Sports briefs
NHL’s plan faces travel restrictions
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly tells the Associated Press he’s hopeful the decision to close the U.S. and Canadian border to non-essential travel for another month won’t “have a material impact” on the league’s discussions to restart its season.
Daly provided the response shortly after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the border restrictions will stay in effect through June 21. This marks the second time the border restrictions have been extended since first being put into place on March 18 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The extension of the restrictions comes at a time when the NHL and NHL Players’ Association are discussing plans on when the league can resume playing after the regular season was paused March 12.
The NHL has seven teams based in Canada.
Central Michigan drops programs
Central Michigan is discontinuing its men’s track and field program, citing university-wide budget cuts.
The decision affects both indoor and outdoor track. Athletic director Michael Alford says the school is facing “a new financial reality” because of enrollment challenges and the coronavirus crisis.
Elsewhere in the Mid-American Conference, Akron is cutting women’s tennis and men’s cross country and golf, and Bowling Green has dropped baseball.
NCAA postseason bans nearly double
The number of teams facing postseason bans because of low scores on the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate has nearly doubled in one year.
Fifteen teams face the most severe sanction next season or the season after compared with eight in 2019-20. Stephen F. Austin and Alabama A&M each had three teams on the list released Tuesday.
Any teams posting a four-year score below 930, which predicts about a 50% graduation rate, can be penalized. Scores are based on academic eligibility, graduation and retention. Each athlete receives one point per semester if they remain academically eligible and another if they graduate or return to school for the next term.
The NCAA announced last week that a record 1,266 teams had perfect scores of 1,000.
But these scores, which cover 2015-16 through 2018-19, shows seven teams in Division I falling below 900, with two each at Stephen F. Austin and Alabama A&M.
The men’s basketball team at Stephen F. Austin posted the worst score of any Division I team, an 810, while the Lumberjacks’ football program finished with an 894. Both programs, along with the school’s baseball team now face postseason bans.
Of the 23 teams facing penalties, which can include reductions in practice time and games played, 18 are from historically black colleges and universities. The other five: Chicago State’s men’s basketball, McNeese State’s football and the three teams from Stephen F. Austin.
Strong finish for ESPN’s ‘Last Dance’
In basketball terms, “The Last Dance” had a strong fourth quarter.
The last two episodes of the 10-part Michael Jordan documentary, strung out over the last five Sunday nights, averaged 5.9 million viewers, the Nielsen company said. It was simulcast on ESPN and ESPN2.
That’s easily the highest-rated documentary project ever for the sports network. It was also a desperately-needed bright spot for ESPN, which has been suffering because of the absence of live sporting events during the coronavirus pandemic.