NCAA President Charlie Baker said Thursday he sees value in expanding the NCAA Tournament by a handful of basketball teams and wants to reach a decision on the matter in the next few months.

Baker spoke during Big 12 spring meetings in Orlando, Fla., where conference leaders are discussing everything from the multibillion-dollar revenue-sharing House settlement to complexities brought on by the transfer portal and name, image and likeness compensation.

Baker discussed the idea of expanding from 68 teams to 72 or 76.

“We’ve had good conversations with CBS and WBD,” Baker said, referring to Warner Bros. Discovery, whose holdings include the Turner networks that air NCAA Tournament games. “Our goal here is to try to sort of get to either yes or no sometime in the next few months because there’s a lot of logistical work that would be associated with doing this. If we were to go down this road, you just think about the opening weekends, who has to travel the longest, it gets complicated.”

The NCAA Tournament expanded from 64 to 68 teams in 2011. The change introduced the First Four round, a set of pre-tournament games in which the four lowest-seeded at-large teams and four lowest-seeded conference champions compete for spots in the traditional 64-team bracket.

Baker indicated that the current formula has flaws and said it would be beneficial to give more opportunities to worthy teams.

“If you have a tournament that’s got 64 or 68 teams in it, you’re going to have a bunch of teams that are probably among what most people would consider to be the best 68 or 70 teams in the country that aren’t going to make the tournament, period,” Baker said. “The point behind going from 68 to 72 or 76 is to basically give some of those schools that were probably among the 72, 76, 68, 64 best teams in the country a way into the tournament.”

COLLEGE SOFTBALL

Ella Parker hit a three-run, walk-off homer to lift Oklahoma a 4-3 win over Tennessee in the Women’s College World Series opener for both teams in Oklahoma City.

Parker’s second homer of the game off Tennessee’s Karlyn Pickens came with two outs and strengthened the Sooners’ chances of winning a fifth straight national title.

Pickens, a National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) first-team All-American, had dominated most of the game with pitches regularly hitting 75 mph.

She faltered late. Ailana Agbayani opened Oklahoma’s half of the seventh with a walk. Pickens retired the next two hitters before Oklahoma’s pair of first-team All-Americans came through. Kasidi Pickering singled and moved Agbayani to third before Parker’s blast to center ended the game.

Second-seeded Oklahoma (51-7) advanced to face No. 6 seed Texas on Saturday for a spot in the semifinals. Oklahoma has beaten Texas in the championship series two of the past three years.

No. 7 seed Tennessee (45-16) will face Florida in an elimination game today.

No. 6 Texas 3, No. 3 Florida 0: Joley Mitchell homered twice and Teagan Kavan allowed just two hits to lead the Longhorns (52-11) past the Gators (48-16) to open play at the Women’s College World Series. Mitchell homered in the second and sixth innings off Florida ace Keagan Rothrock.

No. 12 Texas Tech 1, Mississippi 0: Nijaree Canady pitched a two-hitter with 10 strikeouts, as the Red Raiders (51-12) won in the first WCWS appearance for both teams. Texas Tech will play either Oregon or UCLA on Saturday for a spot in the semifinals. Ole Miss (42-20) will face the loser of Oregon and UCLA in an elimination game today.

NHL

Jonathan Toews informed his agent he intends to come back to the NHL after missing the past two seasons.

Pat Brisson confirmed that Toews reached out to him to say he’s 100% ready to move forward on a comeback try.

Toews, 37, is a free agent now, and his camp can speak with any of the league’s 32 teams immediately. Free agency opens July 1.

Chosen one of the NHL’s top 100 players from its first 100 years, the Winnipeg, Manitoba, native played 15 seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks from 2007-23 and captained them to the Stanley Cup three times as one of the faces of the franchise. Toews also helped Canada win gold at Olympics in 2010 and 2014.

Toews stepped away from hockey two years ago citing the effects of Chronic Immune Response Syndrome and long-term COVID. His exit coincided with Chicago trading fellow star Patrick Kane and going into a full-scale rebuild.

The Seattle Kraken hired Lane Lambert as the third head coach in team history. Lambert replaces Dan Bylsma, fired after one season.

Lambert, 60, was most recently a head coach for the New York Islanders from 2022 until he was fired on Jan. 20, 2024. He was 61-46-20 with the Islanders, and they qualified for the playoffs once during his tenure. Last season, the former NHL forward was associate head coach with Toronto.

SOCCER

An Argentine court declared a mistrial in the case of seven health professionals accused of negligence in the death of soccer legend Diego Maradona, the latest soap-operatic turn in the trial in Buenos Aires that has tranfixed the soccer world.

The judges ruled there would be a new trial, without specifying when.

The pivot comes after one of the three judges overseeing the trial stepped down over criticism surrounding her participation in a forthcoming documentary series about the case, “Divine Justice,” which spanned from the aftermath of Maradona’s death, as scandals and suspicions of foul play began to emerge, to the start of the trial.

In calling for the judge, Julieta Makintach, to be recused, the prosecutor Tuesday presented the trailer for her documentary — a 1 1/2-minute teaser that intercuts archival footage of Maradona scoring iconic goals with shots of Makintach strutting through the Buenos Aires courthouse in high heels and a short skirt as a string soundtrack heightens suspense.

The prosecutor asked judges to investigate allegations that Makintach had violated judicial ethics in allowing a camera crew inside the courthouse to film her overseeing closed-door hearings for the reality-style series.

As the claims snowballed into a national scandal, Makintach on Tuesday said that she had “no choice” but to resign from the case.

The judges decided to retry the entire case, effectively turning the clock back on all proceedings since March 11, when the trial began amid intense media scrutiny and called dozens of distraught witnesses to testify over 21 hearings.

Former North Carolina Courage executive Curt Johnson was named as the general manager of the NWSL expansion team in Denver. Johnson stepped down as chief soccer officer and general manager of the Courage in December. He will oversee all of the soccer operations for the new Denver club, which will kick off next year.

CYCLING

Overall leader Isaac Del Toro had a chance to take it relatively easy in the 18th stage of the Giro d’Italia, which was won by German Nico Denz with a solo breakaway.

Del Toro, the first Mexican to wear the pink jersey, finished safely in the main pack after the 89-mile route from Morbegno to Cesano Maderno, which featured three minor climbs early on before a relatively flat finale.

It will likely be much tougher for the 21-year-old Del Toro the next two days, with grueling back-to-back mountain stages before the mostly ceremonial finish in Rome on Sunday.