📰🏟️ Playoffs?!

1) Best TNF matchup in NFL history is tonight

Tonight’s matchup, featuring the Los Angeles Rams (11-3) traveling to Seattle to battle the Seahawks (11-3), is the first time in NFL history that both teams on Thursday Night Football have at least 11 wins.

• Both teams are tied atop the NFC West (and conference as a whole), with tonight’s game carrying major implications for playoff seeding and a potential first-round bye.
• Tonight’s game will feature the heavy MVP favorite, Rams QB Matthew Stafford, as well as the heavy favorite to win Offensive Player of the Year, Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

Dive into the best TNF matchup ever 

2) College Football Playoffs officially kick off tomorrow

The 2025-26 CFP begins tomorrow night with #8 Oklahoma hosting #9 Alabama (7 pm CT), as the Sooners look to repeat their victory against the Crimson Tide earlier this season.

• Action continues with a slate of three games on Saturday: #7 Texas A&M v. #10 Miami (11 am CT), #6 Ole Miss v. #11 Tulane (2:30 pm CT), and #5 Oregon v. #12 James Madison (6:30 pm CT).
• After this weekend, the CFP takes a 10-day break before the first quarterfinal matchup on New Year’s Eve, and the other three matchups on New Year’s Day. 

Who’s got the best shot to win it all?

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3) MLB’s Nationals are going all-in on youth—in management

Washington is planning to hire Ani Kilambi, the Phillies’ 31-year-old assistant GM, as the Nationals’ new general manager, per ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

• Kilambi will now team up with the Nationals’ new 35-year-old president of baseball operations Paul Toboni and new 33-year-old manager Blake Butera to help turn around the franchise.
• The Nationals haven’t won more than 71 games (.438 win percentage) since their World Series title in 2019.

Explore the new Nationals’ pastime

4)  NBA will decide on expansion in 2026

This week, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver for the first time laid out a definitive timeline for expansion, saying a decision will be made sometime next year on whether to proceed with adding more NBA teams beyond the current 30.

• Silver specifically mentioned Las Vegas and Seattle as two of the main possibilities for potentially receiving a new NBA franchise, citing Seattle’s past with the SuperSonics and the many NBA activities already held in Vegas.
• The commissioner also touched on several other topics, including the ongoing WNBA collective bargaining negotiations and the LA Clippers’ surprise decision to cut ties with G Chris Paul.

More from the Silver-tongued NBA commish

5) Kalshi moves to allow bets on NCAA transfer portal

On Wednesday, prediction market Kalshi notified a federal regulator that it was self-certifying markets that would allow users to trade on whether college athletes will enter the transfer portal.

In the filing, Kalshi said its markets—which allow bets on yes/no decisions—would cover transfer decisions by NCAA DI football and basketball players.

• Kalshi later said it has "no immediate plans" to offer markets on the college transfer portal, and that it certifies markets “all the time” that don’t end up being listed.
• The news drew sharp criticism from NCAA president Charlie Baker, who said his organization “vehemently opposes college sports prediction markets.”

Is Kalshi’s latest gamble a good idea?

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