Kim Barnes Arico and Michigan used the biggest regular-season win in program history to move up to No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball poll on Monday.
It's the Wolverines' best ranking ever and came after a 77-66 victory over then-No. 2 UConn last week. Michigan, which was ranked fifth in the preseason poll, surpassed its previous high of fourth on Feb. 7, 2022.
“To be in position today to beat Connecticut and be the No. 2 ranked team in the country, it’s just a credit to our players and credit to our staff,” Barnes Arico said in a phone interview. “To have an opportunity to be in the top five and beat the best program of all time this week was really special.”
The Wolverines were one of 10 Big Ten teams ranked this week, matching the record set by the Southeastern Conference last season.
South Carolina remained the No. 1 team in the Top 25 in the first regular-season poll after wins over Maryland and North Carolina, two ranked teams, to start the season. The Gamecocks received all but one of the first-place ballots from the national 33-member media panel.
USC was third, garnering the other first-place vote. UConn dropped two spots to fourth while Duke rounded out the first five.
Texas, Louisville, Vanderbilt, LSU were next. UCLA and Iowa were tied for 10th. Kentucky and Notre Dame followed them. Oklahoma jumped up seven spots to No. 14 after routing North Carolina in the season opener in France.
TCU, Washington, Ohio State, Minnesota, Oklahoma State and Maryland were 15-20. The final five were Ole Miss, Illinois, North Carolina, West Virginia and Nebraska. The Cornhuskers entered at No. 25 while N.C. State fell out.
The Big Ten has 10 teams in the Top 25. The Southeastern Conference has seven, including four in the top nine. The Atlantic Coast Conference has four and the Big 12 three. The Big East has one.
Barnes Arico's team has now beaten a top five team three times in the past five years. The Wolverines topped No. 5 Baylor in 2021 and fifth-ranked Indiana in 2022. The coach also accomplished a rare feat, ending another long UConn winning streak. She was the coach at St. John's when the Red Storm ended the Huskies' 99-game home winning streak. Last Thursday, the team ended UConn's 39-game, regular-season winning streak. Barnes Arico is one of the few coaches who has beaten Geno Auriemma at different schools, joining Texas coach Vic Schaefer.
“When I think back at UConn and Geno, I have the most respect for him of any coach that’s ever coached in our game,” Barnes Arico said. “He’s been able to maintain consistency and what he's accomplished has been unreal and unheard of. To be one of two coaches that have beat him at two different places is really incredible. People go through a lifetime and never beat Connecticut ever.”
No. 3 USC visits No. 1 South Carolina on Sunday. The two teams met twice last season with the Gamecocks winning both matchups. One was in the regular season while the other came in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Trojans have JuJu Watkins back after she missed the last 20 months recovering from an ACL injury she suffered in the NCAA Tournament her sophomore year.
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South Carolina forward Oliviyah Edwards pulls down a rebound against North Carolina during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Charlotte, N.C., Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
The College Football Playoff will double in size to 24 teams beginning next year, bringing an end to a three-decade era of conference title games that used to be among the marquee events of the season.
College leaders announced the new format Monday, after ESPN agreed to rework its contract to add the 11 new games. Terms were not announced, though ESPN said it was a deal for five years and additional $1.7 billion, on top of the $7.8 billion contract that runs through the 2031 season.
The revenue generated from the new games will presumably make up for the estimated $345 million the Power Four conference title games were worth. ESPN would then not be on the hook for $140 million of the extra money due to cancellation of the title games, the network reported.
The new format will have five automatic qualifiers — the champions of the Power Four leagues and the best-ranked team in the smaller Group of Six conferences — with the other 19 teams being chosen by a selection panel. Notre Dame does not receive any guarantees, the way it does this year if it's ranked in the top 12 for what will be the last year of the 12-team postseason.
The top eight seeds will receive first-round byes in the new format and the playoff will start on the second weekend in December, with the first two rounds of games on campus. The traditional Army-Navy game will be played on the first weekend in December, which used to be reserved for conference title games.
Both the Southeastern and Big Ten conferences, whose approval was needed to adopt this change, and their Power Four brethren — the Big 12 and Atlantic Coast Conference — are banking that most of the additional spots will go to their members so some of the second-tier teams have new motivation to keep spending big in an era of NIL and $50 million football rosters.
“Opening the playoff to more programs, more student-athletes and more fan bases across the country is great for college football,” said Mississippi State president Mark Keenum, who is chair of the CFP board. "We look forward to seeing this expanded format come to life next season.”
The first final for the 24-team playoff remains set for Jan. 24, 2028, in New Orleans. Traditional bowl games will still host the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds.
As part of the expansion, the CFP is requiring Power Four teams to play at least 10 “qualifying” regular-season games against conference foes, other Power Four opponents and Notre Dame. Group of Six teams will have to play 10 games against conference opponents and a mix of G6 teams, Notre Dame and other independents.
The agreement guarantees two off weeks during a regular season that will begin the week before Labor Day.
The move to 24 teams marks the second expansion of the playoff since it began in 2014 as a modest four-team affair. Right after it moved to 12 in 2024, most thought it would eventually max out at 16, which was the SEC’s preference.
But the Big Ten wanted to go bigger, while the SEC balked at that, concerned about the league title game — a property it invented in 1992 and made billions from over the decades — along with the marketability of games featuring third- and fourth-place finishers in power conferences.
ESPN took care of the money problem. Now, the question is whether fans will embrace an NFL-style free-for-all that could include about one-third of the Power Four’s 68 teams, depending on what happens with the Group of Six schools, whose role in these big-money power grabs seems to diminish with every move.
It's the latest seismic change for a sport that, for decades, built its distinct character and generated controversy by leaning on media and coaching polls to hand out national titles.
The new system won’t be a completely clean break. Critics see a risk in giving more power to a selection committee that hasn’t really mastered the four- or 12-team brackets. The exclusion of Florida State in 2023 and Notre Dame last season stand out as the best examples -- and the first rankings release of this season left people scratching their heads again.
Skeptics also view the expanded playoff as another watering-down of what’s largely seen as one of the most important regular seasons in sports, replacing potential matchups between, say, Alabama and Georgia in an SEC title game with a 13 seed vs. 20 seed game that would pit, say, Kentucky and South Carolina.
But, as Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti argued from the beginning, a postseason that gives bubble teams hope and keeps others vying for home-field advantage or byes will bring more eyes — not fewer — to the end of a regular season that sometimes boils down to only three or four traditional rivalry games with meaning. (One of those traditional games, Ohio State-Michigan, is shaping up to have zero impact on this year’s playoffs this year.)
More at-large berths also help the conferences cash in on the decision to expand their league schedules (the SEC didn’t really want to) and demand more non-league games be played among Power Four teams — all in an effort to beef up strength-of-schedule ratings that will carry weight with a selection committee.
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UCLA defenders tackle Nevada wide receiver Perrion Williams, center bottom, during the second half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Georgia linebacker Chris Cole (9) scores a touchdown during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Florida, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Colin Hubbard)
Fans storm the field after an NCAA college football game between Southern California and Ohio State, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)
