The WNBA season begins Friday, and teams have finalized their rosters ahead of the opening tipoff.

Of the 36 rookies selected in this year’s draft, 17 have made opening day rosters – including 10 of the players drafted in the first round. Two undrafted rookies in Maryland’s Katie Benzan and Arizona’s Sam Thomas also made the cut.

Several draftees have had their contracts suspended for the season – including Nyara Sabally, who was drafted No. 5 overall by the Liberty but will miss the season due to injury. Mya Hollingshed, who was picked No. 8 overall by the Aces, is the only first-round draftee to be cut by a team.

With WNBA rosters' finalized for opening day, 17/36 draftees have made a roster.
10/12 - 1st round
5/12 - 2nd round
2/12 - 3rd round
+4 players will be suspended for the season and their team will have their rights held(N Sabally, J Melbourne, S Kone & K Lewis).#WNBA #WNBADraft

— Todd Roman (@TBRBWAY) May 5, 2022

Atlanta Dream

Both of the Dream’s draftees – No. 1 overall pick Rhyne Howard and No. 15 pick Naz Hillmon – have made the final roster for the upcoming season.

Kristy Wallace also has made the roster as a rookie. The 2018 draftee has been playing in Australia’s WNBL after recovering from two injuries over the past four years.

Chicago Sky

Rebekah Gardner is the lone rookie to make the Sky roster. After playing at UCLA from 2009-2012, Gardner went undrafted. She made her way overseas, where she most recently has been playing for Spar Citylift Girona in Spain’s Liga Femenina.

Li Yueru was also picked up by the team and is listed on the roster, although she is still in China and may not be able to play this season. Li has yet to receive approval from the Chinese Basketball Federation to play in the United States.

Connecticut Sun

Yvonne Anderson is another older rookie to make a WNBA roster. After going undrafted out of Texas in 2012, she has played overseas, most recently for Reyer Venezia in Italy.

Nia Clouden is the lone draftee for Connecticut to earn a spot on the regular-season roster. Kiara Smith, meanwhile, remains under team control but will sit out the season as she continues to rehab a knee injury suffered during the SEC tournament.

Dallas Wings

Two of the Wings’ three draftees have made the final roster, with Veronica Burton and Jasmine Dickey making their stamp during the team’s training camp.

Indiana Fever

Of Indiana’s plethora of draft picks, five remain on the final roster, making the Fever the team with the most rookies heading into the season. Queen Egbo, Lexie Hull, NaLyssa Smith, Emily Engstler and Destanni Henderson will all look to make an impact this season as the Fever continue to rebuild.

Las Vegas Aces

Two of the Aces’ six draftees – Kierstan Bell and Aisha Sheppard – made the final roster in Becky Hammon’s first season as head coach.

Los Angeles Sparks

Three rookies made the Sparks roster: Olivia Nelson-Ododa, Rae Burrell and Amy Atwell. All will look to make their mark alongside some big-name stars.

Minnesota Lynx

Minnesota is one of just two teams that will not carry a rookie into the 2022 season.

Draftees Kayla Jones and Hannah Sjerven did not make the cut, while undrafted rookies Chloe Bibby, Cece Hooks and Moon Ursin also were waived during training camp.

With two seasons under her belt, Jessica Shepard is the Lynx player with the least WNBA experience. She was drafted by the team in the 2019 draft before missing the 2020 season with a knee injury.

New York Liberty

Second-round pick Lorela Cubaj is the only rookie who will be active for the Liberty this season.

Fellow rookies Nyara Sabally and Sika Kone will miss the upcoming season. Kone has opted to continue rehabbing an injury in Spain while Sabally recently underwent knee surgery. Both players’ rights remain with the Liberty.

Phoenix Mercury

Sam Thomas is the lone rookie on a stacked Mercury roster that is expected to compete for a WNBA championship this season. Undrafted out of Arizona, she scored nine points in one preseason game for the Mercury.

Seattle Storm

Seattle is the other team that will not bring a rookie into the new season.

Jade Melbourne, who was drafted by the team in April, opted to remain in Australia and play in the WBNL this season. She told Basketball Australia that she intends to take a stab at the WNBA next year after gaining more experience.

“I think for me personally, I want to go over there giving training camp a red-hot crack, obviously I’m only 19 and a lot of the girls over there who are coming out of college are 22-24, so doing another year here in the NBL1 and WNBL, I’ll gain a lot,” she said. “My game is still developing and I want to add to my strengths as well, give myself a proper offseason so hopefully when I go there next year I’ll be in good shape and hopefully secure a roster spot.”

Washington Mystics

The Washington Mystics will carry three rookies – Shakira Austin, Katie Benzan and Rui Machida – on their 2022 roster.

Austin was the No. 3 overall pick in this year’s draft. Benzan went undrafted but was signed to a training camp contract on April 20. Machida joins the team from Japan.

Football Manager is expanding its virtual horizons, with the popular soccer video game's latest release — FM26 — featuring women's teams for the first time in history.

The FM26 lineup spans some 40,000 players across 14 leagues, including the NWSL, the UK's WSL and WSL2, Germany's Frauen-Bundesliga, Italy's Serie A, and Japan's WE League as well as the UEFA Women's Champions League.

Football Manager's new women's soccer offering follows similar moves from other video game entities, with EA Sports also expanding its integration of women's teams and players across its NHL, FC, and NBA2K games in recent years.

Launched in 2004 by British developer Sports Interactive and gaming giant Sega, Football Manager puts users in the driver's seat of their favorite teams, navigating club finances, player transfers, tactics, and even training plans in the hunt for success.

To mimic the manager role most realistically, FM amasses extensive data on players and clubs — with that information bank now so deep on the men's side that clubs have employed it for scouting purposes for over 10 years.

The road to launching a similarly real-world women's game required similar stat-gathering, a project which began in 2021.

"An army of people from the women's game helped us, who wanted us to ensure that women's football was properly represented," said Sports Interactive studio director Miles Jacobson.

Football Manager also recreated their motion capture models using former WSL and WSL2 professional players, twins Mollie and Rosie Kmita, to accurately portray women's movement and body structure in FM26.

"Growing up, I would never have imagined playing Football Manager because it wasn't a space for us," Mollie told BBC Sport. "I think we're about to engage a whole new audience and I'm excited to see how this community continues to grow."

How to play Football Manager 26

FM26 is currently available for download across multiple gaming platforms.

With the 2026 Winter Olympics only a few months away, hockey giants Canada and the USA are hitting the ice, tuning up for February's global showdown with the pair's annual Rivalry Series.

The four-game slate kicks off in Cleveland, Ohio, on Thursday before the titans clash again in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday, with the 2025 Rivalry Series finishing up with two games in Edmonton, Alberta, next month.

This sixth edition of the series will serve as both teams' final international face-offs before heading to Milan, Italy, where five-time Olympic champions Canada will aim to repeat their 2022 gold-medal run while the two-time winning US will hunt a return to the top of the podium.

No other nation has ever won Olympic gold in the seven editions of the women's hockey competition.

The last time the pair met was in April's IIHF World Championship final, in which the US topped Canada 4-3 to lift the 2025 trophy — though Canada holds the all-time head-to-head advantage with a 106-82 record.

Four-time Olympian Hilary Knight and three-time Olympian Kendall Coyne Schofield headline Team USA's Rivalry Series squad, backed by 11 additional US Olympians.

Longtime Canada captain Marie-Philip Poulin leads her side, alongside 20 of her fellow 2025 IIHF Worlds silver medalists.

How to watch the 2025 Canada vs. USA Rivalry Series

The puck drops on the four-game docket in Cleveland at 7 PM ET on Thursday before the teams take the ice in Buffalo at 6 PM ET on Saturday.

Both games will air live on the NHL Network.

After crashing out of their first-ever Final Four last season, No. 3 UCLA enters their 2025/26 campaign with heightened promise and added depth as the new-look Bruins take aim at another deep NCAA basketball tournament run.

"This is probably the most complete team I've ever coached, and I think if we can stay healthy and stay focused, we're going to have big things ahead," head coach Cori Close told JWS ahead of this week's season tip-off.

"We have an abundance of opportunities to invest in each other," she continued. "We have an abundance of ways in which we can improve week by week, and we're going to stay focused on those."

The Bruins' success could hinge on next year's projected No. 1 WNBA draft pick Lauren Betts, though Close indicated that teamwork would be key to unlocking the senior center's full potential.

"We both agreed she needs to have less minutes than in the past, and honestly, maybe even less shots, but more efficiency," said Close. "Everybody wins that way, including Lauren."

Recent transfers like former Utah forward Gianna Kneepkins and ex-Washington State guard Charlisse Leger-Walker should balance the 2025/26 UCLA basketball lineup alongside top freshman recruit — and Betts's little sister — Sienna.

How to watch UCLA basketball this week

While forward Sienna's NCAA debut has been postponed due to a lower leg injury, UCLA fans can catch the elder Betts and the rest of the No. 3 Bruins in action against unranked UC Santa Barbara at 2:30 PM ET on Thursday, streaming live on B1G+.

Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball is gearing up for its 2026 return to the court, dropping all six-player team rosters plus a six-athlete development pool ahead of its expanded eight-squad second season on Wednesday.

Reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers was the distribution draft's first pick, with the Dallas Wings star joining expansion side Breeze BC under recently dismissed Seattle Storm head coach Noelle Quinn.

Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell went second, set to lead fellow expansion team Hive BC under head coach Rena Wakama.

Not every Unrivaled lineup saw significant changes, however, with reigning champion Rose BC returning four of their six original players while all inaugural teams opted to protect at least one top performer.

Napheesa Collier and Skylar Diggins are back on the Lunar Owls, Kahleah Copper and Chelsea Gray remained with Rose BC, and Alyssa Thomas and Jackie Young will encore for the Laces while the Vinyl protected Dearica Hamby and Rhyne Howard.

Even non-playoff teams held onto key talent, with Satou Sabally returning to the Phantom and Breanna Stewart staying with the Mist.

A trio of 2025 WNBA rookies also headline Unrivaled's new development group, with Chicago Sky guard Hailey Van Lith, Indiana Fever forward Makayla Timpson, and Dallas Wings guard Aziaha James part of the six-player group that will fill in across the league to offset any injuries during the season.

How to buy 2026 Unrivaled player jerseys

While Bueckers's Breeze BC replica jersey sold out just minutes after Wednesday's roster reveal and subsequent merchandise drop, fans can gear up for the 2026 Unrivaled season by snagging other player's jerseys from the Unrivaled shop.

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The 2026 Unrivaled team rosters