The Saturday edition of NYT Connections Sports Edition arrives with puzzle #761, serving up a grid that mixes sporting vocabulary, geography, and familiar names. The challenge is deciding when to read an entry on its own and when to look for a connection beyond it.
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 #761:
DALLAS | COWBOYS | WEST VIRGINIA | CHESTNUT HILL
RAIDERS | RUBBER | PALO ALTO | MOUND
BUMP | GOEDERT | HILL | STARS
SEAHAWKS | CHAPEL HILL | JETS | CLARK
A seemingly random collection that somehow connects into four perfect categories.
Strategic Hints (No Spoilers Yet)
Yellow Category Nudge: Think about the language heard during a game, including informal terms.
Green Category Clue: Let institutional connections guide your reading of the map.
Blue Category Hint: A career can connect entries that seem unrelated at first.
Purple Category Teaser: Try supplying the same missing piece before each entry.
The Full Solutions
Last chance to solve independently: answers below
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Yellow (Where A Pitcher Throws From): BUMP, HILL, MOUND, RUBBER
BUMP, MOUND, HILL, and RUBBER all fit WHERE A PITCHER THROWS FROM. Bump and hill are informal names for the mound, while the rubber is the pitching plate on it.
HILL also appears inside CHESTNUT HILL and CHAPEL HILL, creating a tempting visual connection across groups. Keep the standalone word anchored to baseball.
Green (ACC School Locations): CHAPEL HILL, CHESTNUT HILL, DALLAS, PALO ALTO
CHESTNUT HILL, PALO ALTO, CHAPEL HILL, and DALLAS form ACC SCHOOL LOCATIONS. Their shared link is the conference affiliation of the schools associated with those places.
Blue (Geno Smith Teams): JETS, RAIDERS, SEAHAWKS, WEST VIRGINIA
WEST VIRGINIA, JETS, SEAHAWKS, and RAIDERS connect through Geno Smith's career. The group spans his college and professional teams, so restricting the search to NFL entries leaves the connection incomplete.
Purple (Dallas _____): CLARK, COWBOYS, GOEDERT, STARS
Put Dallas before COWBOYS, CLARK, STARS, and GOEDERT to get Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Clark, Dallas Stars, and Dallas Goedert. The shared opening produces both team names and athletes' names.
DALLAS itself belongs in green, even though it supplies the missing word for purple. That makes the visible place name a useful clue and a dangerous candidate for the wrong group.
The Verdict
Yellow looks like the cleanest starting point once the baseball slang clicks. Green demands a conference connection across locations, while blue asks you to follow one career across college and professional football.
Purple is the streak-deciding group in my reading, with DALLAS sitting in plain sight in the same grid as COWBOYS and STARS. The breakthrough is using it as a prefix while keeping its tile in the school-location group.
Reset and Repeat
Take today's Dallas trick into tomorrow's grid as a reminder to test what an entry can add to another name. Come back tomorrow for a fresh set of connections and another chance to spot the missing piece.
For now, puzzle #761 is solved. See you at midnight for the next round.