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Happy New Year! As we wave goodbye to 2025 and welcome in 2026, fantasy basketball managers are making resolutions for the new year. Unfortunately, there’s no way you can go back and draft Nikola Jokić (though the Nuggets big man is out at least a month due to a knee injury). But you can make plans to be the best roster regulator this year in an attempt to take home a championship. We’ve learned plenty through the first three months of High Score on Yahoo.

Let’s wrap up the year with the perfect lineup from December:

More on the top performers

Luka Dončić, guard: The Lakers superstar has been one of the best case studies so far in High Score — a player who almost always hits a ceiling week-to-week despite missing games and busting out. For example, Dončić missed three games in December and posted low scores of 47 points and 21 points (due to injury) in certain spots. But he also dropped 99 fantasy points on Dec. 18 vs. the Jazz, one of the highest scores all season. December wasn’t Dončić’s best month; he averaged 31 points, 7.9 assists and 7.2 rebounds while shooting 44.1% from the floor and 28.9% from distance. We’d like to see a more consistent showing from Luka to start 2026.

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Cade Cunningham, guard: Cunningham is in the NBA MVP conversation with the Pistons set to enter 2026 atop the Eastern Conference. In the new year, Cunningham should look to be a more aggressive and efficient scorer; he shot 48.7% from the floor in December but only averaged 17.2 attempts per game.

The volume scoring is holding Cunningham back from his true potential, which we’ve seen with massive fantasy outputs this season. But his assist and steals totals are helping him remain atop the fantasy scoreboard most weeks. He dished out 17 assists — one shy of a season high — on Dec. 26 against Utah to help him reach 80 fantasy points in High Score.

Nikola Jokić, frontcourt: It’s upsetting that we enter 2026 without Jokić on the court. To start the last week of 2025, Jokić hyperextended his left knee and is expected to miss at least four weeks. At least the Nuggets big left his managers with a parting gift for 2025 in the form of a season-high 108 fantasy points in a Christmas Day win over the Timberwolves. Jokić picked apart Minnesota with 56 points, 16 rebounds, 15 assists and two steals. It was the eighth game this season Joker had 80+ fantasy points.

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It was looking like, at minimum, managers with Jokić on their roster would be a shoo-in for the fantasy playoffs. There’s no replacing him in the short-term; you can only hope he comes back healthy and picks up where he left off.

Kawhi Leonard, frontcourt: After missing the start of the season and pretty much all of November, Leonard is back (and then some). He’s playing every night, something we’ve rarely seen throughout his injury-riddled career. His numbers in December are looking MVP-worthy: 29.8 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.1 stocks per game while shooting 49/36/96 over 12 games. Leonard dropped a career-high 55 points with 11 rebounds and eight stocks in a win over the Pistons on Dec. 28 to reach 94 fantasy points for that week. If Leonard can keep this up, he’s looking like one of the steals of drafts.

Alperen Şengün, frontcourt: Like Jokić, the Rockets’ big is going to start 2026 on the shelf while dealing with a calf injury that has caused him to miss two games. But he enters Wednesday ranked ninth in average fantasy points per game in High Score at 53.2 on the season. Şengün has sort of been a Jokić-lite to start his fifth NBA season, producing across multiple categories (rebounds, assists, stocks). The issue has been scoring volume, which we don’t always see, given the presence of Kevin Durant in Houston. Şengün’s top score in December of 88 just made the cut on Dec. 1 against the Jazz (of course, it was against Utah). The elite stock coverage will always elevate Şengün’s floor; he averaged 3.5 stocks in December.

Scottie Barnes, utility: The Raptors swingman snuck his way onto this list thanks to a historic rebounding performance to close last week. He helped Toronto force OT and eventually take home a win over the Dubs on Sunday, scoring 23 points with a career-high 25 rebounds and 10 assists for his first triple-double of the season. Barnes also added a pair of assists and three stocks to help him reach 80 fantasy points and knock Hawks F Jalen Johnson off this list. Barnes has a high ceiling given his category coverage, but the lack of scoring and rebounds giving you only 1 FPT hurts his floor.

For the second time this MLB offseason, an unexpected team emerged late in the posting process as the landing spot for a Japanese star making the jump from NPB. On Thursday, one day before his posting window was set to expire, the Houston Astros reportedly agreed to sign 27-year-old right-hander Tatsuya Imai to a deal that guarantees him $54 million over three years but is structured in a way that affords him substantial flexibility and upside for greater earnings in the short term, with a maximum value of $63 million and opt-outs after each season.

Before Christmas, it was the rebuilding Chicago White Sox who shocked the industry by signing accomplished slugger Munetaka Murakami, one of the greatest power hitters in Japanese history. Chicago felt like an unlikely destination, considering where it is in its competitive window and that the market for Murakami was expected to outpace what the White Sox would be comfortable pursuing. Ultimately, Murakami’s two-year, $34 million deal was reflective of an industry that was hesitant to invest in him because of his swing-and-miss tendencies and defensive limitations.

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In hindsight, the match makes a good amount of sense considering the circumstances, as the short-term pact affords Murakami the opportunity to prove himself on a club with far lower stakes than he might have faced hitting in the middle of the lineup for a contender. And if he excels, Murakami can become a free agent again at age 28 and seek a more lucrative, long-term contract after proving himself in MLB.

As it turns out, a similar sequence has unfolded in the wake of Imai choosing Houston: initial surprise followed by gradual recognition that the Astros could be a perfect fit for the pitcher, especially under the terms of the reported contract.

At first, Imai picking the Astros raised eyebrows. Houston rarely came up in reports as a possible landing spot for him, largely based on the assumption that despite needing starting pitching in the wake of longtime ace Framber Valdez’s expected departure, the Astros were unlikely to replace Valdez by spending aggressively on a different free-agent arm.

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A more cost-conscious strategy seemed to be in play when the Astros swung a trade to land a cheap and controllable starter in Mike Burrows from Pittsburgh, a nifty move that strengthened Houston’s starting staff but still left the depth chart wanting. Even so, given a longstanding organizational preference to avoid surpassing the luxury tax line and a projected payroll already well in excess of $200 million, Houston’s flexibility to add another impact arm appeared limited; a more modest add via trade or free agency seemed more plausible.

[Get more Astros news: Houston team feed]

The Astros had also never signed a player directly from NPB, having entered the winter as one of three teams with such a distinction, along with the Marlins and Rockies. That said, a few notable Japanese players have played in Houston, from Kaz Matsui to Nori Aoki and, most recently, Yusei Kikuchi. The club is also one year removed from selling the naming rights to its ballpark to Daikin, a Japanese industrial manufacturing conglomerate, perhaps an indication that the franchise was interested in expanding its brand globally. But considering that we had never seen Houston land a player through the posting system, it seemed like a stretch to link the Astros to Imai over teams with substantial histories of signing Japanese players, such as the Cubs, Mets, Yankees or even the Orioles.

However, remove the club’s history and payroll preferences, and the Astros did qualify as a logical fit for Imai as a contending team in dire need of impact starting pitching — especially on a deal of this size. Had Imai’s market ballooned to nine figures and lengthier terms, it’s difficult to envision the Astros being involved. But as it turned out, the market fell into Houston’s range, as some of the expected suitors such as the Yankees and Mets reportedly stayed out of the mix, opening the door for the Astros to swoop in and craft the kind of contract that stands to benefit both sides.

While Imai and his agent, Scott Boras, were unable to secure the nine-figure contract they were reportedly seeking originally, this deal could lead to a more sizable payday down the road. With opt-outs after 2026 and 2027, Imai can reenter the market at age 28 or 29 in the event that he excels immediately and establishes himself as an impact major-league starter. There are also highly attainable escalators based on innings pitched that can raise the contract’s guarantee to $63 million ($3M each year), so there’s financial upside baked into the existing deal as well.

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The opt-outs are crucial and likely played a big part in sealing the deal for the Astros. Imai reportedly turned down longer-term offers with lower AAVs in favor of this contract. That would seem to indicate that the 27-year-old is confident he can pitch his way into a bigger payday in a year or two, which on its face would not be an especially favorable outcome for the Astros.

But herein lies a key difference between Murakami’s and Imai’s deals. If Murakami is indeed terrific right away, it’s unlikely that Chicago will be able to retain him when he becomes a free agent again in two years. Even more importantly, it’s difficult to envision the White Sox being competitive over the next two seasons, meaning the club might not benefit from Murakami’s production in a way that alters their place in the standings.

[Get more Houston news: Astros team feed]

The calculus is different in Houston. The overarching goal for the Astros is to keep their prolonged window of World Series contention open as long as possible. The 2025 season represented a sobering step back, with the team missing the postseason for the first time since 2016. Meanwhile, the division rival Mariners took a sizable step forward and now look like the team to beat on paper. But for all the dramatic roster turnover in Houston in recent years, there’s still enough talent in place to form a formidable club around franchise anchors Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez and, now, Brown atop the rotation.

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So while it’s true that if Imai is fantastic right away, he might opt out in search of a larger deal — likely elsewhere if Houston maintains its aversion to long-term contracts for pitchers — if the Japanese righty is awesome in 2026, that could be the difference between Houston making a return to October and coming up short in a competitive American League. Even if this kind of deal tilts player-friendly, the upside is well worth pursuing for a franchise in Houston’s position.

Imai’s signing likely marks the end of Houston’s search for pitching this winter, having also acquired Burrows and signed Nate Pearson and Ryan Weiss to major-league deals. But that’s not to say general manager Dana Brown is finished doing business. Imai’s $18 million AAV puts Houston’s projected payroll just a touch below the first luxury tax line, according to FanGraphs. That leaves minimal wiggle room for another major addition if staying below the $244M mark is a goal, but another trade of a veteran could be in order, especially considering the crowded position-player group made more complicated by the return of Carlos Correa last summer.

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With Correa entrenched at third base alongside Jeremy Peña at shortstop and the club reticent to play Altuve regularly at second base anymore (preferring him in left field or at DH), there aren’t enough spots in the lineup for regular at-bats for Altuve, Christian Walker, Isaac Paredes and Alvarez. And if Alvarez and Altuve are essentially alternating between DH and left field, that leaves just first base for Walker and Paredes. This makes Houston an intriguing team to monitor on the trade market in the coming weeks.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — For a fleeting moment early in the Orange Bowl’s fourth quarter, Texas Tech’s opportunity to salvage one of the most embarrassing performances in the history of the College Football Playoff was at hand.

The Red Raiders certainly didn’t deserve it. Their offense had spent the first 2½ hours bumbling through the playbook, unable to block, unable to throw, unable to catch. The only thing they’d done with any proficiency was turn the ball over.

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And yet here they were, down just two scores to Oregon, threatening to find the end zone for the first time all day. The Ducks’ own mistakes had provided a tourniquet, and Texas Tech stood a mere nine yards away from a touchdown that would have turned up the pressure on a team that hadn’t been given any reason to doubt its destiny.

A championship team would have scored there. Instead, what Texas Tech did — a how-can-you-throw-that-ball interception from quarterback Behren Morton — provided another layer of cement on a narrative college football can no longer ignore.

In a moment when administrators, fans and media members are questioning the viability of schools outside the four power conferences, even pushing to exclude them from the CFP, it’s time to consider whether the Big 12 is perpetrating a fraud on college football.

Is this collection of schools still worthy of being called a power conference?

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“We didn’t play good enough,” Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire said moments after Oregon wrapped up its 23-0 victory. “It really wasn’t the patch on anybody’s arm.”

Perhaps conference affiliation had nothing to do with Texas Tech’s measly nine first downs, going 6-for-19 on third/fourth-down conversions, or turning the football over four times.

But Texas Tech was the ninth team to represent the Big 12 since the CFP began a dozen years ago. It’s the eighth to have lost. TCU’s upset over Michigan in the 2022 semifinals remains the only time a Big 12 team has won a playoff game.

This Texas Tech team was supposed to be different than the undersized gimmickry the Big 12 usually sends to a playoff slaughter. Backed by billionaire former player Cody Campbell, the Red Raiders spent a reported $28 million putting together this roster. They were physically elite on defense. They didn’t just win the Big 12, they battered it into submission, beating BYU — clearly the league’s second-best team — by scores of 29-7 and 34-7.

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And even on a day Oregon struggled with mistakes and offensive execution, Texas Tech wasn’t even in their same weight class.

“This shouldn’t discredit them,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “I remember this feeling last year.”

He’s right. This shouldn’t discredit Texas Tech, which managed to wring more out of this season than any team in program history.

It should, however, discredit the Big 12.

Maybe 30 yards away from where Morton threw that final interception, in a room just past the tunnel at Hard Rock Stadium, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark met with reporters about an hour before Thursday’s kickoff.

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“I love our chances [Thursday],” he said, while insisting that the outcome of the game had nothing to do with the influence his conference wields in discussions about the future of the CFP.

“We have a big voice in that room,” Yormark said, suggesting on three different occasions that he sits alongside the SEC’s Greg Sankey, the Big Ten’s Tony Petitti and the ACC’s Jim Phillips as equals on the throne.

But Yormark, who worked for NASCAR, the Brooklyn Nets and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation agency before finding his way to college sports 3½ years ago, did not offer that same courtesy when the topic turned to Group of Five inclusion.

As conference commissioners consider whether to expand the playoff next year — ESPN has set a Jan. 23 deadline to figure out a new structure or stay with the current 12-team format — the hottest of hot buttons will be whether they establish a new standard for non-power conference teams to make the playoff.

This year’s anomalous inclusion of Tulane and James Madison — both of which were blown out in first-round games — is certainly never going to happen again. But some administrators in leagues like the American Conference, the reconfigured Pac-12 and the Mountain West believe negative commentary around the concept of “inclusion” is part of a coordinated effort to essentially kick them out of the playoff altogether.

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Asked whether he believed there was consensus among the power conference commissioners that a Group of Five representative should be guaranteed a spot in the next iteration of the playoff, Yormark’s smarmy response practically gave away the game.

“Frankly, that’s a great question, and I don’t want to speak to that,” he said. “I mean, listen, there’s 10 commissioners and obviously Notre Dame that are on the management committee, and we all communicate and we’re all being very thoughtful about it. I will say that the Power Four commissioners are spending more time together to work through what expansion might look like. But there’s a lot of things we have to weigh and consider and we’ll see what happens.”

Yormark didn’t have to say another word to make it clear where he stands.

But the question we should all be asking is whether it’s because he doesn’t believe the unwashed Group of Five masses belong in the playoff or because he’s afraid the Big 12 would be rendered irrelevant if it were forced to earn its keep.

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We just watched the team that dominated his conference all year get reduced to ashes by the third-best team in the Big Ten. Who’s the charity case now, Brett?

Because even if you believe Texas Tech had an unusually bad day, this was the kind of playoff game we’ve seen many times before where you could have played it 10 times and gotten a similar result. That’s how much of a mismatch it was.

While the bureaucracy of the CFP is what keeps the Big 12 in its privileged position at the table with the SEC and Big Ten, the democratization of the sport through NIL and playoff expansion has exposed it as a lie.

Are we really going to pretend that the Big 12 champion deserves any guarantees in the future CFP while a league with one playoff win in 12 years works to block or raise the threshold for a team like Tulane?

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“Today’s game has no bearing on it,” Yormark said. “I’m all about progress. Would [Texas Tech winning] show progress? 100 percent. But it has nothing to do with what goes on in the room.”

Maybe it should.

Hey, at least Texas Tech tried. Yes, the amount of money Campbell and other boosters spent on this team was obscene, but they got some bang for their buck. The defense they put together was phenomenal and certainly had something to do with Oregon struggling to get the ball in the end zone.

But it’s equally clear that whatever the Red Raiders faced week-in and week-out in the Big 12 prepared them poorly to face a team with elite size and speed on both sides of the ball. Texas Tech had a great season, but one that was almost certainly inflated by lack of worthy competition.

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“That’s a really good defense,” McGuire said. “They did a great job defending us. We’ve been a big-play offense and they kept the ball in front of them. You can’t turn the ball over four times.”

In college football, the politics driving the sport and the reality on the field are often misaligned. As the Big 12 tries to ensure playoff access for itself and perhaps make it tougher for would-be competitors, Texas Tech helped make it crystal clear why Yormark wants no part of a meritocracy.

If you’re going to continue to call yourself a power conference, it would help to show up to these games once in a while and deliver a little power.

Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson was taken out of the Rose Bowl midway through the third quarter in favor of backup quarterback Austin Mack.

Simpson took a big hit when he fumbled late in the second quarter to set up an Indiana TD and a 17-0 lead. After the game, Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said that Simpson was dealing with an injury and that’s why he had been removed from the game.

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“He gave it a series and I know he just feels like he let down the team and there’s no way that’s the case,” DeBoer said. “He went out there and tried to battle and that’s who he is, and I’m never going to let that be a thing where he let us down in any way.”

[Get more Crimson Tide football news: Alabama team feed]

Simpson was 12-of-16 passing for 67 yards and was the team’s leading rusher with three carries for 17 yards when he was replaced.

Mack entered the game with the No. 9 Tide trailing 24-0 after Indiana scored a TD on its first possession of the third quarter. Alabama opened the second half with the ball but failed to get a first down before punting to the No. 1 Hoosiers.

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Indiana went on to win 38-3.

Simpson was a Heisman favorite midway through the season as Alabama quickly rebounded from its Week 1 loss to Florida State. But he faded from the trophy discussion down the stretch even as Alabama got into the College Football Playoff despite an SEC title game loss to Georgia.

The redshirt junior won a three-way quarterback competition in fall camp ahead of Mack and five-star freshman Keelon Russell. Mack, a redshirt sophomore, spent his first season of college football at Washington under current Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer and transferred to Tuscaloosa after DeBoer was hired to succeed Nick Saban.

This year’s Sugar Bowl is an SEC showdown between the Ole Miss Rebels and the Georgia Bulldogs. The Bulldogs won their regular season game against the Rebels back in October, a huge come-from-behind win that has hung over the Rebels ever since – especially since it was their only loss of the season. Will Trinidad Chambliss and Co. get their revenge against the Bulldogs in the rematch? We’ll find out on Thursday night.

The Sugar Bowl game is the last of three major New Year’s Day bowl games airing on ESPN and will stream on ESPN Unlimited starting at 8:00 p.m. ET. You can catch coverage of the day’s earlier games starting with Texas Tech vs. Oregon in the Orange Bowl (12:00 p.m. kickoff) and Indiana and Alabama facing off in Rose Bowl starting at 4:00 p.m. ET. Here’s how to watch the Sugar Bowl when it airs this Thursday, and take a look at the complete schedule of this week’s playoff and bowl games below.

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How to watch Ole Miss vs. Georgia in the Sugar Bowl game:

Date: Thursday, January 1

Time: 8:00 p.m. ET

TV Channel: ESPN

Streaming: ESPN Unlimited, DirecTV, Fubo and more

When is the Ole Miss vs. Georgia game?

You can watch coverage of the Sugar Bowl game between Ole Miss and Georgia starting at 8:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, Jan. 1.

Where to watch the Ole Miss vs. Georgia game without cable

You can tune in to the Sugar Bowl game on ESPN. ESPN is available on streaming platforms, including DirecTV and Sling, but for the most comprehensive college football coverage, you can also watch this game and hundreds more on the ESPN app with an ESPN Unlimited subscription.

College football playoff game/bowl schedule this week:

All time Eastern

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Wednesday, Dec. 31

12 p.m. | No. 14 Vanderbilt vs. No. 23 Iowa | ReliaQuest Bowl (Tampa, Fla.) | ESPN
2 p.m. | Duke vs. Arizona State | Sun Bowl (El Paso, Texas) | CBS
3 p.m. | No. 13 Texas vs. No. 18 Michigan | Citrus Bowl (Orlando, Fla.) | ABC
3:30 p.m. | No. 15 Utah vs. Nebraska | Las Vegas Bowl (Las Vegas, Nev.) | ESPN
7:30 p.m. | No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 10 Miami (Fla.) | Cotton Bowl (CFP Quarterfinal) (Arlington, Texas) | ESPN

Thursday, Jan. 1

12 p.m. | No. 4 Texas Tech vs. No. 5 Oregon | Orange Bowl (CFP Quarterfinal) (Miami, Fla.) | ESPN
4 p.m. | No. 1 Indiana vs. No. 9 Alabama | Rose Bowl (CFP Quarterfinal) (Pasadena, Ca.) | ESPN
8 p.m. | No. 3 Georgia vs. No. 6 Ole Miss | Sugar Bowl (CFP Quarterfinal) (New Orleans, La.) | ESPN

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Friday, Jan. 2

1 p.m. | Rice vs. Texas State | Armed Forces Bowl (Fort Worth, Texas) | ESPN
4:30 p.m. | Navy vs. Cincinnati | Liberty Bowl (Memphis, Tenn.) | ESPN
8 p.m. | Wake Forest vs. Mississippi State | Duke’s Mayo Bowl (Charlotte, N.C.) | ESPN
8 p.m. | SMU vs. Arizona | Holiday Bowl (San Diego) | FOX

How to watch college football games in 2025

NCAA football games will air across ESPN, ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and the college conference networks. If you don’t have cable, it can be challenging to stay up-to-date with your favorite team. Here’s what we recommend to stream NCAA football.

More ways to watch NCAAF games this season

February 22, 2026

Venus Williams’ comeback tour is officially heading down under.

The 45-year-old tennis legend, currently ranked 148th in the WTA rankings, has been granted a wild-card entry into the Australian Open singles field, setting her up for her first appearance at the tournament in five years.

Williams has five career Australian Open titles, but all in doubles and mixed doubles. She’s reached the singles final twice, losing to her sister Serena in both 2003 and 2017.

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The last time she competed in the tournament in any form was in the singles event in 2021, when she lost in the second round to qualifier Sara Errani. Her win in the first round alone made her the first woman since Martina Navratilova to win a grand slam singles match after turning 40.

Veteran tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg notes that because all eight Australian Open wild cards have now been allocated, two-time singles champion Victoria Azarenka, currently ranked No. 132 in the world, no longer has a path to the main draw.

Williams had been quietly out of action for 16 months between 2024 and 2025 due to health issues stemming from fibroids, leading to the WTA officially designating her as inactive. She made her return in July last year with an upset of the WTA’s No. 35 player and later made it into the US Open, where she took No. 11 seed Karolina Muchova to a third set before losing in the first round.

Her tennis future was unclear after that US Open appearance, which also included a quarterfinals run in doubles alongside Leylah Fernandez. She has since competed in the Charlotte Invitational exhibition last month and we now know we’ll be getting one more Grand Slam out of her.

No. 2 Ohio State’s upset loss to No. 10 Miami not only ensured that the Buckeyes wouldn’t be the third team to win back-to-back national championships since 2011, but it also means the semifinals of the 2026 College Football Playoff are completely unrecognizable from the year before.

None of the four semifinalists were among the final four in last year’s playoff. And of the teams that advanced to the quarterfinals this year, only Ohio State, Oregon and Georgia even reached that point of the playoff a season ago.

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This playoff parity isn’t entirely unprecedented. When the four-team playoff was started in 2014, Washington became the eighth different team to make the field in just the playoff’s third season. But there seems like a far greater chance that this type of parity will continue now that the playoff features far more teams.

Over the final seven years of the four-team playoff, just seven new programs made the field as the likes of Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State snapped up playoff bids on a seemingly annual basis. But Nick Saban and Urban Meyer are now on television and Dabo Swinney just got done navigating one of the worst seasons of his coaching career.

Thanks to the advent of NIL and the transfer portal, there’s never been more parity at the top of college football. Yes, the chasm between power conference teams and everyone else may be growing as schools with bigger budgets sign star players away from smaller schools, but it’s never been easier to instantly build a power conference contender than it is now.

Just look at Texas Tech. Yes, the Red Raiders flopped on Thursday as they became the third team in CFP history to get shut out in a 23-0 loss to Oregon. But Tech wasn’t a contender in 2024 and it was nearly unfathomable to think that the Red Raiders would be in the playoff field 12 months ago. Thanks to an influx of cash from mega-donor Cody Campbell, a moribund defense immediately became one of the nation’s best and the Red Raiders dominated the Big 12.

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More stories like Tech’s and Indiana’s are not only possible in the years to come. They’re probable.

Upsets may continue be more commonplace, too. By now, you probably know that every team with a first-round bye last season lost its quarterfinal game and that Ohio State and Texas Tech extended that losing streak to six straight this week. But thanks to the CFP’s wonky first-year seeding format, all four teams who got byes a year ago were underdogs.

This season, underdogs are 4-2 straight up after Oregon’s Orange Bowl win and power conference underdogs are 4-0. Against the spread, underdogs are even better at 5-1. Only Tulane, which got blown out by Ole Miss for a second time, failed to cover the spread.

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Just two more wins by underdogs over the final five CFP games of the season will guarantee a winning record for teams not favored at kickoff. Over the previous 11 years of the playoff, underdogs won just 10 of 41 games.

Playoff expansion could create even more legitimate opportunities for upsets like we saw Wednesday night. Teams like BYU, Texas and Vanderbilt just missed out on the playoff field in 2025 but regularly looked more than capable of beating the top teams in the sport.

The inevitable move to a 16-team playoff will disproportionately reward power conference teams as it seems unlikely that more than one or two Group of Five teams will get into the field on an annual basis. But that move to reward teams in the teens of the CFP rankings could come at a cost to those in the top five. Just ask the Buckeyes.

Texas Tech’s offense had its worst game of the season at the most inopportune time.

The No. 4 Red Raiders averaged fewer than four yards a play and turned the ball over four times in a 23-0 loss to No. 5 Oregon in the Orange Bowl on Thursday. The loss means that teams that have received a first-round bye in the brief history of the 12-team College Football Playoff are now 0-6 as Oregon will play the winner of the Rose Bowl in the Peach Bowl on Jan. 9.

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Oregon freshman defensive back Brandon Finney Jr. was on the opposite end of three of those turnovers. And his second interception of the day severely damaged any chance of a Texas Tech comeback.

With the Red Raiders trailing 13-0, Finney intercepted Tech QB Behren Morton in the corner of the end zone on third down as the Red Raiders were threatening to cut Oregon’s lead to six points. Morton seemingly never saw Finney as he dropped back off the line of scrimmage.

The pick was Morton’s third turnover of the day. Even when Tech’s offense would finally string together productive plays, something would happen for the Red Raiders to stall out.

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After Finney’s second pick, Atticus Sappington hit a 43-yard field goal to put Oregon up by 16.

The lead could have been so much larger had Oregon’s offense not squandered so many opportunities in Texas Tech territory itself. The stellar Red Raiders defense did all it could to keep Tech in the game and stopped Oregon on four of its eight fourth-down attempts.

[Get more Ducks football news: Oregon team feed]

Oregon led just 6-0 at halftime as Texas Tech had a fantastic chance to take the lead at the start of the third quarter after receiving the second-half kickoff. Instead, the Red Raiders gained a grand total of two yards on three plays and punted the ball away to Oregon.

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The Ducks extended the lead to 13 points a short time later after Matayo Uiagalelei stripped Morton and caught the ball. Uiagalelei ran 16 yards to the Texas Tech 6-yard line and Jordon Davison scored the first touchdown of the game one play later.

Tech got to the Oregon 34-yard line on its next drive, but, in a play that summed up how the whole game unfolded, running back J’Koby Williams lost a yard after taking a direct snap on fourth down when he needed just one yard for a first down.

Tech still had a glimmer of hope after Finney’s second interception as its defense quickly forced a three-and-out. But as Oregon punted — and Tech didn’t make a concerted effort to block the punt — AJ McCarty lined up offsides. The penalty gave Oregon an automatic first down and helped set up Sappington’s field goal.

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The Red Raiders didn’t have over 200 total yards until there were fewer than five minutes remaining in the game.

Can Texas Tech build another contender?

The Red Raiders were one of the best teams in college football in 2025 thanks to mega-booster Cody Campbell and the astute use of the transfer portal by coach Joey McGuire and his staff.

A defense that was absolutely abysmal in 2024 turned into one of the nation’s best with players like David Bailey, Romello Height, Lee Hunter and Cole Wisniewski joining fifth-place Heisman finisher Jacob Rodriguez and others. But many of Tech’s key contributors on that side of the ball are either out of eligibility or off to the NFL. Can McGuire’s staff quickly identify talent to restock that side of the ball as the portal opens on Friday?

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And will Tech go after a transfer portal quarterback? Cincinnati’s Brendan Sorsby has been linked to the Red Raiders after he announced he was transferring away from the Bearcats. Sorsby was one of the best quarterbacks in the Big 12 in 2025 as Cincinnati was a midseason contender in the conference before a disastrous November.

Oregon is a win away from its first national title game in 11 years

Oregon hasn’t been this close to a national title since making the national championship game in the first year of the four-team College Football Playoff at the end of the 2014 season.

A year ago, the Ducks entered the playoff as the No. 1 seed following an undefeated season and a Big Ten title. Like Texas Tech, that all unraveled in the quarterfinals, as Ohio State steamrolled the Ducks in the Rose Bowl on the way to a national title.

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This year, Oregon looks like it can be a a serious threat for the national title. And it may have to avenge its only loss of the season. If Indiana beats Alabama in the Rose Bowl, the Ducks will get another crack at the Hoosiers. Indiana beat Oregon 30-20 in Eugene in October.

The Miami Dolphins have brought in Hall of Fame QB and ESPN analyst Troy Aikman as a consultant to assist with their search for a general manager, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The three-time Super Bowl champion’s role will not be permanent; he will serve as an advisor throughout the process of finding the Dolphins’ next GM.

Despite Aikman’s lack of front-office experience, it is common for teams to bring in new perspectives when seeking new leadership. Former Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers served as a key advisor during the Washington Commanders’ coaching search.

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Former New England Patriots quarterback and Fox analyst Tom Brady has also served as an advisor to Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis in his role as a minority owner.

Brady has assisted the Raiders with insights on football operations, player acquisitions and their coaching search. Brady has been criticized for having a conflict of interest with his role as a broadcaster and a team owner.

[Get more Dolphins news: Miami team feed]

The biggest difference between Aikman’s role and Brady’s is that Aikman does not have an ownership stake in the team, and his position is temporary. Aikman’s role with the Dolphins will end once they have found their next GM.

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In October, the Dolphins and former general manager Chris Grier decided to mutually part ways after the team’s 2-7 start. Grier had been the general manager since 2016, leading the team to five winning seasons and three playoff appearances during his tenure.

The new GM will need to work with Dolphins owner Stephen Ross to determine the future direction of the team. The first order of business will be deciding whether head coach Mike McDaniel and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa will remain with the team next year.

McDaniel is 35–34 as the Dolphins’ head coach and has missed the playoffs in the last two seasons. Tagovailoa is coming off his worst season as a starting quarterback. McDaniel’s contract runs through the 2028 season.

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Tagovailoa’s 15 interceptions are the second most in the NFL, and he was benched for seventh-round rookie Quinn Ewers. Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212.4 million contract extension, which is set to run through the 2028 season.

The Denver Nuggets are, to use a clinical phrase, going through it right now.

In November, the team lost starting guard Christian Braun to an ankle strain, then starting forward Aaron Gordon to a hamstring strain. Last week, starting forward Cam Johnson joined them on the shelf due to a bone bruise in his knee.

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Then MVP front-runner Nikola Jokić sustained a hyperextended knee that will keep him out for at least four weeks. Oh, and the team’s only remaining starter, Jamal Murray, is currently dealing with a sprained right ankle, but he remains probable for Friday’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Somehow, the situation just got even worse.

Jokić’s backup, Jonas Valančiūnas, has been ruled out for at least four weeks due to a right calf strain, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.

That’s the backup the Nuggets least want to lose. Valančiūnas is the fifth-highest paid player on the team after joining Denver in the offseason via a trade with the Sacramento Kings.

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[Get more Nuggets news: Denver team feed]

Any game plan with Jokić out was likely to involve abundant minutes for the Lithuanian, as rookie DaRon Holmes and Zeke Nnaji are the only players left on the roster who resemble a center.

In the Nuggets’ first full game without Jokić, Valančiūnas posted a season-high 17 points on 5-of-6 shooting, plus 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks, in a 106-103 win over the Toronto Raptors. It was in that game that he sustained the calf strain after 23 minutes of play.

The good news for Denver is that while both of its rotation centers are out, head coach David Adelman said last weekend that Gordon and Braun could both return during the team’s current seven-game road trip, which runs through next Wednesday. The coming weeks are still likely to be a challenge for a team currently third in the West with a 23-10 record.