The NCAA sent a memo to its Division I schools on Feb. 24, cautioning against the possibility that the upcoming men’s and women’s basketball tournaments could see some travel struggles due to myriad factors in play across the United States.

The memo, provided to CBS Sports by the NCAA on Monday, has been sent in similar form in years past, but 2026 is providing a different challenge. 

“Nationwide, significantly fewer charter aircraft are available due to several factors outside of NCAA control,” the organization said in a statement.

A contributor factor to the potential travel stress: the ongoing partial government shutdown and operational aviation issues for large private aircraft, which have emerged as a result of the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement collaborating to use private airplanes to deport immigrants at the behest of President Donald Trump.

“The logistical challenge of moving almost all participating teams for both tournaments within 12-72 hours beginning (Selection) Sunday night is compounded by the busy spring break travel season, the national shortage of charter aircraft nationwide and the potential TSA impact of the partial government shutdown,” an NCAA spokesperson wrote. “While the NCAA assured all participating teams they will get to where they need to go safely, the NCAA also advised all teams that extreme flexibility — especially the first week of the championships — will be necessary.”

The NCAA pays for private aircrafts for all NCAA Tournament games for teams more than 400 miles away from their first-weekend sites for the men’s and women’s tournaments. Schools also have the option to procure (but pay for) private air travel on their own behalf if they so choose, but in this instance the schools could run into the same problem if they don’t rely on the NCAA to arrange their flights. 

For the first weekend, all teams less than 400 miles away from their opening weekend sites are taken by charter buses. For the regionals (Sweet 16 and Elite Eight), the radius shrinks to 350 miles or fewer for bus trips.

Two 68-team tournaments being held in close proximity to each other on the calendar lends itself to huge structural travel demands. The NCAA coordinates with schools and travel companies — quite literally by the minute — as soon as the March Madness brackets are released. Schools have until this Friday to send in their detailed manifests for their travel parties, lest they incur fines for being late.

The two tournaments are the most complicated and logistically challenging operations the NCAA takes on every year, and a big part of the endeavor is organizing safe and smooth flights for dozens of schools for seven consecutive days. “We understand these requests will have an impact on you,” the NCAA’s memo reads, and later states, “Adjustments to the realities of the current travel marketplace must be made, while at the same time providing the best possible travel experience for the participating teams.

“Institutions could expect [to see] their travel impacted in the following ways: Later confirmation of charter departure times when traveling to/from tournament sites; Use of a wide range of aircraft with multiple seating configurations and amenities; Different aircraft for in-bound and out-bound flights; Need for earlier submission of final passenger and equipment manifest; Increased security measures from the regular season; Payload restrictions and weight limitations; In-flight catering and coordination; Wi-Fi capabilities not guaranteed; Need for fuel stops or use of alternative airports; and Adjustment of departure dates and times.”

There have been sporadic travel issues in the past during March, though for the most part the NCAA has a very good track record a coordinating dozens of flights with minimal obstructions. The UConn men’s team infamously ran into a plane delay on its way to the 2024 Final Four in Phoenix, though that was due to circumstances outside of the NCAA’s control. 

Travel worries being raised this year under these circumstances do land at an interesting time, though. The NCAA has been discussing for years whether or not to expand its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. The choice is now between staying at 68 or expanding to 76 for both brackets. Sources previously told CBS Sports that the taxing logistical concerns about assuring and procuring private air travel for as many as 16 more teams for the opening games of the men’s and women’s tournaments has been a contributing factor against the idea of tournament expansion.

Whether or not plane travel will be a reason that prevents March Madness from expanding remains to be seen. But if you can’t fly the teams to the sites in an orderly fashion, you’ve got a huge problem.

Dan Gavitt, who is in charge of the NCAA Tournament, told select media assembled in Indianapolis in February that the selection committee was pausing all talks on NCAA Tournament expansion until mid-April at the earliest. 

NEW DELHI: When Sanju Samson stood tall after his match-winning 97 against the West Indies, it was more than just a comeback knock — it was the fulfilment of a promise made at the very start of the T20 World Cup.Despite being India’s first-choice T20I opener for over a year, Samson found himself out of the playing XI for the tournament opener against the United States of America (USA) at the Wankhede Stadium. Ishan Kishan’s strong form meant Samson had to wait.

What followed is now going viral.Ahead of that opening game, Rohit Sharma walked up to Samson, put an arm around him, and offered words that would define the rest of his tournament.“Kaisa hai? Dukhi mat ho bhai. It is a long tournament, kabhi bhi mauka aa sakta hai (“How are you? Don’t be disheartened. It is a long tournament. The opportunity can come at any moment),” Rohit had said to Samson, as revealed in a video posted by the official Instagram account of the International Cricket Council (ICC).At that moment, Samson was on the sidelines. But Rohit’s reassurance proved prophetic.After India’s defeat to South Africa opened the door for changes, Samson returned. He first made an impact with a fiery cameo against Zimbabwe before scripting something far bigger — an unbeaten 97 under pressure to anchor a daunting 196-run chase against the West Indies, sealing India’s highest-successful run chase in T20 World Cup history.His journey to that moment had been anything but smooth.Earlier in the season, being pushed down the order during the Asia Cup disrupted his rhythm. Then came a difficult New Zealand series where scores of 10, 6, 0, 24 and 6 led to criticism and doubts.But Samson never stopped observing, learning and believing.After his masterclass against the West Indies, he acknowledged the influence of Rohit and Virat Kohli.“Playing IPL for around 10 to 12 years and being with the Indian team for the last 10 years… I have not always been playing, but I was looking from the dugout, learning from greats like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. It was very important to observe, learn, and see what they were doing,” Samson said.From being dropped to delivering one of the most memorable knocks in India’s T20 World Cup campaign, Samson’s resurgence now carries the imprint of Rohit’s hug and those four simple words — “Dukhi mat ho bhai.”With a five-wicket win over the West Indies, India marched into the semifinals and will now face England at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday — the same ground where Samson had once watched from the sidelines, waiting for his moment.

1. Three countries as joint hosts

Usually, the World Cup is an event hosted by a single nation, but this has not always been the case. The 2002 World Cup broke new ground when Japan and South Korea, two nations that have not always had an easy relationship, teamed up to host the tournament.

The 2026 World Cup goes one further, with three countries — the United States, Canada and Mexico — all hosting. While these countries have usually enjoyed good relations, US ties with Canada and Mexico have become strained since the start of President Donald Trump‘s second term in office.

2. More teams, more games

Love it or hate it, the move to expand the World Cup from the previous 32 to 48 teams was a bold move by FIFA President Gianni Infantino. More teams mean many more games, a total of 104 compared to 64 at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

This also means there will be 12 groups of four teams, compared to eight four years ago. An extra knockout round — the Round of 32 — has also been introduced to help whittle down the number of teams on the way to the final in New Jersey on July 19. That will be played on the 39th day of the tournament, 10 more than it took to complete the 2022 World Cup.

3. New participants

While critics will argue that increasing the number of teams could lower the overall quality of play, it has helped some countries qualify for a first-ever World Cup. Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan and Uzbekistan will be making their debuts on football‘s biggest stage. Of these, Curacao are the biggest underdogs, coming from a country with a population of under 160,000 and ranked number 82 in the world.

Several other first-timers have the chance to join via the qualifying playoffs in March — including North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo and even New Caledonia.

4. More travel

This is not the first time a World Cup will be held over a large geographical area, but the distances that teams and fans will have to cover in 2026 will be a shock to the system after Qatar, which is smaller than Connecticut — the third-smallest state in the US. 

Farthest apart among the venues are Vancouver and Miami – 4,507 kilometers (2,800 miles). Germany stand to rack up 2,619 kilometers just to travel from Houston to Toronto to New Jersey for their group-stage matches — and that doesn’t even take into account travel to and from their base camp, the location of which has yet to be announced.

5. Mandatory hydration breaks

While hydration breaks are not new to football, FIFA has announced that all matches at the 2026 World Cup will have two scheduled breaks — regardless of the weather conditions. Referees will be under instructions to halt games 22 minutes into each half so players can rehydrate, FIFA said in a statement.

Previously, referees were required to call cooling breaks 30 minutes into each half when the temperature at kickoff exceeded 31 degrees Celsius (87.8 degrees Fahrenheit).

The change comes amid concerns about high temperatures expected in some of the host cities, as was the case at last summer’s Club World Cup in the US. FIFA has said it took this into account when determining kickoff times.

6. Not all fans welcome, host cities in doubt

Two countries that have qualified for the World Cup, Iran and Haiti, are on a travel ban announced by Trump last June. As things stand, their fans won’t be able to travel to the US to support their teams.

In December, Trump imposed partial travel restrictions on two other countries qualified for the tournament, Ivory Coast and Senegal. The teams themselves should have no trouble entering the US, though, as the Trump executive order makes exceptions for, among others, “any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives, traveling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting event as determined by the secretary of state.”

Where the games will actually be played is also in some doubt, as Trump has repeatedly threatened to move World Cup matches away from Democratic-run cities for “security” reasons. During a meeting at the White House in November, FIFA head Infantino offered no push back: “Safety and security is the No. 1 priority for a successful World Cup,” he said.

Edited by: Jonathan Harding

Cardi B appears to be taking shots at her ex-boyfriend, New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs, during one of her stops on her “Little Miss Drama Tour.”

The rapper, whose real name is Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, may not have mentioned his name, but it was very clear who she was talking about when she went off during an onstage rant. 

“It’s called principle,” Cardi B said, announcing the next song she was going to perform at her San Francisco stop.

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(L-R) NFL player Stefon Diggs and rapper Cardi B sit courtside during Game Four of the Eastern Conference Second Round NBA Playoffs between the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on May 12, 2025 in New York City, New York.  (Elsa/Getty Images)

“You can’t be out here playing with a b—- like me. There’s n—– out here praying for a b—- like me.”

As the crowd cheered, Cardi B continued on. 

“I’m too sexy to be lonely and too grown to be played with. Who you playin’ with motherf—–?” she questioned. 

Cardi B took to X to try and clarify her monologue, which went viral on social media.

“Dear blogs, when I perform a song I always introduce the song with a lil razzle dazzle.. not everything a shot or personal,” she posted. “I’m actually repeating lyrics from the songs…Relax.”

Cardi B attends the Ashi Studio Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2025/2026 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on July 08, 2025 in Paris, France. (Pierre Suu/Getty Images)

Cardi B and Diggs were one of the top celebrity couples during the 2025 NFL season, especially as she was spotted supporting the Patriots during their run to Super Bowl LX. Diggs and his squad were unable to secure victory, though, as the Seattle Seahawks came away with the Vince Lombardi Trophy. 

It was reported that Diggs and Cardi B ended their relationship “a few days” before Super Bowl LX in San Francisco after he allegedly “betrayed her so many times,” per Page Six. People added that Cardi B ended the relationship because she “couldn’t trust” the 32-year-old veteran receiver any longer. 

Cardi B and Diggs welcomed a baby boy on Nov. 13, 2025 – her fourth after having three children with her estranged rapper husband, Offset. Diggs has six total kids, including his boy with Cardi B, and four of his children were born in 2025. 

Cardi B and Stefon Diggs of the New England Patriots pose for a portrait after the AFC Championship game against the Denver Broncos at Empower Field At Mile High on Jan. 25, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. (Lauren Leigh Bacho/Getty Images)

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Cardi B and Diggs sparked rumors of dating in February 2025, as they spent Valentine’s Day in Miami together. 

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Sports psychologists say one of the healthiest tools in an athlete’s arsenal is a prolific sense of visualization.

According to several studies from the NIH, visualization can help elite athletes strengthen neural pathways, improve muscle memory, and prepare for high-leverage situations better than their in-the-moment counterparts. In other words, according to those who best understand the inner workings of elite athletes, seeing the future can literally help you achieve it.

The problem, if you’re a pro like Nico Echavarria? Well, you don’t frequently see the future.

“Not very often,” the 31-year-old pro said Sunday. “I can’t remember the last time I told [my wife] I was going to win a tournament.”

As the 31-year-old pro explained Sunday evening, his experiences as either Raven Symone or Nostradamus have, to date, been few and far between. But that changed last week, when Echavarria approached his (newly minted) wife Claudia, and financial advisor, John Koufax, with an unusual prediction.

“Yeah, we were at an event in the afternoon at Panther National with the Evans Scholar Foundation,” Echavarria said. “I told them, ‘Hey, I think I can win this week.’ I played the Bear’s Club in the morning. I hit it really good. I played well.”

Call it an earned extra dose of confidence or a brief glimpse into Sunday evening, but Echavarria’s prediction proved telling. Up the road from the Bear’s Club and Panther National, at PGA National, Echavarria made his prediction come true (with a little help). He fired three mid-60s rounds in four days at the Cognizant Classic, including a thrilling Sunday 66, to claim his third PGA Tour victory in Palm Beaches by two shots on Sunday evening.

Echavarria’s win did not come without its own dose of drama. His victory came after the shocking, late-stage struggles of Shane Lowry, who carried a massive lead into the famed “Bear Trap” and went on to lose by two. But it was the fulfillment of his own prophecy nonetheless — even if he might not have viewed it quite that clearly.

“I had this feeling that things were starting to click,” Echavarria said. “I played well in Riviera. Unfortunately I didn’t make a single putt and missed the cut by one, but I knew that coming into Bermuda greens, it was going to be my forte of putting on a different surface.”

With the benefit of a comfortable putting surface and a tee time close to home, Echavarria’s dream became reality on Sunday evening. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise to hear that’s just how he envisioned it.

“I think the rain helped me with the greens. I struggled a little bit on Friday with how crunchy they were, and I think the surfaces on Saturday and Sunday were absolutely perfect,” Echavarria said. “Very happy with moving down here, winning this event, and representing my country.”

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Trae Young hasn’t played an NBA game yet in 2026 as he has recovered from knee and quadriceps injuries, but on Monday, we got two pretty significant bits of news about the former All-Star point guard:

• Marc Stein reported that he has been “repeatedly advised” that Young and the Washington Wizards are expected to come to terms on a contract extension that is “widely projected” to be a three-year pact. Young has a $49 million player option this offseason.
• Hours later, ESPN reported that Young is expected to make his Wizards debut on Thursday when Washington faces the Utah Jazz. Young later confirmed that report on Instagram.

Stein’s reporting isn’t binding, of course. Nobody has put pen to paper here on a new contract. But rumblings about a new deal between Young and the Wizards aren’t new. On Jan. 9, Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst reported for ESPN that “the strong expectation around the league is Young will sign an extension with the Wizards.” Young is extension-eligible now, and given both Atlanta’s reported reluctance to give him a new deal and Charania’s reporting in January that Washington was his preferred destination in a trade, it’s not hard to imagine that the two sides have had a basic framework in mind since the trade.

The sequencing in that respect seems a bit backward. Shouldn’t the Wizards have wanted to see Young play for them, examine his fit with the existing roster and then determine if they want to keep him for the long haul?

The answer is probably yes, though these situations can be complicated. Trades involving stars often come with understandings about future contracts. That usually happens because teams are reluctant to give up meaningful assets for a player they aren’t sure they’ll be able to keep. 

Where the Young situation differs, though, is that the Wizards didn’t give up notable assets to get Young. The Hawks cap-dumped him for CJ McCollum’s expiring contract and Corey Kispert, a reserve shooter. Interest in his services appeared to be limited. Aside from Washington, no other team is known to have made a serious offer for Young this season, and with the Hawks uninterested in paying him, Young didn’t exactly have much leverage in securing another payday upon the expiration of his existing contract.

This was one of the theoretical benefits of acquiring Young. He was a low-risk, high-reward target. His defensive vulnerabilities and limitations as an off-ball player on offense made him a tricky fit for most win-now teams in a league increasingly moving away from heliocentric offense, but he’s still a 27-year-old four-time All-Star. By all means, get that player for nothing. See how he fits. His presence could potentially be quite beneficial as a table-setter for Washington’s young players, who could use his veteran presence as a developmental aide.

Maybe he works out. If he doesn’t, his existing contract makes it pretty easy to cut bait. He is owed nothing beyond the 2026-27 season. This is notable for a few reasons. The first is that the Wizards start to get more expensive after that. If Young signs a new three-year deal, for instance, his next contract would overlap with rookie extensions for Alex Sarr and Kyshawn George, both of which should be pretty big.

The second is that Washington’s roster has already changed meaningfully since Young’s acquisition, and it is going to change more by the end of his current contract. Since trading for Young, the Wizards have also traded for Anthony Davis, who is owed more than $121 million for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 campaigns. Perhaps more pressingly, you could argue that the most important player for Washington’s current rebuild isn’t even on the team yet.

That would be their 2026 lottery pick. The Wizards have done well to hold Young out as long as they have, as that pick is top-eight protected and they needed to make sure they won’t hand it over to the Knicks. It is, broadly speaking, safe now. The 16-win Wizards currently have the fourth-worst record in the NBA, which would guarantee their pick falls no lower than No. 8. Even if they slip to No. 5, they’d have a 99.4% chance of keeping the pick. Considering the No. 6 Pelicans don’t own their pick and therefore have no incentive to lose while every team “below” them in the lottery standings has an advantage of at least five wins over Washington, the Wizards should feel relatively confident that they’ll keep their pick.

But what are they going to do with it? That will depend on the lottery drawing of course, but there is a good chance they wind up with a high-usage player that needs the ball more than an offense led by Young is capable of giving it to him. The Wizards would have to reap some significant benefit in order to justify guaranteeing Young his payday before seeing how he fits with that draft pick and the homegrown core.

This is where things get tricky. We don’t know what a Young deal will look like yet, and yes, there is a price so low that the reward outweighs the risk. It just seems unlikely Young is willing to eschew free agency for such a price. More likely, a deal looks a bit more like the one Rudy Gobert signed with Minnesota before last season. Gobert, like Young, had a player option worth max money at the end of his previous deal (in his case, it was for $46.6 million). He declined that player option and dropped his salary for the 2025-26 season down to $35 million. That dip meant quite a bit to the contending Timberwolves, who needed to clear money to re-sign Julius Randle and Naz Reid while staying below the second apron. In exchange for that pay cut, Gobert got two more years worth $74.5 million.

Say Young signs a deal structured similarly. He’d decline his player option and take a pay cut next season to reflect the limited league-wide interest in small guards at the moment. In exchange, he’d get two extra years of security, aligning with Stein’s reporting that an extension would give him a three-year deal. The key difference here is that Washington has no obvious need for short-term savings. They could have still planned for cap space after the Young trade, but getting Davis afterward vaporized most of their remaining flexibility below the cap. Even with Davis, they’re far enough away from the luxury tax that they can use the full mid-level exception and leave some wiggle room for trades. Having any player at a lower salary than he could have earned is nice, but there’s not a specific type of move that’s immediately visible in which getting those short-term savings would be necessary, though that can obviously change based on further transactions.

It seems as though the Wizards are moving forward expecting Young to be a foundational player for them moving forward. It’s not a crazy expectation given how much he’s accomplished, but it’s not a sentiment many other teams appeared to share when Atlanta was shopping Young a few months ago. If he had much of a market, it probably would have cost more for Washington to trade for him. He certainly could prove the market wrong, but the downside risk of paying him before doing so vastly outweighs the premium it would cost to keep him if he does. It’s better to give a giant contract to a sure thing than a pretty big one to a coin flip.

Again, nothing here has been finalized, but the reporting has pretty consistently suggested an extension is the likeliest outcome. Given where they are and how much their circumstances could change in the next season and change, that just seems a bit premature. The Wizards are still figuring out what they have. They’re still evaluating their recent draft picks and in a position to make another high one. A long-term commitment to Young only makes sense once they’re sure he fits with what they’ve already built, but if the reporting here is any indication, it seems like they may have been leaning that way before even seeing him suit up for a single game.

Real Madrid fans are questioning manager Alvaro Arbeloa after their 1-0 defeat at the Santiago Bernabeu to Getafe. Many believe that he took too long to introduce Brahim Diaz in the game.

Getafe took the shock lead in the match through a stunning volley by Martin Satriano. The goal was enough to help them seal the win, making it two losses in a row in the league for Los Blancos for the first time since 2020.

Real Madrid fans were quick to point fingers at Arbeloa, blaming him for the defeat. They claim that the manager was not proactive and should have made better decisions with the substitutions.

The manager introduced Diaz in the 85th minute, and the fans were furious with the decision. Many posted:

Arbeloa spoke about the defeat, saying that he was to blame for the loss. He claimed that the game was getting paused too many times, but they needed to appreciate Getafe for doing well and said:

“I’m the one to blame for this loss. I won’t blame the players after their effort tonight. We can improve but it’s on me. There were many breaks during the game. The referee allowed that. But it’s not criticism, Getafe were good.”

Arbeloa was unwilling talk about the absence of Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham’s injuries for the defeat. He believes that they had enough players to get the win and said:

“The reason we lost is because Mbappé and Jude are injured? No, this is Real Madrid, we have more than enough players to win games. I won’t find excuses. To create chances, we often go too much for the ‘easy choice’, which is giving the ball to Vini and expecting him to create danger. We need to find other ways to create danger.”

Los Blancos are now four points behind Barcelona in the league table after 26 matches.

Real Madrid manager not giving up on La Liga title

Real Madrid manager Alvaro Arbeloa has refused to give up on the league title despite the loss. He claimed that they still have 36 points to play for and will be able to catch up and said:

“La Liga is over? No, no. There are still 36 points to get and we will fight until the end. It’s just 4 points, we can catch up. This is Real Madrid. Our objective is to get the 36 points left. We have to win next game in Vigo. No one gives up.”

Los Blancos face Celta Vigo next in the league, before taking on Manchester City in the UEFA Champions League.