No. 715 homer for Aaron at milestone

The 50th anniversary of Hank Aaron's 715th home run was marked Monday with announcements of a new statue at Baseball's Hall of Fame and a new commemorative stamp from the U.S. Postal Service.

Meanwhile, baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred helped honor Aaron in Atlanta by joining the Braves in announcing the $100,000 endowment of a scholarship at Tuskegee University, a historically Black university in Aaron's home state of Alabama.

Manfred noted the Henry Louis Aaron Fund, launched by the Braves following Aaron's death in 2021, and the Chasing the Dream Foundation, created by Aaron and wife Billye, were designed to clear paths for minorities in baseball and to encourage educational opportunities.

The exhibit will remain open through the 2025 All-Star Game in Atlanta.

Colleges

NAIA ALL BUT BANS TRANSGENDER ATHLETES FROM WOMEN'S SPORTS >> The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics announced a policy Monday that all but bans transgender athletes from competing in women's sports at its 241 mostly small colleges across the country.

The NAIA Council of Presidents approved the policy in a 20-0 vote at its annual convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The NAIA, which oversees some 83,000 athletes competing in more than 25 sports, is believed to be the first college sports organization to take such a step.

According to the transgender participation policy, all athletes may participate in NAIA-sponsored male sports but only athletes whose biological sex assigned at birth is female and have not begun hormone therapy will be allowed participate in women's sports.

A student who has begun hormone therapy may participate in activities such as workouts, practices and team activities, but not in interscholastic competition.

Women's basketball

TITLE GAME MOST-WATCHED IN 5 YEARS >> South Carolina's victory over Caitlin Clark and Iowa in Sunday's women's NCAA championship game had a preliminary audience average of 18.7 million on ABC and ESPN. The only sporting events in the United States to draw a bigger TV audience since 2019 have been football, the World Cup and the Olympics.

The audience numbers are expected to increase when Nielsen releases its final numbers on Tuesday. Nielsen says the audience peaked at 24 million.

It's the most-watched basketball game since 2019, when the men's NCAA title game between Virginia and Texas Tech averaged 19.6 million on CBS.

Monday night's men's final between UConn and Purdue was being shown on TBS and TNT.