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🚨 Headlines
⚾️Boston lands Gray:The Red Sox have acquired three-time All-Star Sonny Grayin a trade with the Cardinals, sending two young pitchers to St. Louis for the 36-year-old right-hander with a career 3.58 ERA.
🏈OK State hires Morris:Oklahoma Stateis hiring North Texas' Eric Morrisas its next head coach. Morris, who's led the Mean Green (10-1) to a potential CFP berth, will be tasked with reviving a program that has gone 4-19 over the past two seasons.
⚽️Final sets viewership record:The NWSL Championship between Gotham FC and the Washington Spiritdrew 1.184 million viewerson CBS, making it the most-watched match in league history.
🏈Canton semifinalists:Drew Brees, Larry Fitzgerald and Frank Gore are among the first-year eligible playersmoving on to the semifinal roundof voting for the NFL Hall of Fame's Class of 2026. That group of 26 will next be cut to 15 finalists.
⚽️ Estêvão joins elite club:Chelsea's Estêvão, 18, scored in the Blues'3-0 win over Barcelona, making him the third teenager ever to score in each of his first three Champions League starts. The other two? Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland.
📺 Thanksgiving Weekend Watchlist
🏈 NFL, Week 13
The action begins with tomorrow's Thanksgiving Day tripleheader, followed by the third annual Black Friday game ahead of Sunday's slate.
Thanksgiving:The Lions host the Packers(1pm ET, Fox)in an NFC North clash, the Cowboys host the Chiefs(4:30pm, CBS)in a matchup of playoff hopefuls, and the Ravens host the Bengals(8:20pm, NBC)in Joe Burrow's return.
Black Friday:The 8-3 Eagles, who should probablyreexamine how they're using Saquon Barkley, host the 8-3 Bears(3pm, Prime), who have already matched their best win total since 2018.
Sunday:49ers at Browns(1pm, CBS); Jaguars at Titans(1pm, CBS); Texans at Colts(1pm, CBS); Saints at Dolphins(1pm, Fox); Falcons at Jets(1pm, Fox); Cardinals at Buccaneers(1pm, Fox); Rams at Panthers(1pm, Fox); Vikings at Seahawks (4pm, Fox); Bills at Steelers(4:25pm, CBS); Raiders at Chargers(4:25pm, CBS); Broncos at Commanders(8:20pm, NBC)
🏈 Rivalry Week
Some of the best college football games of the year are, appropriately, saved for the final week of the regular season as bitter rivals take the field with conference championship and playoff spots on the line.
Ranked matchups:No. 4 Georgia at No. 23 Georgia Tech*(Fri. 3:30pm, ABC); No. 3 Texas A&M at No. 16 Texas(Fri. 7:30pm, ABC); No. 25 Arizona at No. 20 Arizona State(Fri. 9pm, Fox); No. 1 Ohio State at No. 15 Michigan*(Sat. 12pm, Fox); No. 12 Miami at No. 22 Pitt(Sat. 12pm, ABC); No. 14 Vanderbilt at No. 19 Tennessee(Sat. 3:30pm, ESPN)
Best of the rest:No. 7 Ole Miss at Mississippi State(Fri. 12pm, ABC); No. 10 Alabama at Auburn*(Sat. 7:30pm, ABC); No. 6 Oregon at Washington(Sat. 3:30pm, CBS); LSU at No. 8 Oklahoma(Sat. 3:30pm, ABC)
*Going streaking: Georgia has won seven straight against Georgia Tech in their "Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate" rivalry; Michigan has beaten Ohio State in four straight editions of "The Game"; Alabama has beaten Auburn in five straight Iron Bowls.
⚽️ MLS Conference Finals
The Final Four kicks off on Saturday evening, with third-seeded Inter Miami hosting fifth-seeded NYC FC(6pm,Apple)and top-seeded San Diego hosting second-seeded Vancouver(9pm, Apple).
🏀 Feast Week
College basketball's answer to Rivalry Week is loaded with neutral-site tournaments in Las Vegas, Maui, the Bahamas and other locations. Here are the week's best games:
Men:No. 14 St. John's vs. No. 21 Auburn(Wed. 8pm, truTV); No. 7 Michigan vs. No. 12 Gonzaga(Wed. 9:30pm, TNT); No. 10 Florida vs. TCU(Thu. 3pm, FS1); No. 11 Michigan State vs. No. 16 UNC(Thu. 4:30pm, Fox); No. 9 BYU vs. Miami(Thu. 5pm, ESPN); No. 4 Duke vs. No. 22 Arkansas(Thu. 8pm, CBS); No. 5 UConn vs. No. 13 Illinois(Fri. 12:30pm, Fox)
Women:No. 3 UCLA vs. No. 4 Texas(Wed. 2pm, truTV); No. 2 South Carolina vs. Duke(Wed. 4pm, truTV); No. 7 Maryland vs. No. 16 Kentucky(Wed. 5:30pm, FloHoops); No. 1 UConn at Xavier(Sun. 2:30pm, FS1); No. 14 Tennessee at No. 3 UCLA(Sun. 4:30pm, FS1)
⚽️ NCAA Championships
The NCAA Men's Soccer Tournament has reached theSweet 16and the women's tourney has reached theElite Eight, with all games streaming on ESPN+.
Men:No. 4 Maryland vs. No. 13 UConn(Sat. 1pm); No. 7 Georgetown vs. No. 10 High Point(Sat. 5pm); No. 8 Portland vs. Grand Canyon(Sat. 10pm); No. 16 Furman vs. Hofstra(Sun. 1pm); No. 14 Akron vs. Duke(Sun. 4pm); No. 11 Bryant vs. Saint Louis(Sun. 6pm); No. 15 NC State vs. UNCG(Sun. 6pm); No. 12 Stanford vs. Washington(Sun. 8pm)
Women:No. 2 Duke vs. No. 4 Washington(Fri. 4pm); No. 1 Stanford vs. No. 2 Michigan State(Fri. 5pm); No. 3 FSU vs. Ohio State(Fri. 5pm); No. 1 Vanderbilt vs. No. 2 TCU(Sat. 7:30pm)
🏀 NBA Cup
The in-season tournament's group stage action concludes this week, withnine games todayand11 on Friday. That includes a tripleheader tonight on ESPN: Pistons at Celtics(5pm), Timberwolves at Thunder(7:30pm)and Rockets at Warriors(10pm).
More to watch:
⚽️ Premier League: Chelsea vs. Arsenal (Sun. 11:30am, USA) … The first-place Gunners visit the second-place Blues.
🏒 NHL: Lightning at Rangers (Sat. 2pm, NHL); Capitals at Islanders (Sun. 1pm, NHL) … Tampa Bay has won four straight games to climb to the top of the Atlantic.
🏎️ F1: Qatar Grand Prix (Sun. 11am, ESPN2) … The penultimate race of the season.
⚽️ Friendly: USWNT vs. Italy (Fri. 7pm, TNT) … In Orlando.
⚽️ Champions League: PSG vs. Tottenham (Wed. 3pm, Paramount+); Arsenal vs. Bayern Munich (Wed. 3pm, Paramount+) … Two of nine games to close out Matchday 5.
🏒 PWHL: Minnesota at Seattle (Fri. 4pm, YouTube); Vancouver at New York (Sat. 12pm, YouTube); Boston at Toronto (Sat. 2pm, YouTube)
Full weekend slate.
🏈 Why the CFP format feels broken
The current College Football Playoff model was designed before the last round of realignment, which has created some problems in the new "Power 4" world. One big one to emerge this season? The 12-team playoff is really a 10-team playoff.
From Yahoo Sports' Dan Wolken:
When this format was first publicized as a concept in the spring of 2021, there were still five somewhat balanced power conferences.
Texas and Oklahoma hadn't announced their departure for the SEC. The Pac-12 still existed (in a respectable form). UCF, Houston, SMU and Cincinnati were in the American. The ACC had won three of the previous eight national championships. It was a completely different world.
As a result, it made sense to incentivize conference championships. But the original idea of giving automatic bids to the six highest-ranked conference champions (five now, after the Pac-12 exodus) has revealed an unintended consequence.
This year, the Group of Five representative will probably be a team ranked in the 20s — whether it's Tulane, North Texas, Navy or perhaps James Madison out of the Sun Belt. Meanwhile, the ACC champion is likely to emerge from Virginia, Pittsburgh or SMU — none of which are going to finish in the top 12 of the rankings.
That means two spots out of 12 will go to teams that wouldn't qualify if the playoff was simply chosen by ranking. That's too many. It weakens the first-round matchups and inherently excludes teams ranked Nos. 11 and 12 whose résumés look nearly identical to Nos. 8, 9 and 10.
Again, just consider that 6-5 Duke is still technically alive for the ACC title. Imagine a world where the 8-5 ACC champion Blue Devils get into the playoff while 10-2 Miami — the highest-ranked ACC team — gets left out. Not to mention bubble teams like BYU, Utah and Vanderbilt, all of which had much better seasons and would be more likely to compete in a playoff game.
Yes, in that scenario Duke would be the champion of a power conference, but only because unbalanced schedules and quirky tiebreakers got it to the ACC title game in the first place.
Keep reading:The CFP has several problems (especially this season), but there's no quick fix
🏀 NBA power rankings
The Thunder sit atop ourNBA power rankingsone month into the season, which is hardly a surprising place for the red-hot defending champs to land. But the rest of the top 10, courtesy of Ben Rohrbach, is peppered with unexpected entrants.
Thunder (17-1): Last year, OKC broke the single-season record for point differential (+12.87) en route to the title. This year, they're at +16.94.
Pistons (15-2): Detroit has won a franchise record-tying 13 straight games and already eclipsed their win total from just two seasons ago (14-68).
Nuggets (13-4): Another year, another masterpiece from three-time MVP Nikola Jokić, who is again averaging a 30-point triple-double on a league-high 72.9% true shooting percentage.
Rockets (11-4): Their +11.2 scoring differential trails only the Thunder as Alperen Şengün continues his ascent to stardom and Kevin Durant continues being, well, Kevin Durant.
Lakers (13-4): The good: They started 10-4 with Luka Dončić playing like an MVP and Austin Reaves leveling up in a big way. The better: They've since added literally LeBron James to the mix and are 3-0 since his return.
Cavaliers (12-7): Donovan Mitchell leads the way, but it may be time to learn the name Nae'Qwan Tomlin. "I can't take him off the floor," head coach Kenny Atkinson said of the undrafted sparkplug who's playing on a two-way contract.
Suns (11-7): How has Phoenix moved past its misbegotten "Big Three" era? By embracing a new identity fueled by full-court pressure and a roster that's better than the sum of its parts, rather than vice versa.
Spurs (11-5): Victor Wembanyama's supernova start was halted due to injury, but San Antonio is holding down the Alamo in his absence, jelling quickly despite "playing lineups that we hadn't even gone through training camp with."
Raptors (13-5): Something special is happening in the Six, where Toronto has won eight straight games and 12 of 13 after finishing well under .500 in each of the last two seasons.
Heat (12-6): In a season where teams are playing at their fastest pace since the 1980's, no team is playing faster than the Heat.
Dive in:Full rankings
🏈 The Patriots are very much back
Be afraid, America. After a brief hiatus, the Patriots are right back in the Super Bowl conversation.
From Yahoo Sports' Jay Busbee:
In "The Usual Suspects," the stone-cold-classic 1995 crime thriller, the bad guys seem pretty obvious — blindingly so, really, loud and in your face and claiming all of your attention every time they're onscreen. But the real villain is lurking right there in plain sight, an apparently broken wretch who's been pulling the strings all along without anyone noticing.
Why do I lead an NFL column with a reference to a 30-year-old movie about a villain hiding in plain sight? Oh, I don't know … have you checked the AFC East standings lately?
The New England Patriots are back, friends. Winners of nine straight, led by an old-school lead-with-the-forehead head coach, quarterbacked by the best signal-caller to join the NFL since the pandemic, held together by one of the top scoring defenses in the league, the Patriots are now officially a legitimate capital-P Problem for the rest of the league. Again.
You can understand why the NFL universe might be troubled by this development. After Tom Brady left the Greater Boston area for Florida and Bill Belichick decided to go re-enact the plot of Old School, the NFL thought it was done with the Pats for a decade or so. The Chiefs took up the "new dynasty" mantle, and everyone safely relegated the Pats to the six-win bin along with the Jets and Titans.
Nightmares are never as scary in the daylight, and the Patriots' two-decade run through the NFL faded into memory. Until this season.
Keep reading.
🏒 NHL trivia
108 years ago today (Nov. 26, 1917), theNHL was officially formed in Montrealand began play later that year with four teams.
Question:Which of the following teams was NOT among those four?
Montreal Canadiens
Montreal Wanderers
Ottawa Senators
Toronto Hockey Club
Vancouver Maroons
Answer at the bottom.
⚽️ Who will U.S. face in '26 opener?
The USMNT will not learn its 2026 World Cup opponents until next Friday's draw in Washington, D.C. But on Tuesday, the Americans (No. 14 in the world)found out their June 12 opener at SoFi Stadiumwill be against one of the following countries:
🇳🇴 Norway (29)
🇪🇬 Egypt (34)
🇩🇿 Algeria (35)
🏴 Scotland (36)
🇵🇾 Paraguay (39)
🇹🇳 Tunisia (40)
🇨🇮 Ivory Coast (42)
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan (50)
🇶🇦 Qatar (51)
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia (60)
🇿🇦 South Africa (61)
That opening match is just 198 days away. Start the countdown clock!
Trivia answer:Vancouver Maroons
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