College football fans witnessed a stunning turnaround on Thursday, highlighted by a historic upset that saw a team winless a year ago topple a major conference opponent, while off-field legal battles continued to shape the sport’s landscape.
Fun: Time to rank UMass No. 1
Before diving into the off-field controversies, let’s start with some pure college football excitement. Last night delivered a thrilling showcase, led by a team that went winless just a year ago:
- UMass — UMass! — trounced Rutgers, at Rutgers, 37-21. The Minutemen had not won a game in two years, had not beaten an FBS opponent since 2023, and their last major-conference victory dated back to 1978. Yet, they dominated Rutgers all night long.
- Rutgers paid UMass $1.55 million to play this game, and Minutemen coach Joe Harasymiak was the Scarlet Knights’ defensive coordinator for three years before taking this job two years ago. Paying an old acquaintance seven figures to hand them an embarrassing loss makes for a remarkable result.
Read the full recap here. The Athletic’s Chris Vannini, who curates our weekly ranking of all 138 FBS teams, had the Minutemen at No. 138 before last night’s game. He noted that Rutgers (ranked 79th) might have to occupy the list’s final spot next week. Wild.
- Not to be outdone, Colorado and Deion Sanders pulled off an intense last-minute comeback at Georgia Tech last night, scoring a touchdown with 47 seconds left and blocking a game-winning field goal at the buzzer. Colorado 14, Georgia Tech 13.
Let’s address the less cheerful aspects of the day:
Not Fun: Judge sides with LSU, fueling further conflict
Nathan Ray Seebeck / Imagn Images
The rest of college football’s Thursday took place in a courtroom and an HR office. Here is the breakdown:
- A Louisiana judge sided with multiple players seeking college reinstatement after spending time in NFL training camps this fall, which clears the way for two former Ole Miss and NFL players to join LSU’s roster. It came hours after the SEC filed suit in federal court against LSU, which has until tonight to decide whether to actually roster these players. This situation represents an unprecedented mess for the conference.
- Meanwhile, at North Carolina, football general manager Michael Lombardi resigned amid the school’s investigation into his conduct. The probe is also expanding to include the entire UNC football program and possible inappropriate relationships within it. Read more here.
We’ll have plenty more on both topics this weekend, including a piece on the LSU saga from yours truly. Let’s keep moving:
News to Know
The Athletic concludes inquiry into Russini
An internal investigation into former Athletic NFL insider Dianna Russini’s work at the publication found she was “noncompliant” with standards due to her relationship with Patriots coach Mike Vrabel. The report, released yesterday, found little impact on Russini’s reporting outside of the failure to disclose her connection to Vrabel to editors. You can read our story on it or the full report.
More news:
- In a new documentary, former Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby made his first comments since the gambling scandal that unraveled his final season. Read them here.
- The Rockets and two-way star Amen Thompson agreed to a five-year, $208 million max extension yesterday, a source confirmed to The Athletic. He’s well worth it.
- Red Sox catcher Adley Rutschman returned to Baltimore for the first time last night. He homered twice.
- Former NFL QB and broadcaster Mark Sanchez will plead guilty to charges stemming from an altercation last season in Indianapolis, which left Sanchez stabbed and led to him losing his job at Fox. Read our full story.
- A South African airline canceled its flyover at a rugby match this weekend after an absurdly close call during one last weekend. Watch the footage inside.
- Enes Kanter Freedom filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Sky after his banishment from Wintrust Arena. Read more.
Find more news here 24/7.
Monitoring : Niners? In Australia?
Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images
What a week we’ve had and, as you’ll see in the next section, what a weekend we have ahead. No time to waste. Here’s what we’re monitoring:
San Francisco claims Australia, apparently. The 49ers and Rams will open their season next week with the NFL’s first game in Australia, and apparently we should expect a sea of red. That’s true for two reasons: Niners fans travel well and … Australia already loves the team.
It’s a curious case, as the 49ers don’t even own marketing rights in Australia. Those belong to the Rams, Eagles, Raiders and Seahawks. The reasons: video games and fantasy football, mostly. Read the full reasons here.
A savior in Anaheim? Amid all the actual games happening in multiple sports, it’s easy to gloss over how impactful Stan Kroenke’s purchase of the Los Angeles Angels can be. Kroenke’s holding company owns six professional sports franchises, all of which have won at least one league title during his tenure.
So many aspects of the franchise will change. Will there be a new stadium? What about roster payroll? Leadership? They’re all part of 10 questions we had around the sale.
Andy Lyons / Getty Images
Hello, fellow kids. MLB’s September call-ups aren’t as pronounced as they once were, with rosters only expanding by two spots for the last few years instead of the 15 available spaces we saw before. Still, some notable names have popped up in the early going this month.
Lead among them is Padres catcher Ethan Salas, who’s just 20 years old but has been on our radar since San Diego signed him as an international free agent at just 16. Read Keith Law’s updated thoughts on Salas and the other call-ups.
Trading ice for water. Speaking of young prospects, 21-year-old McKenzie Siroky faced an agonizing decision a few years ago: play college hockey, as she initially intended, or pursue swimming?
She chose the pool over playing for the defending national runners-up in hockey. Now she’s an Olympic swimming prospect for the U.S. I’d say it worked out.
Courtesy of the Brooklyn Nets
Swamp Dragons. Yes, this was almost the name of the then-New Jersey Nets in the 1990s. It was part of a rebranding effort that got nixed at the last minute. I can’t decide whether the logo/name is too hokey or actually 10 times better than “Nets.” The backstory is fun, though.
COLTON COWSER GAME-ENDING HOME RUN ROBBERY pic.twitter.com/wHivffl0Fu
— MLB (@MLB) September 1, 2026
A robbery. We missed it earlier in the week, but Colton Cowser’s game-winning home-run robbery deserves some space here, both for the catch alone — just watch it — and the timing, as the Orioles sit within striking distance of the AL’s final wild-card spot. That’s just art.
Thank you for monitoring. Almost to the weekend:
Watch Guide
FIBA World Cup: USA vs. China
8:15 a.m. ET on TNT
This is Team USA’s first game of the FIBA World Cup, which has the WNBA on pause for two weeks. The Americans don’t have A’ja Wilson or Kelsey Plum on the roster, but there’s still plenty of talent. Read our full scouting report.
Tennis: U.S. Open third round
11 a.m.-9 p.m. ET on ESPN networks
More great matches today as we winnow down the field. Carlos Alcaraz plays on the men’s side; Aryna Sabalenka plays in the women’s bracket. See the slate.
EPL: Liverpool at Ipswich Town
3 p.m. ET on USA Network
It’s always a good idea to turn on the Premier League on a Friday afternoon, and technically Ipswich Town leads powerhouse Liverpool in the early EPL table. Fun.
MLB: Tigers at Guardians
7:15 p.m. ET on Apple TV
The second game of a doubleheader today, and Cleveland trails the White Sox by just three games in the AL Central and clings to a slim lead for the final AL wild-card slot. Things are precarious. Detroit, 5 1/2 games back of that wild-card spot, needs every win it can get.
CFB: No. 7 Miami at Stanford
9 p.m. ET on ESPN
A few notable teams play tonight, including No. 14 USC and No. 10 Oklahoma. But I’m picking to watch last year’s runners-up in a game they should — key word — win comfortably. Even if it’s a blowout, we can watch wide receiver Malachi Toney play for the Hurricanes and see how quarterback Darian Mensah looks in a new uniform.
Pulse Picks
The 2026 NFL MVP: Josh Allen. At least according to a survey of NFL decision-makers. See all their picks.
An interesting wrinkle coming out of the Clippers drama Wednesday: Who knew NBA commissioner Adam Silver had this in him?
Also, our Dan Shanoff chatted with Pablo Torre, who broke the Clippers story, about how the past year has been.
Shohei Ohtani clearly isn’t healthy. Fabian Ardaya wondered how long the Dodgers will let him play through it.
I couldn’t resist this story from earlier in the week: How Topps turned big-time athletes into Minions to make rare sports cards. Really.
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: The news on Bill Simmons’ proxy-bet goof.
Most-read on the website yesterday: The U.S. Open Tennis Briefing from Day 4’s “microdrama.”