⚾️ Y! Sports AM: Last two standing

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⚾️ Y! Sports AM: Last two standing

Tue, Oct 20, 2026 ·

10 min read

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🚨 Headlines

🏀 Dream draw even:Angel Reese (30 pts, 16 reb) and the Dream dominated the Valkyries , 79-65, in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals to even the series and win the franchise's first Finals game (previously 0-10). They'll have the momentum when the action resumes Wednesday in Atlanta.

🏈 San Francisco stays perfect:The 49ers improved to 6-0 on Monday night with a 23-17 victory over the Commanders, who fell to 1-4-1 and added yet another loss to their miserable primetime record . The last time the Niners won their first six games in a season? 2019, when they made it all the way to the Super Bowl.

🚑 Hurts shut down:Eagles QB Jalen Hurts will reportedly miss the rest of the season after being diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis and multiple blood clots in his lungs. In other injury news: Rams WR Davante Adams will miss 6-10 weeks with a ruptured hamstring.

⚾️ Yankees stick with Boone:Despite speculation that the team would move on following its latest postseason exit, Aaron Boone will return as Yankees manager , per multiple reports. Boone is 790-565 (.583) with one World Series appearance in nine seasons at helm.

🏀 Beating the buzzer: Hornets forward Brandon Miller (5 years, $209M) and Thunder guard Cason Wallace (5 years, $139M) both signed rookie extensions on Monday, hours before the deadline for 2023 first-round picks to do so.

⚾️ A new champion will be crowned

The top-seeded Rays beat the Guardians, 7-3, on Monday night in St. Petersburg to clinch their third trip to the World Series (2008, 2020), where they'll meet the top-seeded Brewers, who are making their second trip (1982).

Are you not entertained?Save me the "small markets" narrative, will ya? These were the two best teams in their respective leagues over the course of 162 games, who then went a combined 14-3 in the playoffs to reach baseball's biggest stage. "But Kendall, the TV ratings might not break records!" Are you a Fox Sports executive? Why do you care? Stop being weird.

History awaits:If "the two best teams all year" pitch isn't doing it for you, how about the guarantee that a new champion will be crowned? This will be just the third World Series since 1910 between teams that have never won a title. The only others: Cleveland Indians vs. Brooklyn Robins in 1920, and Phillies vs. Royals in 1980.

Game 6 recap: Yandy Díaz, one day after calling his shot, delivers a no-doubt homer to help send the Rays to the World Series (Jordan Shusterman, Yahoo Sports)

🏀 The NBA's title tiers

The NBA is back! The regular season tips off today with a blockbuster tripleheader — a perfect way to get reacquainted with a league that's been reshaped since the Finals ended in June.

Title tiers:For all the upheaval across the NBA, the championship race begins with two overwhelming favorites — and neither is the defending champ. According to the prediction and betting markets , the league's 30 teams fall into pretty distinct tiers:

The favorites:The Thunder and Spurs (who meet in San Antonio tonight) are the clear teams to beat, combining for roughly 42% of the championship probability.
The challengers:The 76ers and Knicks (who meet in New York tonight) are next, both in the high single-digits, followed by the Celtics and Timberwolves at roughly 5% apiece.
The middle class:Eight teams are clustered around 2-3% apiece, while everyone else is below 2%. It's a crowded pack there, but one with a sizable gap to the top.

Where's New York?Despite winning it all last season, the Knicks are much closer to the NBA's middle tier than to OKC or San Antonio. And that's a rarity : In the 42 seasons since 1985-86, only seven defending champions have entered the following season outside the Top 3 in title odds, according to SportsOddsHistory.

Two of those cases involved Michael Jordan retiring from the Bulls (1993-94, 1998-99), and another saw Kawhi Leonard leave the Raptors in free agency (2019-20).
The Knicks didn't suffer a comparable loss this offseason (sorry, Mitchell Robinson ), but then again, the markets have never quite known what to make of this team .

Meanwhile, parity reigns:The NBA is in an unprecedented stretch of championship parity , having crowned eight different champions in eight seasons. The previous record? Six straight from 1975-80 . And the streak might not be finished yet. Despite the Thunder, Knicks and Celtics at or near the top of the odds, there's still a 56% chance that we get a ninth consecutive unique champion this season, based on the market's implied probabilities.

Bottom line:The Knicks spent last season defying the odds , and they'll need to do it again to repeat. But in a league where nobody else has managed to win a second title during this eight-year stretch, perhaps the most fitting outcome would be New York proving the doubters (and the market) wrong once more.

Season preview:

🎧 On the pod: Yahoo Sports' Kevin O'Connor is joined by Grant Liffmann of NBC Sports to break down the 12 biggest questions entering the season. The duo also spotlights breakout candidates and debates which stars are under the most pressure. Listen now .

🏀 Gators top preseason poll

Florida will start the men's college basketball season as the No. 1 team in the nation, sitting atop the preseason AP poll for the first time since 2006, when they were coming off the first of what ended up being back-to-back national championships.

Continuity is key:Florida,* which received 47 of 59 first-place votes, returns a significant chunk of the roster that earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament last season and won the title a year earlier. That includes starters Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu, as well as Denzel Aberdeen, back with the Gators after a year at Kentucky.*

No. 2 Duke (highest preseason ranking since 2017) and No. 3 Illinois (highest since 2001) — the only other teams to receive first-place votes — also returned large swaths of their rosters that reached the Elite Eight and Final Four, respectively.
Rounding out the top five are No. 4 UConn and No. 5 Arizona.* The Huskies and Wildcats both made the Final Four this past April, and both return a pair of double-digit scorers from last season's squads.

Where's Michigan?The Wolverines begin their title defense at No. 16 after their three best players — and head coach — left for the NBA. Dusty May, now leading the Mavericks, is one of a stunning 54 outgoing coaches across the D1 ranks.

Conference call:The top-ranked Gators carry the flag for the SEC, which leads all conferences with seven teams in the Top 25. The rest hail from the Big 12 (6), Big Ten (5), ACC (4), Big East (2) and Pac-12 (1), which is represented by its newest member, Gonzaga.

Others receiving votes:Missouri (167 votes) sits just outside the Top 25, followed by Nebraska (70), Purdue (53), Ohio State (39), North Carolina (20), TCU (17), Saint Louis (13), VCU (12), Iowa (12), Virginia Tech (10), Indiana (8), Texas A&M (6), Villanova (6), Auburn (4), Marquette (3), Nevada (2), Grand Canyon (2), Utah State (2) and Santa Clara (1).

*Double duty: Florida, Kentucky and Arizona are three of the 12 schools whose men's basketball and football teams are currently ranked in the AP Top 25. The others: Miami, BYU, Texas Tech, UCLA, Tennessee, Alabama, Houston, USC and Texas.

📈 Playoff expansion: Access is overrated

The proposed CFP expansion to 24 teams has a lower approval rating than the Cracker Barrel rebrand. But college football is just following the lead of pro sports, where the NFL, NBA and MLB have expanded their playoff fields to keep more teams (and fanbases) invested late in the regular season by selling the possibility that "this could be the year."

Yes, but:That promise has mostly proved hollow. While larger playoff fields have created more intrigue down the stretch, expanded postseason access has offered little credible hope of a championship. Consider this:

NFL:No. 7 seeds have played 13 playoff games since the postseason expanded in 2020. They've won just once.
NBA:A No. 10 seed has never advanced beyond the play-in round. No. 9 seeds have occasionally reached the first round but never won a series.
MLB:Baseball's expansion has proven more worthwhile. Since the No. 6 seed was added in 2022, two have reached the World Series, though both came up short.

On campus:CFP critics argue that expansion dilutes an already dramatic regular season, and that a 24-team postseason field will mostly benefit middling power-conference programs rather than true "underdogs" or "Cinderellas," much like the NCAA's equally unpopular 76-team basketball tournament might.

This is an excerpt from Monday's edition of Yahoo Sports Biz, our new sports business newsletter authored by Dylan Dittrich. Sign up here to get on the list .

📺 Watchlist: Tuesday, Oct. 20

🏀 NBA Opening Day

Today's season-opening tripleheader on NBC is about as good as it gets. First up: Celtics at Pistons (3pm ET) in a matchup of last season's top two teams in the East. Then, LeBron James and the 76ers visit the defending champion Knicks (7pm) , followed by a Western Conference Finals rematch between the Spurs and Thunder in San Antonio (9:30pm) .

Pricy tickets:The get-in price for tonight's game at Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks will raise their championship banner and receive their rings, is $1,693 ( via Gametime ), making it the most expensive regular-season game in NBA history.

More to watch:

⚽️ Champions League:PSG vs. Barcelona (3pm, Paramount+) … This heavyweight clash, being held in Paris amid violent protests across France, headlines today's nine-game slate .
🏒 NHL:Bruins at Stars (8pm, ESPN) ; Lightning at Golden Knights (10:30pm, ESPN) … This quartet has combined to win their last 12 games.
🏀 NCAAM:UConn at Michigan State (7pm, BTN+) ; Tennessee at Duke (7pm, ESPN+) … Exhibitions featuring four teams ranked inside the preseason top eight.

Got plans tonight? Gametime is the best place to score last-minute tickets to the events in your city. Get tickets now!

🌎 GeoSports

On Tuesdays, we play GeoSports . All questions are written by me.

How to play:You'll be asked five questions that combine sports and geography. Tap the spot on the globe where you think the answer is. The closer you are, the more points you get.

Play today's round.

🏎️ F1 in Austin: Watch free

The Formula 1 MSC Cruises United States Grand Prix 2026 is this Sunday in Austin, Texas, at 4pm ET. Catch the race for free with a 1 month free trial* of Apple TV!

Redeem now.

*Expires November 1, 2026, while supplies last. New subscribers only. Renews for $14.99/month after promotion until cancelled. Terms apply.

We hope you enjoyed this edition of Yahoo Sports AM , our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.

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