A rare Sports Equinox night, with the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB all in action on the same evening, headlined by World Series Game 3, Monday Night Football and WNBA Finals Game 5, after a Sunday that already reshaped several races, with Seattle handing Kansas City its first loss, Atlanta ending San Francisco’s unbeaten start, Minnesota emerging as the NFL’s only undefeated team, Luka Doncic dropping 52 for the 3-0 Lakers, Milwaukee taking a 2-0 World Series lead into Tampa Bay, and major upsets in college football, soccer and motorsport setting up a week where the Mexican Grand Prix, the WNBA Finals and the World Series could all move decisively.
- NFL – Sunday shakeup: Seattle dominated Kansas City on Sunday Night Football to hand the Chiefs their first loss, Atlanta forced four turnovers to end San Francisco’s unbeaten start, and Minnesota escaped Indianapolis to remain the league’s only undefeated team at 6-0.
- NFL – Other Week 7 results: Cincinnati overwhelmed Baltimore in the second half as Joe Burrow threw five touchdown passes, Cleveland escaped Tennessee with a last-minute field goal, and Pittsburgh survived New Orleans in the NFL’s first regular-season game in France.
- NFL – Other Week 7 results: Tampa Bay beat Carolina 43-13 behind 258 rushing yards, Denver beat Arizona 30-16 behind Bo Nix’s 222 passing yards and two total touchdowns, Detroit beat Green Bay 20-17 behind Jameson Williams’ two touchdowns, and the Giants beat Houston 27-21 in overtime on Devin Singletary’s 30-yard touchdown.
- NFL – Monday night: Dallas visits Philadelphia on Monday Night Football at 8:15 p.m. ET, with Philadelphia reported to be without its top two receivers and Saquon Barkley’s availability uncertain.
- MLB – World Series: Milwaukee leads Tampa Bay 2-0 after winning Game 1, 3-2, and Game 2, 5-4, in Milwaukee, with both franchises still seeking a first World Series title.
- MLB – World Series Game 3 tonight: Brewers at Rays, Monday at 8:00 p.m. ET at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Tampa Bay’s first home World Series game since 2008, with Freddy Peralta listed for Tampa Bay against Robert Gasser for Milwaukee.
- NBA – Lakers: Luka Doncic scored 52 points with 10 assists and eight rebounds, including eight three-pointers, to lead Los Angeles past Utah 132-123 on Sunday, rallying from 18 points down and improving the Lakers to 3-0.
- NBA – Other Sunday results: Indiana beat Brooklyn 136-109 behind Tyrese Haliburton’s 24 points in his best game since returning from a torn Achilles, Orlando beat defending champion New York 111-102 behind Franz Wagner’s 21 fourth-quarter points, dropping the Knicks to 0-3, and Detroit beat Philadelphia 106-93 to hand the 76ers their first loss.
- NBA – Monday night: The Sports Equinox slate includes Washington at Charlotte, Dallas at Miami, Chicago at Boston, Phoenix at Oklahoma City, Atlanta at Houston, Memphis at Utah and Golden State at Denver.
- WNBA – Finals tied: The WNBA Finals are tied 2-2, with Game 5 on Monday at 8:00 p.m. ET at Chase Center in San Francisco between Golden State and Atlanta.
- WNBA – Finals scheduling note: Game 6 is currently scheduled for Thursday, October 29, at 8:00 p.m. ET, but its venue has been in dispute, with Gateway Center Arena, seating about 3,500, listed barring a last-minute move to State Farm Arena.
- NHL – Sunday results: Minnesota beat Vancouver 4-2, Nashville beat Colorado 6-2, Montreal beat Winnipeg 2-1, Dallas beat the New York Islanders 6-3, and Florida beat Chicago 3-2.
- NHL – Monday night: The equinox slate includes Los Angeles at the New York Rangers at 7:00 p.m. ET, Toronto at Calgary at 8:30 p.m. ET, and Detroit at Edmonton at 9:30 p.m. ET.
- NCAAF – College football chaos: Week 8 saw seven ranked teams lose, including No. 2 BYU, No. 7 Ole Miss, No. 8 Texas Tech, No. 11 Tennessee, No. 14 Houston, No. 15 Iowa and No. 16 USC, with UCF upsetting BYU in double overtime.
- NCAAF – New rankings picture: Utah beat Houston 21-13 behind Devon Dampier’s 204 passing yards, 150 rushing yards and two touchdowns, and Utah rose to No. 4 in the USA TODAY re-rank, behind Ohio State, Miami and Georgia, with Indiana at No. 5 after an overtime win over Michigan.
- NCAAF – AP Top 25 snapshot: The AP list updated October 26 had Miami 7-0 at No. 1, Ohio State 6-1 at No. 2, Georgia 6-1 at No. 3, Indiana 7-1 at No. 4 and Notre Dame 6-1 at No. 5, with Utah and UCLA both 7-0 in the top seven.
- EPL – Premier League: Bournemouth beat Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford, extending United’s winless run to eight matches in all competitions, while Aston Villa beat Manchester City 2-1 to end City’s perfect start and Arsenal beat Everton 2-0 to draw level at the top.
- EPL – Other results: Liverpool beat Brighton 2-0, Tottenham beat Chelsea 2-0, Newcastle beat Crystal Palace 2-0, Sunderland drew 0-0 with Leeds, and Hull drew 1-1 with Brentford.
- Soccer – La Liga and MLS: Real Madrid stunned Barcelona at Camp Nou behind two Kylian Mbappe goals to reopen the title race, while in MLS, Los Angeles FC drew 2-2 with the LA Galaxy and FC Dallas moved to second in the West with a late home flurry.
- Women’s soccer – Monday note: In Liga MX Femenil, Tigres and Monterrey drew 2-2, while no major women’s league final was scheduled for Monday in the searches checked.
- NASCAR – Cup: Kyle Larson won a wild Talladega race, charging from 11th in the final lap to beat teammate William Byron by 0.041 seconds, opening a 73-point Chase advantage with two races left, at Martinsville and Homestead-Miami.
- NASCAR – Next: The next Cup race is at Martinsville, Virginia, on Sunday, November 1.
- F1 – Title watch: Kimi Antonelli approaches the Mexican Grand Prix needing just a pair of points to secure the world title at age 20, with practice from October 30, qualifying October 31 and the race November 1 in Mexico City.
- F1 – United States GP fallout: Austin’s Circuit of the Americas drew a record three-day attendance for its race weekend and plans a second, smaller track nearby.
- MotoGP – Australian GP cancelled: The final Phillip Island MotoGP was called off on Sunday due to heavy rain and limited visibility for the medical helicopter, after the Moto2 and Moto3 races were also cancelled.
- MotoGP – Championship: Marc Marquez left Phillip Island as championship leader by 10 points after winning Saturday’s sprint, ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang from October 30 to November 1.
- MotoGP – Qatar question: MotoGP chief Carlos Ezpeleta was due to travel to Doha this week to seek assurances over the Qatar Grand Prix amid safety concerns about a possible escalation and airspace closure.
- IndyCar – Monday note: No IndyCar race was scheduled for October 26 in the searches checked; the series is between events after its season finale.
- ATP and WTA – Tennis: World No. 1 Elena Rybakina retained the Ningbo title on Sunday, beating Leylah Fernandez 6-2, 6-2, for her fourth title of the year and 15th overall, and she now heads to Tokyo this week before the WTA Finals at Indian Wells, November 8-15.
- WTA – Osaka: Katerina Siniakova beat Ashlyn Krueger 2-0 in the Osaka final to close that tournament on October 25.
- Women’s tennis and golf – Next: No Grand Slam is in progress in late October; the next major tennis focus is the WTA Finals, while in women’s college golf, Duke’s Rianne Malixi won the Landfall Tradition by nine strokes at 12-under 204 and Duke won the team title by eight strokes.
- Golf – College: UTEP women’s golf set a program single-round record with an 11-under 277 in the opening round at Boulder Creek, led by Nichapas Thawinwan’s 6-under 66.
- UFC – UFC 333 fallout: Alexander Volkanovski retained the featherweight title by stopping Movsar Evloev at 4:54 of round two, and Petr Yan retained the bantamweight title by unanimous decision, 48-47 on all cards, over Merab Dvalishvili.
- UFC – Other 333 and next card: Aaron Pico stopped Losene Keita by TKO just 74 seconds into the first round at UFC 333, while UFC Vegas 123 lost a bout after Azamat Bekoev’s medical withdrawal and Andre Petroski declined a replacement opponent.
- MMA and boxing – Monday note: No major professional boxing world-title fight or Bellator or ONE Championship headline event was listed for October 26 in the searches checked; the main combat-sports talking point remains UFC 333 fallout.
- Rugby, cricket, volleyball and other Olympic sports – Monday note: No Rugby Union, Rugby League, ICC, World Athletics, swimming, cycling, gymnastics or combat-sport world final was headlining October 26 in the searches checked, with Edinburgh’s 31-10 United Rugby Championship win over the Lions on October 23 the most recent rugby result in that set, and college volleyball results, including South Dakota Mines’ sweep of New Mexico Highlands, filling the volleyball slate.
- Esports – Monday note: No single global esports final was headlining October 26 in the searches checked; league play continues between major tournament windows.
- NCAAB, WNCAAB and World Cup – Monday note: College basketball is still in preseason, with no regular-season NCAAB or WNCAAB game headlining October 26, and no men’s or women’s World Cup final is in progress in October, with the next World Cup cycle still in qualifying and preparation.
