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Morning Edition

October 6, 2025

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Chaos continues in college football as top-10 powers Penn State and Texas tumble out of the AP Top 25 following stunning losses, highlighting a season defined by parity and unpredictability. Meanwhile, in the WNBA Finals, the Las Vegas Aces now lead the series 2–0.

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]], Ryan Glasspiegel [[link removed]], and Dennis Young [[link removed]]

CFB’s New Parity Era: Penn State, Texas Top-25 Exits Signal Shift [[link removed]]

Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

Chaos continues to reign across college football as the consequences of losing this weekend proved particularly severe for two top-10 teams.

No. 7 Penn State fell entirely out of the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll [[link removed]] after losing Saturday at unranked and winless UCLA, a team less than three weeks removed from firing coach DeShaun Foster [[link removed]] and installing interim coach Tim Skipper, in a game widely considered the college football upset of the season.

Just two weeks ago, the Nittany Lions were ranked third in the country and seemed to be a lock for the College Football Playoff, but their season has been radically altered after two straight losses that include last week’s home defeat in double overtime to Oregon [[link removed]].

No. 9 Texas, meanwhile, also is out of the AP Top 25 after falling Saturday on the road to unranked Florida, and the Longhorns have two losses as well after the season-opening defeat at No. 1 Ohio State.

The drops brought the Nittany Lions and Longhorns each out of the AP poll for the first time since 2022 and are particularly shocking given that Texas was the preseason No. 1, with Penn State right behind at No. 2. Penn State’s fall was the second-biggest out of the top-25 in the 99-year history of the poll, not counting preseason polls or the 2020 pandemic season.

The shifts over the past six weeks also emphasize the wild nature of this season and highlight the fast-rising parity across the sport [[link removed]]. With more blue-blood programs piling up losses in the first half of the season, the likelihood of two- and three-loss teams having viable CFP candidacies continues to increase—something that will further inflame debate around the hot-button issue.

Penn State quarterback Drew Allar was asked after the UCLA loss if the team still was a CFP competitor, and after a nervous laugh, asked, “What do you think?” before ultimately saying, “Yes.”

Here Come the Irish

Notre Dame, left for dead by many observers three weeks after falling to 0–2, continues its sharp rise back into the CFP conversation. A decisive home win over Boise State has left the Fighting Irish with a winning record, and the team rose again from a prior No. 21 ranking to No. 16 in the latest poll.

The current AP poll is very clearly rewarding teams that have managed to keep their won-loss records unblemished. The top seven teams and eight of the top nine are all undefeated, and only one team that is still ranked lost this past weekend: No. 20 Vanderbilt, which fell at No. 8 Alabama.

The turbulent nature of the 2025 college football season is likely to be a further boon for what has already been a banner campaign for viewership. Data provided by Nielsen to Front Office Sports showed that the sport through Week 5 was up by more than 10% in per-game viewership [[link removed]], even with applying the new Big Data + Panel measurement process [[link removed]] to last year’s figures.

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Mark Sanchez Faces Three Charges After Indy Stabbing Incident [[link removed]]

Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Fox Sports broadcaster and former NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez has been formally charged in Indianapolis after he was involved in an incident in which he was stabbed and left hospitalized [[link removed]].

Sanchez was charged with battery resulting in injury, public intoxication, and unlawful entry of a motor vehicle, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears announced Sunday morning.

According to a probable cause affidavit signed by detective Joshua Slayton, Sanchez was involved in a fight in an alleyway between the Marriott and Westin hotels in Indianapolis early Saturday morning. The altercation occurred with a man who parked a truck in the alleyway, tasked with removing grease from commercial kitchens.

The affidavit alleged that surveillance footage from the Marriott revealed Sanchez “approached the driver’s door of the truck and opened the door and began a conversation with [the alleged victim] P.T.” The two allegedly had an interaction at the driver’s side door before the alleged victim walked towards the passenger side with Sanchez following him.

Later, the affidavit read, “Mr. Sanchez is seen running after P.T. and the video shows Mr. Sanchez grabbing and throwing P.T. towards the wall of the Westin. It appears that the two men are now fighting between the large metal green dumpster and the truck. The fight continues up against the dumpster and then as a vehicle is driving south bound in the alley, the two men continue fighting and are now moving out towards the middle of the alley. Mr. Sanchez is then seen throwing P. T. to the ground on the west side of the alley just as the car passes. P. T. stands up from the ground and Mr. Sanchez is standing there for a brief moment before turning and running north bound towards W Washington St.”

After the incident, the driver told police that Sanchez told him he “could not be there.” He said that he was trying to flag down hotel security but eventually “realized things had escalated, and he was now in physical danger, so he reached into his pocket and grabbed his pepper spray and sprayed Mr. Sanchez in the face.”

As Sanchez allegedly resumed the attack, the affidavit continued, the driver thought he was in a “life or death situation” and “struck him two or three times with the knife.”

When detectives questioned Sanchez at the hospital, the Fox analyst “said he did not know who did this to him or where it happened,” according to the affidavit.

Fox Sports briefly addressed the situation on its pregame show Sunday, as host Curt Menefee told viewers, “Mark Sanchez was involved in an incident that, to be honest, we’re all still trying to wrap our heads around. At this time, our thoughts and prayers are with Mark, his family, and all those involved.” The network declined further comment.

Brady Quinn, who is normally a college football studio analyst for Fox, filled in for Sanchez during the Colts–Raiders broadcast Sunday.

Bad Bunny, U.S. Officials Trade Barbs Over Super Bowl Halftime Show [[link removed]]

The Tennessean

The prospect of the NFL’s selection of Bad Bunny to headline the Super Bowl halftime show not exploding into a culture war is gone entirely as the U.S. government and the Puerto Rican superstar spent the weekend engaged in a further war of words.

The league’s choice a week ago of Bad Bunny [[link removed]], one of the most-streamed and top-selling musicians in the world, has increasingly angered political conservatives, as he has made a particular and public point of playing most of his concerts outside of the U.S. [[link removed]] to help keep his Latino fans from being approached by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, however, went a significant step further, lashing out at the league for selecting Bad Bunny for the high-profile slot.

“Well, they suck, and we’ll win,” Noem said about the NFL on The Benny Show. [[link removed]] “And God will bless us, and we’ll stand and be proud of ourselves at the end of the day. They won’t be able to sleep at night because they don’t know what they believe. And they’re so weak, we’ll fix it.”

Noem’s comments followed ones from DHS senior advisor Corey Lewandowski, who said that ICE enforcement would be happening at Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 8, 2026.

“There is nowhere you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally,” Lewandowski said separately on the same show. “Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else.”

The NFL has been able to largely avoid public entanglements with U.S. President Donald Trump or his administration since a high-profile battle eight years ago surrounding then-49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and it will bear close watching whether that remains the case.

Even as Trump has been a regular visitor to many high-profile sports events, some other leagues and governing bodies have distanced themselves somewhat from the White House—even those that have had a close relationship with the president.

FIFA, which has a New York office in Trump Tower, pushed back last week [[link removed]] on a suggestion from the president that World Cup games would be moved from Democratic-led cities, saying, “It’s FIFA’s tournament, FIFA’s jurisdiction, FIFA makes those decisions. With all due respect to current world leaders, football is bigger than them.”

Saturday Night Response

Bad Bunny, meanwhile, made his own response on national TV as the guest host of the season 51 premiere of NBC’s Saturday Night Live.

During his opening monologue, Bad Bunny leaned heavily into his culture, going back and forth between speaking English and Spanish. He began in English, saying, “Really, I’m very excited to be doing the Super Bowl. I know that people all around the world who love my music are also happy,” even joking that Fox News was on board. He then switched to Spanish, saying, “Especially all of the Latinos and Latinas … who have worked to open doors. It’s more than a win for myself, it’s a win for all of us. Our footprints and our contribution in this country, no one will be able to take that away or erase it.”

The monologue ended in English, as he said, “If you don’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn,” referring to the Feb. 8 date for Super Bowl LX.

NBC will also air that game featuring his halftime performance.

WNBA Tensions Heat Up With Canceled Collier–Engelbert Meeting [[link removed]]

Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

In one breath Friday night, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said she needed to repair her relationship with players, starting with Napheesa Collier.

In the next, she said the influential Lynx star lied [[link removed]] about a conversation they had.

Now a planned meeting between the two is canceled. Collier decided to cancel the meeting after Engelbert’s comments, ESPN reported Saturday night [[link removed]]. Representatives for Collier and the WNBA did not respond to requests to comment.

The Engelbert–Collier rupture could have major consequences, as Engelbert is representing the owners at the bargaining table while Collier is a union vice president. The players and owners are negotiating a new labor deal that will determine how the league works for years to come; the current collective bargaining agreement expires in 26 days [[link removed]].

Speaking at her annual WNBA Finals press conference Friday night, Engelbert said she planned to meet to clear the air with Collier. Three days earlier, the 29-year-old Minnesota forward had trashed her as “ the worst leadership in the world [[link removed]]” in a stunning four-minute statement. She also called league leadership “tone-deaf” and “dismissive.”

Collier also relayed two comments she said the commissioner made to her at Unrivaled [[link removed]], the winter 3-on-3 league Collier co-founded with Liberty star Breanna Stewart.

First, she said Engelbert told her that “players should be on their knees thanking their lucky stars for the media-rights deal that I got them.” (The WNBA has a new media rights deal [[link removed]] that will pay it more than $200 million annually starting next season, jointly negotiated with the NBA.) Engelbert was asked about this remark on Friday and did not outright deny making it, instead complaining about “inaccuracies” and “clickbait.”

Second, Collier said she asked Engelbert what the league planned to do about the five-figure salaries of players on rookie deals like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Paige Bueckers. According to Collier, Engelbert responded that Clark should be “grateful she makes $16 million off the court, because without the platform that the WNBA gives her, she wouldn’t make anything.”

Asked about that by Front Office Sports at the Las Vegas press conference, Engelbert said unequivocally [[link removed]], “Obviously I did not make those comments … I certainly did not say that.”

That was apparently too much for Collier. ESPN reports that Engelbert forcefully pushing back on her version of events “pretty much pushed the relationship beyond repair.”

Engelbert said at the press conference that she exchanged text messages with Collier between Tuesday and Friday.

Over those three days, nearly every WNBA player who spoke publicly said they backed Collier, including Clark. “I have great respect for Phee and I think she made a lot of very valid points,” Clark said Thursday [[link removed]]. “Phee said it all.”

Editors’ Picks Fox, ABC Reject Ad Accusing Power Conference Commissioners of Greed [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]Cody Campbell said the ads were pulled after he paid for them. Sports Organists Are Still Thriving in the Era of Raucous Arena Music [[link removed]]by Jake Kring-Schreifels [[link removed]]“When they walk out and they see a real organ guy, it’s like, ‘Wow.’” Milwaukee Moneyball: Brewers Are Beating MLB’s Deeper Pockets [[link removed]]by Eric Fisher [[link removed]]Milwaukee is holding its own against big-budget competitors. Question of the Day

Do you think Penn State or Texas can still make the College Football Playoff?

YES [[link removed]] NO [[link removed]]

Friday’s result: 36% of respondents are watching more college football this season than last year.

Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Show [[link removed]] Written by Eric Fisher [[link removed]], Ryan Glasspiegel [[link removed]], Dennis Young [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]]

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