📰🏟️ Indiana Bears?

Good afternoon. Today’s edition brings you the top news from around the sports world. Let’s get right to it.

—Kyle

1) Chicago Bears are threatening to leave Illinois

The Bears’ pursuit of a new stadium has escalated into a bidding war between Illinois and Indiana over which state gets to host the planned project, which includes a domed stadium and nearby mixed-use development.

• The Bears already own land for a stadium in suburban Arlington Heights, Illinois—but for the past three years, they’ve been unable to reach a favorable deal with state and local governments.
• In recent weeks, Chicago’s NFL team has ramped up discussions with Indiana over a potential new site in Hammond, with Indiana’s gov’t this week passing a bill to provide $1B+ in taxpayer financing towards the $3B+ project.

The Bears are in a state of uncertainty

2) Top MLB prospect wows in early Spring Training

Pittsburgh Pirates super prospect Konnor Griffin, 19, made headlines yesterday after hitting two massive home runs over the Green Monster at “Fenway South” during a spring training win over the Red Sox.

• Griffin, a power-hitting shortstop, is widely hailed by scouts as one of the best MLB prospects in at least a decade, alongside fellow Pirate Paul Skenes and Royals SS Bobby Witt Jr.
• He’s hoping to become the first teenager to debut on MLB Opening Day since Ken Griffey Jr. in 1989.

Griffin looks to konquer the MLB

3) Army-Navy game could move up a few weeks

"America's Game," the annual contest between Army and Navy held in mid-December, may be moved up a couple weeks in order to count towards conference title races and potential CFP inclusion.

• The two teams were independent when they initially scheduled the annual mid-December contest in 2009.
• But both teams have since joined the American Conference, meaning their annual game is now too late to count towards conference standings (or final CFP rankings).
• In an interview with The Athletic this week, Army coach Jeff Monken proposed rescheduling the Navy game to an exclusive four-hour window during Thanksgiving weekend.

Is America’s Game on the move?

4) Team USA goalie to receive Medal of Freedom

Connor Hellebuyck, the goaltender for the gold-medal-winning US men's Olympic hockey team, will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Trump announced at his State of the Union last night.

• Hellebuyck is believed to be the first-ever hockey player to receive America’s highest civilian honor, which has been bestowed 671 times in US history.
• In related news: the gold medal match against Canada on Sunday averaged 20.7M US viewers despite a 7:10 am CT start time, marking the second-most-watched hockey game in NBC history.

How Hellebuyck earned an extra medal

5) Tennis’ “Fifth Slam” leans into mixed doubles

The 2026 BNP Paribas Open—aka the Indian Wells Open or “Fifth Grand Slam," held in Indian Wells, CA—announced a $1M prize pool for mixed doubles in 2026, nearly tripling last year’s total.

• It comes after the 2025 US Open introduced a similar prize pool bump in an effort to attract star singles players to compete.
• The Open’s efforts paid off, with every top 10 men’s and women’s singles player participating. 

Why Indian Wells is (mixed) doubling down

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