UNDATED (AP) — The Southeastern Conference received six of the top eight seeds in the NCAA Division I Softball Championship when the 64-team field was revealed on Sunday, including Alabama at No. 1, defending national champion Texas at No. 2 and Oklahoma at No. 3. The SEC got 12 of its 15 teams into the field. Regional play begins Friday, with the top 16 seeds hosting. The eight teams advancing from super regionals will compete in the Women's College World Series starting May 28 in Oklahoma City. Texas returns pitcher Teagan Kavan, the most outstanding player in last year's Women's College World Series.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — UCLA slugger Megan Grant has set the single-season home run record for Division I softball. She hit her 38th of the season on Saturday. Grant drove an 0-2 pitch from Nebraska’s Jordy Frahm deep to left-center field for a solo home run, giving UCLA a 2-0 lead in the third inning of the Big Ten Championship Game. The senior broke the record she shared for one day with Arizona’s Laura Espinoza, who hit 37 home runs in 1995. Grant had tied the record on Friday. Nebraska defeated UCLA 7-2 to win the conference championship.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The presidential committee asked to find solutions for spiraling costs in college sports recommended creation of a task force to look at pooling media rights, limiting coaches salaries, and rewriting eligibility and transfer-portal rules, along with at least a dozen other ideas. A draft document of the committee’s proposals was obtained by Yahoo Sports. The committee wants Congress to quickly pass legislation that would create the task force, which would receive the antitrust exemption and the right to override individual state laws that the NCAA and other collegiate sports leaders are seeking. The committee is the product of a White House summit called by President Donald Trump in March.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — Jordy Frahm allowed one earned run in a complete game five-hitter and Nebraska defeated UCLA 7-2 to win the Big Ten softball championship despite a record-setting home run by UCLA’s Megan Grant. Grant set the Division I single-season home run record with her 38th of the season, a solo shot to left field that gave UCLA a 2-0 lead in the third inning. Nebraska bounced back with three runs in the third and two more in the fourth to take command. The Cornhuskers added two in the sixth for the final score. Frahm struck out eight and walked one.
UNDATED (AP) — The expansion of March Madness and the $300 million in extra revenue that comes with it through opening sponsorships to beer, wine and liquor companies offered a brief reprieve from the steady drip of headlines this spring that underscore the problems confronting college sports. Among them are the disbanding of tennis teams at Arkansas, new efforts to generate revenue in the Big 12 and at Duke and the ongoing issues surrounding the industry's new regulator, the College Sports Commission. Odds are those issues won't be close to sorted out once the buzz over the new 76-team hoops brackets, which debut next year, subsides.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — UCLA slugger Megan Grant has tied the home run record for Division I softball. She launched her 37th of the season on Friday. The senior matched the record Arizona’s Laura Espinoza set in 1995 when she sent a solo shot over the fence in the second inning of a 19-5 win over Wisconsin in a Big Ten Tournament semifinal in College Park, Maryland. Oklahoma's Kendall Wells has 36 homers this season and the race for the record could continue through the Women's College World Series.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Division I Football Bowl Subdivisions Oversight Committee has adopted a proposal that would loosen the constraints on conferences needing one or more of its 5-7 teams to play in bowl games. Under the proposal, if all teams with at least a 6-6 record have been selected, a conference can pick any team that has a minimum multiyear Academic Progress Rate score of 930 to fill bowl commitments. The committee’s action requires Division I Cabinet approval. Currently, if 5-7 teams need to be selected for a bowl, those teams become available in descending order of their multiyear APR.
ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) — The Big Ten joined the Southeastern Conference in crossing the $1 billion mark in total revenue for the 2024-25 fiscal year. And that marked a significant uptick in payouts to its member schools. The league reported roughly $1.47 billion in total revenue in its federal tax filing for the term running from July 2024 to June 2025. That was up from about $928.1 million in revenue the previous year. The league paid an average of $79.9 million to member schools receiving a full share. Oregon and Washington received reduced shares in their deals to join after leaving the Pac-12.
