NCAA Tournament Bracket Watch: Can Gonzaga snatch the second seed?

The big questions Tuesday night revolved around three of the mid-majors. Can St. Mary’s score an impressive win over Gonzaga in the Football World Cup championship game, confirming that the Gaels’ strong computer numbers deserve a correspondingly high rating? And will Oral Roberts and/or Charleston win their respective conference championships, or will they go to Selection Sunday in hopes of getting a big bid? Consider answering these questions definitively. Charleston outlasted UNC Wilmington in the CAA title game for their 30th win against a Division One. Meanwhile, Oral Roberts completed…

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Big 12 looking west, Pac-12 looking for TV deal: What we’re hearing about the realignment

This past July, weeks after the stunning Big Ten announcement of USC and UCLA, Pac-12 Commissioner George Klyafkov made a bold realignment prediction: “No Pac-12 school is going to the Big 12.” After eight months, we may finally learn whether his confidence was warranted or a feigned bravado. Kliavkoff is under pressure to offer its members a new media rights deal by the end of the month. If the dollar numbers or the details disappoint, March could be the moment when the Big 12 finally hits. Sources familiar with the…

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NCAA Tournament Bracket Watch: Alabama is the top seed. Northwestern and Clemson

“They can’t imagine it… that someone like me would walk into their house, walk on their land…” – Cassian Andor When compiling this week’s segment, we were astounded by the inclusion of teams we’d never expected to have considered as recently as a few weeks ago. North-west? Pittsburgh? Clemson? UCF? wait … Is that true? It also got us thinking about another story focusing on underdogs who took the power structure by surprise: “Andor,” our favorite TV series of 2022. After the train wreck that was “The Book of Boba…

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College basketball rankings: Illinois out, Miami in. And hey, New Mexico!

Merry Christmas after Christmas! I trust that the holiday treated everyone well, though there were a few precious college basketball games that caught our eye. As a result, there wasn’t much movement on top of the polls. The good news is that there are plenty of great matches to be shown this week, which top the list for Saturday’s packed New Year’s Eve. In the meantime, allow me to spread my usual holiday cheer by presenting the correct ranking of the top 25 college basketball teams, as presented to the…

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How ESPN Got Pat McAfee for ‘College GameDay’ and Named Best College Football Hire for 2022

ESPN President Jimmy Petaro generally does not interfere with his company’s broadcaster appointments. Since ESPN employs approximately 1,000 people working in front of the camera, the company has a talent department tasked with negotiating such contracts. Pitaro will tell you that he wants to make the work of his talent department easier, not harder, and in most cases, the absence of the ESPN chief provides better visibility for all parties. But there are times when he’s directly involved – and buying Pat McAfee was one of those times. On Wednesday,…

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Send a question to Stuart Mandel’s Football Mailbag

Happy 1 week everyone! Hopefully Monday morning will be more fun than Scott Frost. Leave your questions here. Please include your city. .

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