NYT Connections Sports Edition hints & answers: Saturday, September 5, 2026

Updated: Saturday, September 5, 2026 · Hints reviewed by Omer Liban · New puzzle daily at midnight local time — free from The Athletic. · Puzzle editor: Mark Cooper.

This page has every level of help for the NYT Connections Sports Edition puzzle of Saturday, September 5, 2026: 3 spoiler-free hint tiers that narrow things down step by step, followed by the complete answers with explanations — each behind its own tap-to-reveal card.

Stuck on today's Sports Edition? Same drill as regular Connections: work the tiers below from a single answer per group up to the full explained solution, revealing only as much as you want.

Connections: Sports Edition works exactly like regular Connections — four colour-coded groups from easiest 🟡 yellow to trickiest 🟣 purple — but every category is sports: players, teams, rules, moments. It's made by The Athletic and free to play.

Sports Connections hints (September 5, 2026)

1One answer from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its answers is “CLEMSON”.
Green (easy): one of its answers is “NORMAN”.
Blue (tricky): one of its answers is “BURROW”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its answers is “UGA”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Acc schools”.
Green (easy): the theme is “Sec school locations”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “Lsu alumni in nfl”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “Live college football mascots”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Acc schools”, and its four answers are: CLEMSON, LOUISVILLE, STANFORD, VIRGINIA.

Sports Connections answers — September 5, 2026

★Today's full Sports Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Acc schools”. The answers: CLEMSON, LOUISVILLE, STANFORD, VIRGINIA.
Green (easy) — the connection is “Sec school locations”. The answers: NORMAN, BATON ROUGE, COLUMBIA, STARKVILLE.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “Lsu alumni in nfl”. The answers: BURROW, CHASE, JEFFERSON, DANIELS.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “Live college football mascots”. The answers: UGA, REVEILLE, SMOKEY, RALPHIE.

The puzzle, explained

The purple group is all about schools that actually have *live animals* as their mascots on the sidelines during games—UGA is Georgia's famous bulldog, Reveille is Texas A&M's collie, Smokey is Tennessee's bluetick coonhound, and Ralphie is Colorado's buffalo. The trickiest part is that UGA, Reveille, and Smokey could totally feel like they belong with the SEC schools in green (since Georgia, Texas A&M, and Tennessee are all in the SEC), which is definitely the bait they're laying for you. And yeah, CHASE and JEFFERSON are both LSU guys who made it to the NFL, so that blue group is solid once you realize it's not just random football names—they're all Tigers alumni in the league.

Next in today's routine: Soccer Connections → · every game's answers on one page. New puzzle daily at midnight local time — free from The Athletic. Bookmark this page for tomorrow's hints. Or play Sports Connections on the official site.

More of today's puzzles

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Sports Connections — common questions

How is Connections Sports Edition different from regular Connections?

Same rules — sort sixteen answers into four colour-coded groups — but every category is sports: players, teams, rules, kits, moments. It's made by The Athletic (the NYT's sports newsroom), it's free, and it lives on The Athletic's site rather than the NYT Games app.

What time does Sports Connections reset?

At midnight in your own local timezone, like Wordle — not at midnight Eastern like regular Connections. Wherever you are, the new puzzle arrives when your clock strikes twelve.

What do the colours mean in Sports Connections?

The same difficulty ladder as regular Connections: yellow is the easiest group, then green, then blue, and purple is the trickiest — often wordplay or a sneaky link between the leftover answers.

Previous Sports Connections puzzles

Full Sports Connections archive (137 puzzles) → · How to play Connections: Sports Edition →