunities against NCAA-quality teams in the ACC like Duke, Clemson or Louisville. 

It’s also not worth crying too much for the Mountaineers. They faded a bit late in the season and put their fate in the committee’s hands with a horrendous Big 12 tournament loss to Colorado, which went 14-19.

I’m not here to tell you West Virginia was a no-brainer to put into this field, and I’m not going to be critical of the committee’s work. It has a tough job, and you can pretty much flip a coin every year when it comes down to decisions over the last couple of teams in or out of the field.

But the appearance of it is undeniably problematic when you get a situation like this that’s so clearly going to inspire conspiracy theories and accusations of favoritism. 

‘It weighed on me a lot,’ Cunningham said later on an NCAA conference call with reporters. ‘I’ll say it also weighs on commissioners and other ADs when it comes to seeding when a commissioner has multiple teams under consideration.

‘You have a personal, professional responsibility at your institution but you’re on a committee that represents the membership, and I think people recognize that and honor it. I think you can sometimes say less in any setting because you want to make sure you don’t even get up to that line of integrity, and I think that’s just part of what we have to work through the way the committee is designed to represent the membership.’ 

For decades, the college-sports model has been built around the idea that athletics directors and conference commissioners should be the ones making these decisions and doing the work of these committees because it gives them a stake in the integrity of the process and accountability to their peers. At some point, Cunningham is going to be in a room with West Virginia athletics director Wren Baker, and there’s something to be said for the idea that they can look each other in the eye and know that Baker may one day be in a similar situation.

That may be good for professional comity in NCAA committee meetings, but it feels a little old fashioned these days for both the NCAA basketball tournaments and the College Football Playoff. 

The stakes – both financially and professionally – are sky-high these days. And the amount of media attention on the process means that even the best protocols to ensure objectivity will be subject to skepticism.

It puts Cunningham and other committee members in a no-win situation. Even if a totally clean decision was made, the outcome feels a little too dirty. 

The showdown has finally arrived.

After the shocking events of the 2025 Elimination Chamber − when John Cena turned heel and joined forces with The Rock to go on a brutal assault of Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes − the two stars in the main event WrestleMania 41 will meet for the first time since the unforgettable night.

Rhodes and Cena will come face-to-face on Monday Night Raw in what will a must-see event. Will any more punches be thrown? Will The Rock appear again? There’s no doubt the heat is rising ahead of their title match next month.

The face-off won’t be the only thing happening on Monday with the Intercontinental Championship on the line and a no holds barred match taking place. It’s set up to be another big night for WWE fans, but it will be happening at a different time than normal since the company is currently on its European tour. To make sure you don’t miss anything, here’s how to ensure you don’t miss a thing on Monday:

When time is Monday Night Raw today?

Monday Night Raw on March 17 begins at 3 p.m. ET.

Where is Monday Night Raw today?

Monday Night Raw will be taking place at Forest National in Brussels, Belgium.

How to watch Monday Night Raw

Monday Night Raw is available only on Netflix. Viewers will need a Netflix subscription to watch the event, and it’s available at no additional cost. Fans with any Netflix subscription tier will be able to watch.

Monday Night Raw match card, scheduled events

Cody Rhodes and John Cena meet face-to-face
Intercontinental Championship match: Bron Breakker (c) vs. Finn Balor
No holds barred match: Penta vs. Ludwig Kaiser

Bengals general manager Duke Tobin vowed he would make Ja’Marr Chase the league’s highest-paid non-quarterback. And on Sunday, he did.

Chase and the Bengals have agreed to terms on a four-year, $161 million contract extension that will keep the star receiver in Cincinnati through the 2029 season, according to reports. The deal also gives him $112 million guaranteed.

The former LSU Tiger was set to enter the final year of his rookie contract in 2025 prior to signing the extension since the Bengals exercised Chase’s fifth-year option before last season.

Reports emerged Friday that the two sides were close to agreeing on a contract extension. Many analysts expected Chase to secure an average annual value above the $40 million per year mark that Browns defensive end Myles Garrett set as the new highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL with his extension on March 9.

In late February, Tobin told reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine that he wanted to make Chase the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL with his contract extension.

‘Ja’Marr is always going to be our priority,’ he said. ‘He’s a fantastic football player. He’s going to end up being the No. 1 paid non-quarterback in the league. We’re there. Let’s get it done.’

The wideout joins Tee Higgins in signing a massive extension before the 2025 season, who was also part of Friday’s report that the Bengals were approaching deals with both receivers.

Chase has recorded 395 catches in four seasons with Cincinnati for 5,425 yards and 46 touchdowns. In 2024, Chase won the receiving triple crown by leading the league in receptions (127), receiving yards (1,708) and receiving touchdowns (17).

Cincinnati now has $26.8 million in available cap space for the 2025 league year, according to Overthecap.com.

The Bengals hold the No. 17 pick in the 2025 NFL draft after a 9-8 season that saw them narrowly miss the playoffs in 2024.

According to reports, the Bengals agreed to terms on a four-year, $115 million contract extension with the wide receiver Sunday night. The deal will make Higgins the eighth-highest-paid wideout in the NFL per year in 2025.

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported Friday that the two sides were making progress on a massive extension. Fellow Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase was part of the same report, with Rapoport indicating both deals would get done soon after the news broke Friday.

After failing to agree to terms on a contract extension ahead of the franchise tag deadline earlier this month, Higgins was set to play on the franchise tag for a second straight year in 2025. He’s now due to make $28.75 million in 2025, a $2.55 million difference from the value of the franchise tag, and he’ll stick around in Cincinnati for four more years. The first two years are fully guaranteed for Higgins and his deal could be worth over $30 million per year with incentives, per reports.

In five seasons with the Bengals, Higgins has 330 catches for 4,595 receiving yards and 34 touchdowns in his career. The wideout missed five games in 2024 with hamstring, quad and ankle injuries, but he still compiled 911 yards and 10 touchdowns on 73 receptions.

According to Overthecap.com, the Bengals now have $26.8 million in available cap space for the 2025 league year.

Cincinnati is coming off a 9-8 season in which it narrowly missed the playoffs. It holds the No. 17 pick in the 2025 NFL draft.

This is unfamiliar territory for Stanford.

For the first time since 1987, the Cardinal will miss the NCAA tournament, ending a streak of 36 consecutive appearances. Only Tennessee, which has made every tournament since it began in 1982, has had a longer run.

Stanford won five of its last six regular-season games to give it a shot of sneaking into the tournament. But at 16-13, the Cardinal needed to make a run in the ACC tournament and that didn’t happen. Stanford bowed out in the first round, losing to Clemson.

‘We’re not going to let this one game define us or who we are,” first-year coach Kate Paye said after the loss.

Stanford is likely to get an invite to the WNIT, and Paye has indicated the Cardinal will accept. But the NCAA streak is over.

SURVIVOR POOL: Free to enter. $2,500 to win. Can you survive the madness?

Stanford wasn’t just a staple of the NCAA tournament, it had become one of its cornerstones. The Cardinal played in the national championship game five times, winning three of them, and reached the Final Four an additional 10 times. The team was a No. 1 or 2 seed each of the past five years.

Yet Stanford’s absence isn’t a total surprise, either.

In addition to longtime coach Tara VanDerveer retiring, Stanford lost its top three scorers and two leading rebounders from last year’s team. Cameron Brink was the No. 2 pick in the WNBA draft, Hannah Jump graduated and Kiki Iriafen transferred to USC.

Together, the three combined for an average of 47.4 points and 24.8 rebounds a game.

Stanford has just two seniors on its roster this year, and its regular starters included two sophomores and a freshman. Stanford also moved to the ACC, which meant entirely new opponents and a much heavier travel schedule.

Stanford isn’t the only notable name to miss out on the NCAA tournament. Here’s a look at some of the other snubs:

Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech lost games it shouldn’t have. The bigger problem, however, was other teams lost games they shouldn’t have.

Richmond, for example, was a lock for the tournament, ranked 33rd in the NET. But when the Spiders got bounced in the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 tournament, that left one less at-large bid. And teams like Virginia Tech were on the outside looking in.

James Madison

The Dukes were phenomenal during the regular season, winning 28 games and going unbeaten in the Sun Belt conference. But an overtime loss to Arkansas State in the Sun Belt tournament final killed their chances.

Minnesota

Minnesota’s season began spiraling at the end of January and it could never get it back on track. A loss to Washington in the first round of the Big Ten tournament just made it official.

Arizona

The losses to Grand Canyon and even Northern Arizona look better than they initially did. But Arizona just didn’t have that signature win.

Iowa State/Princeton

It’s hard to call this a true snub, since both Iowa State and Princeton made the tournament. But … woof. They have to play each other in the First Four, with the winner getting Michigan in the Wolverines’ backyard with that first-round game being played at Notre Dame.

Again, it’s great to make the tournament. But for two teams that were living on the bubble the last few weeks, hard not to wonder if making the NIT and doing some damage there would have been better.

MEDLEY, Fla. — Napheesa Collier sat down for her final Unrivaled press conference, disappointed but not dejected.

After all, look at all she’s accomplished.

Collier co-founded the fast-paced, 3-on-3 women’s basketball league with fellow UConn great Breanna Stewart.

She won the Unrivaled 1-on-1 tournament and the grand prize of $200,000 last month. She even split $100,000 of the winnings with the training and performance staff and coaches on her team, while her four Lunar Owls teammates won $10,000 each after her big win.

She accepted the Unrivaled Most Valuable Player award before Sunday’s semifinal round of playoff games, after leading the league in several statistical categories and fueling the Lunar Owls to a league-best 13-1 record.

However, Unrivaled’s inaugural season won’t end with Collier capping the perfect season by hoisting the championship trophy.

Collier scored 36 points with eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks despite being questionable with a left ankle injury, but the No. 1 seed Lunar Owls fell 73-70 to the No. 4 seed Vinyl in the second of two semifinal games on Sunday.

The Vinyl will meet the No. 2 Rose in the Unrivaled championship game on Monday night at 8:30 p.m. ET, after Chelsea Gray scored a league-record 39 points to help the Rose advance past the No. 3 Laces 63-57 in the other semifinal.

“Just being with this team was a high. Our chemistry was great from the beginning. The way that we approached every day, so professional, how locked in we were. It was just a pleasure to be with this team,” Collier said after her Unrivaled season came to an end.

“Obviously, we want to take that into next year, but kind of just thinking about this for tonight.”

After winning gold with the U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team in Paris last summer, the 28-year-old Minnesota Lynx star won WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, before falling to Stewart and the New York Liberty in the WNBA Finals last October.

It would be too easy to add the Unrivaled playoff loss as another coming-up-short moment for Collier’s career recently.

The Lunar Owls led 62-52 after the third quarter of Sunday’s semifinal, needing to reach 73 points first to secure a rematch against the Rose – the only team to beat them at Unrivaled before Sunday’s loss to the Vinyl.

Lunar Owls standout Skylar Diggins-Smith, second behind Gray with five game-winning shots at Unrivaled, forced a three-point shot while trailing 71-70 on the club’s final offensive possession of the game.

Collier, Diggins-Smith and backup Courtney Williams were deadlocked behind the three-point line, trying to go for the win, while starter Allisha Gray left the game after suffering an injury.

Dearica Hamby scored the game-winning layup past Collier to end the game, Rhyne Howard finished with 23 points, and Jordin Canada scored 10 of her 21 points as the Vinyl outscored the Lunar Owls 21-8 in the final quarter.

“We should have never been in that position,” Unrivaled Coach of the Year DJ Sackmann said. “It’s really the whole quarter, not just that one opportunity.”

Added Collier: “Yeah, it’s a tough ending for us.”

Still, it’s not difficult to see what Collier has truly accomplished for the sport and what will set her apart from her peers when her career eventually ends.

Unrivaled has become an offseason alternative for women’s basketball players during the WNBA offseason. The Unrivaled players are partners and not employees, sharing ownership equity in the league. There’s no need for players to go overseas anymore to supplement their incomes.

Unrivaled also has pushed the envelope when it comes to improving the player experience, providing players with adequate facilities like a fully equipped weight room and training rooms – some of which they are not privy to in the WNBA.

Unrivaled is bullish on being sustainable operation, already shifting some focus to Year 2 from its centralized location at Mediapro Miami, a production studio about seven miles away from Miami International Airport.  

“What we’ve provided the players, and we want to do even more in Year 2. We want to raise salaries, offer even more services, things like that,” Collier told USA TODAY Sports before the postseason.

Unrivaled commissioner Micky Lawler, the former president of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), praised Collier for her work co-founding the league while presenting her with the MVP trophy before Sunday’s semifinal games.

“Phee, you are the queen of the highest court in the land. That’s not only because for your remarkable achievements as a world-class top athlete, but also what you’ve co-created with Breanna Stewart,” Lawler said.

“What you’ve co-created has changed the trajectory for your fellow players, for every stakeholder in basketball, and every lover in basketball. Unrivaled is going to be a very important chapter in sports history. Congrats on being our amazing first MVP of Unrivaled.”

Collier, who was also named to the All-Unrivaled First Team earlier this week, believes she’s in the prime of her career. And her Unrivaled numbers prove she’s right.

Collier led Unrivaled with 25.7 points per game, a 61.3 shooting percent from the floor, 2.0 steals per game and shared the league-lead with Brittney Griner with 1.4 blocks per game. She was one of four players to average a double-double – joined by Stewart, Alyssa Thomas and Angel Reese – as her 10.6 rebounds ranked fourth in the league.

“I just have to say I wouldn’t be here without my team and my coaches,” Collier said as she accepted her MVP trophy.

“They pushed me every day to be my best … This is not a solo award. This is a team award, and I want to say, ‘Thank you’ to them.”

Instead of boasting about herself, Collier was quick to thank her teammates for their role in helping her win MVP.

Thinking about her peers is what fueled Collier to start Unrivaled.

And furthering the game of women’s basketball will be Collier’s everlasting mark – more than any win or loss – during her standout career.

“She’d be the first person to tell you she’s more focused for her team, but her team is also the league. She wants all the players to come out of here with a level of success. She wants all the players to get their shine and get their glory,” Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell, and Collier’s husband, told USA TODAY Sports.

“There’s nothing she’s going to do moving forward that’s going to make me more proud of what she’s already accomplished. She’s put her name on the line to build something that’s never been done before in the name of giving more resources and more compensation to her peers.”

Geno Auriemma becomes thoughtful when asked why he’s still coaching UConn, at age 70. Left unsaid: He can win his 12th national championship.
Led by Paige Bueckers, UConn Huskies take 10-game win streak into March Madness.
UConn’s ‘Big Three’ present matchup problems for opponents in NCAA Tournament.

What keeps you going?

It couldn’t have been the first time someone asked Geno Auriemma this question, but my query still triggered a moment of contemplation from UConn’s legendary coach when we spoke last month.

Auriemma almost always has answers – to reporters’ questions, to roster building, to coaching situations.

This particular question, though, stumped him.

‘That’s a great question,” Auriemma told me, ‘because I can’t answer it.”

Auriemma will turn 71 years old during March Madness. He owns 11 national championship rings, three Olympic gold medals, and he’s a central figure alongside Pat Summitt on the Mount Rushmore of women’s basketball coaches. He’s college basketball’s all-time winningest coach. He’s got nothing left to prove, but he’s still proving hard to beat.

SURVIVOR POOL: Can your picks survive March Madness? Join our Survivor Pool to find out

UConn (31-3) earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, into which it brings a 10-game win streak. Auriemma is six wins shy of 1,250 for his career. It takes six victories to win the NCAA Tournament. Just saying.

‘I’ve tried to look at all the reasons why people do step away. It’s certainly past my prime, to be honest with you,” Auriemma told me in February.

“I never set out to be doing this, period, and certainly never set out to be here for 40 years. To answer that question: I don’t know. I don’t know. I enjoy what I’m doing, to a point. I enjoy the competition. I enjoy the preparation that goes into it. I don’t enjoy a lot of what’s going on right now, and I think a lot of my contemporaries have seen where it’s going and don’t want any part of it. I’m sure I’ll get there at some point – just not right now.”

Interpret Auriemma’s answer however you like, but I didn’t take it as a hint toward retirement. More as a thoughtful musing from a veteran coach who’s watched most of his contemporaries retire, while he keeps going, for whatever reason, and keeps piling victories.

UConn announced last summer a contract extension for Auriemma that runs through the 2028-29 season.

‘I would say the things that keep me going are that I still find some satisfaction in what I’m doing. That’s probably the biggest thing for me,” Auriemma said. ‘It’s not like I need to do it or have to do it. I just still find some satisfaction. It’s a challenge, though.’

The Huskies don’t run the sport like they did at the zenith of Auriemma’s dynastic run, but they retain a place among the nation’s elite.

Paige Bueckers not a solo act for No. 2 seed UConn Huskies

Auriemma steered UConn on a surprise run to the Final Four last season, as a No. 3 seed, with a squad saddled by injuries. Those Huskies finished one bucket short of a national championship game appearance.

This team, led by superstar guard Paige Bueckers, has the goods to make it back to that stage — or beyond. There are, perhaps, more complete teams, and standouts like Southern California’s JuJu Watkins, Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo and UCLA’s Lauren Betts rival Bueckers for the distinction of nation’s best player.

The Huskies enjoy an easier go of it in the Big East than No. 1 seeds UCLA, South Carolina, USC or Texas from the SEC and Big Ten. UConn won every conference game by double digits. Also mixed into its win streak was an eye-opening 29-point smashing of South Carolina. Among UConn’s three losses is a two-point defeat to USC, the No. 1 seed in UConn’s region.

The Huskies can play with anyone when they’re right. They’ve been right this past month.

When Bueckers scores and distributes, when Azzi Fudd’s 3-pointers are falling, when Sarah Strong controls the paint, they form a ‘Big Three’ that inspires belief UConn could capture its first national championship since 2016, the final year of a four-peat.

‘I believe in this team so much,” Fudd said after UConn won the Big East Tournament.

Geno Auriemma pursues 12th national title as wins keep coming

Any coach would like another piece, and if you handed Auriemma a magic wand, he’d probably conjure a veteran post player.

Two freshmen, Strong and Jana El Alfy, form UConn’s starting frontcourt. You won’t find a better freshman anywhere than Strong, who signed as the nation’s No. 1-rated recruit.

As Auriemma searched for an answer as to why he’s still coaching, I offered him this thought: A dozen national championships sure would have a nice ring to it. He chuckled in response, making no bold proclamations, nor denying the possibility of another title.

“I think you always believe that you have a chance,” Auriemma said.

Blake Toppmeyer is a columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer. Subscribe to read all of his columns.