In today's edition: The reign of the "Big Two," Scottie wins again, the NCAA's fragile authority, Little League Classic, Baker's Dozen, and more.
Yahoo Sports AM is our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it every weekday morning.
🚨 Headlines
⛳️ Scottie wins again: Scottie Scheffler won the BMW Championship on Sunday to give him 5+ victories in back-to-back PGA Tour seasons. The only other golfer to accomplish that over the past 40 years? Tiger Woods (six times).
🏀 Sue gets a statue: The Seattle Storm unveiled a bronze Sue Bird statue outside their home arena on Sunday, making the legendary point guard the first WNBA player to be honored in that way.
⚾️ Brewers streak snapped: Milwaukee's magical 14-game winning streak (franchise record) came to an end on Sunday with an extra-innings loss to the Reds.
🏈 Kaepernick doc scrapped: Spike Lee's docuseries on Colin Kaepernick is no longer moving forward at ESPN. This comes on the heels of the NFL acquiring a 10% equity stake in the network.
🏁 Byron clinches title: William Byron clinched the NASCAR Cup Series regular season title with one race to spare. The prize? 15 extremely valuable bonus points that he'll carry through the first three rounds of the playoffs.
🎾 The Big Two meet again
Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz will face off this afternoon in the final of the Cincinnati Open. Because of course they will.
Run it back: Sinner and Alcaraz are just the third duo this century to meet in the final of four consecutive big events (i.e. Grand Slams and Masters 1000). The other two? Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal in 2006 and Nadal vs. Novak Djokovic in 2011.
Head-to-head: Alcaraz holds an 8-5 advantage in the all-time series, including a 2-1 record in the three finals comprising this historic streak.
Italian Open (May 18): Alcaraz def. Sinner, 7-6, 6-1
French Open (June 8): Alcaraz def. Sinner, 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 7-6
Wimbledon (July 13): Sinner def. Alcaraz, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4
The Big Two: It wasn't that long ago that Djokovic, Federer and Nadal ruled the court as the Big Three, winning a mind-boggling 66 of 80 majors from 2003-23. And while Sinner and Alcaraz have a ways to go before entering that territory, their reign as the Big Two at least warrants being mentioned in the same breath.
Sinner has been ranked No. 1 for 63 consecutive weeks since first landing there last June, and enters today's final at 31-3 on the year, including a 26-match win streak on hard courts.
Alcaraz, who's been ranked no worse than No. 3 since Sept. 2022, has gone 53-6 this year and seeks his Tour-leading sixth title of the season.
And most importantly, at least from a historical perspective: They've combined to win the last seven Grand Slams in a row, and nine of the last 12.
Further reading: "Changeover," a new book by author and Defector Media co-founder Giri Nathan that examines the Sinner-Alcaraz rivalry and this new era of men's tennis, comes out tomorrow.
🎓 Michigan case exposes NCAA's fragile authority
The NCAA ruled on the Michigan sign-stealing scandal on Friday, hitting the Wolverines with a series of fines, suspensions and other sanctions but stopping short of punitive penalties such as a postseason ban or vacated wins.
From Yahoo Sports' Jay Busbee:
For whatever hardship the NCAA's penalty will cause Michigan — a few new T-shirt slogans in Columbus, some slightly postponed redecorations to a couple stadium luxury suites — the larger truth is this: the Michigan case has revealed how fragile the NCAA's authority is now.
In its report released Friday, the NCAA indicated specifically that due to the severity of the violations and Michigan's status as a repeat offender, "a postseason ban is required in this case."
However, just a few lines later, the report notes that "a postseason ban would unfairly penalize student-athletes for the actions of coaches and staff who are no longer associated with the Michigan football program. Thus, a more appropriate penalty is an offsetting financial penalty."
That's it right there. The NCAA isn't hammering schools with program-wrecking postseason bans, it's just serving them with bills. And given the vast resources pouring into the game now, that's not a punishment that will leave a mark.
There's no love lost between the NCAA and Michigan, and the NCAA swung as hard as it realistically could at the Wolverines. But the penalties will hit with all the force of a well-swung pillow.
Bottom line: The days of the NCAA carpet-bombing an athletic department into submission (see: SMU) appear to be over. The game has grown too large for its regulators to regulate.
🌎 The world in photos
🇺🇸 Williamsport, Pennsylvania — The Mets beat the Mariners, 7-3, on Sunday in the eighth annual Little League Classic. Then came a proud Little League tradition: postgame handshakes.
How cool is this? Cal Raleigh wore a chest protector that featured photos of all his Mariners teammates as Little Leaguers.
🏴 Liverpool, England — The defending Premier League champions honored the late Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva ahead of Friday's season-opening win over Bournemouth, with similar tributes held throughout the soccer world all weekend.
Opening weekend recap: Arsenal beat Man United, 1-0, at Old Trafford; Man City shutout Wolves, 4-0, behind a brace from Erling Haaland; Full scoreboard.
🇵🇱 Chorzów, Poland — Kishane Thompson (9.87 seconds) held off Noah Lyles (9.90) in the 100m at Saturday's Diamond League meet, exacting a small measure of revenge after Lyles beat him by 0.005 seconds last summer to win 100m Olympic gold.
Near world record: Kenya's Faith Kipyegon won the women's 3000m by almost 30 seconds with a time of 8:07.04, the closest anyone has ever come to breaking Wang Junxia's world record of 8:06.11 set in 1993.
🇨🇦 Vancouver — The Storm beat the Dream on Friday at Rogers Arena in the first WNBA regular-season game ever played in Canada.
Plenty more to come: The Toronto Tempo will debut next season as the WNBA's first Canadian franchise.
🇨🇳 Beijing — Yes, that is a robot kickboxing another robot during the 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games, which is a real thing that went down this weekend.
We'll go deeper on this tomorrow.
🏈 The evolution of a scorebug
Above: Fox's new NFL scorebug, which was unveiled on Sunday night.
Below: The first incarnation of the Fox NFL scorebug (1994-96).
Journey through time: Fox scorebugs over the years
📊 By the numbers
👊 529-45
Khamzat Chimaev obliterated Dricus du Plessis on Saturday night in Chicago to claim the 185-pound title at UFC 319. Just how lopsided was this fight? Chimaev landed 529 strikes. Du Plessis landed 45.
🏈 28-team bracket
Big Ten and SEC executives have had discussions about a 28-team College Football Playoff bracket featuring seven automatic bids for each of them, five each for the Big 12 and ACC, two for the best Group of 6 programs and two at-large selections.
⛳️ 18 years old
Georgia teenager Mason Howell capped a productive summer before his senior year of high school by winning the U.S. Amateur at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. Howell, 18, is the youngest U.S. Amateur champion since Byeong Hun An won at age 17 in 2009.
🎓 $300 million gift
Kansas Athletics has received a $300 million gift from donor David Booth, believed to be among the richest in the history of college sports. Booth, a graduate of Lawrence High School and KU, already has his name on the football stadium.
📺 Watchlist: Monday, Aug. 18
🏈 Bengals at Commanders | 8pm ET, ESPN
Two teams with championship aspirations face off in a special preseason edition of "Monday Night Football."
🎾 Cincinnati Open, Finals | 3-6pm, Tennis Channel
No. 1 Jannik Sinner vs. No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz (3pm) in the men's final, followed by No. 3 Iga Świątek vs. No. 7 Jasmine Paolini in the women's final (6pm).
More to watch:
⚽️ Premier League: Leeds United vs. Everton (3pm, USA) … Opening weekend concludes under the lights at Elland Road.
⚾️ MLB: Reds at Angels (9:38, FS1) … Cincinnati trails New York by one game for the third and final Wild Card spot.
⚾️ LLWS: Day 6 (1-7pm, ESPN) … South Carolina, Nevada, South Dakota, Connecticut, Aruba, Chinese Taipei, Venezuela and Japan take the field.
⚾️ MLB trivia
The Cubs (70-53) won their 70th game of the season on Sunday, making them the sixth team to reach that mark.
Question: Can you name the other five teams with 70+ wins?
Answer at the bottom.
🍿 Baker's Dozen: Top plays of the weekend
⛳️ Scheffler!
⚾️ Hot corner
⛳️ 227-yard ace
⚽️ Golazo!
Trivia answer: Brewers (78-45), Blue Jays (73-52), Tigers (73-53), Dodgers (71-53), Phillies (71-53)
We hope you enjoyed this edition of Yahoo Sports AM, our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.
Category: General Sports
