The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world:
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The Oklahoma athletics department has announced $13.7 million in budget cuts it blames on fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, including a 10% salary drop for any employee earning at least $1,000,000 per year.
Athletic director Joe Castiglione said the moves were the “first steps” in responding to the financial losses associated with virus outbreak. He warned other steps may be necessary.
The football team began voluntary workouts Wednesday. The Sooners said 111 players were tested Monday and there were seven additional positive tests after seven previously. In all, 14 Oklahoma players have tested positive along with two staff members. It said two players have since recovered.
Earlier this week, Michigan’s athletic department projected a $26.1 million deficit for the upcoming fiscal year. Many Wolverines coaches and other senior staff are taking 10% pay cuts, including football coach Jim Harbaugh and men’s basketball coach Juwan Howard
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Houston's Thabo Sefolosha is opting out of the NBA’s restart in Orlando, a person familiar with the decision has told The Associated Press.
The person spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity Wednesday because the decision hasn’t been announced.
Sefolosha is in his first season with the Rockets. He averaged 2.2 points and 2.3 rebounds in 41 games.
The 36-year-old is a 15-year NBA veteran who has also played for Utah, Atlanta, Oklahoma City and Chicago.
The Rockets are schedule to resume the season on July 31 against the Dallas Mavericks.
— AP Sports Writer Kristie Rieken reporting from Houston.
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Sacramento Kings coach Luke Walton says forward Jabari Parker has been cleared...
SEATTLE (AP) — Washington is reducing its overall athletic department operating budget by 15% for the 2020-21 fiscal year and all the school’s head coaches have agreed to minimum 5% pay reductions.
Athletic director Jennifer Cohen announced the moves Friday and said they will save the school around $13 million. She reiterated that the school intends to continue offering all 22 of its athletic programs.
“Like most organizations this pandemic has taken a real financial toll on our athletic department. We’ve done everything we could over the last few months to manage the cost-saving efforts as best as possible,” Cohen said. “As we look to the upcoming year we see challenges ahead, and we know that we need to implement additional mitigation strategies. And so these actions we’re taking in salary reductions and operating expense reductions, they’re painful, but they are absolutely necessary for us to have a collective path forward as an athletic department, not just for this year but for years to come.”
The overall operating budget reduction will save approximately $8.5 million. The school says an additional $5 million will be saved through cuts to the salaries of head coaches, assistant coaches (minimum 3%) along with two-to-four week furloughs for all professional, classified and union staff members, totaling 156 employees.
Cohen is also taking a 5% pay reduction.
All current vacant positions in the department will remain open until June 30, 2021, and any mid-year vacancies in noncritical positions will stay open for a minimum of three months.
It's uncertain whether these will be all the cuts needed with the unknowns around the college football season and what kind of revenue losses the Huskies might face if games are played without fans. During a Board of Trustees meeting in May, Cohen said the...
The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world:
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Caleb Paine, the only American sailor to win a medal in the last two Olympics, says he’s ending his campaign for the postponed Tokyo Games to focus on the America’s Cup.
Paine, of San Diego, rallied to win bronze in the Finn class at the 2016 Rio Games. It came after the Americans were shut out of the medals at London four years earlier.
He says he’s been talking with family members and mentors since the Tokyo Games were postponed a year due to COVID-19 and calls it a “very difficult decision.”
After medaling at Rio, Paine was named US Sailing’s Rolex Yachtsman of the Year, the highest honor awarded to American sailors each year. He's also a five-time World Cup medalist and recently won gold at the 2020 Hempel World Cup Series Miami.
Paine is a crewman with American Magic, the New York Yacht Club’s entry in the 36th America’s Cup. Competition is currently scheduled to begin with a preliminary regatta in mid-December in Auckland, New Zealand.
Two preliminary regattas in Europe were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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Five more Baylor athletes have tested positive for COVID-19, making it eight positives from among 109 tests conducted in the process of returning to campus for voluntary workouts and conditioning.
There was no breakdown by sport, but the school said of the eight athletes who tested positive, four were showing symptoms and the other four were asymptomatic. Some of the 109 athletes tested so far weren’t yet at the Texas school.
After reporting three positive results among 59 tests last week, Baylor’s updated numbers Monday included five new positives among 50 tests.
Under Baylor’s prevention and response protocols, including current CDC...
SEATTLE (AP) — Washington may have found its quarterback for the upcoming season after Kevin Thomson, the 2019 Big Sky Conference offensive player of the year, joined the Huskies as a graduate transfer.
Washington announced Thomson’s signing to a financial aid agreement Wednesday. Thomson was a third-team AP All-American at the FCS level last season, when he led Sacramento State to the second round of the FCS playoffs. Thomson finished tied for third in voting for the Walter Payton Award as the top offensive player in the country at the FCS level.
Thomson threw for 3,216 yards and 27 touchdowns, and added another 619 yards rushing and 12 TDs last season.
He is a 2014 graduate of Auburn Riverside High School outside of Seattle and started his career at UNLV before transferring to Sacramento State.
“We’re really pleased that Kevin is returning to play for his hometown school,” Washington coach Jimmy Lake said in a statement. “He adds a lot of experience to our quarterbacks room and should help raise the level of competition for everyone.”
Thomson is expected to be in a competition for the starting job with returning players Jacob Sirmon and Dylan Morris and incoming freshman Ethan Garbers. Jacob Eason started last season for Washington in his only season playing for the Huskies.
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