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Xavier, UConn NCAA Tournament Snubs Create Confusion For Mid
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UConn coach Jim Penders (Getty Images)
All the emotions you’d expect came rushing in at once—disappointment, anger, heartbreak for players who may never get another shot at the NCAA Tournament. Confusion. Sadness.
There’s no consolation prize for Billy O’Conner. If one exists, he doesn’t want it.
Instead, the eighth-year Xavier coach is searching for answers from this year’s selection committee about what more his team could have done. The Musketeers produced the No. 33 overall strength of schedule, the No. 4 non-conference strength of schedule, and finished the season ranked No. 39 in RPI, the highest of any team left out of the field of 64.
O’Conner wants to understand the message not just from this year’s committee, but from the ones to come.
What more must his program, and mid-majors like it, do to avoid this kind of heartbreak again?
“Perfection is not attainable in this sport,” O’Conner told Baseball America just a few hours after the selection show. “So it’s like, I think that some of the frustration stems from like, ‘What is it?’ What goes into it? Because it feels like a moving target.”
The Musketeers had all the résumé markers typically associated with selection: 16 combined Quad I and II wins—more than Kentucky (12), which made the field comfortably, and Southeastern Louisiana (eight), which didn’t make the tournament but was still listed ahead of Xavier on the “First Four Out.” That inclusion was especially puzzling given Jay Artigues’ dual role as committee chair and Southeastern Louisiana’s athletic director.
Neither O’Conner nor UConn coach Jim Penders spent a second criticizing Southeastern or Kentucky or any other team that did or didn’t make it. Their argument wasn’t rooted in another program’s credentials. It was rooted in confusion over their own.
“Our season was not perfect this year, right?” O’Conner asked rhetorically. “We didn’t go 56-0. We didn’t win every game on our schedule. But I feel that we did what the committee has historically asked a program like ours to do to give themselves a chance to be in the mix for an at-large berth. And I think we did it fairly well.”
Penders echoed the sentiment.
“You look at the schedule that we play and we crisscross the country and try to build up the RPI as much as possible, knowing that we’re going to have some drags on it later on that are unavoidable,” Penders said. “I felt like we did all that we could do, and we were penalized.”
| Kentucky | Xavier | Connecticut | Southeastern Louisiana | |
| RPI | 38 | 39 | 41 | 54 |
| SOS | 8 | 33 | 80 | 130 |
| Non-con SOS | 191 | 4 | 48 | 251 |
| Q1 record | 8-19 | 5-12 | 7-11 | 0-3 |
| Q2 record | 4-1 | 11-12 | 5-4 | 8-3 |
| Q3 record | 7-3 | 5-2 | 9-6 | 18-8 |
| Q4 record | 10-1 | 11-1 | 17-0 | 11-2 |
Artigues, speaking on behalf of the committee, said Xavier and UConn were left out due to their conference schedules, which included just one Quadrant I series for Xavier and two for the Huskies.
“If you look at UConn, the Big East after the top three, it doesn’t have another team in the top 100 (of RPI), and that kind of hurts them,” Artigues said. “UConn started out 13-7, then they won 25 of the last 29, but only seven of those games were against top 100 RPI teams… and UConn was 3-6 against the top teams in that conference.
“There was a lot of talk about Xavier, and they challenged themselves, and non-conference strength of schedule is very important. But you do have to win those games, some of those games at least. If you look at Xavier, in one trip they played, I think it was Tennessee, LSU, Southeastern Louisiana and Vanderbilt. They went 0-6 and they got outscored nine to 63 or 68, so it was really lopsided, not even competitive in that. So if you (have) the non-conference strength of schedule, which is really important, you do have to win some of them.”
Ask O’Conner, Penders or Big East assistant commissioner James Greene, though, and they’ll all tell you that Artigues’ argument falls flat.
And they’re right to question the logic. The conference schedule is unavoidable—a fixed set of matchups dictated by league membership, not by choice. That’s precisely why both UConn and Xavier scheduled so aggressively outside the league.
They knew the Big East’s lower half would drag on their metrics come April. So they front-loaded their resumes with high-end opponents—SEC powers, ranked road trips, top-50 RPI matchups—to insulate themselves from the very argument the committee seemingly invoked to keep them out.
“I think it’s a little bit of a wake up call,” Greene said. “We all felt pretty good that had Creighton not wound up winning the tournament, and had Xavier or UConn done it, that Creighton would have been in that conversation. But based on the way the field came out, I’m not sure that would have been the case.”
That’s the part that stings: even doing things “the right way” wasn’t enough. Penders, in his 22nd season at UConn, built a schedule full of road gauntlets and resume-boosters from a one-off game against now-national No. 1-seed Vanderbilt (a contest the Huskies won) to a series against Miami. He just thought there’d be a reward for surviving it.
“Ultimately, I don’t want to just get into the tournament, I want to win a national championship,” Penders said. “So if I want to win a national championship, you kind of have to continue to schedule tough.”
O’Conner, whose team faced the fourth-hardest non-conference schedule in the nation by the metrics, also spoke to the value of intense match-making.
“My goal as a coach is I want to put the opportunities in front of our players,” O’Conner said. “We got to go win games. We got to go beat Vanderbilt. We got to go beat Stanford. We got to go beat LSU or Tennessee or Oregon State or whoever it is. But those opportunities are there.”
Now, though, O’Conner and Penders are left to wonder if that method is actually worth it. It’s hard to know what matters, they said without knowledge of each other’s comments. RPI? Strength of schedule? Quad-I wins? Head-to-heads?
Xavier and UConn posted better RPIs than three at-large teams (Oklahoma State, USC and Arizona State). Xavier’s overall strength of schedule exceeded those of 31 teams that made the field, including five of the 16 hosts. Connecticut’s 7-11 Q-I record was better than fellow bubble teams. Xavier actually beat Kentucky head-to-head.
“RPI matters until it doesn’t,” Greene said. “Where’s that line? From year to year, that line seems to switch or move.”
“It just felt like the committee was overlooking us,” he added. “That really sticks out to me.”
The Big East’s plight is one faced by every mid-major league in an increasingly top-heavy college baseball landscape that this year saw 30 of the 35 at-large bids go to teams from the SEC (12), ACC (eight), Big 12 (seven) and Big Ten (three). Independent Oregon State also locked up an at-large berth, leaving just four for mid-majors, including the Sun Belt, the fewest since the NCAA adopted the 64-team super regional format in 1999.
As such, it’s clearer than ever that programs like Xavier and UConn don’t have margin for error. And this year, the lesson they learned is even harsher: do everything right, and it still might not matter.
“If we are encouraging good teams to play good teams, that is great for the game of baseball,” O’Conner said. “If we are telling teams to just accumulate wins by any means necessary, that’s really bad for college baseball. That’s a bad product people are going to watch.”
Penders agreed, but highlighted the difficulties.
“Most of [the SEC teams] won’t play us,” he said. “They don’t want to play us and I don’t blame them. I mean, you don’t want to have a series loss to Connecticut on your resume. But what are we going to do? We got to keep marching on and try to find people that will play I think.”
That’s why this cuts so deeply. It’s not just about a tournament snub—it’s about how it feels to pour everything into the system and still walk away empty-handed and with far more questions than answers.
“There’s never going to be somebody that’s looking out for Xavier,” O’Conner said. “We’ve got to make it to a point where they can’t ignore us.”
Until then, he’ll keep scheduling the SEC powers. He’ll keep building the hardest possible non-conference gauntlets. He’ll keep believing that merit matters—even when the results suggest otherwise.
“We’re going to go down the same pathway again,” O’Conner said. “And we’ve got to get better. We’ve got to execute at a higher level. We’ve got to be ready for the challenges that are coming our way.”
Because there’s no other option. Not for Xavier, UConn or the rest of the mid-majors trying to do it the hard way and still hoping that it will be enough.
“It’s very difficult to look your guys in the eye and say, ‘We’re going to run through that brick wall, and then we’re going to do it again and again and again, and I promise you it’s going to work out,’” Penders said. “And then days like today make me feel a little bit like a liar.”
Florida quarterback DJ Lagway finished the 2025 season with 2,264 passing yards, 16 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, while adding 136 rushing yards, a 63.2% completion rate and a 127.0 passer rating.
His year featured flashes of high-end upside, including a three-touchdown season opener against Long Island and multiple 250-yard passing performances, but was also marked by turnover-heavy outings, most notably a five-interception game against LSU.
The Gators finished 4–8 (2–6 SEC) in 2025, underperforming under head coach Billy Napier, who was fired on October 19 following a 3–4 start. Florida hired Jon Sumrall as his successor on November 30.
That instability, combined with reportedly awkward early meetings between Lagway and the new staff, preceded his decision to explore other options, which he announced his plans to enter the transfer portal on December 15.
A 2024 five-star recruit out of Willis (Texas) High, Lagway arrived at Florida as a high-profile prospect — a Mr. Texas honoree, Elite 11 participant and the nation’s No. 1 quarterback in the 247Sports rankings.
He started as a true freshman in 2024, completing 59.9% of his passes for 1,915 yards, 12 touchdowns and nine interceptions, then showed modest improvement in 2025, with his elite prep pedigree keeping him among the top quarterbacks in the transfer portal.
On Tuesday, transfer-market analyst Chris Hummer relayed updated reporting that growing interest in Lagway has come from Stanford and Florida State, alongside previously noted links to Baylor and Louisville.
Stanford finished 4–8 in 2025, in a season that exposed offensive struggles and significant turnover, including the loss of head coach Troy Taylor before the year and multiple key offensive players entering the portal, such as running back Cole Tabb, offensive tackle Jack Layrer, and wide receivers Jason Thompson and Myles Libman.
With senior starter Ben Gulbranson set to move on, several outlets have projected Stanford to pursue a portal quarterback, making a veteran, NFL-style, pro-concept passer like Lagway an appealing immediate option.
Florida State reshaped its quarterback room in 2025 by adding former Boston College quarterback Tommy Castellanos through the portal, but his subsequent declaration for the 2026 NFL Draft has reopened a clear need at the position.
Given the Seminoles’ offensive profile and proximity to Gainesville, Florida State would represent another logical landing spot for Lagway.
Lagway’s NIL valuation is also among the highest in college football, with On3’s NIL tracker listing it at $2 million, driven by deals with brands such as Gatorade, Jordan Brand, Nintendo and Red Bull.
That financial profile can enhance his appeal to programs capable of supporting or expanding his brand, making NIL infrastructure a meaningful factor in both team interest and his ultimate decision.
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Ty Gregorak on the state of college football + MSU heading to national championship – Skyline Sports
The NCAA transfer portal officially opens on Friday for all college football players searching for new schools to compete for in 2026. It will remain open for the next two weeks.
In the weeks following the conclusion of the 2025 regular season, thousands of college football players made the decision to play for another program next season. While quarterbacks have been a more dominant topic of conversation with the portal, there are plenty of other significant offensive skill players on the move.
One marquee name in the 2026 portal cycle is former Auburn wide receiver Cam Coleman. He will enter the portal with two seasons of eligibility remaining at his second school.
Hugh Freeze recruited Coleman to Auburn as one of the highest-rated wide receiver prospects in the 2024 class. He is projected by all recruiting services as the No. 1 overall recruit in the NCAA transfer portal for the 2026 offseason.
Coleman appeared in 10 of Auburn’s 12 games in 2024. He caught 37 passes for 598 yards and eight touchdowns his freshman season. He was named to the All-SEC Freshman Team that season.
Auburn featured Coleman in every game of the 2025 season. He grabbed 56 receptions for a team-high 708 yards and five touchdowns.
With such high prospects, Coleman is expected to attract attention from major college football programs across the country. The offers for Coleman are expected to hover around $2 million from any potential buyers.
One school that has worked its way into the mix to land Coleman in the 2026 offseason is Texas. Mike Golic Jr. mentioned the idea of the Longhorns jockeying for Coleman on a recent edition of Bleacher Report’s “College Football Show.”
“Steve Sarkisian is great at getting wide receivers the touches they want to look good for the NFL. Arch Manning, after being left for dead after the early portion of the season, looked like one of the best quarterbacks in college football the back half of the year,” Golic said. “I think you combine the quarterback with the offensive playcaller, I think you have a good setup there.”
As Golic mentioned, Sarkisian has a strong track record with wide receivers as an offensive mind. DeVonta Smith won a Heisman Trophy at Alabama with Sarkisian as the Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator. That offense featured another future NFL talent at wide receiver in Jaylen Waddle.
Wide receivers have gone to the NFL throughout Sarkisian’s tenure at Texas. AD Mitchell, Xavier Worthy, Matthew Golden and Isaiah Bond are among the Longhorns’ wide receivers who have reached NFL rosters in Sarkisian’s tenure in Austin.
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Nick Saban declares Miami ‘the real deal’ after College Football Playoff win over Ohio State in Cotton Bowl
Although it entered the game as the biggest underdog of the College Football Quarterfinal round, No. 10 Miami shocked the world and downed defending National Champion No. 2 Ohio State 24-14 in Wednesday night’s Goodyear Cotton Bowl.
The Hurricanes are now two wins away from their first National Championship since 2001. They will face the winner of No. 3 Georgia/No. 6 Ole Miss in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 8, with a spot in the national title game on the line.
Following Wednesday night’s big win for ‘The U,’ legendary head coach Nick Saban labeled Miami as ‘the real deal’ heading into the College Football Playoff Semifinals. Clearly, Saban is all-in on his former assistant, Mario Cristobal.
“The thing that impressed me the most was how relentless Miami competes in a game,” Saban said on Thursday morning’s edition of ‘College GameDay‘. “When Ohio State came out and answered the bell in the second half, Miami just kept playing. They drove through the smoke and made the plays they had to make when they had to make them. A couple of third down conversions on that last drive, which was critical.
“These guys are the real deal, and they’re peaking at the right time. They’re playing their best ball of the season right now, which is attributed to the coaching staff and players’ commitment to a standard, which they’re playing to.”
No. 10 Miami never trailed in 24-14 win over No. 2 Ohio State
Miami never trailed in the game, as it jumped out to a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter thanks to a nine-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Carson Beck to star running back Mark Fletcher Jr. Ohio State drove the length of the field and looked to tie the game, but Buckeye quarterback Julian Sayin was picked off by Miami DB Keionte Scott. Scott returned the interception 72 yards for a pick-six, propelling the ‘Canes to a 14-0 advantage.
A one-yard touchdown run from Ohio State running back Bo Jackson cut into the deficit, but a Miami field goal drew it back out to 17-7. It appeared the Buckeyes had all the momentum following a Jeremiah Smith 14-yard receiving touchdown, but a CharMar Brown five-yard touchdown run with just under a minute remaining dashed all hope of an Ohio State comeback.
“You’ve seen how we work and how we practice,” head coach Mario Cristobal said postgame. “They got tired of hearing from everybody. We’re focused on us.”
Cristobal was heavily criticized during the early years of his Miami head coaching tenure, as the Hurricanes suffered losses to programs such as Middle Tennessee State, Rutgers, and Syracuse (which practically kept them out of the 2024 CFP). He, however, has stuck it out, and has his alma mater closer to a National Championship than they’ve been in 25 years.
North Texas posted a school-record 12-win season in 2025 behind a high-octane offense led by redshirt freshman quarterback Drew Mestemaker, who finished the year as the nation’s leading passer.
The Mean Green advanced to the American Conference championship game, lost to College Football Playoff participant Tulane, and capped the season with a 49-47 New Mexico Bowl win over San Diego State.
North Texas led FBS in scoring (45.1 points per game) and total offense (512.4 yards per game), operating one of the country’s most prolific attacks under head coach Eric Morris.
However, shortly after the Mean Green’s season came to an end, Mestemaker announced he will enter the NCAA transfer portal when it opens, placing one of college football’s most productive quarterbacks on the market.
On Wednesday, On3’s J.D. PicKell specifically named Oklahoma State, where Mestemaker’s former head coach at North Texas, Eric Morris, is now the head coach, and Miami, whose desire for a passer who can stretch the field aligns with Mestemaker’s skill set.
“If I’m making a prediction, I would tell you Drew Mestemaker is following his head coach, Eric Morris, from North Texas to Oklahoma State. That’s my prediction,” PicKell said. “That’s not this segment. This segment is where’s the best fit for Drew Mestemaker. I think Miami’s the best fit for Mestemaker.”
“He fits exactly who I believe Miami wants to be offensively. Like, Miami and Shannon Dawson, what do they want to do? Spin the freaking rock, push the ball down the field, have vertical shot plays, score points, spread you out.”
“Yes, they still want to run the football, they still want to stay true to the Mario Cristobal genes of being an offensive linemen-driven program, but at the same time, I think they want to air it out and score a lot of points in the process.”
“Think more of what you saw from Cam Ward his year there than what you’ve seen this year with Carson Beck,” PicKell added.
Mestemaker, a 6-4, 211-lb redshirt freshman and former walk-on, finished 2025 as the FBS passing leader with 4,379 passing yards, 34 passing touchdowns, nine interceptions, and a 68.9% completion rate over 14 games.
He also earned first-team All-American honors, was named The American Offensive Player of the Year, and won the Burlsworth Trophy, now entering the portal with three years of eligibility remaining.
Morris was hired as Oklahoma State’s head coach following the 2025 season, and he previously coached Mestemaker while rebuilding North Texas’ offense, creating a clear path to immediate continuity in Stillwater.
Miami also makes sense stylistically, as offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson’s system emphasizes spacing, vertical shots, and tempo; traits that align with Mestemaker’s accuracy and downfield passing ability.
Mestemaker is set to enter the transfer portal when the early January window opens on Friday, at which point Power Four programs can contact him unless he applies a no-contact tag.
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The financial landscape of college football has shifted dramatically as teams navigate the first full cycle under new revenue-sharing models. General managers and talent evaluators initially expected a spending downturn at the quarterback position due to these caps, but the market has reacted in the opposite direction.
Programs are now finding creative ways to structure contracts that exceed revenue-share limits, often using marketing deals to bridge the gap for high-profile talent.
This aggressive spending surge has established a new price tier for the sport’s most valuable position, according to CBS Sports reporting from Chris Hummer and John Talty. The top quarterbacks in the transfer portal are now expected to command annual salaries exceeding $3.5 million, a figure that mirrors the NFL salary cap allocation for starting quarterbacks relative to total roster spending.
One ACC general manager noted that just six weeks ago, such numbers seemed impossible, but schools have since found ways to combine multiple deals to meet the $4 million threshold.
A specific veteran signal-caller has emerged as the primary beneficiary of this market explosion following a standout season and a surprising entry into the portal. This player brings a proven track record, including a playoff berth and extensive experience, making him an immediate upgrade for rosters across the country. His availability has triggered a bidding war among powerhouse programs desperate to secure a proven leader who can navigate the complexities of modern college offenses.
Quarterbacks commanding larger NIL deals
Arizona State Sun Devils quarterback Sam Leavitt has officially entered the transfer portal and is expected to command a salary that reflects the new market reality.
High-end transfer quarterbacks like Leavitt, along with Brendan Sorsby from the Cincinnati Bearcats and Josh Hoover from the TCU Horned Frogs, are now valued at more than $3.5 million annually. This contradicts earlier assumptions that revenue-sharing caps would depress player wages.
General managers are discovering that the demand for quality passing requires ignoring previous budget constraints. An ACC executive explained that programs are constructing contracts that consist of up to 15 separate deals to reach the $4 million mark. This strategy allows schools to technically adhere to revenue-sharing limits while still paying market rates for top talent.
The willingness to spend such a large percentage of the cap is a matter of intense debate among front-office personnel. A Big Ten general manager questioned whether it is prudent to allocate 20 percent of a program’s resources to a single player.
The executive warned that unless a quarterback performs at an elite level, the heavy investment could prove detrimental to the overall roster construction.
Prices for mid-tier options have also seen a significant increase. Quality starters who previously cost in the high six figures are now commanding between $1.5 million and $2.5 million. Even unproven backups with high upside are requesting salaries near the $2 million mark as the market resets.
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