📰🏟️ Scott-free
Plus: Sports world trolls Jayden Daniels…
Good afternoon. Welcome back to another week full of top sports stories. Let’s get you up to speed.
—Kyle
1) Ohio St. tops preseason AP Top 25
The Buckeyes lead the 2026 AP preseason CFB poll, grabbing over half of all 1st-place votes (40/69). Fellow Big Ten member Oregon comes in at #2, while Georgia, Notre Dame, and Texas round out the top 5.
- It marks the 1st year a single conference has held the top 2 spots in the AP’s preseason poll since Oklahoma and Nebraska of the Big Eight were ranked 1-2 in 1987.
- The SEC placed 9 teams in the Top 25, followed by the Big Ten with 8.
- Not a single Group of 6 team is ranked, with the ACC, Big 12, and Notre Dame taking the other 8 poll spots.
2) Williams sisters reunite for doubles, but fall in Cincinnati
Serena and Venus Williams last night played their first doubles match together since the 2022 US Open, losing a thriller to Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns at the Cincinnati Open.
- The 14x Grand Slam doubles champions lost 2-6, 6-1 (10-8), fighting back from a 6-0 deficit in the tiebreaker before a late double-fault ended their run.
- Serena, 44, had previously planned to make her doubles return with Venus at Wimbledon last month, before an injury in singles forced her to pull out.
- The sisters would need wildcards to play singles or doubles at the US Open, which begins Aug. 30.
Williams sisters fall in Cincy thriller
🌐 WEB GEMS
Interesting things to click
🏈 NFL Future Power Rankings: How do all 32 teams stack up in projections for the 2027-29 seasons?
🏌️ Getting off Scott-free: World #1 Scottie Scheffler suffers one of the worst breaks in golf this year…and still wins the FedExCup playoff event by 8 strokes.
⚾ The GOAT hitter speaks: Ted Williams on the art of hitting in never-before-seen video footage.
⚽ 10th annual FC 100: Ranking the world’s 100 best soccer players heading into a new season.
3) NBA denounces ESPN reporting on Kawhi investigation
Hours after an ESPN article yesterday claimed the NBA found “no evidence” LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer circumvented the salary cap to pay Kawhi Leonard, the league issued a statement disputing its top media partner’s report.
- An NBA spokesperson said ESPN’s report “contains numerous and significant inaccuracies,” which will be made clear once the league’s ongoing 11-month investigation into Leonard concludes.
- Along with Leonard’s no-show endorsement deal with tree-planting company Aspiration, the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast this month reported Leonard also had a secret sponsorship contract with Clippers scoreboard manufacturer Daktronics.
Inside the Leonard saga’s latest twist
4) Sports world trolls Jayden Daniels over #5 controversy
Commanders QB Jayden Daniels has been everyone’s favorite social media target in recent days, after news broke that he sent LSU a cease-and-desist letter over NIL rights after the school allowed another player to wear Daniels’ #5 jersey.
- Daniels’ letter to LSU has been widely criticized as an overreaction, prompting pro sports teams and companies alike to poke fun at the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner.
- A half-dozen MLB teams, multiple MLS teams, StubHub, and DraftKings are among the orgs who’ve made social media posts about avoiding #5 “out of respect for Jayden Daniels.”
Daniels learns a valuable—and costly—lesson
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