Technology

Today's Connections: Sports Edition is easy if you love SEC football.

As we've shared in previous hints stories, this is a version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.

Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier — so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for the latest Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections: Sports Edition?

The NYT's latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication's sports coverage. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake — players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. Here's a hint for today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Fitcheck

• Green: How to get two points

• Blue: College QBs

• Purple: Super things

Here are today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: Headgear

• Green: A Score in Basketball

• Blue: First Names of SEC QBs

• Purple: Super____

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections: Sports Edition #418 is...

What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?

• Headgear - BALACLAVA, CAP, HAT, VISOR

• A Score in Basketball - BASKET, BUCKET, FIELD GOAL, MAKE

• First Names of SEC QBs - ARCH, DIEGO, TRINIDAD, TY

• Super____ - FLEX, SONICS, SPEEDWAY, STAR

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new sports Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Connections.

Have you been thinking about biting the bullet and learning Bash scripting? Or perhaps you're like me, and you're always looking for ways to improve. I have three tips that will improve every Bash script you write.

Are you having troubles streaming movies and TV shows remotely with Plex? There are a few things to check to make sure your media server is set up correctly.

It might shock you to learn that I have burned over 100 optical discs in the past year, but that's just a fraction of how many discs I burned at the peak of physical media storage.

You’re a Spotify Premium subscriber who’s just toggled on the new lossless playback option to hear your favorite tracks in richer detail. Maybe you notice the difference; maybe you don’t. But one thing you do notice is that since going lossless, your phone’s free storage seems to be shrinking.

Buying your first 3D printer is a big decision. You’re about to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a hobby that you’ve yet to fully commit to, and you’ll probably doubt your decision right down to the moment you click “Pay.”

The site formerly known as Twitter has killed what were formerly known as Twitter DMs, in favor of something new.

SEE ALSO: Elon Musk: Tesla drivers will soon be able to text and drive

Elon Musk's X has finally rolled out Chat, a replacement for the DM tab that has been located at the bottom right of the Twitter app for many years. All your old DMs and group chats are still there, but there have been some changes. It's all end-to-end encrypted now; you can edit and delete messages, and even set them to disappear after a certain amount of time, similar to Signal. X claims this is all for the sake of privacy, of course.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

All of this came along with a UI makeover as well. While added privacy is, in concept, a very good thing, I should note that many longtime Twitter power users in my life are dismayed by these changes. Finding existing chats in the web browser version of X is now more challenging than it used to be, and changing the names of group chats has also become difficult, if not impossible. The mobile app version of Chat is also noticeably slower than what was there before, in my experience. One of my longtime group chats has already started the process of migrating to Discord.

However, it's now Elon Musk's site, and he can do with it as he pleases. Maybe Bluesky will finally add group chats one of these days.

Got an old Chromecast sitting in a drawer unused? It doesn't matter if you no longer need it for streaming, there are plenty of other ways to make use of it. So connect it to your TV, update the software, and try one of these ideas to repurpose your old Chromecast.

There is so much I love about Home Assistant, but I still have to fall back to Samsung SmartThings more often than I'd like. As sad as it makes me, I’m running into enough issues that I can’t yet commit to Home Assistant being my one and only smart home platform.

Microsoft's taking a different tack with its next-generation of Xbox hardware, and it seems this might be putting it on a collision course with Valve and its Steam platform.

You've probably used top and htop for many years, and while they've served us well, it's 2025—modern software has moved on to more functional and visually appealing designs. Both top and htop feel outdated and could use a modern refresh, which is exactly what btop++ brings.

For too many years, I merely accepted YouTube's flaws—a feed plagued by Shorts, annoying automation, and a bloated UI. Now, thanks to one simple browser extension, I finally have the personalized video platform I always wanted.

There’s a lot you can do to design a resilient smart home, from choosing an open ecosystem like Home Assistant to avoiding devices that depend on the cloud to work. But sometimes, things just don’t go to plan.

This was another busy week for tech news, with Valve revealing its new Steam Machine console and Steam Frame headset, Mozilla overhauling Firefox, a new update for Visual Studio Code, and much more. Here are the biggest stories you might have missed.

If you're a fan of Ryobi's brightly colored tools found at Home Depot, or even own several, you've likely seen a few "Hybrid" tools from the brand. Ryobi tools are incredibly popular, fairly affordable, and constantly on sale. However, did you know that the brand also offers hybrid tools that you can continue using even when the battery runs out?

The git program supports so many sub-commands that it’s almost impossible to keep on top of them all. Most of them are quite low-level and carry out simple tasks like committing code changes or switching branch. But some of the most obscure offering surprising functionality that does way beyond the norm.

Lincoln is a classic American brand that somehow always feels current. Its current lineup leans heavily on SUVs, and the latest Navigator has reminded everyone why Lincoln still dominates the full-size segment.

For far too long, I struggled to find the perfect image without a distracting background for my PowerPoint slides. I used to think I needed complicated software to fix it, but I eventually discovered a tool that's built into the software itself: Remove Background.

You can't properly, safely store passwords without a password manager, and my choice for that on Linux is KeePassXC. There are many out there, but there's a reason I've stuck with this free and open source option for five years.

Perhaps it's not fair coming from a (nearly) 40-year-old man, but the opening sequences of modern cartoons just don't have the same zing it used to in the '80s and '90s. I guess the commerce-driven Saturday morning cartoon had more incentives to be attention-grabbing, and these classics are certified bangers in any era.