The College Football Playoff is reportedly undergoing a slight makeover.

The playoff made a major change from four to 12 teams last season, which brought with it some flaws.

Last season, the four highest-ranked conference champions had automatic byes and received the top four seeds. This year, the playoff bracket will be filled with straight seeding, with five spots still reserved for conference champions, according to ESPN.

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"After evaluating the first year of the 12-team playoff, the CFP management committee felt it was in the best interest of the game to make this adjustment," CFP Executive Director Rich Clark said in a statement. "This change will continue to allow guaranteed access to the playoff by rewarding teams for winning their conference championship, but it will also allow us to construct a postseason bracket that recognizes the best performance on the field during the entire regular season."

If the new format were put in last year, Oregon, Georgia, Texas and Penn State would all have had bye weeks. Instead, Texas and Penn State both had to play in the first round and won convincingly. The Longhorns beat No. 12 Clemson (15th in the country), 38-24, and then defeated No. 4-seeded Arizona State, which had a bye as the Big 12 winner but was ranked 11th in the country, in double-overtime.

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ASU would have played Ohio State in a matchup of the No. 11 and No. 6 seeds, while Boise State would have gone against Indiana in a battle between the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds if straight seeding was used last season.

Instead, Boise State, the Mountain West winner, had a bye in the quarterfinals as the No. 3 seed but was routed in the Fiesta Bowl by Penn State, a No. 6 seed, despite being ranked third in the country. The Nittany Lions defeated No. 11 SMU, 38-10, in the first round.

All four conference champions lost in the quarterfinals.

No. 8 Ohio State wrecked every team in its path en route to a national title despite playing in the first round. However, the Buckeyes didn't do themselves many favors with their seeding. They lost at home to Michigan to end the regular season. But they were ranked No. 6 by the committee despite their No. 8 seed.

This rule change now makes Notre Dame, an independent team that does not have a conference affiliation, eligible for a bye week.

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Jim Irsay reshaped Indianapolis into a city obsessed with football, Peyton Manning said Thursday on ESPN's "NFL Live."

We’re here to try to coax you away from that ledge. We’re here to tell you there are reasons, still, to believe the Knicks won’t simply succumb to what feels like the irreversible momentum of bad fate, worse luck. 

Brian Cashman isn’t heading to his 28th straight winning season as GM on a fluke.

Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Liam Hendriks struggled in the team’s 5-1 loss to the New York Mets on Wednesday at Fenway Park. 

Hendriks, 36, gave up three earned runs on three hits, and was charged with the loss. 

The reliever took to social media on Thursday morning and posted that fans were sending him and his wife death threats. 

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"Threats against my life and my wife’s life are horrible and cruel. You need help," Hendriks wrote on his Instagram story. 

"Leaving comments telling me to commit suicide and how you wish I died from cancer is disgusting and vile."

"Maybe you should take a step back and reevaluate your life’s purpose before hiding behind a screen attacking players and their families."

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Hendriks announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in January 2023. The three-time All-Star returned to the mound less than five months later and pitched for the Chicago White Sox.

However, after just five appearances since returning to the field after his bout with cancer, Hendriks needed Tommy John surgery. The Red Sox signed him to a two-year, $10 million contract in 2024 in his recovery, but Hendriks did not pitch last season as he rehabbed. 

"Whether you (send death threats) from your ‘fake accounts’ or are you dumb enough to do it from your real account. I think I speak for all players who have to deal with this in their career when I say," Hendriks wrote.

"Enough is enough."

Hendriks has struggled this season with the Red Sox, as he has a 5.56 ERA in 11 games. 

In his 14-year career, Hendriks has a 33-35 record with a 3.85 ERA with 738 strikeouts in 661.1 career innings pitched. 

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Denmark stunned Canada with a goal in the final minutes to eliminate the favorites from the hockey world championships, while the U.S. won to reach the semifinals.

Littler beat Luke Humphries 6-3 in the final.

© PA Wire

Another wrinkle has developed for the second year of the 12-team extended playoff.

The Steelers' wait for Aaron Rodgers has not yet reached the expiration date.

Each Juan Soto at-bat has seemingly become an invitation for criticism.

Pro Football Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher recently spoke against transgender athletes in sports and reiterated his stance Wednesday.

Earlier this month, Urlacher appeared on the "Global View" podcast and wondered why it is even a debate. On Wednesday's edition of "America Reports," he said it is "common sense."

"Athletically, it's just not fair. You know, men are meant to play with men," Urlacher said. "That's why there's the NBA and the WNBA or LPGA and PGA Tour. They're different. I just don't understand how people think it's OK for a male to participate in a woman's sport. 

"There are just so many biological differences. You have the guy that was swimming with the women there from Penn a couple years ago with Riley Gaines and some of her teammates, and you saw how he was with the men compared to with the women. It's just not fair. It's pretty obvious to most people."

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Urlacher also questioned why other girls and women are not speaking out but pointed out that doing so has hurt them.

"You see these girls stand up, and it's really hurting themselves when they stand up because they're not competing because they don't want to compete against a man. So, they're stepping down from their competitions," he added.

"And it's kind of funny coming from people who push women's rights, and they want to fight for women's rights, but they don't wanna fight for women's rights in sports. They want men to come in there and dominate the sports against the women. It's just, it's not fair. It's common sense. I think we've seen President Trump talk about it since he's been elected. It's pretty much common sense just to not have men in women's sports.

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"It's just not fair. You know, I saw a track athlete in South Carolina a couple of years ago doing the same thing, just winning every event. There's biological differences. Men should not be competing against women. It's not fair. It's dangerous. You saw the volleyball player, the man spiking the ball, hitting the woman in the face. 

"It's … not fair and it can be really dangerous. It's funny what Aaron [Rodgers] said. You don't see women try competing against men in our sports. You don't see them trying to play football. You don't see them try and do things that they wouldn't be as good at or could get hurt at."

Illinois, where Urlacher spent his NFL career, has become a hotbed of controversy over the issue of trans athlete inclusion in recent days after a biological male competed in a seventh-grade track meet against biological females at the Naper Prairie Conference Meet.

Several other states have defied President Donald Trump's executive order on the issue, resulting in Maine temporarily losing federal funding.

Fox News' Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.

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Former Brewers player Darin Ruf is suing the Reds for damages after he suffered a career-ending injury while playing at Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park two years ago.

The 2025 Eastern Conference finals between the Knicks and Pacers include fresh beef between the two.

As California's transgender athlete conflict escalates, one high school athlete has resorted to changing clothes in her car to avoid uncomfortable situations. 

During a Lucia Mar Unified School District (LMUSD) school board meeting this week, junior Audrey Vanherweg revealed her decision. 

"I strongly disagree with what is going on in the girls' locker room and on the girls track team, so much so that I change in my car for track practice because I feel way more comfortable in my car than I do in my own school's locker room," Vanherweg said. 

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Vanherweg isn't the first LMUSD girl to express anxiety over the track and field locker room this season. 

During a meeting in April, fellow junior track athlete Celeste Diest recounted her experience having to change in front of a biological male trans athlete before practice while that athlete allegedly watched her undress. 

"I went into the women's locker room to change for track practice where I saw, at the end of my row, a biological male watching not only myself, but the other young women undress. This experience was beyond traumatizing," Diest said, beginning to cry. 

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"Adults like yourself make me and my peers feel like our own comfort was invalid, even though our privacy was and still is completely violated."

Both meetings included several parents speaking in opposition to trans athletes in attendance, while other community members spoke in support of trans inclusion. Both meetings also included just as many speakers advocating for transgender athletes. 

At this week's meeting, a trans track and field athlete described the decision to join the girls' team while wearing a transgender pride flag. 

"When I joined track last year, I was terrified," the athlete said. "I was alone, and I feared for my life. When I started going to track practice, I was too afraid to make friends. I thought they would reject and mock me for being transgender. At my first meet, I sat alone, on the wet, muddy ground.

"I fear that somebody would accuse me of a heinous crime, so I walked on razor-thin ice. I never spent longer than three minutes in the locker room. I never made eye contact with people," the athlete said. "And yet, people still accuse me, someone who deals with sexual harassment on a daily basis, of being a predator. So, I'm here to say that I am not the villain, I am the victim."  

Women's rights activist and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines, a leader in the national movement to protect women's and girls' sports, previously told Fox News Digital she believes trans athletes involved in the current culture war are victims. 

"I view them as victims, too. I really do. They have fallen victim to the movement. They have unfortunately fallen for the lie that they weren't created uniquely and intentionally in God's perfect image. And that is a horrible message to send to anyone," Gaines said. 

"I believe they're victims, too, which is the sad reality of the gender ideology movement." 

California has allowed transgender athletes to compete in girls' sports since 2014. California's high school sports league, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), was one of the first in the country to openly defy President Donald Trump's "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" executive order after it was signed on Feb. 5. 

The CIF is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education for potential Title IX violations over the issue. 

California's state legislature failed to pass two GOP-backed bills to reverse the current policies that allow males in girls' sports after every Democrat voted against them on April 1. 

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Friday will mark the final episode of a longtime ESPN staple, as "Around the Horn" will be off the airwaves for good after roughly two decades of action.

Jay Mariotti, who was a regular on the show until his domestic violence arrest in 2010, said in a recent interview that the show is being canceled because it went "woke."

But another panelist, Sarah Spain, questioned whether the network canceled the show, because they would be "scared" of being labeled as such.

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"It confounds me that they are canceling it. The format allows for a continuous stream of new people, to highlight reporters on your network. I’m admittedly biased, but this is progressive voices and people of color you’re taking off TV. I don’t know for sure that’s their intention, but are you so scared of getting called ‘woke’?" she said in an interview with The Washington Post.

Tony Reali, the longtime host of the show, said he did not "believe" that was the reason.

"I don’t believe what that is. I honestly think we did 50,000 topics over 23 years. You’re going to tell me 10 or 15 drew an eyebrow up? I’ll be like, ‘Yeah, we were doing some complex topics from time to time.’ I don’t mute people in Face Time, so maybe there’s two or three there that didn’t have the back-and-forth that you’d want. Maybe there’s one or two I’d take back if you ask me; those aren’t my regrets. Not at all," he said on "The Dan Patrick Show" recently.

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In one of its final episodes earlier this month, Kate Fagan, who had made scarce appearances since leaving the network in 2018, was determined as the "winner" of the show against Jemele Hill, who had not been on the show since that same year after being fired for negative posts about President Donald Trump.

In her victory monologue, Fagan made a plea that "trans kids deserve to play sports."

"Think about what you remember from your time playing sports. Ninety-nine percent of it is finding that jersey for the first time, your favorite number, community, joy, those high-fives," Fagan said. "It's that moment when you have a great play with a teammate. It's the feeling of belonging. And it does not know gender. Trans kids deserve the same as everyone else does. Sports is joy. Sports is humanity. And the more people who have that, the better."

Mariotti name-dropped Hill in that aforementioned interview, adding the show "lost some audience." In another post on his own Substack, headlined "Around the Horn ended a long time ago - when I left the show," Mariotti reiterated that some of the panelists went "woke" while others were "on dope."

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Brendan Shanahan is out as Maple Leafs president, ending the Hall of Famer's tenure after 11 years and 9 playoff appearances -- but none beyond the second round.

Red Sox pitcher Liam Hendriks took to social media to express his displeasure over death threats he says he received following Boston's recent loss to the Mets.

The PGA Tour star spoke candidly about his wife's sobriety journey in a post on X.

Stephen A. Smith said his ESPN colleague Ryan Clark "crossed the line" by involving Robert Griffin III's wife in their public feud, however, he didn't think it was "a fireable offense."

The USMNT has precious little time to prep for next year's World Cup. A weakened Gold Cup roster won't help.