AI-assisted summary
• Deion Sanders has been rebuilding his roster after a 3-9 season, securing 42 commitments from transfer players.
• Sanders confirmed his relationship with actress Karrueche Tran on the Season 2 debut of his talk show.
• Sanders uses his streaming talk show as a unique recruiting tool to connect with potential players and their families.

Colorado football coach Deion Sanders has kept a relatively low public profile since his third season in Boulder ended five consecutive losses and a 3-9 record. Unlike last January, after his team finished 9-4, he isn’t rumored to be in the mix to coach an NFL team and didn’t go on television talk shows to promote his reality TV series.

Sanders instead has been building his next roster behind the scenes but finally showed up on camera on Thursday Jan. 22 to share some news about his love life and give a summary of his recruiting efforts in Boulder. Sanders did this during the Season 2 debut of his streaming talk show “We Got Time Today,” co-hosted by Rocsi Diaz.

“This offseason has been treating me really well,” Sanders said. “We’re tearing it up in the (transfer) portal. We’re building something extraordinary, extra ordinary, extraordinary. And I’m feeling so darn good. Rocs, I hadn’t felt this good in quite some time. Like, really, like, like my hands, and I don’t even have a manicure like I usually do, because I got to go get it tomorrow, by the way. But I’m good. I got my hands in and on everything.”

Sanders recently received commitments from 42 incoming transfer players, offsetting more than 35 Colorado players who are transferring out, including star offensive lineman Jordan Seaton. Colorado’s transfer class ranks No. 22 nationally, according to 247Sports.  

Deion Sanders opens up about love life

Diaz later prodded Sanders, 58, about his relationship with actress and influencer Karrueche Tran, who has been at his side during his battle back from bladder cancer surgery last year. Sanders previously hasn’t commented much about it publicly after an announced breakup with longtime fiancée Tracey Edmonds in December 2023. Diaz traced Sanders’ new relationship with Tran to her appearance during Season 1 of their Tubi show in November 2024.

“Can we set the record straight?” Diaz asked Sanders. “I did not hook you two up. I had no parts in hooking y’all up. Everybody thinks that, you know, I had my hand in it. But she (Tran) did come to the show for my birthday. And you so slick. You brought her there for my birthday, but you secretly wanted to shoot your shot.”

“First of all, my shot don’t miss,” Sanders replied. “And I didn’t have to bring somebody there to shoot a shot at close range. My shot, you know, I’m pretty darn good.”

“Y’all look very cute together,” Diaz said. “I’m super happy for you guys.”

“You know what?” Sanders said. “Good woman, good person, has added so much to my life and my days and my moments. And I’m smiling.”

Deion Sanders recruiting through talk show?

Season 1 of the show debuted in November 2024, raising questions about how Sanders had time to host a weekly entertainment talk show in the middle of his team’s push to win a Big 12 Conference championship.

Diaz asked him about it then. Sanders responded it part of his recruiting strategy – to reach potential recruits and their families in ways that other coaches can’t.

“Well, this is like a form of recruiting for me, because a lot of the parents are … our viewers with Tubi,” Sanders said then.

Incidentally, the month of January is mostly a “contact” period on the college football recruiting calendar when head coaches can make in-person contact with potential recruits off-campus. Sanders doesn’t do that kind of off-campus recruiting, but his reach through shows like this connect with an audience in the larger culture. His guests on his Season 2 debut were comedian Loni Love and music producer Jermaine Dupri.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

The College Football Playoff continues to dominate TV viewership ratings.

According to ESPN, Monday’s national championship game between Indiana and Miami averaged 30.1 million viewers across the network’s ‘megacast’ offerings, making it not only the most-watched game of this CFP, but also the most-watched non-NFL sporting event since the Chicago Cubs defeated Cleveland in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series.

It’s the second-most-watched national championship game since the CFP started in 2014, and peaked at 33.2 million viewers.

Buy IU championship books, newspapers, gear

The 30.1 million viewers who tuned into Indiana’s 27-21 win over Miami is a notable jump from last year’s national championship game between Ohio State and Notre Dame, which brought in an average of 22.1 million viewers.

Heisman Trophy winner and Miami native Fernando Mendoza provided a critical score for the Hoosiers on Monday with his gutsy 12-yard rushing touchdown on fourth-and-4 with 9:18 remaining in the fourth quarter. Jamari Sharpe sealed the win for the Hoosiers with an interception of Carson Beck with 44 seconds remaining.

With its win, Indiana completed one of the more remarkable turnarounds in college football history, which began two years ago with Curt Cignetti’s hiring in November 2023. The Hoosiers also joined the 1894 Yale Bulldogs as the only two teams in major college football history to go undefeated with 16-0 records in a single season.

2025-26 College Football Playoff TV ratings

ESPN also released TV viewership numbers for the entire 11-game CFP slate on Wednesday. It mentioned that the second year of the 12-team field brought in an average of 16.3 million viewers, which was a 4% increase from last season.

Surprisingly, both of the national semifinal matchups — Indiana vs. Oregon in the Peach Bowl and Miami vs. Mississippi in the Fiesta Bowl — were not included in the top four most-watched CFP games this season. The Hoosiers’ Peach Bowl win came in at No. 5 (18 million), while the Hurricanes’ Fiesta Bowl win came in at No. 7 (15.8 million), just behind Miami’s first-round win over Texas A&M.

Here’s a game-by-game breakdown of the most-watched games from the 2025-26 College Football Playoff:

1. CFP National Championship (Miami vs. Indiana): 30.1 million
2. CFP Rose Bowl Quarterfinal (Alabama vs. Indiana): 23.9 million
3. CFP Cotton Bowl Quarterfinal (Miami vs. Ohio State): 19.0 million
4. CFP Sugar Bowl Quarterfinal (Ole Miss vs. Georgia): 18.7 million
5. CFP Peach Bowl Semifinal (Oregon vs. Indiana): 18.0 million
6. CFP Orange Bowl Quarterfinal (Oregon vs. Texas Tech): 15.9 million
7. CFP Fiesta Bowl Semifinal (Miami vs. Ole Miss): Ole Miss 15.8 million
8. CFP First Round (Alabama at Oklahoma): 14.9 million
9. CFP First Round (Miami at Texas A&M): 14.8 million
10. CFP First Round (Tulane at Ole Miss): 6.2 million*
11. CFP First Round (James Madison at Oregon): 4.4 million*

* Denotes games that aired on TNT

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One of the most dramatic contract sagas in NWSL history has finally ended.

The Washington Spirit announced on Thursday that star forward Trinity Rodman has re-signed with the team through the 2028 season.

Rodman’s agent told ESPN that the new deal worth more than $1 million per year makes her the highest-paid player in league history and highest-paid female player in the world.

The 23-year-old had been a free agent since her contract expired at the end of 2025. Her return to the NWSL is a significant coup for the league, with multiple European clubs recently reported to be interested in the U.S women’s national team star.

But the Spirit have secured their franchise player, and the NWSL has retained one of the faces of the league amid a period in which several USWNT players have left for Europe.

“I’ve made the DMV my home and the Spirit my family, and I knew this was where I wanted to enter the next chapter of my career,” said Rodman.

“I’m proud of what we’ve built since my rookie season, and I’m excited about where this club is headed. We’re chasing championships and raising the standard, and I can’t wait to keep doing that with my teammates and the best fans in the NWSL.”

The Spirit and Rodman agreed to a multi-year deal last month, but NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman intervened to cancel the star forward’s contract.

According to Bloomberg, Berman rejected the deal because it ‘violated the spirit of the league’ while The Athletic reported that the NWSL believed the contract violated league rules.

The NWSL’s solution to keep Rodman and other star players from leaving for Europe was the High Impact Player rule, which was announced last month.

But the new initiative has proven hugely controversial. The NWSL Players Association (NWSLPA) filed a formal grievance earlier this month with the intention of abolishing the rule entirely.

The Spirit selected Rodman second overall in the 2021 NWSL Draft. At 18, she became the youngest player to be drafted into the league at the time.

Rodman burst onto the scene in the NWSL, winning the league’s Rookie of the Year award and helping the Spirit to the 2021 NWSL title.

In her five years in the NWSL, Rodman has been named to the NWSL Best XI two times and the Second XI once.

Rodman has also emerged as a fixture with the USWNT, scoring 11 goals in 47 caps and helping the team win a gold medal at the 2024 Olympics.

Late Basketball Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant put on one of the most unfathomable scoring performances in NBA history two decades ago tonight.

Peek-a-boo. 81 points.

Bryant torched the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 22, 2006 to achieve the second-highest scoring feat ever, behind only Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game.

He was on a heater. Bryant shot 28-of-46 from the field, including 7-of-13 from deep. He made 18 of his 20 free throw attempts, including the last two with 43.2 seconds left in the game to give him 81 points.

He played 42 minutes.

He scored 26 points in the first half and went off for 55 points in the second half, shattering Elgin Baylor’s team record for points in a game (71).

‘I feel pretty good,’ Bryant said with a smile during his post-game interview in 2006. ‘It hasn’t really sank in yet. We had four days off coming up here. I’d have been sick as a dog if we lost this game. I just wanted to step up and inspire us to play a great game and it turned into something really special.’

Bryant said he never scored that much in a game, not even in elementary school. He went on to say the performance was something that ‘just happened.’

On a day that featured NFL conference championship games, Bryant’s performance overtook the headlines.

Legendary SportsCenter anchor Stuart Scott had the right call that night on ESPN:

‘You have to see it to believe it,’ Scott said 20 years ago.

Lakers star LeBron James said, in a older interview, that he ‘watched the whole game.’ Spurs legend Tim Duncan remembers reading Bryant’s 81-point stat line on a ticker. He thought it was a mistake.

Basketball Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade, at the time, remembered receiving an email about the game on his T-Mobile Sidekick cellphone.

‘I was like, ‘no way,’ ‘ Wade said. ‘I was at a restaurant so I went right and tuned into the TV they had at the restaurant and he had 71 so I watched the rest of it. At that time I think everybody was a fan of Kobe’s to see this is history right here being made. No one’s scoring 80 points in today’s game. Everyone was a fan tuned in, watching his greatness.’

‘It just said ‘Kobe 81,’ ‘ Kyrie Irving reminisced. ‘I just couldn’t believe it.’

Vince Carter thought it had to be a typo at the time. ’81? or 51?’ Carter said. ‘Unbelievable.’

‘Nobody believed it,’ Dirk Nowitzki said.

‘Man, that’s unbelievable,’ Klay Thompson said. ‘That’s crazy. … 81, that’s ridiculous.’

The game became so legendary that his iconic finger to the sky, signaling No. 1 or pointing to the heavens, was used for his statue that sits outside Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles.

Kobe Bryant 81-point game box score

• Points: 81
• FG: 28-for-46
• 3PT: 7-for-13
• Free Throws: 18-for-20
• Rebounds: 6
• Assists: 2
• Steals: 3
• Blocks: 1
• Turnovers: 3
• Fouls: 1
• Minutes: 42

Highlights: Kobe’s 81-point game, 20 years later

Watch every point Bryant scored on his historic night.