Sports

Conference realignment

The Protect College Sports Act’s updated text, released Thursday night, softened the language around conference realignment, making it easier for programs to move from one power conference to another, as TV contracts among the power conferences are set to expire in the early 2030s.
Most of the bill’s text from early August remained, but the most noticeable tweak made public Thursday concerned conference expansion and realignment, which was initially designed to effectively freeze membership. The update weakened the text and now includes a six-year expiration window for schools in the power conferences to move freely without a waiting period.
The U.S. Senate voted 77-22 on Thursday to move the Protect College Sports Act toward debate and possible final passage next week. The bill still faces hurdles if it passes through the Senate next week, most notably midterm elections. Growing doubt now suggests the bill won’t be considered on the House floor before November.
The major sections in the updated text remained, including the $22.5 million retention fund for schools, to be combined with its revenue-sharing cap, set at $21.6 million for the 2026-27 academic year. But there were some important tweaks elsewhere, including the section on conference realignment that the power conferences pushed back on this summer.
Here’s a breakdown of what changed in the bill’s updated text:
Conference realignment
The bill’s most significant changes Thursday touched on conference realignment.
Initially, the bill required a school to serve a five-year probationary period as an independent before joining another power conference. The update dropped that number to three years as an independent or a member of a conference earning less than $700 million annually in revenue.
The most striking update: the provision expires after six years.
That means any program six years after the bill’s passage can leave a power conference (or any conference with $700 million in annual revenue) for another without serving a mandatory three-year buffer period outside of a power conference. Conferences remain capped at 19 members, giving the Big Ten room for one more program and the SEC up to three new members.
The bill contains a second, broader prohibition that the new text leaves intact, which appears to primarily target outside forces, such as private equity groups, from building a super league. Nobody, including outside investors, can buy up power-conference schools to build a breakaway league. A school that leaves the SEC is off limits to league builders for five years, and that rule never sunsets.
Why six years matters
The bill still faces hurdles and must pass the Senate and then the House, but if the President signs it into law, the six-year realignment provision would end around 2032 or 2033.
Those years matter, as that date falls smack dab in the middle of a slew of expiring media rights for college athletics’ largest conferences and postseason events.
Conference/Postseason event
Media rights expire
Big Ten
2030
Big 12
2031
NCAA men’s basketball tournament
2032
College Football Playoff
2032
SEC
2034
ACC
2036
The six-year rule covers the Big Ten and Big 12 renewals. The clock runs out around the CFP and NCAA Tournament negotiations. And the no-waiting era arrives before the SEC’s deal expires in 2034, long before the ACC’s deal with ESPN expires in 2037.
Realignment has always hinged on television money. In the 2020s, TV money (or the lack thereof) effectively killed the Pac-12 and expanded the Big Ten and SEC. Major Pac-12 programs Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington defected to the Big Ten, while the Big 12 absorbed four castoffs to offset the departures of OU and Texas to the SEC.
The bill builds a fence around the next wave of realignment, but takes it down before the decade’s biggest TV contracts go to auction. Concerns over exorbitant exit costs exceeding $500 million previously hindered schools like Clemson and Florida State from leaving the ACC, sparking intra-conference litigation that was ultimately settled.
In response, the ACC revamped its exit fee structure with a descending scale, lowering the penalty from $165 million to a flat $75 million by 2030, a timeframe that comfortably aligns with the bill’s six-year window.
Schools must graduate players to spend retention money
The proposed $22.5 million retention fund for players brought the Big Ten and SEC on board in August. It allows schools to spend above the revenue-sharing cap ($21.6 million) to keep their own players.
The new text attaches a condition that wasn’t there six weeks ago: a school that fails to hit graduation rate and academic progress benchmarks loses the fund entirely.
What those benchmarks will be, and whether they will follow current guidelines attached to systems such as the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate, is unknown. The bill leaves that up to the NCAA and the conferences to determine.
Athletes get faster route to court
The bill normally requires plaintiffs to give 30 days’ notice and allow time to fix a problem before suing. The new text drops that umbrella for cases involving physical injury, death, or sexual abuse or misconduct so that those complaints can go straight to court.
The bill also narrows the scope of state law it wipes out. The August version preempted states across its entire eligibility section. The new text names only four subjects: student status, academic requirements, professional status and years of eligibility. States keep more room on everything else, including drug testing, gambling and campus conduct rules.
Related changes allow states, schools and conferences to set tougher health and safety standards than the federal floor and put the NCAA on the hook for ensuring that members comply. Medical coverage requirements are now explicitly a minimum, not a ceiling.
Other tweaks
The bill still protects the five-year eligibility limit and the House settlement’s pay cap from older lawsuits unwinding them, while preserving past damages claims.
The congressional commission the bill creates takes on a new assignment: to study whether athletes should be able to hold a financial stake tied to their program’s value.
Its safety review must also now examine athlete injuries and deaths, and whether campus health officers can actually report independently.

Sports

College football scores, live updates: Ole Miss leading Lane Kiffin, LSU in second half

You may have heard that LSU is facing Ole Miss in Lane Kiffin’s return to Oxford on Saturday night. It’s easily the biggest game of Week 3.
Emotions will be running high not only because of the Kiffin factor but because this is a critical matchup of two top-10 teams.
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But there has already been one major upset as unranked Kentucky knocked off No. 9 Texas A&M 31-21 at College Station. Can Florida State also upset No. 10 Alabama?
In the ACC, No. 23 Louisville outlasted No 16 SMU 41-31 in an exciting matchup of conference title contenders and Clemson rallied to beat North Carolina 28-20.
And the SEC features an intriguing matchup of Florida at Auburn, a pair of 2-0 teams looking for bounce-back seasons.
Follow along as we track all of Saturday’s action at Yahoo Sports:

Sports

Great white shark suspected in death of grandfather-to-be at popular beach

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A “devoted” father and grandfather-to-be was reportedly killed by a shark this week while swimming at a beach in Australia.
Greg O’Neill, 63, was swimming at Sorrento Beach in the northern suburbs of Perth in Western Australia on Friday when the attack happened in front of horrified beachgoers.
“I couldn’t believe there was that much blood (that had) come out of a human body,” Ryan Rowe, a resident who went to the beach soon after the attack, told The West Australian newspaper.
AUSTRALIAN SURFER RISKED HIS LIFE TO SAVE FELLOW SURFER WHO HAD BEEN ATTACKED BY A SHARK
O’Neill’s death also prompted Australia’s fisheries minister, Jackie Jarvis, to make the rare call for a catch-and-kill of the great white, which is a protected species.
“In making that decision, I considered the exceptional circumstances of the attack, the hazard posed by the shark, and the potential recovery of coronial evidence,” she said.
MAN DIES AFTER ATTACK BY 13-FOOT GREAT WHITE SHARK NEAR POPULAR ISLAND RESORT: OFFICIALS
Police haven’t said if O’Neill’s remains have been found, but added they were confident the “swimmer died as a result of the attack.”
Witness Darrel Haythornthwaite told Nine Network television that O’Neill was swimming with a friend when he was attacked.
“I was just shocked. I mean, I feel for his mate,” Haythornthwaite said. “He’s apologized and said ‘I didn’t save my mate’ … I said, ‘You couldn’t have done anything.'”
AUSTRALIAN MOTHER HEALING WITH ‘BEAUTIFUL MESSAGES’ AFTER LOSING ARM TO SHARK ATTACK
O’Neill told ABC News Australia, “Our family is deeply shocked and devastated by the terrible tragedy that took the life of father, grandfather-to-be, brother, uncle, husband and friend, Greg James O’Neill.”
“He was a generous, devoted family man that gave his children so much love, care and opportunity. Greg loved the ocean and was known as a passionate swimmer, sports lover, dedicated worker and an all round generous, witty guy,” the family added. “The kind thoughts and support from everyone who has reached out are deeply appreciated.”
A surfer also suffered a serious leg injury on Monday in a shark attack about 250 miles north of Perth.
O’Neill was the fifth fatal shark attack this year.
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Sports

Australia shark attack victim identified as Greg O’Neill

A “generous, devoted” dad was identified as the victim of a deadly shark attack in Australia — triggering officials to issue a rare catch-and-kill order for the vicious great white.
Greg O’Neill, 63, was killed off the coast of Sorrento Beach in Perth, Western Australia, on Friday while swimming with his friend. His body hasn’t been recovered.
“Our family is deeply shocked and devastated by the terrible tragedy that took the life of father, grandfather-to-be, brother, uncle, husband and friend, Greg James O’Neill,” his family told ABC Australia in a statement.
“He was a generous, devoted family man that gave his children so much love, care and opportunity,” they said. “Greg loved the ocean and was known as a passionate swimmer, sports lover, dedicated worker and an all round generous, witty guy.”
Western Australia’s fisheries minister, Jackie Jarvis, took the “extraordinary step” to issue a rare catch-and-kill order — ordering authorized officers to “destroy the shark” if they capture it.
Catch-and-kill orders are controversial in Australia — especially since great white sharks are a protected species. This is believed to be the first one in about a decade in Western Australia.
Jarvis said she gave the go ahead due to the “exceptional circumstances” of the attack and the “hazard posed by the shark”
Authorities have closed all beaches in the area until at least Sunday and have described the killer shark as about 8 feet long, according to the BBC.
Police boats and drones were seen patrolling the area throughout the day Saturday.
Catch-and-kill orders have been historically divisive in the state.
Major protests erupted across the region in 2014 after sharks were ordered to be killed following a sudden influx of attacks.

Sports

Ole Miss fans open ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ with a vulgar chant for Lane Kiffin

It’s here. The game we’ve had circled since last November is finally here.
LSU and Ole Miss. Lane Kiffin,’s return to Oxford nearly 12 months after fleeing town on a jet right before the playoffs. He’s been in the safe haven of Baton Rouge all season.
Not anymore. Not tonight.
‘HE’S DUST’: OLE MISS STUDENTS RIP LANE KIFFIN AS LSU COACH PREPARES FOR HATRED IN OXFORD
Kiffin and the Tigers are in town ahead of tonight’s primetime showdown, and fans spent the morning warming up the vocal chords ahead of kickoff.
And by that, I mean they let Kiffin HAVE IT just 30 seconds into ESPN’s College GameDay.
LANE KIFFIN’S DAUGHTER DISGUSTED BY ‘VULGAR’ BED SHEET BANNERS ACCUSING HER OF HAVING SEX WITH A PLAYER
Take a … listen:
All eyes on Lane Kiffin today
Amazing. This is why college football is the best. Frankly, there’s not a close second in terms of atmosphere. Rebel fans are FIRED UP for tonight’s game. It’s personal for them. Oxford is buzzing right now.
The national guard is on hand. Police presence has tripled over the past few days. Hotel prices have soared into the quadruple-digits.
The Grove, by all accounts, has been mayhem.
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And it’s all because Lane Kiffin ditched town last fall, with Ole Miss on the cusp of a legit national title run, for LSU. It was the biggest story in sports for months.
“Would Lane leave?”
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Some thought he’d stay. Others thought he’d go to Florida. But, in the end, LSU was always the logical choice. And so, Lane hopped on his PJ, and left Oxford in the dust.
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Just like that, he was gone. And the fans were furious. Rightfully so, by the way. Kiffin built Ole Miss into a national championship program, and then bolted before finishing the job.
Tonight, he returns. All eyes will be on Oxford.
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LSU. Ole Miss.
If this morning’s College GameDay was any indication, maybe watch the game on mute if the kiddos aren’t in bed yet.

Sports

Week 2 NFL odds, picks, predictions: Computer model backs Seahawks and Buccaneers

Even those not on the West Coast could have a little more interest in making Week 2 NFL picks on either the Rams or 49ers. How those teams respond after playing in Australia last week is something that will be highly observed. Both are fortunate to have home games on the Week 2 NFL schedule, with San Fran hosting Miami on Sunday, and L.A. hosting the Giants on Monday. The Niners are 13.5-point favorites for their contest, which is the biggest NFL spread of the young season. Claim the latest Polymarket promo code CBSSPORTS to get a $50 bonus after $10 in trades:
The Week 2 NFL odds also have the Rams as heavy favorites, as they’re giving 7.5 points to the Giants, with Big Blue getting back-to-back primetime appointments. This pair of matchups are among the six games with a line of at least a touchdown, as the opening week clearly influenced the oddsmakers. All of the updated Week 2 NFL lines are listed below, and SportsLine’s advanced computer model has all the NFL betting advice and NFL predictions you need to make the best Week 2 NFL picks now.
The model, which simulates every NFL game 10,000 times, is up well over $7,000 for $100 players on betting sites on top-rated NFL picks since its inception. The model enters Week 2 of the 2026 NFL season on a 53-39 run on top-rated picks dating back to 2024. Anybody following its picks at NFL betting sites could have seen strong returns.
Now, it has turned its attention to the latest Week 2 NFL odds and NFL betting lines and locked in betting picks for every NFL matchup. Head here to see every pick.
Top Week 2 NFL predictions
We can tell you one of the model’s strongest Week 2 NFL picks for the best betting apps is that the Seahawks (-4, 40.5) cover at Arizona in a Sunday 4:25 p.m. ET kickoff. Seattle prevailed in the Kickoff Game last Wednesday, and the Seahawks are 6-1 against the spread when having a rest advantage since the start of the 2025 season. Though it’s not like the reigning champs need extra rest — or even QB Sam Darnold (out) — versus Arizona as the Seahawks have defeated the Cardinals in nine straight, going 8-1 ATS over this stretch. The Cards were impressive in upsetting the Chargers in Week 1, but the former still showed its flaws as its 111 penalty yards were the second most in Week 1. The Seahawks are forecasted to cover the spread nearly 60% of the time. See which other teams to pick here.
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Another one of its Week 2 NFL predictions: the Buccaneers (-8.5, 41.5) cover versus the Browns as Tampa is forecasted to cover in well over 50% of simulations. Perhaps no team looked worse in Week 1 than Cleveland, as the Browns allowed 34 points to Jacksonville, saw Deshaun Watson get sacked five times, and only managed a garbage-time touchdown versus backups. The Bucs disappointed themselves in a loss at Cincy but a return home should help as Cleveland’s 4-14 ATS road mark since 2024 is the worst record in the NFL. The model also has the Over hitting more thaan 60% of the time. See which other teams to pick here.
How to make Week 2 NFL picks
The model has also made the call on who wins and covers in every other game on the Week 2 NFL schedule and just revealed an underdog that outright wins by a touchdown, potentially giving you a huge payday. You can only get every pick for every game at SportsLine.
So what Week 2 NFL picks can you make with confidence, and which underdog should you lock in now? Check out the latest NFL odds below, then visit SportsLine to see which teams win and cover the spread, all from a proven computer model that has returned well over $7,000, and find out.
Week 2 NFL betting odds, lines, spreads, scores
Get Week 2 NFL picks at SportsLine