2026 MLB Draft Gets Underway in Philadelphia Childhood dreams will come true this weekend as the MLB Draft begins in Philadelphia. The draft will coincide with the beginning of All-Star weekend with the first four round rounds Today and the final 16 rounds coming tomorrow. The entirety of the proceedings can be seen on MLB.com. Since head coach Jeff Mercer began his tenure in Bloomington, 30 unique student-athletes have been selected in the MLB Draft. Former third baseman Cole Barr was picked in both 2019 and 2021 but elected to sign on the latter occasion. 17 of those players have been picked in the top 10 rounds, including former All-American outfielder Devin Taylor (2 – 48) in 2025.
A cohort of veteran arms will be hoping to hear their names called during next weekend’s proceedings. Right-handed pitcher Jackson Bergman, left-handed pitcher Tony Neubeck and right-handed pitcher Gavin Seebold are among the candidates to be selected in the draft. Left-handed pitcher Brayton Thomas and right-handed pitcher Jackson Yarberry are draft eligible as well. All of IU’s incoming freshman class will in the draft pool as prep athletes. Pitchers Gavin Swartz (Bloomington, Ill.) and Luke Crighton (Rochester Hills, Mich.) are coming off of fantastic high school seasons on the mound. Crighton, a Second Team Max Preps All-American, went 10-0 with a 1.19 ERA enroute to a state title in Michigan. In program history, no team has selected more Hoosiers (12) than the White Sox. Two teams – the Dodgers and Tigers – have never picked an IU player. IU has had at least two players selected in every full draft since 2008 (not including the five round 2020 MLB Draft). Proceedings in Philadelphia will begin at 1 p.m. this afternoon with the first four rounds. Action will resume on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. for the final day of picks.
Indiana University’s Aly VanBrandt and Jacob Moran Named Big Ten Outstanding Sportsmanship Award Winners Indiana’s Jacob Moran (Wrestling) and Aly VanBrandt (Softball) were named IU’s Big Ten Outstanding Sportsmanship Award winners for the 2025-26 academic year as announced by the conference office on Thursday. Jacob Moran enjoyed a tremendous six-year career for IU Wrestling and made his last season his best in 2025-26. The graduate student compiled a 20-8 record with an 11-3 mark in dual matches as IU’s starter at 125 lbs. He used his great regular season to propel him to a fantastic postseason. Moran won his opening two matches at the Big Ten Championships to reach the semifinals before moving to the wrestlebacks and working his way to a fourth-place finish. His performance earned him his second career NCAA Championships qualification. At NCAAs, Moran ripped off three wins in a row to open the tournament, including two wins over top-10 seeds to put him in the national semifinals at 125 lbs. Moran lost his semifinals match and moved to the consolation bracket from there. He finished in sixth place on the podium to become an All-American for the first time in his career. He became the highest placing Hoosier and first semifinalist since 2016.
Aly VanBrandt is coming off of a tremendous junior season for Indiana Softball. VanBrandt has been a day-one starter for the Hoosiers at second base she arrived on campus, but she took her game to another level in 2026. She hit .396 at the plate with 78 hits, including 15 doubles, seven triples and 16 home runs. She compiled 62 RBI, 68 runs scored and was 25-for-28 on stolen bases. VanBrandt had a slugging percentage of .787 and an on-base percentage of .492. Her outstanding play helped the Hoosiers reach a program-record fourth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance. She helped IU to its third 40-plus win season in the last four years, and it was also the third time out of the last four seasons that the Hoosiers reached the Big Ten Tournament semifinals. VanBrandt was named an NFCA All-Region First Team selection and an All-Big Ten Second Team pick. It was the third time in her career that she was an NFCA honoree and the second team that she was named to the all-conference team.
Indiana University Track and Field Represented Around the World in Summer Competitions Indiana University track and field will see several Hoosiers competing around the world over the summer. Several Hoosiers will compete across the country with others traveling overseas for international competition representing multiple countries. Ed Murphy Classic (July 10)-Trelee Banks Rose, Veronica Hargrave and Tyler Carrel. U23 NACAC (July 11-12)-Nikolaos Sidirenios. USA Nationals (July 23-26)-Trelee Banks Rose, Veronica Hargrave, Camden Marshall and Tyler Carrel. Greek Nationals (July 25-26)-Nikolaos Sidirenios. World Athletics U20 Championships (August 5-9)-D’Angelo Brown (Competing for Granada).
Indiana University Football’s Curt Cignetti Sits atop the Head Coach Rankings and Preseason Watch Lists-is there another choice? It would be disingenuous to have IU football coach Curt Cignetti anywhere but the top of any attempt to rank the nation’s best college football coaches right now. Similarly, it wouldn’t make much sense to exclude Cignetti from any preseason watch lists for awards that go to the nation’s best coach. And that’s the way things are playing out this summer ahead of the 2026 season — Cignetti’s third in Bloomington. After Cignetti led one of the best turnarounds in sports history over the last two seasons, it’s difficult to justify placing anyone in college football above him. That’s what a panel of 10 ESPN voters concluded, when half of them placed Cignetti in the No. 1 overall spot in their ranking of the nation’s best coaches. He unseated Georgia’s Kirby Smart, who held the spot the prior two years. Here’s how ESPN summarized Cignetti’s recent performance, and how one of the panelists described his rationale for his Cignetti vote.
Numbers to know: Cignetti is the first head coach to win a national championship within his first two seasons at a school since Gene Chizik did it in 2010 in his second season at Auburn. … Cignetti’s 27 wins in his two seasons in Bloomington are two more than any other coach in his first two years at a school since the AP poll debuted in 1936. (Kalen DeBoer won 25 games at Washington in 2022 and ’23.) … Indiana before Cignetti (1887-2023): .419 winning percentage, no 10-win seasons or national championships. Indiana with Cignetti (2024 and ’25): .931 winning percentage, two 10-win seasons, one national championship.
Half of our voters had Cignetti No. 1, and you were one of them. Was there any hesitation on your part? – Not really. It takes a special coach to wrangle all the forces at a blue blood the way Kirby Smart has at Georgia while dominating the SEC. If it were easy, everyone who has had one of those jobs could do it. But we’ve never seen anything like what Curt Cignetti has done at Indiana, taking the losingest program in college football history to a national title in two years, after an 11-1 season at James Madison in 2023. In 125 seasons before Cignetti’s arrival, Indiana had never won 10 games and had won nine just twice, in 1945 and 1967, and had three total bowl wins. He is 27-2 in two seasons in Bloomington (with three postseason wins last year alone) and added a national championship trophy during a span where the Big Ten has won three straight titles. If the definition of an elite coach is someone, you’d trust to lead any program anywhere, he’s where you start. — Dave Wilson
Similar exercises at CBS Sports, the Athletic and the Sporting News all reached the same conclusion, with Cignetti in the top spot. Of course there’s no guarantee he’ll repeat the masterclass 16-0 national championship run of 2025. But the below graphic from the Big Ten Network clearly illustrates why there’s no other choice at the moment. Cignetti was also one of 20 coaches named this week to the preseason watch list for the Dodd Trophy, which goes to the nation’s best coach. He won the award following the 2025 season. In fact, Cignetti has won 14 of the 17 national coaches of the year awards he was eligible to win between the 2024 and 2025 seasons. If there’s a preseason watch list for national coach of the year, Cignetti simply has to be on it.
TCU Head Football Coach Sonny Dykes acknowledges Curt Cignetti was fair in his defense of Josh Hoover Chalk up another win for Curt Cignetti. TCU head coach Sonny Dykes has conceded in their back-and-forth related to quarterback Josh Hoover. Dykes raised some eyebrows this spring when he appeared to be taking an unsolicited shot at Hoover by mentioning his relatively high turnover rate. “I think Josh started 31 games here as a quarterback, and he turned the ball over 42 times in those 31 starts,” Dykes said. That prompted a response from Cignetti, who said Hoover will be in a better position to thrive at Indiana. “When Josh got here, he met his two new best friends — great defense and a really good run game, and he was never the same after that,” Cignetti said in defense of his new quarterback.
Hoover transferred from TCU to Indiana during the offseason. He does have those 42 turnovers on his resume, but he also arrives in Bloomington as college football’s active career leader in passing yards with 9,629. He’s second in active passing touchdowns with 71. Now that Dykes has fully turned the page to the 2026 season, he’s ready to acknowledge Cignetti has a valid point. “There’s a lot of truth to what he (Cignetti) said,” Dykes told The Athletic on Wednesday at Big 12 Media Days. Dykes told the Athletic the part of his comment people missed was that Hoover’s miscues were as much on the coaching staff as the quarterback. TCU hired a new offensive coordinator during the offseason, and Dykes told the Athletic he wants to run the ball more — and improve his defense — the very things Cignetti highlighted. “There’s a million different reasons why he turned it over,” Dykes told The Athletic. “But (Cignetti) was fair. I think (he) was right. When you don’t have to score 50 points to win, it’s a lot easier.”
Kelsey Mitchell Scores 29 points as the Indiana Fever Hold on to Beat the Phoenix Mercury 92-89 Kelsey Mitchell hit a layup with 10.1 seconds left to finish with 29 points and the Indiana Fever held on for a 92-89 win over the Phoenix Mercury on Thursday night. The teams put two testy games in Indianapolis last month behind them, trading baskets instead of bumps and barbs. Mitchell put Indiana (13-9) up 90-89 with her layup and Sophie Cunningham added two free throws to secure the win with Caitlin Clark on the bench in street clothes. Aliyah Boston had 21 points after being held out of a 106-92 loss to the Los Angeles Sparks on Wednesday night. Alyssa Thomas and Kahleah Copper had 22 points each to lead the Mercury (8-15). Clark didn’t play in the back-to-back to rest a lingering back injury, costing her a chance to play against the Mercury for the first time since an altercation with Thomas triggered a firestorm of opinions about the rising WNBA star. Thomas received a one-game suspension for landing fist-down on Clark’s neck during the June 24 game, leading to death threats and racial slurs on social media. That came two days after Cunningham, who played six seasons in Phoenix, had a lengthy finger-pointing episode with DeWanna Bonner. The teams’ third meeting had no throat punches or finger pointing, only good shooting. Indiana shot 6 of 10 from 3-point range to lead by four in the first quarter. Phoenix shot 21 of 38 overall and 8 of 14 from 3 to lead 53-47 at halftime. Phoenix quickly stretched the lead to 10 in the third quarter, but Indiana went on a 13-0 run to go up 62-59 before the team’s traded runs in the fourth. The Fever Travel to Las Vegas for a 9 PM Indianapolis Time Tip Off Sunday Night that will be Nationally Televised on NBC.
Indianapolis Indians Win on Walk-Off Wild Pitch The Indianapolis Indians rallied for a walk-off, 6-5 win over the Toledo Mud Hens on Thursday night at Victory Field, with Jesus Castillo scoring the winning run in the bottom of the ninth on a wild pitch. It was their first walk-off via wild pitch since Alex Presley scored the game-winning run in the 10th inning on May 30, 2013, vs. Pawtucket. This marked the seventh walk-off wild pitch in the Victory Field era. With the game knotted 5-5 in the final frame, Castillo walked on four pitches to start the rally. Cameron Barstad then blooped a single into center field that advanced Castillo to third and the Indians (9-6, 40-50) were 90 feet away from victory in a blink. With a 2-0 count to Nick Cimillo, former Indians pitcher Tanner Rainey (L, 3-3) threw the ball away to give Indy a win.
Enmanuel Valdez opened the scoring for the Indians in the bottom of the first, blasting a 434-foot solo homer off the fence below the scoreboard in right center field. Ronny Simon tacked on with an RBI single in the second stanza and Castillo drove in the third run on a fielder’s choice grounder in the third. The Mud Hens (9-6, 43-46) battled back in the top of the fourth with Trei Cruz hitting an RBI single. Jace Jung then hit a single to follow, as Cruz came around to score after two Indy throwing errors on the play. Barstad punched back for Indianapolis in the fifth, bringing home Jhostynxon Garcia with an RBI base hit. Gage Workman homered for Toledo in the eighth inning to cut the deficit, 4-3. Simon logged a second run-scoring hit, adding a crucial insurance run for the Indians in the bottom of the eighth to make it 5-3. Mike Clevinger (W, 2-0) allowed two runs in the ninth but escaped a jam to keep the score tied, before the Indians turned the game around and won. José Urquidy started for the Indians and tossed 7.0 innings of two-run ball (1er) with seven strikeouts. His innings and strikeouts matched season high