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Today's NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Jan. 26, #125

Here are some hints — and the answers — for Connections: Sports Edition No. 125 for Sunday, Jan. 26.

Headshot of Gael Cooper
Headshot of Gael Cooper
Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, and generational studies Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
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NYT Connections: Sport Edition on a phone

Here are the answers for Connections: Sports Edition.

 James Martin/CNET

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today's Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Connections: Sports Edition has one of those purple categories today that make players tear their hair out. The words aren't really sports words, but they sound like connecting sports words. Oof. Read on for hints and answers for today's Connections: Sports Edition puzzle.

For now, the game is in beta, which means the Times is testing it out to see if it's popular before adding it to the site's Games app. You can play it daily for now for free — and then we'll have to see if it sticks around. 

Read more: NYT Has a Connections Game for Sports Fans. I Tried It

Hints for today's Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today's Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Things aren't looking up.

Green group hint: Hang ten.

Blue group hint: Empire State education.

Purple group hint: Sounds like a hoopster.

Answers for today's Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Downturn.

Green group: Surfing terms.

Blue group: New York colleges.

Purple group: Homophones of NBA player names.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today's Connections: Sports Edition answers?

completed NYT Connections Sports Edition puzzle for Jan. 26, 2025, #125

The completed NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025.

 NYT/Screenshot by CNET

The yellow words in today's Connections

The theme is downturn. The four answers are decline, plunge, skid and slump.

The green words in today's Connections

The theme is surfing terms. The four answers are barrel, crest, swell and wave.

The blue words in today's Connections

The theme is New York colleges. The four answers are Colgate, Columbia, St. John's and Syracuse.

The purple words in today's Connections

The theme is homophones of NBA player names. The four answers are Barns, Connect, Heart and Hero.