Ryan Portenga

Michigan won the national title with a 37-3 record and 29 double-digit wins against the nation’s No. 1 strength of schedule. Set the all-time record for Big Ten wins (19). First B1G team to go undefeated on the road in 50 years. One of the best college basketball teams ever.

The best school in America. The best campus in America. The best collection of sports teams in America. It’s great to be a Michigan Wolverine.

For the Fab 5. For Trey Burke. For John Beilein. For the Big 10. For Sweet 16 Tommy. For Willy and GBR. For Titus who doesn’t have a basketball program. For the Michigan Man way. For Jolin. For winning with class. For the Mud Bowl. For the Team The Team The Team . For Connor Stallions. For the Block M. For proving those who stay will become champions! For Dusty May. For proving you can have elite academics and athletics. For all the Walmart Wolverines. For every kid that dreamed of going to Michigan but didn’t get in and went to MSU. For greatness. For immortality. For all the Wolverines across the globe. Let’s go get this title for us! #Goblue 🇺🇸

Looks like the Bell family will be doing some remodeling this spring because I just ran through my living room wall after watching this.

I love a coach who doesn’t make it about himself.

BRACKETS (2026)

State Champions. 🏆💍

🥹 Nah man… it’s something in my eye😂 wanted him to be drafted here so bad bro smh #GoBlue

Poetry.

Sunday thoughts on Caleb Williams

Friends- This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die. Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do. I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all. Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints. There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come. Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son. A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears. Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet. Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective: “When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.” I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape. But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9). With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices, Ben — and the Sasses

European futbol is wild!

Strong words from Cam Ward “I grew up watching my Dad wake up at 4:30 for a job he didnt like, so if I can’t wake up early and work hard at a job I do like, I shouldn’t be playing Football”

Learn more about the Yellowstone YCC program: go.nps.gov/YellowstoneYCC

Scottie Scheffler just gave one of the best (and deepest) press conference answers ever heard.

The 2025 AP Psychology Exam scores: 5: 15%; 4: 32%; 3: 25%; 2: 19%; 1: 9% Multiple-Choice Questions Students scored quite evenly and well across all topics, especially on “Cognition” (Unit 2); on those questions, 15% answered each of these items right. Free-Response Questions These comments will focus on the questions in Set 1, the exam version taken by most students. apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap25… Both of these free-response questions were new question types, focused on something different from what the multiple-choice section measures. The multiple-choice section measures whether students have learned and retained a wide array of foundational concepts, terms, and definitions. The free-response section now measures whether, when provided with psychological research studies, students can derive such understandings for themselves, a highly relevant skill for those who will proceed to major in psychology, and for a wide range of careers. Students scored very well on FRQ 1, the Research Analysis Question, in which they examined research on the effects of misinformation on memory. Here are the results: 23% of students earned each of the 7 points possible. 75% of students accurately identified the research method. 69% of students understood the research variable. 65% of students accurately interpreted the statistics. 86% of students identified one or more ethical guidelines the researchers applied. 78% of students explained the generalizability of the findings. 48% of students earned 2 points for argumentation by explaining how the results supported or refuted the misinformation effect, and 26% of students earned 1 point. FRQ 2, The Evidence-Based Question, measures whether students can evaluate three different psychological research studies and draw upon evidence from those studies to develop and support an argument with psychological evidence. The Set 1 psychological studies focused on whether the presence of others improves performance. 7% of students earned each of the 7 points possible. 94% of students proposed a specific and defensible claim based in psychological science. 86% of students were able to support that claim with evidence from one of the studies. 22% of students were able to explain very effectively the relationship between the evidence and their argument, earning 2 of the 2 reasoning points, while 34% were able to explain this somewhat effectively, earning 1 of the 2 points. 84% of students were able to support their claim with evidence from a second study. 14% of students were able to explain very effectively the relationship between the evidence and their argument, earning 2 of the 2 reasoning points, while 36% were able to explain this somewhat effectively, earning 1 of the 2 points. AP Psychology teachers will receive on their Instructional Planning Reports a point-by-point breakdown of their students’ performance on these free-response questions, enabling them to identify ways to further support students in learning and demonstrating these skills. AP Psychology had an Evidence-Based Standard Setting this year, utilizing more data from more college professors than ever before to identify the performance levels most fair and appropriate for receiving college credit and placement. An overview detailing this process, with specific information about the findings for this year’s students, will be available at around 4 pm ET today at allaccess.collegeboard.org All subjects’ AP score distributions for 2025 will be posted here when available: apstudents.org/score-distribu…

The 2025 AP Biology Exam scores: 5: 19%; 4: 24%; 3: 28%; 2: 21%; 1: 8% This year’s data finds a very impressive showing among AP Biology students: the psychometric analyses found strong increases in content and skill mastery over 2024, such that the percentage of 5s increases from 16% to 19% and the overall rate of 3+ scores increases from 68% to 71%. This is all the more impressive when looking at how well educators expanded access to this course this year, with 26,000 more students participating than in 2024. Multiple-Choice Questions AP Biology students scored especially well on questions about Natural Selection (Unit 7), as well as Cellular Energetics (Unit 3). The most challenging topics were related to Heredity (Unit 5) and Gene Expression and Regulation (Unit 6). Free-Response Questions spr.ly/60174gXtX Students generally scored highest on Q2 on insect pheromones and gene expression. Students earning 3s were generally able to earn at least 5 of these points, and students earning 5s typically proved able to earn all or all but one of the points possible. The most challenging part of this year’s exam was Q6, the analysis of data related to fruit fly mutations. Students earning AP 1s and 2s could typically only answer Part A of this question, which focused on measuring the abilities of the more advanced students in the class. All subjects’ AP score distributions for 2025 will be posted here when available: spr.ly/60194gXtZ

The 2025 AP Seminar scores: 5: 10%; 4: 19%; 3: 57%; 2: 12%; 1: 2% Of the four AP Seminar tasks scored at the AP Reading, students generally earned highest points on their Individual Research Reports, with especially high marks on accurate source citation and use of a writing style that is appropriate for an academic audience. Approximately 11% of students scored maximum points for the IRR. The most challenging of the four AP Seminar tasks is the Individual Written Argument. Looking at the 7 rows of the scoring guidelines, students earned highest scores for use of effective sentences, precise word choice, and a writing style appropriate for an academic audience (row 7). The most challenging rubric rows were 3 and 4, which award highest points to students whose paper evaluates multiple perspectives (row 3), and who articulate clear reasoning that connects their various claims and evidence into a logical and effective argument (row 4). spr.ly/60114gnSZ AP Seminar students performed well across both of the writing tasks on the final exam. Set 1 students engaged with an analyses of an argument for paid parental leave (Part A), and then wrote their own source-based argument related to the theme of power (Part B). Set 2 students analyzed an argument on energy transmission lines (Part A), and then wrote their own source-based argument related to the theme of work (Part B). In their essays in both sets, ~20% of students earned all or all but one of the points possible. spr.ly/60144gnSj spr.ly/60154gnSd All subjects’ AP score distributions for 2025 will be posted here when available: spr.ly/60164gnSe

The 2025 AP Precalculus Exam scores: 5: 28%; 4: 26%; 3: 27%; 2: 11%; 1: 8% The common-item equating psychometricians use to gauge changes in student mastery year over year found that this year’s AP Precalculus students had higher content mastery than last year’s, resulting in an overall increase of ~3% in students scoring a 5, part of an overall 5% increase in scores of 3+. AP Precalculus grew more significantly than any AP subject this year, with ~70,000 more students participating than in 2024. An increased volume in participation and higher content mastery means more students are accessing higher level math and are positioning themselves for future success. In part, these impressive scores reflect the far larger number of instructional hours that precalculus courses typically provide high school students, in contrast to the hours provided such students in college, where this is generally a one-semester class. Many of these excellent students will enter colleges and majors that consider precalculus “advanced math” and will thus allow this AP credit to fulfill their college math requirement; for others who attend colleges or enroll in majors that require calculus, it’s great to see this strong preparation for further advanced mathematics. AP Precalculus Multiple-Choice Questions: Overall, students performed well across most function types. General Functions (non-analytical) stood out, with 53% of students earning all or most of the available points on these questions. In contrast, Trigonometric and Polar Functions proved most challenging: 20% of students earned all or most of the available points on these questions. This is a good instructional focus next year. AP Precalculus Free-Response Questions: spr.ly/60164jSxY Students performed best on Question 1 (Function Concepts), whereas Question 3 (Modeling a Periodic Context) was the single best question on this year’s exam, psychometrically, since it had the best mix of difficulty levels across the 6 points available. Students who can earn just 1 point are typically receiving an AP 1 overall; students who can earn 2 points are typically receiving an AP 2, overall, and students earning 5-6 points are typically receiving an AP 5, overall. Question 4 (Symbolic Manipulations) was the most difficult, and served to differentiate the 3s, 4s, and 5s, as starting this question requires an understanding of algebraic manipulation that is beyond the proficiency of students who receive 1s and 2s. Students able to begin this question successfully are generally receiving an AP 3, and those able to earn multiple points on it receive 4s and 5s. All subjects’ AP score distributions for 2025 will be posted here when available: spr.ly/60174jSxl