📰🏟️ For Pete’s sake
Plus: 16-y.o. Premier League phenom...
Good afternoon. Today’s edition brings you the top news from around the sports world. Let’s get you up to speed.
—Kyle
1) Senate advances college sports bill
The Senate voted 74-24 Tuesday to advance the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act, clearing the 60-vote threshold needed to move toward final passage.
- The bill would lock in the current 22% revenue-sharing cap for players, worth ~$21.5M/school this year, while adding a $27.5M retention pool aimed at bringing some third-party NIL spending in-house.
- Athletes would get one transfer for their career without sitting out a year, and have up to five seasons of eligibility across a max of five years.
- A final Senate vote on the bill comes next, followed by an uncertain path through the House.
Is college sports regulation on the way?
📣 FULL-COURT PRESS
Headlines across the sports world
- ⚾ Milwaukee Brewers clinch fourth straight NL Central title, with ace SP Jacob Misiorowski lowering his MLB-leading ERA to 1.89 and raising his MLB-leading strikeout total to 243.
- 🏎️ Formula 1 unveils 2027 World Championship calendar, featuring a record-high 10 sprint races with shorter distances.
- 🏈 Texas QB Arch Manning issues apology after joking during media availability on Monday about an AI-generated video that shows Texas coach Steve Sarkisian slapping ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe.
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2) Pete Alonso smacks 300th HR, earns rare road curtain call
Pete Alonso picked a fitting place for career homer #300: Citi Field, where he spent 7 years becoming the Mets’ all-time HR leader before signing with Baltimore last winter.
- Alonso’s 9th-inning solo shot last night tied the game at 3-3, with Mets fans giving him a standing ovation and rare curtain call for a visiting player.
- Baltimore eventually won 7-5 in 11 innings, helping keep the Orioles’ slim Wild Card hopes alive.
- Only Ralph Kiner (329) and Albert Pujols (319) have hit more HRs in their first 8 MLB seasons than Alonso, per researcher Sarah Langs.
Alonso goes yard at his old yard
🌐 WEB GEMS
Interesting things to click
🎓💰 Big bag on campus: Does your college football roster cost $8M or $50M? The Athletic reports on 68 teams
⚽ Most 16-year-olds just need a ride to practice…Watch 16-year-old Max Dowman score twice for Arsenal to tie Wayne Rooney’s goals record (embedded clips).
⚾ To strike, or not to strike: I was an MLB GM. This is what is fair and unfair in the labor proposals.
3) Girls flag football is the fastest-growing HS sport
More than 102K girls played high school flag football in the US last school year, up from under 16K in 2021-22 (+551%), per the National Federation of State High School Associations.
- The number of participating US schools has jumped from 2,736 to 3,990 over the past year alone.
- 23 states plus D.C. now sanction girls flag football as a varsity sport, up from 12 states in 2024, while 40+ NCAA schools currently offer varsity programs.
- The surge in popularity comes ahead of flag football’s debut at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Girls football is planting their flag
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