This season was one of the most competitive in the NWSL’s history. With the 2023 World Cup pulling players away from their clubs, despite scheduling changes to mitigate absences, the season featured ebbs and flows. Teams battled every week to gain an edge, and the final standings and playoff spots came down to the final day of matches on Sunday.

Consequently, it was an interesting year for individual performances. The San Diego Wave, the NWSL Shield winners, played gritty team football rather than being carried by one particular player. The Portland Thorns looked like the best team in the league at times, but they struggled with consistent form. And some of the best players of all couldn’t get their teams into the playoffs.

With many factors in play, here is my shortlist for 2023 NWSL MVP.

Kerolin, F, North Carolina Courage

Kerolin ticks a number of boxes that you want when you’re looking for an MVP candidate. She was a consistent goal scorer, finishing second in the Golden Boot race with 10 goals and three assists on the season. Her accumulative xG of 8.16, as compiled by American Soccer Analysis, was good enough for third in the league, and she delivered quality finishing in big moments.

She also has the argument of intangibles. The Courage lost a number of stars in the offseason, and it was unclear if they could pull together their new group in time to contend for the 2023 playoffs. North Carolina went on to surprise everyone, playing more methodically but staying equally as threatening in the attack, led by Kerolin’s steady performance.

In terms of how she compares to her peers in the league, and what she brings to a club that defied the odds to finish the season in third, Kerolin has to be considered an MVP frontrunner.

Sam Coffey, M, Portland Thorns

The Thorns had an up-and-down year of player availability, due to the World Cup and lingering injury issues. As a result, Portland’s success came in spurts, with different players adding to a collective whole. Sophia Smith was statistically the most impressive player in the league before international duty and a knee injury kept her sidelined for much of the final third of the season. Morgan Weaver then picked up the slack, making key goal contributions down the stretch to earn Portland a top-two finish for the second year in a row.

But in terms of consistency, Sam Coffey is the Thorns’ best MVP candidate. Coffey handled a USWNT World Cup snub with grace, anchoring the Portland midfield as a disruptor on defense and a distributive engine in the attack. She finished the season with eight assists, three more than the next closest player, while adjusting to an ever-changing lineup of players around her. She played alongside multiple attacking midfielders, never wavering in her ability to connect and facilitate the league’s most effective attack.

Although the Thorns fell just short of the Shield again in 2023, they played some of the most cohesive soccer throughout the season largely thanks to Coffey.

Adriana, F, Orlando Pride

Voting philosophies for MVP can take on different lines of thinking. Should the award reflect the best player on the best team? Should it reward the top statistical performer in the NWSL? Or should it showcase a player whose team would struggle the most without them?

If we’re arguing for the last point, Adriana needs to be in the conversation. Her contributions flew under the radar at times, despite her scoring six goals and notching four assists throughout the regular season. The Brazilian attacker had the stats to back up her performances, sitting third in American Soccer Analysis’ goals added metric in large part due to her magical abilities on the ball.

In addition to her striking talents, Adriana is an excellent dribbler of the ball, bringing a dynamism to the Orlando attack that almost carried the team into the playoffs for the first time since 2017. While they fell short this time, the Pride look like a team prepped for the future, with Adriana’s breakout success a key part of that foundation.

Jaedyn Shaw, F/M, San Diego Wave

The Wave never relied on one single player on their way to finishing at the top of the NWSL table. Abby Dahlkemper’s midseason return shook up their staunch defense, and the team went through a rough patch before rounding into form late in the year. Jaedyn Shaw stood out among the rest for taking her added responsibilities in the attack and the midfield in stride. And if MVP should reward consistency, growth, and team reliance, the teenager deserves a look.

Shaw has scored the most goals as a teenager in NWSL history, breaking the record previously held by Trinity Rodman. The 18-year-old added key elements to her game in 2023: She adjusted to becoming more of a playmaker and facilitator as much as a goal scorer, and she showcased dribbling and passing abilities that will only improve over time. Shaw scored six goals and notched three assists in the regular season, often keeping the Wave in games as they found their form.

In her second professional season, there’s an argument that Shaw is not only the best young player in the league, but also one of the best players regardless of age. As a key part of the Wave’s Shield run, she has a serious case for MVP.

Claire Watkins is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.

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.