Countless stadiums, arenas, golf tournaments and bowl games have sponsors in their titles. The world’s most prestigious soccer league was named the Barclays Premier League until 2016. Private equity firms currently hold ownership stakes in more than 60 North American sports franchises, according to Pitchbook, as well as many of the top soccer clubs in Europe.

But when news broke Thursday that the Big 12 is entertaining both a potential title sponsorship deal with insurance giant Allstate and a $1 billion private equity partnership, you could almost hear the collective reaction: “How dare they?!”

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Big 12 discussing PE investment, sale of naming rights to Allstate

Kirk Wakefield, a Baylor University marketing professor, had a much different reaction to the possible title sponsorship.

“You wonder why people haven’t done that already,” said Wakefield, who runs a research firm that studies sponsorship impacts for sports leagues and brands. “It’s such an obvious opportunity.”

USC sports business professor David Carter looks at the plight of the Big 12, which lags hundreds of millions a year in revenue behind the Big Ten and SEC, and sees private equity as a matter of Darwinian survival. To win national championships, Big 12 schools need to be able to spend like…

No criminal charges will be filed against an 18-year-old Idaho high school student who officials say admitted to shouting a racial slur at members of the University of Utah women’s basketball team, according to Coeur d’Alene chief deputy city attorney Ryan Hunter.

Prosecutors said the suspect, Anthony Myers, admitted to law enforcement that he yelled the racial slur and the explicit comment from his car on the night of March 21. But he will not be charged, Hunter wrote in a six-page decision released Monday, due to “insufficient evidence to establish probable cause” as well as a potential violation of the man’s First Amendment right to protected free speech.

Surveillance video reviewed by law enforcement revealed a man shouting the N-word from inside a silver sedan as members of Utah’s traveling contingent left a nearby restaurant and began walking back to the team hotel at the Coeur d’Alene Resort.

The police report from that night also stated that members of Utah’s group were met by three trucks that “aggressively” revved their engines in an attempt to intimidate, but Hunter wrote that after surveillance footage was reviewed, there was no evidence that any of the trucks shouted anything toward members of the team or traveling party.

Utah, a No. 5 seed in…

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.

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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…

The 2023-24 college season featured more star power than any in recent memory, and the good news for WNBA fans is that many of those players will be back on the court quickly. The 2024 WNBA Draft is on Monday, and several stars who dominated the national conversation during the college season will be taking their talents to the professional stage.

Every year, it boggles the mind how quick this transition is for collegians. Caitlin Clark will go from game-planning for South Carolina to being on the same roster as former Gamecocks great Aliyah Boston within nine days. There isn’t even enough time for a WNBA Draft Combine, so some team executives are working with incomplete information about height and wingspan.

As a result, the WNBA Draft, compared to its NBA counterpart, has always favored players who were able to produce in college rather than those who have the theoretical tools to succeed at the next level. We can project how a different team context will affect a player’s impact, but at a certain point, if they don’t have a high-level resume after four years, it’s hard to take a risk on them.

WHO WILL BE NEXT?

Draft Day. April 15th 2024. pic.twitter.com/D9vHv0TwdD

— WNBA (@WNBA) April 9, 2024

That’s why the draft is a great entry point to the WNBA for…

Idaho police investigating racist behavior directed at the Utah women’s basketball team two weeks ago said they identified an audio recording where the use of a racial slur “was clearly audible.”

The Coeur d’Alene Police Department is still determining the “context and conduct” associated with its use to determine whether a violation of the law occurred, it said in a statement on its Facebook page.

“While we’re still reviewing evidence, it appears the use of a racial slur occurred more than one time,” police said.

Detectives have collected 35 hours of video from businesses around where the incidents occurred and have audio and video that corroborates what members of Utah’s group reported, police said.

The incident occurred on March 21, ahead of Utah’s first- and second-round NCAA Tournament games hosted at Gonzaga in Spokane, Wash. The basketball team was staying in Coeur d’Alene, about 30 miles east of Spokane, because of a crunch for hotel rooms in the area.

Utah said the basketball team, band and cheerleaders walked to a restaurant for dinner and a truck revved its engine and a person yelled the N-word toward the team. After dinner, around 6 p.m. local time, two pickup trucks revved their engines and sped by members of the team, according to a police…

Last year’s WNBA season featured a historic MVP race between frontcourt players. Breanna Stewart, A’ja Wilson and Alyssa Thomas were separated by only 13 points, with Stewart winning despite not having the most first-place votes. A frontcourt player has won the award every year since 2014, with bigs playing significant importance in the modern WNBA. The frontcourt class in the upcoming 2024 WNBA Draft has the potential to impact the league immediately, with plenty of eyeballs watching to see who goes where.

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WNBA 2024 mock draft: Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers and Cameron Brink headline

The draft is less than three weeks away on April 15 in Brooklyn, just eight days after the national championship. In anticipation of the event, eight general managers shared their thoughts with The Athletic before the NCAA Tournament about the upcoming class. They were granted anonymity to allow them to speak openly. On Wednesday, we published their assessments on eligible guards, such as Caitlin Clark, Georgia Amoore and Jacy Sheldon. Now, they’re sharing their unvarnished takes on forwards such as Cameron Brink, Rickea Jackson and Angel Reese.

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Anonymous WNBA GMs scout guard prospects: Caitlin Clark will be ‘backbone of a franchise’

Following the tournament, we’ll release…

The Utah women’s basketball team changed hotels out of safety concerns before its first NCAA Tournament game after reporting that racist slurs were shouted at the team, according to Utes coach Lynne Roberts and a police report filed in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Utah played Saturday and Monday in Spokane, Wash., where Gonzaga hosted first- and second-round games. The team arrived at its hotel in Coeur d’Alene, about 30 miles east of Spokane, on Thursday. The alleged incidents occurred while the team was walking to and from dinner that night in Coeur d’Alene.

While the team, band and cheerleaders walked to a restaurant for dinner, a truck revved its engine and a person yelled the N-word toward the team, according to a statement from Roberts, Utah athletic director Mark Harlan and Deputy A.D. Charmelle Green. After dinner, around 6 p.m. local time, two pickup trucks revved their engines and sped by members of the team, according to the police report. The trucks then turned around and individuals inside yelled the N-word toward the team, according to a report from KSL.com, a Salt Lake City TV station.

Utah worked with the NCAA and Gonzaga to move to a hotel in Spokane on Friday, Roberts said Monday.

“For our players and staff to not feel safe in an NCAA Tournament environment,…

Today, we will finish our first-round NCAA Tournament previews with a look at the second day of matchups and potential upsets in women’s March Madness.

A reminder: Our statistical model Slingshot, developed with help from the Furman University Mathematics Department, begins by estimating the strength of all Division I teams according to their scoring margin per 100 possessions and their strength of schedule. We then adjust those basic power ratings for how strongly teams carry traits associated with successful tournament teams of the past. For underdogs, these characteristics generally include tactics that widen the variability of a team’s play, such as shooting lots of 3-pointers and working to force turnovers. For favorites, it’s just the opposite: Higher seeds cruise to wins when they cut risks and avoid chaos. Then we estimate matchup results. We still don’t have the same depth of historical data for women’s basketball as we do for the men’s side, but we’re getting there.

Now, on to Saturday’s games!

More Bracket Breakers: Upset projections for Friday games

Odds are from BetMGM. For more Underdogs, listen to Peter and Jordan’s podcast. For all our March Madness coverage, check out our content hub. 

No. 6 Syracuse Orange vs. No. 11 Arizona Wildcats

Upset…

First-round (and even first-weekend) upsets in the women’s NCAA Tournament are rare, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see thrillers from Day 1.

Since the women’s tournament expanded to 64 games in 1994, only one No. 16 seed has brought down a No. 1 seed: Harvard over Stanford in 1998. A No. 15 seed or No. 14 seed has never won a tournament game. But the 12-5 matchup remains spicy with 26 upsets through the years. Some teams (Florida Gulf Coast and Belmont) have become particularly adept at these.

The first weekend will also bring us interesting style and personnel matchups. Who will move on? Who’s March Madness dreams will end quickly?

Our experts pick the most fascinating first-round games to watch:

(All times listed are Eastern)

11:30 a.m. Friday, ESPN2

Grace Raynor:  The Spartans’ 22 wins are their most since the 2015-16 season, and they’ve hung right in with some of the best teams in the Big Ten this year, losing on the road to Iowa by just 3 points and Ohio State by 5. North Carolina, meanwhile, gave South Carolina one of its tougher games earlier in the season when the Gamecocks won by just 7 points in Chapel…

As college basketball players head to NCAA Tournament arenas on their team buses, many will slip on headphones, zone out to a song and absorb the vibes. Coaches also sometimes take a small moment from poring over last-minute scouting reports to escape to a melody filtering through their airpods.

These soundtracks, perhaps subconsciously, serve an objective, too. Music can settle our nerves — or pump us up. A specific banger can provide a dose of confidence. A sentimental song might remind us of our grand purpose. “Music is the shorthand of emotion,” Leo Tolstoy once wrote.

So as March Madness gets underway, The Athletic wondered what these tournament-bound stars will be listening to before they compete in some of the most important games in their lives. We asked women’s and men’s tournament players and coaches to share their pre-game playlists. Players’ tastes ranged from Nicki Minaj to Veeze to even Elvis Presley. Coaches ranged from Gospel to AC/DC.

You won’t achieve the same jump shot as these athletes by listening to their hype music, but these playlists will get you ready (from your couch) for tip-off.

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Women’s NCAA Tournament players’ mixtapes

JuJu Watkins

Guard | No. 1 USC

The brightest freshman in women’s basketball, Watkins has taken the Trojans to new…