Calling all sports writers! It’s going to be a big year in sports, with the ever-dominating Big Game, a summer ruled by the Olympics, and a new playoff structure for college football. With everything going on, it can be hard to keep track and plan ahead. Even if you aren’t a sports writer, it’s a good idea to know what’s coming up and plan around a sports event that’s going to take over the conversation.

To help you plan your coverage for 2024, we’ve put together a sports calendar with some of the major sporting events fans are looking forward to (and some of the developing stories to keep tabs on).

🏈 Jan. 8: NCAA College Football Playoff National Championship

Just this week, the Michigan Wolverines finished their perfect season (15-0) by besting the Washington Huskies 34-13 in the NCAA College Football Championship. Did you miss the game? Plan ahead for next year’s season, which will be full of bowl games and a revamped 12-team playoff structure. See the end of this calendar for more info.

🏈 Feb. 11: Super Bowl LVIII

As of Jan. 10, the San Francisco 49ers sat atop the odds leaderboard, with the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills rounding out the top three. But with wildcard games taking place in the coming days, the final two teams are still TBD.

This year’s Big Game will be played at the impressive Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, and will feature a halftime show performance by Usher (and maybe a T-Swift spotting among the cheering crowd?). If you feel like watching a more kid-friendly version of the game, Nickelodeon will be airing its own slime-filled alternate telecast.

🏎️ Feb. 18: Daytona 500

The annual Daytona 500, the “Great American Race,” will welcome fans to the iconic Daytona International Speedway in Florida for the NASCAR Cup Series season-opener. Additional races like the 150-mile duel qualifying race and the Truck Series race will also be taking place all week for those fans who want to experience more than just the big one. The grandstands and camping are already sold out. Last year’s winner, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., will return to defend his title in the No. 47 Kroger® / Cottonelle Camaro.

🎾 March 3: The Netflix Slam

Netflix will host and livestream a live exhibition tennis match between 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal and world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz. The event will take place at the Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. Netflix’s second in-house live sporting event – after the Netflix Cup in November – will also feature other matches with players TBD. A dual broadcast will be available in Spanish.

🏀 March 19 – April 8: March Madness

This year’s men’s NCAA basketball tournament begins with the First Four games, played in Dayton, Ohio, March 19-20. The tournament schedule will feature games across the country, from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, before the Final Four games on April 6 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Sunday, March 17, is Selection Sunday and the final game will take place on April 8. At the time of writing, FOX Sports bracket forecaster Mike DeCourcy says his favorites for making the Final Four are UConn, Houston, Purdue, and Kansas.

The first round of the women’s NCAA tournament will begin March 20 and the Final Four and championship game will be played on April 5 and 7 at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio. As of Jan. 2, FOX Sports favors two-time national champion South Carolina Gamecocks to win it all, followed by the reigning champs, the LSU Lady Tigers. Tied for third are the UCLA Bruins and the Iowa Hawkeyes.

⛳ April 8-14: Masters

Players are already receiving invitations to play in the 2024 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. Tickets to attend have been allocated (applications for 2025 tickets will open in June). Will LIV golfers be invited? Based on a response from Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley and R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers back in October, it’s not likely. But as negotiations for its merger with the PGA are still ongoing, we’re still unclear on how the combined PGA/LIV will look in 2024.

Here are the dates for the other three PGA Majors in 2024:

• May 13-19: PGA Championship (Valhalla Golf Club, Louisville, Kentucky)
• June 10-16: U.S. Open (Pinehurst Resort (No. 2), Village of Pinehurst, North Carolina)
• July 15-21: British Open Championship (Royal Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland)

🏇 May 4: Kentucky Derby

Fans will flock to Churchill Downs for the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby, known as the “most exciting two minutes of sports.” Fierceness, Muth, Locked, Doornoch, and Nash are among the top contenders as of Jan. 10. Attendees looking for something different this year can opt for seating in the re-envisioned Paddock.

🏎️ May 5: Miami Grand Prix (F1)

F1 will return to Miami for the third Grand Prix race since the city first hosted in 2022. As a bonus for attendees this year, the Miami race will feature one of the six F1 Sprint events for the season. The quick Sprint races cover 62 miles, as opposed to the Grand Prix races, which cover 160 miles. Will last year’s winner, Max Verstappen, again take home the win?

🏎️ May 26: Indianapolis 500

The 108th running of the Indianapolis 500, “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” will feature 33 drivers racing for the win. The driver ranks could welcome three new names this year as Tom Blomqvist of Meyer Shank Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Marcus Armstrong and Linus Lundqvist each became eligible to participate back in October. Once the race is complete, we can look forward to the introduction of IndyCar’s hybrid unit, which was delayed until after the Indy 500.

🏌️‍♀️ May 28 – June 2: U.S. Women’s Open

The 2024 LPGA Tour season will feature a record-breaking $116 million in prize money, the largest total ever presented. This year’s schedule will also include coverage by ESPN+ for eight tournaments — a major change from previous years which were only covered on Golf Channel. The U.S. Women’s Open will take place at the Lancaster (Pa.) Country Club. Here are the dates for the LPGA tour schedule in 2024, including the other majors:

• April 18-21: The Chevron Championship
• June 20-23: KPMG Women’s PGA Championship
• July 11-14: Evian Championship
• Aug. 22-25: AIG Women’s Open

🚴 June 29 – July 21: Tour de France

The 111th Tour de France will depart from Florence, making it the first time ever the race has begun in Italy. The 176 cyclists will pass through San Marino, Monaco, and France, but this will be the first time that the race will not end in France’s capital. Due to the Olympic and Paralympic Games taking place in Paris, the Tour de France will conclude in Nice, France. The athletes will climb more than 52,000 meters during the course of the race as they vie for the €500,000 individual prize. The route for this year’s race will feature seven mountain stages with four summit finishes.

🎾 July 1-14: Wimbledon

The world’s best tennis players will return to the grass courts at Wimbledon for the classic two-week format at the All England Lawn Tennis Club. The middle Sunday will feature a full day of play once again after being introduced in 2022. Coco Gauff will be one to watch as she comes off a string of stronger performances following last year’s first-round Wimbledon defeat. Early predictions have Novak Djokovic and Ons Jabeur winning the men’s and women’s singles titles, respectively.

🏀 June 6-23: NBA Finals

For the fifth straight season, the NBA will continue with the Play-In Tournament for the #7-#10 seeds in each conference. In the Play-In Tournament, the #7 and #8 seeds in each conference will each have two opportunities to win one game to earn a playoff spot. The #9 and #10 seeds in each conference will each have to win two consecutive games to earn a playoff spot. Then we’ll move on to the traditional 16-team playoff format. As of Jan. 10, the Boston Celtics lead the Eastern Conference and the Minnesota Timberwolves lead the Western Conference. The Nuggets, 76ers, and Bucks are other teams to keep an eye on, based on early predictions.

Make sure you’re also keeping track of other key NBA dates in 2024, including:

• Feb. 8: Trade deadline
• April 16: Play-In Tournament
• April 20: Playoffs begin
• June 27: NBA Draft

🏒 June: Stanley Cup

The 2024 All-Star Game is scheduled for February 3 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs. April 18 will mark the end of the regular season and playoffs will begin soon after, in May. The Stanley Cup finals will take place sometime in June. Last year, the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Florida Panthers four games to one in the finals to earn their first championship in their sixth season. As of the time of writing, The Athletic has the Winnipeg Jets, Carolina Hurricanes, and Edmonton Oilers as the teams with the best chances of winning it all.

🥇 July 26 – Aug. 11: Summer Olympics

The 2024 Paris Olympics open July 26, and the Paralympics open Aug. 28. For the first time in history, the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games will not take place in a stadium. Athletes will instead parade in boats along the Seine, the river that flows through Paris. More than 10,000 athletes from around the world will compete in nearly 330 competitions among 32 sports. Breaking will make its debut at the Paris Games, joining other newer sports like surfing, sport climbing, and skateboarding. Baseball/softball and karate will be left out of this year’s event.

🎾 Aug. 26 – Sept. 8: U.S. Open

Tennis greats will head to New York City’s USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center for the 2024 U.S. Open, the fourth and final Grand Slam tournament of the year. Rafael Nadal will return at the Australia Open in January after suffering an injury at the event last year, so we’ll see how his season takes shape leading up to the U.S. Open. The 22-time grand slam champion will have to enter tournaments using either his injury-protected ranking or a wildcard entry since his yearlong absence put a serious dent in his rankings. Naomi Osaka will also be making her return to the Grand Slam tournaments after giving birth to her daughter in 2023. Will she add the U.S. Open to her schedule?

🏎️ Oct. 18-20: U.S. Grand Prix (F1)

The 2024 United States Grand Prix will take place over 56 laps of the 5.513-kilometre Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, October 20. It will also feature one of the six F1 Sprint events. Max Verstappen and the Red Bull Racing team also took the win at last year’s race in Austin, so we’ll be watching if they can repeat their victory in 2024.

⚾ October (TBD): World Series

MLB rule changes that were implemented in the 2023 season, like a pitch timer and bigger bases, among others, will carry over into the 2024 season. Leading up to the World Series, the 2024 schedule will include several international games in the Dominican Republic, Korea, Mexico City, and London. The 94th All-Star Game is set for July 16 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, and the regular season will wrap on Sunday, Sept. 29. The postseason will begin on Oct. 1 with a potential World Series Game 7 set for November 2.

Who will everyone be watching this season? That would be Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers, who signed the two-way talent back in December 2023 for an unbelievable 10-year, $700 million contract. The move and other big-name additions of Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto helped improve the Dodgers’ odds of making it to the World Series.

🏎️ Nov. 21-23: Las Vegas Grand Prix (F1)

This will be the last of F1’s U.S. races for the year and the second one for Las Vegas after its return in 2023. The first Las Vegas Grand Prix in 40+ years was a star-studded, visually stunning event set against the nighttime backdrop of the Las Vegas strip. After a shaky (and expensive) lead-up to the race, we can (hopefully) expect the issues to be fixed for the 2024 event. Max Verstappen again took the podium in 2023 and will be looking to repeat his win this year.

🏈 December-January: NCAA Football Bowl Games

College football fans are still talking about Michigan’s win over Washington in the recent championship game, but it’s already time to start looking ahead to next season. The biggest change of course to the 2024-2025 season will be the transition to the 12-team playoff format, which should make for an entertaining tournament with even more football to watch. Bowl games for the 2024-25 season will begin on Dec. 31, 2024, with the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl. The College Football Playoff National Championship will be played on January 20, 2025, at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.

Did we miss one? Let us know in the comments! And if you’re looking for sports news, don’t forget to set up your free newsfeed with PR Newswire for Journalists.