FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • WEdNEsday, MarcH 31, 2021
MEN’S COLLEGE
BASKLETBALL
OSU’s Tinkle gives
up big bonuses
Oregon State coaches
gave up their contractual
bonuses this year as part
of the cutbacks within
athletics in order to off-
set pandemic budgetary
losses.
For most, the financial
loss was minimal. Most
are tied to extraordinary
postseason performance
and season awards.
For men’s basketball
coach Wayne Tinkle, it
stings a little.
One of the largest in-
centives in his contract
are NCAA Tournament
appearances and success
within the tournament.
In the end, Tinkle gave
up $450,000 in bonuses.
Tinkle’s deal calls for
a $150,000 bonus if the
Beavers participate in the
NCAA Tournament. In ad-
dition, each win is worth
$100,000.
Oregon State won
three games and ad-
vanced to the Elite Eight,
losing to Houston 67-61
in Monday’s Midwest Re-
gional final.
There is no bonus in
Tinkle’s contract for win-
ning the Pac-12 tour-
nament championship.
Winning the conference’s
regular season title trig-
gers a bonus of $100,000.
Tinkle, who earned
$2.2 million this season,
didn’t go empty-handed
in the bonus department,
however.
Because the Beavers
earned an NCAA Tourna-
ment berth, Tinkle auto-
matically has a year added
to his contract. With the
additional year, Tinkle now
has three years remaining
on his current deal.
— The Oregonian
bendbulletin.com/sports
MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Elite 8 loss doesn’t end
the Beavers’ joy and pride
BY NICK DASCHEL
The Oregonian
INDIANAPOLIS — At
some point, it had to end.
Oregon State had hopes mo-
mentum from an unfathom-
able postseason would finish
with a net-cutting ceremony.
But only one school in the
68-team NCAA Tournament
gets to do that.
Oregon State didn’t willingly
let go. A winner of six consec-
utive season-ending elimina-
tion games — three in the Pac-
12 tournament, three at the
NCAAs — the Beavers nearly
had a comeback for the ages
Monday night.
OSU wiped out a 17-point
halftime deficit to Houston
and had the Cougars reeling
with four minutes left. But the
Midwest Regional title went to
Back to
the field
Megan Rapinoe returns to the
NWSL after a busy year fighting
for equal pay and more
BY JAYDA EVANS
The Seattle Times
M
egan Rapinoe touched down
at Sea-Tac Airport late last
Wednesday night with a
coveted trinket. The pen President Joe Biden
League increases
season to 17 games
used hours earlier to sign a proclamation of
— Associated Press
See Beavers / A7
Michael Conroy/AP
Oregon State’s Ethan Thompson (5) and Maurice Calloo (1) react to a
play against Houston during an Elite 8 game in the NCAA Tournament
at Lucas Oil Stadium on Monday in Indianapolis.
WOMEN’S SOCCER
NFL
The NFL is increasing
the regular season to 17
games and reducing the
preseason to three games
to generate additional
revenue for America’s
most popular sport.
Team owners on
Tuesday approved the
17th game as expected,
marking the first time in
43 years the regular sea-
son has been increased.
It went from 14 to 16
games in 1978.
The Super Bowl now
will move back a week to
Feb. 13, which places it di-
rectly in the middle of the
Winter Olympics in Bei-
jing. Coincidentally, NBC
has the broadcast rights
to both.
Each extra NFL game
will be an interconference
matchup based on where
teams finished in the pre-
vious season. AFC teams
will be hosting the 17th
game in 2021. Beyond
next season, the league
plans for some of the ex-
tra games to be at inter-
national sites.
“This is a monumental
moment in NFL history,”
Commissioner Roger
Goodell said. “The CBA
with the players and the
recently completed me-
dia agreements provide
the foundation for us to
enhance the quality of
the NFL experience for
our fans. And one of the
benefits of each team
playing 17 regular-season
games is the ability for us
to continue to grow our
game around the world.”
This year, the AFC East
will host the NFC East in
Week 17. The NFC West
teams will visit AFC North
clubs. NFC South mem-
bers go to the AFC South.
And finally NFC North
clubs take on the AFC
West. The full schedule
will be released in May.
Houston, as the Beavers left the
court with a 67-61 loss.
The reaction from Wayne
Tinkle was as you’d expect
from the seventh-year Oregon
State coach. Steaming because
the Beavers didn’t finish the
job, but over the moon with
the fight Monday night, and
the way it unfolded during the
season’s final month.
it being “National Equal Pay Day 2021” was
stuffed in her travel backpack.
“The pens always seem important,”
said Rapinoe, an OL Reign winger
and captain of the U.S. women’s na-
tional team.
She was joined by U.S. teammate
and NWSL rival Margaret “Midge”
Purce at the ceremony as Rapinoe also
testified before Congress about gender
discrimination.
The national women’s team filed a
gender-discrimination lawsuit against
the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) in
March 2019, seeking pay equity with
the men’s national team. The women
— a total of 50 dating to 2015 — are
seeking more than $66 million in
damages. A federal judge threw out
Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
United States’ Megan Rapinoe (15) and Argentina’s Marina Delgado (4) compete for a ball during a SheBelieves Cup
match last month in Orlando, Florida.
“We hear about equal pay or we hear about homophobia, misogyny,
transphobia and all these things. But that’s someone. For us (Rapinoe
and Purce) to be able to go and participate and put our face to it and our
words to it and our experience to it was incredible.”
— Megan Rapinoe, OL Reign forward and captain of U.S. women’s national team
the equal-pay claim but the players are
appealing.
“We hear about equal pay or we
hear about homophobia, misogyny,
transphobia and all these things. But
that’s someone,” Rapinoe said. “That’s
a human being on the other end of
that. For us (Rapinoe and Purce) to be
able to go and participate and put our
face to it and our words to it and our
experience to it was incredible. (The
pen is) a little memento, other than
the pictures and everything we have,
for me to kind of keep and hold dear.”
Thursday, Rapinoe drove from her
Queen Anne home to Cheney Sta-
dium in Tacoma to do a job that pays
her and her teammates less than their
male counterparts, including the
Sounders.
Rapinoe returns to the Reign fol-
lowing a 16-month absence after opt-
ing out of the NWSL season last year.
And while the pen she received will
join a figurative trophy case that in-
cludes two FIFA World Cup titles, an
Olympic gold medal, Golden Boot,
and NCAA championship, she has yet
to win an NWSL championship.
The 2019 FIFA women’s player of
the year has her eyes set on changing
that this season.
See Rapinoe / A6
NCAA
Supreme Court case could change the nature of college sports
BY JESSICA GRESKO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A Su-
preme Court case being argued
this week amid March Mad-
ness could erode the difference
between elite college athletes
and professional sports stars.
If the former college athletes
who brought the case win, col-
leges could end up competing
for talented student athletes
by offering over-the-top edu-
cation benefits worth tens of
thousands of dollars. And that
could change the nature of col-
lege sports.
At least that’s the fear of the
NCAA. But the former ath-
letes who sued say most college
athletes will never play pro-
fessional sports and that the
NCAA’s rules capping educa-
tion benefits deprive them of
the ability to be rewarded for
their athletic talents and hard
work. They say the NCAA’s
rules are not just unfair but il-
legal, and they want schools to
be able to offer any education
benefits they see fit.
“This is letting the schools
provide encouragement to be
better students and better ed-
ucated … in return for what
amounts to full-time jobs for
the school. What could possi-
bly be wrong with that?” said
lawyer Jeffrey L. Kessler in an
interview ahead of arguments
in the case, which are sched-
uled for Wednesday.
The former players have so
far won every round of the
case. Lower courts agreed that
NCAA rules capping the edu-
cation-related benefits schools
can offer Division I men’s and
women’s basketball players and
football players violate a fed-
eral antitrust law. The narrow
ruling still keeps schools from
“This is letting the schools
provide encouragement to
be better students and better
educated … in return for
what amounts to full-time
jobs for the school. What
could possibly be wrong
with that?”
— Jeffrey L. Kessler, lawyer
representing former college
athletes in a lawsuit against the
NCAA
directly paying athletes, but the
NCAA says it is a step in that
direction.
In an interview, the NCAA’s
chief legal officer Donald Remy
defended the association’s rules.
He said the Supreme Court has
previously found preserving
the amateur nature of college
sports to be an “appropriate,
pro-competitive justification
for the restrictions that exist in
the system of college athletics.”
The NCAA wasn’t happy
with the outcome the last time
its rules were before the Su-
preme Court. In 1984, the high
court rejected NCAA rules
restricting the broadcast of
college football. The justices’
ruling transformed college
sports, helping it become the
multi-billion dollar business it
is today.
This time, the justices will
hear arguments by phone as
they have been doing for al-
most a year because of the
coronavirus pandemic. And
the public can listen live. The
justices will almost certainly
issue a decision in the case be-
fore they leave for their sum-
mer break at the end of June.
A ruling for the former play-
ers doesn’t necessarily mean an
immediate infusion of cash to
current college athletes. Cur-
rently, athletic scholarships
can cover the cost of college
athletes’ attendance at college.
That includes tuition, housing
and books, plus a stipend de-
termined by each school meant
to cover things like travel ex-
penses and other incidentals.
What a ruling for the students
means is that the NCAA can’t
bar schools from sweetening
their offers to Division I bas-
ketball and football athletes
with additional education-re-
lated benefits.
Individual athletic confer-
ences could still set limits. But
Kessler said he believes that
if his clients win, “very many
schools” will ultimately offer
additional benefits.
See NCAA / A7