JuJu Watkins of Southern California and Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame have joined an elite group, making The Associated Press All-America team in their first two seasons playing college basketball.

The duo on Wednesday became only the third and fourth players to earn first team All-America honors in their freshman and sophomore years, joining Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris and UConn’s Maya Moore.

Watkins was a unanimous choice from the 31-member national media panel that chooses the AP Top 25 each week. Hidalgo received all but two first place votes.

UConn’s Paige Bueckers earned All-America honors for the third time, becoming just the 12th player to do that. UCLA’s Lauren Betts and Texas’ Madison Booker rounded out the first team. Bueckers and Betts were also unanimous choices.

MLB

Athletics, Giants will be available locally through direct-to-consumer option >> Fans of the Athletics and San Francisco Giants will be able to stream their games on a direct-to-consumer basis this season through MLB.tv.

The agreement was reached by Major League Baseball and the NBC Sports Regional Networks.

Viewers in the team’s home markets who do not have cable or satellite subscriptions will be able to purchase a package and watch games live or on demand without blackouts, along with live pre- and post-game shows.

The A’s and Giants package will be available for a monthly cost of $19.99 and can be bundled with MLB.tv’s out-of-market games for $39.99 a month. Going into the season, all but four of MLB’s 30 clubs will have an in market direct-to-consumer streaming option.

Ohtani hits solo HR in return to Japan >> Shohei Ohtani hit a solo homer in his return to the Tokyo Dome, Roki Sasaki threw three eventful innings in his big-league debut and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs 6-3 to sweep a two-game series in Japan.

Kiké Hernández hit a two-run homer and Tommy Edman added a solo shot. Ohtani’s homer in the fifth barely cleared the right-center fence and the call was reviewed by umpires before being confirmed, giving the Dodgers a 6-2 lead.

Sasaki gave up one run and one hit while striking out three, but also walked five batters, including a free pass that forced in a run. Landon Knack (1-0) got the win, pitching two scoreless innings of relief.

NFL

Vikings committed to J.J. McCarthy as starting QB >> The Minnesota Vikings have committed to moving forward with J.J. McCarthy as their starting quarterback this season after deciding not to offer Aaron Rodgers a contract, a person with knowledge of the decision said.

Rodgers, the four-time NFL MVP award winner, was released last week by the New York Jets. With Pro Bowl pick Sam Darnold departed in free agency for the Seattle Seahawks after his breakout performance, the Vikings prepared to turn their offense over to McCarthy, the 10th overall pick in the 2024 draft whose rookie year was spent rehabilitating from surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee. Trade inquiries from other teams for McCarthy were rejected, the person said.

Banning tush push and changes to playoff seeding are proposed >> The Green Bay Packers have formally proposed a rule change to ban the tush push and the Detroit Lions proposed that playoff seeding be done based on record instead of automatically placing division winners in the top four spots.

Teams made several other proposals released Wednesday that will be added to additional ones made by the competition committee to be considered at the league meetings later this month, including a change to the overtime rule and the so-called legal tampering period in free agency.

Any rule change must be approved by 24 out of 32 team owners.