Digest: Big 12 directs commissioner to evaluate expansion candidates

College Athletics: The Big 12 presidents have directed Commissioner Bob Bowlsby to evaluate schools that are interested in joining the conference, stopping just short of announcing it planned to expand.

After a meeting of the Big 12 university presidents and chancellors on Tuesday, Oklahoma President David Boren says the conference leaders voted unanimously to take another step toward adding to the 10-member conference.

“I think it’s a statement that we want to move forward,” Boren said. “Yes, it’s a positive step. Not a decision yet.”

The Big 12 has been the smallest of the Power Five leagues since 2012. The conference has already announced it would bring back its football championship game in 2017 and likely break into divisions.

Numerous schools have been pitching the Big 12 behind the scenes for months, including American Athletic Conference members Cincinnati Connecticut, Memphis, Houston and Central Florida, along with BYU, Colorado State and others.

“We’ve been contacted by a number of institutions, and I would imagine after this news breaks we’ll be contacted again,” Bowlsby said.

The last big wave of realignment in the early 2010s nearly killed the Big 12. Colorado left for the Pac-12, Nebraska went to the Big Ten and Texas A&M and Missouri jumped to the Southeastern Conference. The Big 12 held itself together by adding TCU and West Virginia in 2012. That left the Big 12 as the only Power Five conference without a football championship game.

The league hailed its round-robin schedule as the way to produce “One True Champion,” but the slogan looked silly when the Big 12 finished the 2014 season with co-champions. Both TCU and Baylor were left out of the first College Football Playoff. Not having that 13th game to showcase the conference’s best teams the day before the playoff field was revealed put the Big 12 at a disadvantage. After that season, the Big 12 began to re-assess whether it needed to add a championship game, expand or both.

Bowlsby and the conference leaders decided not to react to one year’s results and instead studied expansion along with the possibility of bringing back its championship game and trying to start a conference television network.

Oklahoma reached the College Football Playoff as the Big 12 champion last season, tempering some of the conference’s nervousness about being left behind. Firms hired to crunch the numbers for the Big 12 told conference leaders that expanding and bringing back its championship game would increase the chances of making it to the playoff and boosting revenue.

Boren has been the leading advocate for expansion. He said the conference was “psychologically disadvantaged” by having only 10 teams. On the other side, Texas wanted to stay at 10 – and keep its own Longhorn Network in place.

In June, the Big 12 announced it would bring back the title game, but said starting a TV network was unlikely. Expansion also seemed unlikely coming out of those meetings. Even Boren was backing off.

But Monday, it was reported that ESPN will announce soon the creation of an Atlantic Coast Conference Network to start in 2019 that could also lead to a long extension of the conference’s grant of media rights. The grant of rights virtually locks conference members together. Boren acknowledged that the ACC news influenced the Big 12.

“We cannot just sit on the sideline and not be proactive ourselves,” Boren said. “As other conferences have grown other advantages have come to them. Financial advantages. Competitive advantage. Opportunities to play for national championships. We’ll be looking for other advantages to see how it works.”

Big 12 leaders have acknowledged that none of the available schools is a natural fit. None is guaranteed to deliver both highly competitive teams – especially football teams – as well as large new markets to increase the value of future media deals.

“We are looking for members that will grow over time as we grow,” Bowlsby said. “That bring stability. That have a high top end.”

Fever hand Sparks second straight loss

WNBA: Tamika Catchings had 23 points and four steals to help the Indiana Fever hand the Los Angeles Sparks their first two-game losing streak of the season in a 92-82 victory in Indianapolis.

Catchings made steals on consecutive Los Angeles possessions, leading to Erica Wheeler’s give-and-go layup and Lynetta Kizer’s baseline jumper for an 86-70 lead. Kristi Toliver hit her fourth 3-pointer of the fourth quarter to pull Los Angeles to 90-82 with 56.2 seconds left, but Catchings made two free throws on the other end.

After starting the season with 20 wins in their first 21 games, the top-ranked Sparks have lost two in a row.

Toliver finished with 18 points for Los Angeles (20-3). Nneka Ogwumike had 16 points and 14 rebounds for her 12th double-double and Candace Parker added 15 points.

Kizer and Wheeler each scored 14 points for Indiana (11-12), which is ranked No. 6 in the AP poll. Briann January added 12 points and nine assists.

Wheeler scored six points in the final 2 minutes of the first half, including a driving layup with 1.9 seconds left for a 49-40 lead. Indiana led the entire second half.

Sky edge Mercury in final seconds: Jessica Breland made a putback with 0.2 seconds left and the Chicago Sky won their second straight game in the final seconds in a 79-77 victory over the Phoenix Mercury on Tuesday night.

Candice Dupree hit a runner in the lane for Phoenix with 12.8 seconds left to tie it at 77-all. After a timeout, Elena Delle Donne missed a contested jumper, Imani Boyette had a bank shot roll out and Breland elevated for the winner.

On Sunday night, Delle Donne hit a 3-pointer with a second left to give the Sky a 91-88 win over Seattle.

Delle Donne had 18 points and nine rebounds for Chicago (11-12), ranked fifth in the AP power poll. Jamierra Faulkner added 14 points and Breland finished with nine points and seven rebounds.

DeWanna Bonner led seventh-seeded Phoenix (10-14) with 20 points and eight rebounds. Dupree added 18 points and eight rebounds.

MLS hascolumnist’s credentials reinstated

Soccer: Real Salt Lake says Major League Soccer has reinstated the credentials of Salt Lake Tribune columnist Gordon Monson after the organization pulled it last week.

RSL chief business officer Andy Carroll released a statement last week saying the credentials were revoked “due to the conflicts of interest and personal agendas” of Monson, who hosts a local radio show with Spence Checketts, the son of former RSL owner David Checketts.

Carroll released a statement saying, “At the behest of Major League Soccer and in accordance with league policy, Real Salt Lake has reinstated media access and related privileges to The Salt Lake Tribune columnist.”

Federer, Nadal skip out on Rogers Cup

Tennis: Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have pulled out of the Rogers Cup, leaving the Toronto tournament without three of the world’s top four men’s tennis players.

Tennis Canada announced the withdrawals Tuesday, a day after Wimbledon champion and world No. 2 Andy Murray said he would not defend his Rogers Cup title this year, citing fatigue.

No. 3 Federer is coming off a run to the semifinals at Wimbledon, where he lost in five sets to Canada’s Milos Raonic. Fourth-ranked Nadal has not played since withdrawing from the French Open after suffering a wrist injury.

“I only started practicing a week ago after my wrist injury and I am not ready to play such an important event,” he said in a statement. “I am very much looking forward to playing in Toronto in a couple of years since I have always been treated great in that tournament and have a lot of great Canadian fans.”

No. 1 overall seed to choose tourney site

College Basketball: The NCAA says the top overall seed in the men’s NCAA Tournament will be able to pick its location to play for the first and second round and regional sites.

The Division I Men’s Basketball Committee decided the geographic preferences would be made by teams in contention for the overall No. 1 seed far in advance of Selection Sunday. There is no indication whether the preferences will be guaranteed.

Teams will be able to choose from eight assigned cities for the first and second round.

The eight cities hosting the first- and second-round games in 2017 are Buffalo, Milwaukee, Orlando, Salt Lake City, Greensboro, Indianapolis, Tulsa and Sacramento.

The site selection adds an incentive for top teams to push for No. 1 overall beyond starting with presumably the biggest seeding in the 68-team tournament.

In previous years, sites for the round of 64 and 32 have often fed winners into two separate regionals.

Oregon, North Carolina can meet for Maui title: North Carolina and Oregon, No. 1 seeds from last season’s NCAA Tournament, lead their respective brackets for the Maui Jim Maui Invitational.

Joining the Tar Heels, who lost to Villanova in the NCAA title game, in the bottom bracket are Division II Chaminade, the tournament host and North Carolina’s opening opponent. The other first-round game is UConn against Oklahoma State.

The Ducks, who lost to Oklahoma one win shy of the Final Four, will face Georgetown in the first round while Tennessee plays Wisconsin.

The games will be played Nov. 21-23 at the Lahaina Civic Center. North Carolina is a three-time Maui champion (1999, 2004, 2008). Connecticut is the only other past champion in the field (2005, 2010).

Three of the winningest current coaches are in the field: North Carolina’s Roy Williams (3rd, 783), Tennessee’s Rick Barnes (8th, 619), and Oregon’s Dana Altman (11th, 564).