| | | | | | | Presented By Flatfile | | | | Axios Sports | | By Kendall Baker ·Mar 31, 2021 | | 👋 Good morning! Let's sports. Today's word count: 1,653 words (6 minutes). | | | | | | 1 big thing: 🏀 The Final Fours are set |  | | | Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios | | | | The Final Fours are set, and just like that, the college basketball season that at times seemed like it was balancing on a knife's edge has just six games left. Last night: - Men's: No. 11 UCLA knocked off No. 1 Michigan, 51-49, behind Johnny Juzang's 28 points. No. 1 Gonzaga destroyed No. 6 USC, 85-66, behind Drew Timme's mustache (and 23 points).
- Women's: Both No. 1 seeds advanced, with Stanford holding off Louisville, 73-68, and South Carolina destroying Texas, 62-34.
Notes: - Streak stays alive: This will be the eight straight men's Final Four with a No. 5 or lower seed thanks to UCLA's miraculous run from the First Four to the Final Four.
- Cinderella Bruins: UCLA is just the sixth double-digit seed to reach the Final Four since seeding began in 1979, joining 2018 Loyola Chicago, 2016 Syracuse, 2011 VCU, 2006 George Mason and 1986 LSU.
- Arizona crashes the party: UConn is women's college hoops, Stanford is one of the sport's most historically dominant programs and South Carolina has established itself as a perennial contender. Then there's Arizona, making its Final Four debut. Go Wildcats.
Opening lines: - Men's (Saturday): No. 2 Houston vs. No. 1 Baylor (-5); No. 11 UCLA vs. No. 1 Gonzaga (-14)
- Women's (Friday): No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 1 Stanford (TBD); No. 3 Arizona vs. No. 1 UConn (-13.5)
Check your bracket. |     | | | | | | 2. 🎓 The NCAA goes to Washington |  | | | Photo: Al Drago/Getty Images | | | | As the college sports world focuses on March Madness, the Supreme Court will hear a case this morning that could change the landscape of the NCAA, Axios' Jeff Tracy writes. - Catch up quick: The 9th Circuit last year sided with former West Virginia RB Shawne Alston in his antitrust case against the NCAA, ruling that schools can provide unlimited academic-related expenses to their athletes.
- Why it matters: If SCOTUS upholds that decision, it could open the door to a pay-for-play system in which schools compete for talent by shelling out thousands under the legal guise of education benefits.
The backdrop: Student-athlete compensation has been top of mind for years, but the glacial pace at which that's progressed continues to frustrate them. - Ahead of the tournament, some athletes took to social media to protest these inequities with the hashtag #NotNCAAProperty.
- Meanwhile, right across the street from the Supreme Court, Congressional lawmakers continue to discuss federal name, image and likeness (NIL) legislation.
The big picture: In theory, the NCAA isn't against finding ways to secure compensation for its athletes as long as there are proper guardrails in place to ensure it maintains its aura of amateurism. - In that way, the NIL debate and cases like Alston's are similar, with the fear of transforming into a pay-for-play organization always seeming to get in the way of true progress.
The last word: "I don't think any decision the Supreme Court makes will be the silver bullet that resolves every major issue in college sports," Len Elmore, the former NBA star and current co-chair of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, tells Axios. - But progress is progress, and "anything that makes college athletes' experience a priority and works towards enhancing their education, health, safety and wellbeing is something we have to be in favor of."
| | | | | | | | 3. 🚫 Bills piling up on trans youth |  | | | Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios | | | | Over 50 bills in 28 states have been introduced this year that would exclude transgender youth from playing sports on teams that align with their gender identity, Jeff writes. Driving the news: In the past three weeks alone, Republican governors from three states — Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas — have signed such bills. The state of play: This legislation largely follows the same pattern. Lawmakers argue their intent is to ensure fairness in women's sports, which they believe will be overrun with dominant trans athletes if left unregulated. - Yes, but: Not only is there little if any scientific evidence backing that claim, but several of the states with pending legislation also hope to disallow trans boys from competing in boys sports, indicating it may be less about fairness than outright exclusion.
- "We're not out there to take people's scholarships and stuff," a 15-year-old trans boy from North Dakota told SI (subscription). "No, we just want to compete."
The big picture: Bills targeting trans athletes are part of the larger culture war that has picked up steam since President Biden took office. - Arkansas just became the first state to pass a bill prohibiting doctors from performing gender-affirming care to trans youth, and over 20 other states have introduced similar bills.
What they're saying: "On the Democratic side, this is not an issue that really excites the base," Dan Cox, the director of the American Enterprise Institute's Survey Center on American Life, tells Axios' Orion Rummler. - "But on the right, I think these issues are really, really salient, so it tends to fire up folks disproportionately on the right than the left."
The impact: Sports participation has been linked to higher self-esteem and better grades among LGBTQ youth, 86% of whom said recent politics have negatively impacted their well-being, per The Trevor Project's 2020 mental health survey. | | | | | | | | A message from Flatfile | | How 100+ businesses migrated customer data in 2020 | | |  | | | | Data migration is a covert challenge for startups through enterprises. - 96% of companies surveyed by Flatfile ran into problems when importing data – 23% said migrating data takes weeks.
Read the 2020 State of Data Onboarding report for more insights. | | | | | | 4. 🎙 The rise of athlete-led podcasts |  | | | Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios | | | | "In the past, if athletes wanted to speak candidly, they would write a tell-all book, do a sit-down interview, maybe phone in to a radio show," writes the New Yorker's Hua Hsu. - "But the internet, which allows any of us to air the slightest thought, has changed those rules."
- "The space where athletes — or male athletes, at least — have found the greatest success as storytellers is in podcasting."
Popular pods: While plenty of retired athletes host podcasts (i.e. C.C. Sabathia, Pat McAfee), only a handful of active players have the time and energy to host their own shows. Here are a few worth checking out: What to watch: Part of the reason podcasts are so popular is that they're easy and inexpensive to launch (same thing goes for newsletters). - But maintaining one takes serious time and dedication, which is why so many podcasts and newsletters fold after a few months (if that).
- Athletes who can consistently produce great content are rare, and the ones who dedicate the most time to the craft are often those who want to pursue a media career after their playing days are over.
The bottom line: Whether you're an athlete or a dentist, it's never been easier to start a media brand. But since the barrier to entry is so low, it's also never been harder to break through the noise and build an audience. | | | | | | | | 5. ⚽️ China retreats from European soccer |  | | | Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios | | | | Chinese money, which five years ago poured into European soccer at a meteoric rate, is now returning home just as quickly as it went abroad. The big picture: China's long-term goal — growing its global soccer profile — hasn't changed, but the strategy to attain it has become more focused. The backdrop: In 2014, as China prepared to unveil its 13th five-year economic plan (2016–20), President Xi Jinping announced his intention to transform China's national team into a soccer superpower. - Chinese investors' directive thus became clear: Buy European clubs, learn best practices for building successful teams from within, and bring that knowledge home.
- By mid-2017, Chinese money was being deployed all over the soccer world, with more than 20 European clubs under at least minority control by Chinese investors.
- But none of China's efforts — whether in the form of club ownership, record transfer fees or huge media deals — helped move the needle regarding their global soccer standing, so the directive shifted from sending money abroad to infusing it domestically.
The state of play: There are now fewer than 10 European clubs with Chinese stakeholders, as those investments continue systematically returning home. - The "Derby della Madonnina" between AC and Inter Milan was briefly an all-Chinese affair, but Li Yonghong sold the former in 2018 and commerce giant Suning is actively fielding offers for the latter.
- 20% of Premier League clubs were under Chinese control in 2018. Fosun International still holds its stake in Wolverhampton, but Xia Jiantong sold Aston Villa in 2019 and both Southampton and West Bromwich Albion could be nearing sales.
This story is part of a deep dive into China's soccer ambitions, which was published on Tuesday. Read the full report. | | | | | | | | 6. 🏀 Crowning high school hoops champs | | Courtesy: GEICO Nationals The GEICO Nationals, an event that unofficially crowns the high school boys' and girls' basketball national champions, returns tonight after a one-year hiatus. Details: The four-day event will be held at Suncoast Credit Union Arena in Fort Myers, Florida, with all games broadcast on ESPN networks. Boys' seeds: - Montverde Academy (Fla.)
- Sunrise Christian (Kan.)
- IMG Academy (Fla.)
- AZ Compass (Ariz.)
- Wasatch Academy (Utah)
- Milton (Ga.)
- Prolific Prep (Calif.)
- Pace Academy (Ga.)
- Oak Hill Academy (Va.)
- La Lumiere (Ind.)
Girls' seeds: - Westlake (Ga.)
- Lake Highland Prep (Fla.)
- Paul VI (Va.)
- Fremont (Utah)
Top recruits: - Boys: The field includes 17 top-100 recruits from the Class of 2021, with IMG, Sunrise Christian and Montverde accounting for 12 of them.
- Girls: The field includes the nation's No. 2 senior in Westlake's Raven Johnson (committed to South Carolina) and the No. 3 junior in Fremont's Ayanna Patterson (Oregon State).
🎥 Watch: 2019 highlights (YouTube) | | | | | | | | 7. 📆 March 31, 1986: The first shot clock champs | | Photo: Rich Clarkson/NCAA Photos via Getty Images 35 years ago today, Louisville beat Duke, 72-69, to win its second men's basketball national championship. - Wild stat: The Cardinals, then in the Metro Conference, are one of just two non-power 5 conference teams to win the title since the tournament expanded to 64 teams (1985).
- The other? UNLV (Big West) cut down the nets in 1990 after a 103-73 shellacking of ... Duke.
The backdrop: This tournament was also historic for its debut of the shot clock, which had been in the women's game since 1971 and the NBA since 1954, but never on the men's college side. - It started at 45 seconds before getting reduced to 35 seconds in 1993 and finally 30 seconds in 2015.
The MVP: Freshman center Pervis Ellison (25 and 11 in the title game) was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. - Ellison earned the moniker "Never Nervous Pervis" for his superlative play in college.
- Yes, but: Injuries dogged him in the NBA, saddling him with the equally catchy but super depressing "Out of Service Pervis" nickname. Now I'm sad.
🎥 Watch: Full game (YouTube) | | | | | | | | 8. 🐷 The Ocho: Pig Racing | | This is why you subscribe, right? To be shown videos like this and made aware that a pig racing competition called "League of Pigs" exists? Please enjoy. | | | | | | | | 9. 🏀 Final Four trivia |  | | | Photo: Brett Wilhelm/NCAA Photos via Getty Images | | | | UCLA is making its 18th men's Final Four appearance, the second most all-time. - Question: What school has the most?
- Hint: They were in this year's field.
Answer at the bottom. | | | | | | | | 10. ⚾️ Tomorrow: MLB season preview |  | | | Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios | | | | Baseball's back, baby! And then we get the Final Four this weekend!! And the Masters next week!!! Sports!!!! | | | | | | | | A message from Flatfile | | How 100+ businesses migrated customer data in 2020 | | | | | | | | Data migration is a covert challenge for startups through enterprises. - 96% of companies surveyed by Flatfile ran into problems when importing data – 23% said migrating data takes weeks.
Read the 2020 State of Data Onboarding report for more insights. | | | | Talk tomorrow, Kendall "Juzang is an electric name" Baker Trivia answer: North Carolina (20 Final Four appearances) | | Invite friends to follow Axios Sports Use your personal link to track how many readers you bring into the community  You currently have 00 referrals. Share with a friend For questions email referralsupport@axios.com. Participation in the Axios Sports Referral Program constitutes your acceptance of the Axios Terms and Conditions of Use, which can be viewed here. | | | | Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters.
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