February 19, 2022 4:05 am
(AP) – The College Football Playoff is set to stick with a four-team format through the 2025 season. The administrators who manage the postseason failed to agree on a plan to expand before the current contracts run out. The CFP management committee met by video conference earlier this week. Executive Director Bill Hancock says the committee decided to abandon efforts to implement a new 12-team format for the 2024 season. They instead recommended staying with the current model to the presidents who oversee the playoff. The Board of Managers accepted the recommendation and directed the commissioners to continue discussions on a new format to go into effect for the 2026 season.
February 19, 2022 4:07 am
NEW YORK (AP) – The NFL has hired former Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Jo White to investigate Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder. The basis for the inquiry is an allegation that Snyder sexually harassed a team employee more than a decade ago. The NFL says White will release her findings to the public, unlike the league’s decision to keep results of a previous investigation into the team under wraps. A league spokesman says Commissioner Roger Goodell will determine after the probe “any appropriate action” against Snyder, who last year was fined $10 million after a previous investigation into widespread sexual harassment and mistreatment of women by high-ranking team employees. Snyder also temporarily ceded day-to-day operations of the franchise to his wife, Tanya.
February 18, 2022 3:52 am
TORONTO (AP) – Morgan Rielly and Auston Matthews each had a goal and an assist, and Jack Campbell made 45 saves to lead the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 4-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night. David Kampf and Michael Bunting also scored for Toronto, which was outshot 46-29 but won its second straight. Evgeni Malkin scored for Pittsburgh. Tristan Jarry had 25 saves.
February 18, 2022 3:54 am
UNDATED (AP) – NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and a few team owners and executives met with civil rights leaders who urged the league to make drastic changes to its hiring practices to improve diversity in leadership positions. Goodell was joined on the video call by Pittsburgh Steelers president Art Rooney II, Atlanta Falcons owner and chairman Arthur Blank, Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell, Baltimore Ravens executive vice president Ozzie Newsome, Houston Texans limited partner Javier Loya and other top NFL executives. National Urban League president and CEO Marc H. Morial told the group the NFL’s focus on racial equity and social justice recently hasn’t yet resulted in improved hiring procedures for the league’s head coaches.
February 17, 2022 3:47 am
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) – Ithiel Horton scored 19 points, making all five of his 3-point tries, and Pittsburgh rode a huge first half to beat North Carolina 76-67. John Hugley scored 18 points, Jamarius Burton added 14 points and seven rebounds, Mouhamadou Gueye had 11 points and Femi Odukale 10 for the Panthers, who won their third straight conference game for the first time since 2014. Caleb Love scored 15 of his 19 points in the final 5:11 for the Tar Heels. Brady Manek added 12 points and 10 rebounds and Kerwin Walton and Leaky Black had 11 points each. Leading scorer and rebounder Armando Bacot picked his fourth foul with eight minutes to go and remained on the bench finishing with seven points and eight rebounds.
February 17, 2022 3:50 am
BEIJING (AP) – There will be no gold medal for the U.S. women’s hockey team, and no medal of any kind for Mikael Shiffrin at the Beijing Olympics. Canada claimed its fifth gold medal in seven women’s Olympic hockey tournaments by defeating the United States, 3-2 in the final. Marie-Philip Poulin scored twice and assisted on Sarah Nurse’s goal to add another chapter to her legacy as “Captain Clutch” for Canada. Ann-Renee Desbiens made 38 saves as the Canadians forced the Americans to settle for a silver medal for the fourth time. Shiffrin skied out in the Alpine combined and once again was unable to finish a race at Beijing. She will leave the Games without an individual medal after participating in all five women’s events. Shiffrin also failed to complete three races. Shiffrin was fifth-fastest in the downhill portion of the two-run combined this morning but went out without making it to the bottom in the slalom leg in the afternoon.
February 17, 2022 3:54 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Major League Baseball has canceled the first week of spring training games through March 4 in the first public acknowledgement of the disruption caused by the lockout. The work stoppage was in its 79th day Friday, a day after economic talks between the management and the Major League Baseball Players Association lasted just 15 minutes. Negotiators are set to resume talks on core economics on Monday, and MLB said members of the owners’ negotiating committee will attend the session, just the seventh on the central issues of the dispute since the lockout began Dec. 2. Exhibition games had been set to start Feb. 26 in Florida and Arizona.
February 17, 2022 3:53 am
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) – Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh has agreed to a reworked five-year contract with the school that runs through the 2026 season. The announcement of a new deal comes two weeks after Harbaugh interviewed to fill the head coaching vacancy with the Minnesota Vikings. The Wolverines went 12-2 last season and snapped a eight-game losing streak to Ohio State along the way before losing to eventual national champion Georgia in the CFP semifinals. Harbaugh is 61-24 with four double-digit win seasons in seven years at his alma mater. He accepted a pay cut after the Wolverines went 2-4 during the COVID-abbreviated 2020 campaign.
February 16, 2022 3:52 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Sidney Crosby scored his 500th goal and Pittsburgh teammate Kris Letang capped a late rally to send the Penguins past the Philadelphia Flyers 5-4 in overtime. Crosby became the 46th player in NHL history to reach the 500-goal milestone when he beat Carter Hart from the goal line on the power play at 16:34 of the first period to give Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead. Crosby’s teammates poured over the bench in a raucous celebration after the 34-year-old joined Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux as the only Penguins in franchise history with 500 goals. Jake Guentzel and Chad Ruhwedel scored 18 seconds apart in the third period to erase Pittsburgh’s two-goal deficit.
February 16, 2022 2:33 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The Pittsburgh Steelers have hired Pat Meyer as their new offensive line coach. Meyer joins the Steelers after spending the last two seasons in the same position for the Carolina Panthers. Meyer replaces Adrian Klemm, who left before the end of last season to take a job at the University of Oregon. Chris Morgan, who filled in an interim basis after Klemm’s departure, was hired by the Chicago Bears this month. Meyer takes over a unit that struggled for much of the 2021 season.
