Oklahoma

NEW YORK — Ohio State and Oregon were 1-2 in The Associated Press Top 25 released Monday, giving the Big Ten Conference the top two teams in the preseason rankings for the first time in 65 years and just the second time ever.

The Buckeyes received 40 first-place votes and Oregon received 14 in voting by 69 media members who cover college football.

Ohio State will go into a season No. 1 for the ninth time, and first since 2015. The Buckeyes are now tied with Alabama for second-most preseason No. 1 rankings behind Oklahoma’s 10.

Oregon has its highest preseason ranking in program history after having opened No. 3 four times.

Georgia, Notre Dame and Texas round out the top five. Defending national champion Indiana starts at No. 6 and is followed by Miami, Texas A&M, Mississippi and Oklahoma.

Notre Dame received six first-place votes, Indiana got eight and Miami one.

This is the first year a conference has held down the top two spots in the preseason poll since Oklahoma and Nebraska of the Big Eight were 1-2 in 1987.

The last time the Big Ten had the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the preseason was 1961, when Iowa and Ohio State topped the poll. The Hawkeyes lost four of their last five games after a 4-0 start and finished that season unranked. The Buckeyes went 8-0-1 and ended the season No. 2 behind unbeaten Alabama.

The Big Ten has won three straight College Football Playoff championships (Michigan, Ohio State, Indiana) and will be going for an unprecedented fourth straight national title. This is the fourth consecutive year the Big Ten has had two of the top three teams in the preseason rankings.

The Southeastern Conference leads all conferences with nine teams in the preseason Top 25, marking the third straight year it has had at least that many. Five of the top 10 teams are from the SEC for the first time since 2013.

Four Big 12 teams are ranked, with conference champion Texas Tech the highest at No. 12. The Atlantic Coast Conference has three ranked teams, with the Hurricanes joined by No. 19 SMU and No. 24 Louisville. There are no Group of Six schools in the Top 25.

Top-ranked Buckeyes

The offense is loaded. Heisman Trophy finalist Julian Sayin was the most accurate passer in the nation by a wide margin last season, Jeremiah Smith leads the nation in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns over the last two years and Bo Jackson is coming off a 1,000-yard rushing season as a freshman.

There is little concern about the defense even though eight starters must be replaced for a second straight year. At least six transfers are projected to start or play major roles.

Ohio State will get tested early and often. The Buckeyes visit Texas on Sept. 12 and five of their nine conference games are against preseason ranked teams, including at Indiana and against Oregon at home.

The Buckeyes have ended a season No. 1 in the AP poll six times (1942, 1954, 1968, 2002, 2014, 2024).

Bulldogs best of the SEC

The beat goes on for Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs. They’re in the preseason top five for the ninth straight year. The two-time defending SEC champion Bulldogs are favored to play in a sixth straight conference title game and appear in the CFP for the sixth time in 10 years.

Texas, the preseason No. 1 last year, opens in the top five for the third straight year. No. 8 Texas A&M is in the preseason top 10 for the first time since it was No. 6 in 2022, the year that marked the beginning of the end for coach Jimbo Fisher.

Pete Golding’s first full season as Mississippi head coach starts with the No. 9 Rebels in the preseason top 10 for the second time in three years and third time since 1970. No. 10 Oklahoma is in the preseason top 10 for the first time since 2022, when it was in the Big 12.

What about the Hoosiers?

Indiana is the seventh returning national champion in 40 years, and second in three years, to be ranked outside the top five in the preseason (Michigan went into the 2024 season ranked No. 9 after winning the national title).

The Hoosiers became the first team in the modern era to go 16-0, and they return lots of talent and signed a top-10 transfer class. The move from Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 NFL draft pick Fernando Mendoza to TCU transfer Josh Hoover at quarterback apparently put doubts in the minds of voters.

Poll nuggets

—USC, which landed the nation’s top recruiting class during the offseason, is ranked No. 15 in the preason poll.

— Ohio State will try to become the 12th team to start and finish No. 1 since the AP preseason poll debuted in 1950. The last team to do it was Alabama in 2017.

— Notre Dame has its highest preseason ranking since it was No. 2 in 2006. The Fighting Irish, who have a Heisman candidate in quarterback CJ Carr, bring a 10-game winning streak into the season and are still smarting from being left out of the playoff.

— Lane Kiffin’s first LSU team is No. 11 after finishing 7-6 and unranked under Brian Kelly and Frank Wilson.

— Ten of the 12 CFP teams last season are ranked. The two that aren’t are James Madison and Tulane from the Group of Six.

— No. 23 Houston has its first preseason ranking in four years and third since 1991.

Full AP preseason top 25 poll

1. Ohio State
2. Oregon
3. Georgia
4. Notre Dame
5. Texas
6. Indiana
7. Miami
8. Texas A&M
9. Mississippi
10. Oklahoma
11. LSU
12. Texas Tech
13. Alabama
14. BYU
15. USC
16. Michigan
17. Washington
18. Penn State
19. SMU
20. Tennessee
21. Utah
22. Iowa
23. Houston
24. Louisville
25. Missouri

Olson writes for the Associated Press.

June 27 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Saturday announced that he nominated former Oklahoma state trooper Lance Schroyer to be director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Schroyer, a senior advisor at the Department of Homeland Security and retired U.S. Marine, will replace former acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, who announced in April that he would leave the agency on May 31.

Trump announced that he is nominating Schroyer for the position in a post on Truth Social, touting his 29 years in law enforcement, including in previous partnership roles with ICE.

“He is a PATRIOT with real operational experience, and proven leader with DECADES of experience locking up the worst of the worst,” Trump said in the post.

“Lance has firsthand experience getting Illegal Aliens OFF our streets and, just like ME and our Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, he LOVES the men and women of ICE!” Trump said.

DHS said in a press release endorsing the nomination that Schroyer’s role as senior advisor to Mullin has included overseeing coordination of immigration enforcement and serving as a liaison between involved law enforcement agencies.

Before his position at DHS, Schroyer was a major in the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety with responsibility for its Emergency Services Unit and a longtime Oklahoma state trooper.

In a statement, Mullin noted that ICE has not had a Senate confirmed director in more than a decade and, echoing Trump’s post, said the Senate needs to quickly confirm Schroyer.

“Lance will play a vital role in helping deliver on the President’s mandate from the American people to target, arrest and deport illegal aliens,” Mullin said.

“Lance is coming straight from the operational field where he ran large scale operations and worked alongside state and federal partners to remove illegal aliens from Oklahoma under the 287g program,” he said.

Lyons was appointed by Trump in March 2025 after his predecessor, Caleb Vitello, did not start removing people from the United States who allegedly were illegally in the country.

In his roughly one year in the job, Lyons oversaw more than 475,000 removals of people from the country and nearly 379,000 arrests.

OMAHA, Neb. — The way its regular season unfolded, a national championship for Oklahoma would have seemed impossible.

The way the postseason unfolded, well, there was no stopping the Sooners.

Oklahoma completed the improbable run to its first national championship since 1994 with a 13-2 victory over North Carolina in the winner-take-all Game 3 of the College World Series finals Monday night, a performance that featured the prodigious offensive production and clutch pitching the Sooners rode through the NCAA tournament.

“I think we knew the talent was always in the room,” said Jaxon Willits, named the CWS most outstanding player. “We got hot at the right time, and now we’re national champions.”

The Sooners (43-23) won the Southeastern Conference’s seventh straight title, quite an accomplishment for a team picked 14th in the 16-team conference in the preseason, finished 11th and entered the postseason off losses in seven of nine games.

To get to Omaha, they beat No. 2 national seed Georgia Tech twice on the road in regionals and swept upstart Kansas on the road in super regionals. To get to the finals, they beat No. 3 Georgia twice in bracket play.

“They got really confident the last month,” Sooners coach Skip Johnson said. “They care about each other. They didn’t want to give in. They were selfless.”

North Carolina (54-14-1) was runner-up for the third time since 2006 and now has 13 CWS appearances without a title. Only Florida State, with 24, has more without winning it all.

The Sooners were back in top form offensively after managing only four singles in a 6-2 loss in Game 2 and handed the Tar Heels their most lopsided loss of the season.

“We ran out of gas when all is said and done,” North Carolina coach Scott Forbes said.

Oklahoma coach Skip Johnson hoists the championship trophy after his team beat North Carolina in the CWS finale Monday in Omaha.

(Rebecca S. Gratz / Ap Photo/rebecca S. Gratz)

When Jackson Cleveland struck out Jake Schaffner to end the game, he and catcher Deiten Lachance embraced and then headed to the dogpile that formed near third base. Players waving national championship towels rushed back toward their dugout to salute the celebrating Sooner faithful on the first-base line, football greats Barry Switzer and Brian Bosworth among them.

Kyle Branch, the No. 9 batter who came into the game one of 16 (.063) in the CWS, drove in six runs with a pair of singles and a home run. His homer came on his last at-bat, just as brother Kolby’s did for Georgia last Wednesday.

“Pure joy. Pure joy for our team,” Branch said. “I had a teammate tell me I was going to do something special, and for him to tell me that with the way things have been going, it has to be a God thing.”

He joined Dayton Tockey as the seventh and eighth Oklahoma players to homer in Omaha. Willits had three hits, reached base five times and finished the CWS 13 of 25 (.520).

Oklahoma’s Kyle Branch celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against North Carolina in the College World Series finale Monday in Omaha.

(Rebecca S. Gratz / Ap Photo/rebecca S. Gratz)

The pitching matchup of Carolina’s Jackson Rose (5-1) and Oklahoma’s Nick Wesloski was the first between freshmen in a CWS winner-take-all game since 1993. Neither got out of the third inning.

LJ Mercurius (7-7) turned in another strong performance out of the bullpen, shutting down a threat when Oklahoma led 3-1 in the third and holding the Tar Heels to one run in 5 2/3 innings. He gave up just two runs in 12 1/3 innings over four CWS appearances.

The Tar Heels’ pitching staff, which had the best ERA in the Atlantic Coast Conference, had been good and occasionally great in the CWS. It was neither Monday, with eight pitchers combining to yield 14 hits, issue eight walks, throw three wild pitches with one hit batter.

ACC freshman of the year Caden Glauber, who had given up just one run in 10 1/3 innings in four CWS appearances, was called on for a fifth one day after he threw 65 pitches in five shutout innings. It was apparent coach Forbes went to the well one time too many.

Glauber was called for a clock violation before he even threw his first pitch. He issued a four-pitch bases-loaded walk and Willits followed with a two-run single to make it 6-1 in the fourth. That was all for Glauber, who threw seven pitches, five of them balls. The Tar Heels had won all 29 games in which Glauber had pitched before Monday.

“This group loved each other all season and took us on a ride and came up just short,” Forbes said. “I’d take that ride every day of the year. While we’re sad, the sadness will go away. We talk about joy. Joy doesn’t go away. These guys have given me, our coaching staff, our fans, administration, everybody, a ton of joy and a ton to be proud of.”

Olson writes for the Associated Press.

June 17 (UPI) — Shortly after President Donald Trump rescinded his endorsement of Jackson Lahmeyer, a Republican candidate for the House of Representatives from Oklahoma, Lahmeyer dropped out of the race, saying he didn’t want to be “a distraction.”

“After prayerful consideration with my wife, Kendra, and my team over the past 24 hours, I’ve made the difficult decision to suspend my campaign for Congress,” Lahmeyer said in a statement, CNN reported. “I do not want to be a distraction to my family, my church and the great people of Oklahoma’s 1st Congressional District, who deserve a strong conservative voice representing them in Congress.”

Trump endorsed Lahmeyer, a right-wing megachurch pastor and founder for Pastors for Trump, before Tuesday’s primary, after which the candidate was expected to advance to a runoff for the Republican nomination against Rep. Mark Tedford.

On Sunday, however, The Daily Mail published texts between Lahmeyer and a former Miss Oklahoma pageant winner in which the candidate called her “cute” and mentioned an invitation to his hotel room, The New York Times reported. Lahmeyer acknowledged sending the messages but said they were “carefully cherry-picked,” the Times said.

Trump previously called Lahmeyer a “MAGA Warrior,” saying, “Jackson Lahmeyer has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next Representative from Oklahoma’s 1st Congressional District — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” But in a social media post on Wednesday, he threw his support behind Tedford.

“I greatly appreciate Jackson Lahmeyer’s hard work under difficult circumstances — he has always been with me, and I will always be wit hhim,” Trump wrote. “But, when it comes to the current Congressional race for Oklahoma’s 1st Congressional District, I will be supporting America First Patriot, Mark Tedford. Mark is Pro Trump and MAGA all the way!”

“HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” Trump added.

Tedford and Lahmeyer had been running to succeed Rep. Kevin Hern, who is running for Senate. Tedford received 32% of the vote Tuesday while Lahmeyer received 25%. Both did not receive the majority needed to advance directly to the general election. The district heavily favors Republican candidates.

Victor Wembanyama produced an inspired performance as the San Antonio Spurs beat defending NBA champions the Oklahoma City Thunder 118-91 to set up a decisive game seven in the Western Conference Finals.

San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson had called on Wembanyama to score more than 20 points after a disappointing showing in game five, and the 22-year-old duly delivered.

Wembanyama finished with 28 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks as the Spurs dominated after taking an early lead to level the series at 3-3.

The Frenchman came out of the game with almost eight minutes remaining in the third quarter and midway through the Spurs scoring 20 consecutive points.

Johnson praised Wembanyama’s “passion and desire” and taking “responsibility” after his dominant display.

Stephon Castle finished with 17 points, nine assists and one turnover, while Dylan Harper added 18 points off the bench.

Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander could not replicate his 32-point outing in game five as he finished with 15 points and four assists after making only six of 18 shots.

It was Gilgeous-Alexander’s lowest scoring output since he scored 14 in game three of the 2025 Western Conference finals against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The two-time NBA MVP is shooting just 37.9% from the floor in the series after making 51.4% of his field-goal attempts during the first two rounds of this year’s post-season.

“I’m not sure, to be honest,” Gilgeous-Alexander said when asked why he is struggling.

“A lot of the shots that I’m shooting, I shot plenty of times before. They feel good, and it’s not good.

“They [San Antonio] were the aggressors from start to finish. They played harder than us, hit more shots, were more aggressive, were in attack mode. We were on our heels.”

Whoever wins game seven in Oklahoma City on Saturday, 30 May (Sunday 01:00 BST), will face the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals.

Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored a game-high 30 points to inspire his side to a 122-113 victory against the San Antonio Spurs as the reigning NBA champions levelled the Western Conference final at 1-1.

Gilgeous-Alexander – who has won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award for a second year in a row – also provided nine assists in their second home game of the best-of-seven series.

Spurs star Victor Wembanyama scored 41 points in the opening game but was limited to 21 in the second match.

“The guys brought it tonight, knowing what it would have meant if we lost this one,” said Gilgeous-Alexander.

“We brought the energy from the jump.”

The game was level at 31 apiece after the first quarter before Thunder moved into an 11-point lead at half-time.

The Spurs did level the match midway through the third and got to within two points of their rivals in the fourth quarter but Thunder pulled away each time on the way to victory.

“We got a W, it’s all you can ask for. Now we got to go on the road against a really good team and go get one,” said Gilgeous-Alexander.

Games three and four will take place in San Antonio on Friday and Sunday.

The New York Knicks lead the Cleveland Cavaliers 1-0 in the Eastern Conference final with game two in New York on Thursday.