Given that he’s so willing to discuss his northern heritage when it suits, it’s likely that even someone as detached as Sir Jim Ratcliffe is aware of the acclaimed Jimmy McGovern TV drama, ‘Cracker’. He could do with a watch, if not.

In the first episode of the series most famous storyline, the ‘To Be A Somebody’ arc primarily about the social and psychological effects of Hillsborough, there’s a scene when the premises of a white nationalist group in Manchester are raided.

Amid the chaos, the character played by Christopher Eccleston, DCI David Billborough, spots a squad photo of the 1993-94 Manchester United squad on the wall. The detective accosts a bare-chested skinhead and starts gesturing to the players in the picture.

“Ince is black, Parker is black, Dublin is black, Schmeichel’s a Dane, Kanchelskis is a bloody Ukrainian and Cantona is French.”

Point made.

While this obviously isn’t to equate Ratcliffe’s clumsily ill-advised comments on immigration with fictional white nationalists, or imply he holds anything like such views, what does it say that the billionaire’s “disgusting” comments – to use the description of Chancellor Rachel Reeves – make it feel like he could do with a similar lecture about the team he co-owns?

Many of United’s own supporters have already made it clear, with multiple banners and memes about loving immigrants and hating billionaires. In one, Roy Keane and Eric Cantona happily stride above an image of Ratcliffe and the Glazers.

A football column like this obviously doesn’t need to re-state the basic errors that Ratcliffe made, or relay political arguments demonstrating the positives of immigration.

And if such a column is about the game itself, it is important to acknowledge that Ratcliffe’s views will be shared by many on the Old Trafford stands, despite much of the support’s inclusive leanings. His comments lamentably reflect the political era we’re in, where many of the very themes explored by ‘Cracker’ have only become more relevant.

The fact that many football fans will share Ratcliffe’s views only reflects the mass popularity of the sport, and how it cuts across more sectors of the population than any other pursuit.

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That fact doesn’t, however, reflect football’s true power here and what is actually relevant about this.

Ratcliffe’s sentiments are actually the complete antithesis of what the game is really about: happiness, inclusivity, coming together.

A simplistic view, sure, but also an easily demonstrable truth.

This is what that episode of Cracker so archly illustrated.

It’s not just that there’s no sector of society as popular as football. It’s that there’s no sector as powerful in breaking down the same barriers.

This is a wider point that should be made as regards the billionaire’s comments in his profile as a notional football figure.

Leave aside the politics for a moment, and even the suspicions the United co-owner was possibly just seeking to cozy up to Reform sentiments.

What Ratcliffe said was actually anti-football.

There are countless examples you could use to illustrate why, starting with United’s own team and history. A migrant, Billy Whelan, died in the Munich air disaster commemorated last week.

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Across town, Manchester City celebrated Germany’s Bert Trautmann as a club legend, just 11 years after the Second World War.

Come to now, and around 70 percent of the Premier League’s players are migrants and 79 percent of its managers.

The writer of this very column is a migrant, even if comments like Ratcliffe’s are no longer usually intended to mean the Irish given the common travel area.

And while none of this is to deny that serious racism or exclusionary views are challenges within the game and around it, the crucial point is that football itself serves to change minds.

Think about it in the most basic terms.

Many of us will have been in the company of supporters who hold even stronger views than Ratcliffe, only to express adoration for migrants in the same breath.

This gradually has a tangible positive effect, too.

In 2019, a Stanford University study showed that Mohammed Salah’s performances had reduced both Islamophobia and hate crime rates in Liverpool.

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And they obviously did. That is how this works.

There are few sectors that encourage understanding and integration as much as football. The game has many problems, but this is one it actively works against in the most direct and persuasive way.

The one true global game serves to bring people together, even amid its many issues and the way it is often politically misused.

In the latter sense, the Ratcliffe controversy raises another crucial theme.

It is striking that United themselves felt the need to release a statement re-asserting the club’s inclusive ethos, and yet they find themselves co-owned and consequently represented by a man whose comments go against that. It has long been the same with the Glazers’ capitalist outlook, not least the manner their conference calls have discussed benefitting from dramatic Trumpian tax reforms, and how that so goes against the idea of a club founded by railway workers.

This is the world football has willingly moved into, without its fans having any say whatsoever.

It’s not hard to imagine some of football’s other billionaire owners privately expressing sympathy with Ratcliffe’s views, rolling their eyes with how the public just won’t get it. They move in a completely different world.

In another extreme, two other ownerships – those of Manchester City and Newcastle United – are key figures or funds from autocratic states who have migrant labour laws described as “modern slavery” and based on racial hierarchies.

All of this just forms another simple argument as to why such social institutions should be owned by supporters, not private or state interests. That is who they really represent, after all.

And yet this dismal situation perhaps has one positive when it comes to the ownership problem.

One of the main reasons that some billionaires get into football is fame, and social capital. They enjoy the increased profile, in ways that their other businesses just can’t afford. It also allows them to indulge what some industry figures describe as “billionaire idiot syndrome”, where individuals who are financially successful in one specific area become convinced they can easily translate this to anything else. As one example, when Ratcliffe made a pitch to buy Chelsea in 2022, those involved had the perception that he thought it would be easy because he’d run Ineos.

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And duly, if Ratcliffe said this still just a petrochemicals owner, it likely wouldn’t have made anything like the same headlines.

Saying it as the co-owner of Manchester United, however, has just publicly exposed the poverty of thinking. A man frequently described as arrogant has been forced into a partial apology.

The game has that power, as well as so much more.

Ratcliffe could do a bit more to understand the sport he’s actually in, not least its inclusive nature.

He could start by trying to understand his own club.

After last year’s 9-5 campaign, Boise State football has played 30 seasons as an FBS program, dating back to 1996.

During that time, the Broncos have compiled an FBS record of 292-92-0 (.760) through the 2025 season.

Since the program’s initial season, the Broncos have appeared in 22 bowl games, winning 13 of them, along with 17 conference championships and six division titles.

Boise State has spent 26 Weeks in the College Football Playoff rankings and has ended the season in the final poll five times.

The Broncos have produced 15 All-America players, including one unanimous selection in Ashton Jeanty.

Former coach Chris Petersen won the Paul “Bear” Bryant Award twice (in 2006 and 2009) and the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award in 2010.

Scotland Squad: George Munsey, Michael Jones, Brandon McMullen, Richie Berrington(c), Tom Bruce, Michael Leask, Matthew Cross(w), Mark Watt, Oliver Davidson, Brad Wheal, Brad Currie, Safyaan Sharif, Finlay McCreath, Chris Greaves, Zainullah Ihsan

England Squad: Philip Salt, Jos Buttler(w), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Harry Brook(c), Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Jamie Overton, Jofra Archer, Liam Dawson, Adil Rashid, Luke Wood, Josh Tongue, Rehan Ahmed, Ben Duckett

Matt Weston delivered Britain’s first medal of the 2026 Winter Olympics in style as he dominated the men’s skeleton competition.

The British star claimed victory by a cumulative total of 0.88 seconds over his four runs, ahead of German pair Alex Jungk and Christopher Grotheer, who took silver and bronze respectively.

The dual world champion had led from the beginning of the competition, setting track records in both of his first two runs at the Cortina Sliding Centre on Thursday before bettering his own mark twice again on Friday evening to be crowned Olympic champion.

He said: “I literally can’t describe it. I’ve been fortunate enough to win world championships, European championships and other things as well and this blows them all out of the water.

“I can’t describe the feeling. I almost feel numb. It’s kind of not real. I keep touching it (his medal) to make sure it is real but it doesn’t feel real.”

Despite having held a clear advantage from his very first run, Weston still felt there were parts of his performance that could be improved as he continues to seek “the perfect line” around the track.

He said: “I think there’s always bits to clean up. I’m very much a perfectionist.

“Every single run I do I’m thinking I need to clean this set, I need to clean that up. Even if it was a track record, I’m still very much trying to find that perfect line.

“Whether it’s possible or not I don’t know but that’s what keeps me going.”

Weston is unsure where his perfectionist streak comes from, but admits it stretches further than just the sliding track.

He added: “I want to win everything, I want to be a perfectionist in everything. I’m a nightmare when we play Monopoly at home.

“My team-mates call me Captain 110 per cent because I can’t not win. Even when we’re squatting, they might put one kilo on the bar and I’ll be like, I’ll do another set just to try and beat them.”

Weston is the first British man to win a skeleton gold, with Amy Williams and Lizzy Yarnold having triumphed previously in the women’s competition and he was thrilled to have followed in their footsteps.

He said: “I’m just so pleased that I’m able to continue such an amazing legacy. We’ve had some insane athletes come before me and set the standard, set the momentum.

“Obviously Beijing (in 2022) didn’t go quite as well as we’d hoped. We took a risk with equipment then and it didn’t quite pay off.

“But now we completely reset, we revamped everything, new coaches, new kind of philosophies around things and yeah, I think we’ve turned it around pretty well.”

Weston’s parents, Alison and Tom, along with his fiancee Alex were there to witness his triumph and he added: “They’re the ones that are pushing me the most.

“My fiancee, I’m out of the country for six months of the year and it’s not a glamorous lifestyle being a skeleton athlete but she’s still always there supporting me.

“I’m getting married in July so I can say yes (it is the best day of my life) for about a few months and then I have to change my answer.”

Life comes at you fast in the world of high-major college basketball. One minute you’re alone atop the SEC standings and the next you’re suddenly on the NCAA Tournament bubble. This is the situation Texas A&M (17-7, 7-4 SEC) finds itself in as it plays at No. 19 Vanderbilt on Saturday.

The Aggies are on a three-game slide that includes losses against Alabama and Missouri that came by a combined four points. Looking at those results, you can easily play the “what if” game with Texas A&M. What if it hadn’t been forced to play at Alabama during Charles Bediako’s five-game stint back with the Crimson Tide? Could playing Bama without Bediako could have tipped the scales in A&M’s favor during what turned out to be a 100-97 loss?

What if the ending of an 87-82 double-overtime loss at Tennessee had gone just a little bit differently? A road win over Tennessee or Alabama would have given A&M a ton of resume fortification.  The maddening part is that A&M is good enough that it could have won those games. Their fast-paced, high-pressure, 3-point oriented style under first-year coach Bucky McMillan is working, and it has the Aggies averaging out around 30th overall nationally in the predictive analytics used by the selection committee.

Where A&M is now lacking is in the resume metrics that are often used along the tournament’s cut line. With a profile in the mid-to-high 40s there, A&M needs to start adding to the win column as it seeks to recover from a lackluster nonconference performance. “Buckyball” wasn’t yet a well-oiled machine in early November, and A&M didn’t get any significant resume-padding done before league play began.

As a result, it’s getting a little close for comfort at Texas A&M. 

Here’s the breakdown of this weekend’s games involving bubble teams including a  “double bubble” showdown between TCU and Oklahoma State with both teams vying for a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Check out the CBS Sports Bracketology model’s latest bracket at the Bracketology hub

All times ET

Bubble teams in action this weekend

Cal

Entering the weekend: Next Four Out
Saturday at Boston College | 12 p.m. (ACC Network)

The first leg of Cal’s northeastern ACC swing resulted in a 107-100 double-overtime loss at Syracuse. The defeat is clinging narrowly to Quad 1 status for now, but a loss at Boston College would be far more costly. Even on the road, facing the Eagles (9-15, 2-9 ACC) slots in as a Quad 3 affair for the Bears, who have dropped a whopping 16 spots at KenPom since briefly rising to No. 54 last week.

Oklahoma State

Entering the weekend: Next Four Out
Saturday vs. TCU | 12 p.m. (ESPN2)

The Oklahoma State wave quickly receded after an initial surge brought by a Feb. 4 win over BYU. Coming off a 37-point loss at Arizona and a Tuesday loss to Arizona State, the Cowboys need to get right. Home games against TCU on Saturday and Kansas on Wednesday will be challenging, but they are winnable games against quality opponents that could push the Pokes back in the right direction.

TCU

Entering the weekend: Last Four In
Saturday at Oklahoma State | 12 p.m. (ESPN2)

TCU edged Oklahoma State 68-65 in the first meeting on Jan. 20 as the Horned Frogs snapped out of a 1-4 start to Big 12 play. Beating the Cowboys was the beginning of a 4-2 stretch that could become a 5-2 stretch if TCU is able to complete a sweep. Tuesday’s upset of Iowa State adds to a Nov. 27 neutral-site win over Florida in demonstrating this team’s potential.

Texas A&M

Entering the weekend: Last Four In
Saturday at Vanderbilt | 1 p.m. (SEC Network)

Seeing Texas A&M among the Last Four in could understandably be jarring for Aggies fans who saw their team atop the SEC standings earlier this month. First-year coach Bucky McMillan is doing great work, but the Aggies have ended up on the wrong side of too many close games, and that has dinged up their resume a bit. While predictive metrics such as a No. 35 KenPom ranking are still in A&M’s favor, a No. 45 WAB ranking tells us A&M is losing its margin for error.

Virginia Tech

Entering the weekend: First Four Out
Saturday vs. Miami | 4 p.m. (ESPN2)

Virginia Tech’s 76-66 win at Clemson on Wednesday is worth significantly more in WAB than any other victory amassed by the Hokies (17-8, 6-6 ACC) this season. A home loss to Florida State would give it all back. That’s basically the story for the rest of Virginia Tech’s season, as there are should-win home games of little value (FSU, Wake Forest and Boston College) alternating with high-end road showdowns with lots of value (Miami, North Carolina and Virginia).

VCU

Entering the weekend: First Four Out
Saturday vs. Richmond | 6 p.m. (CBS Sports Network)

VCU has won eight in a row, but its at-large chances might all come down to whether it can pull a road upset of Saint Louis on Feb. 20. In the meantime, it faces a crosstown rivalry showdown with a Richmond team that just snapped out of a six-game losing streak by pulling an upset of Atlantic 10 stalwart George Mason. The Rams cannot take this one lightly.

Ohio State

Entering the weekend: First Four Out
Saturday vs. Virginia | 8 p.m. (Fox)

Ohio State finally has a Quad 1 win. Of course, it’s not because of some new victory the Buckeyes picked up. It’s because their Dec. 6 victory at Northwestern now counts as a Quad 1 victory based on where the Wildcats stand in the NET (for now, anyway). Beating Virginia on a neutral floor would give Ohio State the sort of resume boost it needs to pair with a predictive analytics profile hovering around 40th nationally. 

Missouri

Entering the weekend: Last Four In
Saturday vs. Texas | 8:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

Missouri squeaked out an 86-85 win at Texas A&M on Wednesday to reach 17-7 and 7-4 in the SEC. A year ago, winning even just six SEC games was good enough for guaranteed NCAA Tournament admission. But the league isn’t as strong this season, and the Tigers have a ton of ground to make up after playing a horrible nonconference schedule.

San Diego State

Entering the weekend: First Four Out
Saturday vs. Nevada | 10 p.m. (CBS Sports Network)

San Diego State’s next six games are projected as either Quad 2 or Quad 1 opportunities, which offer the Aztecs a chance to leave a late impression. If this team misses the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019, it will look back and rue a Nov. 18 double-overtime home loss to Troy. Overcoming that Quad 3 defeat without any high-end victories to tout is going to require significant win volume from SDSU.

Saint Mary’s

Entering the weekend: Last Four In
Saturday at Pacific | 10:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

If Saint Mary’s makes the Big Dance as an at-large team, it may want to consider writing a thank-you note to Virginia Tech. A victory over the Hokies from Nov. 27 in the Battle 4 Atlantis is doing overtime in propping up the Gaels’ resume. The Hokies’ rise in the NET has resulted in Saint Mary’s finally having a Quad 1 win (for now). Though they have 17 low-end Quad 3/4 victories, the Gaels still rate as a top-40 team in metrics used by the committee.

Santa Clara

Entering the weekend: No. 11 seed (projected WCC champion)
Saturday vs. Gonzaga | 10:30 p.m. (ESPN)

If the season ended today with someone other than Santa Clara winning the WCC Tournament, the Broncos would have roughly a 50-50 chance of making the field, per the CBS Sports Bracketology model. The Broncos are in possession of an interesting tournament profile that places them around 40th overall in both resume and predictive metrics. But with just one Quad 1 win and an ugly Quad 4 loss to Loyola Chicago back in December, things are tenuous. Beating Gonzaga would do wonders, as it would give Santa Clara another statement win to go along with its Jan. 17 victory over Saint Mary’s.

Seton Hall

Entering the weekend: Next Four Out
Sunday at Butler | 6 p.m. (FS1)

Seton Hall has been fading, and that’s a shame because this team could be America’s team in the NCAA Tournament. Coach Shaheen Holloway — formerly of Saint Peter’s lore — gets his team to play lockdown defense, and the Pirates have one of the sport’s most fun point guards in the undersized Adam “Budd” Clark. Losing here would be unadvisable in what’s shaping up as a fringe Quad 1 or 2 game.