OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Tyler Tanner was inches away from March Madness immortality.
After Nebraska's Braden Frager made a driving layup with 2.2 seconds left to give the Cornhuskers a two-point lead over Vanderbilt in a second-round NCAA Tournament thriller on Saturday night, Tanner had no choice but to chuck one toward the basket.
His heave from beyond half court was on target. The ball crashed off the center of the backboard and dropped halfway below the rim — and then, somehow, it rattled out, and Nebraska escaped with a 74-72 victory.
“My heart sank as that ball went in the hoop and went out,” Nebraska guard Sam Hoiberg said. “I think it took me a half a second to register it didn’t go in, and then I just screamed in elation. I thought it was in.”
Nebraska's Pryce Sandfort summed it up: “I just about died.”
Instead, Nebraska advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history.
Tanner, a 6-foot sophomore, scored 27 points in front of a hostile crowd of scarlet-and-cream-clad Nebraska supporters who made the roughly 6 1/2-hour drive from Lincoln.
And for a split second, he thought he would send them home in stunned silence.
“It hurts pretty bad being that close, especially (in a) hard-fought game,” he said.
Tanner made 9 of 21 field goals and had four steals and four assists.
“That last shot, man, it just took my breath away,” Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said. “That kid is an unbelievable player. When that thing was up in the air, I was, like, ‘Oh, man, that’s going in.’ Then hit every part of the rim. Thankfully bounced out, and we’re looking forward to next week.”
All because of a ball that went part of the way, but somehow not all the way, through the hoop.
“The hardest thing when you’re in a tournament like this is there’s a side of it with hurt and dejection, and you put everything into it,” Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington said. “We were a play away, an inch away, from being in the Sweet 16.”
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
Vanderbilt guard Tyler Tanner (3) goes to the basket against Nebraska forward Rienk Mast (51) during the first half in the second round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 21, 2026, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The presidential committee asked to find solutions for spiraling costs in college sports recommended creating a task force to look at pooling media rights, limiting coaches salaries, and rewriting eligibility and transfer-portal rules, along with at least a dozen other ideas.
A draft document of the committee's proposals, obtained by Yahoo Sports, wants Congress to quickly pass legislation that would create the task force, which would receive the antitrust exemption and the right to override individual state laws that the NCAA and other collegiate sports leaders are seeking.
The committee is the product of a White House summit called by President Donald Trump in March; Trump warned the “whole educational system” was in peril if the issues dogging sports cannot be resolved.
The document unveils a laundry list of items, all of which have been discussed in the revenue-sharing era, as schools struggle to pay players and maintain full athletic programs.
Among the more divisive ideas is pooling the media rights of the conferences — a move the Southeastern and Big Ten Conferences oppose but that a group led by Texas Tech regent Cody Campbell has argued could add some $7 billion in value.
“Important to note that there are currently long-term contracts in place that expire over the next 5-7 years (e.g., ACC expires in 2036), so change will likely be an evolution to a new model,” the paper said in outlining one of the issues that would make that change so difficult.
The paper also called on the task force to create rules for “elimination of salary-cap circumvention,” — in what appears to be a reference to schools' practice of inking third-party NIL deals, often through associated multimedia rights companies, that help schools blow past the current $20.5 million limit they're allowed to pay out directly.
That issue could soon be resolved through an aribtration case brought by Nebraska football players whose NIL deals were rejected by the College Sports Commission, which was placed in charge of analyzing third-party contracts.
The draft paper calls on Congress to implement legislation before its summer break, which traditionally starts in August. Congress has been stalled for more than a year on legislation that would codify elements of the House settlement that put revenue-sharing into place.
Among the biggest hang-ups are the call for the antitrust exemption for the NCAA, which, under this proposal, would instead belong to a task force and then a permanent governing body that would take its place.
AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, May 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
FILE - South Carolina guard Agot Makeer (44) celebrates cutting the net after South Carolina beats TCU in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament March 30, 2026, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Justine Willard, File)
