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Happy Tuesday! Brent Brookhouse here to take you through all the news you need to know this morning.
With the next round of the College Football Playoff just days away and the final week of the NFL season right behind, it’s a great time for football fans. However, Tuesday is loaded with a variety of intriguing sports action. There are three college bowl games, action in the English Premier League, games in the NBA and NHL, and a variety of college hoops action. If you’ve read any of the newsletters I’ve written, you know these are the days where I’m in my element. Give me sports all day long and I’m good to go.
Let’s kick this Tuesday morning off by catching up on all the news you need to know.
🏈 Five things to know Tuesday
- Falcons upset Rams on another wild NFL game. With a playoff berth already secured, the Los Angeles Rams went into Atlanta and got socked in the first half. Running back Bijan Robinson’ 93-yard touchdown run highlighted Atlanta’s 21-point halftime lead. L.A. came back to tie the game, but the Falcons got a late field goal to secure the 27-24 victory. Ultimately Matt Stafford’s three interceptions proved too costly — and not just for the game as you got the feeling the some MVP votes probably slipped away from the 37-year-old quarterback as well.
- Cam Coleman enters the portal. Star Auburn wideout Cam Coleman will enter the transfer portal, making for a new No. 1 player in the transfer window. Another intriguing player to watch in the portal is North Texas quarterback Drew Mestemaker, who is not guaranteed to follow Eric Morris to Oklahoma State.
- Nikola Jokić injures knee. Nuggets star Nikola Jokić exited Monday’s game with the Heat after injuring his left knee. Jokić was initially listed as questionable to return before being ruled out entirely. The three-time NBA MVP will undergo further evaluation on Tuesday.
- Marcus Freeman staying at Notre Dame. Amid speculation that he could move to the NFL, Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman posted that he was primed to “run it back” with the Fighting Irish next season. The Giants will have to look elsewhere after reports that Freeman was coveted in New York.
- Anthony Joshua injured in deadly car crash. Boxing superstar and two-time former unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua was injured in a car crash in Nigeria that killed two other passengers. Joshua knocked out Jake Paul in a bout in Miami earlier this month.
🍀 Do not miss this: Jaylen Brown chasing Celtics scoring history
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Making history for an organization as steeped in history as the Celtics is a mighty big ask. Despite that, Jaylen Brown is charging toward Celtics scoring history. Brown has stepped into the spotlight as Boston’s primary scoring option with Jayson Tatum sidelined with a torn Achilles tendon, and he has embraced the role with an offensive outburst that includes a current streak of nine games of 30 points or more, tying the franchise mark set by one Larry Bird.
Jack Maloney broke down Brown’s chances of putting together the best scoring season in Celtics history.
- Maloney: “First and foremost, we have to look at basic scoring average. Brown is on pace to become the fifth player in Celtics history to average at least 27 points, joining Larry Bird, John Havlicek, Jayson Tatum and Isaiah Thomas. His 29.7 points per game would rank third on the franchise’s single-season scoring list.
“There’s a very real chance that Brown could not only end up joining Tatum as the only players in Celtics history to average 30 points, but surpass his franchise record of 30.1 points per game.”
🏆 Alabama vs. Indiana represents the possibility of the CFP Era
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Let your mind take you back two years. If you heard that Alabama would be playing Indiana in the second year of the 12-team college football playoff, the assumption would be that a miracle Indiana season landed them a long-shot spot in the playoff where they’d be playing a titanic No. 1 seed Alabama. Instead, this is year two of Indiana in the playoff, and a year where the Hoosiers entered as the only undefeated team and the No. 1 seed, while the Crimson Tide barely snuck into the field after missing the CFP entirely last season. Oh, and Indiana is a full touchdown favorite to defeat the Alabama. Oh, one more thing, it’s Indiana who are fielding the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback in Fernando Mendoza.
As Tom Fornelli wrote, it’s a story that could only happen in the modern era of college football.
- Fornelli: “Indiana first began playing football in 1899 and has lost 715 games since then. Only Northwestern (719) has lost more in the history of the sport, and the Wildcats passed the Hoosiers this year. Indiana’s football has mostly existed because membership in the Big Ten required it to do so. The Hoosiers were always one of the teams that other Big Ten fans saw on the schedule and marked as one of their wins for that season.
“That’s no longer the case. In the age of NIL, revenue sharing, and the transfer portal, all a football program needs to be taken seriously is a willingness to spend the money and a coach who can lead. Indiana found the coach and immediately began pouring financial resources into the program in a way it never had before.”
👊 CBS Sports hands out 2025 UFC year-end awards
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2025 was another big year for UFC, with big events, classic fights and breakout performances. As we have every year, CBS Sports looked at the year to determine the best fighter, best fight and best knockout in the Octagon.
Things seemed relatively simple on the Fighter of the Year front until the final pay-per-view event of the year — and final pay-per-view for the forseeable future as the UFC comes to Paramount+ starting in 2026. Merab Dvalishvili seemingly had the award locked up, with three impressive bantamweight championship defenses already under his belt. Dvalishvili looked to continue making his case as the best 135-pound fighter in UFC history as he sought a fourth title defense in a rematch with Petr Yan. Yan turned the sport on its head with an impressive dismantling of Dvalishvili, not only taking the title to become a two-time champion, but also securing the CBS Sports award as Fighter of the Year. Shakiel Mahjouri addressed the decision to give Yan the award.
- Mahjouri: “Yan’s return to the mountaintop is even more impressive considering the circumstances. Winning one UFC championship is difficult enough; winning two is nearly impossible. Most fighters who reclaim titles do so almost immediately. For Yan, it was three consecutive losses and a five-year gap sit between his two title reigns. If there’s one thing that narrowly separates him from his fellow nominees, it’s that he dethroned the man we too quickly anointed the Fighter of the Year.”
👍👎 The best (and not-so-best) of the rest
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📺 What we’re watching Tuesday
🏈 Independence Bowl: Coastal Carolina vs. Louisiana Tech, 2 p.m. on ESPN
⚽ AFC Bournemouth at Chelsea, 2:30 p.m. on USA Network
⚽ Aston Villa at Arsenal, 3:15 on NBC Sports Network
🏈 Music City Bowl: Tennessee vs. Illinois, 5:30 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 76ers at Grizzlies, 8 p.m. on NBC
🏒 Islanders at Blackhawks, 8:30 p.m. on NHL Network
🏈 Alamo Bowl: No. 16 USC vs. TCU, 9 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 Pistons at Lakers, 10:30 p.m. on NBC
