Sports briefs 8/6
Horse racing
A big change is coming to horse racing’s Triple Crown, with the Preakness Stakes moving to three weeks and a day after the Kentucky Derby and being run on Sunday for the first time.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and the Maryland Jockey Club announced the decision Wednesday. No Triple Crown race has ever taken place on a Sunday in the century-plus-old history of the series.
The shift marks a major change on the horse racing calendar, following significant debate and speculation. Except for 2020 during the pandemic, the Preakness has been on the third Saturday in May, two weeks after the Kentucky Derby, since 1950.
The aim is to get more Derby horses to participate in the second leg of the Triple Crown. For decades, it was normalcy but has become increasingly rare in recent years.
Two consecutive and three of the past five Derby winners have bypassed the Preakness to aim for the final jewel, the Belmont Stakes in June.
Golf
LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil announced an agreement Wednesday with a lead investor that would allow the rival league to forge ahead without the backing of Saudi funding while making players major equity holders.
“So many of them came because this was a good opportunity for them to make some money, and this second bite at the apple is equity instead of cash,” O’Neil said at a news conference at Trump Bedminster, site of this week’s LIV Golf New York event.
O’Neil was short on details, starting with the identity of the investor and how much money was involved. He said the lead investor “has signed a term sheet approved by our board, which will carry and fund LIV going forward.”
“It’s very good news for all of us,” O’Neil said.
LIV Golf New York is the penultimate individual event in a season that has been marked by upheaval, particularly the stunning announcement in March that the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia — the financial muscle of LIV since it began — is withdrawing funding after 2026.
One tournament in New Orleans already has been scrapped, and there are serious doubts the season-ending team event in Michigan on Aug. 27-30 will be played, particularly after reports the tournament has not even started preparing for it.
College sports
The Pac-12 and Mountain West conferences have finalized a settlement over “poaching” and exit fees.
The two conferences announced that all sides have reached final agreements to settle all pending litigation. The statement included Boise State, Colorado State, Utah State and The Board of Trustees of the California State University on behalf of San Diego State and Fresno State.
The Pac-12 and some of new the schools joining the conference filed a lawsuit in California in 2024, claiming the poaching clause the league agreed to when it signed a scheduling agreement for its football teams was invalid. The clause called for payments to the Mountain West of $10 million for the first team that left, with the amount increasing by $500,000 for every additional team — to a total of $55 million.
The Pac-12 had its motion to dismiss denied by Judge Claudia Wilken in November after the sides failed to reach an agreement in mediation last summer.
Colorado State and Utah State filed a separate lawsuit — later joined by Boise State — against the Mountain West seeking to avoid exit fees ranging from $19 million to $38 million.
Colorado State, Utah State, San Diego State, Fresno State and Boise State are set to leave the Mountain West and join the Pac-12 this fall.