Thursday Sports in Brief

NCAA

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Athletic directors at the nation’s biggest sports schools are bracing for a potential financial crisis related to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to a survey released Thursday by LEAD1, an association of athletic directors from 130 major college football schools, 63% forecast a worst-case scenario in which their revenues decrease by at least 20% during the 2020-21 school year. Even an abbreviated football season could cause schools to lose that much.

LEAD1 and Teamworks, a company that created an app designed to help keep teams and athletic departments connected, conducted the survey of more than 100 ADs from schools in Division I’s Football Bowl Subdivision. “The State of Athletics in the Face of the Coronavirus” provides a sobering glimpse of the top concerns for the wealthiest athletic departments in the country.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — North Carolina athletics director Bubba Cunningham is joining the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee that selects the field for the 68-team NCAA Tournament.

The NCAA announced Cunningham’s addition Thursday. As UNC’s first-ever appointee, Cunningham begins a five-year term in September and replaces Duke athletics director Kevin White, whose term ends Aug. 31.

White had served as chairman this year before the tournament was canceled amid the coronavirus pandemic. Kentucky athletics director and committee member Mitch Barnhart will serve as chairman for the 2020-21 season.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Ivy League has decided not to allow its spring-sport athletes who had their seasons shortened by the coronavirus pandemic to have an additional year of eligibility as graduates, despite the NCAA granting that option earlier this week.

The move, which was announced Thursday, was consistent for the Ivy League with its policies. The conference hasn’t allowed athletes to participate in any sports as graduates.

The NCAA Division I Council voted Monday to give spring-sport athletes regardless of their year in school a way to get back the season they lost because of the new coronavirus, but it did not guarantee financial aid to the current crop of seniors if they return to play next year. Spring-sport athletes include baseball, softball and lacrosse players.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach has apologized on social media for posting a tweet that drew criticism from Bulldogs players and an assistant professor at the school before it was deleted.

The outspoken coach on Wednesday night tweeted a picture depicting an elderly woman with knitting needles in her hand, the Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, reported. The caption read, “After 2 weeks of quarantine with her husband, Gertrude decided to knit him a scarf...”, but the picture showed her knitting a noose with the hangman’s knot already tied, the newspaper reported.

Leach’s tweet had more than 4,000 likes on Thursday morning, the newspaper said. But several MSU players responded to the post with face-palm and raised-eyebrow emojis and a profane acronym, the newspaper reported. Mississippi State assistant sociology professor and author Margaret A. Hagerman chastised Leach and wrote that lynching jokes are incredibly offensive anywhere and “especially in Mississippi.”

Leach deleted the tweet sometime Thursday morning, according to the newspaper.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

CHICAGO (AP) — DePaul and coach Dave Leitao on Thursday agreed to a contract extension through the 2023-24 season after a year in which the Blue Demons went 16-16.

The school said in September it was working on the deal.

Leitao has a 122-132 record over eight seasons and two stints at DePaul. The Blue Demons won 12 of their first 13 games and beat NCAA runner-up Texas Tech.

The NCAA suspended Leitao for the first three games and placed the program on probation for three years, saying he should have done more to prevent recruiting violations by his staff.

AUTO RACING

McLaren’s Formula One drivers Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lando Norris are taking pay cuts, while the team is furloughing other employees as part of protective cost-cutting during the coronavirus pandemic.

With F1 racing suspended, McLaren said both drivers and senior management including chief executive Zak Brown all agreed to voluntary pay decreases. No figure was given, but McLaren said the percentage of the cut is the same for all employees who are not furloughed.

McLaren said in an email that “these measures are focused on protecting jobs in the short term to ensure our employees return to full-time work as the economy recovers.”

HORSE RACING

ARCADIA, Calif. (AP) — There’s been a horse fatality at Santa Anita, which is temporarily closed for live racing because of the coronavirus pandemic.

It’s the seventh death at the track in Arcadia since December.

According to the California Horse Racing Board web site, a 2-year-old filly named Smiling Ali died Thursday. She had yet to race and was trained by Jeff Bonde.

Smiling Ali had just completed a two-furlong timed workout in 25 seconds when she died on the main dirt track. The cause was not immediately determined, although it was believed to be a probable heart attack. A required necropsy will be conducted.

WOMEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL

CORVALLES, Ore. (AP) — Oregon State basketball player Destiny Slocum has opted to enter the transfer portal for her final season of eligibility.

Slocum, a 5-foot-7 guard, averaged a team-best 14.9 points and had 4.7 assists a game this past season with the Beavers, who finished the season ranked No. 14 with a 23-9 record. She ranked ninth in the Pac-12 in scoring and fifth in assists.

In a statement released by the university on Thursday, Slocum thanked everyone who supported her in the decision.

From Meridian, Idaho, Slocum has 507 career assists, which was second most nationwide among non-seniors this season.

COLLEGE HOCKEY

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — North Dakota forward Jordan Kawaguchi, Minnesota Duluth defenseman Scott Perunovich and Maine goalie Jeremy Swayman were named Thursday as the three finalists for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award, given to the most outstanding player in college hockey.

All three players were juniors this season, before play was halted March 12 because of the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

RUGBY

Eddie Jones signed a new deal as England rugby coach through to the World Cup in 2023, saying on Thursday he was convinced to continue in the job only after seeing the team’s positive response to him during the recently aborted Six Nations.

The 60-year-old Australian’s contract with the Rugby Football Union was due to expire in August 2021. If he sees out his extended deal, he will become the longest-serving coach of England — surpassing Clive Woodward’s spell in charge from 1997-2004.

Jones, who took the job in late 2015 after the World Cup, effectively put himself on trial during this year’s Six Nations, eager to see if his players were still responding to his methods in the wake of England’s loss to South Africa in the World Cup final in Japan in November.

WORLD GAMES

The World Games is a showcase for athletes who compete in eclectic array of sports that have one thing in common: They are not part of the regular Olympic program.

Now, they’ll have to wait an extra year to take part in their Olympic-style competition because of the Tokyo Summer Games being pushed back to 2021.

Joining the parade of postponed events in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, officials announced Thursday the 11th edition of the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama will now be held in the summer of 2022.

The new dates are July 7-17 for a sprawling competition that will feature disciplines such as tug of war, orienteering, korfball, billiards, sumo, lifesaving and dance.

OBITUARY

Tony Lewis, the co-developer of the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method used in cricket for calculating target scores in weather-affected limited-overs matches, has died. He was aged 78.

The International Cricket Council confirmed the news on Thursday, the day after Lewis died.

Lewis and fellow mathematician Frank Duckworth developed the Duckworth-Lewis method after South Africa’s winning target in the 1992 Cricket World Cup semifinal against England was farcically reduced from 22 runs off 13 balls to 21 runs off one ball.

Their system for a fairer target was first used in 1997, and adopted by the ICC in 1999 before that year’s World Cup. He and Duckworth were appointed as Members of the Order of the British Empire in 2010 for services to cricket.

CHICAGO (AP) — Ed Farmer, an All-Star reliever who spent nearly three decades as a radio broadcaster for the Chicago White Sox, has died. He was 70.

The White Sox said he died Wednesday night in Los Angeles following complications from an illness.

A native of Evergreen Park, Illinois, and a graduate of St. Rita High on Chicago’s South Side, Farmer was 30-43 with a 4.30 ERA and 75 saves while pitching for eight teams over 11 seasons. He was an All-Star for the White Sox in 1980, when he saved 30 games — then a club record.

Farmer joined Chicago’s radio booth on a part-time basis in 1991 and completed his 29th season last year.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Former Wake Forest and Marshall basketball coach Carl Tacy has died. He was 87.

Tacy’s son, Carl Jr., told The Associated Press his father died early Thursday. He had been transferred from a hospital to hospice care in Yadkinville, North Carolina last week following a December diagnosis of leukemia.

Tacy spent a year as Marshall’s head coach before 13 seasons with the Demon Deacons from 1973-85, compiling a 222-149 record for the third-most wins in school history. That included appearances in three NCAA Tournaments and two NITs.

The Demon Deacons reached NCAA regional finals in 1977 and 1984, the latter featuring an overtime upset of top-seeded DePaul.

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