Briefs: Pac-12, Big Ten to compete more

Colleges: The Pac-12 and Big Ten conferences announced on Wednesday a plan to start regularly competing against one another in the hope that together they can increase their national exposure.

While the partnership is for all sports, the most noticeable changes will be seen in football.

The two 12-team conferences are aiming to create a 12-game interconference schedule by the 2017 season that would have each school play an opponent from the other conference every season.

Increased competition between the conferences in sports other than football could start as early as next year.

“From my perspective this improves the scheduling and creates more high-profile matchups,” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott (pictured) said.

“It gets us exposure into the Midwest and East Coast on the Big Ten media platforms, the Big Ten Network and ESPN.”

Associated Press

Late firefighter’s mom makes plea

Baseball: The mother of a Texas firefighter who died reaching to snag a baseball thrown by Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton this past summer said she wants the star player to keep tossing souvenirs into the stands.

SuZann Stone said that taking home a game ball is a special memory. Her plea to Hamilton was in a letter sent not long after 39-year-old Shannon Stone died when he tumbled over a railing and plunged 20 feet onto concrete July 7 during a game at Rangers Ballpark.

Shannon Stone was trying to catch the ball for his 6-year-old son, Cooper, who witnessed the incident.

The late firefighter’s mother says it would be a shame for Hamilton to quit tossing balls to fans.

“I just didn’t want him to stop,” SuZann Stone said. “How sad that would be, because that’s what little boys and their daddies go for. This was just an accident.”

Associated Press