Unseeded Washington completes epic run to first NCAA soccer championship

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🚨 Titles

🏈 Bow to return: Arch Manning will return to Texas for his junior year rather than enter the NFL draft. After a rough start to the season, he ended up leading the Longhorns to a 9-3 record that nearly got them to the College Football Playoff.

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🏀 Flagg makes history: Cooper Flagg scored a career-high 42 points in the Mavericks’ overtime loss to the Jazz, breaking LeBron James’ record for most points ever scored in a game by an 18-year-old player. He will be 19 this Sunday.

⛳️ Scottie named POY again: Scottie Scheffler was once again named PGA Tour Player of the Year, joining Tiger Woods as the only golfer to win the award four consecutive seasons.

⛳️ AP polls: Arizona (men) and UConn (women) remain at the top of their respective AP Top 25 polls, which featured little change after a week without notable upsets.

⚽️ The Red Bulls hire Bradley: Former USMNT captain Michael Bradley has been named head coach of the New York Red Bulls, taking over the position his father, Bob, held twenty years ago. Bradley led the club’s MLS Next Pro team to a title last month.

⚽️ Huskies complete epic run to title

Washington was unseeded in the NCAA men’s soccer tournament. Four weeks later, they are national champions.

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Cinderella Race: The Huskies beat NC State, 3-2, in Monday’s title game to win their first national championship and become the first team to win six road games in the tournament, knocking off five top-seeded teams along the way.

• First round: Washington 3, Oregon State 2 (OT)

• Second round: Washington 1, SMU 0

• Sweet sixteen: Washington 1, Stanford 0

• Elite Eight: Washington 3, Maryland 1

• Semi-final: Washington 3, Furman 1

• Final: Washington 3, North Carolina State 2 (OT)

Golden goal: Washington blew a two-goal lead in the second half, but Harrison Bertos scored 1:54 into overtime to clinch the championship victory.

What they say: “It was a hell of a game and it was a spectacle for all 10,000 people in attendance,” said Huskies head coach Jamie Clark. “And it was a spectacle because NC State didn’t give up 2-0 and they pushed us to the limit.”

💯 Big numbers

🏈 23rd consecutive victory

The Steelers beat the Dolphins 28-15 last night to win their 23rd straight home game on Monday Night Football, the longest such streak since the MNF began in 1970.

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Speaking of sequences: It was Miami’s 14th straight loss (including the playoffs) in games in temperatures below 40 degrees.

🏀 7 undefeated teams

No. 1 Arizona (9-0) is one of seven undefeated teams remaining in DI men’s hoops, along with No. 2 Michigan (10-0), No. 3 Duke (10-0), No. 4 Iowa State (10-0), No. 13 Vanderbilt (10-0), No. 15 Nebraska (11-0) and Miami-Ohio (10-0).

Historical beginning: The top-ranked Wildcats are the first team in AP Poll history (since 1948) to earn five wins against ranked opponents in their first nine games. They have won their start undefeated.

⚽️ 277 goal commitments

Mohamed Salah was involved in his 277th goal for Liverpool on Saturday, breaking the record for most goals (goals and assists) for a single club in Premier League history.

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What record did he break? The Egyptian has 188 goals and 89 assists for Liverpool in the English top flight, surpassing Wayne Rooney’s tally of 276 goals (183 goals, 93 assists) for Manchester United.

🏈 27 years old

With the Chiefs eliminated from playoff contention, the next NFL playoffs will be first in 27 years (since 1998) without Peyton Manning, Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes.

Who were the QBs in 1998? John Elway (Broncos), Brett Favre (Packers), Steve Young (49ers), Dan Marino (Dolphins), Drew Bledsoe (Patriots), Randall Cunningham (Vikings), Elvis Grbac (Chiefs), Kordell Stewart (Steelers), Mark Brunell (Jaguars), Trent Dilfer (Buccaneers), Danny Kanell (Giants), Scott Mitchell (Lions).

🏈 2025 AP All-Americans

Indiana Heisman-winning QB Fernando Mendoza headlined the AP All-America first team, which was released Monday alongside the second and third teams.

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Remarks :

• By conference: The Big Ten (10) had by far the most players on the 27-man first team, followed by the SEC (6), Big 12 (3), C-USA (2), ACC (1), American (1) and MWC (1), as well as three independents.

• By school: Ohio State led the way with four first-team players, including three from their top FBS defensive unit. Notre Dame, USC, Iowa, Texas A&M and Texas Tech were the only other schools with multiple first-team players.

• By class: Seniors (14) and juniors (10) made up almost the entire first team, with only three freshmen retained: sophomores Jeremiah Smith, Ahmad Hardy and Leonard Moore.

Sign of the times: Nearly half of first-team players (12 of 27) did not begin their careers at their current school, which has become the norm in the transfer portal era.

100 years later… This year marked the 100th anniversary of the first AP All-America team selected in 1925. To celebrate, the AP named its all-time All-Americans in August, with guys like Tim Tebow, Barry Sanders and Dick Butkus leading the first 25-man team and Archie Griffin, Lawrence Taylor and Champ Bailey leading the second.

🏈 The perils of an 18-game NFL season

From Jay Busbee of Yahoo Sports:

If football is good, more football is better, right? If NFL Sundays are the best Sundays, why not create another one?

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More soccer means more revenue for the league and broadcast partners, more fantasy and gaming opportunities for fans, more of everything that makes soccer great. Who wouldn’t want the NFL season to add an 18th game?

“I’m not a big fan of it,” one NFL player said in July when asked about the possibility of the NFL season expanding to 18 games. “You’ve seen the number of injuries that pile up at the end of seasons, and you want the best players playing in the biggest games.”

This player was Patrick Mahomes, who is now lost for the season thanks to a torn ACL in Week 15. Also missing for 2025: Green Bay’s Micah Parsons, who tore his ACL around the same time Mahomes did.

Every play in the NFL is a spin of the roulette wheel that carries the possibility of a catastrophic injury. And each additional game means 40 or 50 more spins of that wheel.

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For Mahomes and Parsons, the wheel hit double zeros on Sunday. Wondering who will be next — wondering which season is about to be derailed by injury — is a grim endeavor, but necessary if we’re talking about adding yet another game.

Keep reading.

📺 Watchlist: Tuesday, December 16

🏀 NBA Cup Final

The Spurs and Knicks face off tonight in Las Vegas (8:30 p.m. ET, Prime)where a champion will be crowned in the third annual tournament of the season.

Prize money: Each player on the winning team will take home $530,933, while each runner-up player will take home $212,373. It may be a drop in the ocean for the NBA’s biggest stars, but it’s a substantial reward for those on league minimum deals.

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🏒 NHL on TNT

Sidney Crosby and the Penguins host Connor McDavid and the Oilers in the first leg of the doubleheader (7:30 p.m.)as the Kraken host the league-leading Avalanche in the nightcap (10 p.m.).

Alone at the top: Colorado (23-2-7) not only has the best record in the NHL, its +54 goal differential is more than twice as high as the next best record (Stars, +25).

More to watch:

• 🏀 NCAAM: No. 11 Louisville at No. 20 Tennessee (7 p.m., ESPN); DePaul at No. 22 St. John’s (7 p.m., Peacock); Butler at No. 5 UConn (8:30 p.m., Peacock)

• 🏈 NCAAF: Troy vs. Jacksonville State (9 p.m., ESPN) …The Salute to Veterans Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama.

Today’s complete slate.

🏈 NFL Quiz

52 years ago today, OJ Simpson became the first of nine players in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season.

Question: How many of the other eight can you name?

Reply below.

📸Photo finish

🇨🇭 Davos, Switzerland — Italy’s Davide Graz competes in a World Cup cross-country event. What a blow.

Trivial answer: Eric Dickerson (2,105 yards in 1984); Adrian Peterson (2,097 yards in 2012); Jamal Lewis (2,066 yards in 2003); Barry Sanders (2,053 yards in 1997); Derrick Henry (2,027 yards in 2020); Terrell Davis (2,008 yards in 1998); Chris Johnson (2,006 yards in 2009); Saquon Barkley (2,005 yards in 2024)

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