Pac-12 scraps divisions in football after NCAA makes change to rule
The Pac-12 announced Wednesday it was scrapping its divisional format for the upcoming football season moments after the NCAA Division I Council tossed out requirements that dictate how conferences can determine a champion.
The Pac-12 will now pair the teams with the highest conference winning percentages in its title game after 11 seasons of matching winners of the North and South divisions.
Other conferences are expected to follow, most notably the 14-team ACC. The ACC is looking to implement a new scheduling model as soon as 2023.
To have a conference title game, NCAA rules previously required leagues to split into divisions if they couldn’t play a full round-robin schedule. The 10-member Big 12 wound up deciding to resume its title game even without divisions in part to raise the profile of the winner for playoff consideration.
The D-I Council also approved a Football Oversight Committee recommendation meant to aid with roster management, lifting the yearly scholarship cap of 25.
While the maximum of 25 so-called initial counters will be waived for the next two years, the overall scholarship limit of 85 per team in the Bowl Subdivision and 63 in the Championship Subdivision will remain in place. The change, backed by the American Football Coaches’ Association, is aimed at helping teams replenish rosters that have been thinned by transfers.
Still pending is a proposal to set designated periods when players can enter the transfer portal and be immediately eligible.
Horse racing: Kentucky horse racing stewards suspended Brad Cox, trainer of 2021 Kentucky Derby winner Mandaloun, for 10 days with a $500 fine and disqualified colt Warrior’s Charge for a failed postrace drug test after the Stephen Foster Stakes last June at Churchill Downs. The test found Warrior’s Charge had 2.51 micrograms per milliliter of phenylbutazone in his blood after the Grade 2 race on June 26 in which he finished 3 ¼ lengths behind Maxfield. Cox, a Louisville native, waived his hearing before the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission board of stewards, which issued the ruling Sunday. He will serve the suspension from May 23-June 1 and forfeit $115,200 in purse money. Cox’s colt Mandaloun was elevated to Derby winner in February following the KHRC’s disqualification of now-deceased colt Medina Spirit for a failed postrace drug test. The KHRC suspended Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert for 90 days through early June and fined him $7,500 for a series of failed tests by his horses. Baffert is suing Churchill Downs in federal court, seeking to overturn its two-year suspension through mid-2023. Medina Spirit died in December following a workout at Santa Anita in California.
NHL: Josh Manson scored 8:02 into OT, Darcy Kuemper made 23 saves in his return to the net from an eye injury, and the Avalanche beat the visiting Blues 3-2 on Tuesday night in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal series . ... Also Tuesday, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored the go-ahead goal early in the third, Andrei Vasilevskiy remained red-hot with 34 saves and two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Lightning beat the host Panthers in Game 1 of their East semifinal series.
Soccer: Eintracht Frankfurt beat Rangers 5-4 on penalties on Wednesday in Seville, Spain, to win the Europa League title and claim their first European trophy in 42 years. The match between the German and Scottish clubs finished 1-1 after 120 minutes of regular and extra time.