MICHIGAN GAME - LAST HAIL MARY VS. WESTERN MICHIGAN 🙌 | CONTROVERSIAL ENDING

 

DUSTY MAY AGREES TO BECOME DALLAS MAVERICKS HEAD COACH

 

Michigan national champion coach Dusty May is finalizing a deal to become the Dallas Mavericks’ next head coach, pairing him with Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg |Michigan basketball coach Dusty May | Image by Getty Images 

Michigan basketball coach Dusty May is finalizing a deal to become the next head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, according to multiple reports.

The move comes weeks after the Mavericks mutually agreed to part ways with Jason Kidd following a 26-56 season. May, who led Michigan to the 2026 NCAA national championship, would make the jump from college to the NBA in what would be the first direct college-to-pro head coaching hire since 2019.

Mavericks Coaching Search Background

The Mavericks began their coaching search in May 2026 after parting ways with Kidd. In a statement at the time, Mavericks President Masai Ujiri said at the time that “Jason has had a meaningful impact on the Dallas Mavericks, both as a Hall of Fame player and as the head coach who helped lead this franchise back to the NBA Finals. … As we evaluate the future of our basketball program, we believe this is the right moment for a new direction for our team.”

The Dallas Express previously reported on the search, noting Ujiri’s emphasis on future-oriented decisions around rookie star Cooper Flagg. Candidates included assistants and college coaches, with exploratory talks involving May and others.

Dusty May’s Coaching History

May built his reputation at Florida Atlantic University before moving to Michigan. At FAU from 2018 to 2024, he compiled a 126-69 record, leading the Owls to the 2023 Final Four as a No. 9 seed — one of the most improbable runs in NCAA history. He was the program’s all-time wins leader.

Prior to FAU, May served as an assistant at Florida (2015-18), Louisiana Tech, and other programs after starting as a student manager at Indiana. He was hired by Michigan in 2024 to replace Juwan Howard and quickly restored the Wolverines to national prominence, winning the 2026 national title in his second season.

Reactions on X

Social media lit up with the news. One user posted that “After winning a National Championship at Michigan, Dusty May is leaving the Wolverines to coach Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks, per multiple reports.”

Another noting owner Patrick Dumont’s role, posted, “Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont convinced Rick Welts to come out of retirement, he convinced Masai Ujiri to run his basketball team and now Dusty May to coach his team. The ungodly amounts of money he’s spent…”

No official Mavericks statement confirming the hire had been released as of Monday morning, but reports from Adam Schefter, Shams Charania, and Pete Thamel indicated the deal was nearing completion.

First Game and Future Outlook

May’s first regular-season game with the Mavericks is expected in late October 2026, when the NBA season typically tips off. No exact date has been announced pending the official hire and schedule release.

The hire pairs May with Flagg, the No. 1 overall pick and 2025-26 Rookie of the Year, who averaged 21 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 4.5 assists. It marks a rebuild-focused move under Ujiri aimed at long-term contention. Michigan will now search for its next coach.

- Tiffany Chartier 

PRESS CONFERENCE: MICHIGAN VS. UCONN POST GAME PRESS

UCONN VS. MICHIGAN FINAL MOMENTS & CELEBRATIONS | NCAA TOURNAMENT FINAL

UCONN VS. MICHIGAN | NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP NCAA TOURNAMENT FINAL EXTENDED HIGHLIGHTS

FAB 5 RECONNECT AT FINAL FOUR | NCAA TOURNAMENT

 

MICHIGAN VS. ARIZONA | FINAL FOUR | MARCH MADNESS 2026

MICHIGAN VS. TENNESSEE | ELITE EIGHT | MARCH MADNESS 3026

 

MICHIGAN VS. PURDUE | COLLEGE BASKETBALL 🏀 HIGHLIGHTS

 

OHIO STATE BUCKEYES VS. MICHIGAN WOLVERINES

 

OHIO STATE BUCKEYES VS. MICHIGAN WOLVERINES | COLLEGE BASKETBALL 🏀

 

MICHIGAN VS. WASHINGTON | COLLEGE BASKETBALL 🏀 HIGHLIGHTS

 

AUBURN VS. MICHIGAN | ELITE EIGHT | MARCH MADNESS 2025

 

MICHIGAN VS. TEXAS A&M | MAR Y MADNESS 2025

 

GENERAL MOTORS SETS UP NEW POWER UNITS DIVISION FOR FORMULA 1 TEAM

General Motors has set up a new division to create power units for the team it intends to enter into F1 next year.

It has already announced a deal to use Ferrari power units from next year as part of a “multi-year” arrangement, indicating it would begin using its own power units in 2028 at the earliest.

A statement issued on Thursday by General Motors and TWG Motorsport said the newly-formed GM Performance Power Units LLC will “put Cadillac on the path to being a ‘full works’ team — building Formula 1 vehicles and power units — by the end of the decade.”,

GM intends to open a dedicated facility for its Performance Power Units division near its technical centre in Charlotte next year.

Russ O’Blenes will be the CEO of the new venture. He has had a long career in power unit development for road and racing cars and previously worked at GM’s Performance and Racing Center in Michigan.

“Russ brings vast experience from many championship racing series, and has outstanding technical expertise, including spearheading our hybrid IMSA Cadillac and Corvette C8.R engines that are proven winners,” said Mark Reuss, president of GM. “In F1, we’re going to demonstrate GM’s engineering and technology capabilities on a global stage, and Russ is the right choice to lead the power unit team that will make it happen.”

O’Blenes said he is “truly excited to have the opportunity to build and lead the team that will bring an American-built F1 power unit to the grid.

“GM PPU is currently ramping up its team and is hiring in all areas of the business.”

Formula One Management confirmed in November it had reached an “agreement in principle” for the Cadillac-branded team to join the series as a new, 11th team next year.

- Keith Collantine

OHIO STATE AND MICHIGAN FIGHT AFTER MICHIGAN WANTED TO PLANT A FLAG MIDFIELD

SAY HELLO (AGAIN) TO EA SPORTS COLLEGE FOOTBALL THE BELOVED VIDEO-GAME BEHEMOTH IS BACK

Jerry Parson via AP 

 In a Michigan basement decked out in maize and blue, a father sat with his son.

They’d bond over a football video game. One with a story mode that would transport the 7-year-old into a college dorm room, where letters from fans filled his mailbox, the campus newspaper teased a championship and a list of Heisman candidates adorned his computer screen. If he played well enough, his name might even appear there.

It wasn’t real. But who was to say it couldn’t be?

“You know, we’d always joke, because he was a big kid, that ‘Hey, maybe you’re going to be on there someday,’” says the father, Bill Swartout.

Today, more than a decade later, that 7-year-old — Brayden Swartout — is an offensive lineman at Central Michigan, living the story mode in real life.

Countless versions of that game, not made in over a decade, collect dust in basements alongside phased-out gaming systems. It’s the inevitable fate of old discs, gaming cartridges, RCA connector wires and the like. Give it all a good blow, though, and the dust clears to reveal an enduring cultural phenomenon that, in this modern world, is on its way back.

MORE THAN JUST A VIDEO GAME

For a generation of youth, EA Sports' college football games fueled their aspirations in the sport. From the early versions in the 1990s to the immersive experiences in the 2000s that revolutionized create-a-player modes, the games became a must-have for sports and video-game fans.

As they grew more popular, however, something else grew, too: the chorus of voices that said college athletes depicted in the game should be getting paid. It was a notion that seemed preposterous in the student-athlete era. But as opinions morphed, it started to make sense.

Before 2021, college athletes were not allowed by the NCAA to profit from their brand, commonly known as their name, image and likeness — or NIL.

The video-game developer tried for years to differentiate in-game rosters from real-life players. “Quarterback No. 10” remembers this clearly.

“I remember when I was in the game. Obviously in high school and all that you want to be in the game, but then when you get to college you’re in the game, and I’m No. 10 from Baylor, before NIL, and I am No. 10,” Robert Griffin III, one of the game’s 2013 cover athletes and the 2011 Heisman winner, told The Associated Press.

“And that’s my name, ‘Quarterback No. 10 from Baylor,'" he says. “But, I’m like, white with a buzz cut fade and no arm sleeve on my arm and I’m from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. They completely tried to change the character just so they don’t have to pay the guy. Or say, ‘Oh no, that’s not his name, image and likeness, he’s not even the right color.’ But everybody knew who No. 10 from Baylor was.”

Eventually, EA Sports gave up. And so the franchise sat after its last version in 2013, dormant for 11 years.

IT'S BACK, FOR REAL THIS TIME

Society has changed a lot since the 2010s. So has Swartout's basement, now decked out in maroon and gold.

Gamers’ voracious appetites for immersive sports video games have not changed as much. And with the NCAA's decision to allow college athletes to profit from their brand, the time had come.

EA Sports in 2021 announced it would be reviving the franchise. Three years later, the game is scheduled to be released this summer with a full reveal promised in May. Details have been few so far, but players’ names and likeness will be real.

“I personally believe that NCAA football is the greatest game ever made,” Griffin says. “A lot of kids growing up with the game wanted to be able to see themselves grow and develop into those players they were creating.”

EA Sports has offered Football Bowl Subdivision players a minimum of $600 and a copy of EA Sports College Football 25 to be featured in the game. More than 10,000 players have accepted.

The game will seek to differentiate itself from other offerings in the market — sports franchises that have had the advantage of time to evolve. There's a difference, though: None of those have tackled college football.

“Video games, as popular as they were, they’ve just evolved so much based on how society has evolved and having so many different modes and options,” says Nicolette Aduama, the senior associate director of operations at Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society.

OUT WITH THE OLD

EA’s 2006 college football game was monumental in the sports video game realm. It was the first to completely immerse gamers into an athlete’s life. It had a killer soundtrack. Perhaps its only story mode rival in the early 2000s was NBA Ballers.

It also was problematic, including a feature that — like much entertainment from even recent years past — does not stand the test of time well. In the create-a-player’s dorm room, hanging from the corner of the computer screen, was a wallet-sized picture depicting a woman. As the player performed better on the field, the depiction shuffled through presets. The woman’s body type sometimes became thinner; her bust, hair color and smile changed.

“I remember seeing that like when I was a kid and even then I was like, `Why does the girlfriend get more attractive if you win more games?'” says Eli Mouser, 21, of Russellville, Alabama. “I was like, that doesn’t make any sense.”

EA Sports jettisoned this feature in later editions. It added another that had gamers pick a major and keep their GPA up to compete on the field. The developer has made strides in its equity through other games, such as its professional soccer franchise that now includes female players and its newest golf game, which asks gamers for their pronouns when they create players.

“Girls are gamers, too,” Aduama says. “We see it in movies and on TV shows now where people are breaking those stereotypes and we talk about that in our trainings all of the time. It’s about exposure."

EA Sports says it is offering female athletes opportunities to be involved with the game through its ambassador program, which pays athletes to promote it.

“I know one game right now that would certainly blow it out the water, it would be women’s college basketball,” Griffin says. “Caitlin Clark on the cover. You got all the girls over there with Angel Reese at LSU. Like, that game would mop the floor.”

Given the game's aspirational features, it's easy to wonder: When the new version comes out, what preteens will play it, find inspiration and end up on a college football field a decade from now? What dreams of 2024 — embedded in what will surely be the most immersive iteration of the game ever — will fuel paths to athletic success and deliver tomorrow's aspirations in hi-res?

For Mouser, growing up in Alabama as a Tennessee fan was tough. EA Sports’ college football games gave him a space to let out some of that orange in a sea of red. Like Bill and Brayden Swartout, the game also gave him a chance to bond with his father.

“I bother my friends all the time,” he says, calling the virtual world his “Roman Empire.” “They’re like, ‘Dude, you’re not a real football coach.’ And I’m like, ‘This is important to me, all right?’”

- RYAN KRYSKA

VIRGINIA LAW ALLOWS THE STATE'S COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES TO DIRECTLY PAY ATHLETES THROUGH NIL DEALS

AP

 RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed measure into law Thursday that allows state colleges and universities to directly pay their athletes through name, image and likeness compensation deals, a measure believed to be the first of its kind.

The law, which takes effect July 1, was signed one day after the NCAA eased some of its NIL restrictions but noted that its longstanding “prohibitions against pay-for-play and schools compensating student-athletes for use of their NIL remain in place.”

Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said other states may follow Virginia's lead. Several states have legislation pending, including Oklahoma, Nebraska and Louisiana.

“The Virginia decision — by the lawmakers there and the governor to sign it — I think really kickstarts it and puts it right at all of our doorsteps,” Manuel said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The NCAA in July 2021 allowed college athletes to earn money from deals with brands or businesses that compensate them for such things as endorsements or personal appearances. That has made millions of dollars available to athletes and prompted many states to put laws in place preventing the NCAA from restricting NIL revenue, seen by most as a recruiting enticement.

“If this law gets us closer to a federal or a national solution for college athletics then it will be more than worthwhile,” University of Virginia athletic director Carla Williams told ESPN. “Until then, we have an obligation to ensure we maintain an elite athletics program at UVA.”

Earlier this week, the NCAA moved forward on legislation that would allow its 1,100 member schools to be more actively involved in securing sponsorship and endorsement deals for their athletes, including facilitating opportunities between third parties and athletes.

The Virginia law clears the way for donors to work directly with a school on paying athletes. One of the bill's sponsors, Del. Terry Austin, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch, that the bipartisan measure was drafted by a University of Virginia deputy athletic director.

Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock told ESPN the school is considering different options for NIL payments, from contracting with a marketing agency or booster-backed collective to pay the athletes rather than money directly from the athletic department.

In December, when NCAA President Charlie Baker proposed a new subdivision of Division I athletics, he said all D-I schools should attempt to bring most NIL activities in-house and consider joint licensing deals with their athletes that would allow schools to pay the athletes.

State lawmakers have been a recent catalyst in prompting changes to NCAA rules around player compensation. In 2019, California lawmakers passed a bill that allowed college athletes to cash in on their fame, other states quickly followed suit and the NCAA was forced to lift its regulations. What remains is a patchwork of rules across the country.

Since then, the NCAA has suffered a number of losses in court tied to its basic model of amateurism amid growing support for empowering athletes.

Last month, it halted investigations into booster-backed collectives or other third parties making NIL deals with D-I athletes. A few days later, Dartmouth men’s basketball players took an early step toward forming the first union in college sports.

“I do think the time is upon us where student-athletes either are going to be employees or are going to be allowed to receive money, even if they’re not employees,” Manuel told the AP.

'FOOTBALL PERSONIFIED': LA CHARGERS HIRE HARBAUGH AS HEAD COACH

USA TODAY Sports 

The Los Angeles Chargers have hired Jim Harbaugh as their next head coach, the team announced on Wednesday, marking his return to the NFL ranks after spending the last nine years with Michigan.

Harbaugh led the 15-0 Wolverines to a national title this past season, ending his alma mater's 26-year championship drought.

He will now take the helm of a Chargers club he used to play for that finished an abysmal 5-12 last season.

"Jim Harbaugh is football personified, and I can think of no one better to lead the Chargers forward," team owner Dean Spanos said in a statement.

"Jim has led hundreds of men to success everywhere he's been — as their coach. And today, Jim Harbaugh returns to the Chargers, this time as our coach. Who has it better than us?"

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP HALFTIME HIGHLIGHTS | MICHIGAN VS. WASHINGTON