Sports
Caitlin Clark declares for 2024 WNBA Draft
Having rewritten the collegiate record book over four seasons at Iowa, Caitlin Clark announced Thursday that she is entering the upcoming WNBA Draft and forgoing the opportunity to return to the Hawkeyes for a fifth year.
Clark’s decision, which comes just days before Iowa’s final regular-season home game Sunday against No. 2 Ohio State, had been looming over both the college and professional games in recent weeks as she set both the women’s NCAA Division I and major college women’s basketball scoring records.
“This season is far from over and we have a lot more goals to achieve,” she said Thursday in a social media announcement. Yet Clark has cleared the way to become the No. 1 pick in the April draft for the Indiana Fever. Her professional debut is poised to be among the most anticipated in WNBA history.
From her first game with the Hawkeyes in 2020, Clark’s impact has been apparent. She scored 27 points in 26 minutes in her collegiate debut, flashing the offensive brilliance that has become commonplace through her career in Iowa City. She recorded the lone 40-point triple-double in NCAA Tournament history and is the only player in the NCAA era to record 3,000 points, 750 rebounds and 750 assists. She has set program records for single-game scoring (49) and career points, having scored 3,650 points, while leading the Hawkeyes to two conference tournament championships and their first Final Four berth since 1993. Her team lost to Louisiana State in the NCAA final last season.
“It is impossible to fully express my gratitude to everyone who has supported me during my time at Iowa — my teammates, who made the last four years the best; my coaches, trainers and staff who always let me be me,” Clark said. “Hawkeye fans who filled Carver every night; and everyone who came out to support us across the country, especially the young kids.
— Caitlin Clark (@CaitlinClark22) February 29, 2024
“Most importantly, none of this would have been possible without my family and friends who have been by my side through it all. Because of all of you, my dreams came true.”
Beyond any counting stats, Clark’s impact can be seen and felt in the frenzy surrounding every game she plays. Of the Hawkeyes’ 32 regular-season contests this season, 30 either sold out or set arena attendance records for women’s basketball — the exceptions were Iowa’s neutral site games at a Thanksgiving tournament. Before Thursday’s announcement, the average price of admission for Iowa’s home finale against the Buckeyes was already said to be more than $555, according to TickPick, making it the most expensive women’s basketball game ever. That value should only increase following news of her decision. Clark’s presence also has brought record television ratings, as she and Iowa have participated in the most-watched women’s basketball game ever on six different networks.
The 6-foot guard began her senior season saying she was going to “treat this year like this is my last year.” She said she would make a decision about whether to stay in Iowa City or turn pro based on her gut. Holding an additional year of eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic she vowed not to let the choice to stay or go weigh on her. She reinforced that on Thursday, while still saying she was excited for what was to come. Clark currently leads the nation in points (32.2) and assists (8.7) per game, and is favored to take home Player of the Year honors for the second consecutive season.
In mid-December, when the Fever learned that they would hold the No. 1 pick for the second consecutive year, general manager Lin Dunn acknowledged that numerous potential draftees holding the option to return to school left “a little bit of question of who we might be able to get.” But Dunn said she would urge all players who can enter the WNBA to enter the W. “I’m ready for them to come out, come on into the pros, move on with their lives, let somebody else play. I’m encouraging all of them to come on out,” Dunn said.
No. 1 ⏳
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) February 29, 2024
Dunn, and those at the Fever, are no doubt euphoric at the opportunity to slot Clark onto their roster alongside 2023 No. 1 pick Aliyah Boston, who was the league’s unanimous Rookie of the Year last summer. “I think just how versatile she is,” Boston told The Athletic earlier this season about what makes Clark special. “Just her vision on the court. I think that’s super important, and I think she just does a great job with that at Iowa.”
Indiana, which has won just 18 games combined in the past two seasons, is looking to make its first postseason appearance since 2016 and to snap the longest active playoff drought in the league. In the immediate aftermath of Clark’s decision, the team’s social media accounts sent out a post reminding fans that season tickets were available, urging them to “hop on board.” Fever guard Erica Wheeler said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that she was already fielding requests from friends and family, as well as some people she had not heard from in a long time who wanted tickets. “I can’t help them,” she said.
Clark has already partnered with major brands like Gatorade, Nike and State Farm, and her national platform will travel with her from Iowa to Indiana. The WNBA stands to benefit from her presence as well. In its 27th season last summer, the league reached over 36 million total viewers across all national networks, up 27 percent from 2022 and its highest mark since 2008. The league’s All-Star Game was the most-watched in 16 years, and the 2023 WNBA Finals, featuring the Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty, was the most-watched in 20 years. Clark’s arrival, which will officially come on Monday, April 15, when the draft takes place in Brooklyn, will likely only accelerate that trend and the interest surrounding the sport.
“It’s great for women’s basketball. It’s going to be great for the WNBA when she comes in. Her game is going to translate,” Becky Hammon, a Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer and the coach of the two-time defending champion Aces told The Athletic in mid-January. “She’s special. She’s generational.”
The Athletic’s James Boyd contributed to this report.
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(Photo: Andy Lyons / Getty Images)
Sports
Trump admin says SJSU now faces ‘impending enforcement’ for transgender volleyball scandal conflict
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FIRST ON FOX: President Donald Trump’s Department of Education said it has notified San Jose State University (SJSU) that it faces “impending enforcement action” for its “refusal to comply with Title IX.”
SJSU and the California State University (CSU) system filed a lawsuit earlier in March to challenge an Education Department investigation that determined the university violated Title IX in its handling of a biological male transgender volleyball player on a women’s team from 2022-24.
Now, the administration is cracking down against that resistance.
“We have provided SJSU with multiple opportunities to resolve its Title IX violations with common sense actions: separating male and female athletes based on their biological sex, keeping men out of women’s locker rooms and bathrooms, restoring rightfully-earned titles and accolades to female athletes, and apologizing to the women forced to forfeit competitions to protect themselves,” Kimberly Richey, the department’s assistant secretary for civil rights, said in an announcement.
“Yet, SJSU remains obstinate, choosing a radical ideology over safety, dignity, and fairness for its own students. With today’s action, the Department is putting the university on notice: comply with the law or risk losing its federal funding.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to SJSU and CSU for a response.
Brooke Slusser and Blaire Fleming of the San Jose State Spartans call a play against the Air Force Falcons on Oct. 19, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
The conflict between Trump’s administration and the school stems back to the 2024 season, when a national controversy involving transgender player Blaire Fleming triggered an election-cycle media firestorm, all during Trump’s third White House campaign.
The Education Department’s investigation has claimed, “SJSU actively recruited and allowed a male to compete on the women’s indoor and beach volleyball teams and reportedly instructed members of the coaching staff not to tell the female players that the athlete was a male.”
The investigation added that “on multiple occasions, the male athlete spiked the ball so forcefully that it knocked females on the opposing team to the ground.”
One of the standout details of the investigation’s findings was that a female SJSU player “discovered that the male student had conspired to have a member of the opposing team spike her in the face during an upcoming match. SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected this female athlete to a Title IX complaint for reportedly ‘misgendering’ the male athlete when discussing this incident in online videos and interviews.”
Former SJSU co-captain Brooke Slusser has included those allegations in her ongoing lawsuit against representatives of SJSU and CSU.
UNIVERSITY LEADER ADMITS SCHOOLS ARE ‘NOT A POLITICAL PARTY’ IN WARNING TO ELITE CAMPUSES
After SJSU and CSU announced they were suing the Trump administration to challenge the findings, Slusser, and other former NCAA players, came forward about their alleged experience during the scandal, and how it affected them, in recent interviews with Fox News Digital.
Slusser, who shared an apartment with Fleming at SJSU without knowing the athlete’s birth sex, became the subject of viral debate after her interview reflecting on the experience sharing spaces with Fleming.
“You find out you’re just chilling in a bed with a man that you have no idea about… I [was] unknowingly sharing a bed at that time with a man,” Slusser said, also alleging SJSU volleyball coach Todd Kress encouraged her to live in the same apartment as the trans teammate when another group of players was also looking for a final tenant.
Former Utah State volleyball star Kaylie Ray told Fox News Digital that during matches against SJSU and Fleming in 2022 and ’23, before Fleming’s birth sex was known, she had teammates suffer finger injuries from the trans athlete’s spikes.
“I had teammates who had seriously jammed their fingers, luckily not broken, but a handful of girls who had sustained minor injuries from the male player,” Ray said, adding, “We knew that if the male athlete had a phenomenal game, there was nothing we could do to stop that person.”
Ray’s Utah State team became one of five teams to forfeit at least one game to SJSU in 2024, seemingly in protest of Fleming. She says the forfeit impacted her team’s hopes of winning their fourth straight Mountain West championship.
Meanwhile, the University of Wyoming forfeited two matches to SJSU in 2024. Former Cowgirls player Macey Boggs told Fox News Digital that the decisions to forfeit the games “permanently ruined” friendships among her teammates.
“There were some of the girls who I really enjoyed, and we got along great, and then this situation came up, some conflict came up, and ultimately we went in separate directions because of that… as soon as we played in our last game, we all went in separate directions… it was hard to maintain those relationships,” Boggs said.
SJSU was plagued by a separate Title IX violation in sports that it had to resolve with the Biden administration in 2021. The university ultimately came to a $1.6 million resolution with the Department of Justice in 2021.
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The DOJ found that SJSU failed for more than a decade to respond adequately to reports of sexual harassment, including sexual assault, of female student-athletes by an athletic trainer then working at SJSU, beginning in 2009 when female student-athletes reported that the trainer subjected them to repeated, unwelcome sexual touching.
The department and SJSU entered into a comprehensive agreement to address the findings of the investigation, which began in June 2020 during Trump’s first term.
Now, Trump’s current administration is giving the school 10 more days to comply with a series of resolution agreements to resolve the volleyball situation, or face enforcement action, including referral to the DOJ and termination of SJSU’s federal funding.
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Sports
‘I’m back’: Tiger Woods to play in TGL championship match with Masters status still unclear
Some major Tiger Woods news broke Monday night.
It had nothing to do with the Masters — not directly anyway.
The 50-year-old golfing legend will be playing competitively for the first time in more than a year as his Jupiter Links team competes against Los Angeles in the second match of the best-of-three TGL finals Tuesday night in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
TGL is a high-tech, indoor golf league that uses simulators and real surfaces, founded by Woods, Rory McIlroy and Mike McCarley in 2022. While a TGL match doesn’t present the same physical challenge as a PGA Tour event, the team event could serve as Woods’ first step toward playing at Augusta National on April 9-12.
Woods last played competitively March 4, 2025, in Jupiter’s final TGL match of that season. He missed all of the PGA season last year as he recovered from a 2024 back surgery and surgery in March 2025 for a ruptured Achilles tendon. Last fall, he underwent disk replacement surgery in his lower back.
A five-time Masters winner, most recently in 2019, Woods is listed as a 2026 invitee on the tournament website but has yet to confirm his participation.
Last month at the Genesis Invitational, a reporter asked Woods if the Masters was “off the table” for him this year. Woods answered simply, “No.”
In the opening match of the TGL finals Monday night, Jupiter lost 6-5, with Kevin Kisner narrowly missing a birdie chip from 20 feet that would have won the match. Woods was on hand as a team captain and supporter, roles he has served all season.
After the match, Woods told reporters he felt bad for his players — Tom Kim, Max Homa and Kisner — but expressed optimism that Jupiter could still come back and claim the title. If Jupiter wins Match 2, a third match will take place immediately afterward to determine the TGL champion.
“We have possibly two more matches,” Woods said. “We’re not out of this.”
Woods didn’t mention the possibility of placing himself in the next day’s lineup. After the news conference, however, TGL posted a graphic on X that showed what appears to be Woods’ torso and the words “He’s back,” along with the viewing information for Tuesday’s match.
Moments later, Jupiter Links posted a graphic on X that featured a photo of Woods and the quote, “I’m back.”
Woods will be replacing Kisner in the lineup for at least Match 2. It is unclear if Woods would take part in a possible third match.
Last week, after Jupiter clinched a spot in the finals, Woods told reporters he has been trying to play all season “but it just hasn’t worked out that way.” He added that the players had done well without him and implied that he didn’t foresee any changes ahead of the finals.
“I really don’t want to screw up the lineup,” Woods added. “I just want these guys to keep playing.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Sports
John Daly calls himself a ‘jacka–‘ after falling down desert hill during tournament
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Golf great John Daly shared a hilarious moment that may have been more serious after watching a video he posted on social media, calling himself a “jacka–” in the process.
Daly was in desert terrain at the La Paloma Country Club for the Cologuard Classic, when he was trying to hit a shot onto a green when he lost his footing.
As he tried to gain traction in the sand, Daly’s feet fell from under him, and he slid down a long desert hill. Multiple people got involved, voluntarily jumping down the hill to see if Daly was all right.
John Daly of the United States plays a tee shot on the first hole during the second round of the Cologuard Classic 2026 at La Paloma Country Club on March 21, 2026, in Tucson, Arizona. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Daly left unscathed, but he did enjoy putting the theme music to the “Jackass” franchise over the video to share to the masses.
“Bellyfloppin’ in the desert,” Daly captioned the video, while shouting out his caddie, Joel Cooley, who sprang to action to see if his partner was doing fine at the bottom of the hill.
“On today’s episode of ‘jacka**’” was also seen on top of the video.
BROOKS KOEPKA RUNS TO COMFORT YOUNG GILR HIT BY GOLF CART DURING HIS VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIP
While he doesn’t usually show off his bellyflopping, Daly remains a key figure in golf.
John Daly of the United States plays his second shot on the ninth hole during the first round of the Cologuard Classic 2026 at La Paloma Country Club on March 20, 2026, in Tucson, Arizona. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
He spends most of his time on the course for the Champions Tour, which is former PGA Tour players 50 years and older. His most recent round came on Sunday, where he finished tied for 29th with a 6-under tournament in the Cologuard Classic.
Daly was just named the 2026 Ambassador of Golf Award honoree ahead of the Kaulig Companies Championship at the signature Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. The award recognizes those making an impact on the course as well as in their communities off the course.
“I’ve always loved this game and what it’s given me,” he said in a press release for the award. “Golf has taken me places I never imagined and introduced me to incredible people along the way. To be recognized with the Ambassador of Golf Award is truly an honor, and I’m proud to support the meaningful work being done here in Northeast Ohio.”
John Daly hits his tee shot on the second hole during the final round of the PNC Championship 2025 at Ritz-Carlton Golf Club on Dec. 21, 2025 in Orlando, Florida. (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Daly’s impact on the sport is quite iconic, whether it’s his monstrous drives from the tee box, winning the 1991 PGA Championship as the ninth alternate in the field, or taking home The Open Championship in 1995 at St. Andrews, forever marking himself as a multi-time major winner.
His larger-than-life personality has always been on display, even today in silly moments like these on and off the course.
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