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🚨 Headlines

🏈 Saints make a change: New Orleans fired Dennis Allen on Monday following their seventh straight loss and named special teams coach Darren Rizzi as his interim successor. Allen is 26-53 as an NFL head coach.

🏀 Cavs stay hot, Bucks stay cold: The Cavaliers beat the Bucks, 116-114, to improve to 8-0 for the first time since 1976. Milwaukee falls to 1-6, which is not where you want to be (nor where anyone expected them to be).

⚾️ MLB offseason: Juan Soto and Corbin Burnes were among the 13 free agents who received qualifying offers; Gerrit Cole is staying with the Yankees after initially opting out of his deal on Saturday; Silver Slugger finalists were announced.

🏀 Pop’s health scare: Gregg Popovich will be sidelined indefinitely with a health issue. Spurs assistant Mitch Johnson will assume head coaching duties while Popovich, 75, is out.

🏈 Prescott sidelined: Cowboys QB Dak Prescott will miss “multiple games” after injuring his hamstring during Sunday’s loss to the Falcons. Cooper Rush will start in his place.

🇺🇸 The most consequential election in college sports history

Today’s elections — congressional races as well as the White House — loom as the most consequential in the history of college sports, and the results will shape the industry during a pivotal time of transformation.

From Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger:

As major college athletics moves closer to a professionalized entity, federal policy looms larger than ever for college sports decision-makers on at least three fronts: (1) comprehensive congressional college sports legislation, (2) the interpretation and enforcement of Title IX as it relates to athlete revenue sharing and (3) the debate over college athletes as employees.

“There hasn’t been a time I can recall where every part of the college sports ecosystem, particularly the traditional powerbrokers, have more on the line in the courts and in Congress,” says Jesse McCollum, a longtime lobbyist working on behalf of The Collective Association, a group of NIL collectives.

3 areas of impact:

1. Legislation: Republicans want to limit employment status and give protection to the NCAA and power leagues to grant them oversight and regulation; Democrats emphasize more rights of athletes, express an openness (some of them) to employee protections as well as health, educational access and gender equity rights.

2. Title IX: The interpretation and enforcement of Title IX in the new era of athlete revenue sharing is one of the most important matters within the industry. Experts believe that a victory for Kamala Harris will result in a more serious approach to the enforcement of Title IX as it relates to the distribution of that revenue.

3. Employment: The endeavor to have college athletes deemed employees is a years-long movement that has divided college sports stakeholders. A change in control of the White House — from Democrat to Republican — would have a “huge impact” on the debate.

There’s something else, too: Donald Trump has publicly suggested he would eliminate the Department of Education, a decision that could have serious ramifications on university funding.

“Since the 1880s, universities have been funding things like college football — building stadiums and such — and when you take out the academic funding at a time when the House settlement is imposing cost on these schools, something has got to give. We would be in a world of unprecedented chaos. College athletics could not avoid the fallout.”

— Michael LeRoy, Illinois law professor

Bottom line: Today’s elections coincide, ironically enough, with the initial release of the College Football Playoff selection committee’s rankings. While the Top 25 has its own impacts, the other polls will be much more lasting.

📸 Photo gallery

Kansas City — Patrick Mahomes (34/44, 291 yards, 3 TD) and the Chiefs beat the Buccaneers, 30-24 (OT), on “Monday Night Football” to earn their franchise-record 14th straight victory and improve to 8-0 on the season. This team just knows how to win, man.

Paris — No. 3 USC survived an upset scare against No. 20 Ole Miss to win the season’s first ranked women’s hoops matchup, 68-66, behind a monster game from sophomore sensation JuJu Watkins (27 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 blocks, 3 steals).

Altona Beach, Australia — Here’s something fun I just learned: Horses like to train in the water before a big race. “Playing in the sea and sand lets the horses relax,” says one trainer. “It’s playtime as well as good exercise.”

Glasgow, Scotland — European football fans are a different breed.

🏀 The Maine event: Flagg shines in debut

Duke freshman Cooper Flagg, one of the most-hyped basketball recruits in recent memory, made his debut on Monday night at Cameroon Indoor Stadium — and wasted no time throwing down a thunderous dunk.

Stat sheet stuffer: The 6-foot-9 forward had 18 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals in Duke’s 96-62 win over Maine, the program he grew up watching (he lived nearby) and supporting (his mom played there and his twin brother, Ace, just committed).

From Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Eisenberg…

Excuse the people of Maine if they’re a little overenthusiastic that the projected No. 1 pick in next year’s NBA draft is one of their own. They have waited an awfully long time for the Pine Tree State to produce a nationally renowned basketball prospect.

Maine basketball Hall of Famer Andy Bedard describes his hoops-crazed state as “a mini-Indiana but without the Division I talent.” Basketball is big in Maine, but the state has proven to be barren soil for growing top-tier prospects.

A native of Maine has not been selected in the NBA draft since the Nets took Jeff Turner in 1984. The University of Maine, the state’s lone Division I program, has famously never made the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. None of Maine’s past 10 Mr. Basketball award winners have earned Division I scholarships.

And yet somehow, a state long ignored by college coaches and NBA scouts has bred one of men’s basketball’s rising stars. “It’s like the Jamaican bobsled team,” says Bedard, Flagg’s longtime AAU coach. “This is something that you think happens somewhere else.”

More from Monday: No. 6 Gonzaga destroyed No. 8 Baylor, 101-63 (!!!) … UFC upset No. 13 Texas A&M (first court storm!) … Ohio State upset No. 19 Texas … Maryland freshman Derik Queen had 22 and 20 in his debut.

🏒 Chasing Gretzky: Ovechkin’s on fire

Alex Ovechkin is closing in on a record most hockey fans thought would never be broken. And if he keeps up his current pace, he could get there as soon as the spring.

Chasing Gretzky: Ovechkin has scored seven goals in the Capitals’ first 11 games (including five in their last four), giving him 860 for his career. 35 more and he’ll break Wayne Gretzky’s longstanding NHL record of 894.

Looking ahead: At his current rate of 0.64 goals per game, “The Great 8” is on pace to score 45 more goals this season and catch “The Great One” by mid-March. If he maintains this pace, he’ll also break Gretzky’s record for most 50-goal seasons, with 10.

📆 Nov. 5, 1971: The streak begins

53 years ago today, the Lakers won their first of 33 consecutive games, which remains the longest winning streak across all four major North American sports leagues.

Longest streaks by league (regular season and playoffs):

• 🏀 NBA: 33 (1971-72 Lakers)

• ⚾️ MLB: 26 (1916 Giants)

• 🏈 NFL: 21 (2003-04 Patriots)

• 🏒 NHL: 17 (1992-93 Penguins)

Anatomy of the streak: The Lakers played 17 games at home and 16 on the road, and won 23 of them by double digits. Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain and Gail Goodrich played every game of the streak, averaging 65.1 points, 28.4 rebounds and 19.1 assists a night.

• Elgin Baylor, one of five future Hall of Famers on the roster, retired nine games into the season. The streak began the first game after his retirement.

• “[It’s] the greatest team I’ve ever been on,” said West. “We had a lot of different [personalities]. But when you watch this team on the floor, it was like one mind thinking alike.”

The aftermath: On Jan. 9, 1972, the Lakers finally lost to the Bucks, led by that season’s eventual MVP (and future Laker) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. They went on to finish with a 69-13 record (third-best ever) and won their sixth championship — and first since moving from Minneapolis to Los Angeles.

📺 Watchlist: Rankings revealed

The first College Football Playoff rankings of the 12-team era will be revealed tonight (7pm ET, ESPN). Here’s what you need to know.

More to watch:

• ⚽️ Champions League: Matchday 4 (12:45-3pm, Paramount+) … Real Madrid vs. Milan headlines the nine-game slate.

• 🏈 NCAAF: Bowling Green at Central Michigan (7:30pm, ESPN2); Miami-Ohio at Ball State (8pm, ESPN) … The first midweek #MACtion games of the season.

• 🏒 NHL: Utah at Jets* (8pm, ESPN+)

• 🎾 Tennis: WTA Finals (7:30am, Tennis)

*Red-hot start: Winnipeg has been the best team in the NHL through the first month of the season, sporting the league’s best record (11-1-0) and goal differential (+29).

🏈 College football trivia

Ohio State is the new betting favorite (+350 at BetMGM) to win the college football national championship, which would be the program’s first title since 2014.

Question: Who did they beat in the 2014 title game?

Hint: It was the inaugural CFP National Championship.

Answer at the bottom.

👟 Conner and Clayton: They did it again!

Conner Mantz and Clayton Young, America’s best marathoners, have an uncanny knack for finishing seconds apart — and in the exact same order, writes WSJ’s Rachel Bachman.

• 2023 Chicago Marathon: Mantz finished 6th, Young finished 7th

• 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials: Mantz finished 1st, Young finished 2nd

• 2024 Paris Olympics: Mantz finished 8th, Young finished 9th

They did it again on Sunday! Mantz finished 6th in the New York City Marathon, and Young finished 7th.

Trivia answer: Oregon (42-20 final score)

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