‘It’s life-changing’: How minor leaguers came together and doubled their pay
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Jeff PassanESPN
DESCRIBING LIFE IN the minor leagues can sound like a twisted Mad Lib. The names and locations and adjectives may change, but for generations, the details of the climb to Major League Baseball have remained mortifying. The poverty. The working conditions. The food. The third-class nature of the entire operation. Now, after decades of mistreatment, of being told they were mere apprentices, the people who had given their young lives to the game were in a position to tell those running it who they were and why they mattered.
In January, at the MLB Players Association’s offices high atop the New York City skyline, Matthew Peguero told MLB officials his version of the story. He was from the Dominican Republic and signed with the Tampa Bay Rays. He came to the United States as a teenager not knowing English. He sent the pittance he received — a couple hundred dollars a week during the season without any pay in the offseason or spring training — home to support his family. He struggled to survive.
It was the same story relayed by Andres Angulo, who came from Colombia at 16 years old and spent four years in rookie ball. He saw countless friends who had forgone an education to chase a life in baseball released at 18 with no money, no skills, no job prospects — a dream turned nightmare. These stories and more were shared during in-person bargaining sessions on a landmark first collective-bargaining agreement for minor league players, who described their struggle to understand how an $11 billion-a-year industry could so disregard the mental and physical well-being of its next generation of players.
“If you didn’t sign for $50,000 or more, life in the minor leagues was unsustainable,” said Trevor Hildenberger, a relief pitcher who spent four years in the major leagues and, as he tries to claw his way back, took a leadership role in the unionization of minor league players. “It was just a ticking clock. Either you couldn’t afford to pursue this anymore or you made it to the big leagues.”
This was no narrative. The reality was too real for MLB to ignore anymore. Players were coming forward, social media had delivered their stories to the masses, and though every collective bargaining agreement is little more than an exercise in wealth distribution, MLB couldn’t discount what players were saying: Baseball’s development system was a moral abomination, and this was the opportunity to fix it
For five months, the league and the union, formed under the umbrella of the MLB Players Association, worked toward a deal. After more than three dozen bargaining sessions, they landed on an agreement that more than doubled pay for all players. The union fought for more guaranteed rights, from improved housing and transportation to enhanced medical privileges and health benefits. The league, after settling a class-action minimum-wage and overtime claim from players for $185 million in August, received the ability to manage roster sizes and protection from future wage suits, with any cases to go instead through the arbitration process. Owners approved the deal unanimously Monday; days earlier, 99% of the thousands of players voting had backed it.
In conversations with ESPN, more than a dozen people, from players to employees of the league and union, outlined how a once-unthinkable deal came together with shocking rapidity. Players, tired of the status quo, sought to forge a new one. The league, reeling from bad publicity, committed upward of $100 million yearly to fix its mistakes. By no means is the deal, which will last five years, perfect. But because of it, those involved said, no longer is minor league life a black mark for baseball.
“It was just so clear,” Hildenberger said, “what was right and what was wrong.”
DURING MLB’s 99-DAY lockout of major league players after the 2021 season, Kumar Nambiar spent his days in Jupiter, Florida, training at Cressey Sports Performance. Nambiar marveled at the players surrounding him there. He had pitched at Yale for four years, gone to the Oakland A’s in the 34th round of the 2019 draft and climbed to High-A on the strength of a changeup that dove from his left hand. And here he was, side-by-side with big leaguers trying to stay sharp as the contentious negotiations unfolded.
One day, Nambiar noticed a familiar face: Max Scherzer, the three-time Cy Young Award winner and future Hall of Famer who over the winter had signed for a record $43.3 million a year with the New York Mets. Scherzer also was one of eight executive-board members of the MLBPA, and every day, he would update players at Cressey of the latest goings-on in negotiations with a message on a whiteboard. Nambiar introduced himself to Scherzer and thanked him for his work trying to secure a new deal. Scherzer took the opportunity to educate Nambiar on the process.
“Hearing him talk about this and how important it was inspired me,” Nambiar said. “Before that, I didn’t really understand what the players’ association did. I didn’t know the negotiations, the past bargaining.”
Nambiar wasn’t alone. Despite the 100-plus years of the minor leagues’ existence, the MLBPA had shown no interest in forming a minor league unit. The prospect of organizing more than 5,000 minor league players was too daunting even for a union as renowned as the MLBPA.
Social media changed that, as did the work of a group called Advocates for Minor Leaguers, led by a former minor league pitcher-turned-lawyer Harry Marino. The stories of a half-dozen players cramming into a two-bedroom apartment resonated with the public. Tyler Cyr, a reliever at Triple-A for the San Francisco Giants, posted on Twitter his final pay stub of the 2019 season. The amount received was $165 — and $8,216.58 for the whole year.
A real turning point came in 2020, when, before caving to public pressure, teams were not paying minor league players during the pandemic shutdown.
“The importance of that can’t be understated,” Hildenberger said. “A lot of guys were in need of help, and owners didn’t want to pay anyone their salaries. That opened a lot of guys’ eyes.”
Inspired by their stories, Marino’s organization had begun the herculean task of organizing players. Advocates identified potential leaders and encouraged them to serve as conduits to the entire player population. After MLB took over control of the minor leagues before the 2020 season and reduced the number of affiliated teams from 162 to 120, players grew even more emboldened.
They pushed for organizations to provide housing, and MLB acceded before the 2022 season. That, players said, was a good first step, but dozens of other issues — none more than their salaries — needed remedying. The settlement in Senne v. MLB, the lawsuit that alleged players had been underpaid by hundreds of millions of dollars, inspired even more players.
Roused by Scherzer and the work of Marino and his cohort, Nambiar last year went and bought “Lords of the Realm,” the John Helyar book on the history of labor relations in baseball, which told the story of the player revolution that changed the landscape of professional sports. Throughout the season, he talked about the future of minor league labor with Jared McDonald, his teammate in the A’s. On a late-night bus ride in early September, McDonald, who had aligned with Advocates as it embarked on a union drive, retreated to the back to deliver news that stunned his teammates, Nambiar included.
“Guys, it’s happening,” McDonald said. “We’re unionizing.”
That month, the MLBPA absorbed Advocates and sent union-authorization cards to players, who overwhelmingly voted in favor of forming a minor league unit. Any fear that MLB would challenge the formation of the union wound up to be unfounded; within days, the league voluntarily recognized the minor league unit. And about a month later, on Oct. 27, the MLBPA made its opening presentation to MLB.
The goal from the beginning was clear: The players wanted a deal by Opening Day 2023. Because they had no intentions to strike, their leverage was minimal. And yet that didn’t worry them. For all the animus between MLB and the MLBPA, all the bad blood left over from the major league lockout, minor league players still believed that they were on the right side of history — and that with the right framing, MLB would see it, too.
CRAFTING THE STORIES they told the league would require a deft touch. It couldn’t be all horror — things such as the tale of the teammates who took their paltry per diems on an off-day, went to a local pet store, bought a rabbit, killed it, cooked it and ate it for dinner that night. Finding a balance between complaining about what they didn’t have and bargaining for what they wanted was exceedingly thin. So in late November, the union invited dozens of players to the Phoenix area for a strategizing session.
Players of all walks gathered. There were former big leaguers such as Hildenberger and Ivy League graduates such as Nambiar and representatives such as Angel Basabe, a Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder born in Venezuela and raised in Panama, helping speak for the half of minor leaguers from Latin America. They traded experiences, which served a dual purpose: to give the MLBPA a foundation upon which to ask for change, and to learn more about one another so they could achieve the solidarity necessary for a union to succeed.
“What’s important for me is important for all of us: Get something that is fair, that we deserve,” Basabe said. “I’m a Latin player, so I can be the example for a lot of situations that were not right.”
The two days in Phoenix emboldened the players and narrowed their priorities. Higher salaries were the clear No. 1 objective. Even after the league bumped salaries slightly in 2021, Triple-A players with no major league service maxed out at $17,500 per year, Double-A players at $13,800, A-ball players at $11,000 and rookie-league players at $4,800. The lack of offseason pay forced players into an impossible choice: spend the winter getting a job to make ends meet, or train so they could improve their game before the next spring. The players coalesced around their shared past, taking the emotions built up in Phoenix onto player-only Zoom calls and into the bargaining room.
“I felt so much more comfortable speaking to these guys who I knew understood what we were fighting for,” Hildenberger said. “That was a very powerful feeling. In college, you play with your best friends and you’re trying to get to Omaha. When you’re all pulling toward the same goal and achieving that, it’s the best feeling in the world. To do it on a wider scale with 60 guys in the room and 150 on Zoom, and representing more than 5,000 people who we knew deserved better, instilled me with a lot of hope.”
The union outlined dozens of asks to the league throughout December, as it delivered all of the initial proposals, and the league offered its first response in writing Jan. 12. Five days later, MLB delivered another proposal, this one addressing salaries for the first time. Bruce Meyer, the union’s lead negotiator, had warned players in Phoenix not to be alarmed by it — that the most important elements of the negotiation would come in the final two weeks of talks. In Meyer, the union had “someone who would stand up for us,” Nambiar said, even as MLB’s negotiating team — led by deputy commissioner Dan Halem and Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort — pushed back. Union executive director Tony Clark had spent considerable time in the meetings, too, with Marino playing a vital role and general counsel Matt Nussbaum helping map out strategy, while Patrick Houlihan, Peter Woodfork and Kasey Sanossian did the same for MLB.
A big breakthrough came in January, when the sides agreed that players would be salaried and compensation would be delivered for almost the entirety of the year. In addition to a bump in pay during the season, players would receive weekly checks during early- and late-offseason periods as well as spring training. The early success story heartened players and illustrated that the league was approaching the negotiations in good faith.
Throughout January, the sides hashed out other issues. Would players, the league wondered, consider dropping team-provided housing for higher salaries? No, players said. There was comfort in stability, and dealing with the vagaries of finding a short-term apartment rental diverged with the focus vital to a big league ascent. Would the league, players asked, consider termination pay for those released by teams? No, MLB said. That was a nonstarter.
Negotiations moved at a steady pace throughout January and February, with players going to New York City to participate — Hildenberger and Basabe flew in for sessions, and Nambiar, who lives in Westchester County, New York, attended regularly. On Feb. 16, the sides finalized the first of what would be nearly 30 tentative agreements on individual issues, with the signatures of Marino and Sannosian formalizing a two-page document. In it, teams agreed to provide players with “two full, nutritious meals of high quality” — one pregame, one postgame — every day during the season. The union and league would form a joint committee to address any nutrition complaints from players, whose per diem would rise from $25 to $30.
Collective bargaining agreements — particularly ones being drawn up from scratch — don’t happen overnight, and as the players left in late February for spring training, their participation would be limited to Zoom calls. March had arrived, and Opening Day was set for the 30th. The two-week window Meyer had talked about was fast approaching. The league said it was fine starting the season without a deal, but everyone involved understood: That outcome would be the latest disaster in a minor league history laden with them.
BY MID-MARCH, the sides were dug in with scant progress over the previous two weeks. Players wanted to push salaries past the point of comfort for MLB. The league wanted the unilateral ability to set the Domestic Reserve List, which governs the number of players a team can roster at its four minor league affiliates and Arizona or Florida complexes. The key issues for both parties were clear, and if past negotiations in the major leagues were any indication, they’d save them for the end.
Eventually, bit by bit, the makings of a deal came together. On March 14, they reached a tentative agreement on housing rules to be implemented at latest by 2024, giving Triple-A and Double-A players their own rooms and offering special dispensations for players with children, who are guaranteed at least two-bedroom apartments. Players at all levels would continue to receive free housing. A week later, after heated discussions over transportation to and from the stadium for players without cars, MLB agreed to provide rides for players in A-ball and rookie ball to and from all games.
One day later came an agreement on a grievance system that would cover discipline, a domestic violence policy and a joint drug-and-treatment program. The day after that, a pact on a no-strike, no-lockout provision. Then more: players receiving name, image and likeness privileges for the union to use in group licensing; the right to a second opinion on medical decisions, as well as free medical, dental and vision care; $2.5 million a year from the league to be distributed to players’ 401(k)s; and the reduction of the reserve — the amount of years a team owns a player’s rights in the minor leagues — from seven years to six for all future union members.
With each tentative agreement, the confidence in both sides grew. As loath as players were to give full control to MLB on the Domestic Reserve List, they found a compromise in its reduction from 180 players to 165. The agreement didn’t sit well with some players, who worry about the loss of more jobs after the contraction of 40-plus teams three years ago. The league countered with data that showed over the previous two years, teams on average had 166 players on their rosters — and in the end, the players decided that what they would get in return was worth the winnowing.
In its best and final offer March 29, the league agreed to bump Triple-A minimum salaries from $17,500 to $35,800, Double-A from $13,800 to $30,250, High-A from $11,000 to $27,300, Low-A from $11,000 to $26,200 and rookie league from $4,800 to $19,800. (Players in the Dominican Summer League, who are not part of the union, will not receive similar raises.) Further, the league agreed to supply back pay for spring training this year and will pay players for all but a six-week period between late November and Jan. 1. Offseason pay is a minimum of $250 a week and $375 extra a week for those who attend team-led winter training, such as instructional league, or rehabilitation at team complexes. Slight raises accompanied the last three years of the offer.
It was enough for the players. The leaders, on a Zoom call, were thrilled. And relieved. The past half-year had tested their patience and willingness to trust that the league would right its wrongs. And though there remains plenty to improve — ensuring more jobs aren’t lost, higher salaries, better benefits — the deal addressed enough key issues that player leadership approved it happily.
“With the offseason payment, now we can focus on baseball,” Basabe said. “I know [the rank and file] are grateful. We’re making changes. This is history.”
Word spread quickly among players, and within 24 hours of sending out the deal to a vote, the returns were nearly unanimous. The agreement was for everyone, from Basabe and Hildenberger and Nambiar to Matthew Peguero and Andres Angulo and the thousands of others who were lucky enough to play a game for a living but warranted dignity as they did so.
The story of life in the minor leagues, painful in many ways, had carried them to a better place.
“It’s life-changing for a lot of people now,” Nambiar said, “and for generations going forward.”
NEW YORK — Mired in a six-game losing streak to start another rebuilding season, the San Jose Sharks had two young franchise cornerstones deliver exactly the kind of performances the team is hoping to get from them for the next decade or more.
Macklin Celebrini had a hat trick and set up Will Smith‘s overtime goal to give the 2024 No. 1 pick his second five-point game early in his second NHL season, and the Sharks are no longer the only team in the league without a victory. Oh, and it came at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers, who were looking to win at home for the first time this fall.
“It’s good to see the young guys firing like that,” said enforcer Ryan Reaves, whose early fight against Matt Rempe on Thursday night fired up the Sharks. “We need those guys to step up in big games, and they both did.”
Reaves threw his helmet onto the ice to celebrate Celebrini’s third goal of the night late in the second period.
“I was just making sure there was something on the ice for him,” Reaves said. “I didn’t know how far up the Sharkie fans were, if they had good arms or not, so I was just making sure there was one on there for him.”
There were a few others to clean up, though many more when Taylor Raddysh of the Rangers got his third for dueling hat tricks at the Garden. But Celebrini stole the show by assisting on Smith’s goal in the third period and then again in OT.
“It speaks for itself, to be honest, to do that at MSG on a huge stage,” said Smith, who had four points in his own right. “In a game where we needed him, he showed up.”
Counting a point from 2025 No. 2 pick Michael Misa, the Sharks got 10 from players age 20 or younger for the second time since April. The last team to do that before them was Toronto on Jan. 8, 1986.
“When you draft them that high, you expect them to perform like that and they’ve proven time and time again why they were drafted that high and why all that was going to be put on their shoulders,” Reaves said. “It’s great to see.”
It came against the backdrop of San Jose starting 0-4-2 – the fourth consecutive season the team has lost at least four in a row at the beginning. After his team’s morning skate, second-year coach Ryan Warsofsky offered an optimistic message.
“We’re not going to quit,” Warsofsky said. “There’s still a lot of hockey to be played. We’re going to keep going. We’re going to keep pushing and challenging and we’re going to get out of this together.”
It was fitting that the most important building blocks led the way. The Sharks have not made the playoffs for the past six years and are not expected to again this season, but they do hope to take a step forward in the process of growing into a contender again.
In an effort to do that, they added veterans like Reaves and Stanley Cup champion defenseman Dmitry Orlov to the mix.
“We have a great group,” said Barclay Goodrow, who won the Cup with Tampa Bay in 2020 and ’21 and landed with the Sharks when they claimed him off waivers from the Rangers in the summer of ’24. “Lots of youth that keeps us old guys younger. It’s fun coming to the rink every day.”
Celebrini and Smith had some fun out on the town in New York City during this swing, which also included a team outing to see “Book of Mormon” on Broadway. A song from the show played in the victorious visiting locker room after the 6-5 win.
“Felt like it brought the boys together a little bit,” Reaves said. “It might be the new one.”
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Bill Connelly
The signs are everywhere. It’s finally hoodie weather in the Midwest. We’re getting ready to argue all over again about daylight saving time and whether candy corn is good. (It is! I don’t like that it is, but it is.) That’s right: It’s almost November. And November is college football’s greatest month.
We enter this November with far more uncertainty in the air than usual. Sure, it almost certainly looks like Ohio State and Indiana will vacuum up two of the 12 College Football Playoff slots, with Oregon likely nabbing a third. The top-heavy Big Ten should continue to fend off any of the “Has parity taken over college football?” talk en vogue at the moment. But everywhere else, it’s nothing but uncertainty as far as the eye can see.
We know the SEC should land quite a few CFP bids, but we have no idea who will grab them. (Okay, we have some idea, but not a lot!) We thought the ACC (Miami) and Big 12 (Texas Tech) both had teams capable of charging to 12-0 and easy CFP bids, but Miami and Texas Tech lost last week. So did Memphis, which plunged the American Conference race into chaos. And have you looked at the Heisman betting lately? It feels like we still have some major plot twists to come with that.
Per the Allstate Playoff Predictor, there are 30 teams with at least a 10% chance at a playoff bid. Most of what’s ahead appears unsettled, so let’s try to make some sense of it. Here are the 10 FBS races I’m most looking forward to as hoodie weather — the best weather — further takes over our world.
1. SEC title race
Per SP+, we head into Week 9 with eight teams clinging to at least a 5% chance of winning the league title: Alabama (25.8%), Texas A&M (17.6%), Georgia (13.9%), Oklahoma (10.4%), Texas (7.7%), Missouri (7.4%), Ole Miss (7.1%) and Vanderbilt (5.5%). They all have either zero (Bama and A&M) or one conference loss, and there are eight remaining games between them over the next six weeks, including two potential elimination games in Week 9 (Ole Miss at Oklahoma and Missouri at Vanderbilt).
I can tell you how many different teams have a chance, but it’s hard not to think of Alabama as the front-runner. The Crimson Tide moved to 4-0 in SEC play last week with a 37-20 win over Tennessee, and they’ve now played four of the five best opponents on their conference schedule. They’re only up to ninth in SP+, however, thanks primarily to statistically subpar performances in wins over Georgia and Missouri (and, of course, the season-opening dud against Florida State, an increasingly inexplicable result). That means their remaining games against LSU, Oklahoma and Auburn are projected as one-score affairs. Their spot in Atlanta isn’t a gimme just yet. Still, wins are wins, and they’re in great shape.
Even if we give one title game spot to Bama, the race for the other spot is pretty fascinating. Will Georgia continue to spot opponents multiscore leads before scraping their way back? How much will the Bulldogs’ loss to Bama hurt them in potential tiebreaker scenarios? Can unbeaten Texas A&M continue charging ahead as the schedule ramps up with trips to LSU, Missouri and Texas? (You could tell me right now that the Aggies went 0-3 or 3-0 in those trips and I would believe you, no questions asked.) Can Ole Miss clear this week’s hurdle in Norman and take advantage of a reasonably light home stretch? Is Oklahoma really a contender with five remaining top-20 opponents (per SP+)? I’m slightly worried about overbilling this race when the most likely result seems to be yet another Bama-Georgia title game. But there’s still lots of potential weirdness on the table. That also means the jockeying for the other SEC playoff spots will be interesting.
Key upcoming games: Ole Miss at Oklahoma (Week 9), Missouri at Vanderbilt (Week 9), Vanderbilt at Texas (Week 10), Texas A&M at Missouri (Week 11), Texas at Georgia (Week 12), Oklahoma at Alabama (Week 12), Missouri at Oklahoma (Week 13), Texas A&M at Texas (Week 14)
2. American Conference title race
Out-of-nowhere upsets have sent conference title races in unexpected directions since conferences first came into existence, and few were as unexpected as Memphis‘ 24-21 defeat at UAB last week. The Blazers had just fired coach Trent Dilfer, and Memphis was a more than three-touchdown favorite. The Tigers entered the game with a 43% chance of making the CFP, per the Allstate Playoff Predictor. Those odds are now 11%.
Memphis’ loss is our gain. SP+ now gives five teams between a 12% and 24% chance of winning the American Conference: USF (24.4%), North Texas (22.6%), Memphis (19.4%), Navy (17.3%) and Tulane (12.7%). USF, Navy and Tulane are unbeaten in conference play, and Navy is unbeaten overall thanks to a couple of narrow wins in its past two games. But Navy and Tulane have had to pull off escapes in recent weeks and have fallen out of the SP+ top 50. USF has made a nice ascent since a humiliating 49-12 loss to Miami, but the Bulls must play at Memphis and Navy in the coming weeks. If they beat Memphis on Saturday, their spot in the American Conference title game begins to appear secure. But a Memphis win would improve Memphis’ own odds and those of North Texas.
Key upcoming games: USF at Memphis (Week 9), Navy at North Texas (Week 10), Tulane at Memphis (Week 11), USF at Navy (Week 12), Navy at Memphis (Week 14)
3. The current hierarchy of one-loss teams
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Unstoppable force vs. immovable object: Rebels offense vs. OU defense
SEC Network’s Alyssa Lang presents pressing statistics and potential CFP chances ahead of No. 8 Ole Miss’ battle against the No. 13 Sooners.
From a College Football Playoff perspective, this is the most important race. But it’s also the blurriest. If we assume that the Group of 5 ends up with just one of the 12 spots in the CFP — not a guarantee (since we could still theoretically end up with a particularly low-ranked Big 12 or ACC champion), but likely — then that leaves 11 spots for the four power conferences. Among power-conference teams, SP+ projections suggest an average of 5.1 will end up 11-1 or 12-0 heading into championship weekend, likely from this pile:
Odds of finishing 11-1 or better (power-conference teams only): Ohio State 90.1%, Indiana 87.8%, Georgia Tech 49.6%, Texas Tech 46.2%, Oregon 33.1%, Miami 27.5%, BYU 27.3%, Louisville 22.3%, Georgia 16.5%, Ole Miss 16.1%, Alabama 14.9%, Virginia 12.4%.
If we assume for a moment that five or so of those teams will make the field of 12 as they did last year — again, not guaranteed but reasonably likely — that leaves about six spots for multiloss teams, likely from the Big Ten and SEC.
It’s impossible to know where each potential multiloss team might stand six weeks from now, when we don’t know who they might have beaten or lost to — or how the CFP committee will, after pressure, handle differences in strength of schedule — but let’s lay out where their résumés currently stand by combining Strength of Record and Résumé SP+ into one résumé ranking.
Current computer-based résumé rankings:
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Indiana (7-0)
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Ohio State (7-0)
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Texas A&M (7-0)
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Oregon (6-1)
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Alabama (6-1)
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BYU (7-0)
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Georgia (6-1)
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Georgia Tech (7-0)
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Oklahoma (6-1)*
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Miami (5-1)
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Texas Tech (6-1)*
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Vanderbilt (6-1)
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Ole Miss (6-1)
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Notre Dame (5-2)
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Missouri (6-1)
(* Since Texas Tech’s lone loss came without injured starting quarterback Behren Morton, it could get some benefit of the doubt from the committee. And how might the committee handle Oklahoma’s loss to Texas considering John Mateer had rushed back from injury?)
Among current one-loss teams, it seems Oregon, Alabama and Georgia are in good shape to handle another defeat with playoff standing intact. But the number of other spots available could depend on the teams in Provo and Atlanta. BYU and Georgia Tech remain unbeaten, and if either team gets to championship weekend at 12-0, it will be in no matter what happens in the respective conference title games. That’s not particularly likely — BYU must travel to Iowa State (Week 9), Texas Tech (Week 11) and Cincinnati (Week 13), while Georgia Tech finishes against a torrid Pitt (Week 13) and Georgia (Week 14) — but it remains on the table.
Meanwhile, the hierarchy of teams ranked ninth to 15th above tells us quite a bit. Two-loss Notre Dame obviously needs a little bit of help, but considering there are head-to-heads between No. 9 and 13 and No. 10 and 15 this week, the Fighting Irish will likely move up a couple of spots despite being on a bye week. Their strength-of-schedule numbers will only get worse from here, however, so they need to keep looking the part as they have in recent weeks.
Key upcoming games: Ole Miss at Oklahoma (Week 9), Missouri at Vanderbilt (Week 9), BYU at Texas Tech (Week 9), Texas A&M at Missouri (Week 11), Oklahoma at Alabama (Week 12), Missouri at Oklahoma (Week 13), Georgia at Georgia Tech (Week 14)
4. ACC title race
Georgia Tech barely survived at Wake Forest and needed some red zone implosions from Duke — including a 95-yard Omar Daniels fumble return — to survive in Durham on Saturday. But again, wins are wins, and the Yellow Jackets have seven from seven games.
The Jackets are 4-0 in ACC play, so they have their noses out in front in the conference title race. Still, there are seven teams with at least a 7% chance at the league crown right now: Georgia Tech (26.9%), Louisville (16.8%), Miami (13.4%), Virginia (12.9%), SMU (12.9%), Pitt (8.3%) and Duke (7.3%). Considering the closeness of the games that we’ve already seen between these teams, that makes quite a bit of sense.
In terms of the quantity of teams involved, this race could have ranked higher on the list. But somehow we have only five more remaining games between these seven teams. This race could be decided as much by who avoids unexpected upsets as anything. With only one team really standing out from a quality perspective — Miami is 13th in SP+, and the other six contenders are between 24th and 44th — upsets are somewhere between conceivable and quite likely.
Key upcoming games: Miami at SMU (Week 10), Virginia at Duke (Week 12), Pitt at Georgia Tech (Week 13), Louisville at SMU (Week 13), Miami at Pitt (Week 14)
5. The charge to 6-6
We’re constantly told that there are too many bowls and that they don’t mean what they used to. And yet, one of the most enjoyable storylines in a given season comes when a down-on-its-luck program makes a run at bowl eligibility. Here are some of the more interesting names that have a shot at the postseason in 2025:
Northwestern Wildcats (5-2 record, 80.7% chance at bowl eligibility per SP+): The Wildcats have bowled only once in the past four seasons, and they stumbled out of the gate with a dire 23-3 loss to Tulane in Week 1. But they’ve won four in a row to get to the precipice, and while they’re projected underdogs in each remaining game, they’ll probably snag at least one minor upset.
Temple Owls (5-2, 77.4%): One of my favorite stories of the season. Temple went just 13-42 from 2020 to 2024 but made a knockout hire by bringing veteran K.C. Keeler to town. Last Saturday’s blowout of Charlotte brought the Owls to five wins, and they’re favorites at Tulsa this weekend. (If they don’t beat Tulsa, however, things might get a little bit dicey, as they’re at least slight underdogs in each remaining game.)
New Mexico Lobos (4-3, 76.0%): Jason Eck’s Lobos were pains in Michigan’s neck in Week 1 and pummeled UCLA in Week 3. Losses at San José State and Boise State hurt, but as long as they handle their business at home against Utah State and Colorado State, they’re set.
Wyoming Cowboys (3-4, 37.6%): After stumbling to 3-9 in Jay Sawvel’s first season as Craig Bohl’s successor, the Cowboys have played some entertaining games of late, and their 35-28 win over San José State in Week 7 kept bowl hopes alive. Their odds would hop to around 50-50 with a win over Colorado State on Saturday.
Ball State Cardinals (3-4, 20.7%): The Cardinals slipped from 5-7 to 4-8 to 3-9 over Mike Neu’s final three seasons, and they’ve suffered three massive blowouts this year under Mike Uremovich. But their 3-0 home record has bought them time, and a win at 1-6 Northern Illinois on Saturday would keep hope alive.
New Mexico State Aggies (3-3, 43.3%): NMSU isn’t particularly strong (122nd in SP+) and just fell to Missouri State at home, but Conference USA offers plenty of games against similarly iffy programs. They have only one sure loss (at Tennessee) remaining on the schedule. They’re in the hunt.
Delaware Blue Hens (3-3, 78.0%) and Missouri State Bears (3-3, 44.5%): The FBS newcomers will need help, as they aren’t automatically eligible and would only get bowl bids if there aren’t enough bowl-eligible teams to fill all the slots. Right now it looks like there probably will be. Still, the Blue Hens and Bears have fit in well in CUSA. Delaware has a 14% chance of finishing 8-4 or better, which is always a hell of an accomplishment for a newbie.
6. Conference USA title race
Yes, there’s a lot of dead weight in this conference, but a tight race is a tight race, and heading into Week 9, four teams had between a 20% and 23% title chance — Jacksonville State (22.7%), Louisiana Tech (21.7%), Western Kentucky (21.0%) and Kennesaw State (20.7%) — with a fifth contender (Liberty) at 8.6%.
On Tuesday, Western Kentucky knocked off Louisiana Tech in a genuine game-of-the-week candidate, while Kennesaw State pulled away from Florida International. That will shift the odds in those teams’ favor, but with so much evenness in this conference, advantages will likely shift again in the coming weeks. Kennesaw State’s presence in the race makes things even more fun; the Owls face-planted with a 2-10 FBS debut last season, but under Jerry Mack they nearly beat Wake Forest in Week 1 and have won five straight.
Key upcoming games: Kennesaw State at Jacksonville State (Week 12), Liberty at Louisiana Tech (Week 13), Western Kentucky at Jacksonville State (Week 14), Kennesaw State at Liberty (Week 14)
7. Heisman race
First it was Texas’ Arch Manning and Clemson’s Cade Klubnik. Then LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier. Then Oklahoma’s John Mateer. Oregon’s Dante Moore had his turn at the top of the list. Miami’s Carson Beck was up there. The mantle of Heisman Favorite has been a hot potato this season. No one has held on to it for very long.
After the past few weeks of action, with Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza shining for an unbeaten team, Ty Simpson providing a slow drip of heroics during Bama’s run of four straight ranked wins and Julian Sayin completing what feels like 100% of his (mostly safe) passes against mostly overwhelmed opposition, we head into Week 9 with a clear upper tier in the race.
Current ESPN BET Heisman odds: Mendoza +300, Simpson +350, Sayin +400, Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed +1100, Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia +1400, Moore +1800, Georgia’s Gunner Stockton +1800, Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love +2000, Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith +3500, Ole Miss’ Trinidad Chambliss +3500.
If that’s the favorites list we end up with, so be it. At the end of championship weekend, Mendoza, Simpson and Sayin should all have between 3,300 and 3,600 passing yards with about 33 to 39 touchdowns. Solid work. But if you’re a believer in “Heisman Moments,” they might not have many marquee opportunities between now and the conference title games. The door could be open to Pavia or Reed, if they continue leading their respective teams to unforeseen heights. Maybe Stockton keeps bailing his team out with fourth-quarter heroics. Maybe Love produces a couple more 200-yard rushing games and captures the imagination. Maybe in the lack of some obvious 4,000-yard passer, conventional wisdom begins to home in on a defensive player like Miami’s Rueben Bain Jr. or Ohio State’s Caleb Downs. This would be a fun year for a change-of-pace pick. Regardless, I don’t feel like our current favorites list is quite what we’ll have a month from now.
8. MAC title race
There are currently five teams with between a 12% and 25% chance of winning the league — Western Michigan (24.6%), Toledo (19.1%), Miami (Ohio) (19.1%), Buffalo (18.7%) and Ohio (12.3%) — and Miami plays every team on the list besides itself. The RedHawks could play for the crown themselves, but either way they’ll directly decide who gets to play for it. They host smoking-hot Western Michigan this weekend, then play a fellow contender in each of the first three weeks of November’s midweek MACtion slate.
Miami and Western Michigan have each rebounded from 0-3 starts to now stand at 4-3. Western Michigan has overachieved against SP+ projections by an average of 21.3 points per game during this winning streak and has jumped 32 spots in SP+ (from 124th to 92nd) in just three games.
Toledo, meanwhile, has beaten projections in five of seven games this year and ranks seventh nationally in points allowed per drive; the problem, as it usually is under Jason Candle: random duds. They lost as projected 18-point favorites to Western Michigan, then blew a 21-point lead (as a 22-point favorite) against Bowling Green. They’re favored by at least eight points in every remaining game, but another MAC dud would almost certainly eliminate them from the list.
Key upcoming games: Western Michigan at Miami (Ohio) (Week 9), Miami (Ohio) at Ohio (Week 11), Ohio at Western Michigan (Week 12), Toledo at Miami (Ohio) (Week 12), Miami (Ohio) at Buffalo (Week 13), Ohio at Buffalo (Week 14)
9. Biletnikoff Award race
The preseason watch list for the Biletnikoff Award, given to the nation’s best wide receiver, tends to feature approximately a million names, give or take. But among the six current per-game receiving yardage leaders, only three made that initial list: USC‘s Makai Lemon, Louisville’s Chris Bell and Arizona State‘s Jordyn Tyson. San José State‘s Danny Scudero and Texas A&M’s Mario Craver had to be added to the list on Oct. 1, and Illinois’ Hank Beatty was added on Oct. 15.
Of the nine wideouts listed in our preseason Top 100 players list, none are in the nation’s top 10 in receiving yards per game, and only five are in the top 50. The only reason Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith, the No. 1 player in the country on that preseason list, is even in the top 15 in yards per game is because he had 272 combined yards against Grambling and Ohio. In five games against power-conference opponents, he’s averaging 66.0 yards per game and 9.4 yards per catch.
A lot of this lack of production comes from the fact that, aside from a season-opening dud against Texas (six catches, 43 yards), Ohio State hasn’t needed him to shine brightly yet. Buckeyes games haven’t been remotely close, and it’s fair to assume Smith will be just as ridiculous in their likely upcoming CFP trip as he was last year. But to win the award as the nation’s best receiver, shouldn’t you actually have to do something in-season? Will voters lean toward Lemon (108.3 yards per game), Bell (106.3) or a new star like Craver (95.4)? Will they vote for someone like Smith or Alabama’s Ryan Williams (60.4 yards per team game) based on what we all assume they are instead? It’s an interesting philosophical question.
10. Big 12 title race
Heading into Week 9 last season, Arizona State was 5-2 but only 52nd in SP+, having wobbled through a series of close games and having suffered a mid-October upset loss without injured quarterback Sam Leavitt. As you probably remember, the Sun Devils caught fire, winning six straight, winning the Big 12 with a rout of Iowa State and all but beating Texas in the CFP quarterfinals.
ASU has certainly lined up a lot of parallels heading into Week 9 of 2025. Same record? Check. Same September mediocrity? Check. Same mid-October loss sans Leavitt? Check. Another SP+ ranking in the 50s? Check (55th). Despite a 3-1 conference record, and despite last week’s upset of Texas Tech, ASU has only a 4.8% title chance at the moment, per SP+. From a statistical standpoint, a conference title run would be just as unexpected as last year’s. It would be one hell of a story if they caught fire again.
Right now, three teams have at least a 17% title chance, per SP+: Texas Tech (34.8%), BYU (25.1%) and Cincinnati (17.5%). Utah (6.6%), ASU (4.8%) and Houston (4.1%) are still in the hunt, and if Iowa State (2.6%) regains its early-season form, the Cyclones could beat some contenders down the stretch — including unbeaten BYU this weekend — and insert themselves in the race as well.
Key upcoming games: Houston at Arizona State (Week 9), Cincinnati at Utah (Week 10), BYU at Texas Tech (Week 11), BYU at Cincinnati (Week 13)
NEW YORK — Warming up to play hockey in an arena that has hosted some of the best boxing matches in history, from Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frazier to Evander Holyfield against Lennox Lewis, Matt Rempe skated over and asked fellow heavyweight Ryan Reaves if he wanted to fight on Thursday night.
“Yeah, maybe,” Reaves said.
Rempe tried again off a faceoff early, and Reaves wanted to hit somebody on the New York Rangers first. He did just that to Juuso Parssinen, and two of the toughest customers in the NHL dropped the gloves for a knockout, drag-out, old-school hockey fight at center ice at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night. Reaves and the San Jose Sharks went on to win in overtime for their first victory of the season.
“It was unbelievable,” said Sharks center Will Smith, who scored in OT. “It got us all going and can’t say enough about him.”
After sizing each other up and grappling, Reaves’ helmet fell off, and then he was able to knock off Rempe’s with his next right. The two exchanged blows for more than 20 seconds with the crowd buzzing.
Rempe got Reaves’ jersey over his head and was striking at Reaves’ head when linesmen Shandor Alphonso and Matt MacPherson broke it up.
“He’s a big boy and you have to fight guys like that a little bit differently,” Reaves said. “I’ve seen him fight, so I know what he’s good at, what his weaknesses are. It was a good tilt.”
Reaves went to the penalty box to serve the 5-minute major, while Rempe went down the tunnel with training staff.
Fans chanted, “Rempe! Rempe!” as he exited. Rempe did not return for the second period, and the Rangers announced the 23-year-old was out for the remainder of the game because of an upper-body injury. Coach Mike Sullivan said afterward Rempe was still being evaluated.
The league in recent years prevented players from removing their helmets prior to fighting. Reaves, who is 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds, is one of just four players left without a visor after they were grandfathered in more than a decade ago.
“Most of the guys coming in that fight have to wear visors, so if anything, I’m at a disadvantage,” Reaves told The Associated Press after the Sharks’ morning skate earlier Thursday. “I miss fighting guys with no visor because I cut my hands a lot more, and they’re able to protect themself a little bit more. I find I’ve got to get through an extra layer to get to the face.”
Fighting has drastically decreased from a time when there was one roughly every other game. Fisticuffs are down 200% since the 2000-01 season.
Rempe, who is 6-foot-9 and 261 pounds, became an instant fan favorite and popular teammate in 2024 for his willingness to fight some of the sport’s most established enforcers. He spent time on the ice that summer with retired tough guy Georges Laraque getting technique tips on how to better use his reach and protect himself.
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