Big 12 to bring back football title game

IRVING, Texas — The Big 12 is bringing back its football championship game in 2017, regardless of whether the conference expands from its current 10 members. Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said Friday that university presidents and chancellors unanimously voted to approve “in concept the re-implementation of a championship football game.”

SOCCER

› CHICAGO — A federal judge ruled the world champion U.S. women’s team does not have the right to strike to seek improved conditions and wages before the Summer Olympics, seeming to end the prospect of an unprecedented disruption by one of the most successful American national teams. ›

GENEVA — Sepp Blatter’s $12 million bonus from the 2014 World Cup and another police raid for evidence of financial crimes at FIFA revealed the turmoil at soccer’s world body was far from done. The now-banned Blatter and two recently fired top officials — secretary general Jerome Valcke and finance director Markus Kattner— awarded themselves raises, bonuses and future golden handshakes totaling tens of millions of dollars.

COLLEGE BASEBALL

› NASHVILLE — The number 41 and the initials “DE” are everywhere around Hawkins Field as the Vanderbilt Commodores mourned the death of freshman pitcher Donny Everett while trying to play in the NCAA tournament regional they are hosting. Everett drowned Thursday on a fishing trip at a Tennessee lake, and his teammates had to wait to today to take the field for their NCAA tournament opener against Xavier after rain postponed their game. › GAINESVILLE, Fla. —

Willy Yahn and Tyler Gnesda drove in two runs apiece as Connecticut held on to beat Georgia Tech 7-6 in the opening game of the NCAA tournament’s Gainesville Regional.

COLLEGE SOFTBALL

› OKLAHOMA CITY — Shay Knighten hit a threerun homer in the bottom of the eighth inning to give Oklahoma a 3-0 victory against Alabama in the Women’s College World Series.