Sports Connections Hints: Jul 16, 2025

This page shows spoiler‑layered hints for the NYT Sports Connections puzzle published on Jul 16, 2025 (2025-07-16). Step through the hints in order and only reveal the full board when you're ready.

Meta: Sports puzzle #488

Puzzle #488 · 2025-07-16 · sports

Step through today’s Connections hints

Start with broad themes, then reveal more detail about the groups and tiles only when you need it. The final button shows today's full group breakdown.

Puzzle reference: Connections #488 for 2025-07-16, edition sports, with a standard four-group board. Spoiler categories and tiles stay collapsed until you open the hint layers below.

Hint 1 – overall theme

There are 4 groups in today’s puzzle.

Themes include: EVALUATE, TOUR DE FRANCE JERSEYS, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA ALUMNI and 1 more.

Hint 2 – group titles

Here are the category names for each group. Try matching the tiles in the official game to these themes before you reveal any tiles.

EVALUATE
TOUR DE FRANCE JERSEYS
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA ALUMNI
FIRST WORDS OF BIG TEN NICKNAMES

Hint 3 – group tiles

Reveal the tiles for each group. If you only want a partial nudge, stop after reading one or two groups and go back to the official puzzle.

EVALUATE

SCOUT

GRADE

RATE

ASSESS

TOUR DE FRANCE JERSEYS

YELLOW

GREEN

POLKA DOT

WHITE

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA ALUMNI

PEPPERS

HAMM

JORDAN

CARTER

FIRST WORDS OF BIG TEN NICKNAMES

NITTANY

SCARLET

GOLDEN

FIGHTING

Reveal full answer

This is the full breakdown of today's Connections puzzle: group titles and all tiles, grouped together.