The Florida Gators won 24-14 over the Oklahoma Sooners in front of a record crowd of 78,468 to win the BCS National Championship
September 20 – The Dallas Cowboys play their first game in the new Cowboys Stadium against the New York Giants and lose 31–33. The game drew an NFL record regular-season crowd of over 105,000.
September 27 – Detroit Lions defeat the Washington Redskins to end a 19-game losing streak dating back to December 2007. This tied the 1942–45 Chicago Cardinals (who suspended independent operations in 1944) and the 1961–62 Oakland Raiders for the second longest such streak after the 1976–77 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
October 4 – Melbourne Storm defeat Parramatta Eels 23–16 in the 2009 NRL Grand Final to win their third premiership and second in two years. Billy Slater named Clive Churchill Medalist. On April 22, 2010, the Melbourne Storm were stripped of the 2007 and 2009 premierships and the 2006–2008 minor premierships, after Storm officials confessed to the NRL that the club had committed serious and systematic breaches of the salary cap between 2006 and 2010 by running a well-organized dual contract and bookkeeping system which concealed a total of $3.17 million in payments made to players outside of the salary cap.
September 14 – SANZAR, the organiser of the Tri Nations and Super 14 competitions, announces that Argentina has been provisionally invited to join an expanded "Four Nations" competition effective in 2012.
November 12 – Independent arbitrators appointed by SANZAR award the 15th Super Rugby franchise to Melbourne, specifically to the operators of the Melbourne Rebels, the city's representative in the defunct Australian Rugby Championship. The new team, whose name was ultimately announced as the Rebels, will join an expanded Super 15 in 2011.
