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🚨 Headlines

🏈 NFL coaching carousel: The Bears are finalizing a deal to hire Lions OC Ben Johnson as their next head coach; the Jets are hosting Lions DC Aaron Glenn for a second interview today; Cowboys OC Brian Schottenheimer is now the betting favorite to take over in Dallas.

⚾️ MLB free agency: The Dodgers signed RHP Rōki Sasaki ($6.5M bonus) and LHP Tanner Scott (4 years, $72M), the top starter and reliever on the market; switch-hitting slugger Anthony Santander is joining the Blue Jays (5 years, $92.5M).

🏀 Tigers are unanimous: Auburn is the first unanimous No. 1 team of the men’s college basketball season. Rounding out the top five in this week’s poll: Duke, Iowa State, Alabama and Florida.

🏒 McDavid suspension: Oilers superstar Connor McDavid has been suspended three games for cross-checking. It’s the longest suspension of the three-time MVP’s career, and his first since 2019.

🏀 Historic extension: South Carolina’s Dawn Staley signed an extension through 2030 that will make her the highest-paid coach in NCAA women’s basketball history. Her salary starts at $4M and goes up by $250k each year.

🏆 The Buckeyes win it all

Less than two months after a heartbreaking loss to Michigan, Ohio State got its vindication: A 34-23 victory over Notre Dame in college football’s grand finale to win the program’s seventh national championship.

From Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel:

51 days ago, Ryan Day stood frozen as the victorious (again) Michigan Wolverines planted a flag in the middle of Ohio Stadium. All around him were tears and jeers and calls for his job. Players fought. Pepper spray wafted through the air. It felt apoplectic then. It is national champions now.

In one of college football’s great reversals of fortune, Ohio State shook off that dreadful loss to their archrivals, took advantage of the second chance the sport’s newly expanded playoff provided, and challenged themselves to be better in every way.

That started with their coach, who as bad he coached then, has been equally as brilliant since, peeling off a playoff run to win it all. The Buckeyes capped it with a victory on Monday in Atlanta. … The cries were of joy now, not confusion and disappointment.

How it happened: The Buckeyes dominated the first 40 minutes, building a 31-7 lead behind Will Howard (17/21, 231 yds, 2 TD) and Quinshon Judkins (100 rush yds, 3 total TD).

• Riley Leonard (22/31, 255 yds, 3 total TD), Jaden Greathouse (128 rec yds, 2 TD) and the Fighting Irish punched back, scoring 16 unanswered to make it 31-23 with 4:15 left.

• A long completion to freshman phenom Jeremiah Smith (88 rec yds, TD) iced the game for Ohio State, which finished with 445 total yards to Notre Dame’s 308.

The rich get richer: Ohio State spends more money on athletics than any other public university (approaching $300 million annually), and they spent about $20 million in NIL funds to build their championship-winning roster, as first reported by Yahoo Sports.

Postgame reading:

🎙️ Fresh pod: Title game reactions (College Football Power Hour)

Viral clip: The driver of the golf cart carrying Day, Howard and other Buckeyes to the postgame press conference crashed into a wall pretty aggressively (everyone was fine).

🎾 Live updates: Australian Open

The Australian Open quarterfinals are underway in Melbourne, where some of the world’s best players took the court while you were (hopefully) sleeping.

Catch up quick:

1. Alcaraz vs. Djokovic (live now!): Novak leads 2 sets to 1 (as of 8:15am ET) in a rematch of last year’s Wimbledon and Olympics final. Tune in now on ESPN2 to see who advances!

2. Down goes Coco: No. 11 Paula Badosa upset No. 3 Coco Gauff in straight sets to snap the American’s 13-match winning streak. Gauff finished with 41 unforced errors, including six double-faults.

3. Sabalenka moves on: No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka dispatched No. 27 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to advance to the semis and move within two wins of a repeat title.

4. Zverev tops Paul: No. 2 Alexander Zverev beat No. 12 Tommy Paul to reach his ninth Grand Slam semifinal, the most among active players who have not won a major.

Americans still standing: Gauff and Paul were two of the five Americans to reach the quarterfinals. The other three — Emma Navarro, Madison Keys and Ben Shelton — take the court tonight. Find out who and when they’re playing in our “Watchlist” below.

🏈 In photos: Divisional Round

The Commanders, Eagles, Bills and Chiefs are headed to the NFL’s Final Four after a drama-filled weekend that featured a shocking upset, two snow games (one much snowier than the other), a Taylor Swift-Caitlin Clark sighting, and a battle of MVP favorites.

Detroit — The Commanders’ dream season continued with an impressive 45-31 victory over the top-seeded Lions, as Jayden Daniels (350 total yds, 2 TD) and Washington’s defense (five takeaways) led the underdog Commanders to their first NFC title game since 1991.

Philadelphia — The Eagles held off the Rams’ late comeback in the snow, winning 28-22 behind another masterful performance from Saquon Barkley (232 total yds, 2 TD), who accounted for a ridiculous 534 scrimmage yards in Philly’s two wins over the Rams this season.

Orchard Park, N.Y. — Josh Allen ran for two touchdowns and Lamar Jackson threw for two, but in the end the battle of MVP favorites came down to Ravens TE Mark Andrews, who dropped the would-be game-tying two-point conversion with 90 seconds left in the Bills’ 27-25 win.

Kansas City — The Chiefs didn’t play their best football on Saturday, but as was the case for most of the season they still found a way to win, beating the Texans, 23-14, with the help of a few controversial calls to reach their seventh straight AFC title game.

Looking ahead… The Eagles (+180 at BetMGM) are the current favorites to win the Super Bowl, followed by the Chiefs (+240), Bills (+250) and Commanders (+700).

🏀 NBA MVP race: SGA or Jokić?

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokić have separated themselves from the pack in the MVP race as the NBA season’s second half gets underway.

Overwhelming favorites: SGA (-350 at BetMGM), who finished second last season, and Jokić (+250), who won last year for his third MVP this decade, are the only players with better than 40-1 odds to hoist the trophy.

• Gilgeous-Alexander: 31.5 points (t-1st in the NBA) on 53.2/35/90 shooting splits, 5.3 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 2.1 steals (2nd) and 1.1 blocks for the first-place Thunder (35-7).

• Jokić: 30.1 points (3rd) on 56.1/47.1/80.6 shooting splits, 13.2 rebounds (3rd), 9.9 assists (2nd), 1.8 steals (4th) and 0.6 blocks for the fourth-place Nuggets (26-16).

What they’re saying: Who was the MVP of the first half? Our NBA experts are split…

• Dan Devine (SGA): “He’s leading the NBA in scoring while also playing a vital role on the NBA’s best defense. … The Thunder are in position to be one of the most dominant regular-season teams we’ve ever seen, and all of that starts with SGA.”

• Ben Rohrbach (Jokić): “Gilgeous-Alexander has been incredible for the West’s best team, but I can’t help but think, if they switched teams, this wouldn’t even be a conversation. Jokić would win in a landslide.”

• Vincent Goodwill (SGA): “Jokić is the best player, bar none. But even the advanced statistical models have Gilgeous-Alexander pulling even on the stats that sway MVP. It’s no slight to Jokić if SGA wins it, it just ramps up expectations for May and June.”

• Morten Stig Jensen (Jokić): “The numbers (both the raw and the advanced) speak for themselves, but just watch a handful of games, and it’s obvious that he’s once again, by far, the most influential player in the game. He’s earned it.”

Other MVP candidates: Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (+4000) is a very distant third, followed by Boston’s Jayson Tatum (+5000), San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama (+10000) and Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell (+20000).

✍️ Extra points

🏎️ Iconic shot: Lewis Hamilton is officially part of Ferrari after 12 years with Mercedes, and his Day 1 photo goes extremely hard. (Note the seven windows, representing each of his F1 titles, and a door to an eighth.)

🏒 Have a night, kid! Pittsburgh’s Alex Nedeljkovic made history on Saturday, becoming the 16th goalie to score in the NHL and the first to ever record a goal and an assist in the same game. Did I mention he also made 40 saves to lift the Penguins to victory?

🏀 40-point blowout: The Celtics beat the Warriors, 125-85, on Monday to hand Golden State its worst home loss in 40 years. The Dubs (21-21) have now gone 9-18 since their 12-3 start and are in 11th-place out West.

⛳️ Golf is hard: PGA Tour rookie William Mouw completely fell apart on Friday at the American Express, where he carded a 13 (!!!) on the par-5 16th hole. Worth a watch, if only to feel slightly better about your own game.

🏀 Bueckers tops them all: UConn women’s basketball has had no shortage of superstars through the years. None of them reached 2,000 career points faster than Paige Bueckers, who achieved the milestone in 102 games, six fewer than Maya Moore (108).

📈 The rise of Vuori: The 10-year-old apparel company has ridden the athleisure wave to a $5 billion valuation. But “it’s still early days,” founder Joe Kudla told the New York Times.

📺 Watchlist: Americans in action

Three Americans are still alive at the Australian Open, and they play back-to-back-to-back quarterfinal matches tonight in Melbourne (where they’re 16 hours ahead of EST).

Schedule: No. 19 Madison Keys faces No. 28 Elina Svitolina (7:30pm ET, ESPN+) and No. 8 Emma Navarro faces No. 2 Iga Świątek (9pm, ESPN2) in the women’s quarterfinals. Then it’s No. 21 Ben Shelton vs. unseeded Lorenzo Sonego (10:30pm, ESPN2) for a spot in the men’s final four.

More to watch:

• 🏀 NBA: Knicks at Nets (7:30pm, TNT); 76ers at Nuggets (10pm, TNT)

• 🏒 NHL: Hurricanes at Stars (8pm, ESPN+); Capitals at Oilers (9pm, ESPN+)

• 🏀 NCAAM: No. 14 Mississippi State at No. 6 Tennessee (7pm, ESPN2); No. 25 Louisville* at SMU (9pm, ACC); No. 18 Wisconsin at UCLA (9:30pm, Peacock)

• ⚽️ Champions League: Matchday 7 (12:45-3pm, Paramount+) … Liverpool vs. Lille headlines the nine-game slate.

• ⛳️ TGL: Atlanta vs. New York (7pm, ESPN) … Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay and Billy Horschel vs. Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler and Cameron Young.

• 🏒 NCAA Women’s Hockey: BC vs. Harvard (4:30pm, ESPN+); BU vs. Northeastern (7:30pm, ESPN+) … Boston’s TD Garden hosts the 46th annual Beanpot.

*The Cards are back: Louisville is ranked for the first time in four years and has already won more games this season (14) than the last two seasons combined (12). This is the Cardinals’ 657th appearance in the Top 25, which is sixth-most among D1 programs.

🏈 NFL trivia

Jayden Daniels will be the sixth rookie QB to start a conference championship game. Can you name the other five?

Hint: Bucs (1999-2000 season), Steelers (2004-05), Ravens (2008-09), Jets (2009-10) and 49ers (2022-23).

Answer at the bottom.

🍿 Baker’s Dozen: Top 13 plays of the weekend

1. 🏈 Jaw-dropping catch

2. 🏈 Goff to LaPorta!

3. 🏈 Mahomes to Kelce!

4. 🏀 D3 hooper can fly

5. 🏒 Cole Hutson is ridiculous

6. 🏈 Jaden Greathouse!

7. 🏈 Quinshon Judkins!

8. 🏒 Filthy finish at the doorstep

9. 🏀 Look away, Sister Jean!

10. ⚽️ Right place, right time

11. 🏀 Jokić to Gordon

12. 🏀 Ace Bailey rocks the rim

13. ⛳️ Ace Ventura!

Watch all 13.

Trivia answer: Shaun King, Ben Roethlisberger, Joe Flacco, Mark Sanchez, Brock Purdy

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