After a historic 2023 season that served as the swan song for Megan Rapinoe, the NWSL is expanding its schedule for 2024.

In a media release posted on Thursday, the NWSL said this upcoming season will feature more games, a revised NWSL Challenge Cup format and a break for the Paris Olympics. Last month, the league announced a landmark four-year media rights deal that will see women’s soccer on more broadcasts than ever.

In 2024, the NWSL will welcome Bay FC as an expansion team and the Utah Royals will rejoin the league to bring the team total to 14.

“The 2024 campaign represents a new era for the NWSL as we continue our efforts to deliver the best product in professional soccer,’ NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said in a statement.

Here is the information for the expanded 2024 NWSL schedule:

2024 NWSL Challenge Cup

The 2024 NWSL Challenge Cup will open with NJ/NY Gotham FC taking on San Diego Wave FC on March 15.

This is a new format where the previous season’s NWSL champion takes on the winner of the NWSL Shield (the regular season winner). If the same team wins the championship and Shield, the Challenge Cup opener will be a rematch of last year’s championship game.

2024 NWSL season opener, length of schedule

The 2024 NWSL regular season kicks off on March 16.

Each team will play 26 matches, four more than last year, with a total of 182 total games across the season.

2024 NWSL Paris Olympics break

The 2024 NWSL schedule is built around FIFA windows and is set to allow players to compete for their national teams.

The CBA-mandated break will be July 8-14, followed by a break from July 15 to Aug. 18 to account for the Paris Olympics.

2024 NWSL expanded playoff format

Eight teams will qualify for the 2024 NWSL playoffs, two more than last season.

All eight teams will play in the quarterfinals, meaning the bye for the top two seeds has been eliminated.

Quarterfinals: Nov. 9 and 10Semifinals: Nov. 16 and 17Championship: Nov. 23

2024 NWSL season broadcast schedule

There will be 118 NWSL matches shown on television or streaming in the 2024 season through the historic four-year media rights deal with CBS, ESPN, Amazon Prime Video and Scripps Sports.

Prime Video will stream Friday night matches. ION network, owned by Scripps Sports, will air a doubleheader each Saturday night. CBS Television Network and Paramount+ will have a regular-season package, as will ESPN’s network (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes), which will feature English and Spanish broadcasts on ESPN+.

Coverage of the 2024 NWSL playoffs will be split among the companies in the media rights deal.

Quarterfinals: Prime Video, CBS and Paramount+, ESPN/ABCSemifinals: CBS and Paramount+, ESPN/ABCChampionship: CBS in primetime

The No. 1 offensive line recruit in the nation on Thursday committed to play for coach Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes, helping fill the most glaring need on a football team that allowed the second-most quarterback sacks in the nation in 2023.

Jordan Seaton, an offensive tackle from IMG Academy in Florida, announced his commitment Thursday, when he put on a white CU cap on the Fox Sports talk show Undisputed.  Seaton said he was impressed by how Sanders won a gold jacket as a Hall of Fame player and how the Buffs have two potential Heisman Trophy candidates on their roster: quarterback Shedeur Sanders and two-way star Travis hunter.

“You gotta believe in Coach Prime,” Seaton said of Sanders on the show. “You know, have an opportunity to play with somebody who done it at the highest level, gold jacket level. Very few can say they did that. You know I got two Heisman candidates: Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter. They’re amazing.  You know how they go.”

Seaton is the No. 1 high school offensive line recruit in the country, according to composite rankings from 247Sports. Listed at 6-foot-5, 287 pounds, he chose Colorado over Alabama, Ohio State and Florida, among others. At Colorado, he could start as a freshman in 2024 and will join a line that was overrun in 2023, when Shedeur Sanders, the coach’s son, became the most-sacked quarterback in the nation and ended the season with a fracture in his back.

After the season, the Buffs also lost two starting linemen who announced they were entering the transfer portal.

In an interview with USA TODAY Sports on Monday, Deion Sanders said his son “took more shots than probably any other quarterback in the country, and that’s our fault, because we’ve got to shore up that offensive line.”

He said his team would also try to get linemen from the transfer portal this month, as well as backup quarterbacks.

Oral commitments are not binding until recruits sign letters of intent as soon as Dec. 20, the start of the early signing period in football.

Colorado (4-8) finished the season with six straight losses after starting the season 3-0. Shedeur suffered 52 sacks, more than Old Dominion quarterback Grant Wilson, who was sacked 51 times. Colorado gave up 56 sacks total, second only to Old Dominion, which had 61.

To help turn that around, Seaton issued a call for help on Undisputed. He said the fact that Shedeur was the most-sacked quarterback in major college football ‘will never happen again.’

‘If you ain’t rockin’ with us, and you say you a dawg, and you claim you a dawg, why you not coming to Colorado?’ he asked. ‘Why you not helping somebody who look like you?’

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

The opening path for the United States Men’s National Team’s journey to Copa América was set Thursday night in Miami.

The draw for the combined CONCACAF and CONMEBOL extravaganza set the groups for the 48th edition of the oldest continental tournament in soccer.

The USMNT finds itself grouped with the highest FIFA ranked non-automatic qualifier in Uruguay, routine CONCACAF foe Panama, and the lowest ranked CONMEBOL member Bolivia.

‘If you take care of business in the first two games, which will be difficult games, you set up winner takes all,’ USMNT head coach Greg Berhalter said on the Fox Sports 1 broadcast.

The event, which ceded an inordinate amount of time to a hubristic and waffling speech from CONMEBOL President Alejandro Domínguez, introduced the tournament’s mascot and official match ball in addition to the groups.  

Copa América Groups

Group A

ArgentinaPeruChileWinner of Canada vs. Trinidad and Tobago

Group B

MexicoEcuadorVenezuelaWinner of Costa Rica vs. Honduras

Group C

United StatesUruguayPanamaBolivia

Group D

BrazilColombiaParaguayJamaica

USMNT recent results vs group

The most familiar foe in the group is fellow CONCACAF member Panama where over the past three years the USMNT have gone 1-2 with the most recent affair going to penalties. The only recent match between the two CONMEBOL representatives came in a 2022 friendly draw against Uruguay.

vs. Uruguay: 2022 Friendly 0-0 drawvs. Panama: 2023 Gold Cup Semifinals 0-0 Loss on penalties, 2022 World Cup Qualifiers 5-1 Win, 2021 World Cup Qualifiers 0-1 Lossvs. Bolivia: No matches since 2021

USMNT Group Schedule

June 23: vs. BoliviaJune 27: vs. PanamaJuly 1: Uruguay

USMNT in Copa América

The national side has made appearances in three traditional Copa Américas and the 2016 commemorative edition. The red, white and blue have fallen in the third-place game twice and failed to advance out of the group stage twice.

(Games played, W-D-L, final result)

1993: Eliminated in group stage (3, 0-1-2, 1 point)1995: Fourth place (6, 2-1-3, L vs. Colombia 4-1)2007: Eliminated in group stage (3, 0-0-3, 0 points)2016: Fourth place (6, 3-0-3, L vs. Colombia 1-0)

When does Copa América start?

The Copa América 2024 kicks off June 20, 2024 when Argentina will play the winner of the March match between Canada and Trinidad and Tobago in group A at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.

As the New York Yankees wake up Thursday to the thrill of Juan Soto, they should absolutely be in this moment. It’s a glorious day when the industry’s biggest powerhouse adds a generational hitter to team with the game’s best offensive force in Aaron Judge.

Yet it’s also instructive to consider the dominant emotion Soto’s old team, the San Diego Padres, are exuding across the country.

Relief.

Oh, make no mistake, dealing Soto – and the Padres had little choice, given his massive arbitration salary, his pending free agent status and a debt conundrum the club must escape – is a total drag.

Soto had an MVP-worthy season in 2023, hitting 35 home runs, finishing fifth in the National League in OPS, second in on-base percentage (he’s always in the top three) and first in the majors in walks. He won a fourth consecutive Silver Slugger award – yet finished sixth in NL MVP voting.

HOT STOVE UPDATES: MLB free agency: Ranking and tracking the top players available.

That’s because the Padres were the epitome of average, and, given the expectations, incredibly aggravating. You could hear it in manager Bob Melvin’s tone early in the season, although his rift with GM A.J. Preller would more publicly emerge as the two headed for their own divorce after the season.

But no, the greater frustration was with this All-Star cavalcade of talent – Soto to $350 million man Manny Machado to $280 million shortstop Xander Bogaerts to $340 million right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. – never found any traction.

And that was with a Cy Young Award winner, Blake Snell, fronting the rotation.

Short of watching every inning of all 162 games, it’s foolish to assign specific blame to an aggravating 82-80 season. Surely there might have been times Soto lost sight of a bigger picture for individual gain, but that could be said of any player, in any year and besides, by year’s end, his numbers spoke loudly.

Yet somehow, the formula was off.

“Ultimately we decided to go add five players that are going to potentially play on our roster this year versus one very elite player, and also Trent Grisham, who’s a really good center fielder as well,” Preller told reporters late Wednesday night. “We’ll see how it goes.

“But I think adding those players right now and then being in a spot to do some more things to round out a club, that’s ultimately the route we went with.”

Are the Padres better this morning than they were with Soto? Probably not. But with the Padres’ debt-ratio obligations looming, Preller sounded like a pardoned man in moving $40 million or so off the books, now free to augment that roster.

Check back in January, and the Padres may very well look like a dark horse championship contender, with the prize of the Yankee deal, Michael King, playing a central role.

Ah yes, the Yankees. They sent four pitchers and catcher Kyle Higashioka to San Diego, with King the current prize and top prospect Drew Thorpe the long-term asset. King was their best pitcher in 2022, a crucial bullpen stuntman who fractured his elbow at midseason, a key blow for that 99-win team.

Last year, as he built back his strength, he ramped up to a starting role and by September, was striking out 13 Toronto Blue Jays over seven innings. He will fit very nicely on the Padres’ pitching staff, no matter how they deploy him.

King’s loss will certainly be softened if the Yankees reel in Japanese star Yoshinobu Yamamoto, whose winning bid may land much closer to $300 million than $200 million. With Judge and AL Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole still performing at career peaks, the time is now to go big.

And that’s fantastic. Yankees fans will appreciate it, and YES Network ratings will reflect it. The Padres can tell you that all-in is awesome – acquiring Soto in August 2022 produced an unforgettable season, from the slaying of the Dodgers in the NLDS to a stirring NLCS that ultimately ended in the rain in Philadelphia.

We’ve all heard more than a few times that That’s Not Good Enough In New York. Yet even as the Yankee desperation to end a 15-year title drought increases, it does nothing to change the rules of engagement in October.

The playoff field is now 12 teams deep. Even a 100-game winner has little advantage, facing a team that survived a wild-card series crucible and is playing particularly well in that moment. Winning 11 to 13 games before you lose two of three or three of five or four of seven is extremely challenging.

Sometimes, a team like the 84-win Arizona Diamondbacks find themselves clutching that winning lottery ticket, a trip to the World Series and a title shot you simply cannot script. Fifteen teams have won pennants since the Yankees got that close; only a handful might have been projected to get that far.

As time goes on, we probably don’t laud the Yankees of the late 1990s enough. Their four titles in six years – and three in a row – now look utterly aberrational as we’re going on three decades with no repeat winners since.

Wednesday, the Yankees threw Soto at the problem. A Yamamoto signing would give them a half-dozen players making at least $27 million. It is not quite a superteam, but that is the approach they are taking. To which the Padres say, good luck. They will try a different approach, and they don’t seem too broken up about it.

LIV Golf players and officials have been confident over the last few months that new talent will be joining the league for the 2024 season.

On Thursday the upstart circuit backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund made arguably its best acquisition yet in world No. 3 Jon Rahm. The 29-year-old is the reigning Masters champion as well as the 2021 U.S. Open champion who also boasts 11 PGA Tour and 10 DP World Tour wins.

The writing has been on the wall for weeks. Rahm backed out of the TGL – the new tech-infused league led by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy – before the league was postponed until 2025. He also wasn’t listed in the field for the PGA Tour’s upcoming American Express next month, where he’s the defending champion.

On a conference call Thursday night with reporters, Rahm spoke about his legacy and said his move was because he likes the LIV Golf product, the idea of playing in different countries and the innovation the league is pushing. He also mentioned his legacy and that while he knows there will be blowback, he’s confident he made the right decision.

“Every decision I feel like we make in life there will be somebody who agrees and likes it and somebody who doesn’t, right. I made this decision because I believe it’s the best for me and my family and everybody I’ve been able to talk to has been really supportive of me,” Rahm said. “So I’m very comfortable with my decision. I’m no stranger to hearing some negative things on social media or in media. It’s part of what it is, we’re public figures but you just learn to deal with it right? This certainly won’t define who I am or change who I am.”

Rahm was previously adamant that he wanted LIV Golf’s Sergio Garcia to be involved in last fall’s Ryder Cup, where he went 2-0-2 in a winning European effort. Rahm hopes to still be involved in future editions.

“My position with the Ryder Cup stands as it’s always been. I love the Ryder Cup. I’ve explained many times how meaningful it is to me and I surely hope I can be in future editions of the Ryder Cup,” said Rahm, who noted the biennial bash against the Americans as the biggest hurdle he had to overcome in making his decision to leave for LIV. “That’s not up to me right now, but if it was up to me, I’ll be eligible to play so I surely hope I can keep up the good golf, keep playing good golf and give them a reason to have me on the team.”

“It’s a big risk to take, but I’ve had it in consideration and again, I’m hopeful that I can be part of the team again.”

But what about the format? After all, Rahm previously said the LIV format ‘is not really appealing to me. Shotgun three days to me is not a golf tournament, no cut. It’s that simple.”

But, opinions change.

‘Obviously the past two years there’s been a lot of evolving on the game of golf, things have changed a lot and so have I,’ Rahm said. ‘Seeing the growth of LIV Golf, seeing the evolution of LIV Golf and innovation is something that has really captured my attention.’

“I think the growth that I’ve seen and how it’s become a global business, right, and how we can impact golf globally, and in a much meaningful way, is something that’s been very enticing,’ he said. ‘For all those things that I like about this movement, there’s always going to be some things that are not perfect, but that’s the situation in everybody’s life. With that said, it’s an ever-growing and ever-changing machine, right. So I’m hopeful that the leaders of LIV Golf might listen to some of my advice and maybe see some changes in the future for the better of the game.”

Rahm has 11 wins, 10 runner-ups and 10 third-place finishes with $51,546,651 in earnings on the PGA Tour.

The next Winter Olympics and Paralympics will be held in northern Italy in 2026.

But, in a weird twist prompted by venue and facility issues, it turns out part of the competition could possibly wind up in… Lake Placid, New York.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee announced Thursday that authorites in Lake Placid have officially submitted a proposal to host the sliding events − bobsled, skeleton and luge − for the 2026 Games, potentially bringing a small slice of the Olympics back to the United States.

‘The organizers of Milan-Cortina are actively seeking solutions to support the sliding sport competition at the 2026 Games,’ USOPC chief executive officer Sarah Hirshland said on a media teleconference. ‘I’m proud to say that the New York Olympic Authority has stepped up and that we’re fully supportive of their efforts to welcome the world in 2026 for this important element of the competition.’

Hirshland said Milan-Cortina organizers first reached out and invited the U.S. to submit a bid in late October or early November. The proposal was due December 1, she added.

The venue for sliding sports at the 2026 Games has been up in the air for several months now. Organizers initially had proposed spending roughly $60 million to revive a storied sliding venue in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, but construction delays and a skyrocketing price tag have derailed that plan. More recent estimates for the work are now approaching $160 million.

The issues with the Cortina venue have prompted Italian authorities to consider other options, including re-using the sliding venue from the 2006 Turin Olympics. But the International Olympic Committee has balked at that idea. So now, Milan-Cortina organizers are entertaining international options − including, apparently, the United States.

After being contacted by Milan-Cortina, Hirshland said the USOPC gauged the interest of the two sliding sport venues in the U.S. that regularly host elite-level competitions − one in Lake Placid and the other in Salt Lake City. Officials at the latter venue preferred to keep their focus on hosting the 2034 Winter Olympics, she said. But the Olympic Regional Development Authority, which oversees facilities in Lake Placid, presents ‘a compelling solution’ given the quality of its venues.

Lake Placid is the only U.S. city to host two editions of the Winter Games, in 1932 and then again in 1980. It is also home to a U.S. Olympic Training Center.

It is immediately unclear when Milan-Cortina organizers will make a final decision on which venue will host the sliding events for the 2026 Games. Despite Lake Placid’s willingness, tracks in nearby Switzerland and Austria still appear to be among the most likely options, given their proximity to the rest of the Games. And Italian authorities are still trying to find solutions that will keep bobsled, luge and skeleton in-country.

“We’ll look at it in the next few days with (finance minister Giancarlo) Giorgetti and we’ll unravel the knots, I’m more than confident,” Italy’s Minister for Sport Andrea Abodi told The Associated Press earlier this week, when asked about the possibility of sliding sports being held in Cortina.

“We have full collaboration with the IOC, we’ll find a solution.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.