College football attendance declined for the seventh straight year and hit a 40-year low last season, according to figures compiled annually by the NCAA since 1976.

Why it matters: Virtually all sports are facing an attendance crisis, which COVID only exacerbated. It's particularly worrisome for college football, whose culture is defined by the game-day experience (think: tailgates, fight songs, marching bands).

By the numbers: FBS teams averaged just 39,848 fans per game in 2021. That's the fewest since 1981, the year before Ivy League institutions and other smaller schools dropped down to FCS.

• 2021 attendance was down 4% from 2019 (the NCAA didn't compile 2020 data) and down a whopping 15% — or more than 7,000 fans per game — from 2008's record high of 46,971.
• Over half the teams in the final AP Top 25 experienced attendance declines, including eight of the top 10. No. 3 Michigan saw a dip, but still led the nation for the 21st time in the last 22 seasons.

By conference: The SEC drew the highest average attendance for the 23rd straight year, while the Big Ten was the only Power 5 conference to see an increase in 2021.

• SEC: 72,195 (-0.007%)
• Big Ten: 65,252 (+0.003%)
• Big 12: 55,017 (-4.3%)
• Pac-12: 43,865 (-4.8%)
• ACC: 42,599 (-11.7%)
• Independents: 32,146 (-13.2%)
• AAC: 28,592 (-3%)
• MWC: 21,401 (-7.9%)
• Sun Belt: 18,410 (+0.04%)
• C-USA: 18,048 (-11.5%)
• MAC: 17,456 (+12.4%)

The big picture: A host of factors are to blame, ranging from COVID concerns in 2021 to small-stadium teams (15 new schools have joined FBS since 2000) and the ever-increasing competition from the couch.

"I've even caught myself sometimes during a season [where] I don't want to go to a game because I like to watch three or four games that are on television."

The bottom line: College football is a TV show. That's where the money is, and that's what drives most decisions (see: earlier kickoffs). But seven straight years of attendance declines is ominous, and can't be ignored.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has reverberated through the sports world, as players, teams, leagues and federations attempt to wade through the ongoing conflict, Axios' Jeff Tracy and I write.

• ⚽️ Chelsea shakeup: Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich turned over "stewardship and care" of Chelsea to the club's charitable foundation as he distances himself from the team he's owned since 2003. The next day, Chelsea lost to Liverpool in the League Cup final.
• 🇺🇦 Solidarity: Manchester City's Oleksandr Zinchenko was in tears as fellow players and fans showed support for his native Ukraine. A similar scene played out for Benfica's Roman Yaremchuk.
• 🏒 Russian faceoff: Capitals star Alex Ovechkin has only supported Russian President Vladimir Putin. Rangers star Artemi Panarin has openly criticized him. The two Russians went head-to-head on Friday night at MSG.
• 🥊 Boxers join the fight: Two-time gold medalist Vasiliy Lomachenko joined a battalion in his Ukrainian hometown. Former heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, vowed to take up arms.
• ⚽️ World Cup impact: Poland, Sweden, the Czech Republic and England have refused to play Russia in World Cup qualifiers, and FIFA barred Russia from hosting matches or playing under its flag.
• 🎾 Lasting image: Russia's Andrey Rublev wrote "No War Please" on a camera lens en route to winning the Dubai Tennis Championships.
• 🥇 Paralympics in limbo: None of the 20 athletes from the Ukrainian Paralympic team have reached Beijing with the Games set to begin on Friday. As of now, Russian athletes are expected to compete.
• 🥋 Putin suspended: The International Judo Federation suspended Putin as its honorary president and ambassador and canceled its upcoming event in Russia.
• 🏁 F1 takes action: Formula 1 canceled September's Russian Grand Prix, and the future of Russian driver Nikita Mazepin — whose father has close links to Putin — is suddenly in doubt.
• ⚽️ Taking refuge: 13 Brazilian players from Ukrainian soccer clubs have sought refuge with their families in a Kyiv hotel. "We are with our children ... and don't know what to do," said one player's wife.
• 🏒 Farewell, KHL: Finnish hockey team Jokerit, one of five non-Russian teams in the KHL, withdrew from the playoffs days before the first round was set to begin.

Go deeper:

• Russian troops advance on Kyiv (Axios)
• More than 350,000 refugees have fled Ukraine (Axios)
• Western sanctions tie Russia even tighter to China (Axios)

Source: Giphy

Saturday was bonkers. For the first time ever, the top six AP ranked teams — and seven of the top 10 — all lost on the same day.

Scoreboard:

• No. 1 Gonzaga: Lost to No. 23 Saint Mary's, 67-57
• No. 2 Arizona: Lost to Colorado, 79-63
• No. 3 Auburn: Lost to No. 17 Tennessee, 67-62
• No. 4 Purdue: Lost to Michigan State, 68-65
• No. 5 Kansas: Lost to No. 10 Baylor, 80-70
• No. 6 Kentucky: Lost to No. 18 Arkansas, 75-73
• No. 9 Texas Tech: Lost to TCU, 69-66

The big picture: Parity has been a theme all season, but this weekend was a reminder of just how wide open the field is this year. 13 days until Selection Sunday...

Fun fact ... If you had parlayed the moneyline of all six winning teams, a $100 bet would have netted you $37,500.

⚾️ Tommy Tanks: NC State freshman Tommy White is off to one of the best starts in baseball history with nine home runs in eight games.

🏈 McVay turns down TV: Sean McVay won't pursue TV jobs and is committed to the Rams, who should be giving him a huge raise. Amazon was reportedly willing to go as high as five years, $100 million.

🎓 New weed policy: The NCAA has relaxed the amount of THC an athlete can have to trigger a positive test, and is recommending less-stringent penalties for athletes who do test positive.

⛳️ Fleeing Phil: Callaway and Workday have ended their partnerships with Phil Mickelson after his controversial comments, joining KPMG and others. He will also no longer host The American Express event.

🏀 Good read: Which player does each NBA team introduce first? Who comes last? And why? (Jared Dubin, FiveThirtyEight)

"Almost every team has some rhyme or reason for introducing their preferred starting lineup in the order that they do."

NASHVILLE — 68,619 fans packed into Nissan Stadium on Saturday for the NHL Stadium Series outdoor game between the Predators and Lightning. Tampa Bay won 3-2.

• 🎥 Watch: Sights and sounds (Twitter)

MINNEAPOLIS — James Harden (27-12-8) dazzled in his first game with the 76ers, his third straight debut with 25+ points and 12+ assists (76ers, Nets, Rockets). No other player in NBA history has done that even once.

• Wild stat: Harden already has the same number of made three-pointers as a 76er (five) as Ben Simmons had in 275 career games.

LOS ANGELES — Carlos Vela scored three goals in 50 minutes to lift LAFC past Colorado, 3-0, on opening weekend. Quite the start for the 2019 MVP, who's coming off an injury-plagued 2021.

• Go deeper: Previews for all 28 clubs (ESPN)

LEEDS, England — Tottenham duo Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min combined for their 37th Premier League goal on Saturday, breaking the previous record of 36 set by Chelsea's Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard.

• 🎥 Watch: Their best combined goals (ESPN)

NAZARÉ, Portugal — Powerful storms made for extra-large swells over the weekend at Praia do Norte, the world-famous surfing hotspot that's home to some of the biggest waves on Earth.

• 🎥 Watch: Surfing the 100-foot swell at Nazaré (YouTube)

ACAPULCO, Mexico — The Pacific coast provided quite the backdrop for the Mexican Open, where No. 4 Rafael Nadal emerged victorious for his third straight title of 2022.

• 🎥 Watch: Championship point, victory speech (YouTube)

What if college athletes were employees? That was the question at the center of the "Future of College Sports" event we co-hosted with the Aspen Institute on Friday, Jeff writes.

The backdrop: Multiple labor complaints against the NCAA have been filed in recent months. One asserts that all FBS football players and D-I men's and basketball players should be deemed employees.

What they're saying: Funding such a reality would put "stress on the system," said Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, who thinks the fallout would include smaller rosters and fewer sports. He does have an idea of where more money could be found, though:

• "I would be the first to admit that the salaries among coaches, administrators and commissioners have gotten to absurd amounts," said Bowlsby. "If we had a good way to limit it, I think all of us would vote for it."
• Maddie Salamone, an athletes' rights attorney, conceded that the goal of athletes-as-employees is just the beginning: "We could call college athletes employees tomorrow, and all of the issues that exist in college sports [wouldn't] go away," she said.
• "Let's make sure that we give student athletes the freedoms that every other American gets by being an employee," said athlete advocate Michael Hsu, who filed one of those labor complaints.

The big picture: Michael McCann, a law professor and sports reporter, provided the helpful reminder that because NLRB charges take multiple years to resolve, there's still a long road ahead.

ICYMI: Watch the event.

The Darius Rucker Intercollegiate, a 17-team women's college golf championship staged annually by the University of South Carolina, begins today (2:30pm ET, Golf Channel).

• Details: Long Cove Club (Hilton Head Island) is hosting the 10th edition of the event, which features nine teams ranked in Golfstat's Top 25, and eight of the top 15 individuals.
• Why it matters: This will be the first all-women's regular-season college golf tournament ever aired live on Golf Channel.

More to watch:

• 🏀 NCAAM: No. 10 Baylor at No. 20 Texas (9pm, ESPN); Syracuse at UNC (7pm, ESPN); No. 12 UCLA at Washington (11pm, ESPN2)
• 🏒 NHL: Bruins at Kings (10:30pm, NHLN)
• 🏀 NBA: Bulls at Heat (7:30pm, League Pass); Hornets at Bucks (8pm, NBA TV)
• 🏀 NCAAW: No. 5 Baylor at No. 9 Iowa State (7pm, ESPN2)

The two winningest D-I men's basketball coaches — Mike Krzyzewski (1,195 wins) and Jim Boeheim (1,098) — competed for the final time Saturday.

• Question: Name the other two active coaches in the top 10.
• Hint: Just one national title between them.

Answer at the bottom.

Source: Giphy

There were so many highlight-reel plays across sports this weekend that we had to go 20 deep.

1. 🏀 A+ buzzer-beater
2. 🥇 Suni makes history
3. 🏀 Curry magic
4. ⚽️ Goal of the year
5. 🏒 Sliding goal
6. ⚽️ Standing on his head!
7. ⛳️ Perfect shot
8. ⚽️ Wonder strike
9. 🏀 Great defense
10. 🥍 What a shot
11. 🏀 Windmill alert
12. 🏀 Morant 360
13. 🏒 Point for Point
14. 🏀 Thunderous jam
15. 🎾 Spin-o-rama
16. ⚽️ Romeu rocket
17. ⚾️ Harvard wins it
18. 🏀 Kelly calls game
19. ⚽️ Chicharito!
20. 🏀 Trae Young's filthy

Watch all 20.