Green Bay seeks NCAA approval to compete in The Basketball Tournament
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GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Green Bay is seeking NCAA approval to compete in The Basketball Tournament, an event that typically features former college basketball players and offers a $1 million prize to the winning team.
ESPN says that Green Bay is seeking an NCAA waiver that would enable it to compete in this event rather than going on an international tour. NCAA rules allow college teams to make an overseas trip to play in exhibition games once every four years.
Green Bay athletic director Josh Moon told ESPN that the request was about providing the team more opportunities to play and suggested the prize money could go to a charity if the Phoenix happened to win the single-elimination tournament.
According to ESPN, Green Bay made the same request last year but received a denial that arrived too late for the school to file an appeal. Green Bay went 4-28 last year in the inaugural season of Doug Gottlieb's coaching tenure.
The Basketball Tournament started in 2014 and often features teams of former college or pro players representing their alma maters.
This year's championship game will take place Aug. 3.
Colleges cutting sports programs
FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- Purdue Fort Wayne joined a line of schools dropping sports because of budget cuts and the looming era of revenue sharing with athletes, announcing Friday it would discontinue its baseball and softball programs immediately.
The university announced $6 million in budget cuts Thursday, and discontinuing the two sports will save about $1 million.
The Mastadons are members of the Horizon League and Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association and will sponsor 14 Division I sports.
Athletic director Kelley Harley-Hutton said budget challenges across the university, in combination with changes in the NCAA model, led to a re-evaluation of the athletic program.
Stephen F. Austin announced Thursday it would drop bowling, men's and women's golf and beach volleyball. Eastern Illinois announced on May 12 it would discontinue men's and women's tennis.
Berlin thinking 2036 Games
BERLIN -- Berlin is making a bid to host the Olympics again, possibly 100 years after the city hosted the 1936 Games under the Nazis.
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner is to present bid plans, with help from four other German states, on Tuesday at Berlin's Olympic Stadium.
The invitation sent on Friday to the presentation does not mention which Games the city is bidding for, but the next available edition will be in 2036 -- the 100th anniversary of the Berlin Games. The German Olympic Sports Confederation has said a German bid for the 2040 Games is also possible.
Los Angeles is hosting the 2028 Olympics and Brisbane the 2032 Olympics.
Berlin's Olympic Stadium, known as Olympiastadion in German, was built for the 1936 Games.
Isles hire new GM from Tampa
The New York Islanders hired Mathieu Darche as their general manager on Friday.
Darche joins the Islanders after spending the past six seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He has two Stanley Cup rings during his time as director of hockey operations and was also assistant GM to Julien BriseBois for the past three years.
The 48-year-old former player was considered the top NHL assistant who has never held a job running a team in the league.
Darche beat out more experienced executive Marc Bergevin for the job. He succeeds Lou Lamoriello in the role after the 82-year-old longtime executive's contract was not renewed.
He played 268 regular-season and playoff games from 2001-12 as a winger with Columbus, Nashville, San Jose, Tampa Bay and Montreal.