Florida State-ACC meet in courtroom
The Atlantic Coast Conference and Florida State squared off in a Charlotte, N.C., courtroom for the first time Friday, following the member school’s push to exit the conference and explore a more lucrative landing spot elsewhere.
During a four-hour hearing at Mecklenburg County courthouse, attorneys from both sides argued about jurisdiction over dueling lawsuits from last December and whether documents pertaining to broadcasting rights between the ACC and ESPN should be unsealed. No resolution was reached Friday.
Judge Louis A. Bledsoe III indicated he would take arguments into advisement and have a written ruling on where the case should be heard and whether to unseal documents before April 9.
The ACC wants the case to be heard in Charlotte, where its headquarters are, and doesn’t want the broadcasting contract with ESPN made public. Florida State wants to move the venue to Florida and prefers the documents to be unsealed.
Attorneys for ESPN also weighed in Friday, urging Bledsoe to keep the broadcasting rights contract sealed because making them public would be financially detrimental to the sports programming network.
Tennis
The number of suspicious tennis matches around the world went down for the second consecutive year, and there were none at any of the four Grand Slam tournaments in 2023, according to an annual review by the International Tennis Integrity Agency released Friday. The ITIA received 101 match alerts — which aren’t proof of match-fixing but an indication “something inappropriate may have occurred,” the agency said — in 2023, down from 109 in 2022 and 113 in 2021.
The ITIA received 101 match alerts — which aren’t proof of match-fixing but an indication “something inappropriate may have occurred,” the agency said — in 2023, down from 109 in 2022 and 113 in 2021.
Golf
Stewart Cink made a great escape from the pine straw for an unlikely birdie and had a 4-under 67 that gave him a five-way share of the lead after two rounds of the Valspar Championship at Palm Harbor, Fla. He was tied at 6-under 136 with Kevin Streelman (72), tour rookie Chandler Phillips (68), Brendon Todd (69) and Mackenzie Hughes (68).
• First-round leader Malia Nam show a 2-under 70 to stay atop LPGA Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship at Palos Verdes Estates, Calif. Ruoning Yin and Madelene Sagstrom finished a stroke behind Nam.
Soccer
Retired Brazilian star Robinoho, who was picked by Pele to be his heir penitentiary, was jailed at a rural penitentiary outside of Sao Paolo. Robinho, 40, was convicted of rape in Italy while he was playing for AC Milan. Italian officials had asked Brazil to imprison him because he had already returned home before his conviction in 2017