Former Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh said Monday he was unaware of cybercrimes allegedly committed by former assistant Matt Weiss until after Weiss coached his final game with the Wolverines in the 2022 College Football Playoff.

Weiss, Michigan’s quarterbacks coach in 2021 and co-offensive coordinator in 2022, was indicted on March 20 on federal criminal charges of hacking into computers at more than 100 colleges, stealing the identities and impersonating mostly female student-athletes. Weiss is accused of downloading ‘personal, intimate, digital photographs and videos’ of numerous women.

“It was after the TCU game that we — that I found out, we found out, that there was allegations,” the Los Angeles Chargers head coach told the Detroit Free Press’ Dave Birkett on Monday in Palm Beach, Florida, at the NFL’s annual spring meeting. “And you said it, I mean indictment, that’s not a word that — sympathy for the victims and for Matt’s family. It’s shocking.”

Weiss pleaded not guilty to all 24 charges last week in Detroit’s federal court. He allegedly committed the crimes by breaking into student-athlete databases from a third-party vendor from 2015-23.

Weiss was a longtime assistant for the Baltimore Ravens under Harbaugh’s brother, John Harbaugh. Weiss was a Ravens assistant from 2009-2020, coaching in a variety of offensive and defensive roles. He was also a graduate assistant at Stanford under Harbaugh from 2005-08.

“Just really shocking,” John Harbaugh said Monday. “Shocking. Surprising. Didn’t see that one coming. Found out about it the same time everybody else did. Don’t know what to make of it. Just feel really bad for the people involved, that were affected by it. Especially his family and then the people that were victims of that. I love (Weiss’ wife) Melissa and the kids. It’s really just a disturbing situation.”

Weiss spent the past two seasons as a contractor with the Cleveland Browns and Seattle Seahawks, according to Pro Football Talk.

Two former University of Michigan athletes filed separate civil lawsuits against Weiss, school leaders, board of regents and the third-party vendor that didn’t protect them from Weiss’ alleged misconduct. They allude to being two of potentially 1,000 former student athletes in their situation and requested class-action status in their lawsuit.

The University of Michigan first started investigating potential computer crimes at Schembechler Hall, Michigan’s football building, from Dec. 21-23, 2022. Weiss was fired shortly thereafter on Jan. 20, after reports surfaced that authorities were seen at his home.

UConn women’s basketball superstar Paige Bueckers leads the Huskies into an Elite Eight matchup against the USC Trojans with a spot in the Final Four on the line.

Bueckers dropped a career-high 40 points in the UConn’s Sweet 16 win over Oklahoma, and the Huskies are hunting their second consecutive Final Four appearance and 24th overall under head coach Geno Auriemma.

Meanwhile, the Trojans are without their own superstar JuJu Watkins after she suffered a season-ending knee injury in their second-round game. After getting by Kansas State in the Sweet 16, head coach Lindsay Gottlieb is looking to get the program back to the Final Four for the first time since 1986.

Watch UConn vs. USC on Fubo (free trial)

USA TODAY Sports is bringing you live updates, scores, highlights and analysis throughout the game. Follow along. 

What time is the UConn game today?

The Huskies and Trojans tip off at 9 p.m. ET.

What channel is UConn women’s basketball game on today?

ESPN is airing the contest. You can also watch on Fubo (free trial).

JuJu Watkins injury: What to know

The superstar USC guard suffered a season-ending knee injury in a second-round game against Mississippi State. Here’s everything you need to know about her injury and recovery timeline.

UConn vs. USC women’s basketball predictions

Meghan L. Hall, For The Win: UConn
Lulu Kesin, The Greenvile News: UConn
Cydney Henderson, USA TODAY: UConn
Jenna Ortiz, Arizona Republic: UConn
Nancy Armour, USA TODAY: UConn
Maxwell Donaldson, The Gadsden Times: UConn

USC proved they are capable of winning without JuJu Watkins in a 67-61 win over No. 5 Kansas State. Freshman guard Kennedy Smith led the way with 19 points. The Trojans will be tasked with slowing down a red-hot Bueckers, who’s in midst of a legendary streak in the final women’s NCAA Tournament of her career. She scored a career-high 40 points in UConn’s win blowout win over No. 3 Oklahoma.

Women’s March Madness bracket

Here’s how the women’s March Madness bracket looks right now for the Final Four. Those games are Friday at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ET.

No. 1 UCLA vs. USC/UConn winner
No. 1 South Carolina vs. Texas/TCU winner

What year is Paige Bueckers?  

Bueckers is a fifth-year senior.  

SACRAMENTO — It is raining, the wind is gusting at 40 mph, and the wind chill is 49 degrees.

Oh, baby, the Athletics are not in Oakland anymore.

There will be days that the A’s and the visiting teams will pray for Sunday mornings like this during the blistering hot summer, but for their historic opening night game Monday against the Chicago Cubs, well, it will be a cold reminder that life for the A’s is about to become awfully different.

They will be spending the next three seasons at Sutter Health Park, the San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A stadium, where the A’s pitchers will be in for a rude awakening with their enormous foul territory now gone, and visiting teams will be moaning about their cramped clubhouse, let alone spending their nights in downtown Sacramento.

“I think it’s so stupid that we have to play at a Triple-A stadium,’ Cubs veteran reliever Ryan Brasier told USA TODAY Sports, “when they have maybe not a perfectly good ballpark in Oakland, but a big-league ballpark. I would have much rather play in Oakland than Sacramento, but I guess it doesn’t really matter what we want.

“I really don’t get not playing in Oakland opposed to playing in Sacramento.’

Like it or not, this will be the Athletics’ new reality until they move to Las Vegas for the 2028 season.

The way the A’s figure it, they’ll be using their new digs as a tremendous home-field advantage. While they have a new two-story clubhouse, the visiting teams will have the smallest clubhouse in the majors.

Touring the visiting clubhouse Sunday located outside the center-field fence, there is a Blackhawk Country Club floormat to wipe your feet before entering, and a grill in the back to make some burgers and hot dogs. The biggest shock for the visitors will be the mere size of the clubhouse, with players feeling as if they’re sitting in the middle seat during a Spirit Airlines flight. It’s hard to imagine what it looked like before they added a small dining room, a batting cage, a weight room and expanded the coaches’ office and trainer’s room.

The Albuquerque Isotopes were the visiting clubhouse’s occupants on Sunday, the Colorado Rockies’ Class AAA team playing the Sacramento River Cats.

“It’s still so small,’ said one member of the Isotopes, “but, hey, it’s baseball.’

The intimate ballpark, with Vegas and sports book advertisements on the outfield wall, seats only 14,014 – if you include the outfield berm. But the dugouts were expanded to major-league dimensions, the dugout bathrooms were upgraded and there’s a new dark green batter’s eye. The fans also now have a large 75-by 32-foot video board in right-center field to see replays, stats and the lineup, along with an upgraded sound system.

The biggest adjustment for the A’s and visiting teams will be that there is no tunnel between the dugouts and the clubhouses. The A’s have to walk down the left left field line through a gate to enter the clubhouse from the field, while visiting players must trek through the opening in center field.

“That’s crazy,’ Brasier said. “I actually enjoyed playing in Oakland. The locker room was kind of [stuffy], and you know everything was kind of [stuffy], but it was still freaking cool. I mean, it was massive. The field was always in great shape.’

The playing field looked pristine Sunday for the River Cats game against the Isotopes, with a paid attendance of 3,437 on hand, but, of course, the season just started. Check back this summer when there will be nearly a game a day with the A’s and River Cats sharing the facility. The original idea was for artificial turf to be installed until the Major League Baseball Players Association voiced a formal complaint because of the summer heat. So, the two teams will play on grass all season, with no games scheduled between June 8-15 when they will re-sod the field.

There will be a four-day stretch after the Cubs leave town after Wednesday’s game when there are no games played, and only seven off-days until June 8. There are 11 days with no games in the second half of the season.

“Well, it could be better than Tampa, at least,’ says Brasier, with the Tampa Bay Rays playing this season outdoors at the New York Yankees’ Triple-A ballpark. “They’re going to have so many games delayed and cancelled with the rain. And it’s going to be the hottest place on earth when there’s no rain. It’s going to be a nightmare.’

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Well, at least the Rays are playing in a minor-league ballpark because of a natural disaster. The A’s are playing in Sacramento because of a self-inflicted disaster with the city of Oakland.

“It’s been so hard for that city,’ said Detroit Tigers center fielder Ryan Kreidler, who grew up an A’s fan in Davis, Calif, just outside Sacramento. “The Warriors moved out. The Raiders moved out. And now the A’s. But I know the fans in Sacramento will show up.

“I’m really curious how the field will hold up between them and the River Cats.’

It will also be fascinating to see how the pitchers hold up, knowing the ball could absolutely fly in the summer months. Scouts who work games in Sacramento widely predict that A’s outfielder Brent Rooker could hit 50 homers with the way the ball carries to right-center field.

“That ball moves pretty well there, so there could be a lot of homers,’ said Los Angeles Dodgers rookie Jack Dreyer, who pitched in Sacramento for the Dodgers’ Oklahoma City team. “It will be really interesting to have kind of a minor-league feel to big league games. The big concern the players have will be seeing how that field holds up. Shout out to the grounds crew for all of the future work they’re going to have to deal with.’

Well, if nothing else, Dreyer says, he’s at least thrilled the bullpens will now have bathrooms.

“We had to run along the outfield fence between innings just to go to the bathroom,’ Dreyer said. “So I’m glad to hear we have bathrooms now. That was the biggest area of concern for the relievers. So, I think overall it will be fine.

“Guys can only hope.’

Even if the facilities are still definitely minor-league quality, instead of being surrounded by a sea of empty green seats like they were at the Oakland Coliseum, the A’s will be playing in front of sellout crowds all summer. Season tickets have been sold out and there’s a waiting list for 2026.

The folks of Sacramento are thrilled to have a major-league team they can call their own, although “Sacramento’’ will appear nowhere on their uniform, let alone be used in their name.

Just call them the A’s of Sacramento.

“We’re going to embrace the community while we’re there,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said this spring, “and I know the fans will embrace us, too.

“That’s all we can ask.’

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The New York Yankees certainly lived up to their celebrated nickname in a season-opening sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Bronx Bombers belted a record-tying 15 home runs in their first three games — and in the process created an entirely unexpected storyline for the new season.

While slugger Aaron Judge seemed to pick up where he left off last season by leading with way with four homers, other less-celebrated power hitters joined in the barrage. When several of them were seen using an odd-looking new weapon, the baseball world seemed to go bat-crazy trying to learn more about what we now know as the ‘torpedo bat.’

What is a torpedo bat?

The idea behind the new bat design is actually pretty simple: Move more of the wood toward the sweet spot of the bat, where players try to make contact and where the bat will produce optimal results.

The result gives the torpedo bat a slightly different shape than a traditional one. Similar to a bowling pin, the bat is fatter where the label is and it tapers off slightly toward the end.

The redistribution of weight moves the ‘barrel’ area slightly toward the hands, rather than toward the end of the bat.

Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe and second baseman Jazz Chisholm are among the players using the new bats. Both hit home runs on opening day. Chisholm added two more on Sunday.

Who created the torpedo bat design?

The torpedo bat design is the brainchild of Aaron Leanhardt, an MIT physicist who was a professor at the University of Michigan from 2007 to 2014 before joining the Yankees in 2018.

He began working with the club’s minor leaguers, then was promoted last season to become the Yankees’ lead analyst. One of his projects involved customizing bats for players to optimize success on contact.

“It’s just about making the bat as heavy and as fat as possible in the area where you’re trying to do damage on the baseball,” Leanhardt told The Athletic.

Leanhardt left the Yankees this past offseason to become a field coordinator with the Miami Marlins.

Are torpedo bats legal?

MLB Rule 3.02 states: “The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood.”

When questioned about the new bats, MLB has stated that they do conform to all rules and are legal.

What MLB players are using torpedo bats?

Interestingly enough, torpedo bats aren’t entirely new this season. The Yankees’ research led to Giancarlo Stanton using one at the end of last season. And we all know what he did in the playoffs — hitting .273 with seven homers and 16 RBI in 14 games and winning MVP honors in the American League championship series.

Other teams have known about the torpedo bats, but many players have been reluctant to use them in games.

Notable major leaguers who are currently using torpedo bats include:

Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers
Blue Jays utilityman Davis Schneider
Rays third baseman Junior Caminero

Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves took note of the Yankees’ success and, according to ESPN, have already ‘placed an order’ for some.

PALM BEACH, Florida – The NFL could one day play a regular-season game in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, but the idea is in an exploratory phase as the league continues to expand its marketing efforts internationally.

The NFL announced Monday that United Arab Emirates and Greece will be two new international markets where teams can market themselves in an expansion to its Global Markets Program.

The Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers and Washington Commanders will be allowed to market their clubs in the UAE, while the Los Angeles Chargers will market in Greece as part of the program.

The NFL will play regular-season games in England, Spain, Germany, Ireland and Brazil in 2025, and a game in Australia in 2026 – continuing to expand the footprint of the American sport in other parts of the world.

And the league certainly has interest in playing in the Middle East – at some point.

“Definitely interest, high. Absolutely, interest (is) high,” Peter O’Reilly, NFL executive vice president of Club Business, International and League Events, said of the UAE during NFL owners’ meetings on Monday.

“We don’t know the timing, and it’s really an if in terms of whether we’ll play a game there. What I will say is that’s a market where there’s strong interest in our game on a year-round basis. I think that’s why you see three clubs raising their hand with interest there, it’s a market we’ll continue to explore,” O’Reilly said.

“We’ve done some exploratory trips there to understand the viability of a potential regular season game in the market, but we’ve got more work to do there in terms of what that looks like over this next stretch.”

O’Reilly said UAE is “obviously an important market” and there are “learnings” they will glean on from other sports leagues hosting high-profile events in the country, like the NBA and Formula One.

The NFL’s announcement to play in Australia during the Super Bowl created interest from other parts of the world, O’Reilly said.

The NFL believes games played in other countries is the best driver for international interest, but placing teams in countries to market themselves also promotes fandom and cultural relevance for American football.

The Baltimore Ravens will be able to market in the United Kingdom, while the Green Bay Packers can market themselves in Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Overall, 29 of the 32 NFL teams participate in the program across 21 international markets – up from 25 clubs in 19 markets last year.

NFL clubs can apply for rights to international markets by submitting proposals to the International Committee for review each spring. Clubs are awarded rights for a five-year term and can pursue marketing activities consistent with what they can do in their home markets.

“We all know the importance of having a favorite team, and creating that connection to a favorite team,” O’Reilly said. “That’s the heart of the global markets program.”

2025 NFL Global Markets Program by teams

Arizona Cardinals: Canada, Mexico
Atlanta Falcons: Germany
Baltimore Ravens: United Kingdom
Carolina Panthers: Germany
Chicago Bears: Spain, United Kingdom
Cleveland Browns: Nigeria
Dallas Cowboys: Mexico
Denver Broncos: Mexico
Detroit Lions: Austria, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Switzerland
Green Bay Packers: Germany, Ireland, United Kingdom
Houston Texans: Mexico
Indianapolis Colts: Austria, Germany, Switzerland
Jacksonville Jaguars: Ireland, United Kingdom
Kansas City Chiefs: Austria, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom.
Las Vegas Raiders: Australia, Mexico, New Zealand
Los Angeles Chargers: Greece
Los Angeles Rams: Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates
Miami Dolphins: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom
Minnesota Vikings: Canada, United Kingdom
New England Patriots: Austria, Brazil, Germany, Switzerland
New Orleans Saints: France
New York Giants: Germany
New York Jets: Ireland, United Kingdom
Philadelphia Eagles: Australia, Brazil, Ghana, New Zealand
Pittsburgh Steelers: Germany, Island of Ireland, Mexico
San Francisco 49ers: Mexico, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates
Seattle Seahawks: Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Switzerland
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Austria, Germany, Switzerland
Washington Commanders: United Arab Emirates

With two of its teams in the Final Four, will the SEC finally end its national championship drought in the 2025 men’s NCAA Tournament?

Oddsmakers don’t believe so — don’t tell Greg Sankey.

Cooper Flagg and Duke basketball head to college basketball’s marquee event as the betting favorite, including on BetMGM, to claim the national title. The Blue Devils have been playing some of their best basketball over the last few weeks, as they’ve outscored their four opponents — No. 16 Mount St. Mary’s, No. 9 seed Baylor, No. 4 seed Arizona and No. 2 Alabama — 367-273.

The Final Four of the men’s NCAA Tournament will take place on Saturday, April 5 at the Alamodome in San Antonio. The national championship game will tip off at 8:50 p.m. ET on Monday, April 7 in the Alamo City.

Here’s what you need to know about who is favored to win the national championship in the men’s NCAA Tournament:

Who is the favorite to win men’s March Madness?

Odds courtesy of BetMGM as of Monday, March 31

To get to the national championship, the Blue Devils will have to take down Houston, the No. 3 overall seed, in the Final Four. The Duke-Houston Final Four matchup is an intriguing matchup from an analytical standpoint, as it features Duke’s No. 1 offense and Houston’s No. 1 defense, per KenPom.

A national championship for the Blue Devils would be their first under Jon Scheyer and first since 2015, when Mike Krzyzewski’s team defeated Wisconsin. It would also be the program’s sixth national championship, which would tie Duke with UConn and in-state rival North Carolina for the third-most championships in the country.

Men’s March Madness national championship odds

Odds courtesy of BetMGM as of Monday, March 31

Duke (+100)
Florida (+275)
Houston (+425)
Auburn (+525)

Final Four predictions, picks for men’s March Madness tournament

Florida vs. Auburn predictions, picks
Duke vs. Houston predictions, picks