College football’s playoff field has tripled. Turns out picking 12 teams is just as hard
The College Football Playoff has expanded to from four to 12 teams this season, yet the debate around it remains as intense as ever. Here’s our foolproof selection method
UFC has fight on its hands against Elite XC - USATODAY.com
Eight years after mixed martial arts a hybrid of kickboxing and aggressive wrestling styles such as jujitsu seemed dead in the USA, a live fight card will be prime-time network fare Saturday. However, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the...
One sad reason why kids quit soccer: boorish adults
The annual Project Play report on youth sports participation has been released in advance of a summit at which Crystal Dunn, Alex Morgan and Jess Fishlock were featured speakers, and the numbers are so-so. Pre-pandemic, the decline in soccer participation in thecrucial 6-12 age bracket had finally stopped, with the rate nudging upward from 7.4% […]
They call soccer The Simplest Game. But officiating it can certainly get complicated, especially when the coaches let it get that way. At the lowest levels, it can be basic confusion over who’s in charge of a game, as I found in my last game of the season. The players were U-11 boys who, if […]
On the USA's early exit Down Under: A myth-busting optimistic dissection
The spectrum of thought on the U.S. women’s team’s results at the World Cup span runs between these two extremes: Everything is wrong. The USA doesn’t produce players capable of matching European supremacy in tactics and technique. We’re all focused on college soccer, which prizes athleticism more than anything else. We need 100 professional clubs […]
Emma Hayes can lead USWNT to Olympic gold despite delayed start
The Englishwoman will leave Chelsea in May to take up her new role, leaving her just four games to prepare for the 2024 Olympics. That may not be a problem