A judge confirmed an arbitrator’s award of nearly $1.4 million to a businessman who sued Reggie Bush for defamation after having settled a previous suit against the former Heisman Trophy winner and USC running back.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Eric Harmon heard arguments in plaintiff Lloyd Lake’s petition, briefly took the issues under submission and issued his final ruling later in the day Wednesday. According to Lake’s petition, arbitrator Jeffrey G. Benz on April 12 awarded him $500,000, plus $764,640 in attorneys’ fees and about $116,780 in costs.

Bush’s attorneys argued that the award should be vacated, saying the amount exceeded Benz’s authority.

Bush, 40, resolved the first suit in 2010 with Lake, who claimed he provided Bush with cash and other benefits while Bush played for the Trojans in 2004 and 2005. Lake’s initial case alleged breach of contract.

Lake, along with his parents — Roy and Barbara Gunner who are both in their 80s — then sued Bush again in Van Nuys Superior court in February 2023, this time for defamation. The current suit alleges Bush defamed Lake and the Gunners with remarks he made on YouTube in September 2023 and on Twitter three months later. In the YouTube interview, Bush allegedly said, among other things, that Lake was trying to blackmail him and that Lake had a police record as long as a Cheesecake Factory menu. Both statements are untrue, according to the plaintiffs’ attorneys’ court papers.

Colleges

Sacramento State will join the Big West Conference as a full member starting with the 2026-27 academic year.

Sacramento State informed the Big Sky that it will leave the conference after this year and the Big West announced the school will become the 12th school in the conference.

The Big West doesn’t sponsor football so Sacramento State’s program will be an independent in that sport. The Hornets are trying to move up from FCS level to FBS as an independent and are awaiting a ruling next week from the NCAA Division I Council.

The FBS Oversight Committee recommended against the move earlier this week, citing the “paramount importance” of having an invitation to join an FBS conference. The NCAA had previously granted a waiver to Liberty in 2017 to move to FBS as an independent but said the circumstances have changed since then.

Sacramento State had been an affiliate member of the Big West in various sports in the past but now will have 16 teams competing in the Big West starting in 2026-27.

The Hornets will officially join The Big West on July 1, 2026, joining a lineup that includes Cal Baptist, Cal Poly, Cal State Bakersfield, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, CSUN, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, and Utah Valley.

NHL

The Ducks re-signed winger Nikita Nesterenko to a two-year contract, the team announced in a news release.

This deal carries a value just above the league minimum of $775,000. The pact being a one-way contract might signal a more consistent, more permanent role for Nesterenko, who has mostly been featured at the minor league level over the past three seasons with the Ducks.

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound Brooklyn-born forward of Russian descent played a career-high 20 contests with the parent club last season. He accumulated four goals and two assists in the NHL in addition to his 34 points in 50 games at the AHL level with the San Diego Gulls.

— Andrew Knoll

The Chicago Blackhawks re-signed forward Ryan Donato to a $16 million, four-year contract. The deal runs through the 2028-29 season.Donato, 29, is coming off a breakout season. He set career highs with 31 goals and 31 assists in 80 games.

NFL

Jaire Alexander signed with the Baltimore Ravens less than two weeks after the two-time Pro Bowl cornerback was released by the Green Bay Packers.

The Packers released Alexander on June 9, ending a seven-year run in which he emerged as one of the NFL’s top cornerbacks before injuries limited his availability.

ESPN reported Alexander, 28, was getting a one-year deal with a base value of $4 million and another $2 million in incentives.

The Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders say they are getting a serious increase in pay.

One of the cheerleaders said during the second season of the Netflix series “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders” that the members are getting a 400% boost in pay.

The cheerleaders have been pushing for pay increases for years. In 2019, the Cowboys settled a lawsuit with a former cheerleader that led to the squad doubling the per-game pay, from $200 to $400. The latest raise is four times that.

According to ESPN, the Cowboys agreed to pay four cheerleaders a total of $2.4 million nine years ago to settle claims by the women that the team’s longtime public relations chief, Rich Dalrymple, filmed them in the dressing room.

Dalrymple denied the claims, and the club said its investigation found no wrongdoing by him. Dalrymple retired not long before the settlement became public in 2022.

The Cowboys have been the most valuable pro sports team in the world for almost a decade, according to Forbes magazine. That number was $10.1 billion in rankings published late last year.

“Happy’ isn’t even the right word for it,” former cheerleader Jada McLean said on the show. “I think I was just ... kind of felt, like, a relief, like everything had paid off. And it was, you know, finally, we were done fighting.”

NBA

Atlanta Hawks general manager Onsi Saleh bolstered his front office staff by naming former New Orleans Pelicans general manager Bryson Graham as senior vice president of basketball operations.

Saleh also named former Philadelphia 76ers executive vice president Peter Dinwiddie as senior vice president of strategy and analytics.

SOCCER

The owner of the San Jose Earthquakes announced he has begun the process of selling the MLS club.

John Fisher, who also owns baseball’s Athletics, acquired the Earthquakes with Lew Wolff in 2007 for a $20 million expansion fee, bringing the team back in 2008 after a two-year hiatus.

The Earthquakes hired the New York-based investment firm Moelis & Co. to lead the sale.

The Earthquakes, then known as the San Jose Clash, were a founding member of MLS in 1996. The team won MLS Cup titles in 2001 and 2003. The Quakes also own and operate PayPal Park, an 18,000-seat stadium which is also the home of the National Women’s Soccer League team Bay FC.