President Donald Trump has spent a lot of time thinking about the current state of college sports. There have been two-hour-long roundtables and executive orders, all with the stated goal of fixing a system in which players can transfer freely every season and where there are few rules around name, image and likeness compensation and program spending.

While Trump might aim to change college sports, on Monday, he hosted the football program that has capitalized on this new era the most: Indiana, which visited the White House to celebrate its 2025 national championship (the first in program history) and 16-0 season. And he had some fun with it, too.

“Who is Curt? Curt Cignetti? Where is Curt Cignetti?” he joked, perhaps a reference to the Indiana coach’s now-famous line of “I win. Google me.”

And while Trump repeated his criticism of the system, he acknowledged Cignetti’s prowess within it.

“NIL, boy oh boy did the courts screw (that) up,” Trump said. “That’s alright. Whatever happened, it seems to be working for you.”

Trump didn’t need to Google Cignetti before Monday’s event. He attended Indiana’s 27-21 victory over Miami in the College Football Playoff Championship game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. The Hoosiers’ win completed one of the greatest turnaround stories in sports history. Until late in the season, Indiana had more losses than any other program in college football history.

“I watched that game. I watched these guys. They can play,” Trump said of the Hoosiers, “They were a little underestimated … but they’re not underestimated anymore.”

The Hoosiers have climbed out of that hole thanks to Cignetti. He has gone 27-2 in two seasons at Indiana, taking the Hoosiers to the Playoff twice. Cignetti has benefited from Indiana devoting more resources and spending on football than ever before, both from an infrastructure and roster perspective, and by using the transfer portal, where the Hoosiers were able to add several standouts.

With Cignetti standing to Trump’s left on Monday, the president said: “Curt Cignetti … I think he’s the coach of the last decade. Because he took a team — nobody knew him, nobody knew the team — and he ended up taking this team all the way. … He took over in 2023 following a really bleak 3-9 season and immediately set a tone that few people have seen, I think, in the history of college football.”

Quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who became Indiana’s first Heisman Trophy winner before the Las Vegas Raiders made him the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft, did not attend the ceremony, recently saying that it interfered with Raiders team activities.

Trump highlighted some other members of Indiana’s title team, like center Pat Coogan, who was Offensive MVP of the Rose Bowl, and cornerback D’Angelo Ponds.

“Where’s Pat?” Trump asked. “Oh, he’s at training camp. … 15 players in training camp. Wow.”

“Where’s D’Angelo?” Trump asked before Cignetti and his players told him Ponds was at training camp. “No wonder you won.”

Indiana beat Ohio State for the Big Ten championship and then beat Alabama, Oregon and Miami during its Playoff run. Those programs are all household names.

“You went through a lot of great teams … and real football powerhouses over the years,” Trump said. “ …. The coach I think he’s just incredible. I think it’s an incredible story.”

When Trump asked Cignetti how his team would be this year, Cignetti said: “Well, we’ve got a chance if we commit and if we have discipline and a great work ethic and if we can handle success and we can handle failure and we’re consistent day in, day out, we might have a chance.”

Indian opens the 2026 season on Sept. 5 against North Texas.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Colorado Avalanche showed Monday night why they’re everybody’s favorite to win their second Stanley Cup in five years.

Besides the fact that they rebounded impeccably from a Game 3 loss by dominating the first half of Game 4, they proved their resilience in the third period after Minnesota Wild forward Nico Sturm tied the game.

Maybe the Wild took one giant, premature deep breath, but the Avs responded by pressuring the Wild mightily for three shifts in a row until Jake Middleton’s chip off the glass was picked off for Parker Kelly’s eventual winning goal in a 5-2 win.

The victory puts Colorado one win from the Western Conference final and means the Wild will have to reel off three consecutive victories — starting Wednesday night in Denver — to keep their season alive.

The Wild have rallied from 3-1 deficits to win series twice before — both in 2003, and once against Colorado.

Minnesota was put on the ropes midway through the third when Ross Colton buried Nicolas Roy’s pass after a Daemon Hunt turnover.

But just 2:19 later, Sturm, the former Avalanche Stanley Cup winner and a healthy scratch the first two games of this postseason, tied the game. Robbed twice earlier in the period by Mackenzie Blackwood, Sturm one-timed Quinn Hughes’ pass into a wide-open cage for his first goal of the playoffs and third in 37 career playoff games.

It wasn’t enough, though.

Jesper Wallstedt, especially, deserved better. For a period-and-a-half, Wallstedt, despite the Wild gaining an early 1-0 lead on rookie Danila Yurov’s power-play goal, was a man alone on an island.

He stopped 10 shots in each of the first two periods, with the Wild going nearly 19 minutes without a shot at one point and being outshot 20-4 before registering eight of the final nine shots of the period.

But before that, Yakov Trenin took his second careless penalty of the series, and it led to Nazem Kadri’s game-tying goal six seconds into a power play.

Wallstedt finished with 29 saves.

Blackwood, in his first start of the playoffs, made 18 saves for his fourth career playoff win in nine appearances.

The Avs did a masterful job on Wild stars Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy, who had one shot each.

The Avs did a masterful job on Wild stars Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy, who had one shot each. Boldy had a particularly tough night, turning pucks over left and right — the final one coming on Nathan MacKinnon’s empty-netter, which was the first of two empty-netters by the Avs (Brock Nelson).

This story will be updated.

ST. Paul, Minn. — Around four years ago, Kevin Bowles and the Minnesota Wild food and beverage team noticed a trend of beer bats at baseball games. The long plastic bats were open at the top, and when filled with beer, fans could sip from them like unorthodox cups.

“Why aren’t we doing this?” Bowles thought to himself. “We need this, too.” 

Last season, he and his Levy Restaurants catering team introduced beer-filled plastic hockey sticks to Grand Casino Arena. The Wild were able to have them ready just in time for the playoffs. They were a smash hit, said Bowles, who is a senior executive chef and has been with the team for 16 years. The plastic sticks, made by a company called the Beer Twig, are “part drinkware, part souvenir, and all energy,” per the company website. Bowles said the Wild were the first NHL team to use the product.

“We just wanted to do something cool, something ‘wow,’ something over the top,” Bowles said. “Then, boom. Beer Twigs.”

The vessel holds 24 ounces of liquid and is sold at four locations on the main concourse. Fans can fill it with their beer of choice or Slap Shot Seltzer, a green, cherry limeade flavored drink only available at the arena.

A group of friends stood holding their Beer Twigs in the main concourse around 90 minutes before puck drop.

“It’s sick,” said Chase Carlson, a 22-year-old wearing a Devan Dubnyk jersey. “C’mon, you get two beers with these puppies, too.”

“It looks awesome,” added Carlson’s friend Karsen Brickson. “It’s going to be a keepsake at my house.” 

Carlson saw a video of the Beer Twig on Sunday on TikTok. He and his friends were more than content with his purchase a night later. One joked they were going to play lightsabers with them after they were done drinking.

The Wild sold the Beer Twigs during the regular season, but the team has seen an uptick in sales since the games rose in importance.

“We have noticed it is much more of a playoff, ‘wow,’ good-time fun item,” Bowles said. “They’ve really been booming again as we’ve gotten back in the playoffs.” 

The Wild aren’t the only team using creative beer holders. The Hurricanes have a beer skate, which sells for $19 empty and $31 full. The Hurricanes tweeted that 4,687 sold at their Game 1 win against the Flyers — the equivalent of one out of every four fans. Buffalo recently began selling a Beer Sabre. The Utah Mammoth have a tusk mug.

“It’s kind of turning into an arms race right now,” Bowles said.

He compared it to collectable popcorn buckets at movie theaters.

“People love a collectable gizmo,” he said. 

Bowles loves watching people exit the arena with their empty Twigs. He keeps some empty ones in his garage, though he noted, “In my old age, it’s bigger than I can chug.”

“People love them,” he said. “I personally like watching people walking out of the building holding them. It’s just a cool thing to take out of here with you.”