One of the longest tenured active coaches in major men’s college basketball is now out of a job.

Iowa has fired coach Fran McCaffery after 15 seasons at the school, the university announced Friday afternoon.

The decision came the day after the Hawkeyes fell to Illinois 106-94 in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament, a loss that dropped them to 17-16 on the season. Iowa lost 12 of its final 17 games after a 12-4 start.

The Hawkeyes, who finished 15th of 18 Big Ten teams after being picked 10th in the league’s preseason poll, played their final 12 games without leading scorer and rebounder Owen Freeman, who underwent season-ending finger surgery in early February.

McCaffery is the program’s all-time wins leader, with a 297-207 record over the course of his time with Iowa. He’s 548-384 in his career as a Division I head coach, which included previous stops at Siena, UNC Greensboro and Lehigh.

The 65-year-old McCaffery led the Hawkeyes to the NCAA Tournament in seven of the final 11 seasons of his tenure in which the tournament was held, but never advanced past the second round. Those tournament shortcomings most notably included a second-round loss to Oregon in 2021 as a No. 2 seed with national player of the year Luka Garza.

This will mark the second consecutive season that Iowa missed the NCAA Tournament and failed to win at least 20 games.

‘Fran McCaffery has been an integral part of our Hawkeye family for the past 15 years,’ Iowa athletic director Beth Goetz said in a statement. ‘He is a tremendous coach and teacher, and we are grateful for the positive impact he has made on the institution and the community. We have a deep appreciation for his dedication to our student-athletes and his passion for the game that will have a lasting impact on our program.’

ESPN’s Pete Thamel first reported news of McCaffery’s firing.

Following the Hawkeyes’ Big Ten Tournament loss Thursday — a game in which the famously hot-tempered McCaffery was ejected with 13 minutes remaining — McCaffery said in a news conference that he expected to be Iowa’s coach next season and beyond.

The Hawkeyes become the third Big Ten program with a coaching vacancy, joining Indiana and Minnesota.

Behind future NBA players like Garza and brothers Keegan and Kris Murray, McCaffery’s teams regularly excelled offensively, finishing in the top 20 nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency in each of the past eight seasons, according to KenPom. They struggled on the other end of the floor in his final years, however, never finishing higher than 157th in Division I in adjusted defensive efficiency.

This is shaping up to be another memorable edition of The Players Championship. Thursday’s first round yielded a leaderboard that features Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa and Rickie Fowler all in contention to challenge first-round leader J.J. Spaun (-9). But as Friday came and went, a new leader has emerged.

Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia are tied atop the leaderboard at 11-under for the tournament through two rounds of play. Spaun is in third place at 10-under, while McIlroy of Northern Ireland is tied for fourth place with Morikawa and Alex Smalley at 9-under. 

But the drama on Friday revolved around this year’s cut line, as a collection of big names and past major winners will miss the weekend at TPC Sawgrass after a lackluster showing in the first and second round. Only the top 65 (and ties) will make the cut at The Players Championship, which features a 144-golfer field this year.

Here are the latest updates on the cut line at The Players Championship, who missed the cut this year and how to watch all the action on-course the rest of the tournament:

The Players Championship 2025 projected cut line

Last updated: 8 p.m. ET

The cut line for The Players Championship is set at 1-under as second round action wrapped up on Friday, per the PGA Tour’s official leaderboard.

Who could miss the 2025 Players Championship cut?

The cut line bounced from 1-under to 2-under at various times on Friday, but as the round ended, the projected cut line was set at 1-under. Although players like Xander Schauffele and Shane Lowry lived to play another game after finishing 1-under, the same cannot be said about some other big names. Only the top 65 golfers (and ties) make it to the weekend at TPC Sawgrass. Here are some notable golfers that missed the cut on Friday:

Justin Rose (E)
Hideki Matsuyama (E)
Sam Burns (+1)
Ludvig Aberg (+2)
Adam Scott (+2)
Viktor Hovland (+4)
Brian Harman (+6)
Matt Fitzpatrick (+6)
Max Homa (+7)
Tony Finau (+8)
Gary Woodland (+12)
Wyndham Clark (WD)

How to watch The Players Championship 2025: TV, streaming for PGA Tour

The Players Championship will be carried live on TV by the Golf Channel all four days. NBC will pick up live coverage of the third and final rounds. There is streaming coverage available on ESPN+, Peacock and Fubo, which is offering a free trial.

Saturday, March 15

Third round

8 a.m.-7 p.m. ET, ESPN+
2-7 p.m. ET, NBC Sports app
2-7 p.m. ET, NBC and Peacock

Sunday, March 16

Final round

7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. ET, ESPN+
1-6 p.m. ET, NBC Sports app
1-6 p.m. ET, NBC and Peacock

Watch The Players Championship with Fubo

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The first few days of NFL free agency are often hectic. The 2025 edition of the event was no exception, as players flew off the board quickly when the league’s ‘legal tampering’ window opened.

The NFL’s trade market was also active before and during NFL free agency. Star receivers like DK Metcalf and Deebo Samuel were among the notable players traded while the Houston Texans surprised by moving on from veteran left tackle Laremy Tunsil.

There are still plenty of quality free agents yet to sign. Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson and Cooper Kupp rank among the most notable players still available as NFL free agency continues.

But how have NFL teams fared during free agency’s first wave? Here are grades for all 32 teams.

Arizona Cardinals

Grade: A-

The Cardinals have lacked high-end edge rushers since Chandler Jones’ final season with the team in 2021. They landed one of the top pass rushers on the open market, Josh Sweat, to change that. Sweat had 2.5 sacks in Super Bowl 59 and has experience playing for Arizona head coach Jonathan Gannon in Philadelphia, so he should ingratiate himself into Arizona’s defense easily.

Arizona also added backup quarterback Jacoby Brissett and run-stuffing defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson to build up its roster depth. Add in the re-signings of starting guard Evan Brown and edge rusher Baron Browning and the Cardinals have done well for themselves on the open market.

Atlanta Falcons

Grade: B-

The Falcons entered the 2025 NFL offseason cap-strapped by the four-year, $180 million contract they gave Kirk Cousins last year. As a result, they couldn’t spend significantly on the free agent market.

Still, Atlanta found a couple of solid external free agent contributors in edge rusher Leonard Floyd (one year, $10 million) and linebacker Divine Deablo (two years, $14 million). Floyd in particular should help the Falcons improve upon their 31 sacks from last season (second-worst in the NFL), but the 32-year-old doesn’t constitute as a major needle-mover.

Baltimore Ravens

Grade: B

The Ravens haven’t been too active yet in free agency, but retaining one of their top offensive linemen, left tackle Ronnie Stanley, on a three-year, $60 million deal ahead of the legal tampering period was critical. That will allow the Ravens to return four of their five starting offensive linemen from 2024.

As far as external signings go, Baltimore has only added veteran receiver DeAndre Hopkins on a one-year, $6 million deal. That’s a worthwhile gamble on the three-time All-Pro, but it doesn’t qualify as a major move with the 32-year-old now past his prime.

Buffalo Bills

Grade: B+

The Bills spent the 2024 offseason taking care of their own, as they extended Josh Allen, Gregory Rousseau, Khalil Shakir and Terrell Bernard. They have also added a handful of veteran role players including defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi (one year, $8.3 million), receiver Joshua Palmer (three years, $36 million) and outside linebacker Michael Hoecht (three years, $24 million).

Perhaps the most interesting move was Buffalo’s decision to swap out Von Miller for Joey Bosa. The former Chargers star is younger than Miller but has struggled to stay healthy in recent seasons. That said, Bosa’s deal is a one-year pact worth $12.6 million, so the Bills didn’t take any long-term risk by adding him.

Carolina Panthers

Grade: B

The Panthers have a clear directive in mind during the 2025 offseason: to add young talent to their defense. It began when they made Jaycee Horn the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL. It continued when they gave four players aged 26 or younger – defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton, safety Tre’von Moehrig, edge rusher Patrick Jones II and defensive tackle Bobby Brown III – multi-year contracts.

Carolina may have spent a little bit above market value on some of those deals, but they are hoping the young talents will grow into them. That’s not a bad gamble considering the Panthers ranked last in defensive EPA last season.

Chicago Bears

Grade: A

Chicago’s entire interior offensive line was set to hit free agency in 2025. The Bears used this opportunity to make wholesale changes up front after Caleb Williams was sacked a league-high 68 times last season.

The Bears traded for veteran guards Jonah Jackson, who worked with new Bears head coach Ben Johnson while with the Lions, and Joe Thuney, who was an All-Pro in back-to-back seasons with the Chiefs. They capped off their changes by signing Drew Dalman – Pro Football Focus’ fourth-graded center from 2024 – to a three-year deal worth up to $42 million.

Add in Chicago’s signings of Dayo Odeyingbo (three years, $48 million) and Grady Jarrett (three years, $43.5 million) to bolster the defensive front and the Bears got much better in the trenches. That should position them to improve upon their 5-12 record from last season.

Cincinnati Bengals

Grade: D+

The Bengals entered the 2025 offseason hoping to retain Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Trey Hendrickson long-term. Thus far, Cincinnati slapped Higgins with the franchise tag again, gave Hendrickson permission to seek a trade and saw Myles Garrett earn a contract worth $40 million in AAV, which could drive up the price of Chase’s eventual extension. That’s less than ideal for the ever-penny-pinching Bengals.

Cincinnati did well to retain some of their key free agents – most notably tight end Mike Gesicki (three years, $25.5 million) and B.J. Hill (three years, $33 million) – but the Bengals haven’t landed many upgrades to their defense. That puts a lot of pressure on the Bengals front office to nail the draft to solve the defensive woes they faced last season.

Cleveland Browns

Grade: B+

Myles Garrett requested a trade away from the Browns, but Cleveland found a way to retain their star by making him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL. The four-year, $160 million deal was pricey, but it allowed the Browns to keep their best player and keep his ‘Cleveland to Canton’ trajectory alive.

Beyond that, the Browns have done well despite being handcuffed to Deshaun Watson’s albatross contract. Landing Kenny Pickett via trade as cheap quarterback competition was particularly notable while Cornelius Lucas (two years, $10 million) should replenish some of Cleveland’s departing tackle depth.

Few will be overly excited by what the Browns have accomplished, but Andrew Berry has done a nice job considering the resources with which he is working.

Dallas Cowboys

Grade: C

Jerry Jones’ team hasn’t spent more than $10 million in AAV on an external free agent since Greg Hardy in 2015. That streak seems likely to stay alive another year, unless the Cowboys can sign Cooper Kupp.

Among the Cowboys signings, running back Javonte Williams and edge rusher Payton Turner have some upside on one-year deals while guard Robert Jones and defensive tackle Solomon Thomas could also end up playing significant roles. Buying low on Kaiir Elam via trade was also a worthwhile gamble.

Still, the Cowboys aren’t looking much better this year than they were in their 7-10 season last year. That’s less than ideal playing in the top-heavy NFC East.

Denver Broncos

Grade: A

The Broncos ranked No. 1 in defensive EPA last season. Nonetheless, they managed to get better on that side of the ball by signing a couple of 49ers – 2022 All-Pro safety Talanoa Hufanga and elite run-stopper Dre Greenlaw – to three-year deals. They should give Vance Joseph’s defense more playmaking power.

Denver also added a mismatch weapon at tight end in Evan Engram (two years, $23 million) and kept starting defensive tackle D.J. Jones on a three-year, $39 million deal. The Broncos’ window for contention is open with Bo Nix on a cheap rookie contract, so this should help them in their quest to make a second consecutive playoff appearance.

Detroit Lions

Grade: A-

The Lions lost Carlton Davis in free agency but were able to add D.J. Reed, a slight upgrade over Davis, on a cheaper deal (three years, $48 million). They also retained defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike on a reasonable one-year deal to continue in rotation with D.J. Reader and Alim McNeill and managed to keep versatile swing tackle Dan Skipper.

The only blight on Detroit’s free agency is that the team released Za’Darius Smith before anyone could see him play across from Aidan Hutchinson.

Green Bay Packers

Grade: B-

The Packers aren’t typically active in free agency, but they signed a couple of starters this year in left guard Aaron Banks and cornerback Nate Hobbs.

Green Bay may have overpaid for Banks (four years, $77 million) but his presence at left guard allows Elgton Jenkins to move to center to replace the departing Josh Myers. Meanwhile, Hobbs adds a quality slot man and versatility to a cornerback room that needed depth and talent.

Those two signings are solid, as are the team’s decisions to re-sign kicker Brandon McManus and linebacker Isaiah McDuffie.

Houston Texans

Grade: C-

The Texans have had a strange offseason. They made a nice trade to acquire C.J. Gardner-Johnson from the Eagles by offloading first-round guard bust Kenyon Green, but that was one of many moves in the dismantling of their offensive line.

The Texans have made a couple quality buy-low moves, like trading for receiver Christian Kirk and signing edge rusher Darrell Taylor, but it doesn’t feel as though they have improved upon their playoff roster from last season yet.

Indianapolis Colts

Grade: B-

The Colts needed to add talent to their secondary and have done so, agreeing to terms with cornerback Charvarius Ward and safety Cam Bynum on a pair of $60 million contracts. Ward should fit particularly well into Lou Anarumo’s defense and will relish a fresh start after mourning the death of his 1-year-old daughter during the 2024 season.

The Colts lost a couple of offensive lineman, including standout right guard Will Fries, which is dragging their grade down slightly. So too are questions about whether Daniel Jones was the right quarterback to pair with Anthony Richardson, but Jones is just on a one-year, $14 million deal.

Jacksonville Jaguars

Grade: C+

The Jaguars haven’t yet done much to write home about as new general manager James Gladstone and head coach Liam Coen retool the roster. The Jaguars have focused on depth signings, grabbing tight ends Johnny Mundt and Hunter Long to replace Evan Engram while signing Dyami Brown to replace the departing Christian Kirk.

Notably, the Jaguars have signed three offensive linemen – Patrick Mekari, Robert Hainsey and Chuma Edoga – to multi-year deals. Mekari (three years, $37.5 million) and Hainsey (three years, $21 million) are being paid like starters while Edoga is more likely to be a swing tackle.

None of Jacksonville’s signings have been flashy, but they should be deeper than they have been in recent seasons.

Kansas City Chiefs

Grade: B-

The good: Kansas City solidified their defense by re-signing linebacker Nick Bolton and agreeing to a reasonable deal with Kristian Fulton to be the team’s No. 2 cornerback. The bad: they traded their All-Pro left guard Joey Thuney and will have questions on the left side of the line as a result even after signing Jaylon Moore to a two-year, $30 million deal.

Those offensive line questions will worry Chiefs fans who have watched Patrick Mahomes get crushed by pressure in his two Super Bowl losses.

Las Vegas Raiders

Grade: B+

The Raiders locked Maxx Crosby in with a contract extension worth $35.5 million in AAV. That constituted their big splash of free agency while their trade for Geno Smith gave them a much-needed upgrade at quarterback.

Aside from that, Las Vegas targeted experienced starters and role players – like safety Jeremy Chinn, right guard Alex Cappa and linebacker Elandon Roberts – to plug hole and add depth to its roster. Overall, this seems like the right way for the team to improve upon their difficult 2024 season.

Los Angeles Chargers

Grade: B

The Chargers have lost some key players in free agency, namely Poona Ford, Kristian Fulton, Joey Bosa and Josh Palmer. They have also kept some of their key players, like edge rusher Khalil Mack and center Bradley Bozeman, while adding running Najee Harris, who profiles as a great fit for Greg Roman’s offense, on a one-year deal.

General manager Joe Hortiz appears to be taking a calculated approach in free agency as he continues to shape the team into one built around its running game and defense. That worked last season and should work just fine in 2025.

Los Angeles Rams

Grade: A-

The Rams made one of the most underrated signings in early free agency by landing Poona Ford on a three-year deal worth up to $30 million. He was one of the NFL’s best defensive linemen against the run last season, and Los Angeles desperately needed to upgrade its run defense.

Elsewhere, the Rams kept left tackle Alaric Jackson on a market-value deal ahead of free agency and landed Davante Adams as a quality replacement for Cooper Kupp. They also extended Matthew Stafford, which should allow them to remain a contender in 2025 and beyond.

The only downside to Los Angeles’ offseason is that they didn’t get anything on the trade market for Kupp.

Miami Dolphins

Grade: B

The Dolphins have done a solid job adding talent to their roster despite having minimal wiggle room under the salary cap. They landed an upgrade at right guard in James Daniels (three years, $24 million) and a bigger-bodied receiver in Nick Westbrook-Ikhine who will pair well with speed demons Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.

While losing Jevon Holland will hurt, landing Ifeatu Melifonwu on a one-year deal to replace him is a solid upside swing. It’s hard to complain too much with Miami’s approach as a result.

Minnesota Vikings

Grade: A

Much will be made about the Vikings losing both Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones in free agency. However, with the team ready to trust J.J. McCarthy as a starter, the team was smart not to overpay for a veteran quarterback. Instead, they spent heavily in the trenches, bringing in Ryan Kelly and Will Fries from the Colts to play center and right guard respectively while also signing veteran defensive linemen Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave.

Some will argue that giving Fries $88 million is a bit rich; others may wonder whether Allen will be able to live up to a $20 million AAV after seeing his sack numbers decline in four consecutive seasons.

Even so, Minnesota looks a lot stronger up front than it was last season. That could allow the Vikings to continue to build upon their 2024 success, provided that McCarthy is ready to step into the starting role.

New England Patriots

Grade: A

The Patriots have landed upgrades at every level of the defense. Milton Williams and Harold Landry will add much needed pop to a unit that produced the fewest sacks in the NFL last season; Robert Spillane will provide leadership and instinctive tackling ability at linebacker; and Carlton Davis is a proven, solid outside starter to pair with All-Pro Christian Gonzalez.

Patriots fans may be perturbed that the team hasn’t added a left tackle or a top receiver in free agency yet as they look to build around Drake Maye. That said, they did sign Morgan Moses to be an upgrade on the right side. The veteran starter should be a major upgrade over Demontrey Jacobs – who graded as Pro Football Focus’ worst qualified tackle last season – and came with a reasonable $24 million price tag over three years.

New Orleans Saints

Grade: B

The Saints have long been in an unfavorable salary cap situation, but they continue to find ways to circumvent it and add to their team. This year, they agreed to a reasonable, three-year pact with safety Justin Reid worth up to $31.5 million and managed to keep edge rusher Chase Young on a three-year, $51 million deal. That’s not bad for a team that was once projected to be more than $50 million over the cap.

New York Giants

Grade: B-

The Giants spent most of their early free agent resources on their secondary. They signed cornerback Paulson Adebo and safety Jevon Holland to three-year deals worth a combined $99.3 million. Adebo and Holland are both just 25 years old, so New York in banking on the duo continuing to grow into a dynamic, playmaking tandem.

Some will question why the Giants were willing to pay Holland $15 million in AAV but not Xavier McKinney $16.75 million in 2024. Nonetheless, the Giants’ secondary is improved, and so is their trench depth after agreeing to deals with Chauncey Golston and Roy Robertson-Harris on the defensive line and backup offensive tackles in James Hudson and Stone Forsythe.

New York Jets

Grade: C+

The Jets are a tough team to grade. On one hand, they needed to undergo significant changes after a 5-12 season. They are getting that with Aaron Rodgers, Davante Adams, C.J. Mosley and D.J. Reed all departing.

On the other hand, it’s fair to scrutinize some of New York’s replacements. Jamien Sherwood fared well in place of Mosley last year, but was it wise to give a one-year starter $15 million in AAV? And what about Brandon Stephens, who was signed to a three-year, $36 million deal after allowing a 65 catches and 107.4 passer rating in 2025?

Add in Justin Fields (two years, $40 million) and New York’s free-agent class has been polarizing thus far. But given the class’ relative youth, it undeniably come with upside.

Philadelphia Eagles

Grade: C-

The Eagles didn’t have a lot of salary cap wiggle room, so they were expected not to be very active in free agency. They managed to re-sign All-Pro linebacker Zack Baun to a three-year, $51 million deal, but aside from that, they have focused on adding new players like Josh Uche and Harrison Bryant on cheap, short-term deals.

Philadelphia has lost five key defensive players from its Super Bowl 59-winning roster, the most head-scratching of which was C.J. Gardner-Johnson. They sent him to the Texans in a trade involving guard Kenyon Green, who has struggled through three NFL seasons since being a first-round pick.

The Eagles figure to be more active in the second wave of free agency as they bargain hunt, but it’s hard to feel too good about their offseason to date – even if they were expected to be quiet.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Grade: B+

It’s hard to fully grade the Steelers’ offseason while awaiting an answer to the Aaron Rodgers saga, but thus far, the team has done well to add to areas of need. DK Metcalf gives the team another high-quality receiving threat, Darius Slay can be a solid stopgap No. 2 cornerback and Mason Rudolph provides the team with solid, experienced depth at quarterback while making just $8 million over two years.

Questions exist about whether Metcalf’s skill set can complement George Pickens’ but there should be plenty for both to serve as strong downfield threats. As long as the Steelers land a solid quarterback, they should position themselves for another playoff run.

San Francisco 49ers

Grade: D

The 49ers are retooling significantly during the offseason. The team parted with veterans Deebo Samuel, Kyle Juszczyk, Javon Hargrave and Leonard Floyd by choice while losing starters Talanoa Hufanga, Dre Greenlaw, Charvarius Ward and Aaron Banks on the free agent market.

Meanwhile, San Francisco’s biggest additions have been blocking tight end Luke Farrell on a three-year, $20.25 million deal, wide-out DeMarcus Robinson on a two-year, $9.5 million deal and quarterback Mac Jones on a two-year deal worth $7 million. That won’t inspire hope among 49ers fans that San Francisco can make it back to the postseason after a disappointing 6-11 season.

Seattle Seahawks

Grade: C-

The Seahawks’ free agency grade largely depends on how you feel about the Sam Darnold signing. Some will like it because the 27-year-old is much younger than the 34-year-old Geno Smith and worked with new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak in San Francisco.

Others will point out that Darnold had the third-longest time to throw in the NFL last season, ahead of only Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts. That could be a recipe for disaster behind Seattle’s porous offensive line, which has been a problem for the better part of a decade.

The Seahawks also gave DeMarcus Lawrence (33 in April) a three year, $32.49 million deal that doesn’t exactly mesh with the team’s quest to get younger. Losing DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett will also weaken their receiving corps, so it’s hard to be overly optimistic about Seattle’s offseason thus far.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Grade: A-

The Buccaneers spent most of the offseason retaining their own talent. No deal was more impressive than the three-year, $66 million deal they agreed to with Chris Godwin, who reportedly turned down more money from the Patriots to go back to Tampa Bay.

Tampa Bay also addressed its need for a high-end pass rusher by inking Haason Reddick to a one-year, $14 million deal. Overall, it’s yet another quality start to the offseason for general manager Jason Licht.

Tennessee Titans

Grade: B

The Titans needed to fix their offensive line after having trouble on the right side last season. Tennessee remedied that by signing left tackle Dan Moore Jr. to a four-year, $82 million contract. The deal was an overpay but will allow 2024 first-round pick JC Latham to move to the right side. Latham and veteran free-agent signing Kevin Zeitler will do a much better job on the right side than what Tennessee had last season while Moore should be serviceable on the left side.

The Titans have also signed reasonable deals with defensive lineman Dre’Mont Jones, linebacker Cody Barton and safety Xavier Woods, so this has been a solid overall free-agent period for first-year general manager Mike Borgonzi.

Washington Commanders

Grade: A

The Commanders swung two of the biggest trades of the NFL offseason to land Deebo Samuel and Laremy Tunsil. The two should provide major upgrades to the team’s already strong offense and make it one of the best units in the league.

The Commanders also re-signed some of their key free agents like Bobby Wagner, Zach Ertz, John Bates and Marcus Mariota. Washington could still stand to add another top edge rusher to its defensive line, but as it stands, the Commanders roster is looking rock-solid.

Bart Torvik admits it’s all a little scary. 

His name is an official part of March Madness for the first time this year because the college basketball advanced statistics and rankings website he created in 2014 – barttorvik.com – is one of seven metrics featured on NCAA Tournament men’s basketball selection committee team sheets in 2025.  

This started as a hobby. It’s still supposed to be. 

Torvik, 48, is an Evanston, Illinois-based personal injury and food borne illness attorney who began down this path as a Wisconsin basketball fan and avid kenpom.com user looking for a way to isolate a Big Ten team’s performance, adjusted for efficiency only in conference games. 

It’s grown into so much more. 

Torvik’s website generated three million pageviews last March, and Alabama coach Nate Oats mentioned him by name at a Final Four news conference. The website almost crashed on Selection Sunday the past two years. Unlike other popular college basketball metrics, Torvik neither charges money to subscribe to his website nor does he have corporate owners. He bought the server that runs the entire operation off Amazon. 

“I always had it in the back of my mind that I only have to be so accurate,” Torvik said. “Now, I feel more pressure.”

This sense of unease is part of an odd dynamic playing out as metrics take over the conversation in college basketball, particularly when it comes to the NCAA tournament selection process.

Phrases like NET, KenPom and Torvik have joined the vernacular of the sport over the past two decades, with fans, coaches, broadcasters and bracketologists alike placing significant stock on their rankings to differentiate between teams ahead of Selection Sunday. Meanwhile, a new metric with professional gambling roots is being introduced to the NCAA Tournament selection process this year and there’s hope among the analytics community it could bring more clarity to this complex endeavor. 

But for the moment, the men who created these mathematical formulas driving how college basketball’s postseason is discussed still don’t think it’s being talked about correctly most of the time.

A flawed NCAA Tournament selection process

They were from different walks of life and different parts of the country, all together on one screen. 

There was Torvik and Ken Pomeroy, the former meteorologist living in Salt Lake City who started his KenPom ratings in 2002 and watched them get so popular he made it his full-time job. There was Kevin Pauga, a Michigan State athletics administrator who created the KPI working for Spartans basketball coach Tom Izzo, as well as ESPN director of analytics Matt Morris and Alok Pattani, a Bay Area-based data science developer at Google who previously worked at ESPN. 

They were brought together by the NCAA for a virtual roundtable released Jan. 28 as part of the organization’s latest effort to offer more insight into the process behind picking the 68 teams in the men’s NCAA basketball tournament. 

These representatives of the seven metrics used by the NCAA tournament selection committee all agreed the NCAA improved the selection process by eliminating the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), developing the NCAA Evaluation Tool (or NET) and embracing a variety of ratings systems, beginning with the 2018-19 season.

But they also agreed on this point: Only some of the seven metrics should actually be used to pick the 68 teams that make the NCAA tournament. 

Pomeroy said his rankings shouldn’t be used. Torvik said his rankings shouldn’t be used. Nobody said the NET should be used. Not even Pattani, who helped create the NET through the NCAA’s corporate partnership with Google. 

“It’s a little weird I’m on the team sheet,” Pomeroy admitted in an interview with USA TODAY Sports. “But I think everyone (on the selection committee) understands they’re not going through my rating system and picking the best teams. They understand my rating system is more predictive and you’re not picking teams based on how good they are in a predictive sense. You’re picking them based on their accomplishments.”

But fans nonetheless read and hear about most NCAA Tournament hopefuls in terms of their NET ranking around Selection Sunday, with the nuance of each ratings system often lost in the emotions of March Madness and whether a team is perceived to be ranked too high or too low.

The seven metrics on NCAA team sheets are technically divided into two categories. The NET, KenPom ratings, ESPN’s Basketball Power Index (BPI) and Torvik ratings are considered predictive rankings, or how good a team is based on its offensive and defensive efficiency, adjusted for opponent strength and location. ESPN’s strength of record, the Kevin Pauga Index (KPI) and wins above bubble (or WAB) are results-based rankings that judge how hard it was for a team to attain its resume.

Torvik and WAB are making their debut on NCAA Tournament team sheets, with particular interest being paid to the WAB because creator Seth Burn believes if selection committee members ‘just use that, they can simplify it quite a lot,’ he told USA Today Sports, ‘and it will guide them in who they should select.’

Though the general principles used to formulate these metrics are made public, the exact formulas used for them are not. It’s viewed as proprietary information, even though “most of them are pretty similar,” Morris told USA TODAY Sports. “They’re using a lot of the same input data. … We’ve converged to some degree.”  

Everybody in the NCAA-produced roundtable said results-based metrics are what should be used to choose teams for the NCAA tournament. Whether that’s the opinion of the selection committee remains nebulous. 

The 12 members of this year’s men’s NCAA tournament selection committee, which includes nine sitting athletic directors and three conference commissioners, either declined comment or did not respond when USA TODAY reached out asking how metrics would be used during the selection process.

“The committee has more information than ever before at its disposal,” NCAA director of media coordination/statistics David Worlock said in an interview. “As a staff, we’re trying to educate them on what all these numbers mean, how they’ve been used in the past, what’s truly important when evaluating a team.’

Worlock, who has worked with the selection committee since 2006, added the committee “is using the data more effectively, in my opinion, in recent years.”

The NCAA emphasizes the NET is just its primary sorting tool, not an end-all, be-all ranking. The selection process still revolves around the human element of 12 committee members casting a vote on each at-large team that makes the field and “it’s who did you play, where did you play, how did you do?” North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham said earlier this week during a teleconference in his role as this year’s men’s NCAA tournament selection committee chairman.

‘And then ultimately, really good advice that I received from some of the other committee members over the years is when you get down toward the end of those last couple of teams, kind of take a step back from the metrics. Say ‘who is the better team?’ ”

Worlock acknowledged, however, the NET gets more attention from the public than other metrics because ‘it’s affiliated with the NCAA.’

“Some of the fault lies with the people in charge in that why are these ratings on the team sheets if they’re not being used, and I think the fact is they are used, especially the NET,” Torvik said. “People say the NET is a sorting tool, but it’s not completely true. … If you’re trying to do bracketology, you can’t just ignore a team’s NET. It does matter.”

How the NET changed NCAA bracketology

Another meeting of the minds happened in Indianapolis back in 2017. “A bit of a summit,” Worlock called it, with Pomeroy and Pauga, sports reporters, bracketologists, selection committee members and NCAA officials discussing how to modernize the metrics used to help the committee during the NCAA tournament selection process. 

KenPom’s ratings based on adjusted efficiency and points per possession had become increasingly popular with coaches and fans after former Butler coach Brad Stevens said he scouted upcoming opponents in the NCAA tournament using Pomeroy’s website during the program’s Final Four runs in 2010 and 2011. The NCAA was still using the outdated RPI, which relied on winning percentage and opponents’ winning percentage to calculate strength of schedule.

The NET was born from there as an attempt to fuse predictive and results-based elements together in a single metric. It was met with skepticism. Statistician Nate Silver, then working for ESPN’s 538 website, called the NET “the worst rankings I’ve ever seen in any sport, ever’ after its debut in November 2018.

But the NET quickly became the centerpiece for all bracketology discussions in recent years. Whereas teams were once tracked by wins and losses over the RPI top 50 or top 100 teams previously, the NET led to the four-quadrant system based on an opponent’s NET rating to differentiate the quality of wins. A team’s quad one and two wins, and quad three and four losses, are dissected each March. It’s not possible without the NET. 

The view of how that gets digested by the selection committee, and the potential flaws, varies even among the sport’s most entrenched figures.

“The people in this room go over all this stuff, they get confused and they rely and fall back on, ‘Well, they had six quad one wins,’” said former Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, who’s currently working as an analyst for the ACC Network. “Well, you can’t just discount if you’re good in November and bad in March. You’re not gonna be good in the tournament.”

The NCAA tweaked the NET formula ahead of the 2020-21 season, with the most notable change being the use of statistics adjusted for efficiency instead of raw statistics from a given game. It also took out winning percentage and adjusted winning percentage, which were from the RPI. Pomeroy, Torvik, Pauga and ESPN have all also tweaked their formulas from the original form over the years. 

The NET does not include any preseason data or scoring margin (other predictive models do) and weighs every game the same, regardless of date. Though the NET includes a team value index component that’s results-driven, data has shown the metric tracks more closely to other predictive models, according to Worlock. 

“I think people figured out how to game the RPI so that became a phrase that people would use, that people were gaming it,” Worlock said. “You can game any predictive metric by winning a bunch of games by a lot of points.” 

Others in the statistics community are still coming to grips with the NET’s creation, implementation and imperfections. 

“I’m a little conflicted because I do think it’s great that they were looking to move beyond the RPI. It was time to do that,” Pomeroy said. “But at the same time, we weren’t really included in that process after that meeting. They went to Google and came up with a formula that’s almost entirely based on offensive and defensive efficiency, so you ultimately end up with a formula that’s similar to mine.”

Added Morris, who referred to the NET as “inferior” because it doesn’t include scoring margin: “If you wanted to use one of the metrics to make money in Vegas, you would not use the NET rating. Just to be blunt. It’s way better than RPI was, but it still misses out on some storylines.”

ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi told USA TODAY Sports the selection process is more “metric-dependent” than when he started projecting NCAA Tournament brackets in 1995. But he sees it as a reflection of the selection committee’s composition – “There used to be more basketball people on the committee way back,” is how Boeheim put it – and how much more is known about the process today.

“Are there outliers with the NET? Yes,” Lunardi said. “But fewer of them, and particularly if you cross-check them with the other popular metrics of the day, and I look at all of them. I’ve always looked at all of them. I’ve always aggregated them even before they were on the team sheets. I might weigh them differently year-to-year based on what way I think the wind is blowing.”

“If there’s a lasting legacy of bracketology, or me, or some of the early practitioners,” Lunardi added, “it is bringing to the public the process before the NCAA was either willing or able to do so.”

The proliferation of available data has helped transform bracketology from a seasonal niche to a year-round cottage industry. 

“Part of the reality here, it’s not that there’s all these people who are brilliant bracketologists,” said Pauga, who also has a separate business built around a platform and algorithm called Faktor that helps conferences put together schedules. “I’m not trying to undermine them in any way. It’s just the process is more scripted. It’s more predictable. You can just, because of the data and the public nature of the data, you can have a pretty good idea of where you’re at. The surprise on Selection Sunday is more about who you’re playing than who’s in the tournament.”

Did a gambler discover new ‘gold standard’ metric?

They weren’t sure Seth Burn was his real name. Only that it was in his social media handle. But Pomeroy, Torvik and Worlock all brought him up independently while discussing the other new metric approved by the NCAA Tournament selection committee for the first time this year. Some believe it could help solve this convoluted conversation that has accompanied the growing acceptance of statistical formulas. 

WAB, or wins above bubble, “shows how many more, or fewer, wins a team has against its schedule versus what a bubble team would expect to have against the same schedule,” the NCAA wrote in November. “The WAB metric uses NET as the basis for opponent strength, with the reference ‘bubble team’ being defined as a team ranked 45th in NET, based on a study of recent seasons.”

What the NCAA doesn’t mention is that the metric appears to have originated from a professional gambler in Bronxville, New York.

Burn, 47, stopped working as an accountant 10 years ago because he was so successful at betting on the NFL and college basketball. He’s a self-described math nerd who once used Pomeroy’s website to “crush over/unders” and realized he was “good at analyzing data and generating better projections than are publicly available,” Burn told USA TODAY Sports. 

Burn first mentioned WAB and the basis of its formula in a post on his personal blog on Feb. 1, 2015. A decade later, Pomeroy views WAB as a metric that’s “getting closer to the gold standard of selecting teams” and removing human bias from the equation. 

“It levels the playing field a little bit” for teams with fewer quad one opportunities, explained Worlock, noting certain members of previous selection committees have used WAB in the past to help determine the NCAA Tournament field. 

If it were up to Pomeroy, there would be just one metric to determine the teams that make the NCAA Tournament for men’s basketball each year. Burn thinks he already has one. He’s just not sure what this NCAA tournament selection committee will do.

So what might happen next is a little scary. 

“We’re going to know if they pick a team in the tournament ahead of a team from their very own metric that has a better resume,” Burn said. “If they do that, that’s going to be the tricky thing for them to explain. If they don’t do it, then we’ve achieved victory. Then WAB has won. That’s what I’m hoping for.”

Follow Mark Giannotto on social media @mgiannotto and email him at mgiannotto@gannett.com.

The NCAA men’s tournament bubble is in full effect with North Carolina, Texas, Indiana and Xavier among the teams pushing and shoving for position in our penultimate NCAA Tournament bracketology projection before Selection Sunday.

The Tar Heels’ postseason credentials were boosted by a 68-59 win in the ACC tournament against another bubble team in Wake Forest. UNC gets solidify its place in the field with a win against undermanned Duke in the semifinals. The Blue Devils advanced past Georgia Tech on Thursday but lost star freshman Cooper Flagg to an ankle injury.

The Longhorns leaped back into the bracket by beating rival Texas A&M 94-89 in double overtime in second round of the SEC tournament. That gives the SEC 14 teams in our projected field, which would shatter the previous record for any conference in one tournament. The record is 11 set by the Big East in 2011.

Xavier did itself no favors by losing 89-87 to Marquette in the Big East tournament despite landing 38 points from junior guard Ryan Conwell. Still, the Musketeers are helped by late misfires from two Big Ten bubble teams.

First, Ohio State lost on Wednesday to lowly Iowa, eliminating the Buckeyes from our bracket. On Thursday, Indiana lost 72-59 to Oregon to potentially close the door on the Hoosiers’ tournament chances.

And two more bubble teams made moves toward the field in the Mountain West, beginning with Boise State. The 23-9 Broncos moved into our bracket after beating San Diego State 62-52 to reach the semifinals of the conference tournament

Later Thursday night, Colorado State beat Nevada 67-59 for an eighth win in a row. After finishing second in the MWC during the regular season, the Rams are one of the first teams out of the field but can punch their ticket by beating Utah State in the Mountain West semifinals.

Bracketology: NCAA Tournament field projection

Teams in bold have clinched berths

Last four in

San Diego State, Texas, North Carolina, Boise State.

First four out

Xavier, Colorado State, Indiana, Ohio State.

NCAA Tournament bids conference breakdown

Multi-bid leagues: SEC (14), Big Ten (8), Big 12 (8), Big East (4), ACC (4), Mountain West (4), West Coast (2).

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This is shaping up to be another memorable edition of The Players Championship. Thursday’s first round yielded a leaderboard that features Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa and Rickie Fowler all in contention to challenge first-round leader J.J. Spaun (-9). But as Friday came and went, a new leader has emerged.

Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia are tied atop the leaderboard at 11-under for the tournament through two rounds of play. Spaun is in third place at 10-under, while McIlroy of Northern Ireland is tied for fourth place with Morikawa and Alex Smalley at 9-under. 

But the drama on Friday revolved around this year’s cut line, as a collection of big names and past major winners will miss the weekend at TPC Sawgrass after a lackluster showing in the first and second round. Only the top 65 (and ties) will make the cut at The Players Championship, which features a 144-golfer field this year.

Here are the latest updates on the cut line at The Players Championship, who missed the cut this year and how to watch all the action on-course the rest of the tournament:

The Players Championship 2025 projected cut line

Last updated: 8 p.m. ET

The cut line for The Players Championship is set at 1-under as second round action wrapped up on Friday, per the PGA Tour’s official leaderboard.

Who could miss the 2025 Players Championship cut?

The cut line bounced from 1-under to 2-under at various times on Friday, but as the round ended, the projected cut line was set at 1-under. Although players like Xander Schauffele and Shane Lowry lived to play another game after finishing 1-under, the same cannot be said about some other big names. Only the top 65 golfers (and ties) make it to the weekend at TPC Sawgrass. Here are some notable golfers that missed the cut on Friday:

Justin Rose (E)
Hideki Matsuyama (E)
Sam Burns (+1)
Ludvig Aberg (+2)
Adam Scott (+2)
Viktor Hovland (+4)
Brian Harman (+6)
Matt Fitzpatrick (+6)
Max Homa (+7)
Tony Finau (+8)
Gary Woodland (+12)
Wyndham Clark (WD)

How to watch The Players Championship 2025: TV, streaming for PGA Tour

The Players Championship will be carried live on TV by the Golf Channel all four days. NBC will pick up live coverage of the third and final rounds. There is streaming coverage available on ESPN+, Peacock and Fubo, which is offering a free trial.

Saturday, March 15

Third round

8 a.m.-7 p.m. ET, ESPN+
2-7 p.m. ET, NBC Sports app
2-7 p.m. ET, NBC and Peacock

Sunday, March 16

Final round

7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. ET, ESPN+
1-6 p.m. ET, NBC Sports app
1-6 p.m. ET, NBC and Peacock

Watch The Players Championship with Fubo

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Time is flying in this, the third century of baseball history.

We’re already at the quarter pole of the 2000s, a significant swath of the game’s lore already in the record books, and for some it still feels like yesterday that the New York Yankees were wrapping up a three-peat at Shea Stadium.

That was 25 years ago, and no franchise has won consecutive championships since. Yet a few mini-dynastys and major surprises have sprung since then. With the 2025 Major League Baseball season approaching, USA TODAY Sports ranks the 25 World Series champions from, shall we say, least-accomplished to greatest in this century:

25. 2006 St. Louis Cardinals

We’re not here to take the shine off anyone’s diamonds, but this group is an easy choice for No. 25. At 83 wins, they tote the lowest win total of this group.  Their postseason run was turbocharged by manager Tony La Russa’s derring-do on the last day of the season, when he held out Chris Carpenter hoping his team would either win or back in with a Houston loss. They did both – and Carpenter plowed through the playoffs. The World Series was rainy and grim and error-prone. Best forgotten, unless you wash down your toasted ravioli with a swig of Schlafly.

24. 2021 Atlanta Braves

It’s fitting that this seven-year run of Atlanta excellence netted a championship, but ironic that perhaps its most diminished team pulled it off. The Braves lost Ronald Acuña Jr. to a midseason knee injury, won just 88 games and then saw Game 1 World Series starter Charlie Morton succumb to a broken leg. They gutted through with a handful of bullpen games, Max Fried’s brilliance and a three-headed, bepearled monster in the outfield to replace Acuña.

23. 2011 St. Louis Cardinals

We mean no disrespect to the Gateway to the West. For real. It’s just that these Cardinals were 10 ½ games out of first on Sept. 5, won 90 games and needed some acts of nature to simply get in the playoffs. What they did have: Albert Pujols and Carpenter, who vanquished Roy Halladay and the Phillies in an epic NLDS Game 5 and made three World Series starts thanks to some timely rainouts.

22. 2000 New York Yankees

The Yankees’ three-peat hardly ended with a whimper. They were just a little tired, perhaps. These Bombers won just 87 games and were forced to an ALDS Game 5 by the low-payroll Oakland Athletics. Yet all the usual suspects turned up when they needed them, buttressed by David Justice, who hit 20 homers after a June trade from Cleveland and three more big ones in the postseason, earning ALCS MVP.

21. 2014 San Francisco Giants

Perhaps no franchise is tougher to slot in this exercise than the three-time champion Giants, whose whole was always grander than the sum of their parts. We’ll call this edition the weakest of their three even-year champions, simply because this was always a pitching-centric operation and Tim Hudson, 39, and Jake Peavy combined for a 9.22 ERA in four World Series starts. But the gallant Madison Bumgarner can cover up a lot of deficiencies, with help from a battle-tested bullpen.

20. 2003 Miami Marlins

Talk about a team that had everything and nothing: The only squad among this bunch that fired its manager (Jeff Torborg) midseason, drew just 1.3 million fans to its cavernous football stadium and had a closer eventually convicted of attempted murder in Venezuela. Yet these 91-win wild cards had an amazingly effective throwback duo of slap-and-run dudes in Juan Pierre and Luis Castillo combine for 7.9 WAR, a ready-made playoff ace in Josh Beckett and a 20-year-old hitting machine named Miguel Cabrera. Yes, this team took out the Aaron-Bleeping-Boone Yankees.

19. 2013 Boston Red Sox

No hate for these 97-game winners that rank the lowest among Boston’s four titlists. And salute to David Ortiz, who had perhaps his most epic postseason (.353, five homers, 1.206 OPS in 16 games), months after his ‘this is our (bleeping) city’ moment in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing. Yet these were the Sox of Shane Victorino and Jonny Gomes, John Lackey and Mike Napoli, a salty veteran crew that got it done. Salute to them all, even if they’re less decorated than other squads who earned the right to pilot duck boats on the Charles.

18. 2023 Texas Rangers

Almost the epitome of the potent yet streaky squad that caught fire at the right time, Texas won just 90 games and had to fight through the wild-card series, yet proved there’s such a thing as performers built for the postseason. Namely, ace Nathan Eovaldi, slugging shortstop Corey Seager and manager Bruce Bochy, who added a fourth title to his Hall of Fame resume.

17. 2002 Anaheim Angels

They crafted the modern ideal of a playoff team: Make contact but also slug home runs, get by with nominal starting pitching and turn it over to a dominant bullpen. These wild-card Angels won 99 games, ended the Yankees’ streak of four straight AL pennants and stunned Barry Bonds’ Giants with a stirring Game 6 rally. Lackey, beginning a run of three championships with three franchises, won Game 7.

16. 2012 San Francisco Giants

The year Giants postseason devil magic was truly born. They lost All-Star center fielder Melky Cabrera to a PED suspension, trailed St. Louis 3-1 in the NLCS and trusted their season to shaky veteran Barry Zito in Game 5. But Zito and the Giants roared all the way back, and the lefty beat Justin Verlander in World Series Game 1, when Pablo Sandoval – Pablo Sandoval! – crushed three homers off the future Hall of Famer.

15. 2019 Washington Nationals

Not your average 93-win wild card, not with a pitching staff featuring future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer, World Series MVP Stephen Strasburg at the height of health and dominance and Patrick Corbin somehow justifying a $140 million contract with one great season. Oh, and this Juan Soto fellow graced the postseason stage for the first time, helping them overcome a 2-1 NLDS deficit and 3-2 World Series disadvantage to stun the Astros.

14. 2005 Chicago White Sox

Jon Garland, Freddy Garcia, Mark Buehrle and Jose Contreras – this version of El Duque had just turned 40 – won’t make anyone’s list of most dominant pitching quartet. But for two weeks in October, they couldn’t be stopped, pitching four consecutive complete games to shock the Angels in the ALCS and then sweeping aside Houston. A nice capstone for franchise stalwart Paul Konerko, who hit five playoff homers and won ALCS MVP honors.

13. 2022 Houston Astros

A true meld of the older-school Astros and the next generation, with Yordan Alvarez capping the run with a mammoth Game 6 World Series home run. Jeremy Peña deftly replaced Carlos Correa, winning ALCS and World Series MVP honors, and the pitching staff’s top-to-bottom dominance was exemplified by Cristian Javier running the opening leg on a four-man World Series no-hitter.

12. 2010 San Francisco Giants

They needed all 162 games to clinch the NL West with 92 wins, but Bochy’s first championship team was about to brew up something special. While their lineup of spare parts inspired the phrase “Torture” to describe Giants baseball, the last great year of Tim Lincecum – he struck out a major league-high 231 – dovetailed with the arrival of Buster Posey and the rise of Madison Bumgarner to inspire an 11-4 run through the playoffs. And no, we did not forget Matt Cain’s 21 ⅓ playoff innings with no earned runs allowed.

11. 2024 Los Angeles Dodgers

That attrition forced them to throw four bullpen games in this postseason run, stare down a 2-1 deficit in the NLDS and get taken to six games by the Mets in the NLCS tempts us to downgrade this group. But also: Shohei Ohtani. The sport’s only 50-50 man slammed three homers and drove in 10 runs through Game 1 of the World Series, before a Game 2 shoulder separation slowed his mojo. No worries: There’s always another Hall of Famer in L.A. to pick up the slack.

10. 2017 Houston Astros

They’d be a couple spots higher if not for The Scandal, which you may have heard about. Regardless, this was a squad, especially once they traded for Justin Verlander in August and saw him post a 1.06 ERA in five starts down the stretch and strike out 38 over 36 postseason innings.

9. 2007 Boston Red Sox

You can make an argument this group was more talented than the history-making 2004 squad. And can we really produce “remember when?” documentaries when nobody’s stopped talking about it?)Anyhow, these guys featured plenty of ’04 holdovers yet upgraded with Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia and Mike Lowell on the dirt and Beckett and Jon Lester ensuring Curt Schilling wouldn’t need to pitch until his sock turned red.

8. 2020 Los Angeles Dodgers

Fun fact: Only two teams in the wild-card era have first-half winning percentages higher than these Dodgers’ .717 mark in the COVID-shortened 60-game season: The 1998 Yankees and 2001 Mariners. The former is arguably the greatest team in that era and the latter won 116 games. Point is: These Dodgers would’ve made the playoffs, as they have the past 13 seasons. And these Dodgers had All-Star and Hall of Fame players performing at peak capability – from Mookie Betts to Corey Seager, Clayton Kershaw to Walker Buehler. With the rules the same for everyone, the Dodgers won more postseason games – 13 – than any champion to that point, 11 of them at a neutral site. Recognize.

7. 2015 Kansas City Royals

Shh, don’t tell any salary cap-loving owners that smaller-market teams can hit the gas and win it all. The Royals were one win – or 90 feet plus some extra-inning luck – shy of a championship in 2014, then came back and finished the job a year later. Like the Giants who vanquished them a year earlier, the Royals put the ball in play and played exceptional defense. They also had a taut bullpen and went for the jugular at the trade deadline, adding Johnny Cueto and Ben Zobrist. Ninety-five wins and an 11-5 postseason run – not bad for a Central Division club.

6. 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks

Game 7 of the ’01 World Series has been referred to as ‘The Last Night Of The Yankee Dynasty.’ It’s also a pretty neat coda to an era of, shall we say, anti-aging enhancement. Of the 17 everyday regulars on both teams, 12 were at least 32 years old. That just doesn’t happen anymore! Sure, these Diamondbacks were plenty flawed, but didn’t need too much more than a 1-2 starting pitching punch we won’t see again. Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson combined to win 43 regular season games and all four of Arizona’s Series games – named co-MVPs – with Johnson replacing Schilling in relief to win the epic Game 7. No, the manager wasn’t great, the back end of the rotation was shaky and the bullpen was terrible. But sometimes two horses beats a whole stable.

5. 2009 New York Yankees

Ah, remember when a $424.5 million outlay for three players was a “splurge?” So it was for the Yankees when they reeled in CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira after missing the 2008 playoffs. And goodness, it worked: The Yankees won 103 games, went 11-4 in the postseason and tamed a budding Phillies dynasty in the World Series. Just a perfect mix of old and new guard on this team, epitomized by Sabathia, Burnett and Pettitte starting every playoff game, often on three days’ rest. Alex Rodriguez clutched up, months after his exposure as a steroid scoundrel. And while Derek Jeter had long been derided as statuesque at shortstop, he produced a 6.6-WAR season, his best since 1999.

4. 2004 Boston Red Sox

Oh, yeah – these guys. As we mentioned, there might be a better Red Sox team deeper on the list, but it’s tough to match the star power, resiliency and overall thump of this club. Manny Ramirez clubbed 43 homers. Schilling and Pedro Martinez combined for 37 regular season wins. Keith Foulke was dynamite in the eighth and ninth innings. The bit parts – Bill Mueller, Mark Bellhorn, trade deadline pickup Orlando Cabrera and yes, even Dave Roberts – fit perfectly around this core. And oh, what a history-making core.

3. 2008 Philadelphia Phillies

Still kind of amazing these Phillies won just one World Series and two pennants. Yet the ’08 squad featured four of their most important pieces firing at peak performance. From Ryan Howard’s majors-leading 48 home runs to Chase Utley’s 9-WAR season and Jimmy Rollins stealing 47 bases –  this was the essence of that run. Cole Hamels won Game 1 of every playoff series while fashioning a 1.64 ERA, with Brad Lidge nearly perfect in nine ninth-inning playoff appearances, racking up seven saves.

2. 2016 Chicago Cubs

Nope, not a sentimental choice here. These Cubs won 103 games and were a stunning blend of brilliant youth and veteran smarts. At 24, Kris Bryant was never better, winning NL MVP, drilling 39 homers with a .939 OPS and leading the league with 7.3 WAR; Anthony Rizzo, 26, produced 5.8 WAR from first base and hit 32 homers. Veterans Lester and Lackey produced one more championship hurrah, while Jake Arrieta was only a little less nasty than his 2015 Cy Young campaign. The late-spring re-signing of Dexter Fowler and deadline add of closer Aroldis Chapman put the team over the top – even if World Series Game 7 brought some frightful moments before Bryant’s iconic, stumbling toss to Rizzo for the final out and their first championship in 108 years.

1. 2018 Boston Red Sox

This championship looked pretty good at the time and has only gotten better with age. Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez finished first and fourth in MVP voting, and the latter’s signing in spring training proved a massive boon thanks to his own production (43 homers, 130 RBI) and lending his hitting expertise to Betts and others. Mookie will be in the Hall of Fame some day and this was his finest hour, leading the majors and setting career highs in WAR (a career-best 10.3), average (.346) and slugging (.640, thanks to 32 homers and 47 doubles). A rotation fronted by three current or future Cy Young winners – Chris Sale, Rick Porcello and David Price – provided the bedrock for a 108-win season, and the trio only grew more lethal in the postseason. That’s when rookie manager Alex Cora deployed them often in relief, papering over a bullpen he trusted only so much. The season ended appropriately, when Sale pitched the ninth inning of a Price start and unleashed a nasty backfoot slider to vanquish Manny Machado and the Dodgers. That capped an 11-3 postseason and 119-win campaign – the team of the century for what’s still the franchise of the century.

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