📰🏟️ Super Bowl sweep
Plus: 1st CFP rankings drop tonight…
Good afternoon. Welcome back to another week full of top sports stories. Let’s get you up to speed.
—Kyle
1) College basketball regular season tips off
Both the men’s and women’s 2026-27 college basketball seasons officially tipped off on Sunday, beginning the 1st-ever season with a 76-team March Madness bracket.
- On the men’s side, East Texas A&M shocked Oklahoma 68-64 last night to deliver the 2nd-largest CBB upset in at least 30 years, based on the pregame 28.5-point spread.
- On the women’s side, star JuJu Watkins returned in #3 USC’s opening victory after missing last season with a knee injury, while #1 South Carolina held off a Maryland comeback to win at Oui-Play in Paris.
See a season preview for men and women
📣 FULL-COURT PRESS
Headlines across the sports world
- 🏆 MLB announces award finalists for 2026 season, with Cubs CF Pete Crow-Armstrong (NL MVP), Astros DH Yordan Alvarez (AL MVP), Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski (NL Cy Young), and Yankees ace Cam Schlittler (AL Cy Young) all heavy favorites.
- 🎙️ Michael Wilbon, longtime co-host of Pardon The Interruption and NBA analyst for ESPN, is taking an indefinite leave due to “struggles with multiple health issues.”
- 🏈 College Football Playoff committee to publish its first rankings of the 2026 season tonight, with a live unveiling on ESPN. Which teams are on the playoff bubble?
🙌🥶 In Partnership with Morozko
Testosterone gains aren't just made in the gym
Your training routine doesn't have to end when you leave the gym. Research suggests cold exposure may play a role in testosterone production, and Morozko makes it easy to explore with ice baths that make their own ice and reach temperatures as low as 33°F.
In one recent study, 12 male athletes saw an average 56% increase in testosterone following a program combining exercise, cold exposure, and recovery. Morozko makes incorporating cold immersion into your routine easier, with each unit hand-built in Phoenix by scientists and engineers and equipped with ozone filtration to keep water clean without chlorine or harsh chemicals.
2) Bears dominate Seahawks, complete Super Bowl sweep
Chicago delivered a dominant 34-17 win over the reigning champion Seattle Seahawks last night, one week after beating the Super Bowl runner-up New England Patriots.
- Newly acquired All-Pro DT Jeffery Simmons delivered immediately for the Bears, recording a sack, 6 tackles (3 for loss), and a deflected pass.
- The Seahawks were held to 3.0 yards/play in the 48 plays where Simmons was on the field, and averaged 13.3 yards/play in the 8 plays he was off, per Next Gen Stats.
Chicago bears down on 1st place
🌐 WEB GEMS
Interesting things to click
⚾ MLB lockout survival guide: Everything baseball fans need to know about baseball’s looming shutdown.
🪦 Putting the ‘fan’ in fanatic: Die-hard sports fandom has reached the afterlife.
🗽 Dysfunction off-court and on: How the Knicks' season and title defense got chaotic—fast.
3) Cowboys legend Jason Witten named interim Oklahoma OC
Oklahoma fired offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle yesterday and named longtime Cowboys TE Jason Witten as his interim replacement following Saturday’s 42-25 loss to South Carolina.
- The Sooners (4-4) are averaging just 22 points/game this season, ranking 108th nationally, after reaching the College Football Playoff last year.
- Witten, an 11x Pro Bowl TE, became Oklahoma's tight ends coach in January after 5 seasons coaching high school football in Texas.
- He’ll serve as OC and call plays for the rest of the season, starting with Saturday’s road matchup against #25 Florida.