Can the Hurricanes pull the upset after sneaking into the field, or will Texas A&M set up a quasi-home-game quarterfinal matchup with Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl?
Miami (10-2): Hey, did you know that Miami jumped Notre Dame for the final at-large spot in the College Football Playoff in the last set of rankings? It might have been slightly controversial.
The Hurricanes got into the playoff because of their win over Notre Dame in Week 1. But it took so long for that playoff berth to feel certain because of the way the CFP committee evaluates teams. After Miami was at No. 18 at the start of November following a loss to SMU, the Hurricanes slowly worked their way up the rankings. They finally got close enough to Notre Dame for that head-to-head win to actually matter for the committee after BYU lost to Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game. Miami getting in the playoff over Notre Dame is perfectly defensible. How they got to the playoff, however, isn’t.
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Texas A&M (11-1): The Aggies had designs on a first-round bye entering Thanksgiving week. A&M had saved an undefeated season with an incredible second-half comeback against South Carolina on Nov. 15 and then made quick work of FCS Samford to move to 11-0.
But the hope of a first-round bye in the playoff and a trip to the SEC title game again ended at the hands of the Texas Longhorns. A year after Texas denied the Aggies a visit to Atlanta, Texas did it again in a 27-17 win. A&M had no shot at the playoff a year ago; a chance for the national title is a nice consolation. But the Aggies would sure love to beat the Longhorns sometime soon.
How the QBs stack up
Miami QB Carson Beck had two really ugly games in 2025. Both of those games resulted in Miami losses.
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The Georgia transfer has completed nearly 75% of his passes for 3,072 yards and 25 TDs with 10 interceptions. Six of those picks have come in the Hurricanes’ two defeats. He threw four picks in Miami’s 24-21 home loss to Louisville on Oct. 17 and then threw two more in a 26-20 overtime loss at SMU. Outside of that, he has just one other multi-interception game.
Beck has thrown at least two touchdown passes in eight of Miami’s 12 games this season and has been excellent since that SMU loss. Over his last four games, Beck is 89-of-112 passing for 1,125 yards and 11 TDs with just one interception.
A&M QB Marcel Reed was perhaps the most surprising player to miss out on the top 10 of the Heisman voting after his successful season. Reed isn’t the passer Beck is — he’s completed just 62% of his passes — but he’s rushed for 466 yards and six scores while also throwing 25 touchdowns.
A poor performance against the Longhorns made sure he wasn’t going to get invited to New York. But it’s hard to overlook how good Reed was in the comeback performance against South Carolina. After a disastrous first half, Reed finished the game 22-of-39 passing for 439 yards and three touchdowns with two interceptions.
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Players to watch
Miami WR CJ Daniels: Star freshman Malachi Toney has been the go-to wide receiver for the Hurricanes. His 84 catches are more than twice as many as any other Miami player, and he leads the team with 970 yards. But Daniels is a very important part of the Miami pass game. And the Hurricanes got him back at the end of the season.
Daniels has missed three games due to injury but is still tied with Toney for the team lead in receiving TDs with seven. The LSU transfer has 35 catches for 391 yards and had two grabs for 40 yards and a TD in his second game back from injury. Can he help prevent A&M from focusing its efforts solely on Toney?
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Texas A&M RB Le’Veon Moss: The Aggies’ top running back hasn’t played since Oct. 11. But he could be back on the field against Miami after returning to practice this week.
Moss has missed the last six games with an ankle injury he suffered against Florida. Before the injury, Moss had 70 carries for 389 yards and six touchdowns over the Aggies’ first six games of the season.
In 2024, Moss had 121 carries for 765 yards and 10 TDs. Rueben Owens has filled in admirably with 618 yards on 112 carries with Moss out of the lineup. But having Moss and Owens back on the field together for the first time in over two months could be huge for the Aggies.
Key to the game
Both defenses are strikingly similar against the pass. Opponents have completed less than 60% of their passes for fewer than 200 yards per game against both A&M and Miami. But Miami has held opponents to fewer than five yards a carry and forces nearly two turnovers per game. A&M has forced just nine turnovers all season.
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Will turnovers be the difference? And can Miami’s Mark Fletcher Jr. open up space for Beck to operate through the air? A&M has allowed opponents to rush for over six yards a carry four times in 2025. Fletcher leads Miami with 685 yards and 10 TDs on 141 carries. If Miami can make A&M worry about the run game, the Hurricanes have a real shot at pulling the upset.
Is it disrespectful to mimic digging into your nose to pick out a booger and fling it? That’s what Amon-Ra St. Brown wants to know after being told that referees asked for the Detroit Lions receiver and his teammates to stop doing the celebration during last Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
During this week’s edition of the St. Brown Podcast with his brother, Equanimeous, Amon-Ra said that early in the game one of the Lions’ coaches told him he couldn’t do the booger-flicking celebration anymore.
“Bro, we do it [after] the first drive, our receivers coach [Scottie Montgomery] says, ‘Hey, man, refs said you can’t do that no more,’” St. Brown said. “I’m like ‘What the f***? Why is that bad? I want to know.
“NFL, why can’t I dig in my nose and flick it? What is bad about that? Is that disrespectful? Is that derogatory?”
There is no specific NFL rule that states that the booger-flick celebration is off limits. The closest there is is the “nose wipe” gesture that is considered unsportsmanlike conduct and subject to a fine.
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St. Brown said that after being told he needed to stop, he felt the urge to do the celebration “all game, so bad.”
Where did the idea for the celebration come from? According to St. Brown, it originated with rookie defensive tackle Tyleik Williams, he told Kay Adams on Thursday. Williams came up to the Lions receiver in the team’s locker room last week and pitched his idea, to which St. Brown was receptive.
It doesn’t appear as if any of the Lions will be fined for the celebration since they kept their fingers out of their noses the rest of the game. Williams has already been docked $43,473 in fines for two taunting infractions and one for running and hugging the goal-post stanchion following a touchdown. He was penalized during the game for that one, which ended up costing Detroit a point.
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🚨 Headlines
🏈 Tua benched: The Dolphins are benching Tua Tagovailoa in favor of Quinn Ewers, the seventh-round rookie out of Texas. Tagovailoa, the fifth overall pick in 2020, leads the league with 15 interceptions this season and is now Miami’s QB3, behind Zach Wilson.
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🎾 Alcaraz splits with coach: World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz has parted ways with longtime coach Juan Carlos Ferrero. “We’ve managed to reach the top, and I feel that if our sports paths had to part ways, it had to be from up there,” wrote Alcaraz, who did not give a reason for the split.
🏀 Knicks won’t raise banner: The Knicks will not raise an NBA Cup banner in the Madison Square Garden rafters because the team is “focused on the bigger picture” of winning their first NBA title since 1973. The Bucks and Lakers, the first two NBA Cup winners, both raised banners.
⚾️ Nats youth movement continues: The Nationals are hiring 31-year-old Phillies assistant GM Ani Kilambi as their new general manager. He’ll team up with manager Blake Butera, 33, and president of baseball operations Paul Toboni, 35.
🏀 Rioux makes history:Florida‘s 7-foot-9 freshman Olivier Rioux made his first career basket in the Gators’ blowout win over Saint Francis, becoming the tallest player ever to make a field goal in a college basketball game.
🏈 Could the Bears move to… Indiana?
(Found Image Holdings/Corbis via Getty Images)
The Chicago Bears are thinking outside of the box — er, state — for their next stadium, writes Yahoo Sports’ Jack Baer.
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What they’re saying: Bears president Kevin Warren sent a letter to season-ticket holders on Wednesday with an update on the franchise’s years-long search for a new home after a century at Soldier Field.
In recent years, the campaign has focused on a site in the suburb of Arlington Heights that the Bears purchased in 2023, with Warren saying in September that the team needs to finalize plans this year.
From the letter:
Stable timelines are critical, as are predictable processes and elected leaders, who share a sense of urgency and appreciation for public partnership that projects with this level of impact require. We have not received that sense of urgency or appreciation to date.
Consequently … we need to expand our search and critically evaluate opportunities throughout the wider Chicagoland region, including Northwest Indiana. This is not about leverage. … Our fans deserve a world-class stadium [and] our organization must keep every credible pathway open to deliver that future.
Soldier Field in Chicago. (Quinn Harris/Getty Images)
Border crossing: The NFL has never seemed to mind the location of a stadium not matching a team’s name.
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The New York Jets and New York Giants play in New Jersey; the Washington Commanders play in Maryland (though they’re moving back to D.C.).
Still, a move to Northwest Indiana — where Gary and Hammond are the two biggest cities — would be a shocking outcome for the Bears… and the Colts.
Reality check: Warren says “this is not about leverage,” but of course it’s about leverage. The Bears are hoping that the threat of them leaving Illinois forces state leaders to the table. They don’t actually want to move to Indiana. (That said, the longer this drags on — and the louder it gets — the more plausible it becomes that their bluff turns into a fallback plan.)
The backdrop: All of this lands three days before the first-place Bears (10-4) host the second-place Packers (9-4-1) in one of the most meaningful games at Soldier Field in years. Talk about a weird moment to remind fans the team might be looking for the exits. I believe the term is “tone deaf.”
💯 Big numbers
Teammates swarm Draisaitl to celebrate his 1,000th career point. (Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo)
🏒 1,000 points
With four assists on Tuesday, Oilers superstar Leon Draisaitl became the 103rd player in NHL history to reach 1,000 career points, and the first German to do so.
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1,000 in a hurry: Draisaitl reached the milestone in just 824 games, which is the fourth-fastest among active players (Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Nikita Kucherov) and the fifth-fastest among all players born outside North America (Peter Šťastný, Jari Kurri, Jaromír Jágr, Kucherov).
⚽️ $50 million
Next year’s World Cup will feature the biggest prize in the history of the tournament, with the winner taking home a record $50 million. That’s up from $42 million four years ago and $2.2 million back in 1982, the first year FIFA publicized the prize money.
Full payouts: Champion ($50M); runner-up ($33M); 3rd place ($29M); 4th place ($27M); 5th-8th place ($19M); 9th-16th place ($15M); 17th-32nd place ($11M); 33rd-48th place ($9M).
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🏈 14 coaches
A whopping 14 head coaches, coordinators or assistants on College Football Playoff-bound teams are departing for other programs at the end of the season, notes Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger. That list spans eight of the 12 CFP teams, with Ole Miss “leading” the way at six departing personnel. Texas A&M and Oregon have two each, while Ohio State, JMU, Tulane and Alabama have one. (Congrats to Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Georgia and Indiana for avoiding the coaching carousel!)
What they’re saying: “We’ve got to fix the calendar,” said Tulane assistant Will Hall, who will replace Jon Sumrall as head coach after the Green Wave’s playoff run ends. “We are the only sport in the world where free agency for players and coaches begins in the middle of the season.”
Rivers celebrates a touchdown pass during last week’s game. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
🏈 5 years
Philip Rivers’ surprising return to the NFL means he and his family are now eligible for five more years of league-sponsored health insurance, which was otherwise set to expire next August. On the one hand, he’s made $244 million in his career, so he can certainly afford his own insurance; on the other, he has 10 children between the ages of 2 and 23. Those premiums ain’t cheap!
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Hall of Fame clock reset: Rivers’ insurance isn’t the only thing with five extra years of runway. He also must now wait five more years before becoming eligible for the Hall of Fame, despite having already been named a semifinalist for the Class of 2026.
🏀 100 wins
Duke’s victory over Lipscomb on Tuesday was the 100th win of Jon Scheyer’s career, making him the fastest head coach to reach the century mark in ACC history (122 games). That’s six games faster than Duke’s Vic Bubas (1959-69) and seven games faster than North Carolina‘s Roy Williams (2003-21).
Who got there faster? In the past 45 years across all of Division I, only Butler’s Brad Stevens won 100 games faster than Scheyer, reaching the milestone in his 120th game back in 2011.
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⚽️ $1 million
Sophia Wilson (née Smith), who missed all of the 2025 NWSL season after giving birth to her first child, has exercised her player option with the Portland Thorns worth $1 million — the first seven-figure salary in league history.
More to come? The NWSL approved a new measure last week that will allow teams to pay select stars up to $1 million above the salary cap, so deals like Wilson’s should become more common moving forward.
Joshua: “If I can kill you, I will kill you,” the former heavyweight champion said Tuesday ahead of his bout against the YouTuber-turned-boxer. A day later, when pressed on those words, he doubled down:
“It’s my job — we fight. We have a license to kill. … When you’re in that ring, it’s a dangerous place to be and anything can happen. You hope your opponent leaves the ring safely, but if they don’t, you still have to go to bed at night knowing that you’ve just done your job, it wasn’t personal.”
To which Paul responded: “Let’s f***ing go, bro. Let’s put on a show for the fans. Let’s go to war. … I want his hardest punches. I want there to be no excuses when it’s all said and done, and let’s f***ing kill each other. … This is going to be the biggest upset in the history of sports, and you guys get to witness it.”
Pre-fight reading (via Uncrowned):
⚾️ Take me out to the (prison) ballgame
The gates at Old Joliet Prison in 2011. (Raymond Boyd/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
The Frontier League’s Joliet Slammers will play an exhibition game next season inside the walls of Old Joliet Prison. And for any amateur baseball historians out there, it should come as no surprise to you that the Veeck family has a hand in this stunt.
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“The Big House Ballgame”: The Slammers will face the Gateway Grizzlies on April 30 in the same Chicago-area yard that once housed criminals such as Leopold and Loeb, John Wayne Gacy and, most famously (albeit fictitiously), “Joliet” Jake Blues in 1980’s “The Blues Brothers.”
How are the Veecks involved? William “Night Train” Veeck (pronounced veck) joined the Slammers last year as a marketing executive and part-owner. His father, Mike, and actor Bill Murray are also part of the ownership group, and this upcoming exhibition is just their latest foray into the family tradition of promotional showmanship.
Just a few examples: In 1951, as owner of the Browns (Orioles), he drummed up sales by sending 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel to the plate as a pinch hitter; in 1979, as owner of the White Sox, he and Mike threw the infamous and destructive “Disco Demolition Night.”
Why Old Joliet? The correctional facility has a longstanding connection to baseball, which was introduced to the prison in 1914 by a warden who sought to improve morale and encourage good behavior. Inmates continued playing there until the prison closed in 2002, and April’s game is the official kickoff for the centennial celebration of Route 66, the historic highway from Chicago to Los Angeles that opened in 1926.
📺 Watchlist: Thursday, Dec. 18
The Rams won their first meeting this season, 21-19. (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
🏈 Rams at Seahawks
The two best teams in the NFL just so happen to play in the same division, giving extra weight to this NFC West clash (8:15pm ET, Prime). Tonight’s game could determine which team gets the bye as the No. 1 seed, and which is forced to go on the road during Wild Card Weekend as the No. 5-seed.
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A league of their own: With all due respect to the Broncos (12-2) and Patriots (11-3), no teams have looked as consistently great as the Rams (11-3) and Seahawks (11-3), who have by far the best scoring differentials in the NFL, at +163 and +159, respectively. The Pats are in third at +106.
🏐 NCAA Volleyball Final Four
The semifinals are tonight in Kansas City, where the path to a championship is suddenly wide open after undefeated Nebraska‘s stunning defeat in the Elite Eight. First up is No. 1 Pitt vs. No. 3 Texas A&M (6:30pm, ESPN), followed by No. 1 Kentucky vs. No. 3 Wisconsin(9pm, ESPN).
Trophy case: Pitt and Texas A&M are seeking their first national championships, while Kentucky (2020) and Wisconsin (2021) are seeking their second.
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More to watch:
🏀 NBA: Clippers at Thunder (8pm, NBA) … OKC (24-2), coming off a loss, hasn’t dropped two straight games since April.
🏈 NCAAF: Missouri State vs. Arkansas State (9pm, ESPN2) … The Xbox Bowl in Frisco, Texas.
The Dolphins have benched Tua Tagovailoa, making him the only QB of the four taken in the first round of the 2020 draft who is no longer his team’s starter.
Question: Can you name the other three?
Hint: LSU, Oregon, Utah State.
Answer at the bottom.
📸 Photo finish
(Jason Mowry/Getty Images)
🇺🇸 Columbus, Ohio — Blue Jackets goalkeeper Elvis Merzlikins locks eyes with his son, Knox, through the glass before Columbus’ game against the Ducks. And yes, his “Sonic the Hedgehog”-inspired facemask is for Knox, who’s a huge fan.
Core memory, unlocked.
Trivia answer: Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Jordan Love
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Kevin Garnett’s long-standing beef with the Minnesota Timberwolves has reportedly ended. Garnett will rejoin the franchise in a new role “involving business, community efforts and content development,” per ESPN’s Shams Charania.
While it’s unclear what that role — which will also involve the Minnesota Lynx — will entail, Garnett’s decision to reunite with the franchise will finally lead to his No. 21 being retired by the team.
Garnett’s jersey retirement is a long time coming. The former No. 5 overall pick in the 1995 NBA Draft quickly made a name for himself in Minnesota, and eventually emerged as arguably the greatest player in the history of the franchise.
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In 14 seasons with the Timberwolves, Garnett averaged 19.8 points and 11 rebounds per game. He made 10 All-Star teams, was named to the All-NBA First Team three times, and won the 2003-04 MVP award with the franchise.
But things fell apart during the end of Garnett’s tenure with the team. Despite Garnett playing some of his best basketball, the team’s record plummeted, eventually leading to a trade. Ahead of the 2007-08 season, Garnett was shipped to the Boston Celtics. He won a title with the Celtics that same season.
As Garnett’s playing career was winding down, something happened between Garnett and former Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor to create a rift between the star and the franchise. It may have had something to do with Garnett wanting to move into an ownership role once his playing career was over. Former Timberwolves coach and executive Flip Saunders reportedly had plans to bring Garnett back into the fold following his playing career, but Saunders’ death in 2015 ended all hopes of that.
While Garnett didn’t get into specifics on what happened, he made it clear he blamed Taylor, telling Shams Charania, “I won’t forgive Glen” in 2020.
“Glen knows where I’m at, I’m not entertaining it. First of all, it’s not genuine. Two, he’s getting pressure from a lot of fans and, I guess, the community there. Glen and I had an understanding before Flip died, and when Flip died, that understanding went with Flip. For that, I won’t forgive Glen. I won’t forgive him for that. I thought he was a straight-up person, straight-up business man, and when Flip died, everything went with him.”
In that quote, Garnett revealed he would not entertain his jersey being retired by the franchise due to the feud. The situation became slightly more awkward two years later, as Garnett allowed the Celtics to retire his No. 5 jersey.
The move couldn’t come at a better time. After a few truly miserable years, the Timberwolves have emerged as a premier contender. The team has appeared in the past two Western Conference finals and is once again out to a strong start this season.
Bringing back Garnett now, when the team is capable of contending for a championship, should only further energize a fan base eager to finally win it all. And if Garnett is there in person as the Timberwolves finally get over that hump, it would create a tremendous full-circle moment for a player who helped make the franchise what it is today.
When the College Football Playoff’s 12-team format debuted last year, it was fair to characterize the first weekend as unremarkable.
To recap: Notre Dame jumped on Indiana in a game that was effectively over at halftime. SMU never got off the bus in a 28-point loss at Penn State. Clemson managed to hang around for a while but was ultimately no threat at Texas. And on a freezing night in Columbus, Ohio State’s march to a national title began with a 42-17 romp over Tennessee.
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Four games. Four blowouts. And, as usual, no shortage of nitpicking from playoff expansion critics who were ready to pounce on the lack of drama across the first round.
So here’s fair warning as we head toward the second year of the 12-team playoff: It could very well happen again.
That’s not a prediction. Oddsmakers project Alabama-Oklahoma to be a close game. Miami-Texas A&M has the whiff of unpredictability. And who knows, maybe Tulane or James Madison can play like an NCAA basketball tournament underdog and put a scare into Ole Miss or Oregon, respectively.
But if the excitement of the first round once again fizzles, here’s some advice: Relax.
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It doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with college football’s postseason. It means college football’s postseason is … normal.
Ohio State blew out Tennessee in the first round of last year’s College Football Playoff. Then the Buckeyes also handled Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame en route to a national championship. (David J. Griffin/Getty Images)
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
In the NFL last year, the average margin across its first-round playoff matchups was more than 15 points, with one good game out of six. In the NBA playoffs, there were two first-round sweeps and three 4-1 series. In the NHL, only two of the eight first-round series went to a Game 7.
Are any of those sports in a constant existential crisis over their postseason? Of course not.
This is the nature of tournament play in any sport where you include teams that don’t realistically have a chance to win the championship. Highly competitive first-round matchups are the exception, not the rule. Only when you reach the postseason stage where it’s best against best can you reasonably expect to see something memorable.
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And even then, there are no guarantees because it’s sports and there’s nothing scripted about how anything will turn out.
College football’s default mode, however, always seems to be that something’s wrong unless you’re getting handed a one-score, fourth quarter, back-and-forth game with teams trading haymakers for three hours.
Not only is that unrealistic, it’s never been the norm in any form of college football’s postseason.
If you combine the Bowl Coalition/Bowl Alliance/BCS eras where there was an intent to pit No. 1 against No. 2 for the national title, the average margin of victory in those matchups was 16.3 points. Across those 22 years, there were only five championship games that would be considered classics: Florida State over Nebraska in 1993, Ohio State over Miami in 2002, Texas over USC in 2005, Auburn over Oregon in 2010 and Florida State over Auburn in 2013.
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There were far more complete duds.
College football ginned up more misguided panic once it transitioned to the four-team CFP. In the first eight years of that format, only three of 16 semifinal games finished with a single-digit margin.
But then something happened on New Year’s Eve in 2022. Both semifinals came down to the last possession, with TCU upsetting Michigan and Ohio State missing a field goal as the clock struck midnight that would have taken down Georgia. And then the next year, Michigan’s goal-line stand against Alabama in overtime completed an all-time Rose Bowl, while later that night Texas barely missed on multiple shots to the end zone trying to score a winning touchdown against Washington.
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Why did the drama quotient flip so suddenly? Maybe it was simply the law of averages. Perhaps it was NIL and the transfer portal beginning to spread talent around more evenly.
Either way, at the very moment the four-team playoff was coming into its own, the sport’s leaders pushed the button to expand.
Despite some loopholes in the selection process, largely caused by runaway conference expansion, it wasn’t the wrong decision. TV ratings for the first round were solid, despite blowouts and multiple games going head-to-head with the NFL. Two of the four quarterfinal games last season were very good. Both semifinals were highly compelling, coming all the way down to the end. And though Ohio State’s 34-23 win over Notre Dame in the national championship game wasn’t an all-timer, it was competitive for four quarters.
That’s all you can ask for.
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Odds are, if the 12-team playoff is given a chance to breathe and grow, you’re going to see more competitive matchups over time. At some point, one of these Group of Five teams will knock off a blue blood and it’ll be the biggest story in American sports.
Just like a No. 16 seed beating a No. 1 in the NCAA basketball tournament, it’s only a matter of time.
But College Football Inc. is always restless. Nothing is allowed a chance to breathe. If one of the powerbrokers gets sad because a team got left out, there’s an imperative to tear everything down to the studs and start over. Then the hand-wringing over blowouts — as if it’s even possible to avoid them — gets magnified.
(You can set your clock by the social media takes on Saturday pining for Notre Dame if James Madison is down four touchdowns against Oregon.)
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Now, it seems, we’re already moving on to a 16-team playoff or perhaps something bigger. With all the grievances still lingering out there from the selection process two Sundays ago, there is renewed urgency among the conference commissioners to negotiate on an expanded format perhaps as soon as next year.
Why? Not really because of money, nor any expectation that the first-round games will be better if you expand to 16. It’s simply because the power conferences think more of their teams should be in.
Then, after the first year of the 16-team playoff, the cycle of angst starts all over again.
At some point, though, college football’s leaders and its fans need to settle in and get realistic about what to expect from the playoff.
If it’s like every other sport with a large tournament bracket, blowouts are almost always going to outnumber competitive matchups in the first round.
The sleeper page stayed asleep in Week 15, though a Chris Rodriguez Jr. pivot to Jacory Croskey-Merritt would have made sense on Sunday, after Rodriguez was officially scratched. We’re onto Week 16. Let’s see what gems we can dig up.
RB Michael Carter vs. Falcons (33%)
He’s the fourth or fifth string Arizona back at this point, but he’s also the last healthy back standing. Projecting opportunity is a major part of the game for running backs, and the Arizona offense has been consistently productive since Jacoby Brissett took over at quarterback.
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WR Jalen Coker vs. Buccaneers (9%)
He’s popped for 8-134-2 the last two weeks, coming on nicely while Tetairoa McMillan has hit a rookie wall. Tampa Bay’s defense is generally a pass funnel, so Coker can beat his projection again.
WR Adonai Mitchell at Saints (18%)
He’s scored touchdowns in two of three weeks, and was the first read (6-58-1) during Brady Cook’s first start. Cook is confirmed as the Week 16 starter, so Mitchell probably has 7-10 targets in his pocket before the game starts.
QB J.J. McCarthy at Giants (40%)
Maybe the connection with Justin Jefferson will have to wait until 2026, but McCarthy does have 20-plus points in back-to-back starts, and he didn’t even take a sack against Dallas. Now McCarthy gets to attack a New York defense that’s the fourth-friendliest for opposing quarterbacks.
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TE Colston Loveland vs. Packers (40%)
He had four catches and a touchdown in the previous Green Bay game, and with Luther Burden III and Rome Odunze both dinged up, Loveland’s opportunity might spike in this matchup. Green Bay’s tight end coverage has been good all year, but the Packers should be less effective on defense with Micah Parsons lost for the season.
Advice included ahead of the Thursday Night Football
TE Colby Parkinson at Seahawks (29%)
Just because it’s obvious doesn’t mean it can’t be right. Parkinson has six touchdowns in six weeks, humming along nicely with MVP-favorite Matthew Stafford. More goal-line opportunity could be coming with Davante Adams not playing on Thursday.
James Madison (12-1): If you need a refresher on how the College Football Playoff teams are selected, the five highest-ranked conference champions in the CFP committee’s rankings make the field along with seven at-large teams. Since five-loss Duke was the ACC champion, James Madison was the fifth-ranked conference champion, giving the Sun Belt Conference its first-ever playoff team.
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The Dukes’ only loss came in Week 2. Ironically enough, that defeat came to an ACC team. JMU lost 28-14 at Louisville before winning 11 straight games. The Dukes beat Troy 31-14 in the Sun Belt title game and had just one conference win by one score.
Oregon (11-1): The Ducks’ only loss came to the No. 1 seed in the playoff. After a 5-0 start that included an overtime win over a Penn State team that was ranked No. 3 at the time, Oregon lost 30-20 at home to Indiana. That loss made the CFP committee a bit skeptical of the Ducks at the start of November, but Oregon beat Iowa, USC and Washington over the final four weeks of the season to move up to No. 5 and the top spot among teams that didn’t play in a conference title game.
How the QBs stack up
A lot of people will be seeing JMU QB Alonza Barnett III for the first time. A season ago, Barnett threw 355 passes in 12 games for 2,568 yards, 26 TDs and just four interceptions. This season, he’s 193-of-322 passing for 2,533 yards and 21 TDs but his interception total has doubled to eight.
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Barnett didn’t have a great game in the Sun Belt championship. Even though the Dukes won 31-14, Barnett was just 10-of-25 passing for 93 yards with a TD and an interception. He added 12 carries for 85 yards and a TD, however, and that performance wasn’t an outlier. Barnett has 115 carries for 544 yards and 14 scores.
Oregon’s Dante Moore has completed over 72% of his passes in his first year as a starter and is positioned to be a top pick in the 2026 NFL Draft if he decides to declare. Moore is 227-of-313 passing for 2,733 yards and 24 TDs with six interceptions. Moore threw two interceptions in that loss to Indiana. Since then, he’s thrown just three picks over 145 attempts and has nine touchdown passes in that same span.
Players to watch
James Madison RB Wayne Knight: The redshirt junior has been one of the best rushers in the country in his first season as a No. 1 back. After getting 77 carries for 449 yards a year ago, Knight has 190 carries for 1,263 yards and has scored nine touchdowns this season.
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As Troy led early in the second quarter of the Sun Belt title game, Knight put JMU ahead for good with a 73-yard TD run. He finished the game with 21 carries for 212 yards.
It was just the fourth 100-yard game of the season for Knight, but that’s a product of volume more than anything else. He’s only had one other game with at least 20 carries this season.
Oregon TE Kenyon Sadiq: The potential first-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft is a walking mismatch. How will JMU try to cover him?
Sadiq is Oregon’s leading receiver with 40 catches for 490 yards and he’s scored eight touchdowns. Five of those TDs have come over his last five games. Against USC, Sadiq had six catches for 72 yards and two scores. A week before against Minnesota, Sadiq had eight catches for 96 yards and a TD. He can be a bit boom or bust; Sadiq has five games with two or fewer catches in 2025. But we expect Moore to be looking for Sadiq down the seam consistently against JMU.
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Key to the game
Autzen Stadium will be the most raucous environment any JMU player has ever played in. How much of an impact will crowd noise make? James Madison has a stingy rushing defense, but it also hasn’t faced a running attack close to that of Oregon. The Dukes have given up just 990 yards rushing all season; Marshall is the only team to average more than four yards a carry. Oregon averages 5.8 yards a carry as a team as running backs Noah Whittington, Jordon Davison and Dierre Hill Jr. each average at least six yards a carry.
If JMU can slow Oregon’s run game down, then the Dukes have a chance. If Oregon can get what it wants on the ground, the bigger question won’t be if Oregon can win, but if the Ducks can cover that three-touchdown spread.
Now that Monday has passed and contracts signed during the offseason can be traded, the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade market should heat up.
While Giannis himself hasn’t demanded a trade yet, there has been plenty of smoke from offseason rumors about a conversation with the New York Knicks to an ESPN report a few weeks ago that Giannis and his agent were having discussions with Milwaukee Bucks management about his future.
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Antetokounmpo strained his calf on Dec. 3 — the same day as the ESPN report — and is expected to be sidelined for 2-4 weeks. Ahead of the upcoming Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline, there will be plenty of discussions over potential destinations for one of the league’s best players.
After all, the Bucks aren’t close to contending for a title — Antetokounmpo’s stated goal — as they currently have 300-1 odds to win the championship at BetMGM.
If Giannis were actually traded, where could he realistically go? And what would the betting impact be on the 2025-26 NBA title odds for his next team?
To answer that question, I asked Jeff Sherman, vice president of risk and longtime NBA oddsmaker at the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook, to compare the current and hypothetical future NBA title odds for nine teams that could potentially acquire Giannis.
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Sherman believes one team — the San Antonio Spurs — stood out as the best destination for Giannis, both in terms of title odds impact and the potential package Milwaukee could receive in return.
Current odds: Even
Odds after a Giannis trade: -150
Sherman: “I don’t think they’re going to want to [make the deal]. I don’t think a team has ever been positioned like they have outside of a couple in history. They just locked up the big three. It feels like you can only go backwards from where you’re at, even adding Giannis to it. They do have that treasure trove of picks and flexibility. They could get anyone in the league they wanted. Have the picks and assets to do it, and can outbid anybody. Looking even better than last year’s team, I think it’s an extreme long shot.
“I went to even money for the first time this morning. They’ve weathered injuries, and it’s their system, their defense. If they added an MVP candidate in Giannis, I would go to -150. They’re already so low that we’re not overwhelmed with money at this point. They’re one of our better positions.”
Current odds: 18-1
Odds after a Giannis trade: +550
“By far the best situation for both sides for me is San Antonio. The Spurs can give up pieces that are attractive to the Bucks, and there is no state income tax. Even after missing out on Kevin Durant, I thought they could pivot to looking at Giannis. They have so many young players. They’re good right now, even without Victor Wembanyama.
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“I [was at 35-1 last week], down to 11-2 if San Antonio got Giannis. Slightly ahead of Denver, and I’d move Houston and the Lakers back. The Spurs would be No. 2 in the West. Probably Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, other young pieces and picks [to get it done]. So many pieces to keep or move.”
Current odds: 10-1
Odds after a Giannis trade: +600
“We’re sitting at 10-1 right now. They’re the starting point in the East. [Karl-Anthony] Towns, OG Anonouby, Josh Hart, and you’d probably have to get a third team involved because they’d need to supply some draft picks. This would be the scenario — he’s got this year and next year on his contract. If he’s told other teams he won’t sign an extension, he could force his way here. Could be like Anthony Davis forcing his way to the Lakers from New Orleans. It would leave you with Jalen Brunson, Miles Bridges, Giannis and scarcity after that. I would go 6-1 on New York.”
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Current odds: 12-1
Odds after a Giannis trade: +600
They’re another one behind San Antonio that has pieces and picks to give up. Could have Durant, Alperen Şengün and Giannis. They’d have to start with Amen Thompson and some other young pieces with him to make a deal. Market has 10-1, I’m at 12-1. They’d be close to Denver’s number (6-1 to 7-1) with Giannis.
Current odds: 20-1
Odds after a Giannis trade: +800
“Right now, to me, they’re an Eastern mini-path of Oklahoma City. They’re built with a leader in Cade Cunningham — it would be disruptive and they’d have to give up too much depth to do it. The fact that they’re doing well, they’re 20-1 to win the title and you look at the makeup of the East. Probably have to put them slightly ahead of the Knicks. I’d go 8-1 on Detroit.”
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Current odds: 60-1
Odds after a Giannis trade: 12-1
“The one player they’ve tried to keep out of trade talks is Kel’el Ware, but if they gave up him, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and some picks, it might be enough. I think with Tyler Herro, Bam Adebadyo and Giannis and some pieces behind that, it would be similar to Atlanta. I’d have them at 12-1 with the coaching of Erik Spoelstra. Still slightly behind the Knicks. I’d go from 60-1 to 12-1 on them.”
Current odds: 50-1
Odds after a Giannis trade: 14-1
“I don’t think this would happen in a trade unless it involved Jalen Johnson. The way that he’s thrust onto the scene this year, it wouldn’t be an option for Atlanta if they didn’t base a trade around him. They’d be left with Trae Young, Giannis, Kristaps Porziņģis. It would be the initial perception, after the dust settles, it might be a little higher than that. Just based on the East, I think 14-1.”
Current odds: 30-1
Odds after a Giannis trade: 14-1
“Could be Jimmy Butler, and Jonathan Kuminga is a guy they’re trying to move. Golden State has some OK depth. But they’d be left left with Steph Curry and an aging Draymond Green. You’d probably deplete some of that depth [to make the deal]. From a fan perspective, it seems like the last shot to go for it. They’re sitting at 30-1. It’s an upgrade, but I’d have them in the conversation of where the Lakers are (12-1 or 14-1), behind Houston, Denver and OKC. I don’t know how much sense that makes.”
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Current odds: 100-1
Odds after a Giannis trade: 25-1
“They have some nice pieces there. We’re sitting at 100-1. They’ve been struggling lately and showing some weaknesses. I’d go down to like 25-1 initially [after the trade] and it wouldn’t surprise me if it floated back up to 30-1 or 40-1. I look at that team, it’s the closest to what Milwaukee has now. You’d be left with Brandon Ingram, RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley. It wouldn’t be a title-contending team. They’d have to include [Scottie] Barnes in the trade.”
We’ve all been there: You’re at the airport, you arrive at your gate, it’s crowded and there’s nowhere to sit down. And then you see some dude spread out across half a dozen seats. He’s got his feet up in one, he’s got his bags piled over two more, he’s got his greasy takeout boxes on still more. Infuriating, right?
In this little metaphor, the airport gate is the calendar, and the seats are the days. You, my friend, are a humble sport looking for a place to spot up. And our I’ll-take-everything guy is, of course, the NFL, claiming not just the seat he needs, but the seats he wants, the seats he feels he’s entitled to, the seats that used to belong to you.
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The idea that the NFL is a Sunday-and-Monday-night league is as quaint as leather helmets. The NFL claims whatever day it wants, whenever it wants, regardless of who else might like a little space. To say there’s “competition” between the NFL and literally every other American sports league is to suggest that there’s even a chance the NFL might lose … and we all know that’s not happening.
The latest league to attempt to stand in front of the oncoming NFL train: college football, which will pit two of the first four games of its still-new playoff against the might of two massive NFL divisional rivalries this Saturday. After Alabama-Oklahoma (8 p.m. ET, Friday) and Miami-Texas A&M (noon ET, Saturday) run unopposed, Tulane-Ole Miss (3:30 p.m.) and James Madison-Oregon (7:30 p.m.) have the unenviable task of trying to draw eyeballs away from Eagles-Commanders (5:00 p.m.) and Packers-Bears (8:20 p.m.).
Yeah. Good luck with all that, CFP.
(Davis Long/Yahoo Sports illustration)
True, the NFL has been playing games on Saturdays for decades. The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 protected college and high school football from the NFL’s incursion, mandating that the Shield couldn’t play Saturday games before the second Saturday in December — i.e. right when college football’s regular season ends. But nobody back in 1961 foresaw the possibility of a massive multi-weekend playoff bracket.
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So from the NFL’s perspective, late-December Saturdays are its territory, not college football’s … regardless of how much money ESPN pours into the bracket’s promotion. (On the other hand, you can’t suggest the NFL didn’t know exactly what it was doing by slating those massive matchups against the CFP — not when you see, say, Jets-Saints and Falcons-Cardinals also on the slate this weekend.)
This same dynamic happened last year. The CFP scheduled Indiana-Notre Dame on Friday night, Dec. 20, giving the nationally popular Irish the same unopposed slot that Alabama-Oklahoma takes this year. Saturday saw SMU-Penn State at noon, Clemson-Texas at 4:00 and Tennessee-Ohio State at 8:00. On the same day, Texans-Chiefs kicked off at 1 p.m., and Steelers-Ravens at 4:30. (If you’re wondering why Miami-A&M, likely Saturday’s most competitive game, is kicking off at noon instead of prime time, note the shifted NFL slots.)
The results were pretty much what you’d expect. SMU-Penn State drew 6.4 million viewers, and Clemson-Texas drew 8.6 million, while Texans-Chiefs drew 15.5 million and Steelers-Ravens 15.4 million, according to Sports Media Watch. Meanwhile, the two CFP games that didn’t go head-to-head with the NFL did quite well — Tennessee-Ohio State drew 14.3 million, and Indiana-Notre Dame brought in 13.4 million.
As dispiriting as it might be to see some of your most prized properties getting absolutely waxed in the ratings, college football can take solace in the fact that the same thing happens to everybody else who challenges the NFL:
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The PGA Tour has altered its entire season to make sure its playoffs — which until recently concluded in late September — finish up in August before the NFL kicks off. Potential future PGA Tour seasons, which currently start in early January, might not even begin until the Super Bowl has concluded.
NASCAR has begun running more races in the NFL season on Saturday nights. And the 2027 Daytona 500 will run a week later than its usual Presidents’ Day weekend slot, because that year, due to the calendar, the Super Bowl will be muscling into that space.
The NBA has basically lost control of Christmas after decades of domination. Last year, Chiefs-Steelers and Ravens-Texans averaged about 24.2 million viewers apiece streaming on Netflix, while the NBA’s five games averaged about 5.25 million viewers. Lakers-Warriors led the way, averaging 7.76 million … the most-watched NBA regular-season game in years, but still nowhere close to even a standard NFL game.
In one of the most obvious times-have-changed signs, baseball finally gave up the fight in 2022 and moved the World Series away from Sunday nights to avoid competition with the NFL. MLB had been broadcasting Sunday night World Series games since 1947, but the competition from a routine regular-season Sunday Night Football game was just too overwhelming.
The CFP can expect a similar beatdown on Saturday afternoon/evening. It’s a reminder that however high college football climbs in the American sports landscape — and you can easily make the argument that it’s passed the NBA, MLB and everyone else — there’s still a final boss. And there are no cheat codes to defeat the NFL.
Two-time AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal and San Diego Padres fireballer Mason Miller have announced they will pitch for the United States in the 2026 World Baseball Classic.
Skubal, who has pitched at least 190 innings and struck out at least 228 batters each of the past two seasons for the Detroit Tigers, is joining a staff that already features NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes, Minnesota Twins star Joe Ryan and Nolan McLean of the New York Mets.
Miller, who has recorded 50 saves over the past two seasons with the Athletics and Padres, will be a tough matchup coming out of the bullpen.
The 2026 World Baseball Classic will take place March 5-17 in Miami, Houston, San Juan and Tokyo. The semifinals and championship game will be played at loanDepot Park in Miami.
The U.S. will play exhibition games against the San Francisco Giants (March 3) and Colorado Rockies (March 4). They will begin pool play on March 6 against Brazil and then face Great Britain (March 7), Mexico (March 9) and Italy (March 10).
