Saturday could play an outsized role in determining the No. 1 overall seed in the 2026 NCAA men’s tournament.

The day features two matchups between teams in the top five of the AP poll as well as another game between No. 6 Iowa State and No. 23 BYU. The Cyclones can get themselves in position for a No. 1 seed with a strong finish to the season.

Here’s what you need to know ahead of two of the biggest regular-season games of the season.

No. 4 Arizona at No. 2 Houston

This game has far more than NCAA tournament implications too. The Wildcats and Cougars are tied atop the Big 12 standings at 11-2 while Iowa State and No. 8 Kansas are a game back in third at 10-3.

Arizona lost its first two games of the year to Kansas and Texas Tech but avoided extending that streak to three on Wednesday night with a big road win at BYU. Anthony Dell’Orso scored 22 points off the bench in a 75-68 victory.

Arizona didn’t have star freshman Koa Peat in that game and he won’t be available on Saturday, either. Peat suffered a lower leg injury in the loss to Texas Tech. He’s averaging 13.8 points and 5.4 rebounds per game while shooting over 50% from the field.

Houston fell 70-67 at Iowa State on Monday night after the Cyclones staged a late comeback. Houston led by 10 with just over seven minutes to go before Iowa State outscored the Cougars 17-4 to end the game and go up for good on Nate Heise’s go-ahead 3-pointer.

Both teams still have Kansas remaining on their schedules, but Arizona also has Iowa State while Houston’s other three games should be very winnable. A win on Saturday will give Houston a significant leg up in the race for the regular-season Big 12 title. But Kansas can play spoiler, assuming Darryn Peterson is healthy.

No. 1 Michigan vs. No. 3 Duke

You may be wondering why these two schools are playing each other in the heart of conference play. Saturday night’s game is officially billed the Edward Jones Capital Showcase and is being played at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

The Wolverines became the No. 1 team in the country after Arizona’s loss to Texas Tech and responded with a blowout win at Purdue on Tuesday night. Michigan led by 16 at halftime as it shot 53% from the field and 57% from behind the 3-point line.

It was a win that showed why Michigan is the favorite to win the national title at BetMGM. The Wolverines are +325 to take home the national title ahead of Arizona at +500, Duke at +650 and Houston at +750. No other team has odds better than 12-1.

Six players scored in double figures for Michigan against Purdue. With five players averaging at least 10 points or more and Yaxel Lendeborg, Morez Johnson and Aday Mara each grabbing at least seven rebounds a game, opponents have a tough time dealing with Michigan’s size.

It’s a fascinating matchup for Duke freshman forward Cameron Boozer. He’s averaging 22.8 points and 10 rebounds per game as he’s the clear-cut favorite to win the Wooden Award. Boozer is -5000 to be named player of the year; BYU’s AJ Dybantsa is the No. 2 favorite at 19-1 and no one else has odds better than 80-1.

Boozer has been ruthlessly efficient from the field this season. After making less than half his shots in three of Duke’s first six games of the season, Boozer has made at least 50% of his field goals in 18 of Duke’s last 20 games. He'll probably need to make it 19 out of 21 for Duke to get the win.

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Joe Gibbs Racing has filed a lawsuit against former competition director and crew chief Chris Gabehart, alleging that Gabehart attempted to “steal JGR’s most sensitive information” and take it to Spire Motorsports to be the team’s chief motorsports officer.

According to the suit, Gabehart had information from Joe Gibbs Racing like “comprehensive post-race audit and analyses of team and driver performance for the 2025 season,” “complete payroll details, including job titles, contract length, annual compensation, incentive compensation, and compensation plans for prior years," sponsor revenue and the team’s pit crew analytics from the 2024 season on his personal phone and Google Photos account.

Additionally, the team says Gabehart had a “Spire” folder on his work computer with proprietary JGR information about how the team operates and how it creates setups. JGR is asking for $8 million in damages along with attorney fees.

Gabehart was the team’s Cup Series competition director in 2025 after serving as Denny Hamlin’s crew chief for the previous six seasons. Hamlin won 22 races with Gabehart atop the pit box and made NASCAR’s title race in three of those six seasons. Before working with Hamlin in the Cup Series, Gabehart crew chiefed in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for the team.

Per the suit, the team parted ways with Gabehart after he asked for more control over the team’s racing decisions. When JGR said no, the parties began working on a separation agreement. After Gabehart left, the team did a routine analysis of his computer and found the folder marked with Spire’s name. The team says Gabehart saved the information on Nov. 7, the day after his meeting with team owner Joe Gibbs.

Spire has been a Cup Series team since the 2019 season and expanded to three cars in 2024. It is fielding cars for Michael McDowell, Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suarez in 2026.

Viewership for the 2026 Daytona 500 rebounded from 2025, but was still lower than previous regularly-scheduled races in recent years.

Fox Sports said Thursday that nearly 7.5 million people watched Tyler Reddick’s win on Sunday. That’s an increase from the 6.76 million people that watched the 2025 Daytona 500, but that race was delayed significantly by rain. Last year’s event completed just eight green-flag laps before a rain delay of over three hours stopped the race.

Sunday’s race was moved up an hour because of potential rain, and started just after 2 p.m. ET instead of after 3 p.m. ET.

With the 2024 Daytona 500 pushed to Monday because of rain, the last regularly-scheduled race came in 2023. That race, won by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., averaged 8.17 million viewers. In 2022, the Daytona 500 drew over 8.8 million viewers.

Daytona 500 viewership has been on a steady decline since 2006, when Jimmie Johnson’s win drew over 19.3 million viewers. Kurt Busch’s win in 2017 had an average audience of 11.9 million and no Daytona 500 since then has gotten close to breaking 10 million.

In 2018, Austin Dillon’s win had 9.3 million viewers and Denny Hamlin’s win a year later had 9.2 million.

Did moving up Sunday’s race mean fewer viewers ended up watching? That’s an unknown. It’s possible, but the earlier 500 also meant it didn’t run head-to-head with the NBA All-Star Game as much as it was scheduled to originally. The All-Star Game drew its highest audience since 2011 on Sunday with 8.8 million viewers.

The game, aired on NBC after the network’s daytime Olympic coverage, drew 4.1 more million viewers than the 2025 All-Star Game on TNT.

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Two more Georgia football players have been arrested for driving-related offenses.

Linebackers Chris Cole and Darren Ikinaagbon were booked Wednesday night within a half hour of each other on misdemeanor charges. Cole for speeding and reckless driving, according to On3, and Ikinnagbon for speeding, reckless driving and following too closely.

The school said in a statement that it was aware of the charges and was “actively gathering additional information.”

Their arrests continue a trend that is not seeming to slow down in recent years for Georgia players. Over a dozen players have been arrested for driving offenses in the past three years since the death of offensive lineman Devin Willock.

Willock and team staffer Chandler LeCroy were killed in a car crash on Jan. 15, 2023 following the Bulldogs’ national title parade. Police said that LeCroy was driving an SUV that was racing another SUV driven by current Eagles defensive lineman Jalen Carter.

Carter pled no contest to charges of reckless driving for his role in the incident.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart has said his program has implemented efforts to curb the driving issues that have plagued it. In November, Nyier Daniels was dismissed from the team after he was charged with felonies for a police chase. Daniels and his mother were both arrested after he passed an officer who had pulled over his mother while going more than 100 MPH in a 25 MPH zone. Daniels then allegedly reached 150 MPH with his younger siblings in the car while he was evading police.

Cole was fourth on the team with 59 tackles in 2025 while Ikinaagbon had two tackles. 

The Kansas City Chiefs have used Patrick Mahomes’ contract to open up over $40 million in salary cap space.

According tomultiple reports, the Chiefs have restructured Mahomes’ deal to lower his cap hit from $78.2 million to under $35 million for the 2026 season.

Before the restructure, the Chiefs were over the cap by over $50 million and are still not cap compliant at the moment with this move. But the Chiefs could quickly get there with just one or two other moves. The team can save $20 million against the cap by releasing right tackle Jawaan Taylor, for instance. Defensive tackle Chris Jones' deal could be redone as well if the Chiefs are looking to open up more short-term cap space for free agency manuevering. 

Mahomes’ contract was always likely to be restructured ahead of the season given his projected cap number. Only Cleveland’s Deshaun Watson ($80.7 million) had a higher cap number going into the 2026 season.

It’s not the first time Mahomes’ contract has been redone, either. The Chiefs redid Mahomes’ deal ahead of the 2023 season. Mahomes first signed an extension with the team that kicked in during the 2020 season and goes through the 2031 season. His total contract value of $450 million, including non-guaranteed money, ranks No. 1 in the NFL by far, ahead of the Bills’ Josh Allen and the Bengals’ Joe Burrow.

Mahomes, 30, suffered a torn left ACL in a December loss to the Los Angeles Chargers and is pushing to be ready for Week 1 of the 2026 season. The Chiefs are also reportedly hoping to have tight end Travis Kelce return for another season. Kelce has been publicly non-committal about his future after the 2025 season.

After going 6-11 in 2025, the Chiefs have the No. 9 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. It's the first time the Chiefs have picked in the top 10 since Mahomes was drafted by the franchise in 2017.