For the first time in 21 years, Texas basketball is the No. 1 team in the nation, with the AP Poll minting the Longhorns as the fourth top-ranked NCAA team of the season on Monday.

"I'm so happy for my kids, they’ve earned where they are today," Texas head coach Vic Schaefer told the AP ahead of his team’s resounding 57-26 win over unranked Georgia on Monday. "There's so much parity in the game right now."

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The Longhorns’ leap comes after then-No. 1 Notre Dame’s double-overtime loss to NC State on Sunday, a result that sent the Irish falling to No. 3 in the rankings. The Wolfpack, on the other hand, earned one of the week's biggest boosts due to the marquee win, jumping four spots to No. 9.

After spending 12 weeks at No. 1 before now-No. 4 USC snapped a school-record 23-game unbeaten streak earlier this month, UCLA also benefitted from Notre Dame’s slip-up, rising one spot to sit at No. 2.

Along with reigning champion No. 6 South Carolina, who began the 2024/25 NCAA season as the No. 1 team, there have now been four squads atop this season's AP Polls. There have never been more than four to reach that summit in the survey’s history.

Small shifts litter Monday's AP Top 25

Similar to the minor changes in the Top 3, the Poll’s remaining 22 teams saw mostly incremental shifts as the final 2024/25 NCAA regular-season weekend looms.

ACC standouts No. 24 Florida State and No. 25 Louisville re-entered the rankings this week after snagging upset victories over then-No. 20 Georgia Tech and then-No. 11 Duke, respectively. As a result, the now-unranked Yellow Jackets joined Illinois in exiting this week's poll.

The Blue Devils saw the biggest drop after their loss to the Cardinals, falling five spots to No. 16, while last week's upset loss to unranked Indiana sent Ohio State down four spots this week to No. 12.

How to watch Top 25 NCAA basketball games this week

With most major regular-season conference titles boiling down to this final week of play, some of the fiercest matchups are on deck this week.

The top two teams in three major conferences will fight for trophies and postseason seeding this week, with the Big East's No. 5 UConn hosting No. 22 Creighton at 7 PM ET on Thursday, airing live on CBS Sports Network.

Then on Saturday, a No. 4 USC vs. No. 2 UCLA rematch will decide the Big Ten at 9 PM ET, with live coverage on Fox.

Sunday will see the Big 12 crown their season champion after No. 17 Baylor battles No. 10 TCU for the honor at 6:30 PM ET, airing live on FS1.

AP College Basketball Top 25: Week 17

1. Texas (27-2, SEC)
2. UCLA (26-1, Big Ten)
3. Notre Dame (24-3, ACC)
4. USC (25-2, Big Ten)
5. UConn (26-3, Big East)
6. South Carolina (25-3, SEC)
7. LSU (27-2, SEC)
8. North Carolina (25-4, ACC)
9. NC State (22-5, ACC)
10. TCU (26-3, Big 12)
11. Tennessee (21-6, SEC)
12. Ohio State (23-4, Big Ten)
13. Oklahoma (21-6, SEC)
14. Kansas State (25-5, Big 12)
15. Kentucky (21-5, SEC)
16. Duke (21-7, ACC)
17. Baylor (25-5, Big 12)
18. West Virginia (21-6, Big 12)
19. Maryland (21-6, Big Ten)
20. Alabama (22-6, SEC)
21. Oklahoma State (22-5, Big 12)
22. Creighton (23-4, Big East)
23. Michigan State (20-7, Big Ten)
24. Florida State (22-6, ACC)
25. Louisville (19-8, ACC)

The NWSL has made a decision, as the league officially moves forward with its new "High Impact Player" rule despite stated opposition from the players union.

Announced last week, the rule change allows clubs to exceed to the NWSL salary cap by up to $1 million to attract or retain players that meet one of eight qualifying metrics set by the league.

Those metrics include major media award rankings like the 30-player Ballon d'Or shortlist and ESPN FC's Top 50 Football Players, as well as marketing power, top USWNT minutes, and end-of-year NWSL awards.

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Developed with Washington Spirit superstar — and current free agent — Trinity Rodman and her potential contract in mind, the "High Impact Player" rule will not go into effect until July 1st, 2026.

Meanwhile, the NWSLPA has spoken out against the mechanism, proposing instead to up the salary cap by $1 million without league-imposed spending regulations.

"Under federal labor law, changes to compensation under the salary cap are a mandatory subject of bargaining — not a matter of unilateral discretion," the union wrote on Wednesday.

Additionally, per The Athletic, NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke expressed concerns that the rule ties top athlete pay, in part, to player valuations in third party publications — a move that externally defines who a club can consider "high impact."

Led by six Kansas City athletes and five from Gotham FC, just 27 current NWSL players across 10 of the 16 clubs in the expanded 2026 season meet the new HIP qualifying criteria — though all teams could use the mechanism to attract a new athlete to the league.

In a growing global market, the NWSL could be falling into a trap of half-measures, as the union pushes back with league parity potentially on the line.

The Kansas City Current have apparently found a new manager, with ESPN reporting last week that the 2025 NWSL Shield-winners will bring on former MLS head coach Chris Armas to lead the team in 2026.

Armas built his career in the MLS, coaching the New York Red Bulls from 2018 to 2020 before taking over Toronto FC in 2021, then spending the last three years heading up the Colorado Rapids.

The ex-USMNT player also has experience in the women's game at the college level, leading the Division II Adelphi University women's soccer team from 2011 to 2014.

Despite their many victories in 2025, the Current found themselves without a coach after third-year boss Vlatko Andonovski moved into a sporting director role with the club in November.

ESPN reported that Kansas City chose Armas over internal candidates like assistants Milan Ivanovic and ex-Angel City and Gotham manager Freya Coombe.

"I want my staff and people I've worked with to become successful coaches. These are things I'm very passionate about and want to be able to execute," Andonovski told ESPN last month.

Armas would be the first former MLS coach to make the leap to the NWSL, with the winds of change in Kansas City blowing stronger than anticipated.

With the 2026 Winter Olympics fast approaching, US skiing icon Mikaela Shiffrin has started the 2025/26 FIS World Cup cycle in top form — particularly in her favored slalom event.

Closing out last season with a victory, Shiffrin is currently on a multi-event winning streak, earning her sixth straight slalom title in Semmering, Austria, on Sunday.

"It was a really hard day today, tough conditions, a really big fight, and the pressure's on… I did my best, best possible run," Shiffrin said afterwards.

Momentum is on her side, with Shiffrin set to enter the 2026 Winter Games in Italy as the winningest skier in World Cup history, surpassing Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark's 86 wins in March 2023 and becoming the first skier to reach 100 World Cup victories earlier this year.

Sunday's race marked the 30-year-old's 106th career World Cup title, with Shiffrin looking to add to her ever-growing historic record with three more slalom events scheduled before the Olympic women's Alpine skiing events kick off on February 8th.

The 2014 Olympic slalom champion and 2018 Winter Games giant slalom gold medalist is aiming to return to the podium after failing to medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Shiffrin will likely hit the slopes again next weekend, when the women's FIS World Cup lands in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, for a giant slalom and slalom competition.

South Carolina basketball is stocking up, as top-ranked high school senior Jerzy Robinson announced her commitment to join the head coach Dawn Staley and the No. 3 Gamecocks last Tuesday.

"I chose South Carolina because I had a sense of peace when it came down to the decision for me," Robinson told ESPN. "When I visited South Carolina, I was already home. I was already valued there.... I felt like this was where I needed to be for the next four years."

A 6-foot-2 guard who averaged 27 points and 10.2 rebounds in her junior season at Los Angeles's Sierra Canyon High School, Robinson is now the highest-ranked Class of 2026 recruit heading to South Carolina — as well as the final Top 5 player to make a college decision after also visiting No. 1 UConn and No. 5 LSU.

Robinson first made a name for herself at the youth level, winning three gold medals and the 2025 U-19 FIBA World Cup with Team USA.

The young talent also inked one of the first-ever shoe sponsorships for a high school player, signing an NIL deal with Nike in November 2024.

"Basketball has always been my love and my passion," she said. "To see it pay off and the hard work and the hours pay off, in the sense of I get to play for one of the best universities in the country, I just have so much gratitude."