The MAC presidents have voted to add FCS Sacramento State into the league as a football-only member starting in 2026, sources told ESPN.

The cost of entrance is expected to be $18 million, sources said, and a deal is expected to be announced in the upcoming days. All in, the total cost of entry is expected to be $23 million, as Sacramento State would also need to pay $5 million to the NCAA to move up.

This marks a significant move for Sacramento State, as it will be the first West Coast program to make the jump to the highest level of football in well over a generation.

Sacramento State has been aggressive in pursuit of this level, with president Luke Wood saying this summer: “We believe our university, our students, and the entire Sacramento region deserve major college football.”

The move will keep the MAC at 13 schools. Sacramento State would replace Northern Illinois, which is leaving for the Mountain West in football next year.

It also marks a trend of schools paying money to move up in leagues. SMU paved the way, as it chose to forgo nine years of television revenue to join the ACC. Cal and Stanford also accepted reduced money to join the ACC.

Sacramento State’s move is the second in the past week, as North Dakota State finalized a move to the Mountain West. That move cost $12.5 million. Northern Illinois paid a $2 million entrance fee to join the Mountain West.

The payouts to leagues such as the MAC and Mountain West come at a time when revenue is scarce, as smaller conferences are struggling to retain top talent in football and men’s basketball since the waiving of transfer rules and the ability of schools to pay players through NIL and revenue share.

Sacramento State’s recent history includes wins in the FCS playoffs in both 2022 and 2023. The school will have its fourth coach since 2022 this year, as it hired Arizona assistant Alonzo Carter.

Last year, the NCAA denied a waiver to let Sacramento State play as an independent. In need of a conference invitation, the school has found one for the 2026 season. Sacramento State would not be eligible for the postseason for two years as it transitions.

Wood and athletic director Mark Orr have been looking to leverage the area’s top-20 television market. The school hired Mike Bibby as men’s basketball coach and has been aggressive in pursuing high-profile names.

Sacramento State’s non-football sports will be housed in the Big West, which it joins in 2026-27.

Yahoo Sports was first to report discussions between the MAC and Sacramento State.

On a day synonymous with love, Providence and No. 17 St. John’s spent part of their Valentine’s Day exchanging punches in place of pleasantries. The two Big East rivals had an old-fashioned brouhaha in Rhode Island on Saturday that led to six ejections, numerous flagrant fouls and one ugly scene after Providence’s Duncan Powell committed a hard foul on St. John’s star (and former Friar) Bryce Hopkins, which required nearly a 20-minute intermission for the officiating crew to sort out. 

That’s Valentine’s Day done the Big East way. 

But a brutal brawl in the Big East was just one of many headlines across college hoops Saturday — even if it reverberated the loudest of them all.  

Elsewhere, Florida chomped down on the SEC lead with a 92-83 win over Kentucky, Purdue stayed hot with a road win at Iowa and Duke — as it has done much of the season — dominated another ACC foe to retain its grip on the lead league.

There were plenty of highs and lows from the day, which was largely frontloaded, and there are plenty more to come. To digest it all our team has a recap of some of the day’s biggest winners and losers below.

Winner: Duke sends a message to retain lead in ACC

With No. 20 Clemson one game back in the ACC standings with a chance to take down top dog and fourth-ranked Duke inside Cameron Indoor, the Blue Devils sent a message with an emphatic 67-54 win, proving once again that they remain the class of the ACC. Duke led by double digits for nearly the entire second half and quieted any potential of a Clemson upset relatively early behind big days from Cameron Boozer (18 points, eight rebounds), Isaiah Evans (17 points) and Cayden Boozer (12 points). The win puts Duke two games clear of Clemson in the ACC standings and keeps it 1.5 games ahead of second-place Virginia. — Kyle Boone

Loser: St. John’s, Providence don’t feel the love on Valentine’s Day

Providence and St. John’s players certainly didn’t get the memo that it was Valentine’s Day. Six players were ejected after a massive brawl broke out in the battle of Big East foes. Providence’s Duncan Powell committed a hard foul on St. John’s forward Bryce Hopkins, who played at the school before transferring to the Red Storm this past offseason. Powell was assessed a Flagrant-2 foul and was ejected from the game. This game was delayed for nearly 20 minutes while the officials reviewed what just happened. It wouldn’t be shocking if some subsequent suspensions were handed out after what transpired. — Cameron Salerno

WATCH: Massive brawl breaks out between St. John’s and Providence, six players ejected

Will Backus

Winner: Texas Tech slays another dragon

No. 16 Texas Tech’s resume now includes victories over three of the top-four teams in the AP Top 25 poll after the Red Raiders toppled No. 1 Arizona 78-75 in overtime on the road. The victory, which was keyed by a combined 50 points from JT Toppin and Christian Anderson, adds to a resume that also includes wins over No. 3 Houston and No. 4 Duke. 

Arizona was playing shorthanded, as star freshman forward Koa Peat missed the second half due to a lower body injury. But the Wildcats (23-2, 10-2 Big 12) still had a golden opportunity to close this one out, leading 64-57 with just over three minutes left before wilting down the stretch for their second loss of the week. — David Cobb

Winner: Michigan makes a case to jump Arizona for No. 1

For the last two months, Arizona has occupied the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25 poll. After the Wildcats suffered their first two losses of the season this week, that spot will likely now belong to Michigan. The No. 2 Wolverines rested their case with a dominant 86-56 win over UCLA at home. The Wolverines have the most Quad 1 wins of any team in the country, and six of their 12 wins in Big Ten play have been by at least 20 points. — Salerno

Michigan makes case to jump Arizona for the No. 1 spot in next AP Top 25 poll after dominant win over UCLA

Cameron Salerno

Loser: Peterson peters out in KU loss

Kansas star freshman Darryn Peterson did not play the final 7:01 of Saturday’s 74-56 loss to No. 5 Iowa State and was largely ineffective in the meager 24 minutes he was on the floor, finishing with 10 points on 3-of-10 shooting. It was yet another game Peterson failed to finish, which has been a theme for the projected No. 1 pick for much of the season as he’s either missed games or exited early in games he’s played.

KU coach Bill Self said postgame the decision to sit Peterson for the final 7:01 was his to make as he looked ahead to prep the No. 9 Jayhawks for Wednesday because ISU was so in control of the game. He also added that Peterson, who missed Monday’s game vs. No. 1 Arizona because of an illness, did not get a full allotment of practices this week as he dealt with the lingering effects of it. — Boone

Iowa State routs Kansas, snaps Jayhawks eight-game winning streak in Darryn Peterson’s return after illness

Kyle Boone

Winner: Hilton Magic shows off its powers

Far too often this season, Iowa State has relied solely on Milan Momcilovic to be the best shooter in the country and Joshua Jefferson to do, well, everything. But in the 74-56 dismantling of No. 9 Kansas, it was Iowa State’s supporting cast that had its best showing in awhile. Jamarion Bateman came off the bench and splashed three treys. Blake Buchanan (11 points, six rebounds) had his best game in a month. Momcilovic did his thin with 18 points and four triples, but 57 points from everyone not named Momcilovic or Jefferson is exactly what Iowa State needs to reach the peak of its powers. Oh, and a vicious defense doesn’t hurt either. — Isaac Trotter

Loser: NC State chokes late vs. Miami

NC State led by as many as eight points in the second half — and held a seven-point lead with 55 seconds remaining over Miami! — before flailing to the finish in the biggest choke job of the afternoon. Miami scored eight unanswered points in the final 52 seconds, which culminated with three free throws from Miami guard Tru Washington after an ill-advised NC State foul on a 3-point attempt from Washington.

Washington made all three attempts from the charity stripe, and NC State’s attempt to win it with a buzzer-beater on the other end was no good in the 77-76 Miami victory.

“I don’t see a whole lot of positives,” NC State coach Will Wade said. “Poor coaching. Poor coaching on my part that we couldn’t bring that home. We looked like Keystone Cops there at the end of the game.”

It’s the second consecutive loss for NC State after falling at Louisville on Monday by 41 points — its largest loss since 2017. — Boone

Winner: BYU’s Wright can do no wrong this week

For the second time in as many games, BYU guard Rob Wright dropped a career-high in points in a game his team needed every bit of his production. Just four days removed from a career-high 30 points vs. his former team, Baylor, the first-year Cougars star scored 39 points and led BYU to a 90-86 overtime win over Colorado. He finished the game 12-of-16 shooting from the field, made all four of his 3-point attempts and was 11 of 13 from the free-throw line. He also added five boards and four steals.

Wright’s production was only second-most important to the timeliness of said production. Twenty-three of his 39 points came in the second half, and a combined 29 of his total 39 points came in both the second half and overtime. In overtime, he scored or assisted on 11 of his team’s 12 points to eventually pull away. — Boone

Loser: Ohio State allergic to Quad 1 wins

Ohio State had a great opportunity to enter Sunday with two Quad 1 wins after beginning Saturday as one of the First Four Out in CBS Sports Bracketology. Now, it appears the Buckeyes could have zero Quad 1 wins come Sunday. 

After leading Virginia by six midway through the second half of a neutral-site showdown in Nashville, the Buckeyes wilted late in a 70-66 loss. Making matters worse, Northwestern lost 68-49 at Nebraska. The Wildcats were No. 74 in the NET, which put them one spot ahead of the top-75 cutoff for Ohio State’s road win over Northwestern to be considered a Quad 1 win. After dropping their fifth straight game, the Wildcats may be in line for a NET drop. Which means the Buckeyes could be four weeks out from Selection Sunday with zero Quad 1 wins. — Cobb

Winner: TCU gets gritty OT win over Oklahoma State

TCU could have folded after giving up an uncontested layup to Parsa Fallah to force overtime with a tenth of a second left in regulation, but the Horned Frogs continued their standout play with a gut-check 95-92 overtime victory over Oklahoma State. It’s the second key road win for TCU’s ever-improving resume, and Jamie Dixon’s bunch has now won three in a row. 

Six different Frogs cracked double figures, but Jayden Pierre (16 points, four assists) was the star of the game as he snuffed any Oklahoma State momentum with his fourth trey late in the game. David Punch (19 points) was also excellent after intermission. TCU has added +1.2 Wins Above Bubble to its ledger in the last five days after knocking off a top-10 Iowa State club and notching a road win — which is vital for WAB — over the Pokes. — Trotter

Loser: Fire delays Oklahoma vs. Georgia

During the first half of Oklahoma’s 94-78 victory vs. Georgia, the game was paused temporarily after a fire broke out on the concourse at Lloyd Noble Center. Fans near the fire were temporarily cleared out of their seats. The game resumed after a short pause in the action. It appeared that a popcorn machine was what caught on fire. — Salerno

Winner: Louisville’s Brown goes off (again)

Mikel Brown Jr.  followed up his 45-point Monday explosion against NC State with 29 points in No. 24’s Louisville’s 82-71 win over Baylor. The freshman flamethrower made 4 of 5 attempts from beyond the arc and also dished out six assists in another sterling performance that demonstrated the Cardinals’ high-end potential. Louisville was just 4-4 when Brown missed over a month due to a back injury, but it is 6-1 since his return. Brown is one of the most exciting guards in college basketball, and his presence on the floor makes Louisville a lethal offensive team. — Cobb

Loser: Virginia Tech’s resume takes a beating

Virginia Tech entered the day as one of the First Four Out of the NCAA Tournament field in CBS Sports Bracketology after its at-large hopes picked up significant steam Wednesday night in a win at Clemson. That upset victory was worth a meaty 0.78 points in WAB, which is an important metric the NCAA Tournament selection committee uses in evaluating a team’s resume. But the Hokies turned around and gave it all back on Saturday — and then some — while getting run off their own floor late in a 92-69 loss to Florida State. 

The Quad 3 defeat will be tough for the Hokies to overcome in their quest to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2022. Big opportunities at Miami (Feb. 17), at North Carolina (Feb. 28) and at Virginia (March 7) still await, and now they loom even larger than before. After faltering at home to lower-tier ACC foe, the Hokies will likely need to win a couple of those. — Cobb

Winner: Purdue scores another important road win

The Big Ten looks like it’s Michigan to lose until further notice, but No. 13 Purdue took another important step toward remaining in contention with a 78-57 road win at Iowa. It’s the second consecutive road win over an NCAA Tournament quality team this week after downing Nebraska in overtime on Tuesday, and one that gets it to 11-3 in conference play with Michigan coming to West Lafayette on Tuesday night. — Boone

Winner: Florida builds SEC separation

Florida won the national championship last season, but it didn’t win the SEC regular season title. After a 92-83 win over No. 25 Kentucky on Saturday, the No. 14 Gators are well on their way to changing that in 2026. Since starting league play with a loss at Missouri, Florida (19-6, 10-2 SEC) is 10-1 and operating as efficiently as any team in college basketball. A few close early-season losses may have diminished Florida’s national profile, but this team is finding its stride, looking like the clear cut best team in the SEC and a legitimate national title contender.  — Cobb

Loser: Texas A&M’s slide toward bubble continues

Long losing streaks for otherwise good basketball teams are a Texas A&M staple now transcending multiple eras of Aggies hoops. Saturday’s 82-69 loss at No. 19 Vanderbilt was the fourth straight for A&M (17-8, 7-5 SEC), which is slipping rapidly toward the NCAA Tournament bubble after it was first in the SEC standings earlier this month. First-year coach Bucky McMillan is new in town, but A&M fans are used to this. 

Under Buzz Williams last season, A&M dropped four straight late in conference play but was still a No. 4 seed in the Big Dance. In 2024, it dropped five straight in February and still ended up as a No. 9 seed. The Aggies lost eight straight in league play during 2022 and nearly reached the NCAA Tournament anyway. The trend even dates back to Billy Kennedy’s tenure, when the Aggies started 0-5 in the SEC in 2018  and still managed to reach the Sweet 16. — Cobb

Winner: Navy (!) continues its breakout season

Navy has not made the NCAA Tournament since 1998, but the Midshipmen added another chapter to a breakthrough season under first-year head coach Jon Perry. Navy waltzed into Colgate, usually the Patriot League titan, and emerged with an 84-80 road victory to improve to 21-6 and 13-1 in conference play. Jordan Pennick splashed six treys and finished with 22 points. Donovan Draper came off the bench and added 20 points, eight rebounds, three steals and three assists. These Midshipmen can hoop. — Trotter

Loser: Georgia’s tourney outlook dims with ugly OU loss

Mike White’s Georgia Bulldogs entered Saturday as one of the Last Four In the 68-team NCAA Tournament field as projected by CBS Sports Bracketology — and then laid a giant egg on the road in a tough-to-swallow loss to an OU team that was tied for last place in the SEC entering the day. UGA’s 94-78 loss to the Sooners will almost certainly dim its immediate tourney outlook, but worst of all, it’s a loss that will potentially fester and stick as a Quad 2 loss given OU’s downward trajectory. Few games in SEC play qualify as can’t-lose games, but falling to this Sooners team at this time and by 16 points — while dropping the fifth game in its last six outings — is a tough one to stomach. 

Georgia shouldn’t feel good at all about where things are right now with respect to their March Madness hopes. There is work to do to bolster its lacking resume, and the schedule only gets more stiff from here. — Boone

Loser: Auburn’s losing streak grows

Auburn has now dropped four straight after falling 88-75 at No. 21 Arkansas. The Tigers (14-11, 5-7 SEC) were playing without leading scorer Keyshawn Hall, who is out indefinitely for disciplinary reasons. First-year coach Steven Pearl said the duration of Hall’s suspension will be “up to him.” Auburn entered the day as a No. 8 seed in CBS Sports Bracketology, but it needs to start winning again. Playing without Hall is less than ideal considering he entered Saturday fourth in the SEC in scoring at 20.7 points per game.

“We’re hoping this isn’t something that has to drag out longer than it needs to,” Pearl said. — Cobb

Winner: Texas can exhale

At a time when a chunk of its SEC peers are sliding toward the bubble, Texas is trying to do the opposite after beginning the day as a No. 10 seed. The Longhorns throttled Missouri 85-68 on the road for their fourth straight victory and fifth Quad 1 win. Texas (16-9, 7-5 SEC) cannot rest on its laurels, but it can take a breath in acknowledgement of the fact that its hopes of dancing are in a good spot. First-year coach Sean Miller has this team operating at its highest levels of the season. Missouri’s breathing room might be gone. After entering the day as one of the Last Four in the CBS Sports Bracketology field of 68, the Tigers are living life on the edge. — Cobb

TESERO, Italy — Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo has won a ninth gold medal in cross-country skiing, setting a Winter Games record, at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

The 29‑year‑old anchored Sunday’s 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay in the men’s competition for his fourth gold at the 2026 Games.

He had shared the record with three retired Norwegian athletes, Marit Bjoergen and Bjoern Daehlie in cross-country skiing and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen in the biathlon.

He now stands alone at the top.

Six months into a season, it is not unusual to know what to expect from any given team on any given day and that was certainly the case for anyone who cared to check on Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday as they faced Newcastle United. A sluggish team who seemed a step or two behind the opponent in terms of intensity levels? Check. A porous defense that seems to lack chemistry? Check. An attack that has very few ideas? Check. Few redeeming qualities as the team slouched to yet another Premier League defeat? Check again.

Thomas Frank, whose months-long spell in charge of the team finally came to an end after their latest drab performance, did not create all of Spurs’ issues. He is right to point to the fact that he, like his predecessor Ange Postecoglou last season, had to contend with an injury crisis of epic proportions, all while captain Cristian Romero serves a suspension for a red card in their 2-0 defeat at Manchester United on Saturday. He was not wrong to note that this very team finished 17th in the Premier League last season, an admission that the ceiling is only so high for the current iteration of Spurs. Frank, though, did not do himself a single favor during his brief stint in north London, emerging as a rare example of a coach who truly earned a promotion to the big leagues but failed to prove his worth for the most part.

Frank’s tenure with Spurs is remarkable for all the wrong reasons, the Denmark native unable to live up to the billing in any real sense. He was supposed to be a practical alternative to Postecoglou, who spent much more time ensuring his team had a functioning attack than a competent defense. It was not the only issue the next coach should have theoretically fixed – his Brentford side were organized when defending set pieces and impactful on the flip side, a signal that Frank’s Spurs would be efficient on both ends of the pitch.

His perceived pragmatism, though, was mistaken for ability. Frank inherited a mess but he also failed to improve the issues that were fully in his control. There were very few categories in which Frank made a noticeable positive impact, an underperformance that is easy to spot regardless of how one chooses to define success. Averaging 0.1 more point per match compared to Postecoglou’s Spurs last season is not much of a flex, and neither is making an improvement of 0.3 goals against per game when the team ranks 13th in the Premier League when sorting for expected goals against. If Postecoglou was reckless for allowing a porous back line to take shape despite boasting brilliant defenders in Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven, Frank is guilty of the same crime despite having the upper hand of a fit first-choice center back duo for much of the season.

Spurs’ defensive shortcomings were hard to ignore even in a superficial watch on any given matchday. The defenders at his disposal had years of experience alongside one another and yet appeared completely disjointed, the natural result of Frank failing to lock in tactical foundations and going back to the drawing board more often than a coach of his caliber usually does. His defenders seemed unsure of their next move, unable to rely upon their instincts and mistake-prone as a result. Frustration and despair oozed out of the players each time a goal was conceded, no matter how predictable it was; contempt grew amongst the fanbase, who were more prone to booing than cheering quickly enough in Frank’s tenure.

Frank’s Spurs underperformed in equal measure in front of goal. The coach had the bare bones of an attacking idea from the start of the season, one that seemed to go hand-in-hand with Spurs’ odd squad construction. He would bypass midfield for the most part and instead prioritize play on the wings to generate attacking opportunities, a solution of sorts for a team that lacked any real passers after James Maddison tore his ACL in preseason, all while nicking a few goals off of set pieces. That plan did not pan out all that much – Spurs’ attacking statistics this season are buoyed by an early season blitz in which they outperformed their expected goals tally, a run of beginner’s luck that is generally hard to sustain.

In no time at all, Spurs were out of ideas. Completing simple attacking plays was a difficult task, while their game was never built around earning more set pieces even though it was the rare area of the game they actually excelled in. At times, Frank sucked the life out of games instead, hoping his disinterest in scoring goals would grind opponents’ attacks into dust. The coach gave an overly conservative approach the runout a handful of times last fall in matches that could have served as statement-making performances and at this point, it should come as no surprise that it did not work. Spurs tallied three shots and 0.12 xG in a 1-0 loss to Chelsea in which the Blues were unlucky not to have scored more as they racked up 15 attempts and 3.68 xG. Days later, Arsenal made sure not to waste their chances – they cruised to a 4-1 win as they tallied 17 shots and 1.93 xG, all while Spurs had three shots and 0.07 xG to speak of. It was evidently worse than Postecoglou’s figures, but even Frank’s own in his final season at Brentford.

The inability to defend and attack properly was visible even at the end of Frank’s tenure, perfectly encapsulated in the final goal Spurs conceded before his firing. His side could not complete a simple breakaway minutes after notching an equalizer against Newcastle, instead letting Anthony Gordon dance around a still Spurs defense before Jacob Ramsey popped the ball into the back fo the net.

Frank’s Spurs were lifeless, a whiplash-inducing exercise for anyone who remembers watching Postecoglou’s version of the team. It was strange to watch Frank’s Spurs give attacking a try for 45 minutes at a time every third or fourth game and then settle into a defensive structure that they could not maintain, inviting opponents into the match rather than killing the game entirely. Almost singlehandedly, he demonstrated that the belief that pragmatism is inherently efficient is a trope rather than a tried and tested philosophy for success in this sport. There is nothing practical about taking the foot off the gas when things are trending in the right direction. It is not effective to keep taking a stab at a losing strategy, hoping it will finally turn good. It is painfully unrealistic not to find a way to lean on your strengths, even if they are few and far between. There is nothing sensible about failing to lay down tactical foundations, rendering your team unable to execute a stylistic vision that seems like a prerequisite to being an elite coach.

With Frank at the helm, Spurs merely dragged their feet through matches as if they were simply there to collect an attendance award rather than play. No one wins trophies with style points but Frank proved one can certainly lose without them, his team always hitting the pitch with a sense of aimlessness. It is no wonder, then, that he drew the ire of the Spurs faithful, who, unlike his team in attack, wasted no chance to lambast him for spearheading a “boring, boring Tottenham” – in every sense, he sucked the entertainment value and the inherent joy out of the game. In a landscape where the sport’s next great managers increasingly prefer tactical rigidity, Frank’s Spurs will act as a prime example in the downside of straying too far down that path. Being cautious does not inherently come with rewards, nor does it necessarily come with stability and in this case, it can slowly contribute to the erosion of an already decaying product. It forces existential questions, too, of what exactly the point of this particular exercise was for a team in desperate need of a course correction.

Spurs’ squad may not be up to the task of finishing even remotely close to a UEFA Champions League spot, but neither is Frank. In an age where clubs are quick to dispose of managers, he was given a chance but threw it away completely, the glimmer of hope that came in the UEFA Super Cup outing against Paris Saint-Germain an outlier rather than the start of a promising trend. Frank’s firing will require a serious rethink by Spurs’ leaders, many of whom are brand new to their roles after longtime chairman Daniel Levy’s exit in September, because their current woes are the result of years of mismanagement and remarkably poor squad building, their trip to the Champions League final seven years ago now a distant memory of a long-gone era.