NFL owners approve 17-game regular season
The NFL is increasing the regular season to 17 games and planning to have full stadiums for those games.
While reducing the preseason to three games the league will be able to generate additional revenue, of course. America’s most popular sport also will provide more content for the broadcast partners who soon will be spending a total of about $10 billion a year on rights fees.
Team owners at a virtual meeting on Tuesday approved the 17th game as expected, marking the first time in 43 years the regular season has been increased. It went from 14 to 16 games in 1978.
The Super Bowl now will move back a week to Feb. 13, which places it directly in the middle of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Coincidentally, NBC has the broadcast rights to both.
Each extra NFL game will be an interconference matchup based on where teams finished in the previous season. AFC teams will be hosting the 17th game in 2021.
Beyond next season, the league plans for some of the extra games to be played at international sites, with regular hosts London and Mexico City possibly joined by other venues.
RAIDERS AGREE TO EXTENSION WITH LT LILLER >> The Las Vegas Raiders have agreed to a contract extension with left tackle Kolton Miller that will keep him locked up through the 2025 season.
The deal reached was announced by Miller’s agents at Octagon Football. The total contract tacks on three additional seasons beyond Miller’s fifth-year option in 2022 and is worth $68.7 million.
ESPN first reported the deal and said it includes $42.6 million in guarantees and averages more than $18 million a year from 2023-25.
Miller is the first member of the 2018 draft class that included quarterbacks Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield and Lamar Jackson to get an extension.
College athletics
SUPREME COURT CASE COULD CHANGE THE NATURE OF COLLEGE SPORTS >> A Supreme Court case being argued this week amid March Madness could erode the difference between elite college athletes and professional sports stars.
If the former college athletes who brought the case win, colleges could end up competing for talented student athletes by offering over-the-top education benefits worth tens of thousands of dollars. And that could change the nature of college sports.
At least that’s the fear of the NCAA. But the former athletes who sued say most college athletes will never play professional sports and that the NCAA’s rules capping education benefits deprive them of the ability to be rewarded for their athletic talents and hard work.
They say the NCAA’s rules are not just unfair but illegal, and they want schools to be able to offer any education benefits they see fit.
The former players have so far won every round of the case. Lower courts agreed that NCAA rules capping the education-related benefits schools can offer Division I men’s and women’s basketball players and football players violate a federal antitrust law. The narrow ruling still keeps schools from directly paying athletes, but the NCAA says it is a step in that direction.
Tennis
BAUTISTA AGUT SURVIVES TO OUST ISNER IN 3 SETS AT LIALI OPEN >> Roberto Bautista Agut didn’t take the easiest route to the Miami Open quarterfinals.
The No. 7 seed from Spain fought off a match point before ousting former Miami champion and No. 18 seed John Isner of the U.S. 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7) — his second three-set win in as many matches so far in the tournament.
Bautista Agut will face either top-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia or unseeded Frances Tiafoe of the U.S. in the quarterfinals.