The Mets Are Paying $380 Million to Finish Last in Offense
The Mets are 9-19 with the worst offense in baseball and a $380 million payroll. Carlos Mendoza is getting the blame. He should not be the one sweating.
By Nina Torres · 3 min read
Sports Opinion
From analytics to instinct, The Split's sports writers argue both sides of the biggest storylines in professional and collegiate athletics.
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Giannis Belongs in the Top 5 and the Ring Argument Is Lazy
Giannis Antetokounmpo has a 31.1 PER and 3 MVPs, and the loudest argument against his top-5 status is that his teammates kept losing in April. That is not an analytics argument. That is a vibes argument wearing a championship ring.
By Jax Moreno · 3 min read
The Cardinals Didn't Overpay for Love, They Overpaid for Certainty
Jeremiyah Love's tape is real. The $50.5 million guaranteed at No. 3 overall is also real. One of those facts should make Cardinals fans nervous, and it isn't the tape.
By Nina Torres · 4 min read
BYU Went 11-1 and the Committee Looked Right Through Them
BYU went 11-1 in 2024 and watched three teams from the same conference that beat them walk into the College Football Playoff. The committee called it a schedule problem. I call it something else.
By Rook Calloway · 3 min read
First Take Doesn't Divide Fans. It Selects for the Ones Already Divided
Every few weeks, First Take produces a moment so loud that someone writes a column blaming it for dividing sports fandom. The data suggests the causation runs the other way. The show doesn't make fans more extreme; it just finds the ones who already are.
By Jax Moreno · 3 min read
The NFL Draft Is a Rigged Market and Everyone Knows It
Four teams finished last season with identical records and all landed top-5 picks in the 2026 Draft. The Raiders, Jets, Cardinals, and Titans didn't just rebuild; they all cashed the same ticket. The NFL is running a market where losing pays better than winning, and the league has the power to fix it.
By Nina Torres · 3 min read
Jordan's Shaky Hands Made the GOAT Argument Stronger
A resurfaced 1997 video shows Michael Jordan admitting to shaky hands before a Finals free throw. Skip Bayless called it proof Jordan was not the GOAT. He got the conclusion exactly backwards.
By Rook Calloway · 3 min read
Russell Westbrook Cannot Hurt a Team He Is Not On
Russell Westbrook played 64 games for Sacramento this season, hurt his toe in March, and became a free agent. He has not been a Nugget. The question everyone keeps asking is built on a roster that does not exist.
By Jax Moreno · 3 min read
The Red Sox Are 6-10 Because Trevor Story Is Costing Them Games
Boston is 6-10 and everyone wants Cora's head. The actual culprit hit .119 with a 40.5% strikeout rate and leads the team in errors. The market is wrong on this one.
By Nina Torres · 3 min read
SportsThe Split
The AP Has 50 Voters and Zero Disclosure Rules
Dianna Russini resigned. The AP stayed silent. And the 50-voter panel that decides NFL awards still has no conflict-of-interest disclosure rules. That is not an oversight; it is a policy choice.
By Jax Moreno · 3 min read
The Caitlin Clark Drama Is Real, and Angel Reese Made It Real
Angel Reese warmed up for a Chicago Sky game, refused to play the second half, skipped the rest of the season, and flew to Vegas on a private jet. The suspension is documented. The pattern across 3 programs is documented. Some of the coverage is garbage; the underlying story is not.
By Nina Torres · 3 min read
Dybantsa Is the Safest Number One Pick Since LeBron
AJ Dybantsa led the entire NCAA in scoring at 51% efficiency without missing significant time. The debate about whether he is the safest No. 1 pick in 2026 should have ended months ago. It hasn't, and that tells you more about our appetite for boom-or-bust narratives than it does about Dybantsa.
By Rook Calloway · 3 min read
The Vrabel Hire Was Never as Clean as the Win Total Suggested
Eleven days after the Sedona photos dropped, the Patriots still haven't said a word. The NFL passed on a conduct review. Everyone's moving on. The numbers say that's exactly when you should pay closer attention.
By Jax Moreno · 3 min read
The Superstar Trade Is a Sucker Bet and the Clippers Just Proved It Again
The Clippers blew a 13-point lead to a 37-45 Warriors team and ended their season in the Play-In. Bradley Beal played 6 games and recorded 0 rebounds. This is what happens when front offices keep buying the same bad line on superstar trades.
By Nina Torres · 3 min read
Tyce Armstrong Didn't Prove Anything About College Baseball
Tyce Armstrong hit 3 grand slams in a single game, matching a 50-year-old record that no MLB player has ever touched. The performance was historic. What it was not is proof of anything beyond Armstrong himself.
By Rook Calloway · 3 min read
MLB Games Are 28 Minutes Shorter and People Are Still Complaining
Nine-inning games are still 28 minutes shorter than the pre-pitch clock era, and attendance is climbing. The 'games are getting worse' crowd is comparing 2026 to 2024 instead of 2026 to 2021, which is the kind of baseline selection that would embarrass a first-year stats student.
By Jax Moreno · 3 min read
California Is Holding the Right Line on Trans Athletes
The Trump administration just terminated 6 Title IX agreements targeting California's transgender athlete protections. The compliance clock is running. California should not cover this spread.
By Nina Torres · 3 min read
SportsThe Split
Shedeur Sanders Is a Futures Bet, Not a Pro Bowl Pick
Shedeur Sanders went 3-4 in 7 starts and the Pro Bowl chatter is already loud. The Browns are internally debating whether to start Deshaun Watson over him. These two facts are doing a lot of work together.
By Nina Torres · 3 min read
29 Fixed Games and the NCAA Knew Something Was Wrong
Federal prosecutors charged 26 people on April 9 for fixing 29 college basketball games across 17 schools. The NCAA had prior investigations into nearly all of them. That detail is the whole story.
By Rook Calloway · 3 min read
The NBA's Real Problem Isn't Load Management, It's Losing on Purpose
The NBA's average margin of victory hit 13.1 points this season, the worst in league history. Everyone's blaming load management. The actual culprit is eight teams running a coordinated strategy to lose as many games as possible, and a $500,000 fine that does nothing to stop them.
By Jax Moreno · 3 min read
The Better You Are, the Harder Your Brain Works Against You
Elite athletes do not choke because they lack mental toughness. They choke because their brains have more automated systems for conscious thought to sabotage at the worst possible moment. The fix exists. Most coaches are not running it.
By Nina Torres · 3 min read
Tsitsipas Isn't Slumping, He's Drowning
Watch the footage from Monte Carlo. Not the scoreline. Watch the shoulders, the walk between points, the body language of a man carrying something he can no longer name. Stefanos Tsitsipas at world number 48 is not having a bad stretch. His confidence is structurally broken.
By Rook Calloway · 3 min read
The Second Apron Is Not Killing Dynasties. It's Exposing Which Ones Were Real
Brad Stevens admitted it in July 2025: the second apron is why the Celtics traded away two players from their championship roster. The rule has real teeth, but the teams screaming loudest about it are the ones who were already doing math that never added up.
By Jax Moreno · 3 min read
Arch Manning Is Priced Like a Champion Who Hasn't Won Anything
CBS Sports ranked Arch Manning the No. 1 SEC quarterback. He has never played in a CFP game. Trinidad Chambliss threw for 774 more yards last season and nearly won a national title. The line on Texas is built on hype, not proof.
By Nina Torres · 3 min read