The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are planning to relocate to the New Orleans area to prepare for Sunday’s game against the Saints with Hurricane Milton expected to make landfall along Florida’s west coast.

The Bucs intend to travel Tuesday and spend the rest of the week out of state instead of practicing as usual at the team’s training facility in Tampa.

Milton strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico on Monday and could make landfall in the Tampa Bay area Wednesday.

The NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning canceled Monday night’s scheduled preseason finale against the Nashville Predators. The game initially was rescheduled from Sept. 27 due to Hurricane Helene, which caused extensive damage in the region two weeks ago.

The Lightning open the regular season at Carolina on Friday. There was no immediate word on whether the team would evacuate to Raleigh, North Carolina, ahead of the storm.

The NBA’s Orlando Magic are on the road this week, playing at New Orleans on Monday night and at San Antonio on Wednesday.

College sports are being impacted, too, with UCF in Orlando announcing all home athletics events on Wednesday and Thursday have been canceled. That includes Wednesday’s volleyball match against Colorado, Thursday’s women’s soccer match against Arizona and the first day of the men’s tennis ITA Southeast Regionals on Thursday.

The school said Saturday’s Big 12 home football game vs. Cincinnati is still scheduled for a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff.

hockey

Minnesotan Marvin announces retirement

Three-time United States Olympian Gigi Marvin announced her retirement Monday, noting that her career would not have been complete without the chance to play in the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s inaugural season.

For someone who witnessed first-hand the fitful starts and stops women’s hockey endured in establishing its foothold as a professional North American sport, the 37-year-old Marvin leaves the game in a better place.

“Every time, I kid you not, I stepped on the ice I was almost moved to tears,” Marvin told The Associated Press ahead of her announcement.

“And a couple of times I was moved to tears just watching the fans, watching my teammates, seeing the little girls pounding on the glass. And I’m like, `This is the coolest experience,’” she added of her season with PWHL Boston. “This is what we fought for for so long. ... And there’s so many people to thank.”

Marvin got her start in the northern Minnesota community of Warroad, where her grandfather helped establish the city’s youth hockey program that went on to produce NHL players, including Washington’s T.J. Oshie, and Olympians.

She played her college hockey at Minnesota, where Marvin was a two-time national MVP finalist, and that helped lead to a 12-year stint on the U.S. national team. Along the way came five world championships, Olympic silver medals in 2010 and ’14, and finally a gold in 2018.

In between, Marvin competed in three now-defunct women’s pro leagues, starting with the Western Women’s Hockey League, before coming out of semi-retirement to play in the PWHL.

NCAA weighs change to allow CHL players

The NCAA Division I Council is considering making a landmark change in eligibility rules this week that would allow Canadian Hockey League players to compete at U.S. colleges, the American Hockey Coaches Association executive director said Monday.

Forrest Karr, who is also the Minnesota-Duluth athletic director, said the council is moving forward on determining whether to lift the long-standing eligibility ban even before the two AHCA committees he oversees — one dealing with men’s hockey and the other women’s — submits its own recommendations.

The council is meeting this week, with the matter on the agenda, and a decision is not expected until Wednesday at the earliest.

The development comes on the heels of a class-action lawsuit filed Aug. 13 in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, New York, challenging the NCAA’s ban of players from the CHL’s Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League.

A change in NCAA legislation could be far-reaching with the potential of increasing competition for college-age talent between the CHL and the NCAA, North America’s two top producers of NHL draft-eligible players.

baseball

Francona says Reds job ‘just felt right’

Terry Francona was officially introduced as the Cincinnati Reds’ new manager on Monday.

Francona, 65, had stepped down as manager of the Cleveland Guardians after the 2023 season, citing health reasons among others. Francona said he’s rested, healthy and has the stamina to take on the grind of a long baseball season again.

“When the Reds reached out, I started looking at the team a little more closely, and they came out to visit and it just felt right,” Francona said.

Francona, who was an outfielder for the Reds under manager Pete Rose in 1987, replaces David Bell, who was fired in the final days of his sixth season after compiling a 409-456 record. Francona has agreed to a three-year contract through the 2027 season with a club option for 2028.

BRIEFLY

COLLEGE FOOTBALL >> Iowa running back Leshon Williams and receiver Kaleb Brown have left the team and plan to enter the transfer portal in December, coach Kirk Ferentz said Monday.

College football >> Quinn Ewers is on track to return as the starting quarterback for No. 1 Texas this week against rival No. 18 Oklahoma, Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday, adding that his recovery from an abdominal injury will be monitored all week.

MOTORSPORTS >> IndyCar will return to Texas in 2026 with a street race in Arlington in a joint venture between the Dallas Cowboys and the official events partner of the Texas Rangers. The IndyCar Arlington Grand Prix will be held in March 2026.

— From news services