The WNBA collective bargaining agreement expired at 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, Jan. 9.

The league and players’ union are likely to enter into a status quo period, where they continue to negotiate. In that case, player benefits would continue and a lockout or strike can be declared without notice.

The WNBPA released a statement to USA TODAY Sports, 30 minutes before Friday’s deadline, to voice their disappointment in the pace of the negotiations and explain an inflatable rat positioned in front of the NBA Store in New York.

“At midnight, the 2020 WNBA-WNBPA Collective Bargaining Agreement will expire. Despite demonstrating our willingness to compromise in order to get a deal done, the WNBA and its teams have failed to meet us at the table with the same spirit and seriousness. Instead, they have remained committed to undervaluing player contributions, dismissing player concerns, and running out the clock.

‘Today’s display of an inflatable rat, a universal symbol of labor protest, outside of the NBA Store, calls attention to how the league and its teams have handled these negotiations. By delaying and clinging to the status quo, they are jeopardizing the livelihoods of players and the trust and investment of fans, all in the name of preserving regressive provisions that no longer belong in women’s basketball.

‘Players care deeply about their fans and take pride in honoring that loyalty every time they take the court. The league’s tactics harm current and future players and marginalize the very people who show up for the game in communities across the country.

‘This misguided approach will not work. In the face of the league and teams’ actions, the players remain undeterred, unafraid, and unwavering in their commitment to doing what is necessary to secure a transformational new CBA. This agreement must include a salary system tied to a meaningful share of the revenue that would not exist without player labor, mandate professional working conditions, and require protections that honor the players who built this league and set the next generation up for success.

‘Make no mistake. Pay equity is not optional and progress is long overdue. We urge the league and its teams to meet this moment. The players already have and will continue to do so.”

The WNBA released this statement early Saturday morning:

“The current Collective Bargaining Agreement has expired, and negotiations with the Women’s National Basketball Players Association remain ongoing. As the league experiences a pivotal time of unprecedented popularity and growth, we recognize the importance of building upon that momentum. Our priority is a deal that significantly increases player salaries, enhances the overall player experience, and supports the long-term growth of the league for current and future generations of players and fans.”   

The players have prioritized increased revenue sharing and salary structures in negotiations. The sides differ on whether revenue sharing should be net or gross income, the percentage of the share and the salary cap.

“We’ll continue to negotiate in good faith. It doesn’t mean that on Saturday we’re going to have a lockout, unless the league does something that we’re not prepared for,” New York Liberty All-Star Breanna Stewart said Friday on the ‘Good Game with Sarah Spain’ podcast. ‘That’s not going to happen.’

When asked about a timeline to get a deal done, Stewart seemed cautiously optimistic it wouldn’t take too much longer.

“Hopefully, everything can be done by February 1,’ Stewart said. ‘Even if we agree, we still have to wait for the contracts to be written. So there’s a lot to be thinking about. It’s not just like, ‘Oh, you’re done now, it’ll work.’ If we can get by February 1, we’ll all be in a good place.”

Offers could be sent because of labor law

The WNBA has an obligation to allow clubs to send qualifying offers under the expired agreement because of U.S. labor law. According a person with knowledge of the situation, GMs and executives from every franchise have been called by the WNBA to let them know the status quo period would allow for qualifying offers to free agents beginning on Jan. 11. Any offer would be under the old CBA, so it would be purely procedural to stay in line with labor laws. It has been reported by several outlets late Friday there may be a moratorium reached by both sides to avoid going through the motions.

Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu, and Isabeau Levito will represent the U.S. in women’s figure skating at the 2026 Milan Olympics.
An American woman has not won an Olympic figure skating medal since Sasha Cohen’s silver in 2006.
Amber Glenn won her third consecutive national title at the U.S. championships, a first since Michelle Kwan.

ST. LOUIS — They are friends rather than rivals. They finish each other’s sentences and laugh at each other’s jokes. They stand by the ice and cheer for one other. These three people, great American figure skaters all, are having so much fun that it’s easy to ignore just how formidable an athletic trio they have become.

Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito, the three women who will go to Milan on the 2026 U.S. women’s Olympic figure skating team, will form the greatest American women’s Olympic squad since around the turn of the 21st century, during the Michelle Kwan era, when American women always won Olympic medals.

Since those days, it has been rough going for U.S. women at the Olympics. In fact, it has been 20 years since an American woman won an Olympic figure skating medal — Sasha Cohen’s silver in 2006 — but if the plethora of stellar performances in the women’s long program Friday night at the U.S. championships is any indication of what’s to come in Italy, that drought is about to end.

In fact, Glenn said as much after winning her third consecutive national title, the first U.S. woman to do that since Kwan.

“All we’ve got to do is do our job,” said the 26-year-old Glenn, whose first trip to the Olympics comes after years of perseverance and patience in this confounding sport. “As long as we do our programs to the best of our abilities, we cannot control the outcome, but I think the U.S. ladies have come so, so far in the last two decades that if all three of us do our jobs in Milan, then more than likely someone’s going to be up there (on the medal podium). But I think as long as we all stick to what we do best, then we will break that drought.”

They certainly stuck to the script here this week, with one scintillating program after another skated with flair and confidence, and without mistakes, in both Wednesday’s short program and Friday’s long. Although Glenn, Liu and Levito are nowhere near as well known as Kwan and her competitors — Tara Lipinski, Sarah Hughes and Sasha Cohen — they performed under pressure just like the old guard used to. The past three days here, it was like 1998 or 2002 all over again in U.S. women’s skating, but with tougher jumps.

When it was over, Glenn won with 233.55 points, followed by Liu with 228.91 and Levito with 224.45.

Milan Magic: Listen on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

For decades, there was arguably no more valuable gold medal to be won by an American at an Olympics, winter or summer, than the one given out in women’s figure skating. And Americans got very good at winning it. These names still are some of the most recognizable in sports, at least to their generation: Tenley Albright (1956), Carol Heiss (1960), Peggy Fleming (1968), Dorothy Hamill (1976), Kristi Yamaguchi (1992), Tara Lipinski (1998) and Sarah Hughes (2002). 

And then it stops. That’s it. Skaters from Russia, Japan and South Korea have done the winning over the past two decades, not Americans. Skaters like Mirai Nagasu, Gracie Gold and Ashley Wagner got close, but didn’t quite reach the podium. 

But this group — Glenn, Liu and Levito — feels different. Perhaps it’s just the early exuberance of a spectacular nationals competition. But all three of those women will arrive at the Olympics having won national titles: Glenn with her three, Liu with two and Levito with one. 

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Also, for the first time since 2002, the United States will be sending a women’s world champion, Liu — the reigning world champion at that — to the Olympics. The last time that happened at an Olympics was 2002 with Kwan.

These will be heady days for U.S. women’s skating. Predictions will abound. Can one of the three Americans win the gold? Can the U.S. win two of the three women’s medals, as they did most recently in 1998 and 2002? Will one of the three be able to fend off a strong contingent of Japanese women and the latest Russian star, the only Russian female skater who has been allowed into the Games, Adeliia Petrosian?

In February, this conversation gets very real. For now, the possibilities are a long-awaited delight.

Welcome to the last quarter of the first half of Major League Baseball’s 2025-26 offseason.

Or something like that.

One-third of the way into January, the top four free agents remain unsigned, and only a tepid handful of trades have been consummated. With spring training camps opening in exactly one month, USA TODAY Sports examines the biggest needs top contenders may seek to address as the market – presumably, probably, perhaps – heats up:

Blue Jays: Infielder

The team nobody can stop – this winter and, until Game 7 of the World Series, on the field – is still clearly possessing some dry powder. Adding Japanese star Kazuma Okamoto – on a pretty reasonable $60 million deal – is a nice wild card for a lineup seemingly built perfectly for the regular and postseasons.

Of course, that was with Bo Bichette onboard for almost all that run.

Right now, the Blue Jays have a wonderful stew of versatile players who can both rake and move around the diamond. Yet Okamoto remains an unproven stateside – er, continent-side – commodity. Ernie Clement showed well over 157 games and then dominated the postseason – yet seems to flourish moving from point to point on the diamond. It is definitely wise to give Addison Barger some more runway after his playoff heroics – yet he still has a career .301 OBP over two seasons.

Stir Bichette back into this mix and it’s deep and extremely potent.

Yankees: Outfielder

They fell a game short of winning the AL East last season, and the antidote for getting over the hump probably isn’t replacing Jasson Dominguez with Cody Bellinger in the outfield.

No, this drawn-out sparring session between agent Scott Boras and the Yankees isn’t doing the pinstriped heart any favors this winter. Shoot, running it back with Bellinger and Trent Grisham flanking Aaron Judge isn’t any guarantee.

Yet Belli was such a good fit in New York, and as pure a symbiotic relationship as one can imagine.

Tucked around Judge in the lineup and with Yankee Stadium’s right field dimensions well within reach, Bellinger had his best season since a pair of debilitating injuries derailed him following a 47-homer campaign in 2019. His 29 homers was ample Judge coverage and his athleticism provided elite defensive coverage in the corners.

There will be other suitors. But the path for both sides is too clear: The Yankees offering Bellinger a deal that begins with a 2 followed by eight figures, and Bellinger eschewing a commitment that doesn’t extend too far into the next decade.  

Red Sox: Pitcher

Any pitcher, really. Reliever, starter, preferably a lefty.

GM Craig Breslow has done a nice job each of the past two winters procuring an ace or ace-like figure without creating an onerous long-term commitment, grabbing Garrett Crochet (and then extending him on a reasonable deal) and now Sonny Gray. They nudge the potent Brayan Bello to the No. 3 spot – a troika that’s potentially championship-caliber.

But they’ll need many more excellent innings to survive an AL East where (as you’ll notice here) almost everyone’s a contender and acting with appropriate aggression. You don’t necessarily want to rely on Patrick Sandoval’s smooth return from a year of Tommy John recovery. Nor on a bullpen that thins out a great bit after closer Aroldis Chapman and set-up man Garrett Whitlock.

Yet these shortfalls aren’t glaring, and nothing a Seranthony Dominguez, a Danny Coulombe, a Nick Martinez – or another trade – couldn’t solve.

Orioles: No. 1 starter

We’ll keep banging this drum.

The addition of a Framber Valdez, a Ranger Suarez or someone else might have an even greater downstream effect on Baltimore’s rotation than the actual production that arm would bring. As of now, the Orioles have a nice collection of arms, yet almost all come with some limitation.

This is probably the year Kyle Bradish reaches All-Star form – but he’s still innings-limited from elbow surgery. Same with Tyler Wells. Zach Eflin is back, but back surgery will put a crimp in his production early. Dean Kremer remains the innings-eating king.

And lefty Trevor Rogers and trade acquisition Shane Baz are projected to front this whole thing, even if they lack the full-season resumes one would prefer.

It all gets better if 180 to 200 innings are injected from an outside source.

Tigers: Infield bat

In this, the likely last season of Tarik Skubal in Detroit, the Tigers could likely mix and match their way to the top of the AL Central or snag a wild card berth with relative ease. Yet circumstances may dictate that the club simply shouldn’t toss Zach McKinstry, Javy Baez, Colt Keith and Gleyber Torres into a stew and stir it up, hoping enough offense emerges from the steam.

The Tigers were a tale of two halves, batting .252 with a .749 OPS before the All-Star break and .239/.701 after McKinstry, Baez and Torres were honored at the Midsummer Classic. As such, their 14-game Central lead on July 8 vanished and they scraped into the playoffs as the last wild card.

Perhaps an Alex Bregman pursuit is again a futile endeavor. Yet another stick – perhaps one with more predictable contact, such as Luis Arraez, or big power with the punchouts, like Eugenio Suarez – would make the dog days slumps far easier to endure.

Mariners: A starting pitcher

Seriously!

Yeah, what do you get the rotation that has everything? Perhaps just a little insurance for the long haul. The Mariners’ fab five of Bryan Woo, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Luis Castillo and Bryce Miller made between 18 and 32 starts last season, their occasional absences staggered in a manner that ensured they weren’t down too many arms at a time.

Yet even when blessed with talent and relative durability, it’s true that you can never have too much starting pitching. The current No. 6, Emerson Hancock, has had bites at the apple each of the past three seasons, making 31 starts and slipping in almost every major category each passing year.

His story’s not yet written, but still. This club has a beautiful bullpen and a lineup that’s increasingly dynamic as Julio Rodriguez matures and Cal Raleigh dumps baseballs over fences. A swingman to step in for the big five would never hurt.

Astros: Outfielder

Houston’s collective .665 OPS among outfielders ranked in the bottom third of the majors. And GM Dana Brown put rookie Cam Smith on notice early this winter when he said the club hoped to see more consistency and significant growth from him this season.

We’re now past the new year and the group can still use reinforcements. Not that there’s many perfect fits out there, unless the club wants to extend a multi-year commitment to Harrison Bader that the veteran has earned.

Phillies: J.T. Realmuto

Weird offseason. Few could have anticipated the cure for whatever offensive cloud Nick Castellanos produced would be the non-tendered, strikeout-plagued Adolis Garcia. But here we are.

If nothing else, Garcia ensures the mix changes a little, perhaps disrupting the suboptimal mojo hovering over the October Phillies the past two years. But let’s be honest: They threw a helluva punch at the Dodgers, a wheel play and a wayward throw ultimately sending them home. Wholesale changes aren’t really necessary. A galaxy-brained pursuit of Bichette might be too tricky a landing to nail.

And perhaps that’s all to put the heat on Realmuto just a little bit. It’s tricky, trying to assign value to franchise stalwart catcher who turns 35 in March, whose OPS dipped below league average for the first time, yet might still capably catch 130 games from the nursing home.

But it’s a lot simpler for the Phillies to pay the man, and keep intact the rapport with one of the game’s finest rotations, rather than concoct alternate routes to their typical 90-win form.

Braves: Infielder

It’s a nice alignment, with either an All-Star or Gold Glover or Silver Slugger at every position: Matt Olson at first, Ozzie Albies at second, Ha-Seong Kim at shortstop and Austin Riley at third.

But beyond Olson’s 162-game postability, the group is a little older than you think. Kim played in just 48 games last year, Riley 102. Lack of depth crushed this squad a year ago, and while Mauricio Dubón is a nice piece to have on the bench, he’ll more likely be deployed in the outfield against left-handed pitching. It simply would not hurt to add an Isiah Kiner-Falefa-like presence to the bench, if not the man himself.

Mets: Outfielder

The Hedge Fund Kingpin lurketh.

Yeah, it’s a fairly rich subplot to the Bellinger stasis occurring across town that he’s probably even more desperately needed in Queens. Brandon Nimmo has not yet been sufficiently replaced, Tyrone Taylor isn’t an offensively-sufficient center fielder and the natives remain concerned as David Stearns’ offseason makeover remains half-baked.

There’s nothing suggesting it won’t eventually be completely baked – not unlike Ben Braddock’s future plans – but right now the Mets don’t look like contenders. If they’re going to jam econo in the rotation, better spend on offense.

Marlins: A power bat

OK, this is a bit of a contradiction. Power costs money, and the Marlins don’t really spend it, and in fact just traded an arbitration-eligible arm for a rookie bat that’s penciled right into their starting outfield.

But perhaps that’s the point. The Owen Caissies and Jakob Marsees and Kyle Stowerses of the world need a little veteran support –  especially when the club finished 25th in the majors in homers, yet still produced a 56-33 finish the final four months of the season.

Hey, maybe it’s just taking Randal Grichuk for a one-year spin. But the Fish can use a little pop.

Brewers: Starting pitching depth

What do you get the team that has a little bit of everything? The Brewers shook things up a bit in dealing Isaac Collins and Nick Mears to Kansas City, but most of their diverse parts that produced an NL-best 97 wins are back.

You’d like to think that if Freddy Peralta hasn’t been traded by now, they’ll ride with him one last tie at the top of the rotation. Yet the rest of the rotation looks just a little thin.

Oh, not in the actual arms. It’s just that Jacob Misiorowski barely topped 130 innings, including minor leagues and playoffs, last season. Chad Patrick reached 161. Brendan Woodruff built himself back to 64 2/3 innings and should be set for a full veteran load.

But it’s not like they couldn’t use another arm to fill the Jose Quintana role. Hmm…

Cubs: Infielder

We are once again intrigued by the notion of this club adding Alex Bregman.

It doesn’t seem likely they’d win a bidding war with the Boston Red Sox, but the two once-cursed franchises also go about their business in increasingly curious, ostensibly “sustainable” ways these days. The staring contest might last into February.

Meanwhile, Cubs third basemen finished 29th in OPS (.621) and 27th in homers (11). It’s possible Matt Shaw is the answer. It’s also possible there’s more growing pains ahead and besides, second baseman Nico Hoerner is a free agent after this season.

Reds: A bat, any bat

The population of Middletown, Ohio is 51,000, though you might have imagined it was 50 million given that the appeal of free agent Kyle Schwarber to the Reds was at least tied up in the fact he’s a native of that fine municipality.

Ah, well. There’s always next year to upgrade the offense.

Or so it seems. Adding outfielders JJ Bleday and Dane Myers to the mix can’t be it, right? That would leave way too much assumption that holdovers will take significant steps forward in both production and health.

That’s not out of the question – keep an eye on Noelvi Marte, in particular  – but this group needs and deserves an add beyond simply a regionally convenient slugger who was a longshot to sign there, anyway.

Dodgers: Outfielder

Yet another Bellinger stalking horse.

The big-ticket fixes may not fix – with the club apparently interested in elite free agent Kyle Tucker on only a short-term, big-salary deal. Others may value and need Bellinger more.

But as we stand here in Rams playoff season, the Dodgers’ center and left field pool consists of Andy Pages, Tommy Edman/Hyeseong Kim (who’d play second and push Edman to center) and reserve outfielder Alex Call. (Kiké Hernández figures to re-join the party at some point).

Not exactly an alignment that dovetails with an otherwise half-billion dollar collection of talent. They’ll figure it out. Question is how large a splash they’ll make.

Diamondbacks: Infielder

So you’re not gonna trade Ketel Marte?

The baseball world may not fully believe that until the three-time All-Star trots out to second base at Dodger Stadium March 26 (on NBC/Peacock, if you’re a stickler for logistics). Either way, people tend to forget that this is a club that won 80, 89 and 84 games the past three seasons and thus figures to be competitive.

At the moment, youngster Jordan Lawlar – still a prospect, we gather – is penciled in at third. The bench is a bit thin. GM Mike Hazen could still receive a Marte offer he cannot refuse. Yet another club that makes sense for Bregman but Arizona may not have the motive nor money to be anything but a fallback option to the big boys.

Padres: Hitter

They’re not broke yet, it seems. Aiming for their fourth playoff berth in five years, the Padres managed to retain Michael King on an opt-out heavy $75 million deal. That gives them a nice top-rotation look along with Nick Pivetta, who like King was signed to a creatively-constructed deal.

Is there any cash in the till for the lineup?

They’re relying on 29-year-old KBO signee Sung-Mun Song to capture the majority of at-bats at second base; he rapped 67 extra-base hits in his final season in South Korea. For Ramon Laureano and Gavin Sheets to continue their early-30-s revival, and Manny Machado to man nearly 150 games at third base.

Reasonable asks. But it’d be silly to leave the offense so thin with so much already invested.

Giants: Outfielder

No splash hits this winter from the banks of McCovey Cove, where the prudent and potentially solid additions of right-handers Tyler Mahle and Adrian Houser to the rotation have grabbed most of the attention.

That leaves significant vacancies at second base and right field, the latter for now tenuously reserved for erstwhile prospect Luis Matos, who totes a career .231/.281/.369 line over three cameos the past three years.

A club that’s added the nine-figure deals of Willy Adames, Matt Chapman and Rafael Devers in recent years could really use Bellinger, though the Arizona native would really have to be yearning for the West to accept that kind of OPS punishment. Yet another team that might not be a bad fit for Bader, who could play an elite center field and allow Jung Hoo Lee to slide to right field.

Pinch yourself, folks, because Indiana is a football powerhouse now.
Fernando Mendoza dazzles, racking up touchdown passes.
Curt Cignetti takes Indiana on a two-year tear unlike any we’ve seen before.

ATLANTA – Cinderella’s got a mean right hook, and she’s not real big on showing mercy, either.

So fierce, she’s become, she stopped resembling Cinderella months ago.

Last year’s Indiana Hoosiers were an underdog story.

These Hoosiers are a dadgum heavyweight. They just knocked Oregon out cold.

‘We’re here to dominate,’ Hoosiers defensive lineman Daniel Ndukwe said.

Pinch yourself, folks, because Indiana is a football powerhouse now. What’s next, the sun rising in the west? A blizzard in hell?

Ostensibly, this 56-22 blowout in a College Football Playoff semifinal pitted two of the nation’s best teams against one another. The gap between the No. 1 seed and everybody else looked miles wide for a second straight playoff game.

Good luck, Miami.

Cheer up, Alabama. Oregon looked every bit as overmatched as the Tide did in the Rose Bowl.

Sure, some team perhaps could stop Curt Cignetti’s machine. Some team like 2020 Alabama or 2019 LSU. Teams that aren’t in this playoff bracket.

Indiana football fans storm into Atlanta, celebrate a beatdown

Did the last one out of Indiana remember to turn out the light?

Oregon fans mostly stayed home. Consider it money smartly saved.

A quick glance around Hartsfield-Jackson Airport the day before the game told you this would be akin to a home game for Indiana.

‘Man, they’re doing their part as the 12th man,’ Indiana offensive lineman Carter Smith said. ‘It means the world to me and it means the world to this team.”

In a downtown pub the night before the game, Hoosiers fans watching Miami beat Mississippi kept shouting, “Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoosiers!”

A day later, they were chanting that on repeat as the touchdowns piled up throughout what could go down as the most significant win in program history — for the next 10 days, anyway.

Indiana scored on the first play from scrimmage when D’Angelo Ponds jumped a sideline route, intercepted Dante Moore’s pass and returned his prize for touchdown. The raucous crowd clad in crimson and cream hollered in delight, and a train horn blared inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

That horn blasted inside this domed venue after every score.

By the third quarter, my ears were ringing. The Ducks will hear that horn in their offseason nightmares.

Curt Cignetti keeps historic run with Indiana football rolling

You can’t call this an Indiana revival or resurrection, because this program never truly lived before Cignetti. Not like this. Old-timers can tell you about the 1967 team that reached the Rose Bowl, but that was a short gulp of glory smashed between a bad season and a mediocre one.

This two-year tear came out of nowhere. It’s truly beyond compare. If you peep Indiana’s transfer class, you’ll see Indiana is trending toward becoming a staying power.

So, you say you don’t care for pay-for-play or transfer free agency? Well, all that money and all that freedom of movement leveled the playing field for schools like Indiana. Transfers are littered throughout this Indiana roster.

Donor Mark Cuban attended this Peach Bowl romp, and he must have enjoyed seeing that his money contributed to building a team unlike any Indiana has ever experienced.

‘From the outhouse to the penthouse, baby. That’s the IU Hoosiers,’ Cuban told reporters afterward. ‘We ain’t done yet.”

Fernando Mendoza lights up Oregon

It starts with the quarterback. Third-down maestro Fernando Mendoza kept moving those chains with smooth flicks to his reliable wide receivers. He threw more touchdowns (five) than incompletions (three). The offensive line kept Mendoza protected and the ground game moving. The defensive front persistently harassed Moore. Indiana blocked a punt in the fourth quarter, just for some extra style points.

Total mismatch.

How bad did it get for Oregon? Well, running back Dierre Hill Jr. forced his own quarterback to fumble when he bumped into the football while Moore was preparing to pass, jarring the ball loose. Indiana recovered and scored a few plays later.

A disaster, through and through, for Oregon.

Critics moaned after two Group of Five qualifiers got skunked in the playoff’s first round. Yeah, well, one of the Big Ten’s best just got embarrassed by a conference peer.

Wasn’t too long ago blowouts happened at Indiana’s expense. Now, Cignetti’s team keeps handing them out. This becomes Indiana’s eighth win by at least 24 points against a Power Four opponent this season.

Cignetti watched, hands on hips and with a grim expression on his face, as his team turned a playoff semifinal into a laugher.

As the Indiana coach headed toward the locker room at halftime, he fiddled with his watch. If he’d left then, he could have caught the end of “Sheriff Country.” He stuck around to watch Indiana make a carcass out of another playoff team.

One more to go.

Cinderella’s taken her glass slipper off. She’s beating the competition over the head with it.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.

The Ducks’ only two losses of the season came against the Hoosiers, while they won 13 games against all other opponents.
Turnovers plagued Oregon, including a pick-six on the first play and two fumbles by quarterback Dante Moore in the first half.
This marks Oregon’s second consecutive one-sided playoff loss to a Big Ten team, raising questions about the program’s postseason performance.

ATLANTA — Oregon will chew on this one for 239 days, reliving a 56-22 blowout loss to Indiana in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Peach Bowl again and again until its 2026 season kicks off against Boise State on Sept 5.

If only these new Hoosiers were still the same-old Hoosiers. If only. The Indiana program’s evolution into a Power Four devourer of worlds was the one hurdle in the Ducks’ path during a season that can split into two camps: on one side, two losses in two games against Hoosiers; on the other, 13 wins in as many tries against everyone else.

Oregon bulldozed No. 12 seed James Madison in the opening round of the College Football Playoff and then did the same to No. 4 Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl. But Indiana presented a challenge Oregon couldn’t overcome. That no one else has conquered the Hoosiers doesn’t make this one any easier to swallow.

“I think it’s probably too premature for me to speak on what happened tonight until I go back and really evaluate it,” said Oregon coach Dan Lanning. “I also think you can’t discredit that we played well. We’ve played well at times even here in the postseason. Yeah, there will be an opportunity for reflection and evaluation, but I couldn’t speak on that right now.”

On the heels of a second one-sided playoff loss to a Big Ten foe in as many years — the 2024 Ducks went unbeaten in the regular season and won the conference but suffered a 41-24 loss to Ohio State in the Rose Bowl that was over in the first half — Oregon can only wonder:

How did this happen? And what do we have to change to finally capture an elusive national title?

“Man, you hurt for those guys because the world is going to judge everybody in that room based on the result tonight,” said Lanning. “They’re not failures. These guys won a lot of damn ball games. They’ve had a lot of success. They’ve changed some peoples’ lives, but right now, that moment is going to hurt.”

The first question is easy to answer. Indiana is unquestionably the better team, defying recruiting rankings that heavily favor Oregon. In every way and on nearly every play, the Hoosiers dictated the terms to the Ducks, just as they did earlier this month in a similar rout of No. 9 seed Alabama in the Rose Bowl.

But in addition to being more physical and more explosive on both sides of the ball, Indiana was unmoved by the high-pressure stakes that have come with each new achievement this team has unlocked during a breathtaking 2025 season.

The same can’t be said of Oregon. To suffer another meltdown on this stage raises significant concerns about the Ducks’ preparedness and mindset in neutral-site games against the best of the best.

“Man, I feel like the gameplan we had was awesome,” said Oregon guard Dave Iuli. “I just feel like, you know, we went out there and didn’t execute our jobs. Usually, when it comes to critical moments like this with three teams left or four teams left, the biggest thing is executing. Once people stopped executing, we stopped winning.”

Quarterback Dante Moore tossed a pick-six on the first play from scrimmage. He fumbled with 9:29 left in the second quarter to goose an Indiana touchdown drive that put the Hoosiers up 21-7. He fumbled again about seven minutes later to set up another touchdown, making it 35-7 at the half.

With lead running backs Noah Whittington and Jordon Davison unable to play due to injury, backups Dierre Hill Jr. and Jay Harris combined for 121 yards on 21 carries. But the Ducks ran for 93 yards on 3.6 yards per carry as a team, counting sacks, with 71 yards coming on a Hill run in the third quarter when they were down 35 points.

Offensively, Oregon was wobbled early and remained off-balance the rest of the way, unable to regain its footing as Indiana pinned its ears back and threw the kitchen sink at Moore.

“They have a great defense, great disguise and different looks, but you can’t win football games if you’re causing turnovers,” Moore said. “But overall, I mean, Indiana’s defense is great, defensive coordinator, but at the end of the day, we beat ourselves.”

Defensively, a group that engulfed the Duke and the Red Raiders was helpless against Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza and a brilliant, steady-handed receiver corps headed by Elijah Sarrat (75 yards and two touchdowns), Omar Cooper Jr. (one score) and Charlie Becker (48 yards and two scores).

While the Hoosiers had three sacks and 10 tackles for loss, Oregon’s defensive front barely sniffed Mendoza, who continued his Joe Burrow-like postseason run by hitting on 17 of 20 passes for 177 yards and five touchdowns. Through two playoff games, he has more touchdowns, eight, than incompletions, five.

And while the Ducks committed three game-changing giveaways in the first half, Indiana continued to play nearly perfect football. The Hoosiers turned the ball over with a fumble on their 18th play from scrimmage in the season opener against Old Dominion but have not lost a fumble since.

Adding insult to injury, an Oregon punt near its own goal line in the fourth quarter was blocked by Indiaan, which then scored on a short Mendoza pass to Sarratt for a third touchdown drive lasting fewer than 22 yards.

“Yeah, it sucks right now,” said linebacker Bryce Boettcher. “I’m not going to lie. Not how I envisioned it whatsoever. Obviously prepared to win, and Indiana was a better team tonight. Doesn’t take away from our season. We had one heck of a season.”

It’s possible to look at this loss with a slightly optimistic slant: Oregon was minus-three in turnover margin and doomed its own chances against the No. 1-ranked team in the country. The loss hurts, sure, but the Ducks have still gone 26-3 since joining the Big Ten last season. There is no question this is an elite program.

Yet regular-season success is just not translating to the postseason. As the Ducks head into a crucial offseason defined by their ability to rebuild a roster set to be picked apart by graduation and early NFL draft entries, Lanning’s biggest charge will be assessing and fixing the flaws that have led to two humbling playoff losses in as many years.

One common thread has been a flat and sluggish start. The Buckeyes buried the Ducks by taking a 34-0 lead in the second quarter of last January’s Rose Bowl. Indiana led by 28 at the break. While the Ducks flopped out of the gate and never recovered, the Hoosiers resembled an unstoppable, merciless, Terminator-like machine that craves to not just beat their opponent but bury them.

To say the Ducks were simply outmanned by one eventual champion in Ohio State and a potentially historic squad in Indiana is way too tidy an explanation. That excuse works for the have-nots in the Big Ten and elsewhere, teams that expect to be body-slammed by the best of the best in the Power Four.

That’s not Oregon. The Ducks have higher aspirations; in fact, the program rightfully believes it can beat anyone, anywhere, under any conditions, after spending most of this century knocking on the door of the national title.

But it was one thing to reach the title game against Auburn in the Bowl Championship Series era and against Ohio State in the first year of the four-team playoff format. Winning the 12-team reboot requires much more: Teams need to be almost perfectly constructed and mentally unflappable to thrive against this gauntlet.

Again, that’s not Oregon, which is built to reach this point but not to advance. For a program that believes a title is part of its destiny, this loss should trigger a long offseason of soul-searching, with plenty of questions but no obvious answers.

“I think every man can learn from adversity. I just told that whole locker room, right, this is going to be about how you respond in life,” said Lanning.

“This is going to be a life lesson that a lot of people never get. We just got our butt kicked. Right? That’s going to happen in life, right, and not just Dante. Every single person in the locker room, every coach, every person can learn, ‘Hey, how do you respond to that?’”