Before accepting the athletic director job in 2010, Whalen had asked University President Michael Roth ’78 a broader version of that same question: Was Wesleyan willing to build the conditions winning required? He was coming from Williams, where, as the head football coach, he had gone 32–8 over the last five seasons and seen what it looked like when a NESCAC program had the backing to win. Wesleyan asked for excellence in the arts, humanities, and sciences. Whalen wanted to know whether Wesleyan was ready to give athletics that kind of backing.

The 2025 squad didn’t walk away with a championship, but they claimed just about every other program milestone. More importantly, they created a culture where competing for championships is expected.

For Wesleyan’s senior class, everything converged at once: their final game of organized football, an opportunity to avenge the 56–8 beatdown Trinity delivered on this field two years ago, and a chance for the program’s first-ever back-to-back championship.

The Wesleyan women’s golf team is just six years old, but they have already orchestrated a meteoric rise in Division III. From a five-player roster in 2019 that had a scoring average of 118.4, the Cardinals have surged to 10th in the nation following a breakthrough this fall season.

The World Cup is the most romantic tournament in sports. It will also be a $150 billion betting market. What happens when those two things intersect?