When Lionel Messi and Inter Miami return to action this weekend for ‘Sunday Night Soccer” in Houston, a couple of opposing players will be living out their dreams on the same pitch.

Houston Dynamo defender Franco Escobar and striker Ezequiel Ponce hail from Rosario, Argentina, like Messi. They started their journeys in soccer with hometown club, Newell’s Old Boys, like Messi.

They can’t wait to shake Messi’s hand, give him a hug, face him in the heat of battle and even ask for his jersey after the Dynamo host Inter Miami at 7 p.m. ET Sunday in Shell Energy Stadium.

Escobar may even lift his shorts above his right thigh to show his personal tribute — a massive tattoo of Messi kissing the World Cup trophy.

“It’s going to be something very beautiful for me that will remain in my memories until the day I no longer play. For me, the best player in history,” Escobar said of Messi during an interview with USA TODAY Sports. ‘It’s something very beautiful that doesn’t happen every day, and it’s going to be a very beautiful game and a very beautiful memory for me and for all of us.”

Escobar — who won MLS Cup titles with Atlanta United (2018) and Los Angeles FC (2022) before joining Houston in 2023 — always wanted a Messi tattoo. He watched the last World Cup intently, like all of Argentina did, hoping Messi would have the defining moment of his legendary career.

When he looks at his thigh, Escobar thinks of how Messi dropped to his knees in relief and exhaustion, celebrating after Argentina beat Kylian Mbappe and France in a thrilling penalty shootout at the historic Qatar final.

The 30-year-old MLS veteran almost never thinks about the four hours he endured or the roughly $400 he spent in Argentina for the ink job about a month after the World Cup win.

‘It hurt a lot, but the result was worth the pain,” Escobar said with pride.

‘The truth is that I admire him a lot. I always hoped and was confident that he was going to win the World Cup with Argentina, and that was the tattoo I was waiting for. He has to have the biggest trophy in football. He has to have it. He’s the best. Then, thank God, he was able to win it and make us all happy.”

Messi will be on center stage in the second edition of ‘Sunday Night Soccer” — a primetime showcase created by Major League Soccer and Apple TV this season. The league had a memorable debut when expansion side San Diego FC took down the defending champion L.A. Galaxy last week.

Slowing Messi – who has started the year with two goals and two assists in three matches – will be imperative for the Dynamo players. Houston (0-0-1) and Inter Miami (0-1-0) each are looking for their first MLS win of the season.

Escobar knows he’ll be up against the same thing he loves the most about Messi: His tireless desire to win.

‘It’s going to be difficult. It’s very difficult to mark him, to control him. It’s almost impossible, if not impossible. I’ll try to put aside the fanaticism and admiration one has for him for just 90 minutes,” Escobar said. “It’s going to be intense. A player like him generates something in his opponents, in his own teammates, that must be unusual. I haven’t had to face him, but I’ve heard many players say the same thing – that his presence alone is different, and you know that every time he gets hold of the ball, something can happen.

“I haven’t played against a player who touches the ball anywhere on the pitch and you’re thinking (expletive), something could happen. It could end up as a goal, even if he’s got two players on him marking him. So, you have to be very careful. Anyway, it’s going to be a very nice experience, and hopefully with a happy ending for us.”

Messi is already off to a fast start in 2025. He scored two goals in two matches against Sporting Kansas City to help Inter Miami advance 4-1 on aggregate score to the Round of 16 in the Concacaf Champions Cup tournament.

Messi had two assists in Inter Miami’s 2-2 draw to open the MLS season Saturday against New York City FC. He was also fined by the league’s disciplinary committee for inappropriately squeezing the back of an opposing coach’s neck as the match concluded.

Houston lost to FC Dallas 2-1 at home in their season opener.

Ponce, who wears No. 10 like Messi, is also motivated by playing against Inter Miami’s other former Barcelona stars like Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba in Sunday’s match.

“I think it’s very important to face figures like Leo, like Luis, like Sergio, Jordi and all the people around them, too,’ Ponce said. ‘It’s going to be a nice challenge to take on. It’s important for us because it could be a big turning point in our season, being able to compete, and do well, and get the three points.

“We look at it from that point of view, and having Leo here motivates everyone. Just proud to have him around.”

The match will be Messi’s first against Houston. He was injured and unable to play when Houston beat Inter Miami in the U.S. Open Cup final on Sept. 27, 2023.

Escobar and Ponce plan to ask Messi for his jersey after the match, an experience they’ll cherish regardless of the result.

“I think all my teammates are going to want to have his shirt, but let’s see if – because he’s Argentinian from Rosario – we have a little advantage,” Escobar said.

“God willing, if he has room to leave me his jersey, it would be an honor to have it at home,” Ponce said.

Days before reporting to the Cleveland Browns training camp in Hiram, Ohio in 1964, John Wooten took a detour to Washington, D.C. for the sake of history.

Wooten, then a veteran guard who blocked for Jim Brown, was at the White House on July 2 when President Lyndon Johnson signed the monumental Civil Rights Act of 1964.

No, Wooten wasn’t inside the Oval Office when LBJ signed the sweeping measure into law that banned discrimination and ended segregation in public places. Yet the football player, invited by Martin Luther King, Jr. and civil rights activist Whitney Young because of his progressive social efforts with the Negro Industrial Economic Union, was close enough in the corridors of the White House.

“When President Johnson did the signing, there was just a mass of people all the way back out of that office, all down the hall, everywhere,” Wooten, 88, recalled during an interview with USA TODAY Sports. “You’re talking about hundreds. That’s where I was.”

Wooten ultimately left a huge footprint on the NFL as a champion of equal opportunity for coaches and executives while serving as the longtime chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance. Yet to hear him flash back to 1964 – when the Browns, by the way, claimed the franchise’s last championship by winning the NFL title – is a special kind of history lesson.

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Especially now.

Sure, it’s Black History Month. It’s American History, too. LBJ, who picked up the mantle after the 1963 assassination of his predecessor, John F. Kennedy, signed the Act roughly two weeks after it passed in the U.S. Senate following a 72-day filibuster by opponents resistant to social change and, well, equality.

“This was the beginning of us being able to move forward as a people in this country,” Wooten said. “Now it’s the law of the land. I can’t tell you how privileged I was – not as a football player, but as a young Black guy – to be there.

“It gave us a completely new look on life as a people.”

Wooten certainly remembers the resistance, particularly from the Deep South, where Jim Crow laws of that era legalized segregation in all areas of life. The Civil Rights Act banned discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin; and it required equal access to public places, schools and the right to vote, among other impacts.

“LBJ took it up as his legacy,” Wooten said. “That’s how he wanted to be remembered. You have to give him credit for picking up the banner that John F. Kennedy carried. He could have very easily let it go.

“But in his speech, he said: This would be one of the greatest things that’s ever happened in this country, to letting the world know that all of us are equal.”

Wooten is so passionate in sharing his perspective on history. It is hardly surprising that for all he has accomplished over many years as an athlete, activist, NFL scout and executive, one of his most cherished mementos came from that day at the White House more than 60 years ago. It’s a pen that LBJ used.

“I walked out of there with that pen, and with a new fight,” he said. “The significance will never change.”

That trip to the White House for Wooten came less than a year after more than 250,000 people participated in the March of Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, when MLK gave his “I Have a Dream” speech at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. Wooten has a vivid memory of that event, too.

On August 28, 1963, the Browns were on the West Coast for back-to-back exhibitions against the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams. Wooten remembers his roommate, Brown, asking coach Blanton Collier to reschedule practice for earlier on the day of the March. Collier obliged. Then Brown and Wooten took it a step further.

“Of course, we announced that we were going to be watching it in our room,” Wooten recalled. “We invited everybody, Black and white, to sit there and watch.”

And who showed up?

“We had guys on the floor, on the beds, watching this together,” Wooten said.

Fast forward to now. It pains Wooten to consider how the Trump administration has attacked DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) as a core principle.

“It hurts your heart,” Wooten said. “We had come so far in terms of moving this country in the right direction. DEI, all of that, has come from the Civil Rights Act. It was what we stood for as a nation.”

Yet decades since he reveled in the White House with the passage of civil rights legislation, which paved the way for other measures, Wooten shudders in weighing plans outlined in Project 2025. He may be well into retirement, but his spirit hasn’t waned as he considers social and political ramifications projected in Project 2025.

Said Wooten, “When you read through it, you see immediately that it would destroy every single thing we have worked for and won in this country.”

In other words, some history lessons beg for fresh perspective.

As someone who grew up in New England during the Patriots’ dynasty, falling in love with football came naturally for Zach Smith.

A relative bought him the “NFL Sunday Ticket” television package for his eighth birthday. That hooked him further. But the gift he cherished every year was the latest edition of the NFL’s record and fact book. 

Learning the history of the game mesmerized him; nothing beat watching records fall. Peyton Manning breaking Dan Marino’s single-season touchdown mark during the 2004 season was the catalyst for his fascination with football players reaching new heights. And the way statistics have changed over the years, especially with the emergence of dual-threat quarterbacks, has kept him invested in the numbers. 

That fascination with numbers and records eventually landed Smith his dream job: Now 27, he is one of the NFL’s ace statisticians based at league headquarters in New York.

He is also autistic.

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‘Having been an avid football fan for the last 21 years,’ Smith said, ‘I can’t imagine life without football and I can’t imagine anywhere else I’d rather be on Sunday: watching football, whether on the couch or in my case right now, working the games.’

Zach’s story

Smith was diagnosed with autism when he was just 2 1/2 years old.

For most of his life, he wouldn’t even say that word, his father, Bob, said. But now he’s become a champion for others like him since his employment with the NFL.

“It was something he kinda knew, but didn’t really own,” Bob told USA TODAY Sports. “It was in the college years when he started to own it and became an advocate for it.”

The advocacy happened through – and thanks to – Best Buddies International, the non-profit organization that provides resources for youth and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The Best Buddies Job Program, which helps people with IDD earn an income and support themselves, placed Smith with the NFL. On Feb. 9, he worked his fourth Super Bowl for the league.

Smith became involved in Best Buddies through the local chapter at Westborough High School in Massachusetts. By his sophomore year, he was the school’s Buddy Director. In college, at Worcester State University, he said he lost that feeling of community but later reconnected with the organization after moving to the New York area (Smith resides across the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey.) The Best Buddies events he attends now are karaoke nights and picnics at public parks and other social gatherings, such as pizza gatherings or jogs. 

And Best Buddies means much more to Smith than just helping him start his career in sports statistics. 

“Anthony Shriver did the right thing when he started it at Georgetown all those years ago. He’s done an amazing thing,” Smith told USA TODAY Sports, referencing the Best Buddies founder who is a nephew of President John F. Kennedy. “It’s really touched the lives of so many people.’

How he reached the NFL

When Smith was in college, his family reached out to Best Buddies after struggling to find an internship for Zach. They met with an employee from Best Buddies who said internships were tough to secure, but that permanent employment was the organization’s priority. They kept in touch until Zach graduated from Worcester State magna cum laude with a degree in communications and a minor in writing. 

“That’s where the whole NFL connection came,” Smith’s mother, Michele, said.

Michele Smith was in the house the day he interviewed with the NFL. Sitting silently downstairs, she listened while Zach was pummeled with football questions. Zach answered each one efficiently and effectively, she said.

“They even said at the end, ‘We never even had someone go through that many questions during an interview’ because they kept asking and he kept answering,” Michele recalled. 

At the NFL, Smith helped launch an employee resource group (ERG) called “NFL Able” for employees with neurocognitive disabilities (or for those with family members diagnosed with one), a first-of-its-kind ERG in the league. Smith helped come up with the group’s logo and commissioner Roger Goodell attended the launch party. In 2025, Smith hopes the group can fundraise more and become better-established.

‘We got into diversity efforts because we felt it was the right thing for the National Football League, and we’re going to continue those efforts because we’ve not only convinced ourselves, I think we’ve proven ourselves that it does make the NFL better,’ Goodell said at his annual Super Bowl news conference earlier this month.

Smith said it’s important to “continue to build on that mantra” and make sure all applicants for roles are noticed, accepted for interviews and considered in the hiring process. 

“And making sure if they do get hired, that they are accepted into the workplace and make sure they have enough support so that when they start work, that they know what to do and what areas they may need help in,” Smith said.

Working at the NFL

Smith’s role, his manager Ollie Auerbach explained, is to validate all game and play statistics and data as they come in. He said in Smith’s four seasons with the league, nobody has inputted more “perfect” games – no corrections made after the fact – than Smith. 

Auerbach described Smith as a hard worker who wants every shift possible, whether games are on the West Coast or Germany. 

“I remember seeing his resume or his application and, honestly, when we look for individuals, we’re constantly looking for tie-ins to football or involvement in sports and statistics,” Auerbach told USA TODAY Sports. “Obviously, it’s a unique position where we’re looking for people that really know the game of football.”

Smith is the one who brings doughnuts or bagels for his colleagues on those early Sundays, or candy on Halloween. On game days, before he leaves, he’s always sure to find Auerbach and say goodbye. 

“It’s kind of funny,” Auerbach said, “you don’t think about something like that, but not every person does that. It’s always nice in a stressful environment that we are in. Obviously, the pressure could be high. He always puts things in perspective, too.”  

Smith has perfectionist tendencies, but he’s learning it’s impossible to always be flawless. Maximum effort is what matters. 

“Accuracy means putting in the best you can do in all areas … in this job I’m in now, it’s important to be perfect, but any small mistakes you may make along the way, those aren’t a big deal,” he said, “as long as they’re not awful mistakes that we miss on game days.” 

Working in New York City

The Smiths said they assumed Zach would live with them his whole life, and they don’t want other families to fall into the same thinking. With better education and information for parents and increased life-skills training for those with autism, more could benefit. Looking at Zach now, his promise and potential would have been unfulfilled. 

Bob and Michele did have questions, like, ”How is he going to cook dinner?” when Zach was hired.

‘For him to get the job and just flat-out move to the city, we were kind of panicking,’ Bob said.

But Zach fell in love with New York City, and his determination made Bob realize that fretting over the move wasn’t necessary.

“He was so set on that, that he really has so impressed us with the ability to be on his own in such a big city,” Bob said. 

Zach ran the New York City Marathon in November and achieved his goal of finishing under the four-hour mark. According to his watch, he clocked in at 3:59:30 – and there’s little reason to believe it’s an inaccurate stat.

There are challenges, such as exacerbated sensory issues while commuting to one of the world’s busiest cities. Strangers approaching him isn’t always easy. A weekly family FaceTime call includes his sister, Kathryn, who has a close relationship with Zach and is studying to become a school psychologist. During that call, they’re all able to talk through hurdles he may be facing.

Michele works in special education and encourages those with an intellectual disability who have a “focus-interest” – in Zach’s case, sports and statistics – to try to translate that into a career.

“A lot of places are hiring kids on the spectrum – whiz kids with math, etc.,” Michele said. “Everybody has their strength. And of course when you’re dealing with autism, you have weaknesses; you have to just kind of really focus on the strengths and then parlay that strength, like Zach did, into a potential job or career.” 

Catching a touchdown from the GOAT

In addition to his association with the NFL, Smith has something in common with Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman and Randy Moss. 

Catching a touchdown from the GOAT. 

In 2014, when Zach was 17, he played in the Best Buddies: Tom Brady Football Challenge for charity at Harvard. Brady was the universal quarterback, and Smith took the field in the fourth quarter. 

The seven-time Super Bowl champion found Smith over the middle near the end of the game. Smith caught it with his chest in the end zone for a touchdown and celebrated with a “Gronk-spike.’

“I had my shining moment, getting a high-five,” said Smith, who loves to re-watch the clip. 

Shortly after he was hired by the NFL, Smith appeared in a 10-minute “Good Morning Football” segment. His touchdown was featured during the show.

Brady posted the highlight on his Instagram story after Smith joined the NFL stats team. “Congrats Zach!!” Brady wrote in the caption. “Keep up the great work.”

Brady can count on that, as Smith keeps stats for the sport he loves.

There’s a simple law of the universe that goes something like this: Where there’s a vacuum, there’s always backfill. 

So be careful what you wish for. 

Oklahoma and Nebraska, two historical blue blood programs of college sports, recently hired two former NFL executives as general managers of their football programs. 

Smart, forward thinking and proactive moves amid the fluid player procurement landscape of the sport, right? 

That, or a manufactured position of need that will continue to drastically change the power structure of athletic departments all over college sports. Those with the power now – coaches and athletic directors – are willingly giving it up faster than you can say ‘pay for play.’

Because no one wants to deal with the dynamics of paying players. 

Not coaches, not athletic directors. Certainly not university presidents.

They don’t have the time nor inclination to figure out salary structure and terms for players, and beyond that, for specific positions. They already have oars in the water, bud. Don’t need more.

Go get the NFL guy, he’ll do it. Give him a job that’s equal parts player procurement (high school and transfer portal) and salary cap manager, and let him work his magic.

Oklahoma hired NFL super scout Jim Nagy, most recently the executive director of the successful Senior Bowl. Nebraska hired New England Patriots director of pro personnel Patrick Stewart. The moves come two months after North Carolina hired Michael Lombardi to have a similar role alongside incoming coach Bill Belichick.

Both are highly qualified, maybe even overqualified. Both will bring fresh ideas and an element of professionalism to the programs. 

Both will walk through the door with power relinquished to them by the (former) two biggest positions in every athletic department: football coach and athletic director. For no other reason than, “You deal with it, Im not.” 

Here’s your expected multi-million budget, and make it fit with an anticipated 105 scholarship players. All while doing so under the tattered NCAA umbrella, or whatever the sport’s governing body evolves into before the start of the 2025 season and the advent of pay for play.

Offers and contracts, guaranteed deals and performance-based bonus structures. Retention bonuses and buyouts for leaving early, incentives and clawbacks.

The unwieldy mess is enough to make a coach pine for the halcyon days of helicopter parents and players fighting with the local frat. 

So you hire a GM and cut him loose to do the dirty work, the seemingly mundane grind of salary cap structure. But here’s what coaches don’t understand ― at least, not yet. 

Player procurement and the salary cap is everything. That’s why NFL coaches are typically fired long before general managers. 

Because NFL owners (see: university presidents) don’t want to know how the sausage is made. They just want results, and when they’re looking for reasons why it’s not working, they typically seek guidance from the one clear buffer between them and the obviously self-served opinion of the head coach. 

They ask the GM, who then tells the owner that the talent is in place to win. I just buy the groceries, I don’t cook the meal. 

See where this is headed? 

At this point, and so early in the process of pay for play, what university president and/or athletic director in their right mind is going to fire a coach and general manager if the losses pile up?

You’re not going to run off the guy who understands the salary cap and how to structure it, and salaries and budgets and everything that goes with it. Because you don’t want to do it, and don’t want to start all over and hire another person to do it their way — unless you absolutely, positively have to. 

Remember, the GM is providing the players, not coaching them. Not my fault, not on me.

In less than four years, college football has nearly completed this blind metamorphosis into a cheap facsimile of the NFL. Once players become employees (that’s the next step) and collectively bargain, we’ll have reached peak imitation.  

The vacuum is being filled, everyone.

Be careful what you wish for.

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.

There’s more than just city bragging rights at stake when UCLA and Southern California meet again on Saturday.

The No. 2 Bruins and No. 3 Trojans had an epic first clash on Feb. 13, with JuJu Watkins delivering a signature performance as USC beat its rival in front of its home fans. The second game will take place at UCLA. Just like the first matchup at the Galen Center, an electric environment is expected; it will be a sell-out crowd at Pauley Pavilion.

UCLA and USC have had little trouble in their first season in the Big Ten. Saturday’s winner can cap off an incredible regular season with a championship and generate momentum as March Madness approaches. Each team has national championship aspirations and is in prime position to get a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament based on Thursday’s selection committee rankings.

‘It’s for all the marbles here,’ said USC forward Rayah Marshall.

Before the big-time Saturday night feature, here are the top storylines and keys to the game:

Big Ten regular-season title is on the line

At 16-1 each in conference play and tied atop the standings, Saturday’s game will be for the Big Ten regular-season title.

‘The UCLA rivalry game is always a big game,’ said USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb. ‘But now I think the stakes that are on it nationally and, for the first Big Ten regular-season championship, it has a little bit of an elevated feel for sure.’

Playing in a new league that requires several cross-country trips hasn’t been much trouble for either team. In the coaches and media preseason poll, the Trojans were picked to finish first with the Bruins slated second. Now, it’s a guarantee they’ll finish 1-2 in the standings and be the top two seeds in next week’s conference tournament.

USC’s recent dominance over UCLA

It’s been the Trojans’ city recently; USC has won three straight over its rival. Watkins lost her first matchup against the Bruins in December 2023, but hasn’t lost since.

‘We’re both great teams, so it really just comes down to the wiring and down to those small categories,’ Watkins said. ‘I’m always excited for the matchup, and then it just comes down to the intangibles.’

Marshall, a senior, said she wants to set the groundwork for the freshmen to never ‘have the feeling of losing to their rivals’ and be ‘the top dogs in L.A.’

The winning streak against UCLA is a refreshing sight for USC, which had little success against the Bruins before Watkins’ arrival on campus. Prior to USC’s three-game winning streak, UCLA had won nine straight against the Trojans and 18 of 21 meetings.

How does UCLA stop JuJu Watkins?

A major reason for USC’s success against UCLA? You guessed it; it starts with Watkins.

The hometown kid has been a Bruin killer. In the last three meetings, she’s averaged 34.3 points, 10.3 rebounds, 4.3 blocks and 3 assists per game. In the first meeting this season, she had a historic performance with 38 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and a career-high eight blocks. She became the first player this century — at either the NBA, WNBA, Division I men’s and women’s level — to have a game with 35-plus points, 10-plus rebounds, five-plus assists, five-plus blocks and five-plus made 3-pointers, according to OptaStats.

If the Bruins want to finally best the Trojans, it starts with limiting Watkins. In their first meeting, it was Londynn Jones who primarily defended Watkins, but that could change or a double-team could be in order. Another key will be to not send Watkins to the foul line; in the past three meetings, she’s shot at least 10 free throws in each game.

Can USC limit Lauren Betts again?

In their first meeting, the Bruins surged out to a second-half lead thanks to Lauren Betts’ dominance in the paint. She scored the first seven points out of halftime and the Bruins led by seven points. It looked like UCLA would remain perfect.

It was a different story in the fourth quarter. Betts didn’t score in the final 10 minutes and the Bruins managed to score only eight points while USC scored 24 to take over the game. The difference was USC started bringing help from the guards to double-team Betts once she got in the post. That was the primary reason Watkins had a career night swatting the ball, as a majority of her blocks came from behind against Betts.

After the loss, Betts said she was forcing too many shots and wasn’t doing a good enough job sealing off defenders, vowing to do better next time. Marshall said Betts got the better of her in that game and, although her teammates helped her out, her mission will be to make it another rough outing for the star center.

‘As corrupt as we could be to her on the block, making her work hard, making her work for every rebound, making her have to run the floor, putting her in ball screen and whatnot, then it’d be a tough day in Pauley for her,’ Marshall said.

Rare familiarity

Thanks to the size of the 18-team Big Ten, UCLA and USC played every other conference member once. The only conference opponent they’ll play twice is each other. With a full game of experience spent learning, neither side can expect to go into the matchup with the same exact game plan.

‘There’s always ways that you can improve, and so we’re certainly gonna try to use the film to do better, whether that’s changing a game plan or just tweaking something that we did,’ Gottlieb said.

Several players on each side are friends. Marshall said she’s good friends with Betts, and USC forward Kiki Iriafen and Betts were teammates together at Stanford. Marshall said there’s been some friendly trash talk between both sides.

But there’s certainly a bigger feel to this matchup. Watkins said her goal at USC was to get the rivalry with UCLA up to the same intensity with the fanbase as it is in football. She’s noticed the energy has been raised at USC, and it’s likely to be the same at UCLA with a sold-out crowd.

And this might not be the last time these two teams see each other this season. They could meet again in the Big Ten tournament final, and there’s a possibility they play again in the NCAA Tournament − likely in the Final Four or national championship game.

‘March is madness. You never know what’s capable in March,’ Marshall said.

It is our long-standing policy here at Starting Five headquarters that the word ‘penultimate’ must be used whenever possible. OK, actually we just made that rule up. But be that as it may, we now find ourselves heading into the penultimate weekend of the men’s college basketball regular season, with Selection Sunday now just just two weeks away.

This weekend’s slate features the usual top-10 clash in the SEC, a second Top 25 showdown in that league, and a pair of significant contests in the Big 12. The weekend wraps up with a Sunday tilt important for contenders in the Big Ten.

Here’s the breakdown of the quintet of matchups that will have an impact on the upcoming NCAA Tournament announcement.

No. 1 Auburn at No. 23 Kentucky

Time/TV: Saturday, 1 p.m. ET, ABC.

To say that the top-ranked Tigers have been on a roll is something of an understatement. Auburn enters on a five-game winning streak, capped by Wednesday’s demolition of Ole Miss, and is two games clear in the deepest conference in the nation. The Wildcats have been treading water of late splitting their last eight contests, so they hope the Rupp Arena environment provides a boost for this one. Another plus for Kentucky is the return of point guard Lamont Butler from a shoulder injury. He doled out six assists Wednesday at Oklahoma despite fouling out, and he’ll need to shake off more rust to deal with Tigers’ super pest Chad Baker-Mazara. But like nearly every other opponent Auburn has faced, the Wildcats might not have an answer for big man Johni Broome near the rim.

No. 10 Texas Tech at Kansas

Time/TV: Saturday, 2 p.m. ET, ESPN

While this still shapes up as a major road test for the Red Raiders, it looms as even more of a must-win for Kansas. The Jayhawks are not in bubble trouble, but they’ve been a .500 team since the calendar turned to February, and their postseason staying power is very much in question. Kansas has won its last two but closes with the Big 12’s top three teams, starting with this one. Texas Tech couldn’t complete the season sweep of league leader Houston on Monday night but was within a single possession in the final minute despite missing two of its top three scorers, Chance McMillian and Darrion Williams. Both are still listed as day-to-day, but JT Toppin can expect a heavy workload whether or not those teammates are available. KU’s perimeter shooting has been spotty at best in Big 12 play, so Hunter Dickinson has had to contend with frequent traffic inside.

No. 6 Alabama at No. 5 Tennessee

Time/TV: Saturday, 4 p.m. ET, ESPN

The SEC game of the century of the week could, for the moment at least, determine a spot on the No. 1 seed line in bracket projections. How much postseason success that would actually portend remains to be seen, of course, but a win here on the first day of March would be welcomed. On the surface it’s a contrast in styles, with Alabama’s high-octane attack pitted against the Volunteers’ lockdown defense. But no matter whose preferred tempo prevails, the game will ultimately hinge on making shots. The percentages say the Crimson Tide have more guys capable of doing that, but second-chance points could prove to be an equalizer for Tennessee.

No. 21 Arizona at No. 9 Iowa State

Time/TV: Saturday, 9 p.m. ET, ESPN

Perhaps Arizona didn’t exactly break Iowa State back on Jan. 27, but it is undeniable that the Cyclones haven’t been the same since Caleb Love’s half-court buzzer-beater and overtime dominance propelled the Wildcats to victory in Tucson. Iowa State is now on a two-game skid and could use some Hilton magic to restore the confidence it displayed during the first half of the season. It would also help if Keshon Gilbert is able to return from injury, but that might not be determined until game time. The Wildcats for their part have come back to earth a bit since winning 11 of their first 12 in conference. Love will come out firing as he always does, and Jaden Bradley will also try to help quiet the crowd in Ames.

No. 12 Wisconsin at No. 8 Michigan State

Time/TV: Sunday, 1:30 p.m. ET, CBS

We can’t promise another game winner from backcourt, but the Spartans have certainly made for interesting viewing of late. They now put a four-game winning streak on the line against the Badgers, who successfully closed out Washington after letting Oregon get away last weekend. Long-time Wisconsin fans might still have a hard time recognizing their current team that is putting up 81.9 points a game, paced by Big Ten player of the year candidate John Tonje’s 19.5 per contest. Michigan State can play fast as well but is just as comfortable in a defensive slog like Wednesday night’s squeaker at Maryland. The Spartans’ depth allows them to challenge opposing shooters for the full 40 minutes, so the Badgers must be selective of when to push the pace.