Your Friday Sports Guide: Two Teams Face Elimination, and College Football Owns the Night

Friday's sports schedule is one of those nights where the calendar does the work for you: two elimination games, back to back, both at home, both in the WNBA semifinals — and then college football takes the night with two ranked teams in action. No baseball (the division series are nearly done), no NBA, no NHL. Just the games that matter, when they matter.

All times PT. All schedules verified from ESPN and the league schedules on Thursday night.

4:30 PM PT — Dream at Liberty, Game 3 (Barclays Center): New York's season is 40 minutes from over

This is the game with the most juice. The Liberty are down 0-2 to the Dream after Wednesday's 101-98 overtime heartbreaker in Atlanta — a game that ended with the officials telling New York it didn't have a timeout it actually had. Breanna Stewart asked referee Kevin Fahy about the reset timeout with 4.3 seconds left in overtime, down three. The reset was untouched — the Liberty had used both regular timeouts (one burned on a lost coach's challenge) — and New York finished the game with it in their pocket.

Our Game 3 preview put it right: a furious team at home, feeling robbed, with its season on the line — that's either jet fuel or a meltdown, and the first five minutes Friday will tell you which one New York brought. The Liberty were the better team on paper all season. The Dream have been the better team when it counted. Forty minutes decides whether Brooklyn's season survives the weekend.

6:30 PM PT — Valkyries at Aces, Game 3 (Michelob Ultra Arena): the title defense's last stand

Two hours later, the Aces face the same math against the Valkyries: down 0-2, at home, win or the season's over. Golden State is one win from the WNBA Finals in its first season. Let that sit for a second — an expansion team, one win from the Finals, about to walk into the defending champions' building and try to end a dynasty.

Wednesday's Game 2 at Chase Center was the series in miniature: the Valkyries built a 17-point third-quarter lead, the Aces stormed all the way back and took their first lead with about 90 seconds left — and Golden State still won. Our Game 3 preview was blunt about what's deciding it: the Aces are running out of basketball players. Jewell Loyd — the 2023 scoring champion, a six-time All-Star — missed Game 2 with the left leg injury she suffered in the third quarter of Game 1. A'ja Wilson has been carrying the whole operation, and she's going to have to carry it three more times. Starting Friday.

For the Vegas crowd, this is the game of the night. The Aces' title defense, at home, backs to the wall. If you can only watch one thing Friday, it's this.

6:00 PM PT — No. 20 Iowa (4-1) at Washington (3-2), Husky Stadium

Friday night college football, and it's a good one: the 20th-ranked Hawkeyes head to Seattle to face the Huskies (3-2) at Husky Stadium. Iowa at 4-1 with a ranking is exactly where Iowa wants to be in October — ugly wins, elite defense, and a number next to their name. Washington at 3-2 needs this one badly; a home loss to a ranked team in October is how seasons quietly slip away.

Husky Stadium at night is one of the best environments in college football. The Huskies have the talent to hang with anyone — the question is whether they can finish. Iowa doesn't beat itself. Somebody's going to have to take this one.

7:15 PM PT — Iowa State (3-2) at No. 8 BYU (4-0), LaVell Edwards Stadium

The nightcap is the bigger game: undefeated, 8th-ranked BYU at home against Iowa State, under the lights in Provo. The Cougars are 4-0 and sitting in the thick of the playoff conversation — every week from here is a referendum on whether they're real. Iowa State at 3-2 has nothing to lose, and teams with nothing to lose are the ones that ruin Octobers.

BYU's path is simple and brutal: keep winning and the committee has to take you seriously. One slip and you're arguing about strength of schedule for a month. Friday night, at home, against a dangerous-but-flawed Cyclones team — this is the exact game that decides whether BYU is a contender or a cautionary tale.

The rest of the weekend, in one glance

No baseball on Friday — the Dodgers (over the Braves), Rays (sweep over the Yankees) and Brewers (over the Padres) have all punched their tickets to the championship series. The only series still alive is Guardians-White Sox, playing Game 4 tonight in Chicago; a White Sox win ends it, a Guardians win sets up a winner-take-all Game 5 Saturday at 5:00 PM PT in Cleveland. NLCS Game 1 is Sunday, ALCS Game 1 is Monday.

Saturday also brings UFC Fight Night: Allen vs. Duncan at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas — Brendan Allen vs. Christian Leroy Duncan headlining, with the prelims at 2:00 PM PT and the main card at 5:00 PM PT. And Sunday's NFL headliner is Colts at Steelers, with Indianapolis' Michael Pittman out multiple weeks with the foot injury we covered today.

But Friday belongs to the WNBA. Two elimination games, two home crowds, two seasons on the line. Start in Brooklyn at 4:30, end in Vegas at 6:30. That's a Friday.