ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood showed glimpses of the growing pains he will likely experience as a freshman and flashes of the promise that made him the nation’s top-rated high school football recruit in the Wolverines' spring game. Underwood was 12 of 25 for 187 yards with a scrimmage-ending, 88-yard pass to tight end Jalen Hoffman on a reverse flea-flicker in a 17-0 win for the Blue over Maize on Saturday. He also recovered his own fumble, had a pair of delay-of-game penalties and several errant throws. As the Wolverines wrapped up spring football in front of about 40,000 fans at the Big House, all eyes were on Underwood.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s Fred Richard and Paul Juda finished first and second in the all-around and the Wolverines edged them past five-time defending champion Stanford to win their first NCAA men’s gymnastics title since 2014. Juda, the individual champion on the parallel bars with a score of 14.200 and Michigan’s final competitor of the day, scored a 13.966 on the vault to clinch the program’s seventh national title. The Wolverines finished second, 5.635 points behind Stanford, at the 2024 championships. Oklahoma finished third with 327.891, ahead of Nebraska (326.222), Penn State (317.258) and Illinois (316.293). Penn State and Oklahoma each hold a record 12 national titles. Stanford’s Asher Hong took home individual titles in the floor exercise (14.600) and rings (14.433).
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Oklahoma’s redemption arc is complete. The Sooners have returned to the top at the NCAA women’s gymnastics championships, cruising to their seventh national title a year after a stunning flameout in the semifinals. Oklahoma’s team total of 198.0125 in the finals was four-tenths better than runner-up UCLA. The Bruins and three-time Olympic medalist Jordan Chiles capped a resurgent season with the program's best finish since winning it all in 2018. Missouri ended its best-ever season by coming in third, just ahead of Utah.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — LaSondra Barrett has been hired as a women’s basketball assistant at Iowa, taking the position vacated when Raina Harmon left two weeks ago to become head coach at Florida Gulf Coast. The 35-year-old Barrett has been an assistant at Georgia Tech the past three seasons and was the Yellow Jackets’ recruiting coordinator for the past year. She previously was an assistant at Houston, Louisiana Tech and FIU. Barrett was a standout player at LSU and a 2012 first-round pick in the WNBA draft.
UNDATED (AP) — The opening of the college football transfer portal has created a dash for cash. The delay in a judge approving the House v NCAA antitrust settlement has extended the window of there being no limits on the amount of money players can receive from their schools’ NIL collectives or from third-party endorsement deals. More than 400 players have entered the portal since it opened Wednesday. Athletes have until April 25 to enter, and they clearly have leverage until the settlement is approved. Sports attorney Mit Winter says schools have a free pass to pay athletes as much as they want.
UNDATED (AP) — The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel gave final approval to a rule designed to discourage football players from faking injuries to stop the game clock. If medical personnel go onto the field to evaluate a player with an apparent injury after the ball is spotted for the next play, that player’s team will be charged a timeout. If the team has no timeouts remaining, a 5-yard delay-of-game penalty will be assessed. Feigning injuries, sometimes at the coach’s instruction, had become a concern of the Football Rules Committee in recent years.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska coach Matt Rhule called an audible on his plan to entirely eliminate full-pad scrimmaging on the day of what normally would be the Cornhuskers’ spring game. Rhule last month became the first coach to announce an end to his school’s traditional spring game, citing concerns about other teams scouting players in a televised scrimmage and possibly poaching them. Rhule said Thursday the Husker Games event on April 26 would include an undetermined amount of live scrimmaging for mostly third- and fourth-string players.
