champ Page 34 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Moving to a 16-team College Football Playoff isn’t easy — but may very well happen
“Sixteen just seems to be out there,” Gene Smith, Ohio State’s athletic director, said at the Big Ten media days. “You can’t ignore it.”...

The Dodgers will be buyers at the deadline — here’s who they should target
The Dodgers have a few glaring holes on their roster....

NFL training camps are open and the leadership porn is sizzling
One of the more annoying things in life is when a person thinks a job title denotes leadership. Whether it’s newly-promoted assistant manager Greg trying to rally the staff during the lunch rush at Jimmy John’s, a CEO expecting underlings to laugh at all his jokes, or quarterbacks buying their offen...

Does Tony Khan have a second gear for Ring Of Honor?
It’s pretty standard now, bordering on canon, that Tony Khan will spit out a great pay-per-view whenever he needs to. And now it’s with multiple companies. Last Saturday, it was Ring of Honor’s turn, with “Death Before Dishonor.” And by any measure, it was a banger. Not perfect — rarely is a show ev...

BIG Conference needs to ask itself some BIG questions before proceeding
College football is changing faster than it can handle. There are no playbooks or 100-level courses for what’s next in the sport. It feels like when I took a journalism business class after the Recession, and the professor was asking the students for suggestions. ...

What if the Saudis come for tennis next?
Let’s paint a picture for a moment. It’s two, maybe three years from now. The Saudi Golf League has taken off, gotten its sponsorships and TV deals, and superstar commitments. It’s expanded its tournaments, the majors are now allowing defectors to return, and — all in all, it’s a success....

You’re never going to guess who’s pushing the Yankees for AL supremacy
Hopefully, you’ve been watching enough baseball to know the answer to that headline isn’t the Red Sox. At 61-32, and now only 2.5 games behind New York for the best record in baseball — courtesy of a doubleheader sweep — the Houston Astros are in a position to make the second half interesting....

Jimmy Garoppolo is free to seek a trade — where does he fit best?
It’s been a wild ride for Jimmy Garoppolo in San Francisco, to say the least. He’s been nothing short of a savior for the franchise, returning them to their status as a powerhouse in the NFC. But all good things must come to an end, and that time has officially come....

Look out 'Bama and Ohio State, this Pac-12 power is back and looking championship-worthy
USC football is back. ...

America’s addiction to gun violence caused Florida QB Anthony Richardson to drop his ‘AR-15’ nickname
Certain types of quarterbacks used to be referred to as “gunslingers.” That moniker isn’t cool anymore. ...

Ryan Garcia vs. Gervonta Davis would be spectacular, but it takes more than a good matchup for fights to materialize
There are few things more overwhelming than the tornado that forms when two pugilists circle each other for months, and even years, before finally engaging each other in the ring. Right now, between King Vasiliy Lomachenko, Teófimo López, Devin Haney, Shakur Stevenson, Ryan Garcia, and Gervonta Davi...

We fixed the college conferences... you're welcome
The irony of all the bellyaching about constant player movement and the free market from the NCAA and its institutions is that they aren’t even loyal to their conference partners. Those same athletic programs get a buck dangled in front of them and dive into a national conference transfer portal of ...

You can’t run from yourself and beat Novak Djokovic
We’ll never know what Nick Kyrgios really thinks, late at night when he’s all alone and there’s no one to impress or deflect to (and he may have a lot of those nights to himself soon). Maybe he genuinely doesn’t care that he lost his first Grand Slam final, considering the way that most people have ...

Tiger has the 150th Open Championship 'circled' on his calendar
The British Open, the final major golf championship of the year, doesn’t tee off until Thursday, but it’s already dominating the sports headlines this weekend as 2022’s Tiger Woods comeback and Saudi drama come to a head....

The real winner in college conferences realignments might be… the airlines?
The smart ones are making sure that the staff at their schools have their frequent flier numbers on file. The geniuses are trying to secure NIL deals with the airlines....

Get to the net, Taylor Fritz!
American tennis, on the men’s side, has been a desolate wasteland for over 20 years now, pretty much. Since Andy Roddick took the U.S. Open in 2003 and then spent the rest of his career getting clubbed by Roger Federer in the biggest matches of his career, no Yank has taken a major. No Yank has even...

Todd Boehly knows Chelsea aren’t the Dodgers, right?
Chelsea fans knew it would be a bit of a comedown from the ownership of Roman Abramovich — though from dubious-at-best roots he did turn Chelsea from basically an also-ran to a world power beyond all of their dreams — to whoever came next. American ownership of Premier League teams has always been v...

Even in defeat, new mom was toast of Wimbledon
Wimbledon semi finalist Tatjana Maria has gotten some pretty good press for her run at this year’s Grand Slam on grass. “Mother of All Wins” headlined the Times of India as Maria defeated Jelena Ostapenko to reach the tournament quarterfinal....

Is Oregon next to bolt Pac-12 for Big Ten?
As much of a jaw-dropping, world-stopping shock the UCLA/USC-Big Ten move was, I sort of miss the time before last week when we weren’t constantly waiting with bated breath to hear which school would move to which conference next. It all moves so much slower when you know it’s coming. So while we aw...

Novak Djokovic only has to slightly turn the knob
It’s getting to the point where whenever Novak Djokovic gets down two sets at a Grand Slam, he’ll be an even bigger favorite than he was at the start of a match. If he isn’t already....