Good morning! Let the chips fly today. Inside:
🚌 Pick your NWSL bandwagon
🎭 Luka doing Luka stuff
🏈 What. A. Schedule.
I 🫶 Playoffs: Choose your women’s soccer fighter
It’s playoff time, baby! The National Women’s Soccer League is one game into its postseason, with Utah upsetting San Diego 1-0 last night in a nail-biting opener. Three more matchups this weekend will decide the final four.
The NWSL is a nascent league — started in 2012, but reinvented after a crisis in 2021 — so plenty of you may not yet have a team you root for.
Let’s change that. I believe in letting everybody into a good party, so I’m playing Bandwagon Matchmaker again and delivering a “rooting guide” for the NWSL playoffs. Tell us who you’re supporting and why!
First, though, a recap…
2026 season superlatives
📈 Most likely to succeed: The league itself! NWSL viewership and attendance grew by A LOT in 2026, and with the Women’s World Cup ahead, it’s only going up.
🥅 Best scorer: Ashley Sanchez of the North Carolina Courage won the Golden Boot by matching Temwa Chawinga’s single-season scoring record with 20 goals.
💰 Most likely to change the game: The 2025 High Impact Player rule — also known as the “Rodman Rule,” which was created to retain Trinity Rodman and allowed teams to exceed the base salary cap — changed its criteria this year to include any player.
🤳 Future viral sensation: Two expansion teams, the Boston Legacy FC and Denver Summit FC, just finished their inaugural seasons, and two more cities will launch teams in 2028: Atlanta and Columbus, Ohio.
Vibes-based playoff picks
Here are the matchups. (Best thing you didn’t know you needed: Each matchup if it were a Beyoncé song.)
⚽ No. 2 San Diego Wave FC vs. No. 7 Utah Royals FC
Hop on board the Utah train if you want to start with a win! Congrats, cheater, you already made it to the semifinals!
Royals vibes: You like a scrappy overachiever. You like blue-collar resilience, plucky postseason first-timers, and a “no superstars, no problem” ethos.
⚽ No. 4 Kansas City Current vs. No. 5 Angel City FC (today, 12 p.m. ET on CBS)
The Current are on a hot streak, with five straight wins to close the season. Angel City had a couple of draws in there, but are on a 10-game unbeaten streak. One streak must end!
KC Current vibes: Are you a pioneer at heart, looking for a team that changed the landscape for women’s sports? Look no further. (Also: The Mahomeses are part owners if they’re your thing.)
Angel City vibes: You like Hollywood?! Natalie Portman, Jennifer Garner, Uzo Aduba, Eva Longoria, heard of them? This LA-cool club has a groundbreaking ownership model with over 100 co-owners, and donates 10 percent of its sponsorship revenue back to the community.
⚽ No. 1 Gotham FC vs. No. 8 Seattle Reign (tomorrow, 12:30 p.m. ET on ABC)
Defending champs Gotham just won their first NWSL Shield, for the best regular-season record (18-5-7). BUT, we have this one marked for UPSET WATCH!
Gotham vibes: You like things “super” — superteam, superheroes. “The Bats,” like their comic book moniker, Batman, play with gritty defense and unapologetic swagger.
Reign vibes: You love an underdog and the biggest possible upset. The Reign aren’t focused on being flashy; they’re focused on family vibes and ferocious stick-to-it-ness.
⚽ No. 3 Washington Spirit vs. No. 6 Portland Thorns (tomorrow, 3 p.m. ET on ABC)
Remember “Triple Espresso,” the U.S.’s World Cup attacking trio of Trinity Rodman, Sophia Wilson (née Smith) and Mallory Swanson? Get ready for a caffeine high, because this is espresso shot vs. espresso shot.
Spirit vibes: You like to pick the teams with the biggest superstar. (No judgment!) Rodman is coming off her best regular season (12 goals, 8 assists), and the Spirit are the high-energy, swaggery, playful chaos in which she thrives.
Thorns vibes: You like your teams fiery, pedigreed and socially conscious. Portland fans live and die by the Thorns and take care of each other. Their elite heritage rolls on with Wilson.
We did it! For REAL analysis (not to take a shot at myself), check out this mega guide our team put together just for you.
Our experts’ picks for champ:
Tamerra Griffin: Angel City
Melanie Anzidei: Gotham
Meg Linehan: San Diego Wave
Asli Pelit: Washington Spirit
ANNNND, finally: Bingo
News to Know
Eligibility drama ensnares a cult favorite
Nicknamed “Cream Abdul-Jabbar” and a familiar face to college hoops casuals, center Robbie Avila was cleared by a judge to play a fifth season Thursday and planned to suit up for Saint Louis yesterday. Except then the College Sports Commission denied the school’s request to exceed its 15-player limit (as other teams have been allowed to do this season), meaning now Saint Louis must decide whether to risk punishment by playing Avila or let him leave to find another school. So messy. He’ll be a big-deal free agent if he goes.
Porziņģis steps away
Warriors big man Kristaps Porziņģis said he’s decided to “step away from the game I love” as he deals with a lingering health issue that has defined his tenure with Golden State. The Warriors, who haven’t been paying Porziņģis, plan to trade him for a serviceable center, sources told The Athletic. The emergence of breakout rookie Yaxel Lendeborg has made his absence less of a distraction, at least.
More News
One game after he called out a fan for passing the ball forcefully to a referee, Lakers star Luka Dončić was given a technical foul for … throwing the ball at a referee. 🤦 (He did sink a 62-footer and score 53 points, though.)
Taylor Swift “has been a Knicks fan for many years,” the team said in a statement after reserve guard Tyler Kolek picked her as the “fakest” celebrity fan. OK.
Will LIV golfers be allowed to return to the PGA Tour? Don’t expect a decision on that until at least January, a source told The Athletic. More insight here.
Patriots running back TreVeyon Henderson says his hospitalization for several days was due to “unexplained neurological symptoms” that affected his strength and coordination. Yeesh.
This was very sweet: On the anniversary of her late father’s death, Nuggets broadcaster Katy Winge gave away her two company tickets to a grateful dad-daughter. It got better from there.
Lindsey Vonn is scheduled to soon undergo a ninth surgery since her Olympic downhill crash, this one to finally repair her torn ACL. After that? “We’ll see.”
USA and Canada women’s hockey teams are wearing these generic clearance-rack-quality jerseys at the World Championship because of a dispute over commercial rights.
Weirdly, two women’s college basketball players scored on their own basket on the same day.
Wild and U.S. men’s hockey team star Brock Faber told the story of how he initially felt fine after fracturing his skull, until things got “scary there for a bit.”
📰 Find more news here 24/7.
Watch Guide
📺 CFB: Take your pick
Today’s slate of college football has several of our colleagues using words like “best lineup ever.” We’ll have an extensive recap tomorrow, but check it out:
No. 9 BYU at No. 3 Utah (Both ranked in the top 10??)
No. 7 Texas at No. 18 Mizzou
No. 5 Alabama at No. 14 LSU
No. 23 Oregon at No. 12 Ohio State
No. 6 Kentucky at No. 13 Tennessee
No. 1 Miami (FL) at No. 11 Notre Dame
No. 2 Georgia at No. 10 Ole Miss
Oklahoma at No. 24 Florida.
Full schedule, times and broadcast info here.
📺 NBA: Denver Nuggets vs. Indiana Pacers
5 p.m. ET on NBA TV
Hello, Mexico City game! How much of an advantage do the altitude-adjusted Nuggets have if the Pacers had a couple of days to adjust, too?
📺 MLS: Decision Day
Eastern Conference and cross-conference matchups: 4 p.m. ET on Apple TV
Western Conference matchups: 7 p.m. ET on Apple TV
The final day of the regular season, when every game is played at the same time so nobody can manipulate the playoff spots. The East’s field is set, but three spots remain in the West, and six teams are in the running: L.A. Galaxy, Colorado, Minnesota, Seattle, Salt Lake and Portland. Here’s everything at stake.
Pulse Picks
Giants coach John Harbaugh answered questions from readers of The Athletic’s Peak newsletter, providing lots of fascinating leadership advice, including this gem: “If you’re doing the laundry, do the laundry in a way they’ve never seen before.” Read the full Q&A.
Tip: I’m very much already in the Christmas spirit, and well into my Christmas shopping. A big part of that? Black Friday deals, and Wirecutter’s already found some great ones to watch for. — Lauren Merola
Watch: Full disclosure: I am only five episodes in. But I’m enjoying Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of “Carrie” on Amazon Prime. Flanagan’s horror series are just the right amount of scary for me (e.g., “Midnight Mass,” “The Haunting of Hill House”) and blend fear with a sense of yearning for the sublime. (Scary but make it ARTSY.) — Hannah Vanbiber
Read: This story about a guy from the Bronx who walked from NYC to California will make you feel very warm and fuzzy about the kindness of strangers/everyday folk. (Also … as someone who loves hiking and road trips, I’m a little jealous.) (But I love roofs and air conditioning, so also not.) — Patrick Iversen
Listen: “The Holy Cross Tigers,” Twisted Teens’ third album (!) of 2026, which came out on Friday. To quote frontman Caspian Hollywell, “everything’s a banger.” Total earworm songs from a fascinating band of former buskers turned indie stars. — Alex Iniguez
Eat: Newsletter gang got to hang with the Sam Sifton a couple weeks ago and it reminded me of a Sam recipe that is amazing AND says “Prep Time: 5 minutes.” Make these biscuits! 9,871 5-star ratings… — Chris Sprow
Try: I can understand the hesitation to bring a bottle of Costco-brand wine to a nice dinner party. But after testing my way through the better part of the Kirkland Signature wine list as one of Wirecutter’s unofficial Costco beat reporters, I — and a testing panel that included a sommelier — found a few sleeper hits that you shouldn’t be embarrassed to open during Thanksgiving at your in-laws’. — Alexander Aciman
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: The Blue Jays’ reaction to Islamophobic Instagram posts from outfielder Anthony Santander after midterm elections.
📫 That’s all for now! Say hello at thepulse@theathletic.com, and check out our other newsletters.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
NWSL, The Pulse
2026 The Athletic Media Company