📰🏟️ Return of the King
Plus: Controversial CFP rankings…
Good afternoon. The top-five sports stories of the day are at your fingertips. Let’s get right to it.
1) Latest CFP rankings draw criticism over criteria
Ohio State, Indiana, and Texas A&M remained the top three teams in Tuesday night’s CFP rankings, while Alabama dropped six spots to #10 after losing to Oklahoma over the weekend.
- The major controversy this week stems from the rankings of Notre Dame and Miami, who share identical records (10-2) and similar strength of schedules.
- But while Notre Dame currently sits at #9, Miami is ranked #13 with no plausible path to leapfrogging the Irish—despite beating Notre Dame 27-24 in their Week 1 matchup.
Key takeaways from the CFP rankings
2) LeBron James returns from injury, makes NBA history
After missing the first 14 games of this season with sciatica, James earned a double-double in his 2025-26 debut for the Lakers last night.
- By stepping on the court against the Utah Jazz, he became the first NBA player ever to play 23 seasons in the league.
- Fun fact: Seven players on Utah’s roster weren’t even born yet when LeBron first made his NBA debut in 2003.
Explore the return of the King
3) The NFL is secretly obsessed with supersonic flight
The NFL’s ambitious plan to host franchises around the world carries a major hurdle: travel time. But a recent supersonic test flight by Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 jet, the first civilian plane to break the sound barrier since 2003, has league executives quietly buzzing.
- If travel between New York and London drops below four hours, the biggest logistical barrier to placing full-time NFL teams—or even an entire division—in Europe would disappear.
- Boom aims to have the company’s supersonic commercial jet carry its first passengers by 2029, at cruise speeds of Mach 1.7 (1,300+ MPH).
4) Curaçao becomes smallest World Cup-qualifying nation
Curaçao, an autonomous territory of ~156,000 people within the Netherlands kingdom, qualified for the 2026 World Cup yesterday with a 0-0 draw against Jamaica.
- The tiny Caribbean island becomes the smallest country ever to qualify for the world’s biggest soccer tournament, a record previously held by Iceland (pop. ~350,000).
- They’ll play in the first expanded 48-team World Cup next year, hosted across the US, Canada, and Mexico.
5) Denver is off to a historic winter sports start
Residents of the Mile-High City are in the midst of a golden era for local sports, with the Broncos (9-2), Nuggets (10-3), and Avalanche (13-1-5) all off to scorching hot starts.
- Prior to the Nuggets’ loss on Monday, the teams had combined for 16 straight victories, propelling the Broncos and Avs to first place in their divisions and the Nuggets to #2 in their conference.
- Denver joins Philadelphia (1980) as the only cities to have that level of success to start the season across all three sports.
Inside Denver’s historic success
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