FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • THUrsday, JUNE 10, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
NBA
Blazers ink TV deal
with Root Sports
The Portland Trail Blaz-
ers’ television broadcast is
moving to a new home.
After months of nego-
tiation and speculation,
the team has agreed to a
four-year deal with Root
Sports to broadcast Blaz-
ers games, ending a 14-
year partnership with NBC
Sports Northwest.
The deal, which runs
through the 2024-25 NBA
season, will put Blazers
games in more homes
than ever, end a long-run-
ning public relations
nightmare surrounding
satellite television distri-
bution and elevate them
onto a regional network
alongside teams in mul-
tiple professional sports
leagues.
NBC Sports Northwest
had been the Blazers’
television home since
the start of the 2007-08
season, when the sides
signed a mammoth 10-
year agreement. But their
partnership encountered
problems from the begin-
ning because the network
— which is owned by
Comcast Corp. — could
never land distribution
deals with satellite pro-
viders DirecTV and Dish,
leaving thousands of Blaz-
ers fans two choices: ditch
satellite or ditch their be-
loved team. That nearly
15-year headache will go
away with the move to
Root, which is available on
cable and both major sat-
ellite providers.
As a result, the Blazers’
distribution footprint will
nearly double, expanding
from 1.1 million homes
to nearly two million in
the Northwest. The Blaz-
ers will also continue to
produce and control their
games and choose their
on-air personalities.
— The Oregonian
COLLEGE
BASEBALL
Is ex-Beavs skipper
headed to LSU?
Former Oregon State
baseball coach Pat Casey
may be headed for LSU to
replace retiring coach Paul
Mainieri, according to a
report.
D1Baseball.com re-
ports it has sources claim-
ing Casey, who won three
national titles during his
24-year Oregon State ten-
ure, has emerged as the
leading candidate at LSU.
Casey, 62, retired as
coach in 2018, and has
since worked in Oregon
State’s athletic depart-
ment as a special assistant
to athletic director Scott
Barnes. Casey is currently
under contract at OSU
through June 2022 and is
slated to make $630,000
during the final year of
his deal.
At the time of his retire-
ment press conference, an
emotional Casey was con-
flicted about retiring. He
wasn’t certain that he was
finished as a coach.
Casey was eventually
replaced in 2019 by Mitch
Canham. Oregon State
recently finished its 2021
season when it lost in
the Fort Worth Regional
championship game to
Dallas Baptist on Monday.
LSU won the Eugene
Regional on Monday and
takes on Tennessee in a
best-of-three Super Re-
gional this weekend.
Casey’s record at OSU
was 900-458-6. Combined
with a seven-year stint at
George Fox before taking
over at OSU in 1995, Ca-
sey has won nearly 1,100
games as a college coach.
Under Casey, the Bea-
vers won national titles
in 2006, 2007 and 2018,
and played in six College
World Series.
— The Oregonian
PREP WRESTLING
Aiming for more state titles
Culver, La Pine prepare for
final stretch of wrestling season,
including state championship meets
BY BRIAN RATHBONE • The Bulletin
CULVER —
O
n one hand, Tuesday night felt odd to
Culver coach J.D. Alley when La Pine
made the drive north to grapple on
the mats for a dual meet against the Bulldogs.
Graduation had already passed. The school
year is winding down and the week earlier
temperatures exceeded 90 degrees.
On the other hand, it felt completely
normal.
“When we turn off the lights here, that’s all it is, is
wrestling,” Alley said. “Me versus him.”
In a bout between two of the best wrestling pro-
grams in their respective classifications, the match
between Class 2A/1A Culver and 3A
INSIDE
La Pine came down to the heavy-
weights. Wylie Johnson’s third-
• High school
round pin gave the Bulldogs the 48-
scores and
results in
36 victory over the Hawks.
Scoreboard,
Culver once again, even in a
A6
shortened year, feels primed to make
another run at a state title, a feat the
program has accomplished 12 times since 2007.
“Are we in as good of shape? No. Are our funda-
mentals as good? No,” said Alley two weeks prior to
the 2A/1A state meet, which will be held at Sweet
Home High School. “This is our sixth match. Nor-
mally we have 18. It is what it is. But I wouldn’t trade
our team with any team, even the bigger ones, in the
state.”
The Bulldogs had their streak of six consecu-
tive state titles snapped last year. Finishing second
prompted this year’s senior class to continue to work
at their sport even though the season would extend
past their graduation date. They want to hang yet
another state championship team portrait in the
school’s gym.
See Wrestling / A6
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
Culver’s Christian Mattson-McKenzie, left, wrestles LaPine’s Dominick Evans during a dual meet at Culver High
School on Tuesday night.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
COLLEGE SPORTS
Lawmakers agree NCAA needs
NIL help, but how much and when?
BY RALPH D. RUSSO
AP College Football Writer
Ross D. Franklin/AP file
Oregon safety Verone McKinley III hits Iowa State running back Breece
Hall (28) during the Fiesta Bowl in January in Glendale, Arizona.
McKinley III the unquestioned
leader of Ducks’ secondary
BY JAMES CREPEA
The Oregonian
Verone McKinley III will en-
ter his third year as a starter as
the unquestioned leader of the
Oregon secondary.
He is the most experienced
of the Oregon Ducks’ defen-
sive backs and serves as the
proverbial quarterback of the
defensive backfield at field
safety.
Jordan Happle is a field
safety by trade and can also
play nickel. Jared Greenfield is
the future of the position and
could see a major uptick in
reps this fall.
Post-spring depth chart
Verone McKinley III: 5-foot-
11, 196 pounds, redshirt-soph-
omore
Jordan Happle: 5-foot-11,
205 pounds, graduate-senior
OR
Jared Greenfield: 6-foot, 181
pounds, freshman
Daymon David: 6-foot-1,
178 pounds, freshman
Mario Cristobal’s take
“Verone is a tremendous
blessing to all of us here and
those guys around him in the
locker room,” said Cristobal.
See McKinley / A6
A federal law governing
how college athletes can earn
money off their fame and ce-
lebrity seems certain to pass
— at some point.
There is no real debate
among lawmakers on Capitol
Hill about whether athletes
should be permitted to mon-
etize their name, image and
likeness.
“There is broad consensus
that Congress should pass a
law that grants athletes NIL
rights,” Sen. Roger Wicker
(R-Miss.) said Wednesday
during a hearing held by the
Senate Commerce Commit-
tee.
But less than a month be-
fore NIL laws go into effect in
several states, NCAA Presi-
dent Mark Emmert was back
in Washington renewing his
plea for help from Congress
— help that is unlikely to
come as soon as the NCAA
would like.
For some lawmakers, fed-
eral regulation of college
sports should not end with
NIL and the time is right to
tackle other issues — from
long-term health care and ed-
ucational opportunities for
athletes to more uniform and
enforceable safety standards.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., left, greets NCAA President Mark Emmert,
ahead of a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on student-athlete
compensation and federal legislative proposals to enable athletes
participating in collegiate sports to monetize their name, image, and
likeness, at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday.
“To race to just an NIL
bill and not address these in-
justices is tragic,” Sen. Cory
Booker (D-N.J.), a former
Stanford football player, said
before Emmert and five other
witnesses testified before the
committee.
Wicker wants to take a dif-
ferent approach, calling for a
“more focused bill on a faster
timeline.”
Emmert said the NCAA
plans to act on its proposed
NIL legislation soon.
“Preferably by the end of
the month,” Emmert said.
The Division I Council
meets June 22-23 and could
take action then, but only a
federal law can preempt state
laws in Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Mississippi and New
Mexico that are set to go into
effect July 1.
Earlier on Wednesday,
Connecticut became the
19th state to pass NIL legis-
lation.
See NCAA / A7