It’s a brand new season, which means revamped expectations.

The narratives surrounding each year always shape the outcomes. From the consistent preseason hype coming from the SEC to the regional expectations out West, the narratives always matter.

Conference realignment is a clear theme this year, with both the Pac-12 and the Mountain West undergoing dramatic changes. Who steps up to win those newly revamped leagues?

With that in mind, here’s my list of the Teams from the West most likely to surprise this upcoming season.

Miller covers College Basketball and College Football as well as Formula 1 racing as a Senior Writer and Assistant Editor for SuperWest Sports.

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The place is San Francisco, the venue is Alcatraz Island and the purpose is a rare immersion in non-sport culture in the midst of covering the World Cup on the US West Coast. Here, dutifully reading about the ill-fated 1962 prison escape plan, it felt like I’d been thrown into the middle of The Shawshank Redemption as I toured around the site which housed criminals such as Al Capone, an eerie 1.5 miles offshore. No wonder the escapees were never seen again.

Satisfied that my thirst for something akin to normal touristy tropes had been met, I was queuing for the boat back to the city when I felt something from high above. With not a cloud to be seen, it certainly wasn’t rain. And one quick look down at my t-shirt informed me that a seagull had, well… you know.

Ruefully (or thankfully, for those reading this over lunch), I didn’t manage to snap a decent photo of the mess before I wiped it off with a spare tissue. Content regrets. “They have a pure fish diet – it’s good for you, man!” said a chuckling American next to me. Cheers… man. They do say it’s good luck, I suppose.

Such jovial encounters were a regularity across a tremendous three weeks in the USA, based predominantly in Los Angeles, with one weekend reporting on England’s glorious win at the Azteca in Mexico City. Attending my first World Cup, my overriding takeaway was the heartwarming illustration of multi-culturalism at every turn.

And obviously, this World Cup had a myriad of Fifa-triggered issues: ticket prices, visas, the treatment of Iran’s squad, the Balogun ban overturn, the pandering to Trump. But the passion of supporters across the country was genuinely alluring, amid preconceptions of what this tournament, in this United States, might actually be like.

World Cup fever began in earnest at Heathrow’s Terminal 3. Sitting next to me on my Virgin Atlantic flight to Los Angeles was a Mexico fan, shirt on and all, who lived in LA. We proceeded to talk about all the important issues of the day: Raul Jimenez’s heading ability, Mexico’s popular president Claudia Sheinbaum, why Californians are hated across the US and Trump. It was all fun and games until he spotted an aisle seat a few rows ahead after take-off. Fair enough, needs must.

Arriving at LAX, there was not a World Cup poster in sight. Immigration, at least, was surprisingly smooth. This was not the Trump-led US of A I was promised.

The next few days, housed in an Airbnb just outside Culver City, were spent acclimatising to the uniqueness of West Coast life. Most notably, I crossed my fingers at a pair of giggling Colombian fans as I booked my first-ever Waymo self-driving car. Adrenaline as a passenger has never felt so high.

Left a bit perplexed that my journey back home would take double the time Google Maps told me, I later learned that Waymo had temporarily halted its freeway operations in May. Probably for the best, eh. Yet as pedestrians walked up to the window and took photos of the car at traffic lights, I felt like some kind of duped guinea pig or eldritch celebrity. Is this what it feels like to be Harry Styles?

Across LA, you quickly gauge the life of a quintessential Californian in encounters in Ubers, cafes and sports bars. One loud-mouthed punter next to me in the Barney’s Beanery pub in Santa Monica describing soccer as “f***ing boring” 20 minutes into a match was particularly vexing. Buddy, have you seen your version of football?!

Embarrassingly, he was then proved right as England and Ghana played out one of the dullest matches of the tournament.

Often, there’s an unintentional irony to their words. Outside the magnificent Los Angeles Stadium, the spaceship-like arena plonked beneath sea-level in Inglewood’s multi-million-dollar regeneration project, for one volunteer telling fans “no refillable bottles allowed inside”, you had another saying “free water if you take the survey.” Most are perfectly well-informed and amiable, even if one very charming Uber driver actually did use words like “iconography” and “ad nauseum” in proper real-life sentences.

What is not in doubt is the ultra-high level of sports fanaticism in this country. Whether it’s golf, softball or indeed the World Cup, it’s on the big screen. And, my gosh, do the bars have some big screens to go with their big portions.

The N17 bar in Marina Del Rey, so named by the owner who supports Tottenham, was one particularly enjoyable Sunday afternoon experience. A night later, one sports bar in Hollywood was packed to the rafters for a screening of Love Island USA after the Netherlands-Morocco penalty shoot-out. Needless to say, that was my cue to leave.

My favourite American city, however, was Seattle. A spectacular downtown skyline – which you can see from inside the Lumen Field stadium – next to the protected saltwater inlet Puget Sound is a sight to behold. And even more so with thousands of Egyptians and Iranians spread across the city ahead of their World Cup showdown.

One of America’s most liberal locations, it was hosting the first-ever World Cup Pride Match amid a myriad of different marches. Surrounded by so much geopolitics and peaceful protest, it all went off without incident. We didn’t know it then but Iran’s last-minute winner, ruled out by VAR, would prove to be the last action of their unprecedented involvement in this tournament. Their treatment from US immigration officials was utterly contemptible.

Other high points came with following the USA in San Francisco for their fever-pitch win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, even if I did get kicked out of the media centre at the end of a podcast recording, before the Folarin Balogun debacle turned the whole tide against them. I also saw eventual world champions Spain twice, in knockout wins against Austria and Belgium. Yet the overall highlight, undoubtedly, was a weekend in Mexico City; a city which had a colour and vibrancy unmatched on the US West Coast.

Everywhere you went, the sense of anticipation for England’s last-16 visit was inescapable. On the day, amid thunderstorms, the cauldron of the Azteca Stadium was an atmosphere unlike anything I’d ever experienced. A constant drum of noise, the one-hour delay only added to the cacophony. A Jude Bellingham-inspired win was one of England’s great World Cup triumphs – and the Mexicans took it all in good grace.

But as my time neared its end, there was one underlying thought: Will this World Cup make a difference? Will this really be the event which gives America its long-heralded soccer boom? Two encounters made me think so.

After a gorgeous one-hour (big effort, I know) sunset hike to the top of Mount Lee, perched just behind the Hollywood sign with a 360-degree view of Los Angeles, a young Mexican called Jovanni felt immediately enamoured by my English accent. “Ah, you knocked us out!” he said.

Sports-mad, he told me in detail about why LeBron James was leaving the Lakers, how the Dodgers are going for a historic baseball three-peat and – get this – the boisterous ‘El Trafico’ rivalry between Los Angeles FC and LA Galaxy, as if it were the Old Firm between Celtic and Rangers.

The second was altogether simpler: a local Uber driver ranting to me about VAR and in-game substitutions. “What the hell were Ecuador doing against Ivory Coast?!” he said, as if he were at the helm of a black cab around Stamford Bridge in December.

And as I headed home, seven matches, 21 goals and 55 articles later, amid the conclusion of the very best and the very worst football’s greatest stage has to offer, the main conclusion was twofold: maybe the star-spangled cut-through really can happen – and even Fifa cannot truly screw up what is, with the World Cup, a truly un-screwable product.

Lance Armstrong has accused Tour de France anti-doping officials of a “human rights issue” after Jonas Vingegaard crashed out of the race following a late-night test.

Vingegaard crashed heavily on Stage 15 and withdrew from the Tour having claimed he was awoken at 2am by the International Testing Agency (ITA) before the stage. He sustained a broken collarbone in the incident after misjudging a corner on the route to Plateau de Solaison, abandoning the race for the first time.

Riders and experts speculated afterwards that the crash could have been caused by the early hours interruption. Tadej Pogacar, Vingegaard’s great rival and runaway race leader, was woken up at 5am for tests approved by a judge in Paris that fell outside the usual ITA testing hours.

The Tour de France race leader is tested after every stage and can be subjected to them at other times, while other riders can also be targeted for random tests during the race.

Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour titles in 2012 after an investigation into doping allegations, and has since admitted to using performance enhancing drugs during his career.

The 54-year-old believes, though, that Vingegaard and Pogacar were mistreated by officials after the late-night tests.

“I am told that Jonas had anti-doping control at 2am, and Tadej had it at 5am. If you are going to choose one, you take the 5am,” Armstrong argued on The Move, a podcast he co-hosts.

“They showed up to his room at 2am, knocked on the door and woke him up in the middle of the Tour de France.This is the hardest sporting event in the world. Sleep is essential.

“Now obviously nobody here is going to be proponent of not having controls. But this isn’t a sporting issue now; 2am is a human rights issue. I’m speechless. What are we doing? Why are we agreeing to that?

“Why would anybody agree to do that? That is ridiculous. We talked about what a great month of sport this has been globally. What would have happened if you went and knocked on [Lionel] Messi’s door at 2am? What would have happened if you went and knocked on [Jannik] Sinner’s door at 2am? What would Scottie Scheffler do if you knocked on his door at 2am? Serena Williams’ door at 2am? It just makes no sense.”

Riders are not usually tested between 11pm and 6am. Vingegaard estimated that the visit cost him 40 minutes of sleep, though sought not to blame it fully for his crash.

Fellow competitors including Remco Evenepoel have questioned the tests, though Cannondale-EF team boss Jonathan Vaughters believes late night testing could have exposed the sport’s blood-doping era sooner.

Vaughters is a former teammate of Armstrong’s and admitted using performance-enhancing drugs, including EPO, during his career.

“2 am testing is one of the very effective ways to prevent peptide (EPO, hGH) and testosterone micro dosing,” ⁠Vaughters wrote on social media.

“If UCI had tested us in 2001 at 2 am? We’d all have been suspended and saved the sport 25 years of drama.”

Pogacar, seeking a fifth yellow jersey, leads the Tour by five minutes from Evenepoel as the race resumes with a 26.1km individual time trial from Evian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bains.

Manchester United remain interested in signing Leicester City defender Ben Nelson this summer.

The 22-year-old has come up through the Foxes academy and is highly rated. But he has just 12 months remaining on his contract, with reports that he has asked the club to leave this summer following relegation to League One.

United are showing an interest alongside Torino, Borussia Monchengladbach and West Ham.

Leicester are standing firm on their £10 million asking price, with Nelson playing an hour of their pre-season friendly win over Burton Albion on Saturday.

NEW DELHI: Spain’s celebrations after winning the FIFA World Cup 2026 caught the attention of football fans around the world. Apart from the usual scenes of joy, hugs, cheers and trophy celebrations, one moment stood out at the New York New Jersey Stadium, officially known as MetLife Stadium. After beating Argentina 1-0 in extra time to lift their second World Cup title, several Spain players were seen cutting pieces of the goal net and taking them home as souvenirs.

Spain borrow a famous basketball tradition

The unusual celebration came after substitute Ferran Torres scored the only goal of the final in the 106th minute to seal a historic victory over defending champions Argentina.Once the celebrations began, Spain’s players borrowed one of basketball’s most famous traditions by cutting down the goal nets.

The pieces of the net became personal keepsakes, marking one of the biggest achievements of their careers.

Where did the tradition begin?

Cutting down the nets is a long-standing basketball tradition that began in the US state of Indiana.In the early 20th century, winning teams started taking the nets home as souvenirs to remember championship victories. The tradition became famous in 1947 when North Carolina State coach Everett Case celebrated his team’s Southern Conference Tournament title by climbing onto his players’ shoulders and cutting down part of the basket net.

Case spent 23 years coaching high school basketball in his home state of Indiana, winning four state championships before joining North Carolina State in 1946.After leading NC State to the Southern Conference Tournament title in 1947, Case cut down the net as a souvenir of the victory. The gesture quickly became one of basketball’s most iconic championship traditions and is now seen regularly during NCAA tournaments and other major competitions.

Spain’s players brought the tradition to football’s biggest stage, turning the goal net into a lasting reminder of their World Cup triumph at MetLife Stadium after defeating Argentina in the 2026 final.

Spain dominate FIFA World Cup 2026 final

Spain were crowned world champions for only the second time in their history after a dominant performance against Argentina.Although the scoreline was only 1-0, Luis de la Fuente’s side controlled the game from start to finish. Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez made a string of outstanding saves to keep his side in the contest before Ferran Torres finally broke the deadlock in the 106th minute after Nico Williams headed Pedro Porro’s cross into his path.