📖 In Today’s Playbook. College Football Targeting Rule Headed For Overhaul, But Not Going Away. Stags Take Tennis Crown. Conference Swim Champs. Record-Setting Weekend For Hobart Men’s Ice Hockey.

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“This offseason, officials plan to review potential changes to the most scrutinized penalty in all of college football.

“We’re going to be having a discussion on targeting,” Steve Shaw, the national coordinator of officials and the NCAA’s secretary-rules editor, told Yahoo Sports last week from Miami, site of the national title game. “That needs to be an annual discussion. It will be a focus discussion.”

Is targeting on the proverbial chopping block? No, not even close. There will be no “backing up” on the targeting rule, Shaw says, as it has been successful in its goal of making the game safer by changing player behavior related to head collisions.”

» Driving The News. “Targeting has, indeed, changed player behavior. In fact, since 2020 — what Shaw calls the height of targeting fouls — there has been an annual decrease in the number of targeting penalties. In 2020, officials flagged a player for targeting once in every four games. This year, that number is more like once in every seven to eight games. Targeting, however, remains the most divisive, confusing and frustrating penalty among, not just college football fans, but coaches and administrators too.”

» Why It Matters. “Targeting carries with it a 15-yard penalty, plus the player who committed the act is disqualified for the remainder of the current game. If the penalty occurs in the second half of a game, that player is also disqualified for the first half of the next game. When exploring the penalty structure this offseason, officials must determine if the disqualification — and the carryover disqualification — is still warranted. Could rules officials create two different levels of targeting fouls, similar to flagrant fouls in basketball?”

» What They’re Saying. “What targeting has driven in terms of player behavior change has been really good and the numbers reflect that,” said Shaw. “But how can we continue this trend of taking out more of these hits we don’t want in the game while being less punitive?”

“Warren Pham provided the clinching point in a second-set tiebreaker as the No. 4-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's tennis team defeated No. 2 Chicago 4-1 in the title match of the ITA Indoor Championships on Sunday morning. | All Results

» Final. CMS d. Chicago, 4-1. Mareedu/Settles (CMS) d. Liew/Murugesan, 6-2; Kim/Raja (CMS) d. Wong/Zhang, 6-4; Mareedu (CMS) d. Murugesan, 6-1, 6-3; Pham (CMS) d. Grantcharov, 6-4, 7-6(1); Wilson (CMS) d. Sher, 6-4, 6-1; Choi (C) d. Settles, 6-3, 6-3.

» Semifinals. CMS d. CWRU, 5-2; Chicago d. Denison, 4-3.

» First Round. Case Western Reserve d. Johns Hopkins, 5-2; Claremont-M-S d. Swarthmore, 5-2; Chicago d. Emory, 5-2; Denison d. Gustavus Adolphus, 5-2.

It’s the final weekend for swimmers to qualify for the NCAA championship and 14 conferences held their 2026 swimming and diving championships this weekend.

The Bates 200 medley relay of Tim Johnson, Marrich Somridhivej, Nate Oppenheim, and Max Cory broke the DIII men’s record with a 1:25.57 clocking, bettering the old mark by :38 seconds.

» American Rivers. Nebraska Wesleyan (M/W). The Prairie Wolves swept the A-R-C titles.
» CCIW. Augustana (M), Wheaton (W). The Vikings won their fourth consecutive men’s title, while the Thunder won the closest team competition in the league’s history, edging Augustana by a single point.
» Centennial. Johns Hopkins (M). Swarthmore (W). The Blue Jay men won the conference title in their first year of competition in the CC, while the Garnet made it five straight titles, edging Hopkins by 15.5 points.
» Empire 8. Geneseo (M), Geneseo (W). The Knights swept the conference team titles with the women defending their 2025 championship, as well as the men.
» Liberty. Ithaca (M/W). The Bombers took two LL team titles on the weekend for the first time in school history.
» Michigan. Hope (M), Hope (W). The Flying Dutchmen won their seventh MIAA title, while the Dutchwomen made it six consecutive championships.
» Midwest. Grinnell (M), Grinnell (W). Make it 10 straight titles for the Pioneer men, while the women claimed their fifth consecutive crown.
» NESCAC (M). Williams. The Ephs erased a 30-point deficit on the final day to claim their seventh straight conference team title.
» NEWMAC. MIT (M), MIT (W). The Engineer men extended their conference championship streak to 17 years, while the women made it 15 straight.
» Ohio. Ohio Northern (M), Mount Union (W). The Polar Bear men won their first OAC team title since 2016, while the Purple Raiders also won their first team championship in 10 years.
» Presidents. Grove City (M), Grove City (W). The Wolverine men made it eight straight PAC titles, while the GCC women extended their championship streak to seven years.
» SCIAC. Pomona-Pitzer (M), Pomona-Pitzer (W). The Sagehen men won their first league title since 2019, while the women completed a three-peat.
» SUNYAC. Penn State Behrend (M), Cortland (W). The Nittany Lions won their first SUNYAC championship, while the Red Dragons defended their 2025 title.
» WIAC. La Crosse (M), La Crosse (W). The Eagle men won their first conference team title since 1971, while the UWL women defended their 2025 championship.

Hobart set a collegiate men’s ice hockey record last weekend with its 4-0 shutout of Buffalo State and a 7-0 victory over Fredonia State.

The Statesmen have now won 65 straight games at its home rink - The Cooler - to break the old standard of 63 set by Cornell University from January 1967 to January 1972.

Mavrick Goyer made 14 saves vs. the Tigers for his fourth straigh shutout, while Damon Beaver turned away 19 shots vs. the Devils for shutout No. 5 in his campaign.

» Track and Field. The TCNJ 4×200 relay set a DIII women’s indoor track and field record on Saturday at the NJAC championship meet. The quartet of Lucia Garcia-Beltran, Kelsey Thomas, Petra Doherty and Rukiyat Daranijo won the event in 1:39.69 - bettering the old standard by .38 seconds.

» Wrestling. The final NWCA polls ahead of the postseason were released on Friday. Wartburg tops the team tournament rankings, followed by Roanoke, TCNJ, UW-La Crosse and Augsburg. Ronokae swaps place with Wartburg in the dual-meet rankings with Augsburg, TCNJ and Loras rounding out the top five.

» Nickname. “Lewis & Clark has officially introduced its new mascot identity and River Otter design, following an intensive five-month collaboration.”

» Baseball. Trinity U. took three of four from top-ranked UW-Whitewater last weekend in San Antonio. The Tigers dropped the opener, 6-2, but won the last three by 12-1, 5-4, and 6-5 counts.

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