College Athletics
Southern Conference adds ETSU, Mercer and VMI
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Southern Conference officials believe they have secured the league’s future – and hopefully reversed a troubling trend – by adding East Tennessee, Mercer and VMI as new members.
The conference announced Thursday that East Tennessee and Mercer accepted invitations while VMI’s addition must be ratified Friday by the school’s Board of Visitors, something considered a formality. The SoCon had been one of the most plundered leagues recently with five of its 12 members choosing to leave since November.
All three are expected to join in July 2014, giving the league 10 members for the 2014-15 academic year.
College Football
Playoff architects won’t pick the teams for participation
IRVING, Texas – The conference commissioners who put together the College Football Playoff will not be allowed to serve on the committee that selects the teams that will play in it.
The commissioners still are working on the structure of the selection committee for the new postseason system that starts in 2014. But they have eliminated themselves from consideration.
Paterno family and friends from PSU sue the NCAA
BELLEFONTE, Pa. – The NCAA is facing a new legal attack after the family of the late coach Joe Paterno was joined by former players and others connected to Penn State in a lawsuit seeking to overturn the landmark sanctions for the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.
Long rumored to be under development, the 40-page lawsuit filed Thursday tries to show that the NCAA and its top leadership overstepped the organization’s own rules in levying penalties against the football program with uncharacteristic speed, representatives for the Paterno family have said. They hoped it would raise new questions about the university’s internal investigation led by former FBI director Louis Freeh, along with how and why the NCAA used Freeh’s report as a basis for its sanctions in July.
NHL
Likely No. 1 overall draft pick signs a new deal
MONTREAL – With the NHL draft weeks away, projected No. 1 pick Seth Jones already has a new team.
Jones, Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin have signed deals to wear CCM equipment. They widely are considered by most scouting services as the top three prospects available for the NHL draft June 30.
Each player will wear CCM’s premium equipment as part of the deal, including the RBZ skate and RBZ Stage 2 stick set to launch July 19th.
The Colorado Avalanche have the No. 1 pick and are focused on Jones. The 6-4 defenseman met with members of the Avalanche scouting team Wednesday. He was spending the rest of the week at the NHL draft combine in Toronto.
The Florida Panthers hold the second draft pick, and the Tampa Bay Lightning are No. 3.
Drouin, Jones and MacKinnon join Reebok-CCM’s endorsees that already include Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog, John Tavares and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
Soccer
Italian club AS Roma to play this year’s MLS All-Stars
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Italian club AS Roma, led by U.S. star Michael Bradley, will play a team made up of the best players in Major League Soccer in the league’s annual All-Star game July 31.
Roma is the first Serie A club to play in the MLS All-Star game, which traditionally pits one of the top international clubs in the world against the best players in the United States.
The MLS All-Stars are 6-2-1 against international clubs, including Manchester United, Everton FC, Chelsea FC and Club Deportivo Guadalajara.
Roma, founded in 1927, views the All-Star game as an opportunity to expand its global brand.
Associated Press
