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Why the F1 field could look a little different soon
The 2023 Formula 1 season has begun to take on an air of repetition. A race week begins, Max Verstappen looks dominant in practice, qualifies up front, and then pulls away from the field on Sunday. While there is hope that Mercedes might start to put some pressure on Verstappen and Red Bull, thanks to recent upgrades to the W14, only time will tell if their double podium in Barcelona was a one-off, or a sign that they have finally turned the corner.
Author: Michael
Nick Saban is headed to Washington, D.C. this week along with SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and other college officials. The group will meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to discuss the ongoing Name, Image and Likeness dysfunction. Also, representatives of NIL Collectives from various colleges will attend a summit in hopes of raising awareness to Congress members.
As we’ve seen over the past two year, NIL has turned college recruiting into more of a pay-for-play system.
Major League Baseball has a lot of bad umpires working games this year and one of the worst has to be Phil Cuzzi.
Cuzzi has been making the wrong type of headlines a lot so far this season and that continued Monday night when he made a number of awful calls while working behind the plate in the Cubs–Padres game in San Diego.
Cuzzi had a very hard time being consistent with his strike zone, which led to Cubs manager David Ross being ejected in just the second inning after yelling at the umpire following some bad calls.
Eight NFL teams reach the final step of their offseason starting Tuesay, with the opening of their mandatory minicamp.
And this is where I state the obvious:
The first goal of minicamp is avoid injuries. That’s more important than anything because players who get injured in minicamp are often not ready or not in the best shape when training camp begins five or six weeks later.
Beyond that, every team gets a snapshot of where it is at the end of the offseason. Minicamp measures how well the offseason answered roster flaws. And it speaks to where more work is required.
After officially becoming the owner of both the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury in February, Mat Ishbia’s pocketbook took a hit by the tune of $4 billion. Given the leap into the professional sports world, Ishbia has made some financial moves, with one being cutting off NIL funds to Michigan State.
Ishbia, who was a walk-on point guard for the Spartans, started a NIL program for athletes at his alma mater that allowed men’s basketball, football, and volleyball players to earn up to $700 per month.
In a close matchup, give me the reigning World Series champs plus money.
The Blue Jays (33-28) have the advantage at home tonight, with Kevin Gausman getting the start. Gausman is in the early conversation for AL Cy Young, having pitched to a 2.76 ERA with a 32.9% strikeout rate (top 8% of the league). The only issue is that Gausman has allowed a hard-hit rate in the bottom 19% of the league and a max exit velocity in the bottom 29%.
The Big Ten reportedly has taken a look at several major programs for possible expansion.
USC and UCLA will join the B1G next summer, and there’s little doubt there’s more expansion on the horizon. It’s not a matter of if more teams movie. It’s a matter of when.
The belief for months has been Oregon and Washington could be the next two up. It makes sense. The PAC-12 is in a very fragile state and Oregon and Washington are major brands. If the B1G is looking to expand and add some more west coast teams, the Ducks and Huskies are the clear choices.
When my esteemed colleague Conor Orr made 100 bold predictions for the 2023 NFL season last week, he included one of particular interest to me, Sports Illustrated’s resident Swiftie: Prediction No. 88 is that Taylor Swift will play the Super Bowl LVIII halftime show. That’s something I’ve wanted to see for years. But for the first time, it actually seems kinda, sorta plausible.
Beyond having a great quarterback, few things are more important in the modern NFL than having a shutdown corner.
Last year, the Eagles won an NFC title by having two in James Bradberry and Darius Slay. The duo is a strong reason to believe Philadelphia can get back to Super Sunday once more.
For other teams, their top-end corner will anchor a contender. Think Sauce Gardner with the Jets and the newly acquired Jalen Ramsey for the Dolphins. Good luck to the AFC East quarterbacks facing those two for a quarter of their schedules.
The Las Vegas Golden Knights took a 2-0 series lead over the Florida Panthers with a 7-2 victory at home in Monday night’s Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
It was an impressive victory in what was a very physical game between two teams that are each trying to win their first-ever title.
After the game, however, a jubilant Golden Knights fan took a major loss when he tried to get in a reporter’s live shot but was masterfully pushed aside by Samantha Rivera, who threw a strong stiff-arm, all while keeping with her report.