Source: Pac-12 football could return in January

The Pac-12 Conference is discussing the possibility of football season starting in January, with multiple winter and spring options in play, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Six- and eight-game schedules were discussed in a meeting of coaches Friday, according to a person close to the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly divulge details. One model involves only games within a team’s division as part of a highly truncated season that would help the conference preserve a full 2021 fall schedule.

No decisions were made and any proposed schedule would need the approval of conference chancellors and presidents.

After initially pushing for a 10-game, conference-only schedule, the Pac-12 announced this month it was delaying the start of all fall sports, including football, to at least Jan. 1 because of concern over the coronavirus.

WNBA: Rookie Crystal Dangerfield scored 23, Napheesa Collier had 19 points and 12 rebounds and the Minnesota Lynx beat the Atlanta Dream 88-79 in Bradenton, Fla. The game was the first of three in the WNBA bubble after play was postponed the previous two days following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin. Chelsea Gray scored a season-high 27 as the Los Angeles Sparks beat the Connecticut Sun 80-76.

NHL: The playoffs took a two-day break to protest racial injustice, now it’s back to the ice as three second-round playoff series resume with Game 4s on Saturday. Tampa Bay and Boston meet in the East, as do the Islanders and Flyers, while Vegas and Vancouver fire back up in the Edmonton, Alberta, bubble.

Golf: Jackie Stoelting returned from a 14-month maternity break to take a share of the first-round lead in the LPGA’s Walmart NW Arkansas Championship in Rogers, Ark. Stoelting had a bogey-free 7-under-par 64 to join Anna Nordqvist and rookie Esther Lee atop the leaderboard. .”

• Patrick Cantlay carded a 2-under 68 to tie Rory McIlroy (69) for the 36-hole lead at 1-under 139 in the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship in Olympia Fields, Ill.

• South Africa’s Justin Walters shot 1-under 71 to keep the lead after the second round of the European Tour’s U.K. Championship in Birmingham, England.

Tennis: Naomi Osaka overcame a faulty first serve and reached the final of the Western & Southern Open in New York following a one-day break in the tournament prompted by her call for racial justice. After two days of little sleep, the two-time Grand Slam champion gritted out a 6-2, 7-6 (5) victory over Elise Mertens. Osaka next will play Victoria Azarenka, who beat Johanna Konta 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.

• On the men’s side, No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic fought off neck problems and beat Roberto Bautista Agut 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (0) to reach the Western & Southern final. He will play Milos Raonic, a 7-6 (5), 6-3 winner over No. 4 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

NASCAR: Justin Haley won the Xfinity Series race at Daytona after his teammates, including Los Gatos’ AJ Allmendinger, wrecked on the final lap.