Drafting is truly one of the most maddening parts of sports. Yes, it’s a reason for fans to have enthusiasm for a team with a sub-.400 winning percentage four months before the season begins. When it feels like the rest of the league is on the road to success and your favorite team is in the depths of the sewer, reading that your team got a good grade on the draft, nearly half-a-year before any of the players will see game-action, is all the light that you need to keep those phone alerts on for the rest of the offseason. For the people whose job it is to improve their teams through the draft, they are stuck with the task of evaluating potential players against inferior competition. About two percent of players who participated in NCAA football last season will play professional footb…

Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus – the three remaining rebel clubs from the failed European Super League project – have released a new joint statement, hitting back after Uefa launched disciplinary proceedings against them.

The three sides claim the European governing body’s actions, which could lead to their expulsion from the Champions League, are “incomprehensible” and risk causing football’s “inevitable downfall”. All three insist they are still committed to the controversial breakaway Super League.

Barcelona, Madrid and Juventus at risk of Champions League ban over ESL plotRead more

The project collapsed within 48 hours of its launch last month as the other nine teams involved, including six f…

Antonio Conte has spoken of the “strange” experience of watching his two most senior players face each other from the penalty spot not once but twice during the World Cup.

The Spurs coach has the task of making sure both Harry Kane and Hugo Lloris are focused on achieving for Spurs in the second half of the Premier League season which resumes on Boxing Day. But the Italian has little doubt his two leaders will be ready, despite the unusual events of the quarter-final between England and France.

“During the game it was really strange because on one side I had Hugo and on the other I had Harry,” Conte said. “To see two penalties and two teammates against each other it was not easy, honestly, and I think for …

The heat was on for the US women’s soccer team’s final tune-up before the Paris Olympics, with sweltering temperatures in the air and plenty of chances to score.

The goals did not come in a 0-0 draw against Costa Rica on Tuesday night, just the second time – and first since 2015 – the US did not win its last game before a major tournament. But the match showed the Americans could handle the kind of high temperatures that could await later this month.

Morgan’s Olympic snub may not be Emma Hayes’s most contentious decisionRead more

“The last two games have been insane,” defender Casey Krueger said, referring to back-to-back friendlies before the team’s cross-Atlantic flight. “I feel like this is goi…

It’s only been a few short weeks since Outkick’s David Hookstead blamed some non-existent woke-ism manifesto for the placement of women’s college basketball dominating ESPN.com’s front page. A few weeks before that, Jason Whitlock was frothing at the mouth over women’s basketball highlights leading off SportsCenter. Welp, the boogeyman is back again, because the women’s NCAA Tournament has been the superior product buoyed by the more scintillating characters and storylines all March. We’ve seen Stanford’s upset at the hands of Ole Miss, Maddie Siegrist’s scoring eruptions, Caitlin’s planetary range, and K im Mulkey’s confetti-colored fits while men’s coaches these days stalk the sidelines in their morning sweaters. South Carolina’s unblemished record and V…

There was a time not too long ago when the NFC East was considered one of the most competitive divisions in football. Over the past decade, the division has had two Super Bowl winners (Eagles, Giants), exciting Washington teams and the Dallas Cowboys. But the days of parity in the NFC East are over. For the past four years, the Cowboys and Eagles have alternated division crowns. Last season, the two teams were jockeying for a playoff spot until the Eagles all but cemented a postseason berth after beating the Cowboys in Week 16. They are still the prohibitive favorites to win the division. But there’s reason to believe that this year’s title will be decided when Dallas and Philly meet again in Week 16. Let’s take a trip up and down the Northeast Corridor (and northeast Texas). Dall…

Branden Carlson had 21 points and 11 rebounds to lead Utah to an 84-75 victory over UC Irvine Tuesday night in an NIT first-round game in Salt Lake City. The second-seeded Utes (20-14) next host No. 3 Iowa (19-14) in the second round Saturday or Sunday. The victory was the first for Utah in the postseason since 2018, when the Utes reached the NIT championship game. Deivon Smith had 13 points, 10 assists and six rebounds for Utah. Gabe Madsen finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Hunter Erickson added 13 points. UC Irvine (24-10) was led by Derin Saran's 16 points. Devin Tillis contributed 14 points with seven rebounds and Bent Leuchten finished with 13 points and six rebounds. UC Irvine went on a 9-0 run to cut Utah's lead to 77-73 with 2:05 left. Justin…

De'Aaron Fox poured in 41 points, Malik Monk and Keon Ellis combined for 35 off the bench and the host Sacramento Kings overcame a 43-point performance by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for a 128-123 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night. In the opener of a six-game homestand, Domantas Sabonis recorded an 18-point, 16-rebound double-double against his former team, helping the Kings beat the Thunder for the second straight time this season. Josh Giddey chipped in with 18 points for the Thunder. He hit consecutive hoops at the end of a 6-0 burst that got the Thunder to within 119-117 with 3:00 remaining, capping a rally from 14 down. Gilgeous-Alexander tied his season high in points with a layup with 6.1 seconds to go, making it a one-possession game again at 124-121, be…