📖 In Today’s Playbook. How Sweet It Is. Hockey Brackets. North Central 3rd at NCAA Women’s Wrestling Championships. NCAA Track and Field Qualifiers. Trump Wants Return To Old Day

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“The top-ranked men’s team in the country survived, Yeshiva continued its run into the Sweet 16, Ben Pearce reached 2,000 career points as Emory survived, Endicott clamped down at the end, Hood made the Sweet 16 for the first time and more in the second round of the 2026 Division III men's basketball NCAA Tournament.”

Next week's Sweet 16 games will be played at eight campus sites. Four will be played on Friday, four on Saturday.

» Sweet 16 (M). FRI: Yeshiva at Emory; Endicott at Illinois Wesleyan; Washington U. at St. Thomas; Christopher Newport at Randolph-Macon. SAT: Hood at Trinity CT; Tufts at Wesleyan; UW-La Crosse at Mary Washington; Gustavus Adolphus at Chicago | Complete Bracket

“Bates found some late game magic and ousted Smith from the NCAA women’s tournament in Lewiston, while Southern Maine turned back the clock in a road win over Bowdoin in Brunswick, Maine. Elsewhere, Johns Hopkins set a new record, WashU pushed past OWU, Hope outlasted Illinois Wesleyan, and the top four seeds moved on.

» Sweet 16 (W). Hardin-Simmons at NYU; Southern Maine v. UW-La Crosse; Bates at Scranton; Johns Hopkins vs. Concordia MN; Washington U. at UW-Oshkosh; Hope v. Chicago; Bethel at Washington and Lee; Denison v. John Carroll | Complete Bracket

The brackets for the Division III men’s and women’s ice hockey championships were unveiled on Sunday night. Hobart and Endicott received first-round byes in the men’s tourney, while UW-River Falls, Norwich and Nazareth earned first-round byes in the women’s bracket

» First-Round Games (M). Hamilton v. Neumann; Salve Regina v. Norwich; Utica v. Williams; Aurora v. Saint John’s; Saint Norbert v. U. of New England; UW-Stout v. Anna Maria | Complete Bracket

» Team Championships (among 2026 participants). St. Norbert (5), Norwich (4), Hobart (3).

» First-Round Games (W). Amherst v. Saint Benedict; Wilkes v. Adrian; Williams v. Plattsburgh State; Augsburg v. Elmira; Hamline v. Endicott | Complete Bracket

» Team Championships (among 2026 participants). Plattsburgh State (7), Amherst (2), Norwich (2).

North Central College women's wrestler Bella Mir made history Saturday night, delivering the first pin ever recorded in an NCAA women's wrestling championship final to claim the 145-pound national title at the 2026 NCAA National Collegiate Women's Wrestling Championships. Mir helped lead North Central to a third-place team finish while Riley Rayome and Claire DiCugno added runner-up performances as the Cardinals produced seven All-Americans.

After sitting third in the team standings following day one, the Cardinals totaled 123.5 points to place third in the inaugural NCAA Championship event. McKendree University and the University of Iowa traded the top spot multiple times throughout the finals, but it was McKendree that ultimately secured the team title with 171 points while Iowa finished runner-up with 166.

» Team Scoring. 1-McKendree 171; 2-Iowa 166; 3-North Central 123.5; 4-Grand Valley State 110.5; 5-Presbyterian 83.5; 11-Wartburg 39.5; 13-Aurora 33.5; 16-Adrian 21; 17-Eastern 20; 20-Simpson 17.5 | Complete Scoring

» DIII Medalists. Gold: 145-Bella Mir (North Central). Silver: 117-Riley Rayome (North Central); 131-Alexis Janiak (Aurora); 138-Claire DiCugno (North Central). Bronze: 103-Genesis Ramirez (Aurora); 124-Sara Sterner (North Central); 180-Shenita Lawson (North Central); 207-Rewa Chababo (Wartburg) | Results

The NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Track and Field and Cross Country Committee announced the participants in the 2026 NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track and Field Championships.

For each men’s individual event contested, including the heptathlon, the top 20 declared student-athletes were accepted into the championships. For each women’s individual event contested, including the pentathlon, the top 20 declared student-athletes were accepted into the championships. For each relay event contested, the top 12 declared relay teams, one per institution, were accepted into the championships. The championships will be held March 13-14 at the Birmingham CrossPlex in Birmingham, Alabama with the Southern Athletic Association and the Birmingham CrossPlex serving as hosts.

» Complete List of Participants

“Have you ever attempted to put toothpaste back into its tube?

On Friday here, as afternoon transitioned to evening, from within the gold-gilded and chandelier-adorned East Room of the White House, the United States President, in front of a nationally televised audience and before 50 sports and business dignitaries, announced to the world something altogether confounding.

He wants to put college sports’ proverbial toothpaste back into its collective tube.

Why can’t the industry “go back to the old system?” Trump asked a room of astonished and stoic faces. “I’d like to go exactly back to what we had and ram it through a court.”

» Driving The News. “While disregarding and disparaging court decisions that have opened a path for athlete compensation, Trump announced plans to release a second executive order — this one “more comprehensive,” he said — that is intended, it appears, to reimplement unlawful policies of the pre-NIL era.”

» State of Play. “Friday’s meeting, scheduled for an hour, turned into a wild near-two-hour political meltdown of sorts — a president criticizing his enemies: the courts for "destroying" college sports, and congressional Democrats for preventing legislation to pass that might fix it. Meanwhile, college athletics — its leaders resistant to collective bargaining — twists in the winds of soaring player salaries, unenforceable rules, mounting legal threats and budget deficits.”

» Facilities. Tufts plans to build a new aquatic center with construction expected to be completed by the start of the 2028 fall semester. The new facility will include a 50-by-25-meter Olympic-sized swimming pool, two 1-meter and two 3-meter diving boards, and viewing room for spectators, with a state-of-the-art timing system and scoreboard. Case Western Reserve University has received a $1 million commitment from the Wyant Foundation to support the renovation of Adelbert Gym, one of the university’s most historic campus landmarks.

» Ice Hockey (M). Hobart GK Damon Beaver made 30 saves to record his 26th career shutout in the Statesmen’s 4-0 win against Oswego in the SUNYAC championship, breaking the DIII record in that category.

» Softball. Berry put a three-spot on the board in the top of the sixth and held on to defeat top-ranked and defending national champion Trine, 6-4, at the NFCA Leadoff Classic.

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