Author: Dan Wolken, USA TODAY

Maybe near-universal adoration is too comfortable for Charles Barkley, whose defiance of expectations, distaste of decorum are key to his existence.

If Jim Phillips doesn’t soon enter the ring to brawl for what’s left in college athletics, the ACC may find itself among realignment’s big losers.

In SEC commissioner Greg Sankey’s view, being conference champ doesn’t equate to “earning your way in.” That should worry schools at low end of Div I.

For all the excitement around Tiger Woods at this year’s Masters, his 78 Thursday at St. Andrews was a reminder of what his career is at this point.

It doesn’t seem there will be a rush for one or two mega-conferences to swallow what we’ve come to know as the Power Five. It may happen eventually.

Elena Rybakina, whose home remains in Moscow, is playing in Wimbledon because Kazakhstan had offered her support in exchange for changing citizenship.

If Nick Kyrgios is ever going to do something in tennis that transcends the money, controversy and unrealized expectations, it’s got to be now.

With USC and UCLA abandoning their West Coast roots for the Big Ten, college athletics is headed for a future as an entity existing purely for profit.

It has been a miserable couple of decades for American men in the Grand Slams.

Nobody’s interests are served thinking Serena Williams can win seven consecutive matches against the world’s best players to get a 24th Grand Slam.