NEW SITE FEATURE: Sports Without All the Yelling: What Actually Matters This Week
Updated: Sep 20
Sports Without All the Yelling: Kentucky Had a Weekend
Kentucky stunned a top-10 football team, Louisville won a ranked conference battle, and the Wildcats defeated the Cardinals again—this time in women’s volleyball.
Updated September 20, 2026
The biggest national stories, the Kentucky games worth knowing about, and just enough information to survive a conversation with a sports person. Gathered, curated and presented to you by Bruce and Watson, my stunningly sometimes inappropriate AI partner. Actually, I despise sports. This is all Watson. And he does and awesome job.
Kentucky stunned No. 9 Texas A&M
One week after collapsing against Alabama, Kentucky traveled to Texas and defeated No. 9 Texas A&M 31–21.
The Wildcats fell behind 21–3 before scoring 28 unanswered points. Quarterback Kenny Minchey threw for 252 yards and two touchdowns, while CJ Baxter ran for two more.
This was Kentucky’s first victory over Texas A&M since 1952 and only its second road win against a top-10 opponent since 1978. It was also the first major victory for new Kentucky coach Will Stein, who apparently responded to last week’s second-half disaster by reversing the entire plot.
Texas A&M fell fourteen places to No. 23 in the new Associated Press rankings. Kentucky remains unranked but has now made itself considerably harder to dismiss. Reuters · Associated Press rankings
Louisville defeated ranked SMU
No. 23 Louisville beat No. 16 SMU 41–31 in a game featuring seven lead changes and enough dramatic instability to qualify as prestige television.
Louisville running back Keyjuan Brown rushed for 163 yards and scored two long touchdowns. The Cardinals’ defense forced a crucial late fumble that helped secure the victory.
The win gives Louisville an early advantage in the Atlantic Coast Conference race and pushed the Cardinals seven places higher to No. 16 in the latest national rankings. SMU dropped to No. 22. Louisville Athletics · Associated Press
Kentucky also won the volleyball Battle of the Bluegrass
The weekend’s Kentucky–Louisville competition continued Sunday when No. 4 Kentucky defeated No. 3 Louisville three sets to one in women’s volleyball.
Louisville won the opening set 25–19, but Kentucky recovered to take the next three. The Wildcats survived a particularly chaotic second set 29–27 before winning the final two 25–21 and 25–19.
The match was played before a sold-out crowd at Historic Memorial Coliseum. Kentucky ended Louisville’s ten-match winning streak and earned its first home victory over the Cardinals since 2019.
That is not a courtesy inclusion from the Women’s Sports Department in the basement. It was a top-five rivalry matchup carried nationally on ABC, and Kentucky won it. NCAA
Western Kentucky had a considerably less festive afternoon
No. 4 Indiana defeated Western Kentucky 38–0, dropping the Hilltoppers to 0–3.
WKU kept Indiana scoreless through the first quarter and remained within reach for much of the first half. Indiana then remembered it was the fourth-ranked team in the country and scored 31 points after halftime.
Western Kentucky returns home Saturday, September 26, to face Mercyhurst. Indiana Athletics · WKU Athletics
The Bengals won, but the Titans did not
The Cincinnati Bengals defeated the Houston Texans 20–6, improving to 2–0.
The Tennessee Titans came much closer than they did during their season-opening loss but still fell to the Philadelphia Eagles 24–20. Tennessee is now 0–2, which is not technically fatal this early in an NFL season but is generally considered an inconvenient way to begin one.
Elsewhere, Buffalo defeated Detroit 41–31 Thursday night. Sunday night’s Indianapolis Colts–Kansas City Chiefs game and Monday night’s New York Giants–Los Angeles Rams game had not been completed when this briefing was updated. NFL scores and schedule
Atlanta won its baseball division
The Atlanta Braves defeated the Houston Astros 4–2 Sunday and clinched the National League East championship.
It is Atlanta’s seventh division title in nine seasons. The Milwaukee Brewers had already secured the National League Central, while the Los Angeles Dodgers were closing in on another National League West title.
The New York Yankees have also secured a playoff spot, and the San Diego Padres have won thirteen of their last fourteen games while approaching one of their own. In ordinary language: the postseason field is rapidly taking shape, and several teams are now playing for position rather than mere survival. Reuters on Atlanta · Reuters on San Diego
The Reds remain committed to suffering
The Chicago Cubs defeated Cincinnati 9–1 Sunday.
Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong hit his 45th home run and became the first center fielder in Major League Baseball history to record at least 40 home runs, 30 doubles and 30 stolen bases in one season.
The Cubs moved within one Arizona loss of clinching a playoff position. The Reds, meanwhile, continued demonstrating that a baseball season can technically last six months while emotionally lasting several decades. Reuters
The national college rankings changed again
Texas remains No. 1, followed by Georgia and Notre Dame. Ole Miss climbed to No. 4 after defeating LSU 32–24, while defending national champion Indiana moved to No. 5.
The Southeastern Conference now has ten ranked teams, tying a record. Louisville made the week’s largest upward move, while Texas A&M experienced the largest fall—courtesy of Kentucky.
The rankings will change again because college football appears to have been designed by people who considered emotional stability a character flaw. Associated Press
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