Sports shorts Facebook to live stream college football games

Facebook has struck a deal for exclusive rights to live stream 15 college football games this season, beginning next week.

The agreement with Stadium, a digital sports network, gives Facebook the rights to six Mountain West games and nine Conference USA games. The games will not be televised.

The first game will match Marshall of C-USA against Miami of Ohio on Sept. 2. Later that day, San Diego State of the Mountain West will host UC Davis on Facebook’s Stadium: Live College Football show page.

Facebook recently reached a deal partnering with Fox to stream Champions League soccer matches, and has an agreement with Univision to stream MLS and Liga MX soccer.

It has also has deals to stream niche sports like championship surfing and CrossFit competitions. Some Major League Baseball and NBA ganes have been available on Facebook, but it did not have exclusive rights to those. The social network giant attempted to make a deal to stream a few NFL games last season, but the league ended up working with Twitter.

Stadium is producing the football games specifically for social media and will allow for fan interaction with the broadcast, Facebook said in a statement. There will be a live chat for fans with football analysts and social media correspondents working the sideline to provide “in-game experience” and social media elements provide by the schools.

Joe Klein, who was a general manager for three Major League Baseball teams before spending the last two decades as executive director of the independent Atlantic League, has died. He was 75.

The Atlantic League said Klein died Wednesday at Temple University Hospital after complications from heart surgery.

Klein had been with the league since its inception in 1997, when he became executive director a year before teams started play.

League founder Frank Boulton says there is a “great hole in the heart of the Atlantic League.”

Klein began his pro baseball career as a minor league infielder with the Washington Senators from 1962-68. He stayed in the organization as a minor league manager and team executive for 16 more years, including after the franchise’s move to Texas in 1972. He was the Rangers’ general manager from October 1982 until November 1984.

He later served as GM for the Cleveland Indians (1986-87) and Detroit Tigers (1994-95).