There was plenty of domination in 2024. The Chiefs positioned themselves for an unprecedented three-peat. UConn went back-to-back. Caitlin Clark could hardly be stopped on or off the court. And the Dodgers juggernaut proved itself to be just that — a juggernaut.
But 2024 also introduced some massive changes, most notably in college sports where NIL and conference realignment turned an entire sports landscape on its head.
What does all that change mean going forward?
Here is a look at the biggest questions to be answered in the new year, starting with …
Boxing
Question to answer in 2025: Are the Saudis in it for the long haul?
For better or worse, the injection of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and Turki Alalshikh’s seemingly boundless wealth has ushered in a new golden era of matchmaking possibilities among the sweet science’s elite ranks. In little more than a year, at the mere cost of lighting untold millions of dollars on fire, Alalshikh has successfully positioned himself as the sport’s single most important figure, the closest thing boxing has had in some time to its own Dana White. But how long will the Saudis keep open their pocket book? Is all of this a fleeting vanity play for Saudi Arabia or is Alalshikh in it for the long haul? Many within boxing are hoping they don’t have to find out.
— Shaheen Al-Shatti
Men’s College Basketball
Question to answer in 2025: Will Cooper Flagg be the exception to that newfound rule?
Flagg has so far lived up to his preseason hype as the projected No. 1 pick in next year’s NBA draft and the best freshman to enter college basketball in the past few years. At 17 years old, Flagg is averaging team highs of 16.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.3 blocks, a remarkable stat line for someone so young.
It has been 22 years since Carmelo Anthony led Jim Boeheim to his lone national title, 13 years since Anthony Davis ended John Calipari’s championship drought and nine years since a quartet of heralded freshmen delivered Mike Krzyzewski’s final trophy. Flagg and fellow Duke freshmen Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach have an opportunity to be next in that lineage.
— Jeff Eisenberg
Women’s College Basketball
Question to answer in 2025: Will Caitlin Clark’s impact continue?
Clark has moved on to WNBA, while the college season dawned featuring new faces as the main draw. We’ll see if any of them can capture the full allure Clark created. Even more intriguing is if Paige Bueckers, the No. 1 recruit in Clark’s high school class, and Azzi Fudd can finally snap UConn’s championship skid after coming close with lesser rosters. Even though not everyone would find joy in that powerhouse resurgence.
— Cassandra Negley
Question to answer in 2025: How will the 12-team playoff evolve after the first year?
Thanks to the SEC’s chaotic season, its domination of the field didn’t happen. But that didn’t stop the lobbying from those in and around the conference who were unafraid to say the SEC is the toughest league in the country and that its three-loss teams should be treated appropriately. But how do you truly judge the strength of one 16-team conference in a 134-team landscape? Especially when teams in 16- and 18-team leagues are only playing eight or nine conference games? The 2024 season was a lot like the 2007 college football season — a season that could have been even more epic if there was a 12-team playoff.
— Nick Bromberg
Golf
Question to answer in 2025: Will golf unify again?
In 2025, no. The PGA Tour and LIV Golf are ocean liners barreling in different directions, and you’re not going to get them to whip around and snug up next to one another in the space of a year. Any unification of the game won’t happen until 2026, at the earliest.
But will the first real steps toward reunification happen? That’s a different question, and the answer is yes. The four major tournaments are already taking steps to open more pathways to LIV players. The Saudi PIF is likely going to take on the role of significant investor in the PGA Tour, with LIV becoming a team-golf ancillary tour. The only serious obstacles to reunification are pride and hurt feelings, and money has a way of grinding down those mountainous obstacles into smooth, wide fairways.
— Jay Busbee
MLB
Question to answer in 2025: Can anyone knock the Dodgers juggernaut off its perch?
Plain and simple, the Dodgers are acting like bullies, which gives them a strong chance to become the first MLB team in the 21st century to win back-to-back titles. That, far and away, is the biggest storyline heading into 2025. Can anybody knock this juggernaut off its perch? Ohtani will be back on the mound. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman should be healthier than they were in ‘24. And there’s no way the Dodgers will suffer as devastating a barrage of starting pitcher injuries as they did this past season.
The MLB playoffs remain deliciously random, and the 2025 season is far from a done deal, but boy, oh boy, do the Dodgers look like a steamroller at the outset.
— Jake Mintz
MMA
Question to answer in 2025: Will UFC re-up with ESPN or shop around?
UFC’s broadcast deal with ESPN ends in 2025. An exclusive negotiating window between the two sides kicks off in January, but if UFC plays hardball — which, make no mistake, it will — the MMA leader is free to spend 2025 shopping itself to every major network and streaming service with a pulse. That $1.5 billion partnership UFC and ESPN inked in 2018? It’s going to look like peanuts compared to what’s coming. With a deep well of year-round content and a ravenous Gen Z fan base born from the pandemic, UFC has positioned itself to be one of the market’s most coveted free agents at a time when live sports rights are at a premium.
— Shaheen Al-Shatti
NASCAR
Question to answer in 2025: How will a court rule in the charter agreement lawsuit against NASCAR?
We’re fascinated to see how 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports’ lawsuit against NASCAR progresses. The two teams have sued over the charter agreement between NASCAR and its teams and say that NASCAR is monopolistic. It’s the biggest feud between NASCAR and its participants in decades with the added element that Michael Jordan is a co-owner of 23XI Racing. Even if NASCAR ultimately has the upper legal hand, a protracted public fight with one of the most famous athletes of all-time is a recipe for a PR nightmare, especially if 23XI Racing ends up leaving NASCAR. If the teams win, the famously anti-union sanctioning body will find itself with the least amount of leverage its ever had over its participants.
— Nick Bromberg
NBA
Question to answer in 2025: Are the Celtics a budding dynasty?
Whether or not we’ll see more of the same. Which is to say: The NBA has not boasted a repeat champion since the mighty Golden State Warriors — arguably the greatest team in the game’s history — went back-to-back in 2017 and 2018, but Boston (No. 1 in our power rankings, recently reintegrated Porziņģis) is favored to do so.
There was much discussion about the Celtics’ path to a championship. In the end, they beat the Jimmy Butler-less Miami Heat, Donovan Mitchell-less Cleveland Cavaliers and Tyrese Haliburton-less Indiana Pacers. Even Luka Dončić was hobbled by the NBA Finals, and his Dallas Mavericks may not have been the best the Western Conference had to offer Boston. Nobody extended the Celtics beyond five games.
But the Celtics also won largely without Porziņģis. They brought their entire rotation back. And Payton Pritchard has developed into a Sixth Man of the Year candidate. There is a real chance Boston is better.
So which is it? Were the Celtics gifted a title from injuries and upsets? Or would it not have mattered who stood in their way? We should have our answers by the end of the 2024-25 campaign, when Boston will face another query if it were to win again: Would a new ownership group (yes, the Celtics are for sale) really dismantle a budding dynasty over a growing luxury tax bill, and what does that mean for the NBA?
— Ben Rohrbach
NFL
Question to answer in 2025: Is this the best era ever for quarterbacks?
The quality of NFL football is tied directly to the play of its quarterbacks. There’s a reason there are so many rules to protect them from injury. What we’re seeing is a quarterback revolution. There are many young quarterbacks entering their prime in 2025, which is great news for the league and its fans.
The 2024 rookie class has been better than expected, with Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye and Bo Nix all playing well. Among the other marquee quarterbacks who won’t even be 30 years old next season: Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, C.J. Stroud, Brock Purdy, Kyler Murray, Justin Herbert, Jordan Love, Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa. That’s a lot of young star power.
There were some all-time great QBs who retired or saw their play decline in the past few seasons. In 2025, we’ll see another step forward from a deep and exciting group of quarterbacks replacing those legends and leading the NFL into the next generation.
— Frank Schwab
NHL
Question to answer in 2025: When will Alex Ovechkin break Wayne Gretzky’s career goal record?
There was a time in the hockey world when Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 894 career goals was believed to be untouchable. But once Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals arrived in 2005 and scored 269 goals over his first five seasons, that belief began to change and The Great One’s record didn’t seem so unreachable after all.
Even as goal scoring stuttered league-wide for most of the first decade of Ovechkin’s career, he filled the back of the net on a regular basis. His nine 50-goal seasons is tied with Gretzky and Mike Bossy for most in NHL history and he’s currently on pace to break that record this season.
Of Ovechkin’s 868 goals, 316 have come on the power play, where The Great Eight has a dedicated piece of real estate on the ice known as the “Ovi Spot.” It’s there where teammates can find him — inside the left face off circle with his stick raised, a signal that he’s ready to fire.
The 39-year-old Ovechkin scored 15 goals in 18 games this season, putting him 26 away from Gretzky’s 894. But his hot start to the 2024-25 NHL season was derailed in November when he suffered a fractured fibula. Despite the lengthy absence from the Capitals’ lineup, it’s still a possibility he threatens the record this season. (He’s expected to return sometime this month.)
Should it happen this season or next, it will likely be a very long time — longer than than the three-plus decades it took for Gretzky to be challenged — before someone sniffs Ovechkin’s final tally.
The only potential existing threat? Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews, who is the leading active goal scorer among players under 30 years old. His 373 goals at 27 — he and Ovechkin share a birthday — is higher than what Ovechkin tallied by the same age.
— Sean Leahy
Olympics
Question to answer in 2028: Will NIL harm the United States’ medal count?
For decades, the NCAA model has been the secret behind Team USA’s dominance of the Summer Olympic medal count. Places like Stanford, USC, UCLA, Texas, Georgia and Florida have served as talent incubators for college athletes and for those who need somewhere to train after exhausting their NCAA eligibility.
That system appears to be in some jeopardy after the landmark House vs. NCAA lawsuit forced a reconsideration of the financial relationship between universities and their athletes. The settlement requires the introduction of a future revenue-sharing model and $2.8 billion in retroactive payments for athletes who competed from 2016 to 2021.
Where will the money to directly compensate athletes come from? Many fear that universities will respond by dropping costly non-revenue sports like swimming, track, softball, volleyball or water polo. That doesn’t mean deep-pocketed Oklahoma will suddenly stop offering softball or Stanford will drop swimming or Oregon will dissolve its track program. But it does mean that schools a tier or two below might have to make some tough decisions.
If the number of colleges that offer scholarships for certain Olympic sports decrease, then might participation numbers also start to dwindle? As the U.S. prepares for Los Angeles 2028 and beyond, that’s a real concern.
— Jeff Eisenberg
Soccer
Question to answer in 2025: How does the MLS match up against European superclubs?
The Club World Cup will provide an answer.
On the field, it could be a first-of-its-kind extravaganza. It will pit European superclubs — Real Madrid, Manchester City, and others widely regarded as the best soccer teams on the planet — against the best of the Americas, Asia and Africa. It will be a fascinating (and unprecedented) window into the quality of MLS. Can the league’s two representatives, Inter Miami and the Seattle Sounders, hang with FC Porto or Paris Saint-Germain? How do Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal, Argentina’s Grandes (Boca Juniors and River Plate), and giants from Brazil and Mexico measure up against the likes of Borussia Dortmund and Juventus? No competitive, month-long tournament has ever answered those questions.
Off the field, meanwhile, the Club World Cup represents a power struggle. It’s FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s ploy to claw back market share and control of global soccer from UEFA, the sport’s European governing body, and top European leagues. So, it has met fierce resistance — and legal action — from a coalition of those leagues and players’ unions, who say they’re concerned about calendar congestion and workload. As FIFA tries to will the tournament into fruition — sponsors, broadcasters and even top clubs have been skeptical, leaving questions about funding — a looming court case could weaken the global governing body.
The Club World Cup, therefore, could be great; it could captivate soccer fans throughout the U.S., which will host all 32 teams and 63 matches. Or, it could remain controversial and backfire.
— Henry Bushnell
Tennis
Question to answer in 2025: Who will challenge The Big Two(s)?
Despite the continuing presence of Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Aryna Sabalenka, and Iga Swiatek at the top of their respective leaderboards, this era will be much different than the time of Serena Williams and The Big Three. All four players are exceptional and will only get better, but they’re not the unbeatable brick walls we’ve seen in the past. All four can be defeated, and 2025 will be about players — some of them young, but some a little older — proving they can pose a serious challenge from tournament to tournament.
American Coco Gauff didn’t make it to a Grand Slam singles final in 2024, but a late-season coaching change has already been paying dividends with visible improvements to her serve. Jasmine Paolini burst onto the scene in 2024 like the Kool-Aid Man, posting personal bests in all four Grand Slams, making the finals at the French Open and Wimbledon, and winning Olympic gold in doubles. American Taylor Fritz had the best year of his career in 2024, making a Grand Slam final and two quarterfinals, ending the year ranked No. 4, a career high. 2024 was often about things ending, but 2025 could bring us what we’ve long waited for: the future of tennis.
— Liz Roscher
WNBA
Question to answer in 2025: Will Clark and the Indiana Fever compete for a title?
The 2025 season is already building on the movement. The league’s front office astutely designed an opening weekend packed full of enticing rivalries, headlined by Clark’s Indiana Fever hosting Angel Reese’s Chicago Sky. If there’s only one thing to look forward to, it’s how Clark, 2023 No. 1 pick Aliyah Boston and newly named head coach Stephanie White will further elevate the Fever toward realistic championship hopes. All eyes will again be on Indianapolis, where merely four of 20 games were short of sell-outs at Gainbridge Fieldhouse (no game dropped below 15,000). The city will host its first WNBA All-Star Weekend in an era where it’s never been more popular to be seen on celebrity row.
— Cassandra Negley
