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ZIPS WANT FANS TO CALL PLAYS
AKRON -- The University of Akron football team will look to fans to call the plays -- at least for one drive.
The university will select an “Offensive Coordinator of the Game” for the opportunity to help script the opening drive of the team’s home opener with Robert Morris set for 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 12 at InfoCision Stadium.
The selected fan will work with Akron head coach and former Morning Journal sports writer Joe Moorhead to design the plays that will open the game.
“I’m looking forward to collaborating with the season ticket holder who wins this contest,” Moorhead said. “This will give our fans a behind-the-scenes experience that has never been done before anywhere, so I’m excited to show them how to put together the opening script and see what they can do.”
All current season ticket holders are automatically entered into the drawing with every season ticket counting as an entry. Season ticket holders will receive additional entries for every new season ticket holder they refer. The winner of the drawing will be announced on Aug. 19. See the Akron web site or call 1-888-99-AKRON for more information.
PRESIDENTS PICK
LATROBE, Pa. – After repeating as champions with their 28th Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) championship last year, Washington & Jefferson College was picked first in the preseason poll during the PAC Football Media Day on Tuesday.
Led by 24th-year head coach Mike Sirianni, W&J claimed 37 first-place votes and tallied 497 total points in the poll voted on by PAC head coaches, sports information directors and members of the medi. The Presidents went 8-0 in PAC play last year to earn the program’s 28th NCAA playoff bid and finished 8-3 overall.
Sirianni was a starting wide receiver on Mount Union’s first NCAA Division III national championship team in 1993.
Grove City College, which earned an at-large bid in the NCAA playoffs, was selected second with five first-place votes and 453 points. The Wolverines will play at Mount Union on Sept. 12.
Westminster College, which finished an 8-3 season with a victory in the Opendorse Bowl Series Extra Points Bowl, placed third with three first-place votes and 395 points. Ranking fourth was Case Western Reserve University with 361 points, followed by Geneva College, who earned an ECAC Bowl bid a season ago, with 339 points.
The 2026 season will be Saint Francis’ first in the PAC as the Red Wolves begin conference play while they reclassify from Division I to Division III. Saint Francis will play an eight-game slate in 2026, all against PAC opponents, but the games will not count in the conference standings while St. Francis reclassifies.
WILLIAMS SISTERS TO PLAY IN OHIO
MASON, Ohio (AP) -- The Williams sisters are back on track to playing doubles tennis ahead of the U.S. Open.
Serena and Venus Williams are set to take part in the Cincinnati Open, which begins next week. Organizers announced Monday they had received a wild-card entry into the doubles field.
They last played a doubles match together at the 2022 U.S. Open. It is their first time teaming up in the hard-court tune-up tournament in Mason, Ohio.
The Williams sisters received a wild-card entry to play doubles at Wimbledon, but an injury to Serena prevented that from happening. They have won 14 major titles and three Olympic gold medals in doubles play.
Venus Williams, 46, is set to play mixed doubles at the U.S. Open later this month in New York alongside Alexander Bublik. She and her younger sister playing at Cincinnati is the latest step in Serena’s comeback at age 44 after losing at Wimbledon in her first singles match in nearly four years.
BUCKEYES RANKED No. 1
Ohio State and Oregon hold down the top two spots and the Southeastern Conference has five of the top 10 teams in the USA Today preseason coaches football poll released Tuesday.
The Buckeyes received 38 of the 72 first-place votes and were well ahead of the Ducks, who got six first-place votes.
No. 3 Georgia received seven first-place votes, No. 4 Texas got two and No. 5 Notre Dame five.
Defending national champion Indiana was No. 6 with 14 first-place votes and was followed by Miami, the team it beat in the College Football Playoff championship game. Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Mississippi rounded out the top 10.
Texas Tech, at No. 12, was the highest-ranked of four Big 12 teams in the poll. The SEC, with nine, had the most ranked teams.
No teams from a Group of Six conference were in the Top 25.
Ohio State went 12-0 in the 2025 regular season before losing to Indiana in the Big Ten championship game and to Miami in the first round of the CFP. The Buckeyes return a Heisman Trophy finalist in quarterback Julian Sayin, one of the nation’s top receivers in Jeremiah Smith and an experienced offensive line.
The Associated Press preseason Top 25 poll will be released at noon Eastern on Aug. 17.
PREAKNESS DATE REVEALED TODAY
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- The date of the 2027 Preakness Stakes is set to be revealed on Wednesday by Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and the Maryland Jockey Club.
There has been speculation about the Preakness moving back from two to three weeks after the Kentucky Derby to get more horses from the Triple Crown opener to run in the second leg. Golden Tempo became the second Derby winner in a row and third in five years not to take part.
But the Belmont Stakes staying on the first Saturday in June for next year could extend the troubles of the condensed calendar for at least one more Triple Crown season. The return of the race to Belmont Park is set for June 5, as part of a new 3-year-old championship series that includes the Derby, the Belmont and races into the summer and possibly early fall.
For at least 2027, that series does not include the 152nd rendition of the Preakness, which is set to take place back at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore following a one-time stop at Laurel Park. Full reconstruction of the new Pimlico is expected to be completed by the spring of 2028, officials have said.