The WNBA is continually growing, and that means with more eyes on the league, cities will continue their push for expansion teams.
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced in October that the WNBA is partnering with the NBA’s Golden State Warriors to bring women’s basketball to the Bay Area. Engelbert also announced that the expectation is that there will be 14 WNBA teams by 2025.
Yet, with Wednesday’s surprising news that a bid for Portland has been “deferred” over possible renovation concerns at the Moda Center, all eyes are turning to what future cities might still be good candidates for expansion.
The WNBA has shelved plans to bring an expansion team to Portland after discussions with local entrepreneur Kirk Brown broke down at the 11th hour.
Gooooood morning, Winners! I hope you’re well today. Happy Wednesday, folks. The week is halfway through.
Folks have been calling for expansion for years with the WNBA. Now, it seems like it’s actually happening.
While you were sleeping, news broke that the Golden State Warriors group headed by Joe Lacob is nearing a deal to bring a team to the Bay Area, according to Marcus Thompson of The Athletic. The team would be headquartered in Oakland but share the Chase Center with the Warriors.
Plus, it just feels like it’s time, doesn’t it? The league hasn’t expanded since 2008 when the Atlanta Dream entered the fold. Another team brings something fresh — especially by the bay where there’s a history with women’s basketball.
Now, look. There are some folks who harbor a bit of trepidation on the prospect of expansion for the league. Some players are included in that,Yahoo! WNBA reporter Cassandra Negley writes.
“When the CBA was signed in 2020, it increased the maximum base salary by approximately 84%. The salary cap did not rise proportionally, increasing by 30%. That created stratification and a middle subset of players [Kelsey] Plum said is getting squeezed because they aren’t being paid big dollars domestically, and they can’t spend their 6-8 months off playing overseas because of prioritization rules that go into full effect this coming spring.”
An extra team in the W would be great, but it admittedly wouldn’t solve any of those present problems the league’s players face. In fact, while it would get more players rostered and paid, it’d also open them up to some of those hardships, too.
But, look, with that being said, it’s hard to say no to expansion. It brings in another media market to the league and increases the size of the pie everyone is splitting. Lacob and company are clearly unafraid of spending big — just take a look at the Warriors’ luxury tax bill. That’s a huge plus and will go a long way for the future of the league.
Whether the WNBA is ready for it or not, expansion is coming. It’s best to just embrace it
— Speaking of Wilson, the Aces took a 2-0 lead against the Wings behind yet another 30-point game from the Defensive Player of the Year. She’s not a tear right now.
— The Liberty also tied their series with the Sun up at 1-1 and New York did it without a spectacular game from Stewart. That’s scary. New York still needs to win on the road in Connecticut now after dropping Game 1. We’ll see.
College Football is so petty this year
This entire college football season has felt like one big Jake Paul boxing match.
A lot of it stems from Deion Sanders and Colorado. Teams absolutely hate them — that much is clear. But that’s not where the cattiness stops. Let’s turn our attention to this super weird beef between Ohio State’s Ryan Day and … Lou Holtz. Yes, that Lou Holtz.
Day called out Holtz after Ohio State’s win over Notre Dame last week because Holtz said he thought OSU wasn’t “physical enough” and that Notre Dame was a better team. Holtz is firing back and doubling down.
“He doesn’t want to talk about Michigan and 0-2. He doesn’t want to talk about the big game coming up against Penn State and against Michigan again. He’s a great coach, he’s done a tremendous job, he’s a great offensive mind, he inherited an outstanding defensive coordinator from Oklahoma State … Ohio State’s a good football team, but I don’t think they’re a great football team, and he can go after me all he wants.”
Tell me that’s not WWE promo copy, man. I feel like Lou Holtz is going to walk out of the tunnel at halftime of Ohio State’s next game and all we’re going to hear is “BAH GAWD, THAT’S LOU HOLTZ’S MUSIC!” and all the lights are going to go out and it’s just going to be Holtz and Day standing face to face when the lights turn back on.
OK, Ohio State plays a noon game. So maybe the lights thing won’t work. But still! I know you see it.
This is great. Please, College Football, keep it up.
Steve Kerr is doing boy math
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Boy math is only having five starting spots available on your basketball team, but saying that you have six starters. Steve Kerr is doing a phenomenal job.
In all seriousness, Kerr was asked about what he’s going to do with the Warriors’ starting lineup this season considering the addition of Chris Paul.
“We basically have six starters, the way I look at it. Only five can go each night. I haven’t decided yet what we’re going to do. I want to see training camp, we’re going to try different combinations and take a look.”
To me, this problem is easy to solve. Just bring Chris Paul off the bench. His ego aside, the Warriors had the best starting lineup in the NBA last season. You don’t just break that up.
But there’s a reason that ego exists. Paul has also never come off the bench a day in his life. He has to be willing to make that sacrifice, and he doesn’t seem to be willing to at this point.
We’ll see how this problem solves itself. I don’t envy Steve Kerr at all here.
Quick hits: Taylor Swift’s NFL impact … The 23 best players under 23 … and more
In August, much was made of Notre Dame pushing for Stanford and Cal to join the ACC. The Atlantic Coast Conference initially didn’t have the votes to allow the two entry but Notre Dame kept pushing publicly and as a result, Friday morning saw Stanford, Cal, and Southern Methodist voted in as members to the conference starting in 2024.
As you can probably guess, the college football world on social media handled this well.
Here are a few of the best tweets and responses to the news of Notre Dame getting their push through, yet not having to join the ACC for football themselves.
A new report suggests that the ACC will meet again to discuss conference expansion.
As the 2023 college football season is here, the talks of expansion for the Atlantic Coast Conference is still a hot topic and momentum appears to be picking up.
Andrea Adelson reported the news Thursday stating that there will be a meeting but it’s unclear if there are enough votes to add the targeted teams:
ACC presidents and chancellors are scheduled to have a phone call Friday morning to discuss expansion again, multiple sources told ESPN.
While it remains unclear whether there are enough votes to add Cal, Stanford and SMU, there is hope for a resolution to the monthlong conversations. The presidents call was initially supposed to happen Monday, but was postponed after a North Carolina faculty member was shot and killed on campus.
Among the four teams to vote no were the North Carolina Tar Heels and all it will take is just one vote to flip. Adding the teams to the conference likely won’t do enough to keep Florida State and eventually Clemson from leaving but it is a start.
And this is something to monitor moving forward.
Follow us @TarHeelsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.
A pair of teams — or maybe more — could be added to the NBA in the next half-decade or so.
The Boston Celtics will likely have two new teams to play against in the medium-term future with NBA expansion rumbles starting to heat up. During the pandemic, it looked as if there might be new teams joining the league even sooner, but NBA commissioner Adam Silver made it clear a new collective bargaining agreement and media rights deal would need to be secured ahead of adding teams to the Association.
But now the league has a new CBA in hand, and it will soon tackle the media rights deal. That means a pair of teams — or maybe more — could be added to the NBA in the next half-decade or so.
Seattle seems a shoo-in, and Las Vegas, Nevada, seems very likely. Soon after this summer’s 2023 Las Vegas Summer League, NBA.com’s Mark Medina sat down with the hosts of the “Herd with Colin Cowherd” show to talk about what expansion would look like.
Check out the clip embedded above to hear what he had to say about adding Seattle and Sin City to the NBA.
According to a new report, the Big Ten is potentially looking at expansion, with the Oregon Ducks a leading candidate
The expansion of the Big Ten and the demise of the Pac-12 just took another step.
According to a report from Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports, the presidents of Big Ten members have begun preliminary talks about expansion with four premier Pac-12 schools, including Oregon, as probable targets.
Along with the Ducks, the Big Ten is looking at Washington, Stanford and California, which would create a 20-member superconference.
A inability of Pac-12 commissioner George Klivokoff to negotiate a favorable media deal has opened the door for the Big Ten to scoop up more schools. USC and UCLA are already moving to the conference ahead of next season. But losing four more teams would basically end the Conference of Champions to make way for a Big Ten West division.
A group of Big Ten presidents have begun exploratory discussions on expansion in light of Pac 12 uncertainty, industry sources tell Yahoo Sports.
Focus is on possibly adding Oregon and Washington to move to 18 members or Cal and Stanford to reach 20. https://t.co/0kJj4twFdq
After the Colorado and Prime Time acquisition, the Big 12 has declared war. Here’s 10 programs the Big Ten should pursue in response.
The Big 12 has declared war.
A formal resolution to arms may not have been drafted by the conference, but make no mistake about it. The Big 12 sees what’s happening across college football. It has seen the moves the SEC and Big Ten have made over the past year. The Big 12 will not idly sit by and wither away to a slow death while college football becomes a two-conference system.
Before anyone else had any ideas, the Big 12 hit the Pac-12’s newest rising star, Colorado. While the Buffs haven’t made any real noise in recent years on the field, they told everybody that they mean business by hiring head coach Deion Sanders. One of the most recognizable names in all of football, “Coach Prime” is exactly the type of figure who can bring Colorado back to its glory days.
Now, the Buffaloes are going back to the Big 12, a conference in which they experienced a lot of success in the early 2000s. It’s a power move by the Big 12 to grab Coach Prime before one of the other big conferences could, and it still has one move to make. It’s a bit of a risky maneuver, considering Colorado is going to have to reverse a mediocre tenure in the Pac-12, but it is a potential sleeping giant.
The Big 12 has taken its shot, now it’s time to aim for the head. Any self-respecting Big Ten fan knows now is the time to strike back for conference superiority. While the Big 12 congratulates itself on the coup, it’s time to show them how the big boys play. It starts by showing one of these schools the light and benefits that the premier athletics conference in the NCAA has to offer.
These are the top 10 expansion candidates for the Big Ten!
“”I think we have got a good chance of getting (an NBA team in Seattle) back in 2025-26,” said Payton.
Quite a few members of the wider Boston Celtics family have ties to the Pacific Northwest, from Bill Russell, Dennis Johnson and Bill Walton up to Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley and many others.
With rumbles of expansion rippling through the league and Commissioner Adam Silver strongly hinting that adding teams to the NBA is just beyond the process of wrapping up a new media rights deal, a return of the NBA to the state of Washington seems the most logical next step to take.
One person interested in seeing a revived Seattle SuperSonics franchise is former Celtics defensive menace Gary Payton, Sr., who recently spoke with Sports Illustrated’s Landon Buford about such a prospect and Silver’s words to such an end. “Silver is great as a commissioner, he knows what he’s talking about,” related Payton.
“We have already done the collective bargaining agreement; now we have to deal with the TV deal, which will be next year,” he continued.
New YouTube episode of the Celtics Lab Podcast via@CLNSMedia ☘️
How the new CBA will impact Boston's offseason, Jaylen Brown's extension, and more w/ capologist@YossiGozlan
The NBA has become a global game, with players from around the world and growing global viewership, making the possibility of expansion in the league into markets in Mexico and Canada a real possibility.
The NBA has become a global game with players from around the world and growing global viewership, making the possibility of the expansion of the league into new markets in Mexico and Canada a real possibility for the medium-term future of the Association
NBA commissioner Adam Silver recently sat down with the folks from TNT’s “Inside the NBA” to talk about the status quo of the Association at present and how new teams might be added to the league once more pressing issues like the full adoption of the new collective bargaining agreement and the looming media rights deal negotiations have been settled.
A combination of international players bringing talent and attracting global audiences and greater accessibility to the league via the new media rights deal could prime the NBA for expansion sooner than many of us may think.
Take a look at the clip embedded above to hear what Silver had to say about the league adding teams in the future.
There has been plenty of discussion as of late about expanding the field of 68 even further for the NCAA tournament. Recently Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga stated he was in favor of expanding the field to 96 teams. However, Dan Hurley has a different opinion on the matter.
“For me, I think it’s great the way it is,” Hurley said on Sunday. “I feel like devaluing the regular season, I think, potentially hurts the regular season and what it means. I think the pressure to have to win games and being rewarded for winning big nonconference games and then taking care of enough business in the league … I think it’s a privilege to play in this tournament, not a right.”
Hurley doesn’t believe that the selection is perfect but instead of expanding the field, perhaps they should look into how they select certain teams. There are plenty of deserving mid-major programs around the country. Just look at this year’s Final Four field. Florida Atlantic and San Diego State made improbable runs to the final weekend of the tournament. The Aztecs will take on Hurley’s UConn squad for the national championship.
“I do think, though, that there are probably mid-major programs, a lot of times, that are more deserving than like a 10th-place team in a power conference that has figured out how to just game the numbers, so I’ll say that. I see that on Selection Sunday sometimes. And I cringe at that.”
Whether fans agree or not, we could find out if the NCAA committee will expand the field beyond the 68 team format.
