College Football Playoff OKS format, reduces conference champion spots

The field for the 12-team College Football Playoff beginning next season will comprise five conference champions and seven atlarge selections after the university presidents who oversee the CFP voted unanimously Tuesday to tweak the format.

The move to decrease the number of spots reserved for conference champions from six to five was prompted by realignment and the disassembling of the Pac-12. An expected vote last month was delayed at the Pac-12’s request.

The original plan for the 12-team format was to have the six highest-ranked conference champions, with the top four receiving firstround byes, and six at-large selections. But with one fewer so-called power conference after the Pac-12’s demise, the commissioners who manage the CFP recommended the change from the 6-6 format to 5-7.

No conference will have automatic access. Those five slots will go to the highest-ranked conference champs as determined by the CFP selection committee, ensuring at least one team from outside the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12 and Southeastern Conference will make the 12-team field.

The selection committee’s rankings also will determine the seven at-large bids. There will be no limit to how many teams can come from the same league.

“It basically confirms the spirit of the original 6-6, and that was done when you had five A5 conferences,” American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco said Tuesday. “To have a fifth (champion) is good, and it’s not a fourplus-one, which is good. It’s the best five . ... It’s a meritbased system.”

The coming season will be the first with a 12-team playoff after 10 years of it being a four-team event.

“This is a very logical adjustment for the College Football Playoff based on the evolution of our conference structures since the board first adopted this new format in September 2022,” said Mark Keenum, president of Mississippi State and chairman of the CFP Board of Managers. “We all will be pleased to see this new format come to life on the field this postseason.”

FOOTBALL Slater retires after 16 years with Patriots

For more than a decade, Matthew Slater was universally celebrated as being the emotional centerpiece of the New England Patriots’ locker room, building a resume as one of the league’s most-decorated special teams players.

After 16 NFL seasons, he says it’s time to call it a career.

Slater announced his retirement on Tuesday in a letter posted on the team’s website and social media accounts, saying he had “given all that I possibly can to respect and honor the game.”

“Though it is time for my relationship with the game to evolve, the love I have for it will last a lifetime,” Slater wrote in the letter. “I came here as a young man with hopes and dreams. In 2024, I can retire knowing this experience has exceeded any hope or dream I ever had.”

A fifth-round draft pick out of UCLA by New England in 2008 and son of Hall of Famer Jackie Slater, he was unapologetically open about his Christian faith while growing into the embodiment of Bill Belichick’s “Patriot Way,” team-first culture.

Along the way Slater was voted as the special teams captain 13 times while winning three Super Bowl rings, earning 10 Pro Bowl selections and two All-pro honors.

From 2018 to 2022 he didn’t miss a game. His total of 264 games with the Patriots are second in team history behind only Tom Brady’s 326.

BASKETBALL Ollie replaces Vaughn as coach in Brooklyn

Kevin Ollie, who led Uconn to NCAA title a decade ago, has been named the interim head coach of the Brooklyn Nets.

A day after firing Jacque Vaughn, the Nets announced Tuesday they were turning the team over to Ollie, who had been hired as an assistant coach ahead of this season.

The 51-year-old Ollie, who played 13 seasons in the league, takes over a team that has a 21-33 record and is in 11th place in the Eastern Conference. The Nets dropped five of their past six games, including a 50-point loss to the Celtics in their last game.

Ollie coach Uconn for six seasons (2012-18). The Los Angeles native then spent two years (2021-23) as head of coaching and basketball development for Overtime Elite before joining the Nets.

GOLF Angel Cabrera returns to play in PGA event

The 78-man field at PGA Tour Champions event doesn’t change much from tournament to tournament, though one name stood out for the Trophy Hassan II this week in Morocco. Angel Cabrera plays for the first time since getting released from prison.

Cabrera was imprisoned for two years for threats and harassment of his partner, a case that was joined by another former partner. He was released on parole in August and has been playing in Argentina.

The PGA Tour notified Cabrera his suspension has been lifted, though he is required to comply with terms of his prison release. The 54-year-old Argentine also is welcome at the Masters as a past champion, provided he can get a visa to travel. That’s been a problem.

Morocco is one of only two PGA Tour Champions events held outside North America. The other is the Senior British Open.

• CBS announced that Verne Lindquist will be at the Masters for the final time in April. Lundquist, 83, has had a long and distinguished career that includes being the radio voice of the Dallas Cowboys and the lead announcer for SEC football.

IDITAROD Top rookie musher disqualified for ‘24

The governing body of the world’s most famous sled dog race has disqualified the 2023 Iditarod rookie of the year from this year’s contest by citing a rule but not the specific infraction of it.

After an emergency meeting Monday, the Iditarod Trail Committee announced Eddie Burke Jr. has been disqualified from this year’s race, just days before the March 2 ceremonial start in Anchorage. The board cited a race rule which states all “Iditarod mushers will be held to a high standard of personal and professional conduct. Musher conduct that is recklessly injurious to the Iditarod, Iditarod competitors, sponsors or anyone associated with the race is strictly prohibited.”

It did not cite a specific reason for his removal, and message sent to Iditarod President and CEO Rob Urbach on Tuesday was not immediately returned.

Calls and emails to Burke, his kennel manager and the kennel were also not returned.

Earlier this month, Burke finished second in the Yukon Quest Alaska race and was named rookie of the year for that race as well. In last year’s Iditarod, he finished in seventh place to earn that race’s rookie honors.