UNDATED (AP) — Tennessee's Karlyn Pickens and Texas Tech's NiJaree Canady are the top picks in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League draft. Pickens joins the Carolina Blaze after throwing a record 79.4 mph pitch last season. She has a 13-7 record with a 1.44 ERA and 154 strikeouts this season. Canady, picked by the Texas Volts, has a 21-4 record with a 1.30 ERA and 194 strikeouts. She led Texas Tech to a national runner-up finish last year. The draft included 17 players identified through the Golden Ticket program. The season starts June 9.
UNDATED (AP) — Kansas has put itself on track for its best season since the standard-bearing 1993 team made the program’s only College World Series appearance. The Jayhawks have won 10 straight games and 21 of their last 22 after sweeping Arizona and on Monday they achieved their highest ranking ever when they landed at No. 7 in the D1Baseball.com poll. This is all new for Kansas. The Jayhawks' all-time record is just a little over .500 and the most recent of their three regular-season conference championships came in 1949.
DALLAS (AP) — The Big 12 is the first known conference in major college sports to strike a league-wide, private capital deal. Multiple people with knowledge of the agreement tell The Associated Press that the Big 12 has a five-year agreement with RedBird Capital Partners. The people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because neither side announced the deal, which was ratified by Big 12 presidents and chancellors last week. The partnership is designed to grow revenue for the league at a time when some schools are strapped for cash. RedBird will provide the conference with a $12.5 million capital infusion and offer up to a $30 million line of credit for each Big 12 school. RedBird will have no ownership stake in the Big 12 or its revenues, and no operational or governance oversight.
