Sports

12:20 PM ET Pete ThamelESPN With all respect to the rapt attention that will be paid to the verbal donnybrook between Alabama’s Nick Saban and Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher, there are more pressing matters that will unfold when SEC officials meet in Destin, Fla., for their annual meetings next week. With the SEC poised to

8:17 AM ET TULSA, Okla. — Justin Thomas‘ long wait to win another major championship is over after he defeated Will Zalatoris in a playoff to win the 104th PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club. Zalatoris will have to wait again for his first PGA Tour victory, along with Mito Pereira, whose costly mistake

8:40 PM ET The Colorado Avalanche are working with St. Louis law enforcement regarding threats made towards center Nazem Kadri after their Game 3 victory against the Blues Saturday night. The threats followed a series-ending injury to Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington after a collision involving Kadri. Just 6:45 into the first period of Game 3,

7:00 AM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” A few years ago, Johnny Cueto bought an ambulance, though to call this particular vehicle an ambulance is something of a misnomer. It is more like a real-life Transformer. Open the back

7:09 PM ET Associated Press BALTIMORE — Early Voting held off hard-charging favorite Epicenter to win the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, validating the decision to skip the Kentucky Derby and aim for the second leg of the Triple Crown. Early Voting stalked behind the leaders for much of the race before moving into the lead

7:30 AM ET Sam Marsden Moises Llorens Barcelona defender Irene Paredes hopes selling out Camp Nou will serve as inspiration for other clubs ahead of Saturday’s Champions League final against Lyon. Barca twice broke the attendance record in women’s football on their way to this weekend’s showpiece in Turin, with 91,553 fans watching their quarterfinal

7:00 AM ET NASCAR is hitting its annual All-Star break (yes, I realize there’s not an actual break, and there won’t be one for another month, but Sunday is the All-Star Race, so work with me here), and the Cup Series season now has 13 of the 26 regular-season events in the books. We’re halfway

4:04 PM ET Glover Teixeira’s days competing in the Octagon seem numbered. The UFC light heavyweight champion told Globo’s Mundo de Luta podcast Wednesday that he would like to wrap up his illustrious career in the next few months and this would “probably” be his final year fighting. Teixeira, 42, will defend his light heavyweight

1:25 PM BST DUBLIN, Ireland — Expect to hear the word “runway” a lot over the next decade in and around rugby corridors. That’s the crux of why World Rugby announced the hosts of the next five Rugby World Cups on Thursday — to give the sport enough time to plan their next global gatherings

7:09 AM ET There is no denying the PGA Championship, which starts Thursday at Southern Hills, has its headliners. That would be the 9:11 a.m. time on Thursday: Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth. But there are others worth discussing, from world No. 1 and reigning Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, to previous No. 1

7:55 AM ET Editor’s note: Chantelle Cameron will defend her WBC and IBF junior welterweight world titles on Saturday, and she hopes victory will lead to a showdown with Kali Reis, who holds the other two world titles in the weight division. Cameron (15-0, 8 KOs), 30, from Northampton, England, will fight Victoria Bustos (23-6,

2:00 AM ET MIAMI — Jimmy Butler is worth the drama. That isn’t exactly how Erik Spoelstra termed Butler’s game on Tuesday night, of course. The Miami Heat coach was his usual controlled self after guiding his team to a 118-107 victory over the Boston Celtics, fueled by Butler’s greatness, to take a 1-0 lead

7:43 AM ET NOVAK DJOKOVIC IS looking for something. It is Orthodox Easter Sunday in Belgrade. Djokovic is playing the final of the Serbia Open, a crowd of 8,000-plus bellowing behind him. Down one set to Andrey Rublev of Russia, he rallies back in the second to force a tiebreak. But late in the set,

7:00 AM ET The Bills might have ended last season with a coin flip and heartbreak, but according to ESPN’s Football Power Index, they enter the 2022 NFL season as the best team in football and the Super Bowl favorites. Buffalo leads ESPN’s FPI preseason ratings — which were released on Tuesday — and is

10:51 AM BST England coach Eddie Jones has included 10 uncapped players, including in-form London Irish duo Henry Arundell and Will Joseph, in a 36-man training squad to prepare for the summer tour of Australia. Joe Cokanasiga, Owen Farrell, Manu Tuilagi, Anthony Watson and Jack Willis return following injury, while prop Mako Vunipola has also

5:41 PM ET Associated Press BALTIMORE — Kentucky Derby runner-up Epicenter was set Monday as the 6-5 morning line favorite for the Preakness Stakes, which will be run without Rich Strike. The surprise Derby winner at 80-1 is not in the field of nine for Saturday’s $1.65 million race at Pimlico. Rich Strike’s owner felt

1:57 PM ET The first round of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs lasted 51 games — including a pair of Game 7 overtime thrillers in games No. 50 and 51 — and now we’re on to Round 2. To help digest what we saw from each of the eight surviving teams, as well as preview

8:00 AM ET College football can be cyclical, and the pendulum swung back toward defense in 2021. Georgia won its first national title in 41 years behind a historically good defense that produced eight picks in last month’s NFL draft, including a record five in the first round. The Big 12, long both celebrated and

12:00 AM ET There are tough losses. And then there is the kind of loss the Reds suffered on Sunday: It’s like when you’re out for a walk on a beautiful sunny day and you see the cutest little puppy who greets everybody with its tail wagging 100 mph and then you go up to

10:27 PM ET Associated Press KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Zane Smith drove away from pole-sitter John Hunter Nemechek and Ty Majeski on a restart with nine laps to go at Kansas Speedway on Saturday night for his third NASCAR Truck Series victory of the season. The 22-year-old Smith, who moved from GMS Racing to Front