By TERRY LYONS, Editor-in-Chief of Digital Sports Desk
CHESTNUT HILL – After an NCAA Week 0, which included an eyebrow-raising North Carolina (with Coach Big Bill Belechick) win over perennial power TCU and a shocking UMass victory over Big TEN doormat Rutgers, it’s time for the 2026 College Football season. The first “real” Saturday of the season came fast upon us and the results will be unfolding as this column is created (September 5).
This column will rely upon experts such as Phil Steele and his incredible preseason magazine to ESPN pundits to VSiN experts and a few early observations from the brand new armchair placed just yesterday in the Lyons’ den.
Only a handful of early afternoon and a few early evening games are in the scorebooks as of the time of writing. Some early impressions?
- Boston College barely made a showing in a 34-15 dismantling by Cincinnati
- The powerhouse Top 25 schools mostly saw typical one-sided scores over weak opponenents with the exception of a back-and-forth Oregon win over Boise St. (34-27).
- A primetime Clemson v. LSU game was delayed because of weather.
- The non-NFL Labor Day weekend bodes well for the schedule. Sunday, September 6 boasts three top notch games, including: Washington St. at Washington, Wisconsin at Notre Dame and Louisville at Ole Miss.
Looking further down the road, there’s some interesting buckets of information tucked into the Phil Steele annual. Consider a few that struck a chord and have been filed away as the season progresses:
Steele’s 2026 Toughest Schedule – Top 10
- Texas
- Michigan
- USC
- Arkansas
- Oklahoma
- Ohio St.
- Michigan St.
- Mississippi St.
- Purdue
- Florida
Steele’s Surprise Teams for 2026
- Alabama
- BYU
- Oklahoma
- USC
- Utah
- SMU
- Clemson
- Louisville
- Iowa
- Houston
Steele’s POWER Ten Teams for 2026
- Notre Dame
- Oregon
- Georgia
- Ohio St.
- Texas
- Indiana
- Oklahoma
- Mississippi
- Miami (FL)
- USC
HERE NOW, THE NOTES: After serving more than seven years as WNBA Commissioner, Cathy Engelbert announced her plan to step down at the end of 2026. The announcement came after severe criticism of the WNBA leadership team, mostly coming from the rank and file WNBA players.
Engelbert led the WNBA through very important times. Among her major accomplishments:
- Leading the WNBA with the WNBA Players Association to formulate a monumental collective bargaining agreement that will govern the league from its inception in 2026 through 2032.
- Navigating the league through a season in a bubble during COVID-19.
- Leading the WNBA efforts for its current, blockbuster and record-setting television and media arrangments. The term runs from 2026-2036 aqnd will generate $2.2 billion from Disney/ABC/ESPN platforms, NBC Universal and Amazon. An additional $281m annually ($3.1 billion) will come from auxillary deals with USA Network, ION and CBS Paramount. The deals will be analyzed in 2028 for possible adjustments.
- Overseeing the WNBA during unprecedented growth of teh league, including record interest to follow the career of Caitlin Clark.
The burning question surfacing in each and every story of Englebert’s retirement is the uncertain succession plan to name a new WNBA Commissioner. In columns and other media reports, speculation has run the gamut of naming recently retired players, like Swin Cash to sitting Governors (Maura Healy of Massachusetts) to former First Lady Michele Obama.
While they’re all great suggestions, it’s more likely the successor to Englebert will come from either an all-out executive search committee, an internal candidate at the WNBA or a team, or someone currently working in the sports industry. Regardless, it will take time.
The most feasible move for the NBA and WNBA is to lure recently retired Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman back to her old stomping grounds – even if it’s just for a six month interim basis.
Ackerman was the WNBA’s first executive leader, then titled President. Ackerman oversaw the lead-up to the WNBA launch – a year-long barnstorming by the USA Basketball women’s senior national team, leading into the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. It served as the perfect launchpad for the WNBA in the summer of 1997.
Ackerman’s calming presence would be welcomed by both management (WNBA Board) and players. Since the season runs from May until October (2027), the stabilization of the organization between January and June will be an important window of time.
There’s no question, Val Ackerman can get the job done and then sail off to a happy retirement sunset, maybe with a few million dollars from a thankful NBA-WNBA organization together with its players.
Just in case you aren’t familiar with her illustrious career, here’s a quick look via a recent edition of The Sports Business Journal. The SJ paid tribute to her amazing career with a full length story and a sidebar of her accomplishments. WWYI took the liberty to snip Val’s year-by-year C.V., including her education and sports industry high points:
The Val Ackerman File
Born: Nov. 7, 1959, Lakewood Township, NJ
Education: University of Virginia, B.A., political and social thought (1981), basketball, two-time Academic All-American; UCLA, law degree (1985)
Family: Husband, Charlie Rappaport; two daughters, Emily and Sally
Boards: NCAA Women’s Basketball Oversight Committee, member; Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, board of directors; Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, lifetime trustee
The Work of Art:
- 1981: Union Cosnoise Sportive Basket, player in France
- 1985-87: Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, corporate and banking associate
- 1988: NBA, staff attorney
- 1989: USA Basketball, board of directors
- 1990: NBA, special assistant to the commissioner; later named vice president of business affairs
- 1992: USA Basketball organizational liaison at the 1992 Olympics; later has same role for 1994 Worlds and 1996 Olympics
- 1996: WNBA, president (league’s first); guided the league’s launch the following year
- 1999: College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-America Hall of Fame, inductee
- 2002: Atlantic Coast Conference 50th Anniversary Women’s Basketball Team
- 2005: USA Basketball, president (4-year term)
- 2005: Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, member
- 2005: Women’s Basketball Coaches Association President’s Citation
- 2006: U.S. representative for men’s and women’s basketball on the Central Board of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA); named to a second term in 2010
- 2008: John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
- 2008-13: NCAA, consultant
- 2012: National Consortium for Academics and Sports Hall of Fame (now called Institute for Sport & Social Justice)
- 2013: Big East commissioner (as the college conference split from what became the AAC conference of “football schools.”
- 2013: USA Basketball’s Edward S. Steitz Award for contributions to international basketball
- 2013: Big East signed 12-year deal with Fox Sports worth $500 million
- 2014: NCAA Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee, member
- 2014: Led the relocation of the Big East’s headquarters from Providence, RI to its current site in New York City
- 2014: Launched Big East Digital Network (BEDN)
- 2016: Women’s Sports Foundation’s Billie Jean King Contribution Award
- 2017: U.S. Soccer Federation, at-large board member
- 2018: Big East and Madison Square Garden signed agreement to keep The Garden as the home of the Big East men’s basketball tournament through 2028
- 2019: Led negotiations resulting in the University of Connecticut’s return to the Big East, effective 2020
- 2019: Co-chair of the NCAA Federal and State Legislation Working Group
- 2020: Oversaw and navigated Big East’s response to COVID-19 epidemic
- 2021: Naismith Memorial Basketball of Fame, inductee
- 2023: Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame, inductee
- 2024: Big East entered into a successor media rights agreement through 2031 on multiple platforms – Fox Sports, NBC/Peacock and TNT Sports
- 2024: Conference and MSG extended venue agreement, keeping the Garden as the home of the Big East men’s tournament through 2032
- 2024: Sports Lawyers Association Michael Weiner Award of Excellence
- 2025: Conference entered six-year agreement with ESPN to provide broad coverage of additional Big East competitions on the ESPN+ platform
- 2025: Big East and Playfly Sports extended multimedia rights partnership through 2031
- 2026: Big East announced a three-year extension with Mohegan Sun Arena to serve as host of the women’s basketball tournament
- 2026: Announced planned retirement as Big East commissioner, effective Aug. 31
Will 2027 see Ms. Ackerman return to 645 Fifth Avenue and guide the reestablishment of the WNBA league office while searching for the next WNBA Commissioner?
TIDBITS & NUGGETS: all basketball fans recall the 2000 Olympics and 2002 Worlds and the coming out party for Yao Ming and “The Great Wall of China.” It was an amazing time to see the athletic and versatile 7-foot-6, 310 lbs center play for his national team and eventually the Houston Rockets.
The WNBA might be awaiting a similar story as the possibilities are endless.
China’s Zhang Ziyu – a 7-foot-3 center – is playing for the Chinese women’s national team at the 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup in Berlin. She is among 70 current and former WNBA players dotting rosters. In fact, 15 of the 16 teams competing for the FIBA World Cup for women have a WNBA player on their rosters.
If you remember, Zheng Haixia was the first player from China to play in the WNBA. She was on the opening night roster of the Los Angeles Sparks.
YOU CAN’T MAKE IT UP: British police are trying to recover 70,000 pints of stolen Guinness stout. Two trailer truckloads of the creamy dark suds, valued at 115,000 pounds ($155,000), were stolen from a depot near Liverpool in northwest England, the Cheshire Constabulary reported Thursday. “It is famously said that ‘Guinness is good for you,’ but that is only the case when it has been bought and paid for,” Det. Sgt. Gary McClatchy said. “We will settle for nothing less than the full recovery of all the items stolen.” The Guinness had been destined for pubs, but was snatched Monday night by two drivers who pulled up to an industrial park in Runcorn and hauled away the trailers containing about 800 barrels of stout.
The Guinness caper comes only weeks after a theft of Pabst Blue Ribbon lager from a Southern California warehouse, valued at $70,000. The company offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the recovery.