The college football transfer portal's 2022-23 cycle ended earlier this month, and athletes yet again used the portal at a record clip.
By the numbers: 8,699 NCAA football players entered the portal between Aug. 1, 2022, and May 1, 2023, per ESPN. That's a 5.5% increase over last year's then-record number (8,242) and more than double the tally from the inaugural 2018-19 cycle (4,076).
Major League Baseball, hoping to reverse a talent drain of African American players, is backing the Black College World Series for the first time this year.
Why it matters: MLB's sponsorship of the event, which starts Wednesday, is one way the league is attempting to dispel years of criticism over the lack of non-Latino Black players.
It was a weekend of racing in America, with the 149th Kentucky Derby on Saturday and the second annual Miami Grand Prix on Sunday.
Head-to-head: Unsurprisingly, the Derby won the TV battle in a landslide, drawing far more viewers (14.8 million on NBC) than Formula 1's first U.S. race of the season (1.96 million on ABC). But F1 more than held its own on another front: "The Battle of Celebrities."
The Los Angeles Lakers, who started the season 2-10, were in 13th place in the Western Conference at the All-Star break and needed to win a play-in game just to make the postseason, are now co-favorites to win the National Basketball Association championship at BetMGM.
