MADISON, Wis. — Five of the six major conferences have a leader or co-leader that failed to make the NCAA Tournament last season.

That doesn’t mean this is a college basketball season full of Cinderella stories. Four of the major-conference leaders that got left out of March Madness last season have reached a Final Four within the last decade.

But those teams’ early success shows how the 2021 rule change allowing players to transfer without sitting out a season has made it easier for established programs to bounce back quickly.

“A lot of kids that are coming over from different rosters are bringing in new skillsets to the team,” said St. John’s transfer AJ Storr, who is scoring a team-high 15.3 points per game for No. 11 Wisconsin. “And they already have good skillsets there. They’re just adding new pieces. It’s like a new piece to the puzzle.”

Wisconsin has sole possession of first place in the Big Ten and Oregon leads the Pac-12 outright after those two teams faced off in last season’s NIT quarterfinals. No. 4 North Carolina, which went 20-13 and turned down an NIT bid last season, is unbeaten in Atlantic Coast Conference competition.

No. 25 Texas Tech is in a four-way tie for first place in the Big 12 after going 16-16 last season, while Seton Hall shares the Big East lead with No. 1 UConn after finishing 17-16 a year ago.

Most of these programs are accustomed to success.

Wisconsin has played in 22 of the last 24 NCAA Tournaments and reached the championship game in 2015. North Carolina won its most recent national title in 2017 and was runner-up in 2022. Texas Tech lost the NCAA final in overtime in 2019. Oregon reached the Final Four in 2017.

The schools just needed to get back to their usual standards. In many cases, they found solutions in the transfer portal.

Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland added five transfers who played in the NCAA Tournament last season: Warren Washington (Arizona State), Devan Cambridge (Arizona State), Chance McMillian (Grand Canyon), Joe Toussaint (West Virginia) and Darrion Williams (Nevada).

All five are averaging over eight points per game, though Cambridge suffered a season-ending knee injury last month. They’ve complemented leading scorer Pop Isaacs, a holdover from last season.

“This team just learns,” McCasland said last week. “We learn as we play. That’s what I love. Their heart is to get better.”

North Carolina lost its leading scorer from last season when Caleb Love transferred to Arizona, but the Tar Heels added Cormac Ryan (Notre Dame) and Harrison Ingram (Stanford) to the starting five and Jae’Lyn Withers (Louisville) and Paxson Wojcik (Brown) to the bench.

Those newcomers have boosted a roster that features RJ Davis and Armando Bacot, key players on North Carolina’s 2022 squad that nearly won it all.

“We’ve been having fun all year,” Bacot said last week. “I think the other guys are really starting to see how fun it is, winning at a school this and a program like this, and how much the fans are into it. It’s been great.”

Seton Hall’s starting five includes a pair of transfer newcomers in Dylan Addae-Wusu (St. John’s) and Jaden Bediako (Santa Clara).

All five of Seton Hall’s starters began their careers elsewhere. Kadary Richmond spent one season at Syracuse before transferring in 2021. Al-Amir Dawes (Clemson) and Dre Davis (Louisville) are in their second seasons with the Pirates.

That hasn’t hindered Seton Hall’s chemistry.

“Our togetherness is through the roof,” Dawes said earlier this month. “No matter what we’re going through — ups and downs — we’re just connected.”

Oregon also added a few transfers during the offseason. Kario Oquendo (Georgia) is averaging over 10 points per game, Mahamadou Diawara (Stetson) has been a part-time starter and Jesse Zarzuela (Central Michigan) is out for the season with an ankle injury.

The Ducks have benefited from the emergence of freshman Jackson Shelstad, and their depth has enabled them to withstand injuries. N’Faly Dante just came back from a knee injury last week and Nate Bittle is nearing a return from a wrist injury that has kept him out since mid-November.

“When we went into the season, we thought our depth was going to be one of our big things, one of the things that we could really count on, when you’re playing Thursday-Saturday, that we would have 10 guys that we could play,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “I think moving forward that’s got to be one of our strengths.”

Wisconsin has benefited from a similar formula as Storr joined a roster that returned 92% of its scoring from last season, but Badgers coach Greg Gard wonders if the lack of transfer restrictions eventually could make it difficult for programs to maintain consistency.

“If there’s three or four or five bluebloods, I think they will because they’ll be in the market for the best transfers and they’re probably going to have the top five kids who don’t go to the NBA but can you sustain it over the course of time because of the volatility of the roster,” Gard said. “I think we’re too early in this process to have an answer for that, but that’s something obviously I keep an eye on and watch other programs and their rosters as the fluctuation happens.”

It could make it tougher for teams to return to the NCAA Tournament just about every year as Wisconsin has done over the last two decades.

But for now, it also could assure that the Badgers don’t get let out of the field for a second straight season.

AP Basketball Writer Aaron Beard contributed to this report.

North Carolina’s Roy Williams and Gonzaga’s Mark Few were a day from meeting for the 2017 national championship with teams relying heavily on imposing front lines. And the coaching buddies couldn’t overlook one oddity.

“He said, ‘You know, this is strange — it’s the first time all year long that we’ve had to defend a team with two big guys, it’s been go chase the 3-point shot,’” Williams recalled Few saying.

“I said, ‘But Mark, look around. … We’re the only two left standing,” Williams said.

It’s a moment the now-retired Hall of Fame coach said the two have chuckled about since. It illustrates how much college basketball has changed since the arrival of the 3-point shot for the 1986-87 season. It has certainly been a factor in The Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball poll as it turns 75 years old.

There have been more upsets and more turnover at the top as the shot became a rankings-altering fixture.

“It’s the equalizer,” said Williams, who won three NCAA titles at UNC before stepping aside in 2021. “In the old days, three or four teams would rotate 1-2-3 in the country, and those were the most talented teams, and a lot of years those were the teams that had the best big men or best people the attacked the rim.”

It’s certainly made things more interesting, and volatile considering how the shot itself has made even the best of teams vulnerable to a hot-shooting upstart.

In the poll’s first 38 seasons before the 3-point shot, there were an average of 2.61 teams to hold the No. 1 ranking each year. That average has increased to 3.95 in the 37 seasons that followed with the 3.

Before the 3, there were 10 seasons in which one team went wire-to-wire at the top all season. There have been only four since, most recently Few’s Zags in 2020-21.

There were only three seasons with at least five different teams holding the No. 1 ranking before the 3-pointer. In the years since, that number has swelled to 16.

And it’s been easy to see that impact so far in this season’s upsets. Look no further than current No. 2 Purdue, led by 7-foot-4 Zach Edey as the returning AP national player of the year, seeing Northwestern and Nebraska shoot a combined 24 of 43 (56%) from behind the arc in stunning upsets when the Boilermakers were ranked No. 1.

ACC Network analyst Luke Hancock, the most outstanding player of the 2013 Final Four in Louisville’s later-vacated title run, said the 3 has long offered smaller teams a way to compete by offsetting a size or talent disadvantage.

“It’s spacing, it’s creating driving lanes,” Hancock said. “Everybody’s talking about paint touches and then kicking to open shooters. … It’s how you have to counter if you’re not as big and athletic as Zach Edey or (Kentucky’s) Oscar Tshiebwe.”

Everyone is chasing it in recruiting, too.

“Man, it’s the most important thing,” Duke associate head coach Chris Carrawell said. “In today’s game, you have to be able to shoot the ball with range, and range is the 3-point line. It’s hard to be a great player in today’s game without having the ability to shoot the ball. It just is.”

Williams long preferred a two-post lineup, partly to attack the glass and fuel transition chances but also to get to the line and put other teams in foul trouble. Yet he also embraced the 3 to further elevate some of his top teams.

The 2005 team that won Williams’ first NCAA title ranked seventh nationally in 3-point percentage (.403) to aid Sean May inside. The 2009 title winner — which spent nine weeks at No. 1 in the AP Top 25 — ranked 20th (.387) in an offense built around Atlantic Coast Conference all-time leading scorer Tyler Hansbrough inside.

Carrawell pointed to another example: the 2017-18 Villanova team led by AP national player of the year Jalen Brunson. That squad spent eight weeks at No. 1, ranked third nationally by making 11.6 3s per game and romped its way to a second NCAA title in three seasons.

It’s no coincidence that Jay Wright’s Wildcats posted the second-most efficient season ever charted by KenPom (scoring 127.8 points per 100 possessions) dating to 1999.

“They just carved teams up because they were able to space you, they had everybody on the court who was a threat,” Carrawell said. “So you had to pick your poison, and they just broke you down, they were able to get to the rim, and they were able to make you pay from the 3-point line.

“That’s modern-day basketball,” he said. “And it’s a great brand to watch, I’m not going to lie.”

That declaration was mentioned several times in one form or another as John Carroll celebrated the official announcement as the 10th and newest member of the North Coast Athletic Conference. The Blue Streaks will begin play in the NCAC in the fall of 2025.

JCU made that official early Jan. 18, and it also ended the school’s more than three-decade association with the Ohio Athletic Conference, which began for a second time in 1989. The Blue Streaks were also members of the OAC from 1932 to 1949.

JCU said in a statement the move to the NCAC “is the latest step in John Carroll’s three-year, $100 million strategy to bolster the student experience, grow the academic portfolio, enhance the campus, and expand the institution’s reach.”

During a news conference on JCU’s campus, School President Al Miciak, Athletic Director Brian Polian, NCAC Executive Director Keri Alexander Luchowski and Wittenberg president Mike Frandsen gave statements as JCU began a new association and the NCAC welcomed its newest member.

The NCAC currently consists of nine full-time members — Ohio-based schools Denison, Hiram, Kenyon, Oberlin, Ohio Wesleyan, Wittenberg and Wooster, plus Indiana-based institutions Wabash and DePauw. JCU will make it a 10-team league in 2025.

Polian — named JCU’s AD last May — said there was no talk about JCU-to-the-NCAC when he interviewed for the post. Now that it’s official, he said it’s time to get to work expanding the JCU brand to the far reaches of the United States.

“The reality of it is higher (education) for schools like ours, the ground is shifting beneath our feet,” said Polian. “We’ve got to make sure we’re in position and in the best possible spot so that we can thrive for another 130 years. We need to open up our footprint. To do so is to be associated with schools that have that same profile.”

NCAC schools such as Oberlin, Kenyon and Denison have built a reputation and an alumni base that spans across the country. Miciak and Polian envision that happening at JCU.

“When you look at this decision outside of athletics, it makes more sense,” said Polian, who said JCU’s decision was “bold.”

“We are not afraid of bold. We’re going to be a national brand, and we have the courage and foresight to make that happen.”

All that being said, there are questions that remain about the move to the NCAC — most notably with a crosstown rivalry and football.

Miciak and Polian said they are hopeful JCU’s rivalry with Baldwin Wallace can continue with non-conference contests.

“My hope is to talk to (AD) Steve (Thompson) over at Baldwin Wallace and find a way to keep us competing,” said Polian. “For me, I think it’s really important that Carroll and Baldwin Wallace keep playing.”

From a football perspective, JCU’s move to the NCAC undoubtedly provides an easier path to the NCAA Division III playoffs. Since joining the OAC and competing with D-III football juggernaut Mount Union, the Blue Streaks have made the playoffs seven times.

The Blue Steaks made it in their first year in the OAC in 1989, then in 1997 and 2002, when it made the NCAA national semifinal round for the first time. Most recently, JCU made the postseason in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2018. In 2016, the program made the final four for a second time.

More on the move to the @NCAC pic.twitter.com/EOnw4e71du

— Brian Polian (@BrianPolian) January 18, 2024

Polian said anyone who believes JCU’s decision to leave the OAC was based on football first and foremost is incorrect.

“For those that think we are running away from Mount Union, we are not,” said Polian.

JCU men’s basketball coach Pete Moran — who played basketball at the school and helped lead the Blue Steaks to their only NCAA Division III Final Four appearance — said the news of his alma mater leaving the OAC was bittersweet.

“Although I am extremely excited to join a conference with a rich tradition in men’s basketball and competing against some of the winningest teams in the history of D-III basketball (Wooster and Wittenberg), I will also miss the relationships that we have made amongst OAC coaches and administrators,” said Moran. “These relationships have meant so much to me and my family over the years.”

JCU to the NCAC is the latest in the school’s three-year, $100 million strategy “to bolster the student experience, grow the academic portfolio, enhance the campus, and expand the institution’s reach.”

The centerpiece of that $100 million strategy is the construction of a state-of-the-art 100,000 square foot Athletic, Wellness and Event Center, scheduled to open in 2025.

The NCAC sponsors championships in 23 sports — 11 for men and 12 for women. JCU currently has 23 varsity sports for men and women.

LeVelle Moton had just watched North Carolina Central, a program that he has turned into a mid-major mainstay in the NCAA Tournament, get obliterated by Kansas, yet he had a hard time wiping the smile from his face.

He knew that, win or lose, his team had experienced something special just by playing the Jayhawks in Allen Fieldhouse.

“Kansas is just the mecca of basketball, right?” Moton asked. “You walk in and there’s subtle signs where they play mind games — it says, ‘Welcome to the Phog.’ ‘Beware.’ I’m like, ‘Wow, you can’t even look at the signs!’ I’ve never been to a place where the fans beat the teams there. They were out there an hour-and-a-half before we showed up. It looks like a movie. It feels like a movie.

“It’s just a special place,” Moton said. “It’s just unreal. It’s profound, and it was great to play there.”

Four days later, Manhattan coach John Gallagher walked off the floor after a similar rout with a similar feeling.

“I grew up in Philly. The Palestra is heaven to me,” Gallagher said of the Philadelphia mainstay, which has hosted more NCAA games than any other facility, “and this is the Palestra on steroids. This is the best place in college basketball.”

You’ll find plenty of people who agree. And plenty more with differing opinions.

As the AP Top 25 celebrates its 75th anniversary, it is worth looking back at some of the great venues that those teams called home, including some that are no longer in use today.

HINKLE FIELDHOUSE

If there is a holy trinity of college basketball cathedrals, the home of Butler — and for decades home of the Indiana high school basketball championship — might stand alongside Allen Fieldhouse and the Palestra. How many college basketball arenas are on the National Register of Historic Places? Or is believed to have feelings? Or had a starring role in the iconic film, “Hoosiers?”

RUPP ARENA

The Baron of the Bluegrass, Adolph Rupp, had his name attached to Kentucky’s arena when it was built 1976. It replaced another iconic venue, Memorial Coliseum, which had opened in 1950 and where Rupp laid the cornerstone for the Wildcats’ dynasty.

CAMERON INDOOR STADIUM

The same architectural firm that built the Palestra built Duke Indoor Stadium in 1940. It remains the home of the Blue Devils, though since 1972 it has been known by its more familiar name: Cameron Indoor Stadium. The fandom knows a lot about being outdoors, too, with campouts part of the lore.

PAULEY PAVILION

One of the greatest venues on the West Coast and the home of UCLA may not carry the same intimidation factor as Allen Fieldhouse or Cameron Indoor Stadium, but those places also don’t have 11 national championship banners hanging from the rafters, either. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Reggie Miller, Ed O’Bannon, Kevin Love and Ann Meyers all starred here.

BARNHILL ARENA

Before becoming the home of Arkansas gymnastics with the opening of Bud Walton Arena, the Razorbacks’ old facility came to be known as “Barnhell” for the teams fielded by Nolan Richardson and their famed “40 Minutes of Hell” style.

MUNICIPAL ARENA

The art-deco home to Kansas City of the Summit League was for many years the home to the Final Four. Nine times the NCAA crowned its champion on its floor, the last of them John Wooden’s first championship team with UCLA in 1964.

HEC EDMUNDSON PAVILION

College basketball was centered largely on the Midwest and East Coast when Hec Ed opened for Washington in 1927. Kentucky and Kansas won national championships there; many more teams have tasted defeat.

FREEDOM HALL

It was the home of Louisville basketball for more than five decades, before being replaced by the KFC Yum! Center, one of the best of the new breed of arenas. It’s still in use for college basketball by Bellarmine, which is transitioning to Division I.

THE PIT

Its innovative design — you travel 37 feet down to reach the arena floor — gave it its name, but New Mexico has made it the pits for plenty of teams over the years. It was the site of North Carolina State’s upset of Houston in the 1983 Final Four.

ASSEMBLY HALL

Its opening at Indiana coincided with the hiring of Bob Knight, and together they would achieve greatness — and generate their share of controversy. Its exceptionally steep sideline bleachers are not for the faint of heart.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Kalen DeBoer stood at a lectern, only a few feet from Nick Saban, and enthusiastically embraced the chance to both replace and learn from his larger-than-life predecessor.

The outsized expectations Saban leaves behind are a big part of that.

The former Washington coach, hired two days after Saban’s retirement, said he’s giving the 72-year-old ex-coach “100 percent access” to his program — saying he’d “be a fool not to” — and that Saban firmly wants the Crimson Tide’s success to continue. All that makes it easier to be the guy who replaces the guy who brought six national championships to Tuscaloosa in 17 years.

“I felt confident enough in my abilities, along with knowing that you have someone that wants this program to be so successful,” DeBoer said Jan. 13, speaking to reporters after he was introduced at Bryant-Denny Stadium. “I firmly, 100 percent believe that he wants nothing but the best. Some people when they leave, it’s like, ‘Eh, I want to be that legend and I don’t want it to be as good as it was when I was there.’

“That’s obviously not the case. He wants this thing to be even better. His legendary status will never be questioned.”

Saban and his wife, Terry, sat in the front row Saturday watching DeBoer address a room with dozens of Tide supporters and university brass. Then they slipped out without talking to reporters.

But Saban’s shadow still loomed. A huge photo of Saban and players hoisting a national championship trophy hung on the wall behind DeBoer as he talked to reporters.

University President Stuart R. Bell said Alabama found “the perfect person” to lead the program. But he drew loud applause when he gave a nod to Saban.

“Your legacy will forever be interwoven with the fabric of the university,” Bell said.

DeBoer spoke with Saban on the phone the morning of Jan. 12 and called him again the next morning. Saban has told ESPN he will keep an office at the stadium.

Still, it’s DeBoer’s moment. The 49-year-old from South Dakota was hired Jan. 12 after leading Washington to the national championship game in his second season and earning Associated Press coach of the year honors. He is 104-12 as a head coach, winning three NAIA national titles at alma mater Sioux Falls and quickly having success at Fresno State and Washington. He was 25-3 with the Huskies.

DeBoer was greeted by a large group of Alabama fans when he landed at the Tuscaloosa airport a little after 8:30 p.m. Jan. 12, and others lined the path to the football building. He high-fived some fans before getting whisked away for a meeting with his new players.

Still, he wiped away tears while talking about leaving his Washington players who made it to the brink of a national title.

“I knew this was the right move,” DeBoers said. “I knew this was a thing that, not that I had to do, but that I really wanted to do. But it wasn’t easy.”

He also knows Alabama players have emotions to process about losing Saban, who led the team to a Southeastern Conference championship and into the College Football Playoff in his final season.

A big challenge will be re-recruiting current players who have options to transfer. The most high-profile players who have entered the transfer portal or announced plans to this week are five-star 2023 cornerback Dezz Ricks and wide receiver Isaiah Bond.

DeBoer met with a number of players both Jan. 12 and 13.

Bond told ESPN on Jan. 14 that he has committed to Texas, where he will play for Steve Sarkisian, a former Alabama offensive coordinator who led the Longhorns to the playoff in his third season in Austin, in the wake of Saban’s retirement. “One hundred percent,” Bond said. “That was the decision why I left.”

The transfer portal issue brought some urgency to Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne’s efforts to hire a new coach. He needed only two days.

Byrne declined to offer details about the terms of Alabama’s deal with DeBoer. But after meeting with DeBoer and his wife, Nicole, the AD was convinced that both were entirely comfortable with the challenge of replacing a coach who won a record seven national titles between LSU and Alabama.

Byrne acknowledged he was familiar with the argument that “nobody’s going to want to replace Coach Saban.”

“As I thought about it over the years, one of the things that I thought about was, you’d better have somebody who’s comfortable in their own skin and that looks at this as a challenge and an opportunity, not as a detriment,” Byrne said.

DeBoer appears to fit that description.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — J.J. McCarthy, Michigan’s national-championship winning quarterback, is skipping his senior season to enter the NFL draft.

McCarthy made the announcement Jan. 14, a day after being begged to stay.

“The decision was not easy and how could it be — I love my teammates, I love my coaches and I love it here in Ann Arbor,” he wrote on his social media accounts.

Jim Harbaugh might be the next to go.

Harbaugh will meet with the Los Angeles Chargers about their head coach vacancy this week, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity Jan. 14 because the person wasn’t at liberty to publicly discuss personnel moves.

Besides the Chargers, Atlanta, Carolina, Las Vegas, Seattle, Tennessee and Washington have openings and at least some of those teams may have an interest in bringing Harbaugh back to the NFL.

Many Michigan players have announced they’re going pro, including senior running back Blake Corum, who potentially could have returned for a fifth season, and junior linebacker Junior Colson.

The Wolverines had a parade through town Saturday, winding their way to their basketball arena. When it was McCarthy’s turn to talk to the sold-out crowd, a chant broke out as he stood and smiled.

“One more year! One more year!” the maize-and-blue clad fans shouted in unison.

McCarthy reminded the audience of his social media post on Nov. 15, 2020 — amid the team’s 2-4 pandemic-shortened season — when he asked Michigan fans to take three deep breaths and gave thanks for the faith they had in the coaches and players.

Then, he addressed his future.

“I know lots of us got some big-time life decision to make,” McCarthy said on a stage at Crisler Center. “But I just want to let you guys know, whatever decisions come, Michigan will forever be in my heart and will always be in my heart. And, I will be proud to be known as a Michigan man.”

The AP All-Big Ten quarterback completed 72.3% of his passes, ranking sixth, just ahead of Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels of LSU. He was ninth in the nation in passing efficiency.

McCarthy threw for 2,991 pass yards, ranking fourth in a single season at Michigan, and 22 touchdowns for the second straight season. He threw four interceptions, none over the last four games and was picked off only once after Week 3.

He has a 27-1 record as a starter over two years, winning 96.4% of his games for the best mark by a quarterback with at least 20 starts since Toledo’s Chuck Ealey closed his career 35-0 in 1971.

He grew up 15 miles west of Chicago in La Grange Park, Illinois. After winning two state titles in three years at Nazareth Academy in his hometown, he spent his senior season of high school at IMG Academy in Florida to play during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Away from his family and confined mostly to his room by himself, McCarthy said he became depressed. He researched ways to improve his mental health and began to meditate, which led to a daily practice.

Even on game days, McCarthy would take a seat at the base of a goalpost a couple of hours before kickoff and meditated to help prepare him for the pressure that comes with playing his pivotal position. He has become a public advocate for mental health and has a foundation, JJ For The Kids, to help children in Chicago and Ann Arbor.

As a freshman at Michigan, McCarthy backed up Cade McNamara as the team ended an eight-game losing streak to rival Ohio State and won its first of three straight Big Ten titles. McCarthy beat out McNamara for the job in 2022, leading to him transferring to Iowa, and helped the Wolverines reach the College Football Playoff for the second of three consecutive years.

He guided Michigan to a win Jan. 8 over Washington, helping Michigan win its first national title since 1997 and a school-record 15-0 record. The convincing win capped a season marked by a sign-stealing scheme that led to Harbaugh being suspended by the Big Ten for the final three games of the regular season.

NCAA President Charlie Baker told reporters recently that Michigan won the national championship “fair and square.”

Harbaugh also may have a big decision to make soon.

Athletic director Warde Manuel told fans at the championship celebration Jan. 13 that he was working on a new contract with Harbaugh, who has three seasons left on his deal, in hopes of keeping him away from NFL teams.

Harbaugh returned to Michigan, where he was a star quarterback, in 2015 after going 44-19 over four years with the San Francisco 49ers and leaving amid tension with the front office. He went to three straight NFC championship games and lost the Super Bowl to Baltimore, and his brother, John, nearly 11 years ago.

While Harbaugh is exploring his NFL options, he also is considering staying at Michigan, a person familiar with his thinking told the AP. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi and AP Sports Writer Joe Reedy contributed.

Two years ago, Nick Saban sat at the head of a long, cluttered table in the meeting room adjacent to his office and talked about how college football was rapidly changing in ways that would challenge the process he used to build the Alabama dynasty.

“Whether we’re recruiting you or whether you’re on our team, your focus should be on development,” Saban told the AP in March 2022. “It’s my job is to create a platform where you have a chance to develop and be successful as a person and as a student and as a player. I’d like to continue to do that.

“If that’s the case, you’re going to create more long-term value for yourself. You’re going to graduate. You’re going to have a better chance to develop as a football player and play at the next level. We want to continue to focus on development of players.”

Saban retired Jan. 10 after 17 seasons and six national title with the Crimson Tide, joining Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, North Carolina’s Roy Williams, Notre Dame’s Muffet McGraw and Villanova’s Jay Wright among championship-winning college coaches in high-profile sports to call it a career over the last four years.

They have have all talked about how the evolving landscape of college sports — with players being paid through name, image and likeness deals and almost unfettered transfers — has changed the profession they love.

But despite what TV commercial co-star and Colorado coach Deion Sanders suggested on social media, the 72-year-old Saban insists changes did not push him into retirement.

“To me, if you choose to coach, you don’t need to be complaining about all that stuff. You need to adjust to it and adapt to it and do the best you can under the circumstances and not complain about it. Now, I think everybody is frustrated about it,” Saban told ESPN. “But this ain’t about that. We’ve been in this era for three years now, and we’ve adapted to it and won in this era, too. It’s just that I’ve always known when it would be time to turn it over to somebody else, and this is that time.”

Saban has not won a national title since 2020, but the last two seasons his Crimson Tide went 24-4, won a Southeastern Conference title, snapped Georgia’s 29-game winning streak and took national champion Michigan to overtime in a College Football Playoff semifinal.

“We’ve watched him adapt to circumstances,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said.

While the salaries for those who coach at the highest level of Power Five football have soared — Saban helped set that bar with more than $100 million in pay over his Alabama tenure — it is also fair to say the job has never been tougher.

Recruiting of high school players has become a year-round task and now with players able to transfer more freely and play immediately, coaches need to re-recruit players already on their rosters.

“I have multiple coaches that say, you know, I don’t want to do this much longer. I can’t do this,” said Todd Berry, the outgoing executive director of the American Football Coaches Association.

Managing portal comings and goings makes roster management complicated with college football jamming both its offseason and postseason — with bowl and playoff game preparation — into the month of December.

“There’s a lot of moving parts going on right now in college football that I hope people are sitting down and really being thoughtful to what is best for our sport right now in the timing of some of these things,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said before the Sugar Bowl. “I don’t have all the answers. I don’t pretend to right now, but I do know it was taxing for us.”

Sankey said big decisions such as retirement often have many layers and he doubted Saban’s came down to one thing.

“Nick’s tough. Next focused. Nick has high expectations. I doubt with any of us that there’s A factor,” Sankey said, with emphasis. “Are people frustrated? Yeah. I’m concerned that we lose really good people because they’re frustrated about the environment.”

Sankey also said that he still expected Saban to be a part of college football and contribute in some way to guiding it through its turbulent times.

“He’s not walking away from the game,” Sankey said. “He’s walking away from a role.”

COLUMBUS — Max Klesmit scored all of his 18 points in the second half as No. 15 Wisconsin won its fifth straight, rallying to beat Ohio State, 71-60, on Wednesday night.

A 3-pointer from Klesmit put Wisconsin up by 1 with 5:16 left. The defense kept the clamps on Ohio State as Klesmit kept shooting, scoring nine of the last 14 points for the Badgers (12-3, 4-0 Big Ten).

AJ Storr had 15 of his 17 points in the first half for the Badgers, the only undefeated team left in the Big Ten.

Jamison Battle had another impressive performance for Ohio State (12-4, 2-3), pacing the Buckeyes with 18 points. Bruce Thornton had 13 despite missing his last four shots. The Buckeyes have lost two straight.

The Buckeyes led most of the first half by as many as seven points. Back-to-back 3-pointers by John Blackwell and Connor Essegian put the Badgers up 35-33 at the break.

BIG PICTURE

Wisconsin: Steven Crowl, the Badgers 7-footer, was slowed by a left knee contusion suffered in practice. Scoreless in the first half, Crowl finished with five points and six rebounds. Still, the Badgers had too much depth for the Buckeyes.

Ohio State: The Buckeyes just couldn’t overcome Klesmit’s second-half surge.

UP NEXT

Wisconsin: Hosts Northwestern on Saturday.

Ohio State: At Michigan on Monday.

PHOENIX — NCAA President Charlie Baker says Michigan won the national championship “fair and square” and defended his decision to inform the school and the Big Ten during the season that the association’s enforcement staff was investigating allegations of an in-person scouting and sign-stealing scheme.

The top-ranked Wolverines beat No. 2 Washington to win the College Football Playoff on Monday night, capping a perfect season, the back half of which was shadowed by the NCAA investigation and led to the Big Ten’s three-game suspension of Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh.

In a meeting with reporters, Baker explained why the NCAA took the unusual step of informing parties involved in the investigation last October.

“We were approached by a third party, who said they had evidence that Michigan was involved in a very comprehensive and unusual sign-stealing scheme,” Baker said late Tuesday. That party was told they needed to come in person to NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis to present evidence to enforcement staff as part of a vetting process.

“They did and they showed it to our infractions people and it was very compelling,” Baker said, giving no details of the third party’s identity.

Baker said because of the potential to impact the outcome of games, the NCAA decided to contact the Big Ten and Michigan and share the first pieces of what it had received from the third party.

The Big Ten then informed schools that had played Michigan and schools that were still left on Michigan’s schedule. Soon after the news leaked to the media and the Big Ten and Michigan both publicly acknowledged the investigation. Harbaugh, who is facing unresolved NCAA violations in a separate case tied to recruiting, has denied any knowledge or involvement in impermissible scouting of opponents and he again declared his program innocent of wrongdoing after beating the Huskies.

Baker said he was confident the NCAA did not leak any information to the media about the investigation.

“I don’t regret doing it because sitting on that information, I think we would have put everyone, including Michigan, in an awful place,” Baker said. “As it was, it was out in the public domain. And people either made adjustments or didn’t. And at the end of the day, no one believes at this point that Michigan didn’t win the national title fair and square. So, I think we did the right thing.”

The NCAA sign-stealing investigation is likely to last many more months. Michigan has not yet received a notice of allegations from the NCAA, formally detailing the accusations, and will have 90 days to respond once it does. A hearing in front of the infractions committee would need to be scheduled after that.

“We do have a series of discussions going on with the infractions folks about whether or not we can’t do some things to speed up the pace of our investigations,” Baker said. “Because certainly in a case like this you’d like to be able to move a lot more quickly.”

Potentially complicating the Michigan situation is the uncertainty of Harbaugh’s future with the Wolverines. Harbaugh has said repeatedly he had no involvement of any sign-stealing operation, which involved people allegedly being sent to games involving Michigan opponents to video record signals coming in from the sideline.

Records from other Big Ten schools show former Michigan recruiting analyst Connor Stalions bought tickets to numerous games involving future opponents. Stalions was first placed on leave by the school and then later resigned.

Baker would not speculate on a timetable for the Michigan case or on whether the NCAA would potentially share the findings of its investigation with any NFL team interested in hiring Harbaugh.

Michigan is still embroiled in a separate NCAA case involving football recruiting infractions and Harbaugh failing to be forthright with investigators. The school received a notice of allegations on that case in December. Michigan self-imposed a three-game suspension on Harbaugh at the beginning of this season, trying to mitigate future penalties after an attempt to settle the matter was rejected by the NCAA Committee on Infractions.

Baker did not attend the College Football Playoff championship game in Houston, but said he watched and found Michigan to be “clearly the better team.”

“I said before that part of the reason I thought it was important to talk to the Big Ten and to Michigan about this was it might affect the outcome of games,” Baker said “And I don’t believe at the end of the season it did. And I think that’s important.”

Nick Saban’s coaching reign has come to an end. His dominance over college football, however, will forever linger in the lore of the sport.

Saban, who won seven national championships — more than any other major college football coach — and turned Alabama back into a national powerhouse with six of those titles in just 17 seasons, is retiring, according to multiple outlets.

The 72-year-old Saban restored a Crimson Tide program once ruled by Paul “Bear” Bryant to the top of college football after taking over in 2007. His decision to step away was reported Jan. 10, first by ESPN and then by other outlets, ending a career that has produced numerous titles and helped launch or relaunch the head coaching careers of Georgia’s Kirby Smith, Texas’ Steve Sarkisian and Mississippi’s Lane Kiffin.

He finished just shy of the top in his final season, leading the Tide from a shaky start to a Southeastern Conference championship and back into the College Football Playoff before falling in overtime to Michigan in a semifinal game at the Rose Bowl.

Saban led the Tide to nine Southeastern Conference championships and won his first national title at Alabama with a 14-0 season in 2009. Titles came again in 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2020. He also won the SEC with LSU in 2001 and 2003.

Colorado coach Deion Sanders, who has appeared with Saban in a series of commercials, had a strong reaction to both the Alabama coach’s retirement and the state of college football.

“WOW! College Football just lost the GOAT to retirement,” Sanders posted on X. “WOW! I knew it would happen 1 day soon but not this soon. The game has change so much that it chased the GOAT away. College football let’s hold up our mirrors and say HONESTLY what u see.”

Saban made a two-year foray into the NFL with the Miami Dolphins before returning to college football to revive one of college football’s most storied programs, which hadn’t won a national title in 15 years. Saban is 297-71-1 as a college head coach, with stops at Toledo, Michigan State and LSU, where he also won a national title. But Alabama is where he cemented his status as one of college football’s greatest coaches.

Saban coached Alabama’s first four Heisman Trophy winners and churned out numerous NFL players, going 206-29, a winning clip of 87.7%. His teams produced 44 first-round draft picks, including last year’s No. 1 quarterback Bryce Young.

During that span, he also adapted to the changing times of up-tempo offenses, churning out high-scoring teams after winning with some of the nation’s best defenses, along with the new NIL and transfer rules.

He led Toledo to a Mid-American Conference championship in 1990, his lone season as that program’s head coach. Saban worked as Bill Belichick’s defensive coordinator with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns for four seasons before becoming the first Michigan State coach to lead his first three teams to bowl games and then taking LSU to the 2003 national title.

His latest team dealt with plenty of adversity early on, including a loss to Texas, but rebounded with the emergence of quarterback Jalen Milroe to upset then-No. 1 Georgia in the SEC championship game.

Saban didn’t sound like a coach looking to give up the job any time soon after the game. But it wasn’t a bad way to go, even without the title.

“This is one of the most amazing seasons in Alabama football history in terms of where this team came from, what they were able to accomplish and what they were able to do, winning the SEC championship, and really, really proud of this group,” he said.

“I just wish that I could have done more as a coach to help them be successful and help them finish, and all we can do now is learn from the lessons that sometimes failings bring to us.”