In Brief: Hurricane threat wipes out final Web.com Tour Finals event
Golf: The final event for players to earn PGA Tour cards was canceled Wednesday because of Hurricane Matthew, cutting short the four-tournament qualifying series and cost one hard-luck player his card by $392.
The Web.com Tour Championship was to start Thursday at Atlantic Beach Country Club.
Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry ordered an evacuation for the beaches near Jacksonville, Florida, including Atlantic Beach, and the PGA Tour felt it had little choice but to scratch the tournament so everyone could get out of town.
“It is unfortunate that we’ve had to cancel our season-ending event,” Web.com Tour President Bill Calfee said. “However, our first priority is the safety of our players, fans, volunteers and staff.”
The Web.com Tour Finals typically are held in four straight weeks. This year, the tour opted for a week off between the third and final event so that the Web.com Tour Championship would not go up against the Ryder Cup.
That left no time to postpone the final event by one week because the PGA Tour season starts next week at the Safeway Open in Napa, California.
Arkansas State slips by Georgia Southern
College athletics: Omar Bayless caught an 8-yard touchdown pass in the corner of the end zone with 9 seconds left and Arkansas State overcame five turnovers to beat Georgia Southern 27-26 in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
Down 26-20 with 2:41 remaining, Arkansas State (1-4, 1-0 Sun Belt) went on a 13-play, 70-yard drive – kept alive by Justice Hansen’s 18-yard scramble on fourth-and 16. Hansen also completed a 29-yard back-shoulder pass to Kendall Sanders with 18 seconds left and connected with Bayless on a fade route for the winner.
Arkansas State, which turned it over seven times in its last two games, fumbled on its first three drives. Georgia Southern (3-2, 2-1) recovered two of them and Joshua Moon intercepted a tipped pass later in the first quarter. In the fourth, Cam Echols-Luper muffed a long punt and Hansen threw his second interception.
Waiting on Matthew continues for Top 25 teams: Hurricane Matthew’s slow march toward Florida kept plenty of major college football teams guessing about their weekend plans, with schools still waiting to determine if moving or rescheduling games will be necessary because of the massive storm.
All games involving teams from the AP Top 25 this weekend were on as scheduled, including three being held in areas that forecasters believe could deal with Matthew’s wrath in the coming days – No. 23 Florida State at No. 10 Miami, LSU visiting No. 18 Florida and No. 25 Virginia Tech at No. 17 North Carolina.
Florida said a decision on its game would be made by 1 p.m. Thursday. Miami and Florida State were continuing to monitor developments and discussing contingencies, just in case.
Also still on: the Georgia at South Carolina football game on Saturday night, even though forecasters think Matthew could be directly affecting that area of the country this weekend.
NCAA proposes satellite camps restrictions: The NCAA wants to restrict when and where college football coaches can hold satellite camps and implement two early signing periods for high school prospects.
The two proposals by the Division I Council were recommended by the football oversight committee as part of comprehensive reforms to recruiting. The council also recommended allowing FBS schools to have 10 assistant coaches. The proposals need approval by the Board of Directors and would go into effect for the 2017-18 year.
Under the proposals, football coaches would be limited to 10 days of their choosing in the summer during which they could participate in camps with high school prospects.
NCAA faces 43 lawsuits: The NCAA is now facing 43 class-action lawsuits related to the handling of concussions by Division I football programs after 18 more were filed this week. The complaints also name college conferences and in some cases schools. The Chicago-based law firm Edelson PC has been filing the lawsuits in batches since May.
The players are seeking damages for injuries they claim are the result of mishandled concussions they suffered while playing college football.
Ex-Baylor official says school undermined probes: The former Title IX coordinator at Baylor University said Wednesday that top campus leaders undermined her efforts to investigate sexual assault claims and were more concerned with protecting the Baylor “brand” than the students.
Patty Crawford told “CBS This Morning” that the university set her up “to fail from the beginning.” Crawford, who resigned Monday from her role enforcing the federal standards meant to prevent discrimination based on gender, said she received “resistance” from senior leadership but did not identify those leaders.
Baylor officials marginalized her by leaving her out of meetings, undermining her authority and making decisions that should be left to a school’s Title IX coordinator, she said. The treatment led her to file complaints with both the university and U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights. Charges that she was the victim of retaliation are included in those complaints.
OKC beats Barcelona for without Durant
Miscellany: Forward Enes Kanter scored 24 points and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat Barcelona 92-89 in Barcelona, Spain, for their first win after the departure of star forward Kevin Durant.
Kanter drove for a lay-up with a minute to play to put the Thunder ahead for good to conclude their preseason trip to Spain on a high note after Monday’s loss at Real Madrid.
Murray sets up quarterfinal against Edmund: Top-seeded Andy Murray dispatched Andrey Kuznetsov 6-2, 6-1 in Beijing to set up China Open quarterfinal against his British Davis Cup teammate Kyle Edmund.
Both are playing their first tournaments since Britain’s loss to Argentina in the Davis Cup semifinals last month.
Bigger 2026 World Cup is a boost for CONCACAF: A bigger World Cup in 2026 will boost North America’s chances of hosting the tournament, the president of the CONCACAF region told The Associated Press. FIFA President Gianni Infantino earlier this week raised the prospect of adding another 16 teams to make it a 48-team tournament, a move that would reduce the pool of countries with sufficient infrastructure.
The World Cup was last staged in the CONCACAF region by the United States in 1994. The Americans are eager to get another shot at hosting in 2026, potentially linking up with neighbors Canada and Mexico.