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12 CMS athletes to be inducted into Ducey Hall of Fame

A dozen new athletes from the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Department of Athletics and Physical Education will be inducted into the Ted Ducey CMS Hall of Fame at 1 p.m. Sunday, January 19 at Claremont McKenna College’s Roberts Pavilion, 690 N. Mills Ave. The athletic department will also honor the 10th anniversary of the men’s tennis program’s 2015 […]

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12 CMS athletes to be inducted into Ducey Hall of Fame

A dozen new athletes from the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Department of Athletics and Physical Education will be inducted into the Ted Ducey CMS Hall of Fame at 1 p.m. Sunday, January 19 at Claremont McKenna College’s Roberts Pavilion, 690 N. Mills Ave.
The athletic department will also honor the 10th anniversary of the men’s tennis program’s 2015 NCAA Division III national championship.
More info is available at cmsathletics.org/archives, by phone at (909) 607-4006, or via email to  events@cmc.edu.
The group includes CMC alumni Bob Donlan, class of 2002, basketball; Glenn Grossman, class of 1972, football and baseball; Doug Jones, class of 1985, swim and dive; Kristin Lim, class of 2013, tennis; George R. Roberts, class of 1966, service and support for CMS Athletics; Gary Simon, class of 1998, swim and dive, water polo; Steve Uejio class of 2000, baseball; Wil Wilkins class of 1973, football and baseball; and Warren Wood class of 2015, tennis. Harvey Mudd alumnus Gary Simon class of 1998, swim and dive and water polo; and Scripps alumni Elena Goss, class of 1996, swim and dive, and Madi Shove, class of 2013, lacrosse and soccer. Nicole Esclamado Feola, a soccer player who graduated from HMC in 2007 and was named in the 2024 cohort, will also be honored with the 2025 group.

College Sports

Column | A summer sport: Running into people from high school | Columns | Opinion

There are certain things you expect when you come home for the summer: overpacked drawers in your childhood room, questions from relatives about your major and, like clockwork, running into people from high school everywhere you go. This summer, I’ve been working at the local community center. It’s a good gig: scan some IDs, give […]

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There are certain things you expect when you come home for the summer: overpacked drawers in your childhood room, questions from relatives about your major and, like clockwork, running into people from high school everywhere you go.

This summer, I’ve been working at the local community center. It’s a good gig: scan some IDs, give some tours and occasionally point to where the water fountain is. But what I didn’t expect was just how much of a social rewind it would become.

Every week, like some kind of low-stakes ritual, the same four guys from my high school show up to play basketball. Without fail, they come through the doors, gym bags slung over their shoulders, looking like they never left senior year behind. They aren’t bad guys, just the types who always seemed like they had something to prove.

Back in school, they were loud, semi-athletic and kind of everywhere. Not people I hung out with, not people I had real problems with either. Just … those guys. The ones you remember mostly because they were hard to ignore.

Now they stroll in like they own the place. One of them always tosses a comment my way, usually something like “still working hard, huh?” with a smirk that suggests he thinks this job is somehow a punchline. I smile, say “yep,” and scan him in, even though I already know all of their names by now.

They head to the gym, where I can hear the squeak of their sneakers and occasional shouts of “foul” echoing through the halls like it’s the state finals.

Weirdly, these guys have become part of the rhythm of my summer. It’s not that I dislike them, it’s just that running into them every week reminds me how much has changed for me and how much hasn’t for some people.

In college, everything feels new. You’re surrounded by people who don’t know your past, who meet you as you are now. Back home, there’s this weird weight of familiarity, like you’re being slotted back into an old version of yourself, whether or not it still fits.

It’s not just them. A couple of my coworkers are from my graduating class and a few are younger. People I remember seeing around school when I was a junior or senior.

It’s strange working with someone who once sat a few rows behind you in math class and now you’re swapping shifts and gossiping about weird gym patrons like you’ve been friends the whole time.

There’s an unspoken rule when you run into someone from high school: pretend it’s not weird. You both recognize each other, maybe say a casual “hey” and go about your day. It’s like a social muscle you haven’t used in a while, polite nods, vague smiles and lots of mutual pretending that the past doesn’t sit between you.

I have to admit, as much as I internally roll my eyes when I see those four guys checking in again, there’s something oddly comforting about it, too. They’re consistent. They show up. They still have that energy, that chemistry, like they never skipped a beat.

While I’m not trying to relive my high school days, something is grounding about seeing familiar faces doing something they love — even if I wouldn’t choose to join them.

Maybe that’s just part of being home. It’s a weird in-between space. You’re not the person you were in high school, but you’re not quite fully formed either.

So you navigate this strange middle ground, bumping into people who knew you when you were figuring it all out. Some are doing the same things and some have changed in ways you don’t expect.

Either way, running into people from high school is its own kind of summer tradition. It’s not always pleasant, but it’s part of the landscape — like sunburns, late-night fast food runs and trying to remember your Wi-Fi password at home.

My shift ends, the guys head out with sweaty shirts and inside jokes and I get ready to do it again next time. Because like the heat and the mosquitoes, some things about summer never change.

MORE COLUMNS


Column | The group chat is alive, but the plans are dead

It’s a familiar scene: summer rolls in, finals are finally behind you and you’re back in you…

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The SEC and Big Ten are currently at a standstill over the College Football Playoff format

ATLANTA (AP) — Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey said Monday that despite frequent conversations with Big Ten counterpart Tony Petitti, the two leagues have yet to agree on the College Football Playoff format after this coming season and could leave it at 12 teams. The disagreement doesn’t stem from a lack of communication. Sankey […]

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ATLANTA (AP) — Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey said Monday that despite frequent conversations with Big Ten counterpart Tony Petitti, the two leagues have yet to agree on the College Football Playoff format after this coming season and could leave it at 12 teams.

The disagreement doesn’t stem from a lack of communication. Sankey said he spoke with Petitti four times last week.

“We had a different view coming out of Destin around the notion of allocations,” Sankey said. “The Big Ten has a different view. That’s fine. We have a 12-team playoff, five conference champions. That could stay if we can’t agree.”

The Big Ten, which has won the last two national championships, favors a 4-4-2-2-1 format, giving four automatic bids to the SEC and Big Ten and awarding the ACC and Big 12 two bids apiece. The SEC, originally thought to be on the same page, switched gears at its spring meetings in Destin, Florida. The SEC favors five conference champions and 11 at-large bids, which would presumably favor the top conferences most seasons.

The CFP announced in May that teams in the upcoming playoff will be seeded strictly on where they are ranked instead of moving pieces around to reward conference champions. Last season’s jumbled bracket, the first with 12 teams, gave byes to Big 12 champion Arizona State and Mountain West champion Boise State, even though they were ranked 12th and ninth, respectively, by the playoff selection committee.

That system made the rankings and the seedings in the tournament two different things. The five highest-ranked conference champions will still be guaranteed spots in the playoff.

While the CFP contract from 2026 through the 2031 season requires the SEC and Big Ten to consult other leagues about prospective changes to the playoff system, it also provides them with the ability to impose changes they both want.

Now it’s a matter of getting on the same page.

“I think there’s this notion that there has to be this magic moment and something has to happen with expansion and it has to be forced — no,” Sankey said. “When you’re given authority, you want to be responsible in using that authority. I think both of us are prepared to do so. The upfront responsibility in this, maybe where some of the confusion lies, is we have the ability to present a format or format ideas, gather information, see if we can all agree within that room. We don’t need unanimity.”

Sankey stands firm on the 8-game schedule

One of the major complications in the College Football Playoff conversation is the SEC’s schedule. Three of the four power conferences play nine league games. The SEC isn’t one of them.

Sankey isn’t denying the fact that the SEC plays one less league game, but he won’t allow the narrative that it gives his conference an advantage.

“It is absolutely fully 100 percent correct that in the SEC, we play eight conference games while some others play nine conference games — never been a secret,” Sankey said. “It’s also correct that last season, all 16 members of the Southeastern Conference played at least nine games against what you would label ‘power opponents.’”

He doubled down.

“I don’t believe there’s anyone looking to swap their conference schedule and its opponents with the opponents played by SEC conference teams in our conference schedule, be it eight or nine.”

A decision on adding a ninth game may be coming soon, but Sankey wasn’t overly eager to reveal a timeline.

“It won’t linger terribly much longer. We have to make decisions about the ’26 season and adjust. If we’re going to go to nine games, then there have to be games moved or rescheduled. If we stay at eight, probably a little easier on that part of the logistics.”

Adapting to the new normal

Sankey addressed the media-packed room two weeks after the NCAA settlement officially went into effect, launching a long list of changes, including the introduction of revenue sharing.

Most Power Four institutions have had carefully crafted post-settlement plans in store for months. But according to Sankey, even deep-pocketed, well-resourced conferences have struggled to adapt.

“We’re in the middle of change, and in the middle of anything significant, it will get messy. That doesn’t mean you leave. In a marathon, it doesn’t mean you step off the course because myself, as poorly as I may have felt sometimes after two or three miles, recall that those moments might actually produce the best efforts,” he said.

But in a time when many have been quick to call college sports a dying breed, Sankey begs to differ.

“Let me be clear. From my perspective, college athletics is not broken,” he said. “It is under stress. It is strained.”



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Gophers hockey adds D3 transfer from Minnetonka to 2025-26 roster

Augsburg University transfer forward Graham Harris verbally committed to Gophers men’s hockey on Monday according to multiple reports. BREAKING: Augsburg (D3) transfer F Graham Harris has verbally committed to Minnesota, per @FutureGophers Listed at 6 feet, he plays HS hockey for Minnetonka. He had 22 points with 9 goals and 13 assists in his first […]

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Augsburg University transfer forward Graham Harris verbally committed to Gophers men’s hockey on Monday according to multiple reports.

Hailing from Minnetonka, University, Harris scored 24 points at the high school level in 2020-21 with 10 goals and 14 assists. He then played three seasons in the North American Hockey League (NAHL) before beginning his college career at Division III Augsburg last season.

Related: Study shows Gophers hockey is a serious moneymaker for U of M athletics

Standing at 6 feet, he finished with 22 points last season, with nine goals and 13 assists. He’s 22 years old and he will have three years of eligbility remaining with the Gophers.

Harris now gives Minnesota 25 projected players for the 2025-26 season, which is one below the new max of 26. He’s the 14th forward projected to be on next year’s team.

Picture via: @tonyliebert (X)

Gophers roster outlook / Picture via: @tonyliebert (X)

We’re nearly 80 days away from the Gophers opening their 2025-26 season at home against Michigan Tech. They technically have one roster spot left, but it would be fair to think Harris could be their final addition.





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Hugh Freeze, John Cohen discuss Auburn’s experience with new NIL GO clearinghouse

Auburn’s roster building and NIL strategies since the House Settlement was passed have been under a microscope this summer. The Tigers’ 2026 recruiting class has plummeted in the national rankings since June, a drop highlighted by four players decommitting. Head coach Hugh Freeze and athletic director John Cohen both attributed the recent struggles to Auburn’s […]

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Auburn’s roster building and NIL strategies since the House Settlement was passed have been under a microscope this summer.

The Tigers’ 2026 recruiting class has plummeted in the national rankings since June, a drop highlighted by four players decommitting. Head coach Hugh Freeze and athletic director John Cohen both attributed the recent struggles to Auburn’s adjustment to the new revenue sharing era and the program’s strategy for preserving the current roster and staying under the cap.

Both Freeze and Cohen have emphasized that they don’t believe other schools are operating by the same rules as Auburn, something they think could change on Aug. 1, when offers can start going into writing.

Each athletic department operates under the rev-share cap of $20.5 million, but third-party NIL deals don’t count against the cap. The Deloitte NIL GO clearinghouse was introduced to vet NIL deals, in theory eliminating the large pay-for-play deals often handed out by booster collectives.

Those deals aren’t necessarily illegal now, but money that comes from the University or an affiliate — deals that aren’t third-party — would count against the cap. The clearinghouse is still in the early stages, but Freeze and Cohen gave some insight on how it has affected Auburn so far.

“Truthfully, we haven’t had that many in the football building yet that we’ve gotten the word back on,” Freeze said at an AMBUSH event in Atlanta on Monday.

With things still being in the early stages, Freeze avoided giving an extensive comment on Auburn’s deals through NIL GO, deferring to Cohen. However, he did use it as an example of why he thinks Auburn’s rev-share and NIL strategies are the right ones.

Freeze made the point that if players who have already been in college and proven themselves have had trouble getting deals approved or agreeing on a value through the clearinghouse, he doesn’t want to promise large numbers to high school recruits.

Cohen elaborated more on Auburn’s experience with NIL GO so far, saying that it’s “a little hit or miss right now.”

“You’re convinced that something that a businessperson in the business community put through is gonna go through and sail through, and it doesn’t,” Cohen said. “And then you’re convinced that something that something everybody else puts in probably isn’t going to go through, and it does. But I think we’re all going to go through this learning experience.”

Cohen said that if information from the SEC and Deloitte suggests that Auburn is taking the wrong approach, the program will adjust, emphasizing the time still left between now and the early signing period in December.

He was asked specifically if Auburn had the funding and support from its boosters to adjust and strike quickly if the landscape changes, to which Cohen said Auburn will “do what it takes.”

Despite Auburn’s low position in the recruiting rankings, Cohen is still confident in how the 2026 class will finish, praising Freeze’s ability as a recruiter.

“You can’t confuse patience with inactivity. This man, who was just sitting right here, is as active a recruiter as any coach I’ve ever seen in any sport,” Cohen said. “I just spent two hours in a car with him, and he was called by seven different recruits. They called him. That’s the kind of relationship he has with recruits…

“There are staffs out there in which the head coach really isn’t part of that process, that there’s a separate group. Not Hugh Freeze, he’s personally in the middle of it, and it takes a lot of time, but no matter what he’s doing at that moment, he stops everything in his life to talk to those recruits and to talk to their families.”

Time will ultimately tell whether or not Auburn’s approach will work, but for now, neither Cohen or Freeze is backing away from their strategy yet.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at prauterkus@al.com

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Sigler Traded Gymnastics for Volleyball and Never Looked Back

Teraya Sigler wanted to be the next Simone Biles. However, at 6-foot-3. she was told she was too tall for gymnastics. She then turned to swimming. Admittedly, she was not very good at it. She swam the breaststroke and felt she was good at it, but not good enough to have a future in the […]

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Teraya Sigler wanted to be the next Simone Biles. However, at 6-foot-3. she was told she was too tall for gymnastics.

She then turned to swimming. Admittedly, she was not very good at it. She swam the breaststroke and felt she was good at it, but not good enough to have a future in the sport.

“Swimming was fun, but I was humble enough to know I wasn’t very good at it,” Sigler said on Sports Nightly on Husker Radio Network Monday night. “I loved the breaststroke, but I was never the fastest in the pool.”

The phenom then turned to volleyball and became one of the very best in the country. When she graduated from high school, she was the top volleyball recruit in the country.

“I said fine, I’ll take my height somewhere else,” Sigler said. “Volleyball just happened to work out.”

Volleyball did not just work out for Sigler. She became one of the best to play the sport when she was in high school. She took home all the hardware and the accolades. She also had a lot of involvement with the U.S. National Team.

Sigler was named the Gatorade Arizona Player of the Year as well as the MaxPreps Arizona Player of the Year, after both her junior and senior campaigns. She represented the U.S. Girls U19 Team that won the gold medal at the 2024 NORCECA Championships in Canada.

There was never a question she wanted to play volleyball in college. There was also no question as to where she wanted to play.

She said once Nebraska came calling, she knew she was going to make Lincoln home.

“With college, I was looking to go outside of Arizona and I always thought Nebraska was a cool place,” Sigler said. “Nebraska is the best place that celebrates volleyball. It was a done deal when they reached out.”

Sigler wanted to be the best, regardless of the sport. She watched tape of the best in different sports and tried to emulate them.

“Whatever sport I played, I looked at the best and tried to replicate them,” Sigler said. “I can strive to be consistently good for a long time, but I will never be perfect, so there is no reason to strive for perfection. It’s just not attainable.”

She grew up in a family that thrived in sports. Her mother was a beach volleyball player and they were all very competitive. It helped make Sigler, an outside hitter, the best at what she does.

“I give all the glory to my family for making it fun,” Sigler said. “They made me work hard at the same time.”

While she was the best in high school, she said everyone on the Cornhuskers’ team was used to being the best where they came from too,

“Coming into a school where everyone was the best in their school is very humbling,” Sigler said. “These girls here are elite athletes.”

Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.



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Why National Championship Pressure Towers Over Hockey

For many, no matter how many prodigies hockey secures Penn State will be first and foremost a football school. That in itself is pressure packed. For some zealots, football has always been in the national championship picture, but that isn’t true. Following Penn State’s last national championship in 1986, under Joe Paterno, only in 1994 […]

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For many, no matter how many prodigies hockey secures Penn State will be first and foremost a football school. That in itself is pressure packed.

For some zealots, football has always been in the national championship picture, but that isn’t true.


Following Penn State’s last national championship in 1986, under Joe Paterno, only in 1994 did Penn State ever truly flirt with national championship aspirations. After the 1994 season, only twice in Paterno’s final 17 seasons (1999, 2008) did Penn State ever reach 9-0, and it never hit 10-0. 

Under Paterno’s watch in Penn State’s first 19  Big Ten seasons, the program appeared in three New Year’s Six bowls – during the same stretch  Penn State tumbled from being a true national power and slipping behind traditional powers like Michigan and Ohio State as well as Wisconsin, Michigan State and Iowa began to leap front Penn State. 

Many of these zealots somehow transpose Paterno’s first 21 seasons— which is the reason Paterno is a coaching immortal— where Penn State had six undefeated regular seasons, played for four national championships, winning two and winning 10 of 14 New Year’s Six bowls.

Penn State had poor timing against Notre Dame

Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now: James Franklin


Part of that “Mandela Effect” has carried over to the James Franklin era and has added fuel to the fire of often deserved criticisms towards Franklin of not winning the big games.

Following Penn State’s heartbreaking loss in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Orange Bowl to Notre Dame, Franklin’s record against AP Top 10 teams dropped to 4-20.

In perspective, Paterno was 3-12 in his final 15 games against AP Top 10 teams, so he wasn’t getting the job done either. 

When a Penn State fan identifies their sport allegiance, the odds are football will be the sport over hockey, and in many Penn State fans minds of a certain age, Penn State is still the reigning perennial national power it was in the late 1970’s up until the mid 1980’s. 

This is the absolute closest Penn State has been to that mid-1980’s level.

This is no disrespect to the legendary 1994 team, who finished No. 2 that season and was recognized by ESPN in their celebration of the 150 years of college football as the highest ranked team to not win a national championship. But they were preseason No. 9 going into 1994.

There have been three Penn State teams that have started in the Top 5 since: 1995 at No. 4, 1999 at No. 3 along with 1997 squad being preseason No. 1. This should be the highest preseason rank for Penn State since these teams.

This is another log onto the fire.

When you consider the bevy of talent that has returned such as quarterback Drew Allar, who could have been selected in the Top 10 of this past Draft, running backs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen, offensive lineman Vega Ioane, defensive lineman Dani Dennis-Sutton and Zane Durant, as well as defensive backs Zakee Wheatley and AJ Harris, that is a national championship nucleus. 

Another log was added when Penn State made defensive coordinator Jim Knowles the highest paid assistant coach in college football history at north of $3 million per season.

‘You Don’t Mess Around With Jim’: Penn State Set to Hire Jim Knowles as Defensive Coordinator

When you consider how aggressive Penn State was in the transfer portal retooling their wide receiver room and adding depth at key positions like offensive line and linebacker it shows the sense of urgency to get this done. 

I feel the vision Franklin has wanted and conveyed to Penn State’s administration was tasted in the waning moments of the Orange Bowl. Everyone at Penn State felt they should have been able to drive to get points to move on to play for a national championship. 

To be so close and be denied in such fashion gave Franklin more leverage than he has ever had at Penn State. 

The aggressiveness of hockey cannot be overlooked, but Penn State’s proverbial “bread” will always be buttered by the success of what happens in Beaver Stadium. The wrestling program has a John Wooden-esque dynasty amongst us winning 12 of the last 14 national championships that was competed for, hasn’t lost a dual meet since 2020, and  that dominance hasn’t even made a dent into the engine that is Penn State football. 

If Penn State were to come up short this year, going “all-in” with significant investment to build the most complete rosters in the country, assemble thebest coaching staff in the nation of being able to retain Andy Kotelnicki another year and bringing in Knowles, a very favorable schedule that has Penn State the first five weeks in State College before hitting the road, that will leave many wondering what it would take to get it done.

Everyone got a taste of Franklin’s vision back in January being only moments away from getting to the national championship last season.

The immense pressure to satisfy that hunger is now on Franklin and his team is to deliver a return trip to Miami for the National Championship. Hockey may have gotten a hockey prodigy, but the significant investment to deliver a football national championship dwarves anything that happens at Pegula Ice Arena.



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