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đ Upsets galore: Three ranked males’s school basketball groups had been in motion on Thursday, they usually all misplaced to unranked groups. Minnesota beat No. 20 Michigan (), Oregon State , and Temple .
âžď¸ HOF voting replace: Ichiro Suzuki (100% of the vote), C.C. Sabathia (93.3%), Billy Wagner (84.7%) and Carlos Beltran (80.4%) with simply over 40% of ballots publicly recognized. The ultimate outcomes will likely be introduced on Tuesday.
đ Ovi makes historical past: Alex Ovechkin to carry the Capitals previous the Senators and break the NHL document for many goaltenders scored on (179). He additionally moved inside 21 objectives of passing Wayne Gretzky for many all-time.
đ Thunder get revenge: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (40 factors) and the Thunder in OKC, 134-114, in a battle of the NBA’s two greatest groups. This comes per week after the Cavs beat them in Cleveland.
đ RIP, Bob: Bob Uecker, the longtime voice of the Brewers additionally recognized for his iconic function in “Main League,” at 90 years outdated. He was “the soundtrack of our summers,” the staff mentioned in a press release. Relaxation straightforward, legend.
đ Ladies’s sports activities: Enterprise is booming
It wasn’t way back that the WNBA . Now, there is a large enough urge for food for ladies’s basketball that a wholly new league is launching at the moment with document salaries,* large title backers, blue chip sponsors and a $100 million media rights deal.
The long run is now: Unequalled, the that includes , is a direct reflection of how a lot has modified in just a few quick years. Ladies’s sports activities is not merely “on the rise” or “an area to look at”; it is a thriving trade the place surging fan engagement is driving sponsorship {dollars}, athlete earnings and investor curiosity by way of the roof.
Constructing on an enormous yr: Thanks in no small half to , the ladies’s sports activities increase leveled up in 2024 (and the primary few weeks of 2025) throughout nearly each class.
Valuations and earnings: Angel Metropolis FC was bought for a , pushing the common NWSL franchise valuation over $100 million (up 57% YoY). The world’s 15 highest-paid feminine athletes (up from $174 in 2023). The WTA and LPGA awarded historic prize cash, and girls’s basketball groups will throughout this yr’s March Insanity as a result of event’s surging media worth.
Media and funding: The WNBA’s new $2.2 billion broadcasting deal is price 6x its present deal, and Netflix signed a “landmark” cope with FIFA to safe the U.S. rights for the subsequent two Ladies’s World Cups. Washington Spirit proprietor Michele Kang pledged $30 million to U.S. Soccer to develop the ladies’s recreation (plus $4 million to fund girls’s rugby), and Whoopi Goldberg launched the .
Viewership and attendance: The NCAA girls’s nationwide championship (that includes Clark) was ESPN’s most-watched school basketball recreation ever (18.9M viewers), and the WNBA Finals had been the most-watched in 25 years (1.6M). The NWSL had document attendance (11,250 per recreation) and viewership (5x leap from 2023), UConn girls’s basketball ($3.25M) than 75 public males’s packages, and the PWHL on Sunday set a (14,108).
Enlargement and creation: The NWSL added two enlargement groups (Bay FC, Utah Royals) and introduced a 3rd (Denver**), whereas the WNBA added one enlargement staff (Golden State Valkyries) and introduced two extra (Portland, Toronto). Three new leagues debuted (PWHL, USL Tremendous League, League One Volleyball), and three had been introduced (Ladies’s Lacrosse League, Ladies’s Skilled Baseball League, Main League Volleyball).
However wait, there’s extra: The Paris Olympics had been the primary ever to realize full gender parity, the NWSL’s KC Present opened the world’s first stadium constructed particularly for a girls’s professional staff, each Time () and Sports activities Illustrated () named girls as their Athletes of the Yr, and bars devoted to girls’s sports activities .
*Unequalled cash: Gamers have been given fairness within the new league, and their common wage ($222,222) is sort of twice as a lot because the WNBA’s ($119,500) and the very best amongst all girls’s staff sports activities.
**Think about this: Denver secured the NWSL’s sixteenth franchise at an enlargement payment of $110 million, which is 55x (!!!) the league’s enlargement payment simply three years in the past (). If that is not proof of explosive development, I do not know what’s.
đ Divisional Spherical primer
The NFL’s last eight groups will battle it out this weekend within the , which frequently delivers the most effective set of video games* all yr.
Kansas Metropolis’s street to a 3rd straight Tremendous Bowl begins after a traditionally unusual season. Their +59 scoring differential is 62 factors worse than in NFL historical past, and was simply the Eleventh-best mark in 2024.
X-factors: Houston wants star defensive ends Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter (whose 26% go rush win price led the league) to trouble Patrick Mahomes. KC wants Trent McDuffie to close down Nico Collins, the Texansâ solely remaining really harmful receiver.
A streak and a drought: The Chiefs have made six straight AFC title video games (yearly since Mahomes grew to become the starter), whereas the Texans have by no means made it there in 22 years as a franchise.
Two long-struggling franchises loved their greatest season in years (if not ever), as Detroit scored the fourth-most factors in NFL historical past and Washington discovered more and more clutch methods to win behind rookie sensation Jayden Daniels.
Sonic and Knuckles: The league’s greatest RB tandem is again in motion with David Montgomery (knee) Jahmyr Gibbs in Detroit’s backfield. That is dangerous information for Washington, which allowed the third-most dashing yards per recreation this season.
Three many years later: The Commanders have not reached the NFC Championship since 1991, once they beat the Lions (!) en path to their third Tremendous Bowl.
Two of the league’s most electrical offensive gamers â Saquon Barkley (2,005 dashing yards, eighth-most ever) and Puka Nacua (3.7 yards per route run, third-best mark since 2007) â take the sector in Philly, the place snow is within the forecast.
Stifling protection: Good luck scoring on the Eagles, who’ve received 13 of their final 14 video games and have allowed greater than 20 factors simply twice in that point.
Wild stat: This will likely be Rams head coach Sean McVay’s thirteenth profession playoff recreation and he is .
The weekend concludes with probably the most tantalizing playoff matchups in current reminiscence, as MVP favorites Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson sq. off in Buffalo, the place the temperature is .
Josh vs. Lamar: Jackson leads the regular-season collection, 3-1 (together with a 35-10 shellacking in Week 4), whereas Allen received their solely postseason matchup 4 years in the past. However one thing’s gotta give: Josh hasn’t received consecutive playoff video games since 2021 and Lamar by no means has.
Wild stat: Buffalo and Baltimore had almost similar seasons. The Payments scored 525 factors with a +157 differential, whereas the Ravens scored 518 factors with the identical +157 differential.
*Give it some thought: Wild Card Weekend does not embody both convention’s greatest staff, and whereas the Convention Championships and Tremendous Bowl are clearly each nice theater, they do not really characteristic a lot soccer. The Divisional Spherical strikes an ideal stability.
đž One other teen wins in Melbourne
19-year-old qualifier Learner Tien in a five-setter on Thursday, changing into the youngest American man to succeed in the Australian Open’s third spherical since Pete Sampras in 1990.
The youngsters are alright: Tien is the to defeat a top-10 opponent, becoming a member of Brazil’s JoĂŁo Fonseca (No. 9 Andrey Rublev) and Croatia’s Jakub MenĹĄĂk (No. 6 Casper Ruud).
Australian Open recap:
đş Watchlist: Faculty soccer’s grand finale
Ohio State and Notre Dame meet on Monday night time in Atlanta (7:30pm ET, ESPN) for the primary nationwide championship recreation of the 12-team period.
Overwhelming favourite: The Buckeyes (-8.5) are over the Irish, whom they’ve overwhelmed six straight occasions courting again to 1995.
Extra to look at:
đ NFL: Texans at Chiefs (Sat. 4:30pm, ESPN); Commanders at Lions (Sat. 8pm, Fox); Rams at Eagles (Solar. 3pm, NBC); Ravens at Payments (Solar. 6:30pm, CBS)
đž Australian Open: Third Spherical, Spherical of 16, Quarterfinals (Fri-Mon, ESPN+/ESPN2)
đ NBA: Magic at Celtics (Fri. 7pm, ESPN); Grizzlies at Spurs (Fri. 9:30pm, ESPN); Timberwolves at Grizzlies (Mon. 2:30pm, TNT); Celtics at Warriors (Mon. 5pm, TNT)
đ NHL: Golden Knights at Hurricanes (Fri. 7pm, NHL); Maple Leafs at Canadiens (Sat. 7pm, NHL); Rangers at Canadiens (Solar. 7pm, NHL); Lightning at Maple Leafs (Mon. 7:30pm, NHL)
đ NCAAM: No. 4 Alabama at No. 8 Kentucky (Sat. 12pm, ESPN); No. 17 Purdue at No. 13 Oregon (Sat. 3pm, NBC); No. 21 Ole Miss at No. 15 Miss. St. (Sat. 6pm, ESPN2); No. 19 Illinois at No. 12 Michigan St. (Solar. 12pm, CBS)
đ NCAAW: No. 13 Oklahoma at No. 2 South Carolina (Solar. 3pm, ESPN); No. 7 Texas at No. 8 Maryland (Mon. 5:30pm, Fox)
Plus: The USMNT hosts Venezuela (Sat. 3pm, TNT) and Inter Miami hosts Membership AmĂŠrica (Sat. 10pm, Apple) in a pair of friendlies; UFC 311 on the Intuit Dome (Sat. 10pm, ESPN+ PPV); The American Categorical at PGA West (Fri-Solar, ESPN+/Golf); Unequalled’s opening weekend in Miami (Fri-Mon, TNT/truTV).
đ Tremendous Bowl trivia
4 of the eight remaining playoff groups have received no less than two Tremendous Bowls.
Query: Who’re these 4 groups? And what number of Tremendous Bowls have they every received?
Reply on the backside.
đ Pregame studying: Jeremiah Smith’s path to stardom
Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith has had such an unimaginable freshman season that many imagine he’d be the No. 1 choose if he had been eligible for this yr’s NFL draft. And to suppose: It began with a snub from a youth soccer coach.
From Yahoo Sports activities’ Jeff Eisenberg:
Someplace within the Miami space is a youth soccer coach who unknowingly fueled the rise of a record-breaking broad receiver. That is the coach who informed Jeremiah Smith he did not make the Miami Gardens Ravens after the 7-year-old tried out to play soccer for the primary time.
Very like the highschool basketball coach who lower Michael Jordan, the snub ignited a fierce dedication to be nice inside Smith. As he informed Fox’s Tom Rinaldi in November, “I used to be only a entire totally different sort of particular person from that day ahead. It simply made a child extra hungry, that is all I can say.”
The lower additionally impressed Smith’s father to do extra to assist his son maximize his expertise and obtain his objectives. Chris Smith spent limitless hours alongside J.J. (as he is recognized to household and pals) on the park, the sector or the gymnasium, instilling the work ethic that made his son an elite prospect earlier than anybody knew he would develop to turn into a 6-foot-3, 215-pound genetic marvel.
Hailed as the subsequent nice Ohio State receiver when he arrived in Columbus, Smith has achieved feats that even Marvin Harrison Jr., Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Garrett Wilson couldn’t. The cousin of Seahawks QB Geno Smith has smashed Cris Carter’s faculty data for receptions, yardage and landing catches by a freshman.
ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky mentioned Smith would “simply be the No. 1 choose on this yr’s draft” if he had been eligible for it. NFL Draft analyst Todd McShay has mentioned the identical. “The man is NFL-ready,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning mentioned after the Rose Bowl. “He is that gifted, that particular.”
Trivia reply: Chiefs (4), Commanders (3), Rams (2), Ravens (2)
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