NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints (Friday 26 June)

It's Connections time! Once again, like clockwork, the NYT has released another Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for you to solve.

And like clockwork, we're back with another guide to help you through it!

Click here to play today's NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle!

Connections: Sports Edition hint for Friday 26 June

Here are today’s Connections: Sports Edition hints:

• 🟨 Yellow hint: Higher education locations.
• 🟩 Green hint: Trusted names on the green.
• 🟦 Blue hint: New faces on the NFL sidelines.
• 🟪 Purple hint: The last line of defense.
• Extra hint 1: One group is geographical rather than athletic.
• Extra hint 2: Every group except purple has at least one word containing the letter 'N'

Need an extra hint or two? Click the spoiler tabs below to see one word from each group:

• 🟨 Yellow: Indiana
• 🟩 Green: Ping
• 🟦 Blue: Hafley
• 🟪 Purple: Meola

Spoiler warning! The answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle are listed below! Continue at your own risk.

Today's Connections: Sports Edition groups

If these hints aren’t quite cutting it, we’ve got more below. Here are the four correct Connections: Sports Edition group themes, a.k.a. the ideas that link all four words together.

Here are the Connections: Sports Edition groups for today:

• 🟨 Yellow: Indiana Colleges
• 🟩 Green: Golf Equipment Brands
• 🟦 Blue: First-Year NFL Head Coaches
• 🟪 Purple: USMNT World Cup Goalkeepers

Now that you’ve got all our hints, try the puzzle again and see how you go! Otherwise, check the full answers below.

Spoiler warning! Today's Connections: Sports Edition answers lie ahead!

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers

Here are the answers for today's Connections: Sports Edition puzzle on Friday 26 June:

• 🟨 Yellow: Indiana Colleges (Butler, Indiana, Notre Dame, Purdue)
• 🟩 Green: Golf Equipment Brands (Callaway, Ping, PXG, Titleist)
• 🟦 Blue: First-Year NFL Head Coaches (Brady, Hafley, Minter, Monken)
• 🟪 Purple: USMNT World Cup Goalkeepers (Freese, Friedel, Howard, Meola)

That was a tough one! Thankfully, the yellow group offered a nice breather with well-known universities, while the green group would have been a breeze for any golfer. Sadly, I'm not a golfer. Still, that was no match for the purple group, which required an intimate knowledge of goalkeepers from different eras.

Let us know how today’s puzzle went for you in the comments below! Here's my grid:

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🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪

And that’s a wrap on today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle! Hopefully these handy hints were able to get you over the finish line. If not, a new puzzle comes out at midnight, so you can try again.