UConn’t trust Paige

The GIST: The Pac-12 announced another key win in its fight for survival yesterday, adding basketball powerhouse Gonzaga starting in the 2026–27 school year. The Pac is almost back, baby.

• Elsewhere, to replenish its roster post–Pac poaching, the Mountain West Conference (MWC) lured the University of Texas–El Paso (UTEP) away from Conference USA. And you thought the Kardashians were hard to keep up with…

The context: Since last year’s implosion, the Pac-12 has been operating as a two-team conference while plotting its comeback: Within two years, it needs to rebuild to the NCAA–mandated minimum of eight full members. Over the last three weeks, the conference has made significant progress toward that goal by raiding the MWC, but those five additions left the Pac one school short of full rebound.

• Former West Coast Conference standout Gonzaga comes with one major caveat, though: The Bulldogs don’t sponsor football, so they don’t count toward that magic number eight.

• That said, Gonzaga’s elite women’s and men’s hoops programs bring much-needed clout to the under-construction conference, which could sweeten the deal for the Pac-12’s next target, whomever that may be.

Zooming out: While the pace of realignment feels frenetic, it’s actually a long game — remember, Gonzaga and the other new Pac-12 schools won’t officially join for nearly two years. And when that new-look Pac-12 finally emerges, it'll face a wildly different landscape, with power consolidation in the Big Ten and SEC continuing to shake up college sports.

The GIST: As Division I women’s soccer’s toughest conference, it’s no surprise that the ACC boasts half of the country’s Top 10 teams — two of which will face off in a fascinating showdown tomorrow. The conference’s reigning queens, No. 6 Florida State, will visit its newest rising power, No. 4 Wake Forest, at 7 p.m. ET on ACCNX. Getcha popcorn ready.

The powerhouse: Florida State’s banner 2023 season saw the ’Noles win all but one match (a 3–3 draw with then–No. 1 UNC), their fourth straight ACC tournament title, and the natty. This year, they’re back in top form despite a major offseason roster rebuild. FSU’s scored 33 goals so far while conceding just three as they’ve played to an impressive 7-0-2 (wins, losses, draws) season record.

• Senior Taylor Huff leads the Seminoles’ attack with support from an all-star cast of freshmen. FSU does have vulnerabilities, however, as seen in their disappointing 1–1 draw with unranked SMU last month.

The up-and-comer: Hoping to exploit those vulnerabilities are the Demon Deacons. Unlike the ’Noles, Wake Forest entered the season with moderate expectations after finishing sixth in the conference last year. Since then, they’ve shot out of a cannon, soaring from unranked three weeks ago to the nation’s No. 4 squad as of yesterday.

• The secret to Wake’s meteoric rise? The highlights of their 8-2-2 record: A September 15th 3–0 shellacking of then–No. 2 Virginia and a September 19th 1–0 dub over then–No. 1 Stanford.

• That pair of wins made the Deacs the nation’s hottest team…but was it a flash in the pan, or the first statements of a brand-new superteam? One way to find out: Tune in tomorrow as the ’Noles put ’em to the test.

The GIST: Even with Florida State women’s soccer staring down tomorrow’s potential legacy-cementing match, there’s still a sour mood in ’Nole nation as we check in on who’s hot and who’s not in college sports.

🔥 Big Ten volleyball: The country’s toughest women’s volleyball conference came to play with a series of dramatic, top-tier matchups over the past week, earning the group a peerless representation in Monday’s poll: Eight Big Ten teams are in the Top 25, with six in the Top 12. A conference run on coffee and dominance.

❄️ Florida State football quarterback DJ Uiagalelei’s finger: The floundering team announced yesterday that the fifth-year senior sustained an injury during Saturday’s 42–16 blowout loss to SMU that will sideline him for “the next couple of weeks.” That absence notably includes the spiraling ’Noles’ next game against Uiagalelei’s first NCAA squad: No. 15 Clemson. The vibes are atrocious.

🔥 College football on ESPN: No. 1 Alabama’s wild Saturday win over No. 5 Georgia averaged 12M viewers, peaking at 14.1M, making it the most-watched college football game on ESPN since 2017. Impressive, considering it looked like a blowout at halftime.

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