Pac-12's attention turns to stability
The Pac-12 Conference issued a statement aimed at stability after Colorado became the third school in a year to announce plans to leave. The nine schools remaining for the 2024-25 season were largely silent.
Colorado on Thursday announced it would join the Big 12 beginning in 2024, joining Big Tenbound USC and UCLA in an exodus that could continue in coming weeks and months. Their departures coincide with the expiration of the league's current media rights deals and the Pac-12 has not yet announced a lucrative deal going forward.
Shortly after CU's regents approved the move to the Big 12, the Pac-12 issued a statement pledging to soldier on. Possible Pac-12 expansion targets could include San Diego State and SMU.
“We are focused on concluding our media rights deal and securing our continued success and growth,” the Pac-12 said. “Immediately following the conclusion of our media rights deal, we will embrace expansion opportunities and bring new fans, markets, excitement and value to the Pac-12.”
The Pac-12's media rights contract expires at the end of the 2023-24 academic year, and Commissioner George Kliavkoff has not noted any progress in landing a new deal.
Oregon State was the only Pac-12 school to comment following the Colorado announcement. A founding member of the league in 1915, Oregon State is considered one of the least likely schools to be poached by another conference.
“Oregon State Athletics trusts that the Pac-12 will secure a media rights deal that will strongly benefit the institutions that are remaining loyal to this conference,” Oregon State athletic director Scott Barnes said. “All of us at Oregon State will continue to work hard and diligently to continue the long-term membership and success of our athletic department at a national level.”
League: Lillard to honor contract wherever he plays
The NBA has told teams that Damian Lillard and his agent confirmed that the All-Star guard would honor his contract in any potential trade, despite the agent saying Lillard only wanted to be dealt to the Miami Heat.
A memo sent to general managers and obtained by The Associated Press also warned that Lillard would be subject to discipline by the league if he or Aaron Goodwin make additional comments suggesting he won't fully perform the requirements of his contract in the event of a trade.
Lillard told the Portland Trail Blazers earlier this month he wanted to be traded and Goodwin subsequently made clear his preference was Miami.
“Dame's position won't change,” Goodwin told AP on July 6. “This entire situation was about building an opportunity for Portland to win or giving him another opportunity that he wants, which is Miami.”
The league said it interviewed Lillard and Goodwin, along with several teams with whom Goodwin spoke. Goodwin denied telling teams that Lillard would refuse to play for them and the teams provided descriptions that were “mostly, though not entirely, consistent with Goodwin's statements to us.”
Players are not allowed to publicly request trades. The league also stated in the memo that it told the Players Association that further comments such as Goodwin's will be subject to discipline.
O'Callaghan wins 100 free at swim worlds
Mollie O'Callaghan added the 100-meter freestyle title to her gold in the 200 two days earlier at the world championships.
The 19-year-old Australian is the first woman to win both the 100 and 200 free at a world championships. O'Callaghan won in 52.16 seconds.
Qin Haiyang of China set a world record in the men's 200 breaststroke in 2:05.48. He also won the 50 — which is not an Olympic event — and the 100.
Tatjana Schoenmaker of South Africa won gold in the women's 200 breaststroke in 2:20.80, becoming the first female world champion from her country.
• Juventus was removed from European competition next season and Chelsea was fined $11 million in separate UEFA rulings over financial rules breaches.
• German teenager Noma Noha Akugue reached the final on her first time in the main draw of a WTA Tour event, continuing a meteoric rise for a player ranked 207th in the world.
Noha Akugue won 6-3, 6-3 against Diana Shnaide in a fairy-tale run at her hometown Hamburg European Open.
Noha Akugue's opponent in the final will be Arantxa Rus, an experienced 32-year-old from the Netherlands who has four WTA doubles titles but will play her first singles final.
• An Arizona man accused of trying to extort Georgia Tech by falsely accusing its men's basketball coach, Josh Pastner, of sexual assault has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison, federal prosecutors said.
Ronald Bell, 57, of Oro Valley, Arizona, was sentenced to two years, nine months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a news release. Bell pleaded guilty in March to conspiring with his codefendant, Jennifer Pendley, and a security guard at Georgia Tech, to the extortion scheme.
• The IOC assured Ukrainian fencer Olga Kharlan that she will have a place at the Paris Olympics next year after she was disqualified from a key ranking event for refusing to shake hands with a Russian she had beaten. In a letter to Kharlan, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said it would make a “unique exception” by allocating her an extra place to ensure she competes in Paris.
• Runaway F1 championship leader Max Verstappen had the fastest time in qualifying for the rain-hit Belgian Grand Prix, but Charles Leclerc will start the race from pole position because of Verstappen's five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.
Verstappen will begin Sunday's race in sixth place, but that will hardly bother the two-time reigning Formula One champ considering he won in Belgium last year from 14th on the grid.