In today's edition: All hail the Hoosiers, NBA All-Star starters, the NFL's Final Four, we're underway in Melbourne, Baker's Dozen, and more.
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🚨 Headlines
🏈 NFL coaching carousel: The Bills fired Sean McDermott after nine seasons, while the Giants (John Harbaugh), Falcons (Kevin Stefanski), Titans (Robert Saleh) and Dolphins (Jeff Hafley) hired new head coaches.
🏀 Disaster for Golden State: Warriors star Jimmy Butler suffered a torn ACL during Monday's win over the Heat, ending his season and likely altering Golden State's plans at the trade deadline. Brutal blow.
⚾️ Bichette to New York: Bo Bichette is heading to the Mets on a three-year, $126 million deal. The former Blue Jays shortstop is expected to play third base in Queens despite having never played that position in the major or minor leagues.
🏒 Goalie fight! San Jose's Alex Nedeljkovic and Florida's Sergei Bobrovsky dropped gloves and fought during the third period of the Sharks' win on Monday, marking the first fight between NHL goalies since 2020.
🏀 Wildcats, Huskies still on top: Arizona, one of three undefeated men's teams (Nebraska, Miami-Ohio), remains atop the men's AP poll. UConn, one of two undefeated women's teams (Vanderbilt), remains atop the women's AP poll.
🏆 Hoosiers complete storybook season
Indiana beat Miami, 27-21, on Monday night in South Florida to win the program's first national championship, complete their perfect 16-0 season and author the greatest turnaround American sports has ever seen.
An unlikely champion: Indiana had 100-1 preseason odds to win the national title, making them one of the biggest long-shot champions in sports history. Add in their status as a perennial doormat and I'd argue only Leicester City's unthinkable 2015-16 Premier League title (5,000-1 preseason odds) tops what Curt Cignetti's Hoosiers accomplished this season.
"Back when I was waxing the staff table at [Indiana University of Pennsylvania] on Thanksgiving weekend … did I ever think something like this was possible? Probably not. But if you keep your nose down in life and keep working, anything is possible."
— Cignetti, whose head coaching journey from D2 IUP (2011-16) to FCS Elon (2017-18) to FCS/FBS JMU (2019-2023) to the very top of college football after just two years in Bloomington is simply remarkable.
Highlight of the night: There were a handful of plays that defined this game — none bigger than Fernando Mendoza's fourth-down TD run in the fourth quarter. It was a gutsy call by Cignetti, and the Heisman winner delivered, breaking multiple tackles before diving headfirst into the end zone for a 24-14 lead.
From Yahoo Sports' Dan Wolken:
These days, the world of college football often feels chaotic, sometimes even dark. But this felt pure — not because it was Indiana, but because of how it happened. The fundamentals. The self-belief. The three-star recruits who played like superstars, turning everything we knew about college football upside down.
Game notes:
Welcome to the club: Indiana is the first school to win its maiden FBS national championship since Florida claimed its first title in 1996.
50 years later: Indiana now has the most recent undefeated national champions in both football and men's basketball. Bob Knight's squad went 32-0 en route to winning the 1976 title.
Double the hardware: Mendoza joins Derrick Henry (2015), Joe Burrow (2019) and DeVonta Smith (2020) as the only players to win the Heisman Trophy and the CFP title in the same season.
Midwest supremacy: The Big Ten has now won three straight national titles (Michigan, Ohio State, Indiana) for the first time since 1940-42 (Minnesota, Minnesota, Ohio State), with the Wolverines, Buckeyes and Hoosiers all located inside a 300-mile radius mostly incorporating southern Indiana, central Ohio and southeastern Michigan. Has the South lost football?
Looking (way) ahead:Way-too-early Top 25 for 2026
🏀 NBA All-Star starters revealed
The 2026 NBA All-Star Game starters were announced Monday, with Lakers guard Luka Dončić (3.4 million) and Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (3.2 million) receiving the most votes from fans.
How it works: Fans are responsible for 50% of the vote, while NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%) account for the rest. For the first time in the exhibition's near-75-year history, there are no positional requirements for lineups. That extends to the seven reserves from each conference, who will be selected by head coaches on Feb. 1.
Notably absent: LeBron James' 21-year streak as an All-Star starter has officially come to an end. He finished eighth in fan voting, one spot ahead of Rockets forward Kevin Durant and one spot behind Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards.
As a reminder: There's a new USA vs. World round-robin format this year. Ideally, voting will fill the 24 spots with 16 Americans and eight internationals, forming three teams of eight. If those numbers aren't reached organically, NBA commissioner Adam Silver will pick additional All-Stars so that each group hits its mark.
🏈 NFL Playoffs: Last four standing
The Conference Championships are set after a Divisional Round that saw the Patriots stifle the turnover-happy Texans, the Seahawks steamroll the 49ers, the Broncos outlast the Bills thanks in part to a controversial call, and the Rams survive the Bears' miraculous last-second score.*
AFC: Patriots (-5.5) at Broncos
For the 15th consecutive season, either the Patriots or Chiefs have reached the AFC Championship Game. The last time both franchises failed to make it this far was in 2010, when the Steelers beat the Jets (in Gang Green's most recent playoff game).
New England, which has never won a playoff game in Denver (0-4 all-time), is playing in its first AFC title game of the post-Tom Brady era, and first started by a QB other than Brady since 1996.
Denver is the biggest home underdog as a No. 1 seed in a conference title game since the 1970 merger after losing Bo Nix to a broken ankle. They'll turn to backup Jarrett Stidham, who hasn't thrown a single pass all season.
Fun fact: The coaching matchup in this game is Mike (Vrabel) vs. Sean (Payton), while the coaching matchup in the NFC title game is also Mike (Macdonald) vs. Sean (McVay).
NFC: Rams (+2.5) at Seahawks
The NFC West foes meet for the third time this season after splitting the first two games with nearly the exact same number of points scored (58-57) and total yards (830-829). The Rams were the No. 1 scoring offense during the regular season (30.5 points per game), while the Seahawks were the No. 1 scoring defense (17.2).
Seattle is back in the NFC Championship Game for the first time since 2014, which had been the conference's fourth-longest drought ahead of only the Cowboys (1995), Bears (2010) and Giants (2011).
Los Angeles has won 10 playoff games under Sean McVay, who has twice as many postseason wins before the age of 40 as any other head coach in NFL history. He turns 40 on Saturday.
Super Bowl odds: The Seahawks are favored to hoist the Lombardi Trophy (+150 at BetMGM), followed by the Rams (+220), Patriots (+250) and Broncos (+1300), whose odds cratered after Nix's injury.
*Wild stat: Caleb Williams' last-ditch heave marked the fourth time in NFL postseason history that a team scored a game-tying TD (plus the PAT) in the last 30 seconds of the fourth quarter. All four of those teams ended up losing in overtime (1987 Seahawks, 2004 Chargers, 2015 Packers).
🌎 The world in photos
🇺🇸 Honolulu, Hawaii — Chris Gotterup (-16) opened 2026 with a victory, winning the Sony Open by two strokes on Sunday to claim the first event of the new PGA Tour season, and the third of his young career.
On the rise: The 26-year-old Maryland native, who turned pro in 2022, is up to a career-best ranking of No. 17 after becoming just the sixth golfer with at least three PGA Tour wins since the start of 2024.
🇲🇦 Rabat, Morocco — Senegal won their second Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday, beating Morocco, 1-0 in extra time, after a pair of controversial calls in stoppage time led to a lengthy delay and a spectator brawl.
How it went down: Senegal had a goal disallowed and Morocco was awarded a penalty on two questionable calls just minutes apart. Furious, Senegal's coach led his team off the field in protest as fans began brawling. Players didn't return for 15 minutes, after which Morocco missed the penalty and Senegal ultimately won on Pape Gueye's goal in extra time.
🇦🇺 Melbourne, Australia — The Australian Open kicked off on Saturday with its first-ever formal opening ceremony. 87-year-old Rod Laver sat courtside in the arena named for him and Roger Federer stole the show as the star of a pair of exhibition matches.
More history for Djokovic: Novak Djokovic's first-round victory was his 100th at the Australian Open, making him the first player to reach the century mark at three Grand Slams. He has 101 at Roland Garros, 102 at Wimbledon, and could reach 100 at the U.S. Open later this year (95).
🏴 Manchester, England — Manchester United stunned Manchester City, 2-0, in Saturday's Derby, snapping City's 13-match unbeaten streak in interim manager Michael Carrick's debut with the Red Devils.
Title chances dwindling: City, which managed just one shot on target in the loss, are now seven points behind league-leader Arsenal after going four straight matches without a win.
📺 Watchlist: Tuesday, Jan. 20
🏀 NBA on NBC
Four Western Conference powers take the floor in tonight's doubleheader, with the Rockets hosting the Spurs in the first game (8pm ET) and the Nuggets hosting the Lakers in the second (10pm).
Weathering the storm: Denver (29-14) has gone 7-4 since losing Nikola Jokić to a knee injury in late December. The three-time MVP is expected to return by month's end.
⚽️ Champions League
Inter Milan hosts Arsenal (3pm, Paramount+) in a matchup between the first-place teams in Serie A and the English Premier League to headline the penultimate matchday of the league phase.
Where it stands: With two matchdays left, the top eight teams in position to advance directly to the Round of 16 are Arsenal, Bayern Munich, PSG, Manchester City, Atalanta, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid.
More to watch:
🎾 Australian Open: Second round (7pm, ESPN+; 9pm, ESPN2) … Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Świątek headline the action in Melbourne.
🏒 NHL: Bruins at Stars (7:30pm, TNT); Devils at Oilers (10pm, TNT) … Edmonton's Connor McDavid leads all players with 85 points (30 goals, 55 assists) in 50 games played.
🏀 NCAAM: UCF at No. 9 Iowa State (7pm, CBSSN); Indiana at No. 3 Michigan (7pm, Peacock); LSU at No. 16 Florida (7pm, ESPN2); No. 15 Vanderbilt at No. 20 Arkansas (9pm, ESPN)
⛳️ TGL: Jupiter Links vs. Los Angeles (7pm, ESPN) … Max Homa, Akshay Bhatia and Kevin Kisner vs. Justin Rose, Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala.
🏀 NBA trivia
Kevin Durant passed Dirk Nowitzki for sixth place on the NBA's all-time scoring list during Sunday's win over the Pelicans.
Question: Can you name the five players ahead of Durant (31,562 points)?
Hint: Four played for the Lakers.
Answer at the bottom.
🍿 Weekend highlights: Top 13 plays
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Trivia answer: LeBron James (42,727 points); Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387); Karl Malone (36,928); Kobe Bryant (33,643); Michael Jordan (32,292)
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Category: General Sports
