Visionary SEC commissioner Slive dies at 77

With bold vision, keen intellect and a gentle manner, Mike Slive guided the Southeastern Conference to unprecedented success and prosperity in 13 years as commissioner. He pushed for a college football playoff years before others embraced it and was a steadying force during a time of enormous growth and volatility throughout college athletics.

Slive died Wednesday at the age of 77 in Birmingham, Ala., where he lived with his wife, Liz, three years after retiring to battle prostate cancer. The Southeastern Conference did not provide the cause of death. Slive replaced Roy

Kramer as SEC commissioner in 2002, coming from Conference USA to help clean up an SEC that was beset by NCAA compliance issues. Soon after the SEC became the most powerful conference in college football, winning seven straight national championships and landing television contracts with the ESPN and CBS worth billions. In other college news:

Texas and Alabama, which last met in the 2010 Rose Bowl, will play each other in 2022 and 2023. Alabama will travel to Texas in 2022 and the teams meet in Tuscaloosa the following year. Kamren Dukes went 0-for-4 to snap his nation-best 34-game hitting streak in Texas Southern’s 10-3 win over Alcorn State in its opener of the Southwestern Athletic Conference baseball tournament. Dukes was hit by a pitch to reach base safely for the 42nd straight game.

Led by individual medalist Chandler Phillips’ 11-under 205, Texas A&M secured the NCAA Bryan Regional golf championship with a Traditions Club record score of 27-under par.

Senior Doug Ghim led the Texas men’s golf team to victory at the Raleigh (N.C.) Regional to advance to the NCAA Championship. Ghim followed a 64 and 66 with another 66 to finish the tournament at 17-under par, making a tournament-best 22 birdies over three rounds. Hall of Fame coach

Jim Calhoun says he expects to be coaching at the tiny Division III University of Saint Joseph in the fall, but still has some contractual issues with Connecticut to work out before that can be possible.

Calhoun, 76, retired in 2012 after a 40-year coaching career, leading UConn to three national championships in 26 seasons there. He has been working for the Huskies in an advisory role ever since.