Big East, ESPN reunite with six-year digital media rights deal

The Big East Conference and ESPN announced a six-year digital media rights deal on Tuesday.

Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman said in a statement that the agreement gives “all 22 of our sports — especially women’s basketball and Olympic sports — the visibility they’ve earned and the access our fans expect.”

“This exciting partnership with ESPN reinforces our commitment to placing Big East teams front and center on the leading digital sports platform,” Ackerman said.

ESPN had the rights to the Big East from 1980 to 2013. The revived partnership comes after ESPN lost Big Ten media rights to Fox, NBC and CBS in 2022.

“We’re pleased to welcome the Big East back to ESPN,” Nick Dawson, the network’s senior vice president of programming and acquisitions, said in a statement. “This agreement returns one of the country’s premier conferences and its tradition of excellence to ESPN platforms. We look forward to this new chapter in our relationship with the Big East.”

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the NBA 2K26 cover athlete after MVP season

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the cover athlete of NBA 2K26 following his MVP and title-winning season, the video game’s developer announced Tuesday.

Last season’s scoring champ and finals MVP will be featured on the game’s standard edition. He averaged 32.7 points, 6.4 assists and five rebounds per game, leading the Thunder to a 68-14 record.

The Thunder outscored teams by 12.9 points per game, the biggest margin in league history. They beat the Indiana Pacers in seven games to win the NBA title. Gilgeous-Alexander was awarded last week for his stellar season with a record-setting 4-year, $285 million extension.

A release date for NBA 2K26 has yet to be announced. The game is expected to launch in September.

The NBA 2K cover athlete last year was Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, who also was featured after his team won the championship.

The cover athlete announcement comes after 2K Games teased its plans to get back into the college basketball gaming market.

Pettis Norman, a Cowboys tight end and civil rights advocate in the 1960s, dies at 86

DALLAS >> Pettis Norman, a Dallas Cowboys tight end who was outspoken on issues of civil rights in the 1960s, has died. He was 86.

The Cowboys said on the team’s website Monday night that Norman died this week, calling him one of the most influential players in the club’s history.

Norman went to coach Tom Landry to ask that the team quit assigning players hotel rooms based on race. The Cowboys soon started assigning rooms based on names.

“I tried to do whatever I could do help change the kinds of things that society had operated under for such a long time,” Norman said.

After playing in Dallas’ 16-13 loss to the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl 5 in the 1970 season, Norman was traded to the San Diego Chargers for Pro Football Hall of Fame receiver Lance Alworth. The Cowboys won their first Super Bowl title the next season.

Hall of Fame running back Calvin Hill said Black players on the team were angry because they thought Norman was traded because of his political activism. He had participated in a protest in Dallas before the trade.

Norman became one of the first Black banking executives in Dallas, the team said. He attended historically Black Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he grew up after the family moved from his native Georgia.

— The Associated Press