Sports, in brief

The Athletic, a sports news site owned by The New York Times, has estimated what every school in college football's four biggest conferences spends on players this season. [2] Professional leagues publish every contract, but colleges keep their player pay secret. [12]

Those schools may pay their athletes directly up to $21.6m this year. Most say about 75% of it, around $16m, goes to football. [1]

At least 20 schools are believed to spend more than $30m on their football players, and a few as much as $50m. [1]

Ohio State, at $49m to $54m, and Oregon, at $48m to $54m, spend the most. Boston College spends the least, at $8m to $13m. [3][4]

The money above the limit comes through other doors. Kit makers such as Nike move sponsorship money into player deals, media partners find sponsors, and rich fans called boosters still pay. [1]

Players or their agents, not schools, must report any outside deal above $600 to the College Sports Commission, the body the conferences set up to check them. From May to August it approved $340.2m of deals and turned down $100.8m. [1]

Money mostly buys wins. The 14 biggest budgets all belong to teams in this week's top 25 ranking. [6] But Oklahoma State, estimated at $15m to $19m, beat Oregon on 12 September. [2][3]

Eleven of the 20 biggest spenders play in the SEC, the Southeastern Conference, against six in the Big Ten. Half the Big Ten spends $25m or less, which is about the least any SEC team spends. [8][7]

Boston College's coach, Bill O'Brien, said the estimate for his team was not accurate. He put his budget nearer to Wake Forest's and Pittsburgh's. [5]

On 15 September the US Senate voted 74-24 to start debating the Protect College Sports Act. A final vote could come next week. [11]

Ted Cruz, a Texas senator who co-wrote the bill, got nearly 10 minutes on ESPN's College GameDay to argue for it, with no opponent on air. [10] Derrick Johnson of the NAACP answered on SportsCenter that the bill gives players no right to bargain together. [11]

The bill would add a second limit of $22.5m for keeping players, plus $5m for women's and other sports, so a school could spend about $49m in all. Several football teams already spend more than that. [1]

Why it matters. The next step is the US Senate's final vote on the bill, which could come next week and would decide whether a limit of about $49m becomes law. [11]

The Vancouver Canucks gave Zeev Buium, a 20-year-old defender, eight years at $75.04m, the biggest contract ever for an NHL player with under 100 games. [13] Buffalo gave Noah Ostlund, a forward with 68 games and 27 points, more than $50m. [13] Pittsburgh gave Ville Koivunen, who has played 47 games, eight years at $4m a season. [13] Part of the rush was to sign before a new labour deal took away eight-year terms. [13]

Why it matters. One executive called some of the deals reckless gambling. [13] An agent said teams can buy out players aged 25 or under for a third of what is left, so a wrong guess costs a team little on its books. [13]

The Anaheim Ducks signed Cutter Gauthier, 22, for six more years at $13.5m a season on 15 September, just before training camp. [14] Gauthier scored 41 goals last season, more than twice his total as a rookie. [14] His contract includes $69m in signing bonuses. [14] The deal came as the NHL's limit on each team's player spending rose by $8.5m, to $104m. [14]

Why it matters. Anaheim now pays Gauthier and Leo Carlsson, its top centre, a combined $31.5m a season. [14] His deal could become the one other young scorers point to when their first contracts end. [14]

NHL training camps opened this week under a new labour deal, with an 84-game season and only four warm-up games. [17] Columbus's 21-year-old centre Adam Fantilli had no new contract, and his agent said he would not come to camp without one. [16] Minnesota's Quinn Hughes has still not signed an extension and does not seem in a hurry. [15] Edmonton starts under Mike Babcock, a coach several former players have called a bully. [15][18]

Why it matters. With a shorter camp, every day a holdout misses counts for more. [16] Carolina, the Stanley Cup holders, kept most of their players, and their general manager says that leaves less to teach. [46]

Lane Kiffin, coach of Louisiana State University (LSU), goes back to Ole Miss, the University of Mississippi, for a game on Saturday. [19] He left Ole Miss for LSU last season. [19] Before this season LSU fought the SEC, its own conference, over his plan to add two former NFL players to his team. [19] The SEC threatened a fine of half a football programme's yearly budget and sued LSU in federal court. [19] Kiffin's lawyer friend Tom Mars now says Kiffin sent him ChatGPT answers as legal advice. [19]

Why it matters. LSU backed down and left both players off its roster. [19] The two teams on the field on Saturday have an estimated $86m to $95m in player budgets between them. [3]

Remco Evenepoel of Belgium won the Grand Prix of Quebec, a one-day bike race, on 11 September by beating Giulio Ciccone in a two-man sprint. [21] Two days later Isaac del Toro of Mexico won in Montreal. [20] He outsprinted the French teenager Paul Seixas and became the race's youngest winner, at 22. [20] Both races are the last big warm-ups for the world championships in Montreal. [21][22]

Why it matters. The Montreal race used the same climb, the Camillien-Houde, as the world title race. [20][22] Seixas and Del Toro pulled clear together on that climb on the last lap. [20]

The men's world road race is on 27 September in Montreal, over 273km with 12 laps of a city circuit. [22] Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia won the last two titles, but broke his collarbone in a crash at the Vuelta, the three-week race in Spain. [22] Britain's Tom Pidcock said the absence of Pogacar raises his own chances. [23] He is trying to be the first British man to win since Mark Cavendish in 2011. [23]

Why it matters. With the strongest rider gone, about two dozen riders now have a real chance at the title. [22] Evenepoel, Del Toro and Seixas are the favourites. [22]

Ben Shelton, the American who lost the US Open final last weekend, withdrew from the Laver Cup on Thursday. [25] No reason was given. [25] He was already due to play for the United States in the Davis Cup, the national team competition, in the Czech Republic from Friday. [25] Brandon Nakashima, ranked 16th, replaces him on Team World for the event at London's O2 Arena on 25 to 27 September. [24]

Why it matters. Team Europe brings the US Open champion Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz. [26] Team World has won three of the last four Laver Cups. [47]

Jack Draper, a British tennis player who was once fourth in the world, has ended his season because of injury. [27] He played only 15 singles matches this year, held back by a long-running elbow problem in his playing arm and a separate knee injury. [27] He is now ranked 155th. [27] He says he wants to return in 2027 fully fit. [27]

Why it matters. He had already come back once this year and beaten Novak Djokovic at Indian Wells in March. [27] Then a knee injury stopped him again in April. [27]

Al Taawoun, a Saudi Pro League club, was given a two-game stadium ban and a fine of 100,000 riyals, about $26,660. [28] Its fans chanted the name of Diogo Jota at Ruben Neves, Jota's close friend, during a game on Saturday. [28] Jota, who played for Portugal, died with his brother in a car crash in Spain in July 2025. [29] Neves carried his coffin at the funeral. [29]

Why it matters. Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays in the same league, asked for the fans involved to be banned for life. [29] Saudi Arabia's football federation chose a two-game ban instead, and says it cannot be appealed. [28]

Leicestershire, an English county cricket club, lost 27 points for preparing a poor pitch that bounced unevenly. [30] The penalty takes away all 19 points from the match it won, plus eight more, and adds a 5,000-pound fine. [30] The ruling came during its second-to-last match of the season and dropped it to the bottom of its division. [30] It argued that a film shoot stopped the pitch being covered, but the panel said that was only one day. [30]

Why it matters. The penalty leaves Leicestershire facing relegation, and it has 10 days to appeal. [30] The head groundsman said it was not the pitch he would have chosen, but the coaches asked for it and have the final say. [30]

The United States team in SailGP, a racing series for fast catamarans, will sail in Geneva this weekend with two women on board. [31] Its driver broke his collarbone in a bike crash, and his reserve broke his foot a day later. [31] The team hired Martine Grael, a two-time Olympic champion from Brazil, who had just been let go by Brazil's team. [31] She will race alongside Anna Weis. [31]

Why it matters. No race in the series has ever had two women on the same boat. [31] Grael was out of a job for less than a week. [31]

LeBron James, the basketball star, has signed a deal with Polymarket worth $15m a year, according to Front Office Sports. [32] Polymarket is an app where people trade on the result of events, including games. [32] The deal pays nearly four times his $3.9m salary from the Philadelphia 76ers this season. [32] He will promote American football markets, not basketball. [32]

Why it matters. Money traded on such apps, $50.6bn a month worldwide in July, is more than the roughly $14bn a month bet at legal US sportsbooks in 2025. [33] Some US states are suing to stop them. [33]

Lionel Messi will play one last match for Argentina, against Benin at the Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires on 6 October. [34] He retired from the national team after this year's World Cup. [34] Argentina's football federation has invited every player from the team that won the 2022 World Cup, with their families. [34] The squad for Argentina's other two friendlies is full of young players. [34]

Why it matters. It is the first Argentina squad since the World Cup, and the first step toward a team built without him. [34] Franco Mastantuono, the last player to wear Messi's number 10 shirt, is in it. [34]

The Chicago Stars, bottom of the NWSL, the top US women's football league, hired Vlatko Andonovski as chief football officer. [35] He coached the US women's team and won two NWSL titles, and left the Kansas City Current last week. [35] Chicago has scored 14 goals and let in 54 in 24 games. [35] Its president said staff turnover was the biggest thing holding the club back. [35]

Why it matters. The Orlando Pride went from bottom to winning both US titles in 2024. [35] Chicago is betting that one respected hire can stop agents and other clubs avoiding it. [35]

The New York Mets were knocked out of the baseball play-off race on Monday, losing to the Baltimore Orioles. [36] They have the second-highest player spending in Major League Baseball, and missed the play-offs for the second year running. [36] Star players Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto were injured more than once. [36] Bo Bichette cost $126m over three years and was the best of seven big new arrivals. [36] Even he added only about 1.6 wins to the team. [36]

Why it matters. Pete Alonso, who left the Mets last winter, said a team with a lot of talent sometimes just does not work out. [36] Their young players also failed to improve, and their supply of prospects got weaker. [36]

The Detroit Lions turned $26m of Amon-Ra St. Brown's salary and $18.6m of Penei Sewell's into signing bonuses. [37] A signing bonus can be spread over later years on the team's books, so this freed $20.8m and $14.8m under this year's limit. [37] The players earn exactly the same. [37] Detroit now has the second-most room in the NFL this season, $39.02m. [37]

Why it matters. The Lions already pay Jahmyr Gibbs $22.5m a season, the most of any running back. [38] The freed room could pay for a trade or new extensions. [37]

The Buffalo Bills play their first game at their new Highmark Stadium on Thursday night, against the Detroit Lions. [39] The field is real grass with heating pipes underneath to stop it freezing. [39] It has the world's largest stadium snow-melting system, run by sensors in the roof. [39] A canopy covers 60% of the seats to cut the wind. [39]

Why it matters. The Bills built for winter games in the open air rather than a roof. [39] It is the latest in a run of new NFL stadiums; SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles cost more than $5bn. [39]

Max Greyserman and Eric Cole shared the lead after the first round of the new Biltmore Championship in Asheville, North Carolina. [40] It is the first PGA Tour event in the city since 1942. [41] Most top players skip these autumn events, which decide who keeps a full playing card for next year. [42] Seven players in the field play in the Presidents Cup, the US against an International team, at Medinah near Chicago next week. [41][40]

Why it matters. Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm are playing the European tour's BMW PGA Championship instead. [41] Christiaan Bezuidenhout, picked for the International team, is also playing to keep his full PGA Tour place for 2027. [42]

The Penrith Panthers, a rugby league club from western Sydney, have had 94% of their players available for finals across six years. [43] In 20 finals since 2020 they have missed just 21 player-games to injury, about one player per match. [43] They now have two weeks off before a preliminary final, one win from the grand final. [43] Star half-back Nathan Cleary is expected to play. [43]

Why it matters. Penrith have never had more than three players out injured for any finals match. [43] The break also gives Cleary, who is on light training, time to recover. [43]

Georgia's football team was due to wear all-white uniforms for the first time, in its home game against Western Kentucky. [44] Coach Kirby Smart had promised them in March if fans tripled subscriptions to Glory Glory, a paid website about the team. [44] The fans did it before the spring game in April. [44] Part of the money from subscriptions goes to paying Georgia's players for their name and image. [44]

Why it matters. Georgia spends about $15m less than the top teams on players. [8] About a quarter of big schools have turned or closed their old booster groups, and several now run paid websites instead. [44]

Joanna Wietrzyk, an Australian who holds the world record in Hyrox, a fitness race, soiled herself during an event in Beijing this week and still won. [45] The organisers apologised to others affected. [45] The Athletic reports that this is far more common among athletes than people think. [45] Greg LeMond, Michael Jordan and Paula Radcliffe have all had it happen. [45]

Why it matters. In a hard race, blood is sent away from the gut to the working muscles, which makes digestion much harder. [45] Athletes now do gut training to take in more food while racing. [45]