Early season results are already shaping the 12-team College Football Playoff projections.
Florida State is now projected to make the playoff field after a strong start to its season.
Despite an 0-2 start, Notre Dame is still considered a potential playoff team if it wins its remaining games.

The college football season is only three weeks old, but some contenders are already making their cases for the playoff and others have fallen by the wayside or are left with no margin for error.

That means there’s more changes in this week’s bowl projections trying to forecast how the 12-team CFP field will look in December.

Clemson’s last-second loss to Georgia Tech sent the Tigers tumbling out of the playoff. The decision was then which team would replace them. There was thought of a fifth SEC team (Mississippi). Maybe one from the Big 12 (Iowa State). But in the end, the choice is Florida State, which is off a strong start with its defeat of Alabama and faces a manageable schedule in the ACC.

PATH TO PLAYOFF: Sign up for our college football newsletter

One team still sticking around is Notre Dame. While the Irish are 0-2, the two losses are against two strong teams by a combined four points. The schedule gets easier for Marcus Freeman’s squad, and there’s enough quality there to justify a spot if they can run the table.

Many of the top teams are off this week ahead of some huge showdowns in Week 5. But there’s enough important matchups that we could see more changes in next week’s edition.

Notes: Legacy Pac-12 schools in other conferences will fulfill existing Pac-12 bowl agreements through the 2025 season. Not all conferences will fulfill their bowl allotment. An asterisk represents a replacement pick. 

For the second consecutive week, many fantasy football matchups have been decided by a controversial, late-game fumble on ‘Monday Night Football.’

In Week 1, there were questions about whether Chicago Bears wide receiver D.J. Moore was down before his last-second lateral against Minnesota Vikings.

This time, the question isn’t about whether there was a fumble. It’s about whether Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert or rookie running back Omarion Hampton was responsible for it.

Here’s what to know about the play and the NFL’s fumble rule.

Did Justin Herbert fumble in Chargers vs. Raiders?

Yes, Herbert fumbled twice and was credited with a lost fumble on the Chargers’ penultimate drive of their 20-9 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. It came after he and Hampton botched a routine handoff exchange.

Hampton was hit by Maxx Crosby as the rookie was attempting to secure the ball. That caused it to bounce to the ground and into the waiting arms of Raiders defensive tackle Adam Butler.

The fumble being charged to Herbert vexed many fantasy football managers and left them questioning whether a stat correction will be coming.

That said, it appears the official scorer may have been correct to credit the turnover to Herbert.

NFL fumble rule, explained

‘Loss of player possession by unsuccessful execution of attempted handing is a fumble charged to the player that last had possession,’ the rulebook states. ‘A muffed handoff (legal or illegal) is a fumble, unless either player immediately regains control of the ball, and the ball remains alive.’

Hampton never appeared to firmly possess the ball on the botched exchange. That likely means the fumble will remain a part of Herbert’s statline from Monday’s game.

How do NFL stat corrections work?

According to Elias’ ‘Contact Us’ page, the sports data company meets with the NFL every Wednesday to review plays like Herbert’s fumble and determine whether a stat needs to be changed.

Most often, these stat corrections have fantasy football implications, so the NFL announces any official changes on its official fantasy website. Given that Wednesday is review day for the two parties, the league usually announces which stat corrections become official on Thursday morning after the week of action that concluded the previous Monday.

Fantasy managers with or playing against Herbert or Hampton in tightly contested Week 1 matchups will need to wait until then to see if the fumble will remain a part of the quarterback’s statline or if it will be transferred to the rookie running back.

But again, given the letter of the NFL law, it appears likely to stick with Herbert.

USA TODAY Sports’ Jack McKessy also contributed to this report.

The 2025-26 NHL season will begin ramping up this week with the start of training camps.

The Florida Panthers are trying to win a third consecutive Stanley Cup title and eight teams will have new coaches. Preseason games will start on Saturday, Sept. 20, and the regular season opens on Oct. 7 with an ESPN tripleheader.

Which NHL team did the most to improve itself in the offseason?

The Vegas Golden Knights landed the biggest free agent, Mitch Marner, in a sign-and-trade, leaving a big hole for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Here’s a look at what each NHL team did during the offseason and their grades:

Anaheim Ducks – A-

GM Pat Verbeek has been adding veterans to the young core during the team’s rebuild. This time, he traded for veteran Chris Kreider and signed Mikael Granlund. He also traded part of that young core, Trevor Zegras, 24. The Ducks moved out goalie John Gibson was traded and re-signed Lukas Dostal for five years. The hiring of coach Joel Quenneville shows Anaheim is serious about pushing for a playoff spot.

Boston Bruins – C

Newcomer Viktor Arvidsson is a goal scorer but the five-year deal for Tanner Jeannot seemed puzzling. New coach Marco Sturm will attempt to bring the Bruins back to the playoffs after last season’s sell-off.

Buffalo Sabres – B-

Can the Sabres end their 14-season playoff drought? The trade of 68-point scorer J.J. Peterka doesn’t help their cause. They do get back promising young forward Josh Doan. They worked on improving their defensive depth, including acquiring Michael Kesselring in the Peterka deal. They also signed goalies Alex Lyon and Alexandar Georgiev.

Calgary Flames – B-

The Flames cemented Dustin Wolf as their No. 1 goalie by giving the Calder Trophy runner-up a seven-year, $52.5 million extension. Most of their moves involved re-signing players to a team that missed the playoff on a tiebreaker.

Carolina Hurricanes – A

Free-agent signee Nikolaj Ehlers will provide speed and scoring punch. They locked in Logan Stankoven, acquired in the Mikko Rantanen deal, for eight years. Their defense gets younger after the trade for K’Andre Miller and the free-agent departures of Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov.

Chicago Blackhawks – C

The Blackhawks re-signed Ryan Donato (four years) and Frank Nazar (seven years). Connor Bedard has yet to sign an extension. The trade for Andre Burakovsky will help if he can get back to his 20-goal ways. This team needs work to get in playoff contention. New coach Jeff Blashill will run the bench.

Colorado Avalanche – B-

They re-signed trade deadline acquisition Brock Nelson, a No. 2 center, and signed defenseman Brent Burns. They moved out Charlie Coyle and Miles Woods, getting back prospect Gavin Brindley and cap space.

Columbus Blue Jackets – B

The Blue Jackets added scoring depth with trades for Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood. Trading goalie Daniil Tarasov opens a path for goalie Jet Greaves to play a bigger role. He was 5-0 after a late season call-up. The Blue Jackets also traded for Ivan Fedotov for depth in net.

Dallas Stars – C

The Stars fired coach Peter DeBoer and hired onetime Stars coach Glen Gulutzan. They re-signed Matt Duchene, Jamie Benn and others, plus bought back Radek Faksa, but had to trade Mason Marchment to make the money work. Having Mikko Rantanen for a full season will help the Stars as they try to move forward after three consecutive years of losing in the conference finals.

Detroit Red Wings – B

Gibson should upgrade the Red Wings’ goaltending, an offseason priority. They dealt disappointing forward Vladimir Tarasenko and added depth up front with Mason Appleton and James van Riemsdyk. Is it enough to get to the playoffs? Probably not on its own, but a full season of midseason replacement coach Todd McLellan could help.

Edmonton Oilers – B-

The Oilers are giving star Connor McDavid time to decide on a contract extension. A key would be whether the Oilers can finally win after back-to-back losses in the Stanley Cup Final. Re-signing Evan Bouchard long-term helps. Trading for Hobey Baker winner Isaac Howard shows promise. Newcomer Andrew Mangiapane once scored 35 goals, but he’s usually in the 14 to 18 range. Arvidsson, Evander Kane, Corey Perry, Connor Brown, Jeff Skinner and John Klingberg are gone. The up-and-down goalie tandem of Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard remains the same.

Florida Panthers – A

GM Bill Zito pulled off the improbable by getting Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad and Brad Marchand re-signed. He also re-signed Tomas Nosek for a year, brought in goalie Daniil Tarasov to back up Sergei Bobrovsky and signed defenseman Jeff Petry to replace Nate Schmidt.

Los Angeles Kings – C

Vladislav Gavrikov leaving in free agency was a big loss and fellow defenseman Jordan Spence was traded. New GM Ken Holland signed Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin, not quite the same. Perry, a frequent visitor to the Stanley Cup Final, could miss the first month of the season after knee surgery. Joel Armia will help the penalty kill and Anton Forsberg is the new backup goalie.

Minnesota Wild – C

The key question is whether Kirill Kaprizov signs an extension. That will affect the trajectory of this franchise. GM Bill Guerin traded for Tarasenko (coming off a down season) and signed Nico Sturm, who’s solid on faceoffs.

Montreal Canadiens – B+

GM Kent Hughes pulled off a big pre-draft trade to land defenseman Noah Dobson, then signed him to an eight-year, $76 million extension. He and rookie of the year Lane Hutson can bring offense from the defense. The other moves were adding forward depth: Zach Bolduc, Sammy Blais and Joe Veleno.

Nashville Predators – C

The Predators made a splash in the 2024 offseason (Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault) and the team fizzled and missed the playoffs. Their 2025 moves were subtle: defensemen Nick Perbix and Nic Hague and forward Erik Haula.

New Jersey Devils – B

The Devils added depth forwards Connor Brown and Evgenii Dadonov and held on to goalie Jake Allen. A return to health for Jack Hughes will help the team. New Jersey still needs to sign his brother, Luke.

New York Islanders – B

Trading Dobson gives No. 1 overall draft pick Matthew Schaefer a path as a rookie. New GM Mathieu Darche also signed forward Jonathan Drouin and Kontinental Hockey League forward Maxim Shabanov. Goalie David Rittich provides insurance as Semyon Varlamov recovers from surgery.

New York Rangers – B

More core players moved out with the trades of Kreider and K’Andre Miller. Gavrikov was a solid pickup who will help the team’s defensive play. The Rangers subbed out one name coach (Peter Laviolette) for another (Mike Sullivan). They needed a new voice after the team took a major step back last season.

Ottawa Senators – B-

The Senators traded for Spence and moved on from defenseman Travis Hamonic. Lars Eller could play on the fourth line. Claude Giroux signed a one-year extension and Leevi Merilainen will be the backup goalie after Forsberg left.

Philadelphia Flyers – B

The Flyers signed penalty killer Christian Dvorak and traded for Zegras. If healthy, Zegras is a 60-point player, but he has been injury-prone recently. They’ll need new coach Rick Tocchet to unlock his potential.

Pittsburgh Penguins – C

The Penguins traded for defensemen Matt Dumba and Connor Clifton, plus goalie Arturs Silovs. Pittsburgh, though, seems like a team that will be in the Gavin McKenna sweepstakes rather ending a three-year playoff drought. When coach Dan Muse was hired to replace Sullivan, the Penguins touted how he worked with younger players.

St. Louis Blues – B

Defenseman Torey Krug likely won’t play this season, so the Blues traded for prospect Logan Mailloux. St. Louis also added 25-goal scorer Pius Suter and depth forward Nick Bjugstad.

San Jose Sharks – B-

The Sharks had to spend money to get to the salary cap floor, so they brought in Orlov, Klingberg, Skinner, Ryan Reaves, Adam Gaudette, Alex Nedeljkovic and others. The veterans will surround youngsters Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, William Eklund and No. 2 overall pick Michael Misa. The moves could be enough to end their two-year reign at the bottom of the league, but they’re far from being a playoff team.

Seattle Kraken – B-

Coach Dan Bylsma was fired after one season and the Kraken hired Lane Lambert. They added forwards Mason Marchment and Frederik Gaudreau, plus defenseman Ryan Lindgren.

Tampa Bay Lightning – C+

After a 2024 offseason in which they signed Jake Guentzel and parted ways with Steven Stamkos, this offseason was quiet. Perbix left and forwards Pontus Holmberg and Jacob Pelletier joined in depth moves.

Toronto Maple Leafs – C

Marner is gone and his absence will be felt in many aspects of the game. New forwards Nicolas Roy, Matias Maccelli and Dakota Joshua combined for 63 points last season, though Maccelli averaged 53 points the two seasons before that.

Utah Mammoth – B+

Peterka joins a solid group of forwards and Schmidt takes the place of traded defenseman Kesselring. Goalie Karel Vejmelka was re-signed long term and Connor Ingram was cleared to return by the player assistance program.

Vancouver Canucks – C

Brock Boeser seemed all but gone but re-signed at the last minute. The team also traded for Kane, gave extensions to Thatcher Demko and Conor Garland and promoted Adam Foote to coach after Tocchet left. They’ll need Demko to stay healthy and Elias Pettersson to return to form if they’re going to get back to the playoffs.

Vegas Golden Knights – A

Marner, a 100-point scorer, will boost the team’s production from the wing. That enthusiasm was tempered by the fact that defenseman Alex Pietrangelo likely won’t play this season because of an injury.

Washington Capitals – C+

The Capitals made most of their moves by extending their key players during the 2024-25 season. Their offseason acquisitions (Declan Chisholm, Justin Sourdif) were for depth. Still, this is a solid team that finished with the best regular season record in the Eastern Conference under coach of the year Spencer Carbery.

Winnipeg Jets – B-

Jonathan Toews has chosen the Jets as the team where he’ll make his NHL comeback and Gustav Nyquist signed. Ehlers has left and captain Adam Lowry (hip) will miss the start of the season. Still, Vezina/Hart winner Connor Hellebuyck and company should keep the Jets among the league’s top teams.

The Los Angeles Chargers defeated the Las Vegas Raiders 20-9 to improve to 2-0 on the season.
The Chargers defense forced three interceptions and held the Raiders offense out of the end zone.
The Raiders offense struggled, leading to boos from the home crowd at Allegiant Stadium.

LAS VEGAS — Allegiant Stadium converted back into a football venue after Terence Crawford beat Canelo Álvarez by unanimous decision two days prior.

The Los Angeles Chargers scored the KO over their AFC West rival Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night.

Justin Herbert and the Chargers defeated the Raiders, 20-9, to improve to 2-0 and are in first place of the AFC West after Week 2. Los Angeles never trailed in the contest.

The Chargers are now 2-0 for the second consecutive season under head coach Jim Harbaugh.

WINNERS

Chargers’ defense

Linebacker Daiyan Henley intercepted a deflected pass from Geno Smith on the first play of the game.

Deflections were a theme. The Chargers had eight pass deflections in the first half.

In total, the Chargers defense produced an impressive 15 pass deflections and three interceptions in the win. Los Angeles’ stingy defense bottled up the Raiders offense and kept them out of the end zone.

Henley and Chargers safety Derwin James Jr. were the best two players on the field.

Henley compiled a game-high 10 tackles, one sack, one interception and two pass deflections. James tallied seven tackles and two pass deflections.

The worst news was Khalil Mack suffered an elbow injury in the first quarter and didn’t return. Mack watched the second half from the bench with his arm in a sling.

Quentin Johnston

Johnston caught a 60-yard touchdown late in the second quarter to give the Chargers a 17-6 advantage.

Johnston produced three catches for 71 yards and a touchdown.

The Chargers wideout has three touchdowns in the first two weeks of the regular season.

Cameron Dicker

Dicker became the most accurate kicker in NFL history for a player with a minimum of 100 attempts.

Dicker converted two field goals in the victory.

Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll head coaching rivalry

Jim Harbaugh is 5-5 versus Pete Carroll in his NFL head coaching career after the win.

Pete Carroll (again)

Monday marked Carroll’s 74th birthday. He’s the oldest coach in NFL history.

Allegiant Stadium and Las Vegas

Allegiant Stadium was back in the spotlight for ‘Monday Night Football’ two days after Terence Crawford beat Canelo Álvarez inside the venue in a marquee boxing showdown. Crawford even returned to the building Monday with his new championship belt.

Monday marked two primetime sporting events in the span of 48 hours for the Las Vegas stadium.

LOSERS

Raiders’ offense

The Raiders offense was booed by the home crowd multiple times during the second half.

The first boobirds came when the Raiders elected to let the third quarter time expire while down 20-6.

On the same possession in the fourth quarter, the Las Vegas crowd booed again when the Raiders settled for a field goal at the end of a long 19-play drive to cut their deficit to 20-9 with 11:15 remaining in the game.

The Raiders were held out of the end zone in the loss.

Geno Smith

Smith was picked off on the first play of the game. It typified the kind of night it was going to be for the Raiders quarterback.

Smith air mailed a couple throws and never found a rhythm behind center.

The Raiders quarterback was intercepted three times and 15 of his passes were defensed.

Smith finished 24-of-43 for 180 yards and had three interceptions. He ended with a terrible 37 passer rating.

Kansas City Chiefs

The 0-2 Chiefs have won the AFC West for nine straight years, but find themselves two games behind the 2-0 Chargers after Week 2.

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Tyler Dragon on X @TheTylerDragon.

Spencer Strider has made 21 starts this season after elbow surgery cost him a full year.
Atlanta’s ace isn’t dominating the way he did before injury – but he’s good enough to adapt.
Braves will miss the postseason, but Strider has pitched better down the stretch.

WASHINGTON — Spencer Strider’s first pitch came out of his hand at 95.6 mph, mirroring his average velocity this season, and it did not induce a feeble swing nor a helpless look at a called strike, but rather a hard-hit line drive to straightaway center field.

To the casual observer accustomed to the average Strider fastball touching 97.6 mph just a couple years ago, when he was striking out a stunning 13.5 batters per nine innings through his first three seasons for the Atlanta Braves, it might have seemed a little disappointing.

Counterpoint: There’s nothing disappointing about one pitch, one out.

That was the outcome Sept. 15 when the Washington Nationals’ CJ Abrams led off the game with a harmless fly ball to left. After six pitches, the inning was over.

And a couple hours later, Strider had bulled and finessed and rope-a-doped his way through seven solid innings, perhaps his best overall start as this season after his second Tommy John surgery comes to a close.

The reinvention of Spencer Strider might never be complete, and perhaps it is a bit overblown to suggest the 6-foot, 195-pound right-hander was a total teardown project. Nor is it impossible that Strider’s velocity reach those rarefied heights again, when he was punching out 281 batters in 186 ⅔ innings and winning 20 games for the 2023 Braves.

Yet after two elbow reconstructions, that guy might be gone for good. But this guy is well on his way to becoming a reasonable facsimile.

“It’s very encouraging that I struggled a lot and was able to make some adjustments and things are trending in the right direction right when I would’ve wanted myself to, specifically,” says Strider after striking out six and giving up one run over seven innings of an 11-3 win. “We’re not going to have that opportunity to pitch in the postseason.

“But trying to make something out of this year knowing I was going to be struggling and working through things is encouraging, for sure.”

Spencer Strider stats don’t tell the whole story

Indeed, the Braves are 67-83, after a raft of injuries to rotation and lineup alike. This will be their first October without baseball since 2017. Strider, in the cruelest black-and-white terms, is simply a dude with a 6-13 record and 4.64 ERA, whose win over the Nationals snapped his second five-game losing streak this season.

Yet the significance of his recent resurgence is not lost on the Braves.

“It’s not easy,” manager Brian Snitker says of a second Tommy John comeback. “You talk about it all the time – you miss a year and it takes a long time to get back.

“You have to stay with it. He has. And he’s made really good adjustments, and indicative with how well he threw.”

In fact, Strider’s last two starts each produced career lows in fastball usage: 41.2% in his Sept. 9 start vs. the Chicago Cubs, and 39% – just 35 of his 96 throws – against the Nationals.

Again, if you’ve slept on Strider, that might be startling. He threw his heater 62.1% of the time from 2021 until that day in April 2024 when his UCL again failed him.

They say the hitters will let you know, and they certainly told Strider something quite loudly: They slugged .262 against his fastball in 2022. This year? It’s .482.

So Strider, truly, is a four-pitch guy now, even if his changeup comes and goes and his curveball remains a work in progress. And as his fastball continues to be a sidelight, it’s hard to argue with the results: He’s given up three earned runs in 13 innings, striking out 15, in his last two outings.

Strider blew out his arm as a Clemson undergrad yet battled back to become the K king of the major leagues just four years later. Yet 2025, he knew, would a journey.

“My anticipation this whole season was that I was going to have some rough patches and then have to continually work to make adjustments,’ says Strider, who’s in the third year of a six-year, $75 million contract. “To try to put myself in a good position to help us when games mattered most and we were competing for a postseason berth, and playing in the postseason.

“That didn’t happen, largely due to my own failures this season not being able to tread water well enough for us, giving us a chance to win games while working through that stuff I knew I’d inevitably have to do.”

Oh, Strider’s inconsistencies were far from the Braves’ biggest concerns, not in a year that began with an 80-game PED suspension for newly signed Jurickson Profar and season-ending injuries to pitchers Reynaldo Lopez, Spencer Schwellenbach, Grant Holmes and A.J. Smith-Shawver, along with All-Star third baseman Austin Riley.

Sure, it didn’t help that he toted a 5.24 ERA through his first 17 starts, but the Braves were probably sunk regardless of how well he threw. Still, there was just enough onramp for Strider to finish on a superior note.

“He’s getting better and better every start, keeping hitters off balance, changing up speeds and changing locations,” says rookie catcher Drake Baldwin.

Perhaps the final step is gaining the utmost confidence in his newer, slower fastball. Strider enjoyed six-, eight-, 12- and 10-pitch innings against the Nationals. And in his biggest jam, a bases-loaded, one-out spot, he threw three curveballs at Nationals right fielder Dylan Crews before getting him to chase a fastball out of the zone.

The little nubber turned into a 2-3 inning-ending double play.

“That’s a trend I’ve seen three of my last four starts – (the fastball) is playing the way I want it to be,” he says, “which affords me so much room for error. I can attack the zone and be convicted behind it and get a lot of fly balls. It opens things up for me when I can do that.”

Now, the end is in sight. Strider should have two more starts before season’s end, and to some extent, it will be a relief for Snitker. No worries about rehab, or ramping up, or how hard to go once spring training begins.

Heck, maybe he’ll find a little more kick on that fastball – even if he knows he can live without it.

“The day after the season ends,” says Snitker, “I want him to be able to make his next start. And if we can do that, that’s going to be a success.”

(This story has been updated with additional information.)