What Makes A One-Term President?

Donald Trump is officially a one-term president, the first to fail a reelection bid in nearly 30 years. But history shows his loss isn’t surprising, given the circumstances. One-term presidents used to be a lot more common. Take the period between 1837 (when Andrew Jackson’s second term ended) and 1860, for example — no president served more than...

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The NBA Champs Look More Dangerous Than Ever

Think back to last summer, when the teams that had just played for an NBA title were hit with one bombshell move after another in free agency. The first bolt of lightning struck instantly, when two-time Finals MVP Kevin Durant said he’d be leaving the runner-up Golden State Warriors to join Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn. The second came days later: Kawhi...

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How Do College Football Dynasties Fall?

College football has lacked drama in recent years, at least in the national-championship picture. Clemson has won five straight titles in the ACC. Ohio State has won three straight in the Big Ten. Oklahoma is a five-time reigning champion in the Big 12. In the vaunted SEC, Alabama has won four of the past six years. All four schools are in the hunt...

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It’s Hard To Measure NFL Matchups, So We Built A Better Metric

The NFL is a league of matchups, and no matchup is more crucial to wins and losses than the battle between a quarterback and the pass defense. That’s important for more than just the coaches calling X’s and O’s: Each week, the media, betting markets and fantasy players all make predictions about which teams (and which players) will best take advantage...

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College Basketball Muddles Through The Pandemic Like Everyone Else

FiveThirtyEight   More: Apple Podcasts | ESPN App | RSS We start with college basketball’s plan to deal with the United States’ worst surge in the coronavirus pandemic since it began in March. That plan is, mostly,...

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What We’ve Learned About The Biden Administration From His Staffing Choices So Far

Last week, President-elect Joe Biden selected many of his top White House aides. This week, he’s announced some top Cabinet and national security posts. There are many, many jobs left to fill — most notably defense secretary and attorney general — but here’s what we’re learning so far about Biden, the Biden administration and how he’ll govern … It’s...

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How These WNBA Prospects Can Improve Their Draft Stock

It’s the strangest women’s college basketball season anyone can remember. Teams simply don’t know who they’ll be playing. Don’t believe me? Here’s Jeff Walz, Louisville head coach, on Twitter on Monday, looking for someone to play … on Wednesday. Game at MTSU cancelled for Wednesday, Nov. 25. Louisville willing to travel, if you have an opening...

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What Does Makur Maker Mean For The Future Of HBCU Sports?

In their Howard University dorms in the early 1990s, Milan Brown and his classmates used to discuss how their school and other historically Black colleges and universities could become basketball powerhouses. “You’d be surprised at how many talks we had,” said Brown, now an assistant men’s basketball coach at Pittsburgh. Brown, whose jersey number...

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Could Social Alienation Among Some Trump Supporters Help Explain Why Polls Underestimated Trump Again?

Donald Trump was once again underestimated by the polls. On the one hand, this polling error is fairly normal. We’re not talking about huge polling misses, and the polls still “called” the election correctly: Joe Biden won. But that said, it does seem as if polls are still failing to capture some of Trump’s support. There are a number of possible...

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Trump Probably Won’t Be The Last Politician To Reject An Election Outcome Without Evidence

In this installment of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, the crew discusses President Trump’s continued refusal to concede and his attempts to subvert the results of the election. They also consider how the government is responding to rising number of COVID-19 cases.

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