Frustrations with the BCS system led to the creation of the College Football Playoff

The College Football Playoff included four teams each year from its inception in 2014 to 2023

Replacing the BCS, the four-team College Football Playoff matched semifinal winners for the national title—delivering dramatic upsets, dynastic runs, and some of the sport’s most memorable games over its first decade.

Before the BCS and Playoff systems, polls often sparked controversy over college football champions

For decades, national titles were awarded by polls like the AP and Coaches’ rankings—leading to split championships, heated debates, and disputed claims whenever top teams finished with identical records.

The College Football Playoff expanded to 12 teams in 2024

Beginning with the 2024 season, the playoff grew from four to 12 teams—adding first-round games on campus and aiming to give more programs a shot at the national title. Ohio State defeated Notre Dame in the championship to become the first-ever 12-team playoff champions.

The FCS is Division I’s second tier with its own playoff system

The Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) features 128 Division I programs that offer fewer scholarships than the FBS. Instead of bowl games, the FCS crowns its champion through a 24-team playoff each season.

The 2007 college football season was one of the wildest in history

In 2007, a record number of top-ranked teams fell, including 41-point underdog Stanford stunning USC. Upsets scrambled the rankings weekly, producing an unpredictable and memorable season.

A hoops expert on the likely March Madness expansion

Rumors about March Madness expanding to a field of 76 teams have led to consternation among some college basketball fans, who believe overcrowding the tournament will dilute what makes it great. HoopsHQ's Seth Davis argues it's a good idea, comparing the change to college football's recent (and highly successful) playoff system.

College football bowl games boast some of sports’ most absurd names

From the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl to the Pop-Tarts Bowl, college football’s postseason is filled with quirky, sponsor-driven names.

Television transformed college football into a national spectacle

The rise of televised games in the mid-20th century expanded college football’s reach far beyond campus stadiums—turning regional rivalries into national events, boosting revenue, and cementing the sport as a Saturday tradition across the country.

​​Some allege the NFL has shifted gameplay toward fantasy

Recent rule changes in the league have increased passing and point-scoring, which critics argue is motivated by a desire to appeal to fantasy-loving viewers who might be frustrated by slower, lower-scoring games.

Ohio State’s 2003 Fiesta Bowl win ended Miami’s 34-game winning streak

In a thrilling double-overtime BCS title game, Ohio State defeated defending champion Miami 31–24. This snapped the Hurricanes’ 34-game win streak and delivered the Buckeyes their first national championship since 1968.

The SEC is a powerhouse conference with 16 teams and a rich Southern football tradition

Formed in 1933 after splitting from the Southern Conference, the Southeastern Conference began with 13 schools. It has since grown to 16 members, defining college football with numerous national championships and rabid regional rivalries.

The Electoral College emerged as a compromise at the 1787 Constitutional Convention

This explainer traces how the Founding Fathers designed the Electoral College as a middle ground—balancing fears of direct popular rule against concerns about giving Congress the power to choose the president.

Some educators argue society's obsession with colleges at the top of rankings has hurt the US higher education ecosystem

Why are "good colleges" often the ones that accept the fewest students? Speaker Cecilia Orphan argues that society's obsession with colleges that are often private, expensive, and that reject applicants with high frequency has done harm. Instead, she argues, we should focus on regional public universities that meet the needs of students in a cost-achievable manner.

College football generates over $11B annually—but many programs run at a loss

Despite total revenues surpassing $11.5B in 2024, college football’s high operating costs—$14.5B in the same year—mean only a handful of top programs turn large profits, while most run at a loss.

Rivalry between the AFL and NFL led to a merger—and the creation of the Super Bowl

Competition between the American Football League and the National Football League led to a 1966 merger agreement, with the Super Bowl created as a championship game to determine league supremacy before the two leagues were fully integrated.

Some novel ideas to improve presidential debates

The first televised presidential debates of 1960 were seemingly so consequential, candidates opted not to participate in one for 16 years. In the last 60 years, debate format has changed frequently as the political parties and news outlets vie for rules to either protect candidates or increase TV ratings. In this brief video, one expert suggests five interesting innovations to the debate format to make them more informative for the average US voter.

Five years after UMBC, Fairleigh Dickinson defeated Purdue to become the second-ever 16-seed to beat a 1 seed.

Five years after UMBC shocked Virginia, FDU pulled off an even more improbable upset. Ranked last out of all 68 tournament teams and a 23.5-point underdog, the Knights stunned Big Ten champion Purdue 63-58.

Analyzing the PGA Tour's leaderboard

In 2007, the PGA Tour introduced the FedEx Cup, marking the first time men's pro golf had a playoff system. This PGA Tour interactive shows the Cup standings year-to-date, along with video and news updates. Click on a player's name and get a detailed page about their career, including total wins, scorecards from recent matches, and what clubs are in their bag.

Pickleball's popularity has created a power struggle

The sport's sudden rise has led to a tumultuous landscape with battles over governance, court space, and player rights. This Sports Illustrated deep dive examines the competing billionaires vying for control, the conflicts over court usage and noise disputes, and how a second proposed Hall of Fame is dividing the sport.

The incredible story of Bishop Sycamore

Bishop Sycamore is facing scrutiny after its ugly loss in a nationally televised football game, but this is not new to many of the people involved.

In 2015, FIFA's decades-old bribery network was exposed

In 2015, the US Department of Justice exposed a 24-year bribery network influencing broadcast rights and votes on World Cup host cities. Over 40 officials were indicted for accepting bribes. FIFA implemented several reforms, including term limits for presidents and council members and salary disclosures in 2016.

A Cinderella run to the elite eight put Steph Curry on the map

As a sophomore at 10-seed Davidson, Curry averaged 32 points per game, scoring 40, 30, 33, and 25 in four games, before falling to eventual champion Kansas by two points.

The 2026 season will be the first to allow challenges on balls and strikes

The Automated Ball Strike (ABS) technology—first tested in the minor leagues and in MLB's 2025 spring training and All-Star Game—defines the strike zone rather than relying on individual umpires' interpretations of it. Rather than allowing ABS to determine every ball or strike, though, each team will now have a limited number of in-game challenges to umpires' calls, which will be settled by ABS.

Ranked-choice voting redistributes ballots until a candidate wins a majority

In ranked-choice voting, voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no one wins a majority, the lowest-ranked candidate is eliminated, and their votes are reassigned until a candidate surpasses 50%, avoiding separate runoff elections.

UC Santa Cruz's nontraditional mascot was selected by its students

After becoming an NCAA Division III school, UC Santa Cruz ditched its informal mascot, the banana slug, for a sea lion. Students protested and eventually held a straw vote to reinstate the old name, which they saw as an antidote to the hypercompetitive nature of college athletics.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.