Canada’s Northern Super League (NSL) is preparing for its inaugural season, with the top-flight soccer league dropping a 75-match calendar and broadcast details last week.

The league will officially kick off on April 16th, when Vancouver’s BC Place will host the NSL’s first-ever match, a clash between co-owner Christine Sinclair’s Vancouver Rise FC against the visiting Calgary Wild FC.

Then on April 19th, AFC Toronto will host the Montreal Roses in BMO Field's first-ever NSL game, bringing the pro women's soccer action futher east and arguably initiating a rivalry between two of Canada's largest cities.

The final two NSL clubs will make their debuts one week later, with Halifax Tides FC hosting Calgary on April 26th before Ottawa Rapid FC takes the pitch against Toronto on April 27th.

The NSL has been busy putting the finishing touches on its 2025 launch, with multiple Olympic medalists and ex-NWSL standouts like Canada's own Quinn, Erin McLeod, and Desiree Scott joining the budding league.

Also featuring on NSL debut rosters are US athletes Nikki Stanton and Jasmyne Spencer, as well as Iceland standout Gunnhildur Jónsdóttir — giving the brand-new pro league a chance to flex its potential at the international level.

NSL sets full 2025 calendar, snags top broadcast partners

The inaugural NSL season will see all six clubs playing 25 regular-season matches for a league total of 75 matches. Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver will contend 12 of their matches at home, while Ottawa, Calgary, and Halifax scored 13 games in front of their home crowds.

At the end of regular-season play, the top four teams on the NSL table will qualify for the league's two-leg semifinals. After the home-and-away semis, the two clubs with the highest aggregate score will face-off in the league's first-ever championship match, set for November 15th.

All games will air across Canada via multiple broadcast partners, including TSN, which will broadcast 20 regular-season matches, and CBC, which will air eight. Both broadcasters will also make additional game available via their respective streaming platforms, CBC Gem and TSN+.

Rose BC is tearing up the 3×3 basketball court, stringing together a five-game winning streak to surge to second place in the Unrivaled standings.

Forward Angel Reese has led the squad, registering the league’s first-ever 20+ point, 20+ rebound game in Friday’s 72-63 win over the Lunar Owls — the first loss suffered by the top-ranked Unrivaled team thus far.

Reese continued to roll on offense, putting up 23 points and 14 rebounds to lift Rose atop Phantom BC 71-59 on Monday.

"She's finishing now, and she's also taking a lot of leadership with a Rose team that has done a really good job of getting themselves back," said Phantom BC’s Natasha Cloud after Monday’s clash. "Angel set the tone for them — I felt it tonight."

Unrivaled teams battle for first-ever league playoff spots

Rose BC's recent rise is coming at the perfect time. With less than a month to go in the debut league's regular season, the next few weeks will determine which four teams make it to Unrivaled's first-ever playoffs.

After Friday's loss to Rose BC, the first-place Lunar Owls bounced back with an 88-60 victory over the Laces on Saturday — a win that ultimately made co-founder Napheesa Collier's squad the first Unrivaled team to officially punch a postseason ticket.

"We made everyone raise their level of play, and tonight we showed why we’re still number one," said Lunar Owls guard Skylar Diggins-Smith after Saturday's win. 

Currently, Rose BC, Laces BC, and Vinyl BC are sitting above the postseason cut-off line, though the Mist and Phantom BC are each only one game behind the pack — putting every squad still well within striking distance of some inaugural season hardware.

With a locked-in group spanning some of the most talented — and competitive — basketball players in the world, expect even more late-season fireworks in the race to become Unrivaled’s first-ever champion on March 17th.

Newly minted Australian Open champion Madison Keys added the highest WTA rankings of her career to her resume on Monday, rising to No. 5 despite withdrawing from last week’s Dubai Open with a leg injury.

The first-time Grand Slam winner joins fellow US standouts No. 3 Coco Gauff and No. 4 Jessica Pegula in the Top 5 WTA rankings, marking the first time three US women have featured in that elite echelon since Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport, and Jennifer Capriati did so in 2003.

While Emma Navarro slid in at No. 10 to give the US four of the Top 10 WTA rankings, a breakthrough title-winning run at the 2025 Dubai Open launched Mirra Andreeva into the upper tier. The 17-year-old jumped five spots to claim No. 9 and become the youngest Top 10-ranked WTA player since 2007.

The sport's top two players held steady in Monday's shakeup, with No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 2 Iga Świątek keeping their ground.

That said, with the WTA Tour returning Stateside next week, expect more rankings movement — and perhaps a few surprise entries — as players continue to prep for the three Grand Slams remaining in the 2025 season.

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Former WTA No. 1 Venus Williams will not play at Indian Wells

Contrary to last week’s widespread reports, tennis legend Venus Williams — who first rose to No. 1 in the WTA rankings 23 years ago this week — said she will not be participating in next month's 2025 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.

"I love Indian Wells, I would love to be there," the 44-year-old US icon told the crowd during a public appearance in Denmark on Monday. "If I could have accepted it, I would have loved to be there, but I already made commitments."

"We wish Venus all the best and hope to see her back in Indian Wells in the future," said tournament director Tommy Haas in response, reversing the Open’s earlier social media announcement of Williams' wild card berth. 

For the first time in 21 years, Texas basketball is the No. 1 team in the nation, with the AP Poll minting the Longhorns as the fourth top-ranked NCAA team of the season on Monday.

"I'm so happy for my kids, they’ve earned where they are today," Texas head coach Vic Schaefer told the AP ahead of his team’s resounding 57-26 win over unranked Georgia on Monday. "There's so much parity in the game right now."

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The Longhorns’ leap comes after then-No. 1 Notre Dame’s double-overtime loss to NC State on Sunday, a result that sent the Irish falling to No. 3 in the rankings. The Wolfpack, on the other hand, earned one of the week's biggest boosts due to the marquee win, jumping four spots to No. 9.

After spending 12 weeks at No. 1 before now-No. 4 USC snapped a school-record 23-game unbeaten streak earlier this month, UCLA also benefitted from Notre Dame’s slip-up, rising one spot to sit at No. 2.

Along with reigning champion No. 6 South Carolina, who began the 2024/25 NCAA season as the No. 1 team, there have now been four squads atop this season's AP Polls. There have never been more than four to reach that summit in the survey’s history.

Small shifts litter Monday's AP Top 25

Similar to the minor changes in the Top 3, the Poll’s remaining 22 teams saw mostly incremental shifts as the final 2024/25 NCAA regular-season weekend looms.

ACC standouts No. 24 Florida State and No. 25 Louisville re-entered the rankings this week after snagging upset victories over then-No. 20 Georgia Tech and then-No. 11 Duke, respectively. As a result, the now-unranked Yellow Jackets joined Illinois in exiting this week's poll.

The Blue Devils saw the biggest drop after their loss to the Cardinals, falling five spots to No. 16, while last week's upset loss to unranked Indiana sent Ohio State down four spots this week to No. 12.

How to watch Top 25 NCAA basketball games this week

With most major regular-season conference titles boiling down to this final week of play, some of the fiercest matchups are on deck this week.

The top two teams in three major conferences will fight for trophies and postseason seeding this week, with the Big East's No. 5 UConn hosting No. 22 Creighton at 7 PM ET on Thursday, airing live on CBS Sports Network.

Then on Saturday, a No. 4 USC vs. No. 2 UCLA rematch will decide the Big Ten at 9 PM ET, with live coverage on Fox.

Sunday will see the Big 12 crown their season champion after No. 17 Baylor battles No. 10 TCU for the honor at 6:30 PM ET, airing live on FS1.

AP College Basketball Top 25: Week 17

1. Texas (27-2, SEC)
2. UCLA (26-1, Big Ten)
3. Notre Dame (24-3, ACC)
4. USC (25-2, Big Ten)
5. UConn (26-3, Big East)
6. South Carolina (25-3, SEC)
7. LSU (27-2, SEC)
8. North Carolina (25-4, ACC)
9. NC State (22-5, ACC)
10. TCU (26-3, Big 12)
11. Tennessee (21-6, SEC)
12. Ohio State (23-4, Big Ten)
13. Oklahoma (21-6, SEC)
14. Kansas State (25-5, Big 12)
15. Kentucky (21-5, SEC)
16. Duke (21-7, ACC)
17. Baylor (25-5, Big 12)
18. West Virginia (21-6, Big 12)
19. Maryland (21-6, Big Ten)
20. Alabama (22-6, SEC)
21. Oklahoma State (22-5, Big 12)
22. Creighton (23-4, Big East)
23. Michigan State (20-7, Big Ten)
24. Florida State (22-6, ACC)
25. Louisville (19-8, ACC)

The first matchday of the 2025 UEFA Nations League tournament saw a few regional heavy-hitters shaking off the dust on Friday, with reigning Euros champs England settling for a 1-1 draw against Portugal while perennial contenders Germany similarly split points with the Netherlands after a 2-2 result.

Snagging an early lead for the Lionesses was forward Alessia Russo, who slotted in a ball from right-back Lucy Bronze in the match's 15th minute.

Unfortunately for England, however, Portugal extended their undefeated streak to 11 games after attacking midfielder Kika Nazareth scored a top-corner equalizer at the 75th minute mark to clinch the draw.

Germany and the Netherlands, who claimed third- and fourth-place, respectively, in the tournament's inaugural 2023/24 edition, opened their 2025 campaigns with a back-and-forth battle on Friday.

After Dutch star Lineth Beerensteyn opened scoring by nutmegging German net-minder and 2024 NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year Ann-Katrin Berger in the 13th minute, Germany closed out the first half with an extra-time header from Lea Schüller to level the score.

The second half saw the Germans pull ahead thanks to a 50th-minute strike from Sjoeke Nüsken, before Beerensteyn again broke through with the match's final goal in the 66th minute.

After the match, new head coach Christian Wück, who took over the German team last March, told reporters, "We need to learn to maintain our focus, especially after taking the lead. It’s frustrating to draw after putting in such strong efforts."

Reigning champion Spain rallies for late comeback victory

Draws aside, defending Nations League winners Spain earned perhaps the wildest victory of the opening matchday, surging back from a 2-0 deficit against Belgium to claim all three points in a 3-2 finish.

The 2023 World Cup champions fell behind early after striker Mariam Toloba gave Belgium the edge in the game's 18th minute. Forward Tessa Wullaert doubled that lead in the 72nd minute, seemingly putting an emphatic end to Spain's hopes of a victory.

Clàudia Pina clawed one back for La Roja just five minutes later, but it took a pair of stoppage-time goals from Lucía García and late call-up Cristina Martín-Prieto to secure the literal last-second win.

Nations League to set up UEFA's 2027 World Cup qualifying

Established in 2022, the Women’s Nations League is now the continent’s qualifying tournament for the Euros, World Cup, and Olympics.

With records wiped following last year’s rollercoaster Olympic qualifiers, early Nations League matches now serve as a key window into the fast-approaching 2025 Euros — in addition to a heated competition in their own right.

On top of that, the outcome of this second-ever edition of the contest will determine teams' positioning for the 2026 European qualifiers for World Cup. Put simply, the finishing spots teams snag after 2025 Nations League play will determine their league paths to claiming one of UEFA's 11 available spots in the 2027 World Cup.

While there's a lot on the line, there's also a significant amount of action still to come. With four teams in each League A group, squads will play three round-robin home-and-away fixtures to determine their final group-play standings — meaning each of Friday's games have a rematch on the calendar before the stage ends on June 3rd.

The winners of the four League A groups will ultimately meet in the two-leg Nations League semifinals in October, with the two-leg third-place play-off and a final set for November and December.