San Francisco Sports News

Moses Moody deserves better answers for the playing time that he's gotten.

Bailey became the first catcher to stop Jazz Chisholm Jr. this season.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants are awaiting a doctor’s visit to learn more about Alex Cobb.

The 36-year-old right-hander suffered another setback in his rehab this week. After throwing a bullpen session, he began to experience soreness and stiffness in his lat.

Cobb was scheduled to visit with a team doctor on Thursday, when the club returned to San Francisco after a 3-3 road trip against the Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays.

The Giants aren’t sure if Cobb will have to be shut down again.

“He was going along so fast, it’s just maybe a little hurdle he’s going through right now with some soreness,” manager Bob Melvin said. “He doesn’t seem too concerned about it.”

Cobb looked to be ahead of schedule after offseason hip surgery, but suffered a flexor strain in early April and was temporarily shut down. After starting to throw again, he progressed from playing catch to throwing a bullpen session, but after the bullpen session he felt just OK, Melvin said.

Melvin called it a “little bit of a setback.”

Cobb had a career year last season, when he was named an All-Star for the first time while throwing 151-1/3 innings with 131 strikeouts, a 3.87 ERA and 1.32 WHIP.

The Giants were hoping he could rejoin the rotation early this season.

For now, they’re going with Logan Webb, Blake Snell, Kyle Harrison, Jordan Hicks and Keaton Winn.

The Giants’ rotation had a 23rd-ranked 4.56 ERA entering Thursday, but Melvin said, “the rotation is not the problem right now.”

“Obviously, we feel like once Blake gets going and once Alex gets back, it’s a really good looking rotation,” the manager said.

At a Snell’s pace

Snell will get back on the bump on Friday after trying a career-high while allowing seven earned runs his last time out against the Rays.

Snell allowed multiple home runs in a game for just the 16th time in 193 career starts.

“He expects more out of himself,” Melvin said Thursday. “He wasn’t happy with the last time out. And it’s rare you see him get hit like that. He’ll walk some guys and maybe give up some stolen bases but it’s rare to see him get hit. He was not happy with his last outing and we expect to see improvement.”

Chalk it up to rust, as the 31-year-old lefty got a late start and has yet to get into Cy Young form. Melvin said these last two starts were akin to a pitcher’s first two starts in spring training. The Giants opted to put Snell in the big league rotation without any spring training appearances.

Slow starts aren’t unusual for Snell. He had a 5.40 ERA through nine starts with the San Diego Padres last year, then went 13-3 with a 1.20 ERA and 186 strikeouts in 135 innings the rest of the way, earning his second career Cy Young award.

“Some guys are just slow starters, and he’s been that way basically his entire career and he won the Cy Young Award last year,” Melvin said. “At some point in time, once he gets a game or two under his belt you’re going to see what he has to offer. But it’s obviously harder now based on the fact that he didn’t pitch in any spring training at all.  But he’ll lock in at some point.”

Lee back on top

Jung Hoo Lee was moved back to the leadoff spot Thursday after spending two games at the No. 3 hitter.

Lee hit third against a pair of lefties in Miami, but returned to his spot atop the order against Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Ryne Nelson.

Melvin said the move was less about Lee’s performance in the leadoff spot, where he’s posted a .311 on-base percentage and .644 OPS, and more about Melvin’s desire to get Austin Slater into the leadoff spot against lefties.

Slater is “a really good leadoff guy,” Melvin said. “Leading off is something he does really well. So it wasn’t as much about Lee as it was about Slater against lefties. And Lee has hit predominantly third in his career in the KBO, so he doesn’t care where he hits.”

Lee has collected a hit in his last nine games, but he continues to struggle to hit for power, with just three extra-base hits in 82 plate appearances.

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Odds and ends

The Diamondbacks started Joc Pederson as their designated hitter while hitting him third on Thursday. Pederson, 31, signed a one-year, $12.5-million deal with Arizona after spending the last two seasons in San Francisco, where he hit .255 with an .821 OPS.

“He knows what he’s doing and he knows how to play the platoon role,” Melvin said.

The Giants entered Thursday having not won two games in a row since their opening series.

They kicked off a 10-game homestand, their longest of the season, which will also include series against the New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Giants shortstop Nick Ahmed played parts of 10 seasons in Arizona, winning two Gold Glove awards in 2018 and 2019. He’s the longest tenured shortstop in Diamondbacks history (854 games). In San Francisco, he’s hitting .268 with a .656 OPS.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Warriors’ play-in loss in Sacramento was the story of Moses Moody’s season, and really the story of his career to this point.

Moody was out of Golden State’s rotation heading into the single-elimination Kings game. The 10th man in a nine-man playoff rotation, he’d been just edged out because of the matchup: The Warriors wanted Kevon Looney to play more than usual because of his defense against Domantas Sabonis. Rotations tighten in the postseason as star players ramp up their minutes, and Moody got squeezed out.

He’d been the odd man out all year. At one point this year, the Chase Center crowd had to beg for him to get minutes. Despite contributing whenever called upon, Moody was routinely leap-frogged by other players for minutes. In his third season, despite logging career highs in practically every counting stat, Moody had seven healthy DNPs and 11 more games with under 11 minutes.

When the Warriors fell behind Sacramento, Steve Kerr called Moody’s number. Off the bench, the Arkansas product scored 16 points in 15 minutes.

As he always has, Moody didn’t complain. The Warriors are lucky the 21-year-old is mature, because few players of Moody’s caliber have their opportunities so disconnected from their production. Most in Moody’s situation would gripe and fester.

“I think there’s a crowded field of people in Moses’ realm, where he is on our roster,” Kerr said when asked about Moody’s playing time. “There’s a lot of other guys. He’s a really good player and he’s a young player who still has a lot of room for growth.”

In his exit interview with Moody, Kerr told the young player that he needs to quicken the release of his jumper and his decision-making overall. There are times when Moody passes up open jump shots in favor of drives into a crowded paint, which can muck up a possession. On both ends, Kerr said, his decision-making needs to improve.

Any player, though, needs minutes to improve in such an area. Moody hasn’t been afforded that luxury, for the most part.

“He’s in his third year, he hasn’t played a ton, so you need reps to improve on this stuff,” Kerr said. “Yeah, I think next year’s a big year for Moses. I would love to get him out there more. But when you look at the roster, hey, there’s just a lot of people and we haven’t always been able to get him on the floor.”

Even as a rookie, Moody showed promise. In the Western Conference Finals against Dallas during Golden State’s title run, Moody played every game and defended Luka Doncic at times. The next season, he had two DNPs in the first month.

This year, Moody got a chance to start for four straight games when Andrew Wiggins was away for personal reasons. In that stretch, he averaged 12 points in 24.7 minutes per game, shooting 50% from the floor and 40% from 3. He guarded Knicks star point guard Jalen Brunson one game and Golden State went 3-1 with him in the starting lineup.

Ten days later, he was out of Kerr’s rotation again.

“If I get to listening to other people, then you can kind of feel like it’s a cycle to where like, oh, you don’t play, you play good, you don’t play,” Moody said. “That can be frustrating if you look at it like that, but that’s through other people’s lens. I’ve done something myself where I now don’t really look at things through other people’s perspective and understand it for myself and see the growth that I’ve made each year.”

General manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. said Moody “hasn’t probably played as much as we’d like.”

“So that will be something we’ll look at,” Dunleavy said. “I think it’s really important coming into Year Four for him that there is some reasonable playing time available for him where he can impact our team and be out there and continue to improve and I think that’s a fair thing.”

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One way to clear a path for Moody would just be to start him. The Warriors want to retain Klay Thompson and move him into somewhat of a sixth man role. Kerr mentioned Moody — as well as Brandin Podziemski and Jonathan Kuminga — as players currently on the roster who could supplant Thompson in the starting group.

As always, combinations are key. But the Warriors, even after three years, need a bigger sample size to see which groups Moody may or may not fit with.

“I will say it again, he’s one of the most high-character young players I’ve ever been around,” Kerr said. “The way he handles adversity, he’s just very practical, he’s been raised so well. He’s a wonderful young guy and I’m always pulling for him and I want him to succeed. Frankly, there needs, he needs more opportunity, for sure.”

Cal is headed to the finals of the NCAA women’s gymnastics championships for the first time in school history after finishing second in the semifinals 1 session on Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas.

Stanford finished third, 0.6375 points behind Cal. Only the top two teams from each semifinal advance to the Four on the Floor national championship round on Saturday.

California’s Mya Lauzon competes in the floor exercise during the NCAA women’s gymnastics championships in Fort Worth, Texas, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) 

No. 2 ranked LSU edged No. 3 Cal 198.1125-197.7125 to take the top spot. Arkansas finished fourth. Top-ranked Oklahoma, Alabama, and Utah are competing for the remaining two spots.

LSU and Cal ran 1-2 for most of the session. Cal’s Mya Lauzon and Stanford’s Anna Roberts tied for second in the all-around with scores of 39.6375.

Roberts won the vault with a score of 9.9500 and Lauzon tied for first in the balance beam with a score of 9.9500 and tied for third in the vault (9.9000).

Cal’s eMjae Frazier tied for third in the floor exercise and was sixth in the all-around.

Saturday’s national championship meet is at 1 p.m. and will be broadcast on ABC and ESPN+

 

Despite his many flaws — two suspensions this season, punching teammate Jordan Poole last season — Warriors star Draymond Green will go into the summer knowing that his longtime coach still has his back.

In his season-ending news conference Thursday, coach Steve Kerr called the team’s relationship with the volatile Green “complex” but added that he’s one of the most loyal, smartest and competitive players he has been around.

Kerr was asked if Green will be a changed person moving forward or if the team accepts that the veteran’s unpredictable behavior could lead to another suspension – like the ones he served this season for grabbing the neck of Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert and striking Phoenix’s Jusuf Nurkić.

What followed was a 738-word response from Kerr.

Here are the highlights:

“I have so much faith in Draymond because I know him so well as a human being,” Kerr said. “He’s flawed. We’re all flawed. But he would be the first to tell you he’s probably more flawed than the rest of us, right. I mean, he’s the one who has had these transgressions, not the other guys, it’s been him. He would be the first to tell you that.

“But he’s one of the most loyal people I’ve ever met. He’s one of the most competitive, he’s one of the smartest players I’ve ever been around. And yet he makes these decisions that hurt the team, that aren’t smart. So how do you reconcile all that? It’s really difficult.

“The No. 1 thing I would say is, if we decided he wasn’t worth it, you know, then we would have moved off of him years ago. But he’s worth it and he’s worth it not only because of the banners that are hanging out there, because he really is a wonderful human being. He is somebody who I love deeply, who I care for, and in some ways I love him because of his flaws, because he’s so human.

“What happened over the last year was it went from maybe him yelling at me and us getting into a tiff, or him getting ejected or him running up his technicals or getting a flagrant foul, to a, wait a second, it turned violent, you know, he punched Jordan, you know, he grabbed Rudy Gobert by the neck, he flailed at Nurc, like that stuff, that is, just by basic laws of society, basic norms, like, you can’t do that, right.

“So at that point, you know, when the League suspended him, it was the best thing to happen to Draymond. His career was on the line, and it is on the line every day. So, as someone who loves Draymond and values him so much, I am going to continue to help him any way that I can to live his best life, to be the best version of himself, which he really was for the last two months. I’ll be really honest, like during the suspension, I was sitting there, like, can he actually get a few sessions of therapy and change? I don’t think that’s possible.

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“But whatever he did over the last three months, he was the best version of himself, not just on the court, in the locker room, leading the young guys. His teammates would all tell you how great he was. He had the ejection in Orlando, which became a national story. I don’t know, maybe it’s just because I, you know, I understand him so well, I didn’t mind the ejection. I mean, yeah, it was bad timing, but if you want to embrace the fact that Draymond is this insane competitor who is just going to play with so much emotion and passion, which makes our team so much better, then you kind of have to accept, all right, he’s going to get kicked out a few games a year. That’s my approach. The other stuff, can’t happen.

“You know, the physical acts, that will cost him his career, not only in the NBA but beyond the next career. He knows that. So, that’s, you know, Draymond’s complex, his relationship with our franchise is complex, but at the core of it is a deep loyalty and passion and love, and we share that with him, and that’s really tricky to reconcile, so you almost don’t even try to reconcile it. You help him through it and you make sure he’s the best version of himself and you keep pushing. Then you say something’s unforgivable and then you forgive him for it. I mean, let’s be honest. But I think he did cross a line with the stuff that happened early in the season and he knows it. And his, you know, the rest of his career, he knows the League won’t allow him to cross, we won’t let him allow him to cross that line again.”

SAN FRANCISCO — The Warriors have an aging roster that just finished a middling season. They just paid a ludicrously large luxury tax bill with a team icon hitting free agency. They have a responsibility to compete for titles as long as Steph Curry remains great and a moral obligation to keep their dynastic core intact — possibly contradicting needs.

That sounds like a summer of migraines for Mike Dunleavy Jr. The Warriors’ general manager was disappointed to be sitting at a podium on April 18 rather than, say, June 18 for his end-of-season debrief.

After a quick opening statement, Dunleavy reiterated Steve Kerr, Curry and Draymond Green’s public desire to bring Klay Thompson back. He said he didn’t have any regrets from a quiet trade deadline. He said he believes the Warriors were closer to the top of the Western Conference than the bottom — even though they actually finished 10th.

The anticlimactic end to Golden State’s season is still fresh. But the real work for Dunleavy will begin soon. The twilight of a dynasty is in his hands.

“I think I probably operate off the saying: ‘There’s never a bad time to make a good decision,’” Dunleavy said. “So, doesn’t mean it’s not tough and you stir over it, but my job is to have the best interests of this franchise and the direction of this franchise and when I make a decision or we make a decision. So, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Golden State has an “unequivocal” need to improve, Dunleavy said. Especially if the Warriors keep their legendary trio intact, as they’re posturing, everything else must be on the table to get better. Trades, spending, strategy tweaks — the works. This season provided Dunleavy with clarity on what this roster is and where it’s heading, and his takeaway should be that simply running it all back isn’t a viable option.

Dunleavy is ready to navigate the offseason with that in mind.

“I think everything’s on the table in terms of how we play, how we want to do things,” Dunleavy said. “When you have a couple years, you know, we’ve missed the playoffs three of the last five years, so it’s fair to evaluate and make changes to things.”

The first order of business for the offseason will be Thompson. He wasn’t yet ready to dive into his pending free agency in his exit interview, but he’ll have suitors. He wants to win, to feel respected and to have a sense of happiness at this late stage of his career. The Warriors won’t be the only team to offer all three.

“Certainly we want Klay back, first and foremost,” Dunleavy said. “I expressed that to him yesterday. I think our players have expressed that, our coach, front office, ownership, look, everybody wants Klay back.”

Golden State’s preference of keeping Thompson will have to coalesce with its goal of shedding salary. Everybody knows it doesn’t make sense to field a $400 million lottery team. Majority owner Joe Lacob has been vocal about possibly dipping under the luxury tax threshold.

The Warriors are roughly $41 million over the tax. Thompson reportedly turned down a two-year, $48 million extension last winter. Both retaining him and cutting under the tax line would likely require him to take even less than that on an annual basis.

"Knowing what I know now, there's not anything on the table I would have done or gone through with."

Dunleavy on the Warriors' trade deadline approach and if he would have done anything different pic.twitter.com/kzKK5otJGy

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) April 18, 2024

“I wouldn’t say we’re at a point now where we’re saying we got to be out of the tax or we got to be under a certain apron or anything like that,” Dunleavy said. “We’re going to look at everything. I think if you’ve got a team that you feel can contend for a championship, you do what it takes financially… You know how Joe is with his willingness to spend and compete, I don’t think there will be any restrictions, but we’ll also be prudent.”

How to build a championship contender around Curry, Green and Thompson at this stage of their careers is the real question. It might not be possible. Golden State needs a reliable second scorer next to Curry. They need a shooter to supplant Thompson in the starting lineup and reduce his minutes. They need more athleticism to apply ball pressure and speed up their pace.

Some of those needs are on the current roster and under contract. Most are not.

The Warriors likely don’t have their first-round pick this year, but have two future firsts and multiple pick swaps to dangle in trades. Their best asset on the player side is Jonathan Kuminga.

The Warriors still believe in Kuminga, both short- and long-term. But unless he rapidly improves as a passer, off-ball defender and 3-point shooter, he won’t be his fully formed, prime self in the next two years — the two years that matter for the 36-year-old Curry, Green and Thompson.

If another team thinks Kuminga could be the next Paul George, Kawhi Leonard or Jaylen Brown, the Warriors should at least have the conversation about taking their best package and letting them see if they’re right.

“I think we have enough good players in our system, we have enough assets to acquire good players and we have the ability to keep getting better,” Dunleavy said. “So, given that, as long as those guys are still really good, like, yeah, I think we can contend and compete.”

Chris Paul has a non-guaranteed $30 million contract, so the Warriors can either waive him for cap relief or trade him. Andrew Wiggins is going to be the subject of trade speculation given the wing logjam. Perhaps Moses Moody would be more valuable to a rival team than in Golden State, where his role has yo-yoed.

If a star player fades out of the playoffs and demands a trade, the Warriors should make anyone available — including impressive rookies Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis.

“I think the premise of getting better, that’s what we got to look at, for sure,” Dunleavy said of a trade. “So, that will be taken into consideration. We also have to be mindful of the player who it is, the age of the player, the skill set of the player, it’s all got to fit to be able to put the chips on the table to make a move. So those are the things we’ll kind of look at and evaluate, but, yeah, there’s multiple ways to get better and that’s certainly one of ’em.”

A core of Curry, Green and Thompson is flawed. Curry has said, “I just want to win.” To grant him that wish, everything around the trio will have to click masterfully.

Beyond personnel, the Warriors may have to rethink their style. The Warriors play a beautiful game, but their motion offense of split-actions, floor-bending spacing and freestyling isn’t as novel as it once was.

In some ways, the league has caught up. Kerr, who has said that he didn’t do a good enough job putting some players in positions to score this year, has to adjust.

“I learned so much basketball from Tex Winter and Phil Jackson, and what Phil used to tell us is, ‘We don’t run the triangle for Michael and Scottie, we run it for the rest of you guys,’” Kerr said.

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“We can run anything for those guys and they will be fine, but we run it for the rest of you guys to help you make decisions, to help simplify the game. And I’m not going to run the triangle so don’t put that in a headline, but I need to create a simpler format.”

Dunleavy thinks the coach will be “open” to changes, though Kerr said, “philosophically, I don’t think we need a huge schematic shift.”

The Warriors struggled with guarding the 3-point line. They played slowly, ranking last in percentage of points scored on the fast break. Their mix of crashing the offensive glass and sprinting back on defense was askew.

They won 46 games and believe they should’ve probably won 50, but the West is only going to get better. Ja Morant will return for Memphis. Victor Wembanyama will be a problem for the next decade. Houston was already on the Warriors’ tails.

The Warriors’ currency is championships. Getting back to that level next year will require drastic change (and a healthy dose of luck). It’ll take risks and, most likely, sacrificing at least part of Golden State’s young core it believes in. All options must be explored — at the very least to improve, but really to give Curry another shot at a title run.

There’s never a bad time to make a good decision. But this summer is no time for indecision.

The San Jose Sharks feel they’re in a good position from a leadership perspective as they begin preparations for what will likely be another tumultuous offseason.

Before they traded him to the Vegas Golden Knights, the Sharks credited Tomas Hertl for the leadership he displayed throughout the first half of what has been a difficult season when the team was without injured captain Logan Couture.

Now without Hertl, and Couture still on the mend with a groin injury, the Sharks are pleased with how forwards Mikael Granlund and Luke Kunin have joined Mario Ferraro in filling the void left by Hertl’s absence. Kunin and Granlund became alternate captains, alongside Ferraro, earlier this year.

Defenseman Kyle Burroughs is also in that mix, Sharks coach David Quinn said.

“I think they have,” stepped up, Quinn said of his leadership group, on Thursday morning before the Sharks played the Calgary Flames in their regular season finale. “A, they saw that we needed it and B, I think they embraced the opportunity to be more involved in the leadership.”

The Sharks are hoping Couture can return to the team full-time after a condition called osteitis pubis prevented him from playing in all but six games this season.

But while Couture is signed for three more years through the 2026-2027 season, and defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic is signed for two more seasons, it’s unclear how much longer Granlund, Kunin, and Nico Sturm, will be with the team.

Granlund, 32, and Sturm, 28, are set to become unrestricted free agents in 2025, and Kunin, 26, is a pending restricted free agent, who could become a UFA next year as well.

For now, Quinn is happy to have those players here as some younger prospects start to come into the organization or continue their pro careers.

“You’re talking about really good people, guys that you can build around and win with that are vital in every locker room,” Quinn said, “no matter where you are as a franchise.”

Burroughs and Ferraro are signed for two more seasons. On Burroughs, 28, Quinn said, “He’s a guy that works hard and the guys have respect for, for sure. Everybody sees it, and that’s infectious.”

The Sharks will likely be bringing in some new faces this offseason as some pending UFAs such as Kevin Labanc, Mike Hoffman, and Alexander Barabanov might not be retained.

COOLEY BACK IN: The Sharks will start Devin Cooley in net for the second straight game, giving him the chance to end the season on a positive note after he was shelled for eight goals on 22 shots in Monday’s 9-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.

The Sharks did not offer Cooley much help in the first period Monday as the Oilers scored four times on 10 shots.

The onslaught continued in the second period with Cooley and the Sharks giving up four more goals on 12 shots, before Quinn switched goalies, inserting Georgi Romanov with 6:11 left in the second period. Romanov made 15 saves on 16 shots to finish the game as the Oilers let up to some degree.

The Flames are starting Dustin Wolf in net, as Thursday’s game marks the first time in NHL history that two goalies from Santa Clara County will start the same game. Cooley, 26, is from Los Gatos, and Wolf, 23, is from Gilroy.

Both spent countless hours at Sharks Ice in San Jose while in youth hockey.

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Wolf started against the Sharks on April 9 at SAP Center and made 20 saves in Calgary’s 3-2 overtime win. The Sharks started Mackenzie Blackwood in that game, and he stopped 38 of 41 shots.

Wolf, before Thursday, was 6-7-1 this season with a .891 save percentage.

More than a neat moment. though, the Sharks might want to get one final look at Cooley to evaluate whether he should be brought back next season.

Cooley, a pending UFA, entered Thursday with a 2-2-1 record and a .882 save percentage in five games with the Sharks since he was acquired from the Buffalo Sabres on March 8. Cooley has said he is open to returning to the Sharks, who already have Romanov, Blackwood, Vitek Vanecek, and Magnus Chrona under contract for next season, with the oft-injured Eetu Makiniemi a pending RFA.

Years of evidence leads to only one possible conclusion about the state of affairs in Salt Lake City: Utah’s athletic department budget, like its football team, can only be knocked off course by a health crisis.

On the field, a surreal spate of injuries last fall derailed the Utes’ pursuit of their third consecutive Pac-12 title.

Meanwhile, it took a global pandemic to interrupt Utah’s streak of profitable years.

The Hotline examined a decade’s worth of financial documents and found the Utes have reported an operating surplus for all but one year in that timeframe: The COVID year, 2020-21, which featured a truncated football season, no fans in the stands (or arenas) and greatly reduced revenue distributions from the Pac-12.

Utah reported a $31 million loss that year.

Otherwise, the athletic department has reported one operating surplus after another.

The latest profit was included in Utah’s financial report for the 2023 fiscal year, which the university submitted to the NCAA this winter.

The Utes booked a school-record $126.3 million in revenue against $124.5 million in expenses for a profit of $1.8 million.

They were one of five athletic departments in the Pac-12 to report a surplus, along with Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Cal. (USC’s financial data was not available.)

However, the NCAA allows athletic departments to book financial support from the university as revenue, and that support takes two forms: direct transfers from central campus to athletics; and student fees allocated to athletics.

The Utes received $10.2 million of the former and $6.1 million of the latter last year. The total campus support of $16.3 million was about $5 million more than in previous years and slightly above the conference’s average of $13.7 million.

But on a relative basis, the Utes were in reasonably solid shape.

When the campus support was removed from the revenue total, Utah showed an operating loss of $14.5 million. That looks bleak, if not dire, until you compare the figure to others across the conference: Only Oregon and Washington were in better position.

The Ducks reported an operating surplus of $3.8 million with zero direct support from campus while the Huskies showed an $8.7 million loss when their support ($10.3 million) was removed from the revenue total.

Utah’s record revenue in the 2023 fiscal year was powered, of course, by the football program, which generated $92.5 million in revenue — or 73 percent of the athletic department’s total intake.

That figure shattered the program’s previous high of $75.7 million in revenue, set in 2022, with year-over-year increases in royalties, parking and concessions.

Also, the Utes experienced a massive jump in revenue from contributions, which the NCAA defines as “amounts received from individuals, corporations, associations, foundations, clubs or other organizations designated for the operations of the athletics program.”

In other words, donations.

In the 2022 fiscal year, Utah booked $19.7 million in contributions, but the amount jumped to $29.5 million last year. The increase was largely the result of an increase in season ticket prices and the philanthropy tied to those tickets.

However, football expenses also increased, from $40 million in 2022 to $51.8 million last year. The main reason: an $8.3 million increase in debt service, leases and rental fees.

But that upturn was the result of a bookkeeping change, not a material increase in expense.

The Utes changed the manner in which they allocated costs, moving millions in expenses from the “non-program specific” category over to football.

The total outlay for debt, rental and leases only increased $100,000 from one year to the next.

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*** Send suggestions, comments and tips (confidentiality guaranteed) to pac12hotline@bayareanewsgroup.com or call 408-920-5716

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*** Pac-12 Hotline is not endorsed or sponsored by the Pac-12 Conference, and the views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the Conference.

 

 

By JAMI GANZ | jganz@nydailynews.com | New York Daily News

Taylor Swift’s Coachella weekend with Travis Kelce took the couple’s level of exposure to new heights as they partied among fellow music fans.

The Kansas City Chiefs tight end, 34, admitted on Wednesday’s episode of his “New Heights” podcast that he and the Grammy winner “probably could have finessed it” to party in private but he preferred to be in the crowd.

“I think it’s just that much more of an experience if you’re in the pit, man, if you’re in the madness with all the fans,” the three-time Super Bowl champ told his co-host, big brother Jason.

Photos and videos of the dancing and smooching couple have been going viral all week, in the run-up to Friday’s release of Swift’s 11th studio album, “The Tortured Poet’s Department.

“I love live music, man. … I don’t get enough of it in my life,” Travis said. “I really enjoy any event. I just like going to events, going places where people are, seeing talents. … Saturday was such a fun, fun day.”

Earlier this week, an insider told Entertainment Tonight that the couple was “so excited” to attend together and “wanted to be there to support their friends and just have fun.”

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“They had the best time and were in their own world even though so many people were around them,” the source said. “They are very in love and in sync in so many aspects of their lives, and it’s very sweet to see.”

The Coachella sighting came a day after Swift and Kelce were spotted enjoying a date night in Los Angeles at celeb hotspot Sushi Park.

Aside from dancing the weekend away, Swift has spent the past week dropping Easter eggs about her upcoming album, which is widely believed to center on the end of her years-long relationship with Joe Alwyn.

While their split was first reported last April, the actual timeline of their roughly six-year romance is hotly debated amongst Swifties.

By VIVIAN KWARM | vkwarm@nydailynews.com | New York Daily News

Four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles opened up Tuesday about the backlash her husband faced when comments he made about their relationship went viral. The former Olympian says the calls for her to divorce Jonathan Owens caused her to “break down.”

“I thought it was hilarious at first, and then they hurt my feelings,” the world-renowned gymnast, 27, said on the Apr. 17 episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast.

“And then one night, I broke down, and I’m like, ‘Why are you guys talking about my husband like this? Like, you don’t know him. You don’t know who he is. And if anybody’s met him, they know he’s the sweetest guy and will do anything for anybody.’”

Biles also felt the online comments got out of hand.

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“That really hurt that they were talking about my husband like that,” she continued. “Because for me, it’s like, ‘Talk about me all you want, but don’t come for my family — never.’ Because I’ve been in the limelight long enough where I can brush things off, have my little pow-wow about it. You’re not going to know I cried about it, but I be crying about some stuff. But I only cry about it because I can’t clap back. Just know that.”

In December, Biles’ football player husband broke the internet in a controversial interview with “Pivot Podcast.” Owens claimed in the episode that, when he met Biles on a dating app, he “didn’t know” who she was.

When co-host Channing Crowder asked, “How in the hell did you pull did you pull Simone Biles?” Owen’s responded: “It’s really how did she pull me, that’s the question.”

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Co-host Ryan Clark then asked, ” You was really the catch?” The Chicago Bears player doubled down: “I always say the man (is) the catch.”

Biles was in the room during the interview and is seen smiling and laughing during the viral interaction.

“I was feeling great. I was like, ‘My man just killed that,’” she told “Call Her Daddy” host Alex Cooper. “Whenever he did that interview, I thought everything was OK. And then I go on Twitter and everybody’s like, ‘Divorce this man! He’s mean!’ And I’m like, ‘He’s the sweetest. He praises the ground that I walk on.’ Like truly, I’ve never met a man like him.”

The gold medalist added, “First of all, that interview had nothing to do with me. It was all for him. So I think they were mad that he didn’t include me in the interview. But he has to have his moments too, and I let him have it.”

Following the viral interview, Biles responded to the online backlash tweeting to her followers, “Are y’all done yet?”

Meanwhile Owens also took to Instagram to let the world know he’s “unbothered.” In the Dec.21 post, he shared a photo of the couple at their wedding captioned, “Just know we locked in over here.”

Washington’s athletic department broke the $150 million mark in revenue last year for the first time in school history and reported an operating surplus, according to financial documents reviewed by the Hotline.

But the most significant money matter on Montlake wasn’t included in an 81-page report to the NCAA and is months away from unfolding … if it materializes at all.

The school is “evaluating options” for refinancing the debt on the Husky Stadium renovation, a move that potentially could free up valuable cash for operations as the Huskies transition into the Big Ten.

Washington’s $280 million renovation of Husky Stadium in the early 2010s relied heavily on debt provided by the university’s internal lending program (ILP) over a 30-year period.

The athletic department paid $12.3 million in debt service in the 2022 fiscal year, per the financial report submitted to the NCAA.

But that figure dropped by approximately $3 million in 2023 after Washington’s board of regents approved a temporary restructuring plan.

The new approach allows the Huskies to make interest-only payments through the 2025 fiscal year, according to the regents:

“Restructure ILP debt service so that fiscal years 2023 – 2025 are $3.1 million lower per year, leaving (athletics) to pay interest only during these years. The principal amounts will be amortized over the life of the loans.”

The interest-only window ends in the summer of 2025, but the pressure on Washington’s budget will not.

The Huskies begin play in the Big Ten later this year after agreeing to enter the conference, along with Oregon, at a steep discount.

The schools will receive half-shares of the Big Ten’s annual media rights deal with Fox, CBS and NBC.

Over the course of the six-year contract term, that discount will result in the Pacific Northwest powers receiving about $180 million less than their peers in the Big Ten, including USC and UCLA, which were granted full shares when they agreed to join the conference in 2022.

Every dollar UW saves on debt service could help offset the revenue disparity.

As a result, president Ana Mari Cauce’s office and the athletic department have been “evaluating options for debt service in both the near and long term as a part of (the) annual budget development,” per a statement issued to the Hotline by Cauce’s office.

Any restructuring of the debt beyond 2025, when the interest-free window expires, must be approved by the regents. UW plans to make its case at the June meeting “in conjunction with board budget approvals.”

The savings from a restructured payment plan are not publicly known. But if, for example, the new rate lowered UW’s annual debt service by the same amount as the temporary shift to interest-only payments ($3.1 million annually) — and if that process played out for the entirety of the Big Ten’s media rights deal — the Huskies would save about $19 million.

If funneled to operations, that would cover the salary for a top-tier offensive or defensive coordinator over the entire timeframe.

Other news and notes from UW’s financial report to the NCAA, which was submitted earlier this year:

— The Huskies were one of five schools in the Pac-12 that reported an operating surplus in the 2023 fiscal year, along with Oregon, Cal, Arizona and Utah.

UW booked $151.6 million in revenue against $150 million in expenses.

— However, the schools include financial support from campus as revenue, in accordance with NCAA reporting regulations.

Washington’s campus support, which took the form of student fees allocated to athletics and direct transfers from the university, totaled $10.3 million last year — the fourth-lowest amount in the conference.

Oregon received no direct help from campus while UCLA received $2.1 million in support and Washington State received $6.8 million.

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The total amount of campus support for the 11 schools was $150.5 million, according to an analysis by the Hotline. (USC’s budget was not available.)

— When campus support was removed from their revenue total, the Huskies showed an $8.7 million operating loss.

Only Oregon, which generated a $3.8 million surplus, fared better.

Arizona State, Cal, Colorado, Stanford and UCLA all produced shortfalls in excess of $30 million when campus support was removed from the revenue total.

— The Huskies declined to provide budget projections for the 2024 fiscal year, citing the changes in athletic directors and head coaches, the Pac-12’s negotiated settlement with the outgoing schools and the university’s new financial accounting system.

The combination has “created uncertainty in FY24 revenue/expenses that we are still actively reconciling.”

*** Send suggestions, comments and tips (confidentiality guaranteed) to pac12hotline@bayareanewsgroup.com or call 408-920-5716

*** Follow me on Twitter/X: @WilnerHotline

*** Pac-12 Hotline is not endorsed or sponsored by the Pac-12 Conference, and the views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the Conference.

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