48TH STATESPORTS
Atlanta erased an early 7-0 deficit with 27 unanswered points on Thursday night, riding Michael Penix Jr.’s return from injury and Bijan Robinson’s 194 rushing yards and two touchdowns to blow out Green Bay 35-14. The Falcons outgained the Packers 498-17 on the ground and handed Green Bay its first home-opener loss since 2012.
Source: ESPN
Fields, hurt on a Week 2 hit from Bills pass rusher Joey Bosa, was a full participant in Thursday’s practice and was cleared by an independent neurologist to start Monday Night Football against the Dolphins, head coach Aaron Glenn confirmed. It ends his stint in the concussion protocol and hands the Jets back their planned starter for a prime-time divisional matchup, with Tyrod Taylor returning to the bench.
Source: NFL.com
Purdy made his return from a two-game absence with a right big-toe injury, throwing for more than 300 yards in Sunday’s loss to the Jaguars, but reported soreness afterward. A follow-up MRI showed the toe issue had flared back up, putting the 49ers quarterback back on a week-to-week timeline.
Source: Newsweek
Quarterback Sam Leavitt threw for 312 yards and two touchdowns, including a 57-yard connection with Jackson Harris off a gutsy fourth-down call from coach Lane Kiffin, as No. 10 LSU never let the rivalry game get close. Leavitt appeared to be playing through a leg injury late, giving way to backup Landen Clark at times, but the Aggies had no answer either way.
Source: AP via US News
The top-ranked Longhorns held off the Volunteers in front of more than 101,000 fans at Neyland Stadium, staying unbeaten while exposing real cracks against a ranked opponent on the road. It’s the kind of tight escape that will keep questions swirling about Texas’s margin for error the rest of the season.
Source: Tennessee Athletics
Ohio State cruised past a previously unbeaten Illinois team at home, a lopsided result that ended the Fighting Illini’s strong start and reinforced the Buckeyes as one of the sport’s most complete teams so far this season.
Source: Illinois Athletics
Unranked Wake Forest beat Louisville 30-27 after the Cardinals’ potential game-tying 57-yard attempt was blocked as time expired. Quarterback Gio Lopez threw for 225 yards and a touchdown and Carlos Hernandez caught nine passes for 194 yards as the Demon Deacons picked up their first ACC win of the season.
Source: ESPN
Leonard and Toronto agreed to a deal covering the 2027-28 season with a player option for 2028-29, on top of the $50.3 million he’s still owed this year. The extension follows a June trade that sent Leonard back to Toronto, delayed for months by an NBA investigation into alleged salary-cap circumvention involving the Clippers, and Leonard said he expects to finish his career with the Raptors.
Source: NBA.com
Atlanta moved to shore up its frontcourt a day after rookie center Henri Veesaar, the No. 52 pick in June’s draft, was diagnosed with a season-ending torn ACL. Charlotte, which dealt away starting point guard LaMelo Ball this offseason, gets backcourt help in return.
Source: ESPN
A divided panel on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed a lower-court injunction that had let thousands of fourth-year Division I players compete for a fifth season, pulling athletes like named plaintiff Brock Wisne back off rosters even as the underlying appeal continues. NCAA chief legal officer Scott Bearby said reinstated players are “no longer eligible to compete” now that the stay is in effect.
Source: Sportico
A Cobb County, Georgia judge sided with a different group of roughly 16 to 30 Division I men’s players who’d used up their traditional four seasons, granting them an injunction to play in 2026-27 while their lawsuit proceeds and barring the NCAA from penalizing any school that rosters them. It piles more legal uncertainty onto rosters already unsettled by the nationwide stay, just weeks before official practice.
Source: CBS News Atlanta
Division I teams held their first official practices for 2026-27 this week, including North Carolina’s Year One under new coach Michael Malone, the longtime Denver Nuggets coach hired in April, and Syracuse’s opener under first-year coach and former Orange guard Gerry McNamara. Purdue and Nebraska also opened camp, with Purdue rebuilding after Dusty May left for the Mavericks.
Source: Yahoo Sports
Indiana’s final injury report ahead of Sunday’s series opener at the Aces lists Caitlin Clark as probable with the back issue she’s played through much of the season, while Aliyah Boston is questionable with a recurring lower-leg problem after leaving Thursday’s finale early. Boston’s health looms as the swing factor for a Fever team facing the defending-champion Aces on the road.
Source: Yahoo Sports
Reese took a hit to the face from Sabrina Ionescu — upgraded on review to a flagrant foul — that forced her out before halftime of Atlanta’s regular-season finale, but the Dream did not list her on the injury report for Game 1 against Washington. Coach Karl Smesko said she’s had good practices and “seems to be in great spirits” heading into the playoffs.
Source: Yahoo Sports
Dallas brings a franchise-best 27-win season built around 2025 Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers, who broke Arike Ogunbowale’s single-season Dallas scoring record, into a first-round matchup at Golden State. The Valkyries held the Wings well under their season scoring average in all three regular-season meetings, making Golden State a heavy favorite in the series opener.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks enter 2026-27 without an obvious floor general for the first time in years, after Raven Johnson’s departure and presumed successor Maddy McDaniel’s withdrawal from the university over the summer. Reporting describes a point-guard-by-committee approach, with Tessa Johnson, Agot Makeer, Brooke Quarles Daniels and Jerzy Robinson all in the mix.
Source: Yahoo Sports
Hoops HQ’s preseason rankings lead with South Carolina, returning forwards Joyce Edwards and Chloe Kitts; UConn, now centered on reigning National Player of the Year Sarah Strong with Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd gone to the WNBA; and USC, built around JuJu Watkins’ return from a torn ACL.
Source: Hoops HQ
Houston pounded Oakland 13-2 behind five home runs while Texas beat Minnesota 6-2, so neither the Astros nor the Rangers gained ground and the division title is now a true win-or-go-home coin flip on the season’s final day. Both clubs, on pace for the worst record ever to win a full-season division, know a loss likely ends their season given the crowded wild-card picture behind them.
Source: KSAT/AP
Philadelphia lost its fourth straight game, falling 12-1 to Tampa Bay, while Arizona also lost, 10-7 at San Diego, leaving the last NL wild-card spot unchanged heading into Sunday. The Phillies still lead by a game, but Arizona holds the season-series tiebreaker, meaning Philadelphia needs a better final record than the Diamondbacks to actually claim the berth.
Source: Arizona Sports
Alvarez went 2-for-5 with a double and a three-run homer — his 42nd of the year — in Houston’s rout of Oakland, pulling him within one home run of Pete Alonso for the major-league lead as the Astros try to close out the AL West.
Source: CBS Sports
With final 23-man rosters due by Monday at 5 p.m. ET, teams made a wave of moves this weekend — Nashville and Minnesota both trimmed to 27, Detroit cut to 28 after assigning players to Grand Rapids, and Vancouver sent 15 more players to the minors and juniors. Separately, 18 players were placed on waivers around the league, including Andreas Englund (claimed by Detroit) and William Trudeau (claimed by Nashville).
Source: NHL.com/Predators
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen left Buffalo’s preseason-finale loss to Pittsburgh early in the third period with what coach Lindy Ruff called a precautionary lower-body issue, coming just two days after backup Alex Lyon went down with an upper-body injury. That leaves Colten Ellis as the Sabres’ only healthy goaltender days before their opener in Columbus.
Source: NHL.com/Sabres
Minnesota defenseman Brock Faber was struck near the ear by a shot in Friday’s preseason finale against Dallas and is considered day-to-day, though the Wild haven’t ruled him out for Thursday’s opener at Nashville. The 2-1 loss also featured a string of late fights as the Wild-Stars rivalry boiled over.
Source: Star Tribune
Rosas Jr. and Barcelos traded heavy shots and takedowns across four rounds at UFC Vegas 121 before Rosas swept Barcelos to the canvas in a round-five clinch exchange, where Barcelos appeared to strike his head on the way down and went limp. Referee Herb Dean stopped it at 1:38 of the fifth round, and Barcelos was stretchered out but confirmed conscious afterward.
Source: Yahoo Sports
Judges scored the UFC Vegas 121 co-main event 29-28 across the board for Perez over Dumont in a low-action grudge match, a decision that drew immediate criticism from fans and pundits and required security to separate the two fighters after the scores were read.
Source: LowKick MMA
Fisher’s heavyweight comeback went the full ten rounds in London against Belgium’s Pirotton, who cut Fisher and pressured him throughout. Two judges scored it for Fisher (98-92, 96-95) while a third saw it even at 95-95, making it a majority-decision win rather than a clean one in the Zuffa Boxing 11 headliner.
Source: BoxingInsider
Davies dropped Collins in the first round and kept up the pressure in Birmingham until a cut over Collins’s right eye forced a corner retirement after round seven. The win came on a separate British card the same Saturday night as the Zuffa Boxing show.
Source: FightMag
The International team extended its edge over Team USA through Saturday’s fourball and foursomes sessions at Medinah, the first time the Internationals have led on U.S. soil heading into the closing singles session in the event’s history. Sunday’s 12 singles matches need 15.5 points to win the Cup outright, with the Americans requiring 7.5 points just to retain it and the Internationals needing only 5 for their first win since 1998.
Source: PGA Tour
Forged Steel sat just off the pace before charging past on the second turn to win the Goodwood Stakes by about two lengths at Santa Anita, an upset for jockey Edwin González and trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. The win punches the 4-year-old colt’s ticket to the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on October 31 at Keeneland.
Source: Horse Racing Nation
A powerful nor’easter with forecast gusts over 50 mph forced NYRA to cancel both Saturday’s and Sunday’s live racing at Belmont Park, pushing six graded stakes — including the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic and the Vosburgh, Flower Bowl and Gallant Bloom — to a makeup date of Thursday, October 1. The marquee turf race previewed as running this weekend hasn’t actually been run yet.
Source: NYRA