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ForbesToday’s NYT ‘Connections: Sports Edition’ Hints And Answers For Wednesday, October 2By Kris Holt

Hey, folks! I’m going to keep using Halloween-related sports image as long as I can find good ones.

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition hints and answers are coming right up.

How To Play Connections: Sports Edition

Connections: Sports Edition is a free daily New York Times game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day and you can play on the NYT website. It works just like the regular Connections game, except everything is sports-related.

You’re presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like teams in a certain city, athletes who won Olympic gold in a certain discipline or various sports terms linked by a color.

There’s only one solution for each puzzle, and you’ll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them.

Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay.

Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and you’re incorrect, you’ll lose a life. If you’re close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that you’re one word away from getting it right, but you’ll still need to figure out which one to swap.

If you make four mistakes, it’s game over. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen with the help of some hints, and, if you’re really struggling, today’s Connections answers. As with Wordle and other similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition Hints

Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups, I’ll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them.

Here’s what the grid looks like:

Today’s 16 words and logos are…

• EXPOS
• EXHIBITION
• DROP
• BADGERS
• HOOSIERS
• PILOTS
• FRIENDLY
• SLICE
• SMASH
• BROWNS
• WARMUP
• SENATORS
• BUCKEYES
• SCRIMMAGE
• BOILERMAKERS
• BACKHAND

And the hints for today’s groups are:

• Yellow group — nothing on the line here
• Green group — seen at Arthur Ashe and Center Court
• Blue group — monikers linked to the oldest NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference
• Purple group — ex-members of a big-time league

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition Groups

Need some extra help?

Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.

Today’s groups are…

• Yellow group — game with no stakes
• Green group — tennis shots
• Blue group — Big Ten nicknames
• Purple group — former M.L.B. teams

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition Answers?

Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers.

This is your final warning!

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers are…

• Yellow group — game with no stakes (EXHIBITION, FRIENDLY, SCRIMMAGE, WARMUP)
• Green group — tennis shots (BACKHAND, DROP, SLICE, SMASH)
• Blue group — Big Ten nicknames (BADGERS, BOILERMAKERS, BUCKEYES, HOOSIERS)
• Purple group — former M.L.B. teams (BROWNS, EXPOS, PILOTS, SENATORS)

Boo, my five-day streak is over. Here’s how I fared:

🟡🟡🟡🟡

🟢🟢🟢🟢

🟣🔵🟣🟣

🟣🔵🟣🔵

🟣🔵🟣🔵

🟣🟣🟣🔵

🟣🟣🟣🟣

I got the yellows and greens with zero problems at all. But then I ran into some trouble.

College sports and baseball are not among my strong suits. I’m vaguely aware that the BUCKEYES are an Ohio thing and having lived in Montreal for over a decade, the EXPOS are something of a sore sport for the locals here, so I know about that team. But I thought SENATORS referred to the N.H.L. team, and BROWNS to the N.F.L. team.

My failed guesses involved the EXPOS and SENATORS along with what I was hoping were Canadian sports teams I’d never heard of. Alas, I didn’t find the right combination before I ran out of luck.

That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections: Sports Edition clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog for hints and the solution for Friday’s game if you need them.