The BBC dropped its 2024 Footballer of the Year shortlist on Tuesday, with three of the five nominees hailing from the NWSL.

Orlando striker Barbra Banda, Portland forward Sophia Smith, and San Diego center back Naomi Girma headline the 10th edition of the traditionally UK-heavy award. Barcelona FC standouts Aitana Bonmatí and Caroline Graham Hansen round out the five-player selection.

A panel that includes coaches, players, journalists, and administrators selects the award's shortlist, with the final winner determined by fan votes.

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Footballer of the Year looks outside the UK

Seven of the nine previous winners of the London-based broadcaster's award played their soccer, whether club or country, in the UK.

Only two-time BBC Footballer of the Year Ada Hegerberg, a Norwegian national and striker for Lyon, has earned the honor without a connection to England.

Hegerberg's 2019 win also came during the only other year when all five of the BBC's Footballer of the Year nominees played outside the UK.

Stellar resumes back the 2024 Footballer of the Year nominees

After winning Olympic gold in Paris this summer, USWNT stars, NWSL game-changers, and longtime friends Smith and Girma have dominated on both international and domestic pitches this year.

Along with her three Olympic goals, Thorns forward Smith has already matched her 2023 NWSL Golden Boot-winning tally of 11 goals in her 2024 campaign — despite being recently hampered by an ankle injury.

Representing the back line, Girma was the only field player to feature in every minute of the 2024 Paris Games, with USWNT boss Emma Hayes calling her "the best defender I have ever seen."

Despite such praise, the 2023 US Soccer Player of the Year was notably snubbed last month from the 2024 Ballon d'Or shortlist. The other four BCC-nominated players feature on both lists.

Meanwhile, with 13 NWSL goals so far this season, Zambian national Banda is a frontrunner for the league's 2024 MVP award. With three hat tricks across the Tokyo and Paris Games, her 10 goals across those tournaments make her Africa's all-time leading Olympic scorer.

As for the Barça athletes, Norwegian national Hansen's injuries left her underrated for much of the 29-year-old's career, but her last two seasons with the Liga F side has seen her score an astounding 45 goals in 55 appearances.

Meanwhile, Bonmatí has secured every possible club-level trophy during her Barcelona career, including three UWCL titles. The 2023 World Cup champion with Spain is also the 2023 Ballon d'Or winner.

How to vote for the BBC 2024 Footballer of the Year

Fans worldwide can cast their votes online now through 5 AM ET on October 28th, with the winner announced on November 26th.

The NFL is putting women on the gridiron, with commissioner Roger Goodell announcing plans to launch both a men's and women's professional flag football league at Thursday's Leaders in Sport conference in London.

Looking to have both new ventures up and running in "the next couple of years," the NFL's goal is to introduce the leagues prior to the 2028 Summer Games in LA, where flag football will make its Olympic debut.

"The demand is there. We're seeing colleges in the States and universities internationally also that want to make it a part of their program," Goodell said. "If you set that structure up where there's youth leagues, going into high school, into college, and then professional, I think you can develop a system of scale. That's an important infrastructure that we need to create."

Building that infrastructure also feeds the ongoing NFL goal of growing flag football in order to construct a young fanbase for the gridiron sport at-large, with the league investing in a fan pipeline to support the NFL's future.

In part due to past NFL investments, women's flag football has seen significant growth across the US over the last 25 years, with over 30 states now offering competitive opportunities for high school girls — and at least half of those states fielding it as a full-fledged varsity championship sport.

Even the NCAA is getting in on the action, taking initial steps earlier this year to introduce flag football across all three of the governing body's divisions in the near future.

Though the LA Olympics are three years away, flag football is already charging ahead on the international stage, featuring in the 2022 and 2025 World Games — where the same US talent that the NFL is eyeing for its new league snagged a pair of silver medals.

The 2025/26 NCAA basketball season is just around the corner, and the Big Ten is celebrating by shouting out the conference's top predicted performers in both the coaches and media preseason polls on Thursday.

The UCLA Bruins — the Big Ten's singular 2025 Final Four participant — took the top team spot in both surveys, with the Maryland Terrapins trailing just behind as the conference's No. 2 ranked squad.

Rounding out the Top 5 in both polls were the USC Trojans, Michigan Wolverines, and Ohio State Buckeyes.

As for individual athletes, UCLA senior and the reigning Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Lauren Betts clocked in as the polls' unanimous favorite for Big Ten Player of the Year, with the standout center unsurprisingly capturing the top spot in the absence of injured USC star and 2025 Naismith Player of the Year JuJu Watkins.

Also picking up preseason All-Big Ten Team honors in both surveys were fellow UCLA standout Kiki Rice plus four other seniors: Iowa's Hannah Stuelke, Maryland's Yarden Garzon and Kaylene Smikle, and Michigan State's Grace VanSlooten.

A trio of underclassmen also made the cut in both 2025/26 preseason polls, with Ohio State's Jaloni Cambridge — last year's Big Ten Freshman of the Year — joined by a pair of fellow sophomores from archrival Michigan, Olivia Olson and Syla Swords.

The final spot on the All-Big Ten Team lists went to one of the Washington Huskies, with the 18 conference head coaches tapping junior Sayvia Sellers while the media honored senior Elle Ladine.

The 2025/26 NCAA basketball season tips off on November 3rd.

Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball is hitting the road, with the offseason league announcing on Thursday that it will make its first-ever tour stop during the upcoming expanded 2026 season when it takes over Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia on January 30th.

"The energy and dedication of everyone who helped bring this tour stop to life, combined with the passion of Philadelphia's sports fans, made the city the perfect stage for Unrivaled," league president Alex Bazzell said in Thursday's press release.

Featuring four as-yet-unannounced Unrivaled teams in a regular-season doubleheader, the Miami-based league will also pack additional activations and events supporting the competition into its inaugural tour stop.

"Philadelphia is the city of firsts, so it makes perfect sense that the Unrivaled League picked our historical city, with unmatched sports enthusiasts, as its first tour stop," said Philadelphia mayor Cherelle L. Parker.

The upstart league's first foray outside of Miami will also mark Philadelphia's first professional women's basketball games since 1998.

"Advancing women's pro sports in Philly has been a goal we've passionately pursued for years," said comedian Wanda Sykes, an Unrivaled investor and a founding member of the Philadelphia Sisters, a women's sports advocacy group. "Unrivaled, this groundbreaking league, is set to elevate the women's basketball ecosystem as a whole, and we are honored that Philly has been chosen as its first-ever tour stop."

How to purchase tickets to Unrivaled in Philadelphia

Unrivaled isn't revealing the four participating teams until sometime next month, but fans can secure their own spots at the Philadelphia tour stop today.

Tickets for the January 30th doubleheader are currently available for purchase online at Ticketmaster.

With just four regular-season matchdays remaining in the 2025 NWSL season, the clock is quickly ticking down for teams making a late push to rise above the postseason cutoff line on the league table — including the No. 10 Houston Dash.

Currently sitting three points outside of playoff contention, a motivated Houston side will look to make a leap against No. 5 Orlando on Friday night, as the defending champion Pride continues reeling from their recently snapped nine-game NWSL winless streak.

"For us, the next couple of matches are finals," Dash head coach Fabrice Gautrat said after last weekend's 4-0 loss to the No. 2 Washington Spirit. "We have to keep approaching it one game at a time like we've been doing, but we definitely have to have a response against the Orlando Pride."

Notably, Houston enters Friday's matchup with new firepower in the midfield, as teen phenom Chloe Ricketts joins the Dash as a short-term signing from the Spirit before she moves to incoming expansion side Boston Legacy FC in 2026.

"[Ricketts] is very lively, has great energy, great attitude, is eager and ambitious," said Gautrat of Houston's Wednesday signee. "She could play anywhere on our front line, to be honest."

How to watch the Houston Dash vs. Orlando Pride

The No. 10 Houston Dash will host the No. 5 Orlando Pride at 8 PM ET on Friday, with live coverage airing on Prime.