Sports

12:05 PM ET ESPN staff The AP Top 25 college football poll is out. And there’s no surprise that Alabama, defending national champ and home of the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, starts on top. But who could follow DeVonta Smith in lifting the sport’s most iconic trophy? Let’s take a look at the most likely

Aug 13, 2021 Associated Press TORONTO — Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews had wrist surgery Friday and is expected to need a “minimum” of six weeks to recover. The team said Matthews, who won the Rocket Richard Trophy last season as the NHL’s top goal scorer, had the surgery following “consultations with specialists and

6:59 AM BST Game I of the Bledisloe Cup is in the books and yet again it is the All Blacks with one hand on the trophy. After last week’s 33-25 victory in Auckland, New Zealand return to Eden Park knowing a win will secure the trophy for a 19th straight year. Can the Wallabies

8:25 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim Keeping alive a quest to pocket $1 million would seem to be all the motivation Ray Cooper III really needs as he heads into Friday’s PFL welterweight playoff semifinal (9 p.m. ET, ESPN2/ESPN+). But Cooper does have an added incentive driving his desire to defeat Rory MacDonald. It has nothing

6:06 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — A racehorse trainer pleaded guilty in New York on Wednesday to charges related to a scheme to give horses performance-enhancing drugs. Jorge Navarro entered the plea in Manhattan federal court, where sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 17. Navarro was charged last year along with over two dozen

7:32 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Guillermo Rigondeaux has heard it all before. He’s boring. Unwatchable. The opposite of entertaining. The two-time Olympic gold medalist absorbed all the criticism even as he was boxing circles around his opponents. Nonito Donaire, then the reigning ESPN fighter of the year, was thoroughly outboxed by Rigondeaux in 2013. Despite

10:38 AM BST The decision to launch a female British & Irish Lions touring team will be made before the end of the year, Lions’ chief executive Ben Calveley has said. A feasibility study is underway to address the financial and logistical hurdles that exist within the women’s game and to look into the viability

Aug 9, 2021 The NHL free-agency frenzy of 2021 started 27 days later than the usual opening day of July 1, but it was as wild as any in recent memory, with more than $500 million spent on deals on the first day alone. A number of valuable players remain who have yet to make

7:53 PM ET MEMPHIS, Tenn. – For the better part of two months, nothing has been easy for Bryson DeChambeau. The latest example occurred on Sunday at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, where the eight-time PGA Tour winner saw a chance to win evaporate with a couple of balls in the water on the back

10:33 PM ET Associated Press SAN JOSE, Calif. — American Danielle Collins captured her second career title in just a two-week span, holding off No. 4 seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-3, 6-7 (10), 6-1 after a thrilling second-set tiebreaker Sunday in the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic. Collins, seeded seventh, won her first championship at

9:58 PM ET Associated Press TRUCKEE, Calif. — Erik van Rooyen won the Barracuda Championship on Sunday for his first PGA Tour title, finishing with 50 points in the modified Stableford scoring system. Van Rooyen, the 31-year-old former University of Minnesota player from South Africa, eagled the par-4 eighth and closed with a birdie on

7:22 PM ET Associated Press EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Captain Corey took the lead early, held off one challenge and then drew off in the stretch to give trainer-driver Ake Svanstedt his second win in the $1 million Hambletonian on Saturday at the Meadowlands. Svanstedt didn’t need any help from the judges this time. He

12:30 AM ET SAITAMA, Japan — Kevin Durant has had some wonderful days in his career, but there’s never been one like this green and gold Saturday in Japan. First there was a new $198 million contract locked in with the Brooklyn Nets. Then the pride of Seat Pleasant, Md., extended his legendary status as

4:03 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN Kevin Durant plans to sign a four-year, $198 million maximum contract extension with the Brooklyn Nets sometime after he becomes eligible Saturday, his longtime business manager and co-founder of 35 Ventures and Boardroom, Rich Kleiman, told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Durant is expected to decline his 2022-23 player option and extend

3:50 PM ET Kawhi Leonard has decided to return to the LA Clippers, a source confirmed to ESPN. Terms of the deal are being finalized for Leonard, who declined his player option for $36 million this coming season to become a free agent but was expected to return to the Clippers. His decision to stay

3:13 PM ET The Milwaukee Bucks have acquired guard Grayson Allen in a trade with the Memphis Grizzlies, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. In return, the Grizzlies will get guard Sam Merrill and two future second-round picks, sources said. Allen, the 25-year-old former Duke standout, set career highs in points (10.6), rebounds (3.2) and assists

7:03 AM ET Charlotte GibsonESPN Before Team USA’s Nelly Korda teed off in the final round in the women’s Olympic golf competition at Kasumigaseki Country Club, gold medal winner and fellow Team USA member Xander Schauffele tweeted her a special message: “Bring home the gold @NellyKorda! I’ll be rooting for you tonight.” For 54 holes

7:27 PM ET Associated Press WASHINGTON — Teen tennis sensation Coco Gauff said she was supposed to get her first vaccine shot the same week she got COVID-19, which forced her to pull out of the Tokyo Olympics and has left her without her sense of smell. “I’m just happy that I didn’t have really

Aug 5, 2021 The standoff between the Buffalo Sabres and star center Jack Eichel has progressed past the point of usefulness for all involved. It’s degenerated into public discourse for a matter than should have remained internal; now we have a general manager bragging about leverage, and agents sending Notes app missives to local media

6:00 AM ET GREEN BAY, Wis. — The first week of training camp here has revealed an early test of the Green Bay Packers‘ shadow general manager, aka quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Two slot receivers — one a veteran whom Rodgers campaigned to acquire, the other a rookie drafted when Rodgers was contemplating his future —