12 Page 7 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Welcome to the Pac-12 funeral procession
Stating “we’ve never seen something like this before” in sports is usually overused. ...

Deion Sanders is about to face his toughest test as a coach
Colorado nearly getting smacked with their first loss of the Deion Sanders era in a friendly atmosphere against an overmatched foe was a reminder that college football’s unpredictable nature goes both ways. Eventually, the underdogs become the hunted, and fortune shifts on a dime. At kickoff, Colora...

Indianapolis Colts still trying to find themselves 4 years after Andrew Luck's retirement
Once upon a time, Andrew Luck was on his way to a Hall of Fame career as quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts. Then he up and retired out of nowhere, walking away from the game forever. Today marks four years since Luck called it quits on a career with much more to offer. He dealt with a myriad of ...

The James Harden domino effect could be epic in Philly
Philadelphia is a sad basketball city at the moment. Another season has passed where the 76ers can’t get over the hump, and their two stars are unhappy with how the team is being run. Surely, this isn’t the summer anyone in the organization envisioned after Joel Embiid finally broke through to becom...

Don’t be cowards, Notre Dame. Save the Pac-12
Amid various upheavals and tectonic conference shifts, one of the nation’s most prominent college football brands has maintained its neutrality. Notre Dame is the Joel Osteen of college athletics as a football megachurch without a conference denomination. Notre Dame basketball is the garnish, but fo...

Big Ten athletes should be on the hunt for NIL deals with airlines
Soon, Big Ten teams from the Midwest and East Coast will have a “West Coast road trip,” like they do in the pros, and vice versa. But unlike professional athletes, these players won’t be getting compensated for their “jobs,” and some of them will be on commercial airplanes as they fly across the cou...

Phil Mickelson has apparently been gambling with his legacy for some time, to the tune of $1 billion
Oh, Phil. Phil, Phil, Phil, Phil, Phil. How are you greasing your way out of this one? PGA fan favorite-turned-LIV wrestling heel Phil Mickelson is in the news again for his gambling habits. In an upcoming book by Billy Walters, the professional gambler alleges Lefty wagered more than $1 billion, wi...

Nikola Jokić might be the most boring top-rated player ever in <em>NBA 2K24</em>
The player most deserving of the highest rating in NBA 2K24 is Nikola Jokić. Whether he is actually the best player in the NBA is irrelevant to him earning that distinction. The way that he bulldozed his opposition while leading the Denver Nuggets to their first NBA Championship, no other player sho...

Stanford is the most vulnerable school in college athletics because of conference realignment
The domino effect of Oklahoma and Texas leaving the Big 12 for the SEC (leading to the dismantling of the Pac-12 two years later) is a turn of events that would’ve been nearly impossible to predict. The catalyst for the Power Five’s west coast entry point being almost no more wasn’t UCLA and USC tra...

The Pac-12 is imploding spectacularly
There’s something cathartic about watching conference realignment. Dooms-dayers have been preaching that the end is near for a while, and as the Pac-12 folds, the ACC and Big 12 look on, praying to avoid a similar fate. Deep down, they know it’s over, and they, too, will be ravaged by the SEC and Bi...

Conference realignment, NIL deals, and the end of loyalty in college sports
The recently prophesied collapse of college athletics is being attributed to the transfer portal, and name, image, and likeness deals. The chaos caused by player movement and an unregulated free market has caught the eye of politicians, quick to offer assistance with a handout for universities that ...

Oregon coach Dan Lanning should’ve resisted taking a shot at Colorado
There’s one glaring piece of hardware missing from the trophy case of the Oregon Duck football team, and I’ll tell you what it is even though you probably already know: A national title. So when second-year coach Dan Lanning levied a shot at the Colorado Buffaloes during Pac-9 media days Monday, ask...

Colorado’s impending Big 12 reunion signals chaos for the Pac-12
Last week at the Pac-12 Conference’s annual football media days, Colorado was considered by far the league’s biggest flight risk. It’s USC and UCLA’s last season affiliated with the West Coasters before, let’s be honest, being promoted to the Big Ten. The Power Five is truly a supreme duo, with the ...

Without Deion Sanders in attendance, Pac-12 Media Day might as well pack it up and go home
Things have grown so dire for the Pac-12 that they’re one cycle away from returning to tape delay airings. The Left Coast’s elite has always found themselves at a disadvantage in cuing up interest for its football campaign. Cue the beat of Deion Sanders drum. ...

Trade James Harden for Grade-A role players, you coward!
When Daryl Morey says he’s not going to be irrational with a James Harden trade, he is to be trusted. We saw what happened with Ben Simmons, and the plain-clothes staring contest that resulted in Harden becoming a Philadelphia 76er. It was an arduous ordeal that festered until mid-February 2022, and...

Mike Gundy eloquently dismantles Oklahoma for ending Bedlam
About 95 percent of the time, Mike Gundy’s rants are nails on a chalkboard, a car alarm at 5 a.m., or any alarm in the morning. However, the other 5 percent? Gold, Jerry, gold! The latest redeemable instance came at Big 12 media days, when the Oklahoma State head coach tore into Oklahoma, and justif...

Hey, at least the Houston Rockets are trying
We laughed at Dillon Brooks’ unceremonious exit from the Memphis Grizzlies, but it will be him with the cheshire grin plastered to his face every time that a direct deposit hits his account. On Saturday he signed a four-year, $80 million contract with the Houston Rockets. The day before, Fred VanVle...

Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada might be AEW’s biggest dream yet
At its heart, AEW’s working ethos has always been to give fans what they want. What that means, most of the time, is to put on matches that seemed impossible before, or that their fans have been hoping to see one day. Whatever the hiccups at times, whatever the drama, whatever the long way around th...

Hubert Davis' silence around UNC’s treatment of Ida B. Wells Society, Nikole Hannah-Jones is pathetic but expected
Being the only one of your kind in “the room” is an honor as much as it is a burden. Ask women, Black people, or anyone from a minority group who has been in that position, and they’ll tell you about the pride that comes with being a needed representative for your community, along with the weight of...

The Denver Nuggets did something no team has done in a long time — beat the Miami Heat in Game 1
The last time the Miami Heat lost the first game of a series they got swept. Game 1 is always important, but Thursday night was essential for the Denver Nuggets — a franchise that is making its first appearance in the NBA Finals. It’s why Mike Malone knew his team was a must-win scenario....