The Tuesday edition of NYT Connections Sports Edition arrives with puzzle #624, testing your knowledge of NFL divisions, college football geography, NFL draft pedigree, and this year's most exclusive golf venues. Today's grid demands both casual fandom and deep-cut sports trivia.
What Makes Connections Sports Edition Tick
For newcomers, NYT Connections Sports Edition presents 16 sports-themed words that must be sorted into four thematic groups of four. The twist?
You're limited to four mistakes, and the color-coded difficulty system (yellow being easiest, purple being trickiest) means surface-level connections often mislead.
Connections Sports Edition brings the same addictive puzzle format to the world of athletics, featuring athletes, teams, sports terminology, and legendary moments. The game's genius lies in its red herrings, words that could fit multiple sports categories but belong in only one.
Today's Grid at a Glance
Here are the 16 words staring back at you in puzzle #624:
SOUTHERN | SOUTHAMPTON | SOUTHPORT | LONDON
SAINTS | ST. BROWN | SMITH-SCHUSTER | LSU
RAGIN' CAJUNS | PITTMAN | PANTHERS | AUGUSTA
TULANE | BUCCANEERS | NEWTOWN SQUARE | FALCONS
A seemingly random collection that somehow connects into four perfect categories.
Strategic Hints (No Spoilers Yet)
Yellow Category Nudge: Think NFL divisional alignment. Four of these teams share a conference and a region of the country.
Green Category Clue: These four names are all tied to college football programs in the same state. One is a nickname, not an official school name.
Blue Category Hint: Three of these names belong to current NFL wide receivers who played their college ball at the same powerhouse program.
Purple Category Teaser: These four locations might sound like random cities, but each one is hosting a specific 2026 championship event in a sport where par is the goal.
The Full Solutions
Last chance to solve independently: answers below
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Yellow (NFC South Teams): BUCCANEERS, FALCONS, PANTHERS, SAINTS
These four NFL franchises make up the NFC South division. The Buccaneers (Tampa Bay), Falcons (Atlanta), Panthers (Carolina), and Saints (New Orleans) have been division rivals since the NFL realigned in 2002.
Green (Louisiana Schools): RAGIN' CAJUNS, LSU, SOUTHERN, TULANE
Four college athletic programs based in the state of Louisiana. RAGIN' CAJUNS is the nickname for Louisiana-Lafayette, LSU is the flagship program in Baton Rouge, Southern is a historically Black university in Baton Rouge, and Tulane is the private school in New Orleans.
Blue (USC WRs in NFL): LONDON, PITTMAN, SMITH-SCHUSTER, ST. BROWN
Drake London (Falcons), Michael Pittman Jr. (Colts), Amon-Ra St. Brown (Lions), and the retired but legendary SMITH-SCHUSTER (a placeholder for the two-SC-WR name) all played wide receiver at USC before entering the NFL. The Trojans' pipeline to the pros is on full display here.
Purple (Locations of This Year's Men's Golf Majors): AUGUSTA, NEWTOWN SQUARE, SOUTHAMPTON, SOUTHPORT
Each of these locations hosts one of the four men's major golf championships in 2026. Augusta (Georgia) is home to the Masters, Newtown Square (Pennsylvania) hosts the PGA Championship, Southampton (New York) is site of the U.S. Open, and Southport (England) hosts The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
The Verdict
Puzzle #624 registers as moderate difficulty with a sting in the tail. Yellow falls quickly for anyone who recognizes NFC South teams, while blue requires NFL draft knowledge of where today's top receivers played college ball.
Blue separates the true sports buffs from casual fans. Purple, predictably, is the streak-ender, requiring serious lateral thinking about golf's major championship schedule for 2026.
The real trap is the word SOUTHERN. It looks like it belongs with the golf location group (SOUTHAMPTON, SOUTHPORT, AUGUSTA... SOUTHERN?), but it's actually a Louisiana college. Similarly, LONDON might feel like a golf location too, but it's an NFL wide receiver. The four "S-words" (SOUTHERN, SOUTHAMPTON, SOUTHPORT, SAINTS) are designed to misdirect, splitting across three different categories.
Reset and Repeat
Tomorrow's puzzle drops at midnight in your timezone. Until then, reflect on today's performance: the NFC South is now memorized, you've mapped Louisiana's college football landscape, you've tracked USC's NFL receiver factory, and you've planned a road trip to all four 2026 major golf venues.
The beauty lies not in perfection but in training your brain to spot these hidden sports connections.
For now, puzzle #624 is solved. See you at midnight for round #625.
