You know, I didn’t intend for all the photos in the header image to be doing this 🙋but I can’t stop looking at it now that it turned out that way.
In other news!
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Thanks as always! (And sorry for college football leaking into the non-college football edition of the newsletter — there was news!)
– Rodger Sherman
Today’s Lineup
Bye-bye, conference championship games
Bye-bye, Mauricio Pochettino
Bye-bye, Youth Olympic Games
🪦🏆🪦 Requiem for a Game 🪦🏆🪦
The 24-team College Football Playoff is here, even though you didn’t ask for it. I made the mistake of getting used to the 12-team version, which only lasted three seasons. I’m not going to get too worked up about 24 teams because I know we’re not far from the 36- and 48-team versions.
Playoff expansion means the death of conference championship games, because the weekend they currently occupy is needed to play all those extra games. This year’s title games, held in three weeks, will be the last.
On the one hand, I have a lot of fond memories of various conference championship games. On the other, I’d be lying if I said they were an integral part of college football. Every conference championship game came about in my lifetime. They were generally sparsely-attended games played in NFL stadiums, often between mismatched opponents, and they will now be replaced by single-elimination games on college campuses.
Instead of telling you what the 24-team playoff means for college football, I thought I’d look back at the up-and-down lives of conference championship games. Over the course of their 35-ish years of existence, conference championship games went from a novelty to a necessity for every league. Some were bastions of regional pride, while others were lifeless. They were essential, and then expendable.
If you think the people planning the 24-team playoff know what they’re doing, just remember all this nonsense!
The first conference championship game was held by the SEC in 1992. The oldest conference title game is younger than the youngest current FBS head coach (FAU’s Zach Kittley, who’s 35). The Big Ten launched theirs in 2011, firmly in the iPhone and Twitter era.
In the 35 years of conference championship games, nobody ever figured out how to properly pick the teams playing in them. It used to be mandated that leagues must have divisions. Most of these divisions were lopsided. The SEC East was hapless against the SEC West; the ACC’s Atlantic Division ran off nine in a row against the ACC’s Coastal Division.
There was only one fairly distributed set of divisions: the Big Ten’s Legends and Leaders divisions, which had such stupid names that everybody hated them, and were quickly replaced by the lopsided Big Ten East (good) and Big Ten West (bad). That led to yearly blowouts. Northwestern won the Big Ten West twice, and got beaten badly by Ohio State in the title game both times.
Eventually, the divisional requirements were stripped, and leagues just pitted their best team against their second-best team. This, too, had problems: There were often massive, confusing tiebreaker pileups, such as last year, when 7-5 Duke somehow won the ACC.
(Good news: The massive, confusing tiebreaker pileups will definitely continue, now that 18-team leagues will hypothetically be awarding a conference championship without any sort of game to decide their lone champion.)
For some reason, conference championship games were the exclusive home of a nationally-televised halftime competition in which random college students decided their financial futures by their ability to underhand a ball into a giant soda can.
Nobody has answered my questions about a) why the Dr. Pepper Tuition Toss only happened during conference championship games and b) what will happen to the Dr. Pepper Tuition Toss if they no longer exist. I would hate to see my beloved sport throw one of its greatest traditions in the trash, like a football into a giant fake soda can.
For a while, the NCAA required conferences to have 12 members to host a conference championship game, which was one of the biggest factors in the 2010 round of conference realignment. Some leagues added members to get to 12, so they could host these lucrative games: The Big Ten added Nebraska, and the Pac-12 added Utah and Colorado and rebranded from the Pac-10 to the Pac-12. Meanwhile, the Big 12 dropped below 12 teams and had to stop playing its conference championship game.
It’s funny: That arbitrary 12-team rule not only shaped the current conferences, but also explains why the Pac-12 is currently called the Pac-12, even though it only has eight teams, six of which weren’t even in the Pac-12 back then.
Did having a conference championship game help you get into the College Football Playoff? All these years later, I gotta say: No idea.
In 2014, Ohio State famously played its way into the inaugural Playoff by winning the Big Ten Championship Game, jumping TCU and Baylor back when the Big 12 didn’t have a championship game. (That prompted the Big 12 to successfully lobby for an end to the 12-team rule so it could relaunch its title game, which it did in 2017.)
But sometimes, playing in a conference championship game was a bad idea, like in 2017, when 12-0 Wisconsin was bumped out for losing a close Big Ten Championship Game to Ohio State and 11-1 Alabama got in by staying home.
And sometimes, it seemed to totally not matter at all, like last year, when Alabama lost the SEC Championship Game by 21 and didn’t drop at all in the rankings. Or in 2020, when Notre Dame was in the ACC because of COVID (???) and losing didn’t affect it. In one bizarre case in 2023, Florida State actually won the ACC championship and dropped out of the playoff field because the committee didn’t think the Seminoles looked good enough.
Long story short: Conference championship games provide firm evidence that the people in charge of college football have never had any idea what they’re doing. Even with relatively simple guidelines — tweak your conference championship game to benefit your conference as much as possible — they screwed up time and time again. No matter what moves people think will benefit them, no matter what people think the sport is going to look like in five years, it always changes. So don’t get too worked up about the worst aspects of the 24-team playoff. The chaos will always seep through.
Off the top of my head, here are my favorite college football conference championship moments, in no particular order until we get to #1:
And #1 for me: Jalen Hurts replacing Tua Tagovailoa and leading Alabama to the SEC championship against Georgia, a year after Tua Tagovailoa replaced Jalen Hurts to lead Alabama to a CFP championship against Georgia:
I have been very bad about replying in the comments and I feel bad about that. But let me know your favorite conference championship games! Let’s talk about them!
🇺🇸⚽️ Poch Poached? 🇺🇸⚽️
It always seemed unlikely that Mauricio Pochettino would stick around as head coach of the US men’s national team for another World Cup cycle … but I’ve gotta admit, after he signed a contract extension in August, I was expecting him to stay a little bit longer.
Pochettino is apparently set to become the new manager at Manchester United, which fired former captain Michael Carrick after a disastrous start to the 2026-27 campaign. (Turns out, that season-opening loss to Hull City was a bad sign.) The USMNT improved under his watch — and they’ll probably improve even more, with the big pile of money United is going to have to send their way.
I’ll look back on the Poch Era fondly. I’ve never seen an American men’s soccer team look as good as they looked at this past World Cup. (EXCEPT FOR THAT ONE GAME WHERE EVERYBODY PLAYED THE WORST THEY’VE EVER PLAYED ON THE BIGGEST STAGE POSSIBLE. That was bad, in my opinion.) He seemed to instill a level of seriousness and confidence that will hopefully continue as an exciting generation of young American talent grows up.
Damn! Manchester United is real stinky! They’ve won one of their first 10 games, and are currently in 18th place. They haven’t been in the relegation zone this late in the season since the foundation of the Premier League.
(I probably followed soccer most closely from like 2006 to 2013, when I was in high school and college and played FIFA all the time, so in my head I perceive Manchester United as an unstoppable juggernaut whose crosstown rivals, Manchester City, are up-and-coming hopefuls trying to break through. BOY IS THAT PERCEPTION OUTDATED.)
It’s a little awkward that Pochettino is leaving during a FIFA window. He was present at the team’s training session Wednesday.
In an extremely funny bit, the USMNT canceled Pochettino’s previously scheduled press availability Wednesday, citing “observance of Veterans Day.” U.S. Soccer has previously held press conferences on November 11th, but at some point since they became filled with patriotic love for our brave veterans and troops.
Pochettino is probably going to coach tonight’s Nations League match against Haiti … but the situation is pretty dire for United, and they probably want him over there ASAP.
Who’s next for the USMNT? The longshot dream is Pep Guardiola, the legendary coach who has won titles at Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Man City. He left Man City after this past season, and spent a year living in New York City in between jobs in 2013. The Athletic reported that Guardiola has been in contact with U.S. Soccer for years. In the past, he has said that the USMNT job was “fascinating” because of the potential for American soccer to go to the next level.
If that pipe dream falls through … one of the more prominent names will be B.J. Callaghan, who just led Nashville SC to the best regular season in MLS history. Callaghan had a beloved stint as the USMNT’s interim coach, winning the 2023 Nations League during the bizarre period after the 2022 World Cup when Gregg Berhalter was removed from the head coaching position after Gio Reyna’s parents tried to get him fired.
Because Pochettino always seemed likely to bolt for a top-tier club before the next World Cup, U.S. Soccer included a $10 million release clause in his contract. So it will actually make millions of dollars to have Pochettino coach a few months of post-World Cup friendlies and Nations League matches. Not a bad deal!
And if your coach is going to leave, you’d prefer that it happen now, four years away from the next World Cup. The next tournament for the USMNT is the 2027 Gold Cup, which I plan on taking seriously even if nobody else does.
🥇👶🥇 Youth is Fleeting 🥇👶🥇
Youth — you look around one day, and it’s gone. So it is with the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal, which I forgot to tell you about until there was only one day left in competition … possibly forever.
Held for the first time in 2010, the Youth Olympic Games are an event designed to give 14-to-17-year-old athletes their first taste of being an Olympic athlete. They’ve introduced a handful of new sports, and dozens of Youth Olympic gold medalists have gone on to win Olympic golds, including Americans Noah Lyles and Napheesa Collier.
However, the Youth Olympics haven’t exactly been a smash hit — unless you’re a real Olympics junkie, this is probably the first time you’re hearing about them — and these will probably be the last summer edition we ever see. What are we losing?
One area where the Youth Olympics have been useful is staging tournaments for new sports that can potentially be played in the Olympics. Climbing, 3×3 basketball, and breakdancing all debuted at the Youth Olympics before making their way to the big show in 2020 and 2024.
The most Olympics-ready of the non-Olympic sports in Dakar is futsal, the fast-paced, indoor version of soccer. I’m honestly stunned its not in the Olympics already. Ukraine won the gold medal in the women’s event yesterday in extra time
The 2026 games also have wushu, a Chinese martial art, and Baseball5, which is a stripped-down version of baseball that the International Baseball Federation cooked up with hopes of getting back into future Olympics. Baseball5 is played without bats nor pitching; you toss the ball up to yourself and slap it. Cuba won:
Can your sport be played on a beach? Throw a sandy version of it in the Youth Olympics. They’ve got beach handball, coastal rowing, and beach wrestling …
… which is legitimately one of Senegal’s favorite pastimes. It’s been described as the country’s national sport; the New York Times sent a photographer to the beach in Dakar and found plenty of dudes wrestling. Sure enough, Senegalese wrestlers won three gold medals in beach wrestling in front of raucous crowds:
It’s been a fun event for Senegal. The nation only has one all-time medal at the Olympics (a silver in the men’s 400m hurdles in 1988), but has won five golds at the 2026 Youth Olympics, including a surprise win in 3×3 basketball.
Team USA more-or-less opted out of the Dakar games. After sending 86 athletes to the 2018 YOG in Buenos Aires, including future Olympic stars like Noah Lyles and a 3×3 team with Paige Bueckers and Aliyah Boston, Team USA only sent 29 athletes to Dakar, 12 of whom are on the women’s rugby sevens team.
So far, only one American has won an individual gold: 16-year-old Julian Jeang-Agliardi in skateboarding, maybe the most Youth Olympics sport there is. He’ll be a contender for Team USA in 2028. Here’s his gold medal run in Dakar.
Many of Team USA’s sports federations made the choice not to send teams. We didn’t send any swimmers nor track athletes, nor did we send any 3×3 basketball teams after winning the most recent U18 World Cups. USA Gymnastics cited limited credentials, and a USOPC site visit found “a less-than-ideal situation” on the ground in Senegal.
Here’s a document from USA Archery (which did send a team, and won a gold medal in the mixed team event!) warning families of athletes that “conditions will be basic and potentially detrimental to high performance.” The facilities were described as “sub-par,” and athletes were told to expect “non-Western toilets.”
It’s neat that the Youth Olympics are in Dakar — the first ever Olympic event in Africa! — but, oh man, I am not sure it is a good idea to host an event that is almost guaranteed to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. The first Youth Olympics in Singapore were a financial disaster, with Singapore’s government admitting they “were plain wrong” in their initial budget estimates, projecting the games would cost about $80 million when they ended up close to $300 million.
But Singapore could afford it — it is sixth in GDP per capita. Senegal is 155th. The Senegalese government committed to spending at least $60 million, including an additional $19 million on venues, on an event that often comes with overruns. Locals are less than pleased.
Even the IOC, which normally foists financial losses on host countries, loses money on the Youth Olympics. The IOC’s 2018 annual report listed $64 million in expenditures on the most recent summer Youth Olympics, and just $1.1 million in broadcasting rights revenue.
The main way the Olympics make money is through international broadcast rights — over $1 billion per Olympics. But most countries don’t have a TV broadcaster for the YOG. The Olympics are streaming most of the events live on Youtube.
So it’s not surprising that these might be the last summer Youth Olympics. The IOC has “paused” the process of awarding a 2030 Youth Olympics. (The 2028 Winter Youth Olympics are already planned, re-using most of the venues from this year’s Olympics in Northern Italy.) New IOC president Kirsty Coventry says the IOC needs to “have a real reflection on why we’re doing the Youth Olympic Games.”
So, uh … if you wanna see the Youth Olympic Games … I’d head over to YouTube ASAP. Still time to tune in for breaking, beach handball, and a few other medal events!
👋🇨🇦 See you soon, Canada 🇨🇦👋
As expected, Team USA and Canada are undefeated through the group stages of the IIHF Women’s World Championship, with Team USA outscoring the competition 31-2. Here’s their 11-1 win over Austria:
If all goes as planned, we’ll get another championship faceoff between the Americans and the Canadians on Monday. (My bet: It’s going into overtime.)
🐯🐯🐯 Sleaux Down! 🐯🐯🐯
While we’re talking lopsided women’s sporting events: LSU beat Texas Southern 131-22, the 109-point margin is the largest in any Division I vs. Division I basketball game ever. They outscored TSU 40-0 in the second quarter.
Between that and the 14-three performance from Louisiana Tech’s Chloe Donnell last week, there has been a lot of record-setting going on in Louisiana-area women’s hoops. It’s up to the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns to score 257 points next game.
🏒 The Buyck Stops Here 🏒
All-time humiliating move from the New Jersey Devils. Last month, the Devils acquired Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck, who was also the starting goalie for Team USA in the last Olympics. But Hellebuyck opted to sit out his return to Winnipeg, after leaving the team by requesting a trade away. The Devils tried to cover for Hellebuyck with a bizarre statement saying that “in our estimation, playing in this game would potentially give us a reduction in our expected win probability.”
WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN.
Why would your newly acquired superstar goalie lead to a reduction in expected win probability? Did it actually lead to a reduction in win probability, or just “potentially?” Couldn’t just about any sports decision “potentially” lead to a reduction in win probability?
The Devils chose the coward’s way out, blaming math instead of standing up for their decision. That decision did, in fact, lead to a reduction in their win probability, as the 13-6 Devils lost 4-2 to the struggling Jets behind their backup goalie.
🇨🇳😬⚽️ Chinese Chokejob 🇨🇳😬⚽️
One of the biggest late-season collapses in sports history comes from the Chinese Super League, where Sichuan club Chengdu Rongcheng F.C. blew a 14-point lead over their last five games. If they had managed even a single draw, they would have won the league. Instead they went 0-5.
Part of the reason Chengdu had such a big lead: Nine of the 16 teams in the league were issued preseason point deductions after an investigation into corruption and match-fixing. On top of that, they won 11 of their first 12 matches, creating a seemingly insurmountable lead. But Dalian Yingbo F.C. caught them and won the league due to a peculiar points tiebreaker: While Chengdu had a better goal differential, they lost both of their head-to-head matchups with Dalian.
RIP Dan Hicks
Sad news Thursday morning: Longtime sportscaster Dan Hicks has died. The news was announced by his wife, Hannah Storm. Hicks, 64, was a mainstay of NBC Olympics broadcasts, including the alpine skiing events at the most recent Olympics. He lent his voice to one of the greatest Olympic moments of all time: Team USA’s comeback in the 4×100 men’s freestyle relay at the 2008 Olympics:
🇨🇦🏈🇨🇦 Grey Cup 🇨🇦🏈🇨🇦
Sunday, 6 p.m. ET in Calgary (DAZN, allegedly free)
You have exactly one more chance to watch a football game in which the field goal uprights are smack-dab in the middle of the end zone: The CFL’s rules are changing next year, which will include resizing the field and moving the uprights. The league championship between the Edmonton Elks and the Montreal Alouettes will be the last Canadian football game that is clearly identifiable as Canadian Football.
Last year, I did an episode of Phantom Island about the CFL’s rule changes and the unpopular decision to make the game look more like American football. If you don’t have time to listen to that, here’s a supercut of CFL passes (and CFL players) smashing into the in-play uprights:
😈 Vikings 😈 vs. 🧀 Packers 🧀
Sunday, 1 p.m. ET in Green Bay (FOX)
You like that? Kirk Cousins is expected to make his official return to the Vikings on Sunday afternoon after being acquired from Las Vegas in a deadline pivot. The 38-year-old has played effective football this season, and will try to lift a Minnesota offense that’s been among the NFL’s least efficient. On the other side, Jordan Love anchors a Packers passing offense that continues to hit home runs with Christian Watson and Matthew Golden, while Green Bay’s defense has also played soundly without Micah Parsons. The loser of this one will see their playoff odds dip in a tightly-contested NFC race. — Bradley Locker
⛏️ Steelers ⛏️ vs. 🐯 Bengals 🐯
Sunday, 7:20 p.m. ET in Cincinnati (NBC)
First place in the AFC North is on the line Sunday night from the Queen City. Pittsburgh has leveraged one of the league’s top offensive lines, explosiveness from Jaylen Warren, a playmaking defense, and largely turnover-free football from Aaron Rodgers to sit 6-2 after its bye. Meanwhile, Joe Burrow has looked like an MVP candidate throwing the ball around the yard to Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase, and Dexter Lawrence and Boye Mafe have helped improve the Bengals’ defense. Pittsburgh prevailed in the first meeting between these rivals in Week 3, and eyes a sweep for the first time since 2023. Each of the Steelers’ last four trips to Paycor Stadium have been decided by just one score, so we should get another fun one. — BL
⚔️ #18 USC ⚔️ vs. 🔴 #9 Indiana 🔴
Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET in Bloomington (CBS)
A College Football Playoff spot could be on the line Saturday afternoon in Bloomington. Led by Jayden Maiava and Trent Mosley, the Trojans resuscitated their season with an upset of then-#2 Ohio State two weeks ago. The reigning champion Hoosiers have lost just once in 2026 but look vulnerable, playing in multiple close games with worries about quarterback Josh Hoover and a diminished pass rush. A third loss for USC could be insurmountable to make the 12-team bracket. Meanwhile, the playoff committee revealed how it feels about Indiana by dropping the Hoosiers five spots after a bye. — BL
⛰️ #2 Utah ⛰️ vs. 😺 #23 Arizona 😺
Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET in Tucson (FOX)
Utah has become one of the best storylines in college football. The Utes have soared to 9-0 behind playmaking from Devon Dampier and Wayshawn Parker, and a defense that’s been stingy against both the pass and the run. The Wildcats have stayed competitive on the shoulders of Noah Fifita, with their only two losses coming against strong conference foes in BYU and Texas Tech. Arizona has claimed the last two meetings in this series; another win would send shockwaves throughout the rankings as well as the Big 12 title outlook. —BL
🍀 Celtics 🍀 vs. 🏔️ Nuggets 🏔️
Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET in Denver (NBA League Pass)
The Eastern Conference-leading Celtics try to keep their momentum rolling in the high altitude against the Nuggets. Boston sits 10-2 after a statement victory against the 76ers on Tuesday, with Jayson Tatum and Paul George combining for 57 points on the road. Denver has started a bit sluggishly at 6-4, although Nikola Jokic still ranks sixth in Value Over Replacement by averaging close to a triple-double (ho hum). — BL
🔶 #3 Illinois 🔶 vs. 😈 #2 Duke 😈
Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET in Durham (ESPN)
Despite both teams losing this week, this is still a high-level game between two national title hopefuls. The Illini are looking to build upon last season’s Final Four run by returning almost all of its nucleus. The Blue Devils are a similar story, bringing back names like Patrick Ngongba II and Cayden Boozer alongside newcomer John Blackwell. —BL
🐺 #4 UConn 🐺 vs. 😺 #12 Arizona 😺
Wednesday, 11/18 at 9 p.m. ET in Tucson (FS1)
It’s a big four-day stretch in Tucson. After the Wildcats’ football duel with #2 Utah, they’ll welcome the #4 team in the country on the hardwood. The Huskies look as much like a leviathan as ever, already besting #16 Michigan with talent like Braylon Mullins and Silas Demary Jr. While Arizona was upset by then-#22 UCLA to open the year, the Wildcats are still a serious contender with big men Ivan Kharchenkov and Motiejus Krivas. Dan Hurley’s bunch took the first leg of this home-and-home with an exhilarating win in Storrs last season. —BL
🏆🎾🏆 WTA Finals 🏆🎾🏆
Championship Sunday in Indian Wells, California (Tennis Channel)
The season-ending tour final has the biggest payout outside of the Grand Slams … although it’s a little bit less than last year, as a result of the tournament moving from Riyadh to Palm Springs, taking with it a big chunk of the Saudi-funded purse. (It’ll be in Charlotte moving forward.) The tournament has a somewhat inscrutable format, which Coco Gauff has said “makes sense, but is kinda stupid.” —RS
🇳🇿🏉🇦🇺 Rugby League World Cup Finals 🇳🇿🏉🇦🇺
Sunday, in Brisbane, Australia (on a streaming service you probably aren’t going to pay for)
Both the men’s and women’s Rugby League World Cups have come down to the same final: Australia vs. New Zealand. On the men’s side, the two teams played a thriller in the tournament’s opening match, with Australia scoring late to win 24-22. On the women’s side, the two teams haven’t played yet, with the Jillaroos outscoring their competition by 252 points in four matches and the Kiwi Ferns outscoring their competition by 158. The Aussies have won back-to-back-to-back championships in both tournaments. — RS
Fun content alert: I went on Soccerwise to talk about what I love about soccer, especially MLS. Here’s the YouTube link if you wanna see me staring off into the distance because I forgot that I was on camera.
And here’s the link to the podcast, which I’ve been listening to since the World Cup! It’s an all-encompassing podcast about American soccer — the national teams, MLS, NWSL — and it’s helped me learn a lot about why my favorite soccer team is so good. (You’ve gotta listen to the episode to find out which soccer team it is, though.)
