Five-star recruit Jazzy Davidson, a top player in the women’s 2025 high school class, has committed to play for the University of Southern California, she told The Athletic on Tuesday.

The commitment is a major pickup for the Trojans, with the 6-foot-2 guard out of Clackamas, Ore., becoming their first 2025 commitment. Davidson will enter USC ahead of All-American star JuJu Watkins’ junior season, giving her a two-season overlap with Watkins, who enters this season as one of the best college players (if not the best) player in the country.

Five-star recruit Jazzy Davidson – a top player in women’s 2025 high school class out of Clackamas, Oregon – has committed to play for the USC Trojans, she tells @TheAthletic. Davidson, a 6-foot-2 guard, joins All-American star JuJu Watkins at USC. pic.twitter.com/jZNUJhRu2w

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 24, 2024

Davidson is a versatile leftie with an ability to score at all three levels. She can create off the dribble and is rangy enough on the defensive end to help create in transition, too. She told On3 this summer that she had narrowed her top six programs to UCLA, USC, TCU, Texas, UConn and Duke.

A commitment this early is impressive work for coach Lindsay Gottlieb, who has completely turned around the USC…

In a nod to its four West Coast newcomers, the Big Ten will hold its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in Las Vegas one time each in the next four years, the league office announced Wednesday.

The news comes eight days after Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti announced that Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium will remain as host of the Big Ten football championship game through 2028.

Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena will host the 2027 women’s and the 2028 men’s basketball tournament. The Pac-12, the former home of new Big Ten members USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, staged its men’s basketball tournament at T-Mobile Arena from 2017 to 2024; its women’s tournament had been held at other Las Vegas venues since 2019.

Other men’s basketball tournament future sites includes Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse in 2025 and ’27 and Chicago’s United Center in ’26. Gainbridge Fieldhouse also will stage the ’25 and ’26 women’s basketball tournaments, while Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena will host for the first time during the 2028 tournament.

“I’ve been really pleased in the interest from cities across, not just from the football side, but men’s and women’s basketball was just really good,” Petitti told The Athletic last week.

It’s a similar move to the…

Oregon women’s volleyball coach Matt Ulmer admits he was nervous but hopeful when the Big Ten announced the upcoming volleyball schedule.

“I had no idea what it was going to look like for the four West schools,” Ulmer said. “But at least at the end of the day, I think they did a really good job of keeping in mind not missing class.”

With Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA entering the Big Ten in August, the 18-team Big Ten stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans and across four time zones. Strategic scheduling and travel were more imperative this year than ever before for the Big Ten staff, especially for Olympic sports like women’s volleyball, of which each school has 20 conference matches.

To ensure the West Coast members avoid hardships beyond on-floor competition, the Big Ten office solicited feedback from its coaches on double-play opponents. In collaboration across the athletic departments, there was a goal to bunch together as many trips as possible and limit missed class time.

2024 #B1G Conference Volleyball Schedule Announced https://t.co/2hgUQ9gdq2

— Big Ten Volleyball (@B1GVolleyball) June 12, 2024

The West Coast schools all face one another home-and-home and split matches with the other 14 schools home or away. Those seven road trips east are…

The FBI released a 475-page document relating to O.J. Simpson on Friday. The pages largely focus on the murder investigation of Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. After a sensational criminal trial that mesmerized America for eight months, Simpson was acquitted of all charges.

Much of the 475 pages is dedicated to the FBI’s investigation into the Bruno Magli shoes that were determined to have been worn by the killer. The FBI traveled to Italy to investigate the shoes and found that only 296 pairs of size 12 shoes that matched the impressions found at the crime scene were distributed. Investigators were instructed to contact all 40 U.S. retailers of the shoes, first to seek any general information regarding their tracking of sales and later to specifically inquire about any recollections of O.J. Simpson as a customer or having sold shoes to a celebrity or a family member.

The remaining pages largely consist of memos and reports detailing evidence, including hair, blood and clothing samples, and references to photographs (the photos are not included in the documents).

Simpson was known early in his career for his prowess on the football field with the USC Trojans and Buffalo Bills, and later for the criminal and civil trials in the 1994…

RANCHOS VERDES, Calif. — Palm trees, a Pacific Ocean view and courtyard dinners at the Terranea Resort provided the backdrop this week for one of the Big Ten’s most important group of meetings in the league’s 128-year history.

More than 100 administrators, university leaders, faculty representatives and head coaches from the Big Ten’s 18 members and league office gathered at this plush, picturesque location to discuss an upcoming legal settlement that fundamentally will change college athletics. Those officials were sequestered with security for every function, ranging from outdoor meals to friendly mixers.

The topics weren’t limited to what’s known as the House v. NCAA case, which will cost the NCAA and its member schools $2.7 billion should it be approved. The league added a four-school West Coast wing starting this year, and the spring meetings were as much of a networking event as an opportunity to explore a path forward as a league and an industry.

“I think that we have a chance at this moment right now in college athletics to really reshape the model in the most meaningful way in our lifetimes and maybe the most meaningful way that has ever been,” said Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman, the new Division I Council chair. “How can we build this new…

The Oregon State players who departed after the team’s Elite Eight run have started to land on new teams across the country. On Monday, forward Raegan Beers announced her commitment to Oklahoma, and Talia von Oelhoffen announced her commitment to USC.

Their commitments come after the majority of Oregon State’s roster entered the transfer portal due to the Beavers heading to the West Coast Conference.

Raegan Beers

With Oklahoma — the Big 12 regular season champions — moving into the SEC, the Sooners were looking to grab a big interior player able to own the glass, and in Beers they got just that. As a sophomore at Oregon State, Beers averaged 10.3 rebounds and 17.5 points per game while shooting 66.4 percent from the floor. She had narrowed her choices to Oklahoma and UConn for her final two seasons of college basketball.

Beers joins a veteran group led by reigning co-Big 12 player of the year Skylar Vann (who is expected to return for her fifth season). Seniors Lexy Keys, Aubrey Joens and Naveah Tot are also all expected to use their COVID-19 seasons and with Payton Verhulst and Sahara Williams in the fold, the Sooners don’t just return their top six players, they now add one of the best bigs available.

With Beers anchoring the center, this spaced-out offense will have…

Former Stanford standout Kiki Iriafen is transferring to USC, according to ESPN. Iriafen entered the transfer portal just four days after former Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer announced her retirement. She was in the portal with a “do not contact” tag, insinuating she knew where she wanted to end up.

Now Iriafen gets to play her final year of collegiate ball at home in Los Angeles, teammates with another native Angeleno and powerhouse JuJu Watkins.

Iriafen, who’s spent the past three seasons with the Cardinal, had a breakout showing last year, averaging 19.4 points and 11.0 rebounds per game, helping the Cardinal to the Pac-12 regular-season title. Iriafen was given the Katrina McClain Award as the best power forward in the country.

She is an expected lottery pick with the potential to go No. 1 in the 2025 WNBA Draft.

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Iriafen had eyes widening at her 41-point, 16-rebound, three-block performance in the second round of the NCAA Tournament when Stanford squeaked by Iowa State in an 87-81 overtime win.

If teams didn’t have the 6-foot-3 forward on their scouting reports on March 23, they did by March 24. Iriafen paced Stanford in both points and rebounds in both the second round and Sweet…

Now that Caitlin Clark is a member of the Indiana Fever, it’s time to turn the page on the 2024 WNBA Draft and look ahead to what could be an even more talented class in 2025. This is the last group of players to be eligible for a pandemic bonus year, so the WNBA will have a true double draft of fourth- and fifth-year seniors, which will simplify the process for general managers who no longer have to wonder who will declare.

The relevant exception to that is the medical redshirt. Players still have an additional year of eligibility if they sit out for a season due to injury, as is the case with the top prospect on the board. However, the number of players who fall into that category is relatively small.

Given that the draft order isn’t set until after the 2024 WNBA season, which has yet to commence, this isn’t a mock draft. Instead, it’s a list of the top players without regard to team fit. This exercise also only considers domestic prospects, though we should expect internationals to factor heavily on draft day in 2025. After all, three non-NCAA players were taken in the first round of Monday’s draft.

GO DEEPER

WNBA Draft grades: Fever earn A for picking Clark, Sky receive C+ even with Angel Reese

Much is expected to change between now and then, but probably not the…

O.J. Simpson, known for his prowess on the football field with USC and the Buffalo Bills, and later for the criminal and civil trials in the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, died of cancer Wednesday, Simpson’s family announced via social media Thursday. The 76-year-old was recently diagnosed with cancer.

On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer.

He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren.

During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace.

-The Simpson Family

— O.J. Simpson (@TheRealOJ32) April 11, 2024

 

Simpson was arrested for the June 1994 killings of Brown Simpson and Goldman. The sensational criminal trial mesmerized America for eight months and ended with Simpson’s acquittal. At a 1997 civil trial, he was found liable for the deaths, in a decision that was so widely anticipated that it was broadcast via split screen just as President Bill Clinton began his State of the Union address.

When Simpson retired after the 1979 season, he ranked second to only Jim Brown on the NFL’s all-time rushing list. Simpson, who played for the Bills and San Francisco 49ers over his 11-year career, won the rushing crown four times…

How does women’s college basketball capitalize on this moment?

It was the question most frequently asked and answered at the Final Four last weekend in Cleveland, as the sport continued to break both attendance and viewership records. The growth in women’s basketball has been dramatic and quick; the 18.9 million people who tuned in for the South Carolina-Iowa national championship game was an 89 percent increase from the 2023 title game and an astounding 285 percent increase from 2022.

The women’s tournament was, by all measures, a triumph. But the teams whose success drove it did not receive money for their part of it. And so, as the sport turns its page to next season, focus has centered on the simplest and most straightforward piece of progress: units.

Each men’s team that participates in March Madness earns a sliver of NCAA Tournament revenue called a “unit” for making the field and then one unit for each subsequent win. First Four victories count, too. Each NCAA Tournament unit is worth just over $2 million and is paid out over the course of six years.

Women’s teams receive nothing for making or advancing in their NCAA Tournament. The disparity is tied to the men’s nearly billion-dollar media rights deal with CBS/Turner, as well as the history of the…