BADMINTON

Intramural Badminton starts up for the spring semester this week. A grand total of 23 teams have signed up to play. While there isn’t any time left to create teams, people interested in participating can be added to an existing team. Badminton will be run the same way it was in the fall, with rackets and birdies being sanitized after every game and capacity limits being enforced. All games will happen in Farley Field House, as it is the largest indoor gathering area on campus. This will allow as many teams to play at the same time as possible.

HOCKEY ON ESPN

This past Wednesday, the National Hockey League (NHL) announced that it would be partnering with ABC and ESPN/Disney as national broadcasters beginning in October and continuing through the 2027-28 season. For the past ten years, the NHL has exclusively partnered with NBC and NBC Sports to provide national broadcasts. This is the first time in the NHL’s history that it will have multiple national broadcasting partners in the United States, and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman believes that this will help the League get on the same level as baseball, football and basketball, all of which have multiple national broadcast partners. This deal is also beneficial for ESPN, as the NHL has one of their youngest fan bases, so executives from ESPN are excited to expand and retain fans moving forward.

SWITCHING IT UP

Major League Baseball (MLB) announced rule changes to minor leagues this past week in anticipation of possible implementation in the major leagues a few years down the road. The changes are part of an effort to increase batting averages of players and speed up gameplay. Moving forward, the League will ban some forms of defensive shifts, more games will be governed by an electronic strike zone, the League will implement a 15-second pitch clock, there will be limitations on pickoff moves and the League will use larger bases. The pitch clock has been a demand of baseball users for years, as many believe games are taking too long and there is too much downtime. None of the rule changes have been confirmed for the majors yet, and the changes in the minor leagues will act as a test run.