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From J. Brady McCollough: As the calendar turned to December 2022, the Pac-12 Conference was in a precarious position.
Six months after USC and UCLA announced they were joining the Big Ten and the Pac-12 began its media rights negotiations early in response, the 10 remaining schools did not have a new TV deal in place. Worse than that, the Big 12 jumped the Pac-12 in line with ESPN and Fox, agreeing in October 2022 to extend its current deal through 2030-31.
But Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff was working on another way to save the 108-year-old conference. Multiple sources not authorized to speak publicly about negotiations shared the following outline of the plan and Pac-12 leaders’ response with The Times.
Publicly, the University of California Board of Regents’ threats to force UCLA to stay in the Pac-12 and avoid hurting UC Berkeley were viewed as posturing, bluffs to get attention and possibly some money from the departing Bruins.
Privately, Kliavkoff was deeply engaged with a small group of regents about the framework of a deal that would lead to the regents voting to block UCLA’s move — even though the regents did not want to set a precedent of overturning a monumental campus-specific decision.
The regents did the math. UCLA was supposed to make $62 million per year from the Big Ten’s new mega media rights deal. The Bruins’ travel costs to compete in the Midwest-based conference were expected to be in the range of $10 million to $12 million annually. So, the regents gave Kliavkoff a magic number. If he could guarantee the Bruins $52 million annually during the five years of the league’s next media deal, the regents promised Kliavkoff a vote heavily in favor of UCLA staying in the Pac-12.
It was not going to be easy for the remaining 10 schools to stomach giving UCLA a much bigger annual revenue share. The Pac-12’s math said that a media rights deal for 11 schools — even with the Los Angeles market back under the conference footprint — was not likely to net $52 million for each school.
Not only did Kliavkoff need the Pac-12 presidents to sign off on the guaranteed money, but they would also have to take the leap of faith to sign a grant of rights binding the schools together without knowing the exact details of what their media deal would be. Lastly, the Pac-12 would have to pay the $15-million fee UCLA would owe to the Big Ten for breaking its agreement.
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REMEMBERING JIM MURRAY
From Bill Dwyre: Wednesday was a reminder of a day that will live in infamy in the sports department of the Los Angeles Times. Make that the entire city. It was on Aug. 16, 1998, that Jim Murray died. That’s an unthinkable 25 years ago.
There was never anybody like Murray. Never will be. He was part sports columnist, part Don Rickles and part Socrates. He wrote for The Times for 37 years and won his Pulitzer for commentary in his 30th year. The general reaction to that, at the paper, and around Los Angeles, was: What took the Pulitzer people so long? The problem was, sports writers didn’t win Pulitzers except if they worked for the New York Times. Still don’t. Only a writer the caliber of Murray could break the East Coast stranglehold. Now, the New York Times doesn’t even have a sports section. Ponder that, Pulitzer people.
Murray was 78 when he died, and in poor health. He went for a while without being able to see because he had a detached retina. That forced him to sleep at night with sandbags stabilizing his head. People with detached retinas are cautioned against quick movements of their head. For a while, he walked around with a pig valve in his heart. Yet, when he sat down in front of a keyboard, he was the Mighty Atlas.
Mike Downey, a much-decorated and respected columnist at The Times, wrote to Murray at the time of his Pulitzer announcement in 1990, saying: “If you think we are just going to sit here and accept the fact that we are never going to be half the sportswriter you are, well, all I have to say is, mister, you are right.”
Other heavy-hitters of that current-day sports writing industry weighed in similarly.
DODGERS
From Jack Harris: Usually, extended MLB winning streaks take a combination of luck and skill.
On Wednesday night, the Dodgers had plenty of both in an 7-1 defeat of the Milwaukee Brewers at Dodger Stadium, riding fortuitous bounces and well-timed breaks, but also more highly-productive star power, to their 10th straight win.
“Better to be lucky than good,” starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw said. “Sometimes, that’s the way baseball is. And sometimes, when your team is going good, it happens. So we’ll take it. I’ll take it.”
The Dodgers offense built an early lead, but only after benefiting from two swinging bunt singles from Will Smith and two catcher interference calls against J.D. Martinez in the first two innings.
They got a solid five-inning, one-run start from Kershaw, who was making his second outing since returning from the injured list, but only with the help of several strong defensive plays from Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts behind him.
Still, it amounted to another victory for the Dodgers nonetheless, moving them to 14-1 since the start of August and 10 games clear of the San Francisco Giants in the National League West standings.
“I don’t look at it, and I certainly don’t believe our players look at it, as August being the dog days [of the season],” manager Dave Roberts said. “I don’t think that we start to get tired mentally, physically and hold on. We’re trying to play through October. So, I think when you have a culture and team of that mind, we’ve got a long way to go.”
Dodgers’ Miguel Rojas had his Lamborghini broken into and burglarized after game
NL WEST STANDINGS
Dodgers, 73-46
San Francisco, 64-57, 10 GB
Arizona, 61-60, 13 GB
San Diego, 58-63, 16 GB
Colorado, 46-77, 28 GB
WILD-CARD STANDINGS
top three teams qualify
Philadelphia, 66-55
San Francisco, 64-57
Chicago, 62-58
Miami, 63-59, 0 GB
Cincinnati, 63-59, 0 GB
Arizona, 61-60, 1.5 GB
San Diego, 58-63, 4.5 GB
ANGELS
Angels left-hander Reid Detmers took a no-hitter into the eighth inning and two-way star Shohei Ohtani hit his 42nd home run as Los Angeles beat the AL West-leading Texas Rangers 2-0 on Wednesday night.
The Rangers got their first hit when Marcus Semien lined a double into the left-center gap with one out in the eighth on the 108th and final pitch by Detmers (3-9).
Reynaldo Lopez and Carlos Estevez then finished off the Angels’ eighth shutout this season. Texas, which entered the game with .273 team batting average and an MLB-high 1,138 hits, was held scoreless for the ninth time.
AL WEST STANDINGS
Texas, 72-49
Houston, 70-52, 2.5 GB
Seattle, 65-55, 6.5 GB
Angels, 60-62, 12.5 GB
Oakland, 34-87, 38 GB
WILD-CARD STANDINGS
top three teams qualify
Tampa Bay, 73-50
Houston, 70-52
Toronto, 67-55
Seattle, 65-55, 1 GB
Boston, 63-57, 3 GB
New York, 60-61, 6.5 GB
Angels, 60-62, 7 GB
Cleveland, 58-63, 8.5 GB
MAUI
From Chuck Schilken: Ilima-Lei Macfarlane’s upcoming Bellator women’s flyweight championship fight was announced Aug. 9, and it should have been an exciting moment for the Honolulu native who lives and trains in San Diego.
But all Macfarlane could think about was the devastation happening more than 2,500 miles away in Lahaina, Hawaii, where a wildfire started the day before and has become the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century.
“It’s a big announcement, and I just couldn’t be happy,” Macfarlane, the first Bellator women’s flyweight champion, told Fox News. “It was such a bittersweet announcement and I just can’t focus on this fight until I do something to try to help our ‘Ohana’ and our friends back in Maui.”
Macfarlane is one of several current and former professional athletes from Hawaii, or who have ties to the state, who are helping those affected by the Maui fire. More than 100 people have died and there are about 1,300 still unaccounted for, according to officials.
Macfarlane started a fundraiser that has raised more than $2 million.
RAMS
From Gary Klein: The Rams and Las Vegas Raiders held a joint practice Wednesday in Thousand Oaks and, predictably, a fight broke out.
It did not escalate into an all-out brawl, but hey, there’s always Thursday.
Observations from the workout:
Rams running back Cam Akers and Raiders defensive lineman Maxx Crosby exchanged punches: Akers is 5 feet 10 and 215 pounds, Crosby 6-5 and 255. That did not stop them from going at it after Crosby chased Akers about 25 yards down the field in an apparent attempt to strip the ball.
Both players spent the remainder of practice on the sideline, with Akers in street clothes. The Rams did not make him available to reporters.
“I didn’t see exactly what happened when there was a little bit of a skirmish but, got it separated, it wasn’t an issue and we were able to get everything that we wanted accomplished and that’s the important thing,” Rams coach Sean McVay said.
HORSE RACING
From John Cherwa: The Stronach Group said “there is a possibility” that it will keep Golden Gate Fields open another six months past its planned closing date in mid-December.
“We will do everything we can to keep it open for a short period,” Aidan Butler, chief executive of racing, told a California Horse Racing Board subcommittee Wednesday at a Del Mar hotel.
That would be a small concession to the horsemen and stakeholders who have vehemently objected to the Bay Area track’s announced closure after more than eight decades, a decision that was shrouded in secrecy until it was made public last month.
WOMEN’S WORLD CUP
From Kevin Baxter: Vlatko Andonovski has resigned as coach of the U.S. women’s soccer team less than two weeks after the team was eliminated from the World Cup in the round of 16, its earliest exit from a major competition.
A formal announcement from U.S. Soccer is expected Thursday.
Andonovski, who won two NWSL championships as coach of FC Kansas City, took over in the fall of 2019, months after the U.S. had won its second consecutive World Cup under Jill Ellis. Although he went 51-5-9 over four years — the five losses the fewest for a U.S. coach with as least 60 games on the sidelines — two of those losses came in the Tokyo Olympics. He won just once in four tries at this summer’s World Cup before being eliminated by Sweden on penalty kicks.
Andonovski was missing four starters to injury before selecting his World Cup roster but the team he did choose included 14 players who had never been to the tournament before as well as an aging Megan Rapinoe. As in the Olympics, where the Americans settled for its first bronze medal, the coach’s tactics and substitutions were roundly criticized in a World Cup in which the top-ranked U.S. nearly lost a group-stage game to Portugal and went the final 238 minutes without a score.
Schedule, results
All times Pacific
SEMIFINALS
Tuesday
Spain 2, Sweden 1
Wednesday
England 3, Australia 1
THIRD-PLACE GAME
Saturday
Sweden vs. Australia, 1 a.m., Fox
FINAL
Sunday
Spain vs. England, 3 a.m., Fox
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1933 — Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees plays his 1,308th straight game to break Everett Scott’s record of 1,307.
1938 — Henry Armstrong wins the lightweight title with a 15-round decision over Lou Ambers and becomes the only boxer to hold world championship titles in three weight divisions simultaneously.
1969 — Ray Floyd beats Gary Player by one stroke to win the PGA championship.
1995 — John Roethlisberger wins the U.S. National Gymnastics Championships’ all-around title in New Orleans, becoming the first gymnast in 28 years to win four titles.
1997 — Davis Love III shoots a 66 at Winged Foot to win the PGA Championship in Mamaroneck, N.Y., his first major title, by five strokes over Justin Leonard with a 72-hole total of 11-under 269.
2008 — At the Summer Olympics in Beijing, Michael Phelps and three teammates win the 400-meter medley relay for Phelps’ eighth gold medal, eclipsing Mark Spitz’s seven-gold performance at the 1972 Munich Games. Of his five individual races and three relays, Phelps sets world records in seven and an Olympic record in the eighth.
2008 — Jesus Sauceda of Matamoros, Mexico, pitches the fifth perfect game in Little League World Series history and the first in 29 years for a 12-0 win over Emilia, Italy. Sauceda also stars at the plate, going 3-for-3 with six RBIs, including a grand slam in the third.
2014 — Inbee Park successfully defends her title in the LPGA Championship, beating Brittany Lincicome with a par on the first hole of a playoff to end the United States’ major streak at three.
2016 — Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson completes the first 100-200 women’s Olympic double since 1988. Thompson wins the 200 in 21.78 seconds to become the first woman since Marion Jones in 2000 to win both Olympic sprints. Jones’ records have since been stripped, so Thompson goes in the record book along with Florence Griffith-Joyner, who starred in the 1988 Seoul Games.
—Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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