Northwestern coach Chris Collins signs multiyear extension
Athletic director Mark Jackson announced the agreement on Friday but didn't reveal any terms. CBS Sports said his new salary will put him among the highest-paid coaches in the Big Ten.
Michigan State's Tom Izzo earned $6.2 million and UCLA's Mick Cronin $6.1 million in the 2024-25 season, according to the USA Today's coaches salary database. Collins' salary was listed at just shy of $3.3 million.
Collins, 50, just completed his 12th season with the Wildcats. He has led the school to three NCAA Tournaments, including back-to-back appearances in 2023 and 2024.
He was named Big Ten Coach of the Year in the 2022-23 season.
"Northwestern is my family's home. I am really proud of what we have built over the last 12 years with our basketball program and couldn't be more excited to continue the journey together," said Collins, who has a 194-190 record (.505) with the program.
His win total is second in school history behind Dutch Lonborg, who was 236-203 from 1928-50.
The Wildcats finished the 2024-25 season at 17-16 (7-13 Big Ten), despite playing without two of their top three scorers, guards Brooks Barnhizer (17.1 points per game) and Jalen Leach (14.3), for a combined 26 games due to injuries.
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BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
Telford: Females of all ages are taking up football since Euros
Females of all ages are lining up to play football for the first time, thanks to England women's outstanding performance at the Preece, Managing Director of AFC Telford United Foundation, said there had been a surge in new members. "I am not exaggerating, there has been a 26% rise in youth club sessions of girls participating," he said. "But it is not just girls, there are adult females as well wanting to try the game for the first time. Whatever the Lionesses have been doing, then keep it up."England defended their European title with a 3-1 penalty shootout victory over Spain in the Euro 2025 final in Basel on Sunday. Back home, more than 16 million people saw the match live on Preece said: "The achievement of the Lionesses over the last few years has just inspired generations of girls."And our female football sessions, where we do walking football, there are ladies that have never tried it before but always wanted to have a go."The Wildcats football club for six to 12-year-old girls trains at the SEAH Stadium in Shropshire, home of AFC Telford United, which plays in the National League of the members, Thea, aged nine, said: "I thought the Lionesses did really well, and it is one of the best games they have ever done."Her teammate Holly, 10, said she believed the Lionesses win "will inspire more people, as there are excellent players, and it has given the sport a boost". Paige Gainham is a coach with AFC Telford United Foundation and works with the young Wildcats. She said: "As soon as that ball hit the net on Sunday's Euros final, it was just an amazing feeling, and it just shows that anything is possible."Chloe Kelly [England midfielder] started at an early age and built her way up, and it just shows that anyone can do it if you put your mind to it."She added: "There was a time when you rarely saw women players on TV. It will make girls want to achieve what England did on Sunday."
The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- The Herald Scotland
Indiana's weak schedule won't con College Football Playoff committee
By ducking Virginia, and flaunting its scheduling choice at Big Ten media days, Indiana is begging the selection committee to treat it like gimcrack the next time it builds something resembling a playoff resume - if there is a next time. And for what? Virginia last tasted a winning season six years ago. Curt Cignetti's upstart Hoosiers could beat Virginia when they were scheduled to play in 2027 and 2028. He just doesn't see the point in trying. "We figured we would just adopt SEC scheduling philosophy," quipped Cignetti, who fancies himself the cleverest man in the North. By swapping Virginia for chum opponents, Indiana will join the many SEC teams that schedule only nine Power Four opponents. SEC schools protect Championship Subdivision games like they're gold doubloons. Unlike SEC teams, though, Indiana won't play a single Power Four non-conference opponent this season, or the next, or the next, and so on. The Hoosiers, like some other Big Ten schools, decided the surest path to contention is scheduling the easiest possible collection of non-conference opponents. Washington coach Jedd Fisch said Cignetti's strategy to avoid Power Four non-conference opponents is "dead-on right." Herein lies the great pitfall of the committee's selection of Indiana to the playoff last season as the No. 10 seed, despite its flimsy strength of schedule. Coaches saw Indiana's strategy work, and now they wonder if they should mimic it, at the expense of playing compelling games. BAD PLAN: Big Ten's push for auto berths will make season worse DOUBLING DOWN: Oregon following plan even after Rose Bowl debacle The 2024 Hoosiers capitalized on a soft schedule draw from the Big Ten, and they avoided any opponents from the SEC, ACC or Big 12. They reached 11-1 without a signature victory, but no bad losses. The committee did not err by admitting Indiana. It lacked superior alternatives. Never mind the nonsense that Alabama, with its 9-3 resume including two losses to 6-6 teams, built more deserving qualifications than the Hoosiers. If you believe that, you must have "It Just Means More" tattooed on your bicep. The committee judiciously chose the Hoosiers, but, this being a copycat sport, now we've got teams from Indiana to Nebraska trying to game theory their way into the playoff by ducking any non-conference opponent with a pulse. The issue isn't confined to the Big Ten, either. The SEC won't dare add another conference game to its schedule, because why welcome another tussle when you could cream some flotsam from the MAC? Programs that knew they'd never sniff a four-team playoff wonder if they can emulate Indiana and qualify for this expanded playoff by following a Hoosiers recipe that calls for construction of the feeblest schedule possible. The twist of it is, if a few bubble teams with superior schedule strength had not gotten upset in the season's final two weeks, the committee might have rejected Indiana from the field. Because, contrary to what the SEC's propaganda campaign would have you believe, the committee cares about strength of schedule. Enough bubble teams lost, though, so the Hoosiers slipped in, and the industry accepted Indiana's scheduling method as foolproof, rather than foolish - until the committee reverses course, or the bubble strengthens in a future season. Cignetti jabbed at the SEC at media days, but his quip and scheduling moves also mock the committee and its selection of the Hoosiers. He's acting as if he outwitted the committee. Beware, because the committee is an evolving organism, unbound by past selection strategies. The committee never barred an undefeated Power Four team from the four-team playoff - until it shunned 13-0 Florida State to make room for the SEC's one-loss champion. What's to stop the committee from rejecting the next 11-1 team that slinks into Selection Sunday touting three triumphs against non-conference lackeys that can't spell football, and not a single win against a ranked opponent? Nothing. Committee membership changes. Its chairperson changes. Situations change. No two seasons unfold the same way. If the committee believes it's being played for a fool by Cignetti and others like him, perhaps it will stiffen its spine against a team that uses a weak schedule as a catapult to a strong record. The persistent reluctance to schedule tough non-conference games remains an anchor preventing college football from ascending to a higher perch. The committee wields power to spur some evolution on that non-conference scheduling strategy. If the committee starts rejecting bubble teams that play nothing but slappies in September, I suspect we'll begin to see fewer schedules devoid of Power Four non-conference opponents. Until then, if Cignetti fears a game against Virginia, then he must not believe he's built one of the nation's top 12 teams. Maybe, the committee will learn to trust his judgment. Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@ and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
The Herald Scotland
6 days ago
- The Herald Scotland
Oregon motivated by College Football Playoff loss to Ohio State
And lost by 46. That was Lanning's first game at Oregon in 2022, a brutal loss at the hands of Georgia that can only be eclipsed by the brutal loss at the hands of eventual national champion Ohio State in last year's Rose Bowl College Football Playoff quarterfinal -- as the nation's No.1 team and national title favorite. But ignore those bookend beatdowns, there's a bigger picture here. "The process works," Lanning said on the dais at Big Ten Media Days, throwing talking points chum to the masses. "We're close." This, of course, means next to nothing in the coaching world of "you're the last thing you put on tape." So I got Lanning away from the stage Wednesday, and asked what exactly does doubling down mean? Oregon has won 35 games in his three seasons, and last year won the conference championship in its first season in the Big Ten. The Ducks have hit nearly every significant metric of growth under Lanning, from elite recruiting, to a winning record vs. ranked teams, to sitting on top of the college football world for nearly two months. MAN WITH PLAN: Oregon's Lanning pitches playoff that ends Jan. 1 ABSOLUTE POWER: Big Ten, SEC fight to shape College Football Playoff So what in the name of Dan Fouts does doubling down mean? "We've had a lot of success, and I really attribute that to our growth mindset," Lanning said. "Our DNA mindset of who we are." Wait, what? So I got annoyed with the nothing answer, and Lanning got annoyed at me -- and the next thing you know, Kirby Smart arrived. And by Kirby Smart, I mean the aura of the best coach in college football and Lanning's mentor. And it went about like what you'd think. "Doubling down is continuing to work your ass off at practice," Lanning said. "Doubling down is continuing to run when your body tells you 'no.' Doubling down is getting necessary sleep. It's focusing intently on all those pieces and more. All the time." Hallelujah, now we're getting somewhere. There's a reason Lanning and three Oregon players who attended Big Ten media days were peppered with questions about the loss to Ohio State, and the impact moving forward. And it's not because of the hoard of swooning Ohio State media endlessly reliving Scarlet and Gray glory. When you fail so spectacularly on the biggest stage of all, there must be a complete deconstruction of the disaster. It's not simply losing to a better team, which Ohio State was on that day. It's how did it fall apart so quickly, and how was the preparation so ineffective? How was an Oregon team built for this moment so out of its element? POWER RANKINGS: Big Ten starts with Penn State, Ohio State on top Ohio State scored on the third play of the game. Ohio State's first two scoring drives took all of six plays. Ohio State led by 31 midway through the second quarter, and Oregon looked a whole lot like the Ducks team that was dismantled in Lanning's first game against Georgia. Outcoached, outplayed, outclassed. So yeah, it's a fair question to ask how that Rose Bowl loss translates to 2025, especially considering this talented Oregon team has gone from a record-setting quarterback (Dillon Gabriel) with 63 career starts, to one (Dante Moore) with five. You don't grind for three years on a buildout, painstakingly changing everything about a program and molding it into what Nick taught Kirby and Kirby taught you, and ignore the elephant in the room. "A lot of work, man, a lot of it," said Oregon linebacker Bryce Boettcher, a two-sport athlete who returned for his senior season instead of playing professional baseball. He hasn't forgotten the suddenness of what happened in Pasadena on New Year's Day. Why in the world would he? "It drives you," Boettcher continued. "It's hard to explain, the way it ended. That's a problem. That's not something you ever forget." And that's where Lanning tangibly doubled down on what he knows works. He protected his roster from key transfer portal defections, and added a handful of critical pieces (starting OTs Isaiah World and Alex Harkey, RB Makhi Hughes) to solidify the team around Moore. He went from taking a small group of players on a leadership retreat, to taking 35. Because more is better when adversity hits, and because good teams are led by coaches. Great teams are led by players. Great teams that can withstand giving up a touchdown on the third play of the Rose Bowl, and not crawl into a fetal position at the thought of it all. A great, player-led team goes on the road this year in the Big Ten, and isn't impacted by a whiteout at Penn State, or a 3,000-mile trip to Piscataway, New Jersey. Because who among us wouldn't travel three time zones to reach lovely Piscataway? A great, player-led team isn't concerned with anything but doubling down and completing the buildout. "What happened last year has nothing to do with the future," Lanning said. Neither do the bookend beatdowns. But they're all part of the bigger picture. Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
