June 11, 2020 3:57 am
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred says there is a “100%” chance of big league ball this year. Major League Baseball will make another proposal to start the pandemic-delayed season in empty ballparks, but Manfred vowed to unilaterally order opening day if an agreement is not reached. The players’ association made its second proposal Tuesday, asking for an 89-game regular season and 100% of prorated salaries. MLB’s plan a day earlier was for a 76-game season, would guarantee 50% of prorated salaries and hinge 25% in additional money on the postseason’s completion.
June 9, 2020 3:42 am
UNDATED (AP) – The NCAA is considering a six-week plan for football teams to prepare for the start of their seasons that includes two weeks when teams can hold walk-throughs before full practices start. A copy of the Football Oversight Committee’s plan, which still needs to be approved by the Division I Council, was obtained by The Associated Press. Sports Illustrated first reported on the one-page document. The oversight committee has been working on a six-week model to lead into the season for weeks. It calls for two weeks preceding the start of a typical preseason practice schedule during which time teams can do up 20 hours per week or weight training, conditioning, film study, meetings and walk-throughs with coaches. Players would not be permitted to wear helmets and pads during walk-throughs, but a ball could be used for instruction. NCAA rules state teams can begin preseason practice 29 days before the date of their first game. The walk-through period would begin 14 days before preseason practice, according to the proposal. The plan has not been finalized but could be approved within two weeks.
June 8, 2020 4:13 am
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – NASCAR’s All-Star Race will be a midweek event on July 15 at Charlotte Motor Speedway as part of a new revision to the schedule that runs through the first weekend of August. The revisions involve Pocono Raceway and the speedways in Indianapolis, Kentucky, Texas, Kansas and New Hampshire. NASCAR made no mention of whether spectators will be allowed at any of the events but Indianapolis, Kentucky and Kansas all said their events would not have fans. NASCAR leadership has not been available for public comment since May 17.
June 6, 2020 4:01 am
TOKYO (AP) – Next spring has been set as a possible deadline by a local lawmaker for deciding if the postponed Tokyo Olympics can go ahead. That’s the judgment of former Japanese Olympic minister Toshikai Endo. Japanese television NHK quoted him at a meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The Tokyo Olympics are to open on July 23, 2021. They were postponed this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Endo is the latest powerful politician to speak out this week about the games, bracing the Japanese public for possible changes and costs. Tokyo Governor Yurkio Koike said Thursday the games were likely to be downsized and undergo many changes.
June 5, 2020 3:46 am
UNDATED (AP) – The NBA continues to take positive steps toward resuming a season that was suspended in March because of the coronavirus pandemic. The league Board of Governors has approved a 22-team format for restarting the season in late July at the Disney campus near Orlando, Florida. The format calls for each team playing eight games to determine playoff seeding plus the possible utilization of a play-in tournament for the final spot in each conference postseason field. The 22-team plan includes all teams that were holding playoff spots when the season was stopped, plus all other clubs within six games of a postseason berth. That means 13 teams from the Western Conference and nine from the East.
June 3, 2020 3:53 am
UNDATED (AP) – All 32 NFL teams have been told by Commissioner Roger Goodell to hold training camps at their home facilities this summer because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most NFL teams stay at their training complexes year-round, but Dallas, Pittsburgh, Kansas City and Buffalo are among those that stage training camp elsewhere. The Cowboys and Steelers are scheduled for the Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio, on Aug. 6 and will be the first two teams to report in late July. Dallas usually trains in Oxnard, California, and Pittsburgh in nearby Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Soon, the NFL is hopeful of having club complexes fully open, but under strict medical guidelines including social distancing protocols.
June 3, 2020 3:51 am
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is considering new dates for the induction of its star-studded Class of 2020. Hall president John Doleva says dates to replace the postponed August ceremony include mid-October and next spring. With Kobe Bryant due to be enshrined posthumously, it’s certain to be a big event. Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan also are members of the induction class. So is college coach Eddie Sutton, who died last month. The Hall in Springfield, Massachusetts, is also getting ready to unveil its completely renovated museum.
June 1, 2020 3:46 am
UNDATED (AP) – Major League Baseball’s players have proposed a 114-game regular season, up from 82 in management’s offer. That’s according to a person familiar with the plan who told The Associated Press that the proposal includes no additional pay cuts beyond the one they agreed to in March. Opening day in the coronavirus-delayed season would be June 30 and the regular season would end Oct. 31, nearly five weeks after the Sept. 27 conclusion that MLB’s proposal stuck to from the season’s original schedule. The union offered scheduling flexibility to include more doubleheaders. A player would receive about 70% of his salary under the union plan. MLB’s offer Tuesday included a sliding scale in which those at the $563,500 minimum would get about 47%. Top-salaried players like Mike Trout and Gerrit Cole at $36 million would receive less than 23%. Players are OK with MLB’s plan to increase the number of postseason teams from 10 to 14. Management would expand the postseason for just this year, but the union would like it to run through 2021.
May 31, 2020 8:00 am
Four-year colleges facing budget shortfalls stemming from the pandemic are approaching an unwelcome milestone: In coming days, the number of eliminated sports programs will almost surely pass 100. Research by The Associated Press found a total of 97 teams eliminated at four-year schools through Friday. The count includes only teams cut with the coronavirus outbreak and its impacts cited as all or part of the reason. Of the 78 teams lost in Divisions II and III and the NAIA, 44 were from three schools that closed at least in part because of financial fallout from the pandemic. No Power Five conference school is known to have dropped any sports. Most of the 19 Division I teams cut — 15 men’s, four women’s — are from schools in the so-called Group of Five conferences. Some of the cuts might not have been made, critics say, if decision-makers had considered the benefits those sports brought to the schools as a whole.
May 30, 2020 3:52 am
UNDATED (AP) – The NCAA has released a long and detailed plan to help schools bring athletes back to campus during the pandemic. The move comes as schools across the country prepare for the return of athletes as early as June 8. The NCAA last week lifted a moratorium on athletic activities starting Monday. That cleared the way for voluntary workouts and training to begin at team facilities. Schools have already started putting plans in place to test athletes, coaches and staff for the coronavirus and implement social distancing. The NCAA says its plan is offered as guidance, consistent with federal and local public health guidelines
