The March 16, 2025 edition of Connections: Sports Edition, the sports-themed version of the New York Times word puzzle produced with The Athletic, had 16 words sorted into four groups of four. The hints come first so you can test your own solution. The category names and full answer set follow below.
How the puzzle works
Connections Sports Edition is a sports-specific daily word puzzle. Parade’s description of the game says the New York Times site gives the instruction to “group sports terms that share a common thread.” Each board has 16 words and four hidden categories, and you must identify the four words that belong together in each one.
Hints for March 16, 2025
Parade’s guide for the date offered these four hints, one for each color group:
- Yellow: “Contest,” “tourney” or “match” could all be included.
- Green: The teams can be found in the same state; think “Lone Star.”
- Blue: Legendary football players.
- Purple: Words or phrases with a double meaning, partly related to music.
The four categories and their answers
Parade’s March 16 guide lists the groups below, and AOL’s syndicated version of the same guide carries an identical category and answer set. The color labels are not printed beside the categories in the sources; the mapping shown is inferred from how each hint lines up with its group.
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Yellow: Terms for Competitions
- CUP
- INVITATIONAL
- SERIES
- TOURNAMENT
The yellow hint points to words for an event that teams or players compete in. Each of these four fits that meaning.
Green: Texas College Teams
- AGGIES
- BEARS
- COUGARS
- LONGHORNS
The “Lone Star” hint refers to Texas. The four nicknames correspond to Texas A&M (Aggies), Baylor (Bears), Houston (Cougars) and Texas (Longhorns), all in the state.
Blue: First Names of Hall of Fame Defensive Backs
- CHAMP
- DEION
- RONDE
- TROY
The category is defined by the first names of the players, not their surnames. The blue hint’s “legendary football players” leads to CHAMP (Champ Bailey), DEION (Deion Sanders), RONDE (Ronde Barber) and TROY (Troy Polamalu).
Purple: Music Genres, but in Sports Terms
- BIG DANCE
- CHECKED SWING
- ROCK CLIMBING
- UTAH JAZZ
This is the group with a double meaning. Each entry contains a music genre word (dance, swing, rock and jazz) used in a sports sense: a tournament nickname, a baseball term, a climbing sport and an NBA franchise.
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The date is the most dependable way to identify this edition. Parade labels it #174, but an answer archive lists March 16, 2025 as #180. An aggregator excerpt that reproduces a Mashable passage appears to attach a different answer set to #174. No primary New York Times archive resolved which number is correct, so the answers above are tied to the date and to the Parade and AOL reports, not to the number.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Where to check your solution
If your grid shows a different set of four words in any group, compare it with the category names above before assuming an error. The purple group is the one most likely to be confused with the others, because its genre words also appear in ordinary sports vocabulary.
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