Memphis Grizzlies center Zach Edey will be reevaluated in four weeks due to a stress reaction in his left ankle, the team announced. The team is managing Edey’s injury to optimize his long-term health.
Edey is averaging 13.6 points, 11.1 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in 11 games this season. Last season, Edey averaged 9.2 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 66 games and was on the NBA’s All-Rookie team.
In Edey’s place, Jock Landale could get the bulk of the starting center minutes for Memphis. Landale started 13 games and has averaged 10.9 points and 5.4 rebounds in his first season in Memphis.
Brandon Clarke has also been sidelined with a knee injury he suffered in the offseason. A knee injury also ended Clarke’s season last year. Clarke has not played since last March. In November, the Grizzlies announced that Clarke would return in six-to-nine weeks.
Despite the injures in the frontcourt, the Grizzlies remain one of the top rebounding teams in the NBA. The Grizzlies are third in the NBA in rebounds, averaging 46.5 per game, behind only the Detroit Pistons and the Houston Rockets. The Grizzlies also rank 11th in points allowed despite being 22nd in blocks per game.
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Without Edey and Clarke, the Grizzlies may be forced to play more small ball. Forwards Santi Aldama and Jaren Jackson Jr. could get more minutes at center. Aldama is off to a career-best 13.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1 steal per game.
Jackson leads the team in scoring, averaging 17 points, 5 rebounds and 1 block per game. Jackson dealt with a toe injury this offseason. The Grizzlies are 11-13 this season, good for ninth in the Western Conference.
Christian Polanco and Alexis Guerreros react to Mohamed Salah’s rumored potential move to San Diego FC. Would Mo Salah be the biggest signing in MLS history? And why might San Diego FC’s ownership convince him to choose MLS over Saudi Arabia?
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Next, Christian and Alexis chat on the subway with New York City’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. They talk all things soccer, including why Zohran is pushing back against FIFA over skyrocketing ticket prices for the 2026 World Cup. They also discuss the USMNT’s World Cup group and his biggest soccer memories as a fan.
Later, the boys break down an impressive Champions League week for American players. Folarin Balogun scores in his third consecutive Champions League match, and Weston McKennie shines against Pafos FC for Juventus. Are the USMNT’s key figures peaking at the right time?
Timestamps:
(7:30) – Mo Salah Headed to MLS?
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(23:00) – Zohran Mamdani Joins The Cooligans
(35:00) – Folarin Balogun Scores Again in the Champions League
(38:30) – Weston McKennie Shines Against Pafos
(42:00) – Christian Pulisic Continues to Dominate in Serie A
(45:15) – Can Xabi Alonso Save His Job at Real Madrid?
Ja Morant is buying tickets for 250 fans for Friday’s Grizzlies game. It’s a signal that the wait is finally over: Ja will soon return from a one-month absence to an explosive reception. While this is a welcome-back party for Morant, it’s also a litmus test.
The Grizzlies have already signaled they are done waiting for the past to return. By moving Desmond Bane for a haul of assets rather than doubling down on a capped-out core, the front office bought itself a new timeline built around youth. And so far this season, Morant is failing to fit into it. The injuries, the suspensions, and the images of him waving a gun have been eclipsed by a more immediate concern: The present version of Ja is nowhere near the folk hero who put Memphis back on the NBA map with his electrifying heroics on the court.
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Before Morant suffered a right calf strain, the Grizzlies limped to a 4-10 start that felt like a hangover from last season’s nightmare. New head coach Tuomas Iisalo brought in a pick-and-roll scheme designed to leverage Morant’s downhill gravity, but the disconnect was immediate.
(Mallory Bielecki/Yahoo Sports Illustration)
Morant’s rim pressure, which was once his superpower, had vanished, with at-rim shots dropping to a career-low 26% of his shot diet. When he did get there, he finished at a career-worst 55%. He also shot a dismal 16.7% from deep and averaged a career-high 3.8 turnovers per game.
The effort matched the numbers. Off the ball, he was stationary. Defensively, he was targeted. Earlier this season, when he was benched in the fourth quarter of a game, he was visibly detached, sat at the far end of the bench and later undercut the coaching staff to reporters.
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In the last month, while Morant has been sidelined, something amazing happened. The Grizzlies started winning. Seven of their last 10 games. The Grizzlies are running, cutting and sharing the ball. With the offense buzzing, lottery picks like Zach Edey (who got some tough news Thursday) and Cedric Coward and second-rounders like Jaylen Wells and Cam Spencer are all looking like building blocks for the next decade.
The numbers are alarming. When Morant is on the floor, the Grizzlies make the fewest passes per half-court possession of any team in the NBA. They stop operating as a team and start functioning as an audience for one man. When he sits? They make the third-most passes.
From last to third. Just by removing one person.
And now, the main attraction is back. But is Morant coming back to amplify the team’s rhythm, or is he coming back to stop the music?
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Perhaps it’s unreasonable to expect Morant to change his habits after playing one way for so long. But unless you’re an uber-efficient superstar, adaptation is the price of admission for a modern offense, and right now, the ball is sticking to Morant’s hands like he’s playing with pine tar.
So far this season, 36 players, including Morant, have averaged at least 70 touches per game. Morant ranks behind only James Harden in seconds per touch and fifth, just behind Jalen Brunson, in dribbles per touch, which puts his ball dominance in the same class as the game’s elite creators. The problem is the Grizzlies are scoring only 0.97 points per Morant touch. That ranks dead last of those 36 players.
Dead last.
Morant holds the ball the longest, dribbles the most and produces the least. It is the definition of a broken system, anchored by a star whose game is fast becoming a relic.
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At one time, Morant had to be the savior of the Grizzlies. But right now, this group just needs a teammate who makes quick decisions, keeps the ball moving and plays hard. And for the past three years, between the suspensions and the staggering lack of self-awareness, Morant has shown little interest in being one.
If Morant proceeds to hijack the offense, stifle the development of his young teammates and turn a fluid operation into a stagnant isolation fest, the Grizzlies need to send him to the highest bidder.
But even if Memphis decides it’s time to move him, the market may be dried up. Minnesota has fit concerns. The Clippers are devoid of assets. Even Sacramento’s historic desperation likely has limits. In Year 3 of a five-year, $197.2 million contract, Morant is in danger of playing himself onto an island unless he either produces like his old self or finally adapts his game to the team around him.
Ja bought tickets, but he can’t buy patience. That, he has to earn.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency has suspended French pro Quentin Folliot for 20 years for alleged match-fixing.
Folliot will be fined $70,000 and forced to return $44,000 in “corrupt payments,” after he was found to have committed 27 breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program, the ITIA announced Thursday.
As a central figure in what the ITIA is calling a tennis match-fixing syndicate, Folliot was initially hit with 30 charges spread over 11 matches between 2022 and 2024. The 26-year-old Frenchman’s highest rank came in August 2022 at No. 488. His official career earnings are $60,047.
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In a statement, the ITIA said:
“Contriving the outcome of matches, receiving money to not give best efforts for betting purposes, offering money to other players to fix matches, provision of inside information, conspiracy to corrupt, failure to co-operate with an ITIA investigation, and destruction of evidence.”
A provisional suspension was already being served by Folliot since May 2024. The time he’s already served in suspension will be counted toward the 20-year ban. Folliot will be eligible to compete again on May 16, 2044, at the age of 45.
Aside from Folliot, five other players have been suspended this year for violating the TACP, although his has been the most severe. Natthasith Kunsuwan, Jaimee Floyd Angele, Christian Lindell, Samuel Bensoussan and Lucas Boquet have all been suspended for violating the TACP. Kunsuwan’s punishment has been the harshest outside of Folliot’s, as the suspension is 12 years with a fine of $75,000.
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Suspended players are barred from competing, coaching or attending ITIA-authorized tennis events. This includes the ATP, WTA and the four major tournaments.
Charlie Baker in October at a Big East basketball event. (Porter Binks/Getty Images)
In just a few short years, sports betting has gone from an occasional Vegas detour to a constant presence in American life. A tap away on your phone. A fixture in every commercial break. A storyline woven into every game.
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As betting has surged, so have the ripple effects: social media abuse, integrity concerns, pressure on athletes, and an entirely new culture forming around wins, losses, and prop bets. College sports sits at the center of that storm. So I spoke with NCAA President Charlie Baker (no relation) about what he’s seeing, what worries him and what comes next.
Let’s dive in…
Kendall Baker: Charlie, thanks so much for taking the time. I’d like to begin with some pretty alarming numbers. According to a recent NCAA study, 36% of Division I men’s basketball athletes reported experiencing social media abuse related to sports betting within the last year, while 29% reported having interacted with a student on campus who had placed a bet on their team. What are your immediate thoughts when you hear that?
Charlie Baker:
After my appointment was announced in December 2022, I went out and visited about 1,000 student athletes on campuses, mostly in and around New England, which is where I was living. Basically just to sort of say, “tell me what’s going on.”
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So much of those conversations were about sports betting — and especially the abuse and harassment that came with it — that one of the first things we did when I got to the NCAA was a survey of 18 to 22 year olds on sports betting. I wanted to see if what I’d been hearing anecdotally was true; that the peer group of a lot of kids who play college sports were really betting on it in a very significant way.
The answer that came back was that, yeah, a ton of people between the ages of 18 and 22 — never mind the grown ups — were betting on college sports. And these are the kids that student athletes are interacting with, going to class with, eating in the cafeteria with and all the rest.
When I was in college, it would have been a very weird day if we had a game coming up and I didn’t have classmates and friends asking me, “How’s it gonna go tonight?” But that was just chatter. Now, it’s guidance and inside information, and I think that creates a completely different dynamic for athletes, especially those playing at a big-time level.
“The phone changed everything”
KB: Legalized sports betting is an issue you dealt with as the Governor of Massachusetts, and now it’s something you’re navigating as president of the NCAA. So I’m just curious how you, personally, think about sports betting and the cultural impact it’s having?
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When I was governor and this issue was first being debated and discussed, which probably goes back to 2018 or so, most people thought this was going to be casino-type stuff. That you would go somewhere and bet on sports. Because everybody had always gone to Vegas to bet on sports.
I don’t think anybody was anticipating that it would be as ubiquitous as it became when DraftKings and FanDuel, in particular, created phone-based opportunities for people to bet on pretty much anything. You think about parlays, that’s something that was really hard to do without technology and almost simultaneous betting opportunities.
So there’s just so many things about the technology that I think we can’t underestimate in the growth and the interest and the access that people have to this stuff. The phone changed everything. People just weren’t thinking at that point [in 2018] about how fast this whole thing was going to end up in the palm of your hand.
And look, how many [sports betting] ads do you see when you watch any sort of sporting event now? I mean, this stuff is everywhere. I do believe that when something is illegal, people think twice about it. So you can’t underestimate the impact all these commercials have had [in making] sports betting socially acceptable.
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The problem with prop bets
A board of prop bets at the Westgate Superbook in Las Vegas ahead of Super Bowl LVIII in 2024. (Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images)
Prop bets have been at the center of this year’s biggest scandals (see: Jontay Porter and Terry Rozier in the NBA, Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz in MLB), and it’s not hard to see why. Unlike wagers tied to team outcomes, these bets hinge on a single player doing a specific thing, whether that’s scoring fewer than 10 points or throwing a ball instead of a strike. That makes them easier to manipulate and easier to approach athletes about.
KB: Why do prop bets pose such a unique threat? And how much of the betting-related harassment stems from these specific types of wagers?
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Well, it’s definitely where most of the really aggressive harassment directed at kids is coming from. And the second thing is the pressure that the underperforming prop bets puts on young people. I don’t think that’s something that’s fully understood.
I mean, if you talk to athletes who play for programs where there are regularly betting lines on a lot of what happens in their games… they’ve got classmates, school employees, friends they had in high school, and all kinds of people putting all this social pressure on them.
They’re saying, “Look, I don’t want you to lose the game, but just don’t score more than 20 points. Miss your first shot. Don’t hit your first free throw. Don’t catch your first pass.” It sounds so easy to the person who’s trying to get the kid to do this, and it’s just relentless the pressure.
It’s like, “Hey, I’m not asking you to do something awful or terrible. I’m not asking you to throw the game,” right? But what you are asking them to do is not play the game the way they would choose to play it if their goal was to be a good teammate and win.
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I hate the fact that we’ve caught a whole bunch of young people engaging in this stuff, which just sucks for everybody. But our message has been, ya know, “If you do this, we will catch you.” We run a really big integrity monitoring program, probably the biggest in the world. I’m not sure people appreciate that. Over 2.75 million athletes covered over the last five years.
KB: Do you think we could see a nationwide ban on prop bets? There seems to be some momentum around it at the state level as more people realize the danger prop bets pose to the integrity of the games — and to athletes.
We did manage to get a bunch of states to change their rules on this, which I thought was good. And we’re now to the point where even the sportsbooks themselves have acknowledged that [prop bets] are a problem because they’ve changed their rules around NBA and MLB games.
The big challenge with this is always going to be the fact that, for the most part, it’s regulated at the state level. The Senate had a hearing last year, and a couple of them were like, “Hmm, there is some interstate commerce stuff here that we should probably be paying attention to.” But for the most part, they definitely see this more as a state issue. And frankly, I think a lot of the states probably would rather have it as a state issue.
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Protecting college athletes
KB: The NCAA is obviously not the only sports organization navigating the realities of legal sports betting. That said, do you feel a unique responsibility to protect your athletes given how much more vulnerable they are than, say, professional athletes?
For sure. There’s a big difference between being a professional athlete with a lot of structure and a lot of advisors around you, and being a kid who eats in a dining hall. And studies in a library. And goes to class with their classmates. And is so much more gettable with respect to practically anything around this. So yeah, for sure, [we feel an added responsibility].
And let’s also talk about scale here, okay? I mean, there are 32 NFL teams, 30 MLB teams, 30 NBA teams, 32 NHL teams. I mean, that’s not even like a conference in collegiate sports when you think about all the teams. We’ve got football, we’ve got men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, baseball, ice hockey — we have so many sports that are pretty high visibility.
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Prediction markets: The next frontier
The website for Polymarket, a popular prediction market. (Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Just as sports betting has settled into the mainstream, a new, largely unregulated ecosystem is rising alongside it: prediction markets. They look like betting, act like betting, and operate in similar spaces — but without the rules, transparency, or accountability that states require from sportsbooks. That vacuum worries Baker, who sees prediction markets as the next major flashpoint in the gambling world.
Prediction markets are not regulated at all. And so, ya know, California, which currently doesn’t permit sports betting, the prediction markets could have an absolute ball taking that space over.
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You see DraftKings and FanDuel dropping out of the American Gaming Association… I’d be willing to conclude that a big part of their reasoning is they’re going to get into the prediction market space. They can’t afford to let those folks dominate all that green space they can’t currently access.
It just says this whole thing is going to get worse unless somebody does something about it. And solving it at the federal level is going to be really challenging because it’s still new and not fully formed. So, I mean, you’re basically talking about no rules, no oversight, no nothing. And that just feels catastrophic to me. Not just for us, but for everybody.
In late October, when the Philadelphia Eagles were hosting a private meeting with a local program for at-risk youth, general manager Howie Roseman took time to sit down and speak to the gathering. The organization in attendance was Youth Mentoring Partnership, which aims to connect young members of the Pennsylvania community with local mentors who can provide guidance on a wide spectrum of life frontiers, from scholastic and physical fitness to mental health, career tutelage and social engagement.
One of the group’s “pillars” is to create goals. That’s part of what Roseman chose to focus on while speaking to attendees.
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“Setting goals gives you a clear picture of where you want to go,” Roseman told the group. “You may not get there in a straight line — everyone makes mistakes — but what matters is how you grow and the lessons you carry forward.”
It’s a message Roseman has shared many times and in many ways while leading the Eagles. That wisdom has been earned in all manner of decisions — from making or refusing to make a coaching change, bringing in challenging players or letting go of key pieces of the team, winning and losing Super Bowls and, perhaps most importantly, surviving the journey through the highs and lows that weave from one decision to the next. Through it all, Roseman often takes a line that is rarely straight.
This is what I think about when it comes to this week’s furor surrounding quarterback Jalen Hurts, which feels like it has reached a crescendo of knee-jerk reactions over the past month, from being vehemently booed by Eagles fans at Lincoln Financial Field, to sports talk radio fodder about benching Hurts for backup Tanner McKee, to national talk show conversations about whether Hurts could even be traded by the franchise this offseason.
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Even for a Philadelphia fan base that runs notoriously hot and cold — not to mention a media contingent that can quickly trade pens and pencils for axes and knives — this has gotten off the rails.
Before we get into that end of it, consider that Roseman has been with the Eagles for 26 years. He saw the abyss of quarterbacks that occurred between the height of Donovan McNabb and the positioning of Hurts as the team’s long-term franchise QB. There was a void that included all manner of attempts at finding a Super Bowl-winning star at the position — from trades, to signings, to engineering an aggressive draft maneuver to land Carson Wentz.
Finding a legitimate winning quarterback who can either lead a team or follow it to success consistently is a cruel and anxiety-ridden process. When a resolution proves it’s an answer and not just a stopgap, you stick with it through thick and thin. That’s what Hurts represents to Roseman. He proved it when he lost in the Super Bowl following the 2022 season and then clawed his way back alongside Roseman’s 2024 creation and captured both the Lombardi and the game’s MVP honors.
With all of that in mind, I don’t see Roseman risking going back into a quarterback abyss just because there are problems right now with both Hurts and the Eagles’ offense. If anything, it’s more likely Roseman would work another extension with Hurts that could create some more salary cap space rather than trading him and throwing a grenade into his current cap table.
Jalen Hurts, who put up a stinker on Monday night against the Chargers, will look to rebound Sunday against the Raiders. (Photo by Brooke Sutton/Getty Images)
(Brooke Sutton via Getty Images)
Here’s where things are at on the field: Yes, Philadelphia’s offense is struggling and Hurts is coming off a turnover-laden loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, the team’s third defeat in a row. And yes, there’s some late-season slippage here that understandably creates white-knuckling in the fan base, with reminders of the catastrophic end to a disappointing 2023 season. But everything that is happening now isn’t simply a function of Hurts’ limitations as a passer. And this isn’t 2023, because the Eagles’ defense and special teams are playing at a level that could win a Super Bowl if each was properly complemented with an offense.
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Let’s tick down the list on offense, shall we? First, the line, which has been the bone marrow of everything that has made the Eagles great since Hurts was paired with head coach Nick Sirianni, isn’t right. From right tackle Lane Johnson to right guard Landon Dickerson and center Cam Jurgens, the offensive line’s performance has been undercut by nagging injuries all season. That includes key backup offensive tackle Myles Hinton, who has been on injured reserve since August and is only now nearing return.
The reality of the line being hobbled for much of the season has exasperated issues with running back Saquon Barkley, who came into this season already carrying over a massive spate of usage last season, which topped out at 482 touches in the regular season and playoffs. Be it the line’s performance or sheer fatigue — and it could be both — Barkley’s decline in efficiency and explosives has had an impact on Hurts, too, both in terms of how the scheme has been called and how defenses have approached the Eagles. And inside of all of that, you have offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, who is in his first season of calling plays.
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That’s a lot of moving parts. And they’re all moving around the quarterback, who is now being pointed at as the crux of the problems.
Mind you, none of this is meant to absolve Hurts’ hand in this. He bares his own percentage of responsibility, from his limitations when it comes to throwing in the middle of the field or anticipating open windows before they develop, to his sometimes-curious rhythms with No. 1 wideout A.J. Brown. But even Brown — who has showcased frustration with the offense multiple times this season — gave Hurts some grace coming out of the loss against the Chargers, a game that saw the quarterback turn the ball over five times, including a forced throw into traffic in overtime that ended the game with an interception.
“I think all of us have a hand in that pocket,” Brown said of Hurts’ turnover spike. “We are trying to get better. Obviously as the quarterback, he’s going to get a lot of stuff for it. But we in this thing together. Like today, that [interception] across the middle, I’m more than capable of making that catch. You can’t put that on him. He was under pressure and it ain’t gonna be perfect.”
That theme hasn’t played well in Philadelphia this week, but Brown is right.
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And you can take it a little further too: Hurts is 27 years old and this weekend’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders will be his 100th, including 88 previous starts split between the regular season and playoffs. He is what he is at this point, and his limitations are what they are. Unless the Eagles suddenly have the inclination to turn the clock back to 2022 and make him more of a consistent dual threat quarterback again, the skill set has been cemented. Of course, the Eagles have long recognized that Hurts running the football is both a dangerous and depreciating asset, which is why they paid Barkley to come in be the spine of the rushing attack.
This doesn’t mean the offense can’t improve, of course. Greg Cosell, one of the best game film analysts orbiting the NFL for the 40+ years, said this week on his “Inside the Tape” podcast that what he saw from Hurts against the Chargers was actually encouraging for the Eagles.
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“[They had] four strong concepts, they had flood concepts — they had concepts,” Cosell said. “They had concepts that present defined reads and throws for the quarterback. It was the best game of the season in terms of what they did in the pass game from a concepts standpoint.”
If Cosell is right — and I don’t know him to be wrong when it comes to what he’s seeing on tape and measuring against the rest of the league — it signals there are some signs of expansion ahead. Signs that as the game is called, Hurts may be doing more rather than less. Unfortunately that happened in the teeth of a rough loss that triggered the fan base and brought out Hurts’ critics in droves.
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Go back to Roseman’s words and focus it in that light. Mistakes will be made. How you grow from them is what matters. The line to success isn’t always straight. That’s the kind of message that has typified Hurts’ entire football career. And when this season draws to a close, it’s likely 2025 won’t be any different.
Nate Tice & Charles McDonald join forces to preview the biggest games of NFL Week 15. After some quick opening thoughts on the 2026 quarterback class, the duo start by getting Lost in the Sauce on their three favorite games. Nate & Charles break down both sides of the ball as they deep dive on Buffalo Bills @ New England Patriots, Detroit Lions @ Los Angeles Rams and a hoss fight of a matchup featuring the Green Bay Packers @ the Denver Broncos.
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Next, Nate & Charles dive into their Slop Watch picks, including Philip Rivers and the Indianapolis Colts taking on the monster Seattle Seahawks defense and the Miami Dolphins trying to play spoiler against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The two hosts wrap things up with their Hail Mary bold predictions for Week 15, as Nate predicts a big win for the Kansas City Chiefs and Charles forecasts a huge rushing day for the Bills.
(6:50) – Bills @ Patriots
(28:10) – Lions @ Rams
(50:05) – Hoss Fight of the Week: Packers @ Broncos
(1:10:15) – Slop Watch: Colts @ Seahawks
(1:19:00) – Slop Watch: Dolphins @ Steelers
(1:25:50) – Hail Mary bold predictions
ORCHARD PARK, NEW YORK – DECEMBER 7: Josh Allen #17 of the Buffalo Bills takes the field against the Cincinnati Bengals during the NFL 2025 game between Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium on December 7, 2025 in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Jamie Schwaberow/Getty Images)
University of Michigan president Domenico Grasso said Thursday night that the school’s investigation into Sherrone Moore is still ongoing.
Moore was fired after two seasons as Michigan’s head football coach Wednesday after the school said it had discovered an inappropriate relationship with Moore and a staffer. Not long after Moore was fired, he was detained after police responded to an alleged assault call. Moore’s arraignment is expected Friday.
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In a letter to the school, Grasso said Moore was “immediately” terminated after evidence of the relationship was presented.
“When the findings of a university investigation into Coach Moore’s behavior were presented on Wednesday, we immediately terminated his employment,” Grasso wrote.
“There is absolutely no tolerance for this conduct at the University of Michigan. None.
“I have been in close communication with the Board of Regents and we are united in committing to doing what is right.
“This breach of trust by Coach Moore is painful for many in our community, first and foremost, the individuals directly involved in the situation. Yet our swift and decisive action reflects the university’s staunch commitment to a campus culture of respect, integrity and accountability. All of the facts here must be known, so the university’s investigation will continue.”
Grasso then encouraged anyone with information to email a confidential tip line.
Thursday afternoon, NBC reported that Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel told Moore of his firing without anyone else present despite the school having been “alerted prior to Wednesday” that the coach “was dealing with mental health issues.”
Moore was appointed Michigan’s head coach after Jim Harbaugh left to be the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers following the Wolverines’ 2023 national title season. Moore, previously the team’s offensive coordinator, had served as Michigan’s interim coach while Harbaugh was suspended two different times in 2023 and went 17-8 over the 2024 and 2025 seasons. Biff Poggi has been named the team’s interim coach ahead of the Citrus Bowl against Texas.
We now know the players who just missed out on heading to New York City for the Heisman Trophy ceremony.
The players who finished Nos. 5 through 10 in the 2025 Heisman voting were revealed Thursday night ahead of Saturday’s ceremony. Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza, Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia, Notre Dame RB Jeremiah Love and Ohio State QB Julian Sayin are the four finalists who were invited to the ceremony.
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Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez was the top vote-getter among players who missed out. Rodriguez leads a Texas Tech defense that has made a massive leap in 2025 thanks to a lot of help from the transfer portal. Rodriguez, who is in his fourth season at Texas Tech, has 117 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, 4 interceptions, 2 fumble recoveries and 7 forced fumbles this season. Texas Tech won the Big 12 title for the first time in 2025 and is the No. 4 seed in the College Football Playoff.
Ohio State DB Caleb Downs was the only other defensive player to garner enough votes to finish in the top 10. Downs came in at No. 9.
Downs’ teammate Jeremiah Smith came in at No. 6. Smith followed a stellar freshman season with 80 catches for 1,086 yards and 11 touchdowns through 12 games and he’s also rushed for a score. Ohio State is the No. 2 seed in the College Football Playoff and will play the winner of No. 7 Texas A&M and No. 10 Miami in the Cotton Bowl on Dec. 31.
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Mendoza is the overwhelming betting favorite for the award after Indiana won the Big Ten title over Ohio State. Mendoza is currently -1200 at BetMGM ahead of Pavia at +700. The other two players are considerable long shots. Love is 150-1 to win the Heisman and Sayin is 500-1.
Georgia QB Gunner Stockton came in at No. 7 behind Smith and Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss is at No. 8. The final player in the top 10 of the voting is Georgia Tech QB Haynes King. He’s the first Yellow Jacket to receive enough votes to finish in the top 10 since WR Calvin Johnson.
There are a great number of soccer fans who were waiting for Thursday to start buying tickets for World Cup games. And then they found out the price. Now they’re not so excited.
[FIFA] hiked some Category 1 ticket prices from $410 or $445 last month to $700 for games such as England vs. Croatia and Scotland vs. Brazil. In total, the Category 1 price rose for 80 of the 104 matches — in some cases by 71% — while it fell for 11 matches, according to data tracked and compiled by The Athletic.
Those Category 1 games are basically just lower-bowl seats, and even second-deck seats in some stadiums. Seats are divided into four different categories, and FIFA promised tickets priced as low as $60 for some of the Category 4 tickets. Per The Athletic, those tickets appear to be scarce bordering on unattainable, with none available for sale on Thursday.
These are the prices that FIFA will be rolling with through Jan. 13, after which the current lottery phase closes and fans will either receive their tickets while getting charged or receive a rejection notice.
Based on the information currently available to FSE, if a supporter were to follow their team from the first match to the final through a PMA allocation, it would cost them a minimum of 6900 USD – nearly five times as much as during the FIFA WC 2022 in Qatar.
National team supporters are expected to pay this full amount in early 2026 to have the opportunity to follow their team up to the final.
Adding insult to injury, the lowest price category will not be available to the most dedicated supporters through their National Associations, as FIFA chose to reserve the scarce number of category 4 tickets to the general sales, subject to dynamic ticket pricing. This is a monumental betrayal of the tradition of the World Cup, ignoring the contribution of supporters to the spectacle it is.
FIFA’s World Cup tickets ain’t cheap.
(Tasos Katopodis – FIFA via Getty Images)
What’s different in this World Cup is FIFA’s introduction of variable pricing, which essentially means setting ticket prices based on the expected demand for the seats. That will sound like standard operating procedure, or even quaint, for many American fans used to shelling out for NFL games in the very stadiums that will be hosting some of the World Cup games, but it’s an outrage for some international fans used to different standards of fan treatment.
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FIFA defended its decision in a statement to The Athletic:
A FIFA spokesman told The Athletic in a statement this week that “the pricing model … reflects the existing market practice for major entertainment and sporting events within our hosts on a daily basis, soccer included.”
Soccer’s global governing body also frequently points out that, “as a not-for-profit organization, the revenue FIFA generates from the World Cup is reinvested to fuel the growth of the game (men, women, youth) throughout FIFA’s 211 member associations.”
The World Cup is scheduled to begin June 11, with games in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
