It has been quite a week for Rachel Corsie.

When the NWSL and the NWSL Players Association ratified the league’s first-ever CBA earlier this week, it signaled a new era for professional women’s soccer in the U.S. and an emotionally conflicting farewell for Corsie.

The former Kansas City Current defender concluded her run as the NWSLPA’s vice president on Tuesday after the long journey, through many tense rounds of negotiations, toward reaching the CBA. Corsie’s departure was the result of her unceremonious exit from the Current last month.

Kansas City agreed to transfer Corsie to Aston Villa after she was informed “the club no longer wanted me to play for them,” as she wrote in an op-ed for The Press and Journal on Jan. 28. The decision was made even more surprising by Kansas City’s announcement last August that it had extended Corsie’s contract through the 2023 season and named her captain.

“Last year was one of probably my worst experiences to a football capacity,” Corsie told Just Women’s Sports this week, adding that the club had let her down on more occasions than the contract reversal.

The easy option would have been to leave it all behind and start fresh with her new team in the Women’s Super League in Europe.

But Corsie stuck with the NWSLPA, a group that had spent hours and hours on the phone together over the last few months, pushing for their demands in CBA negotiations. This week, on the night of the player vote, she lay sick in bed in her new apartment across the ocean, staying awake into the ungodly hours of the night on the Zoom call.

“Never at any point, when I was going through everything with Kansas City, did I think, ‘Well, I’m just going to forget about the CBA now, because that’s not my issue anymore,’” Corsie said. “Like that was almost the polar opposite of how I felt. It was more, ‘I’m going to stick with the people who are in my corner, who are on my team, who I want.’

“I would do whatever needed to look out for them, and I know that they would do the same for me.”

If you were surprised at the news of the Rachel Corsie transfer yesterday (as I was), this sheds a bit of light, in Corsie’s words. ⬇️

Corsie had signed a 2-year extension with KC through 2023 in August. https://t.co/8ShAXPgN5J

— Cindy Lara (@cinderL9) January 28, 2022

To Corsie, who joined the NWSLPA three years ago, the experience was like being on a “mini team.” After the Scottish national team captain’s first year as a representative, NWSLPA founder Yael Averbuch West called her to ask if she would take on the role of vice president.

“I just remember feeling really grateful for that opportunity,” Corsie said.

This year, the way players treated her and one another served as motivation to stick with the CBA project, all the way through until the night they put it to a vote.

“[It was] a reminder to myself that this is absolutely something you’re passionate about and that’s absolutely something that you’re going to see through to the end,” she said. “It made you really feel the strength of the player pool, that unity and togetherness, and I think that’s the type of feeling that you’ll remember forever.

“I’ll always remember 2021 as being the year that we worked through the CBA and that we got it through.”

The CBA, announced on Monday night, will usher in a 160 percent increase in minimum salary to $35,000 per year, free agency starting in 2023 for players with a minimum of six service years (2024 for players with five years), eight weeks paid parental leave and up to six months paid mental health leave.

“We know where this league started in 2013 and everything that we have been involved with and gone through,” said USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski. “So just the fact that we have such an agreement, historical agreement like this makes me happy.”

The players felt they came away with big wins on many components they considered high priorities in the CBA, such as free agency and player movement, Corsie said. That included guarantees like the maternity policy, which can make an impact beyond the soccer community.

When asked for her thoughts on what aspects of the CBA could have been taken further, Corsie pointed to the length of the agreement, which runs for five years through the 2026 season, and teams guaranteeing contract offers.

“I still think that’s a long time. I think that benefited the league, and the Board of Governors’ side of things more than ours,” she said. “I think a contract is a contract so if you sign a piece of paper and the other side signs a piece of paper, I think that should stand.”

pic.twitter.com/FyuTQC0E2y

— NWSLPA (@nwsl_players) February 1, 2022

Those two factors aside, Corsie and others in the NWSL this week celebrated the “incredible number of wins” in what is a historic moment for women’s soccer in this country.

“It shows that everybody is in it for the long haul and the league is now established — it’s going to be here, ideally, forever,” Houston Dash head coach James Clarkson said on a media call this week. “It’s just going to get stronger and stronger. As the league expands, more teams come in, the quality is just going to go through the roof, and it will be the best league in the world.”

“I’m just really excited for all the players carrying that future,” Corsie said. “I think it’s amazing to have been a part of it.”

Jessa Braun is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering the NWSL and USWNT. Follow her on Twitter @jessabraun.

Stakes are sky-high for Wednesday night's Cy-Hawk Series clash, as undefeated No. 10 Iowa State welcomes unbeaten No. 11 Iowa to Ames for the highest-ranked NCAA women's basketball matchup in the cross-state rivalry's history.

"[If] you grew up in the state, just there's nothing like it," Iowa head coach Jan Jensen said of the historic series. "You've dreamed, you've watched those big football matchups when you're little, you watched the basketball games when you were little, and to get to be in one — boy, it doesn't get much better."

"[It's] one of those things where it truly is a rivalry, because teams [go] back and forth and have their streaks and wins and losses," echoed Cyclones boss Bill Fennelly.

The red-hot Hawkeyes enter Wednesday's game with the head-to-head advantage having won three straight against the Cyclones — and eight of the last nine in the series.

That said, the Cyclones have the nation's leading scorer on their side, with junior center Audi Crooks's 27.6 points per game showcasing unmatched efficiency in the 2025/26 NCAA season.

"Audi's tough," Jensen said about the Iowa State star. "She's just really, really incredible…. When you let her get it, she's pretty accurate."

How to watch Iowa vs. Iowa State in the 2025 Cy-Hawk Series

The No. 11 Hawkeyes will visit the No. 10 Cyclones in the 2025 edition of the Cy-Hawk Series at 7 PM ET on Wednesday, with live coverage airing on ESPN.

The Washington Spirit are all in on forward Trinity Rodman, with club GM Nathan Minion telling reporters that the 2025 NWSL runners-up are working "pretty much daily" to re-sign the free agent despite salary cap concerns.

"I think everyone's trying to work together to get a deal in place," said Minion, acknowledging that the NWSL and the Spirit are actively working with each other to retain the 23-year-old star. "[We're] trying to figure this out and trying to get a resolution that can hopefully keep Trinity here with us for a long time."

"The reality is our current salary cap structure — it was built for a different era of women's soccer," said the DC club's recently hired president of soccer operations Haley Carter. "We're going to need mechanisms that allow NWSL clubs to compete for not only players from overseas, but our own players."

The NWSL vetoed the multi-million dollar offer from the Washington Spirit to keep Rodman last week, with the NWSLPA subsequently filing a grievance claiming the league violated the USWNT attacker's free agency rights by blocking the deal.

"These are nuanced conversations, and I would love to just toss the salary cap out the window and pay the players," said Carter. "But we also have to appreciate that, pragmatically, it isn't always payroll that's going to keep our athletes here. It's investment in other things as well."

"We are going to have to start getting creative, I believe, because it's bigger than just one team," continued Carter. "It's bigger than just one player. It's about the league's ability to keep its best players in this league as we continue to grow."

The NWSL transfer and hiring market is ramping up, with both the 14 existing clubs and two incoming expansion teams busy bolstering their 2026 ranks just weeks into the offseason.

Last week, Bay FC announced that England U-23 head coach Emma Coates will become the 2024 expansion club's second-ever manager, with fellow England youth national team and WSL staffer Gemma Davies joining Coates's NWSL crew as an assistant coach.

"I'm truly honored and super excited to build on the strong foundations that have already been established and to implement a clear identity both on and off the pitch," Coates said in Thursday's statement. "[Bay FC] shares my passion for people, performance, and culture, which I believe are fundamental to sustained success."

"Emma is not only an excellent coach, but she also has a proven track record of developing players to compete at the highest levels of both the domestic and international game," remarked Bay Collective CEO Kay Cossington. "Emma has consistently demonstrated an ability to bring players and teams to the next level with clarity, care and purpose. She understands what it takes to build environments where people thrive and perform at their best."

"Bay FC is gaining not only a great coach, but also someone that understands women's football and our athletes inside and out."

While Coates will wrap up her nearly three years at England's U-23 helm to join Bay FC in the coming days, three other NWSL teams are still searching for permanent sideline leaders this offseason, as the Kansas City Current, North Carolina Courage, and Portland Thorns continue to conduct coaching searches.

The Thorns joined the leaderless ranks in late November, parting ways with manager Rob Gale following the team's NWSL semifinals exit.

Reigning WNBA champion A'ja Wilson picked up yet another honor this week, as TIME crowned the four-time league MVP its 2025 Athlete of the Year on Tuesday.

The Las Vegas Aces center became the first player in WNBA history to win a championship, Finals MVP, league MVP, and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season, with the 29-year-old sweeping the league's awards this year.

"This year, I collected everything," Wilson said in her TIME interview. "I don't really talk much sh-t — I mean crap. I kind of let my game do it."

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Wilson described the Aces' midseason slump as a focusing agent in her 2025 TIME Athlete of the Year feature, with the skid launching the team on course to their third championship win in four years.

"I think 2025 was a wake-up call that I needed, to let me know that I can't be satisfied with anything," said Wilson. "There's somebody out there that's going to try to take your job. You need to make sure you're great at it, every single day."

Wilson also spoke to the strained relationship between players and WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, whose leadership came under fire in October as CBA negotiations kicked into high gear.

"I only know Cathy by when she hands me trophies," Wilson said. "If that's her true self, thank you for showing that. Thank you for saying those things. Because now we see you for who you are, and now we're about to work even harder at this negotiation."

With the latest CBA extension expiring on January 9th, Wilson promised that the players are all-in on negotiations through the holiday season.

“All of us are going to be at the table, and we're not moving until we get exactly what we want."