OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha has pledged $750,000 in taxpayer money to cover some of USA Swimming’s more than $3 million in costs to host the 2020 U.S. Olympic Swim Trials.

The City Council approved a plan Tuesday to make the second of three annual $250,000 payments to the Omaha Sports Commission for USA Swimming, the Omaha World-Herald reported.

The money was needed to ensure that the trials will still be held in Omaha after one of the organization’s largest corporate sponsors, Mutual of Omaha, scaled back its support, according to city officials. The insurance company cut ties with USA Swimming in 2016, the same year that Omaha hosted the quadrennial event for the third consecutive time.

Josh Todd, the Omaha Sports Commission’s executive director, said the city’s funding is helping offset a drop in sponsorships and donations that often accompanies hosting repeated events in a city.

Regional tourism officials estimated that the 2016 swimming trials had a local economic impact of about $74 million.

Councilman Brinker Harding said investing $750,000 to secure $74 million is a “no-brainer.”

Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert noted that the national event drew 200,000 fans in 2016, as well as international media coverage.

“Omaha is proud and fortunate to host the Olympic Swim Trials for the fourth time in 2020,” Stothert said. “The city’s financial support demonstrates our pride and ongoing commitment to Olympic athletes and the fans that support their athletic achievements.”

USA Swimming spokeswoman Belle McLemore declined to comment on the city’s contribution.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Former Tennessee reserve forward Derrick Walker is transferring to Nebraska. Nebraska officials say Walker would sit out the 2019-20 season before playing for the Cornhuskers. Walker has two seasons of eligibility remaining. He averaged 0.8 points, 1.1 rebounds and 5.3 minutes for Tennessee this past season.

CHICAGO (AP) — The NBA has picked 11 players from the G League Elite Camp to stay for the draft combine. UCF’s Tacko Fall, Florida State’s Terance Mann, Miami’s Dewan Hernandez, Syracuse’s Oshae Brissett, Nevada’s Cody Martin, Tulsa’s DaQuan Jeffries, Auburn’s Jared Harper, Iowa’s Tyler Cook, Iowa State’s Marial Shayok, Mississippi State’s Reggie Perry and Ole Miss’ Terence Davis were invited to stay for the workouts that begin Thursday.

UNDATED (AP) — The NCAA says it is forming a working group to consider how its rules can be modified to allow college athletes to be compensated for use of their names, images and likenesses. NCAA President Mark Emmert and the Board of Governors say Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman will head the new federal and state legislation working group.

Auburn against Oregon on Aug. 31 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, will be the first ABC Saturday Night Football game this season.

ESPN announced Wednesday the first three games of the 14th season of Saturday Night Football. LSU at Texas on Sept. 7 will be the Saturday Night Football game in Week 2. Defending national champion Clemson at Syracuse on Sept. 14 will fill that spot in Week 3.

The start time for Saturday Night Football has been moved up 30 minutes this season to 7:30 p.m. ET.

The network also announced ABC will televise four conference championship games, starting with the Pac-12 on Friday, Dec. 6, at 8 p.m. ET. The following day ABC will air title games for the American Athletic Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference and Big 12.

Fred Hoiberg, the former NBA player who coached Iowa State and the Chicago Bulls, was hired Saturday to coach a Nebraska team that had big hopes this season but finished with a 19-17 record and out of the NCAA Tournament yet again.

Hoiberg has strong ties to the school, which announced his hiring four days after seventh-year coach Tim Miles was fired.

Hoiberg, dismissed by the Bulls in in December, agreed to a seven-year contract paying a total of $25 million.

The 46-year-old Hoiberg was born in Lincoln and maternal grandfather Jerry Bush was the Cornhuskers coach from 1954 to 1963. His paternal grandfather was a professor at Nebraska and his parents are graduates of the school.

“I can’t express how excited I am to be back on the sidelines and to be coaching at a university that means a lot to my family and me,” Hoiberg said. “Nebraska has always felt like a second home.”

Hoiberg went 115-155 from 2010-15 with the Bulls. Before that, he had a successful five-year run as Iowa State’s coach with an up-tempo, spread-the-floor offense. He went 115-56 and led the Cyclones to four straight NCAA Tournaments and two Big 12 tournament titles.

“When you look at him, you see an individual who has had success as a player and a coach,” athletic director Bill Moos said. “Fred’s background will sell itself on the recruiting trail, and help us bring in the type of student-athletes needed to compete at the highest level. His style of play not only will be appealing to prospective recruits but will also provide our great fans an entertaining brand of basketball.”

Hoiberg takes over a program that has never been able to win consistently. Nebraska’s most recent regular-season conference championship came in 1950. The Huskers remain the only Power Five conference program to have never won an NCAA Tournament game.

As a star player for Iowa State, Hoiberg became known as “The Mayor” because of his popularity in Ames. He competed twice a year against the Huskers from 1991-95 — when Nebraska enjoyed its most sustained success, with four straight NCAA appearances. In the 25 years since, the Huskers have gone to the tournament just twice (1998, 2014).

Nebraska had reason to be encouraged this season. The Huskers started 13-4 and were in The Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since 2014. Then the Huskers lost 11 of the next 13 and finished 13th in the Big Ten, the fifth time in seven years they’ve been 10th or worse. A brief run in the Big Ten Tournament wasn’t enough to earn an NCAA bid.

The Huskers will lose seniors James Palmer Jr., Glynn Watson Jr. and Isaac Copeland, and junior Isaiah Roby has said he didn’t know if he would return if there were a coaching change.

Hoiberg had said shortly after his dismissal by the Bulls that he wanted to coach again, but the speculation was that it would be in the NBA.

Nebraska has had a history of hiring hot mid-major coaches — Danny Nee in 1986, Barry Collier in 2000, Doc Sadler in 2006 and Miles in 2012.

The school built a new practice facility in 2011 and a new arena in 2013. With the infrastructure in place, Moos and the university administration were looking to make a splash hire.

“I had the opportunity to coach (an exhibition) at Pinnacle Bank Arena with the Bulls, and I have seen first-hand that the facilities are as nice as any in the country,” Hoiberg said. “When you couple that with a loyal and passionate fan base, you can see there is great potential for the future of Nebraska basketball.”

PHOENIX (AP) — NFL owners voted down a proposal to replace the onside kick with one play from scrimmage, and tabled a suggestion to require each team to have one possession in overtime regardless of what happened on the first series of the extra period.

Owners will next take up the overtime topic again at their May meeting.

Team owners are tweaking Pass interference. Whether flagged or not, pass interference can be challenged by coaches and reviewed by officials next season.

NFL team owners voted Tuesday on a one-year trial basis to include those often-controversial penalties in the officiating replay review system. Coaches still will have two challenges per game, and in the final two minutes of a half or fourth quarter or for all of overtime, the replay official can order a review of offensive or defensive pass interference.

The major change — owners traditionally have been highly reluctant to include any penalties in the replay process — stems from an egregious missed call in the NFC championship game that likely led to the Rams making the Super Bowl and the Saints falling short.

The NFL has also awarded nearly a quarter-million dollars to two companies seeking to enhance protection provided by helmets. Windpact, founded by former NFL cornerback Shawn Springs, is receiving $148,820 to tailor its padding technology, called Crash Cloud, for use in Schutt’s helmets. Auxadyne was awarded $86,688 to advance its XPF material, an energy absorber that becomes more dense upon impact. The company will use this unique material, the only commercially available of its kind, to create a football helmet padding system that can reduce the impact to an athlete’s head.

BOSTON (AP) — The Latest on a college admissions bribery scandal that has led to charges against coaches and celebrities (all times local):

1 p.m.

Wake Forest University says it has suspended its head volleyball coach amid a sweeping federal investigation into admissions bribes.

The North Carolina school says it placed Bill Ferguson on administrative leave but declined further comment.

Ferguson is accused of accepting $100,000 to recruit a student who had been on Wake Forest’s wait list.

Other coaches are accused of taking bribes to admit students at schools including Georgetown University and the University of Southern California.

Prosecutors say the bribes were orchestrated by William “Rick” Singer, a California admissions consultant who is scheduled to plead guilty to charges including racketeering conspiracy.

USC says it is reviewing any admissions decisions and payments tied to the case.

Prosecutors say the investigation is ongoing but that it appears schools were not involved in the scheme.

___

12:55 p.m.

The FBI says 13 defendants in a college admissions bribery scam have been taken into custody in the Los Angeles area, including actress Felicity Huffman.

Officials say initial court appearances are planned Tuesday afternoon.

Actress Lori Loughlin (LAWK’-lin) is among those charged but was not taken into custody Tuesday morning. Her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, was arrested at their home.

Court documents say Huffman paid $15,000 that she disguised as a charitable donation so her daughter could partake in the college entrance cheating scam.

Papers say a cooperating witness met with Huffman and her husband, actor William H. Macy, at their Los Angeles home and explained the scam to them. The cooperator told investigators that Huffman and her spouse “agreed to the plan.”

Macy has not been charged; authorities haven’t said why. Representatives for Huffman haven’t returned a message seeking comment.

Representatives for Loughlin had no comment.

___

12:15 p.m.

Fifty people have been charged in what federal officials say is the largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the Justice Department.

Among those charged are nine coaches of elite schools and 33 parents who prosecutors say paid “enormous sums” to guarantee their children’s admission.

Coaches are accused of taking bribes to admit students at schools including Wake Forest University, Georgetown University and the University of Southern California.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling in Boston said Tuesday at a news conference that the colleges are not targets of the continuing investigation. He says authorities believe other parents were involved.

Court documents say an admissions consulting company in California was paid $25 million from 2011 through February 2019 to help facilitate the bribes.

Parents charged include actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman. Representatives for Loughlin had no comment.

Officials say parents spent anywhere from $200,000 to $6.5 million to guarantee their children’s admission.

___

11:45 a.m.

Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin are among at least 40 people indicted in a sweeping college admissions bribery scandal.

Loughlin appeared in the ABC sitcom “Full House,” and Huffman starred in ABC’s “Desperate Housewives.” Both were charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud in indictments unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Boston.

Court documents say Huffman paid $15,000 that she disguised as a charitable donation so her daughter could partake in the college entrance cheating scam.

Court papers say a cooperating witness met with Huffman and her husband at their Los Angeles home and explained the scam to them. The cooperator told investigators that Huffman and her spouse “agreed to the plan.”

Huffman is married to actor William H. Macy.

Messages seeking comment have been left with representatives for Huffman and Loughlin.

___

11:20 a.m.

College coaches and others have been charged in a sweeping admissions bribery case unsealed in federal court.

The racketeering conspiracy charges unveiled Tuesday were brought against the coaches at schools including Wake Forest University, Georgetown and the University of Southern California.

Authorities say the coaches accepted bribes in exchange for admitting students as athletes, regardless of their ability.

Prosecutors say parents paid an admissions consultant $25 million from 2011 through February 2019 to bribe coaches and administrators to label their children as recruited athletes to boost their chances of getting into schools.

Prosecutors allege that fake athletic profiles were also made to make students look like strong high school athletes when they actually weren’t.

Authorities say the consulting company also bribed administrators of college entrance exams to allow a Florida man to take the tests on behalf of students or replace their answers with his.

___

10:45 a.m.

Federal authorities have charged college coaches and others in a sweeping admissions bribery case in federal court.

The racketeering conspiracy charges were unsealed Tuesday against the coaches at schools including Wake Forest University, Georgetown and the University of Southern California.

Authorities say the coaches accepted bribes in exchange for admitting students as athletes, regardless of their ability.

DENVER (AP) — Former Denver Broncos and Houston Texans receiver Demaryius Thomas has been arrested on allegations including felony vehicular assault stemming from a crash earlier this month.

Thomas was taken into custody Wednesday after turning himself in and was also being held on allegations of reckless driving and not having proof of insurance, both misdemeanors, police said Thursday.

Thomas was involved in a crash on Feb. 16, a few days after he was released by the Texans. In a statement laying out the reasons for his arrest, police said Thomas was driving over 70 mph, more than twice the 30 mph speed limit, at around 12:20 a.m. near downtown Denver when his SUV went off the road and went airborne, flipping end-over-end, after hitting a median. The SUV landed on its wheels and one of his two passengers suffered serious injuries, the document said.

Thomas and the other passenger also were taken to the hospital after the crash.

Thomas’ agent, Todd France, did not immediately respond to a request from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Thomas played seven games for Houston last year, making 23 receptions for 275 yards and two touchdowns, before his season ended prematurely when he tore his left Achilles tendon.

He was acquired in October from Denver for a fourth-round draft pick to fill in after Will Fuller tore a knee ligament. The Texans and Broncos also switched seventh-round selections for this year’s draft.

For his nine pro seasons, Thomas has 688 catches for 9,330 yards with 62 touchdowns. He has made four Pro Bowls and won the Super Bowl following the 2015 season with the Broncos. The 31-year-old was a first-round pick by the Broncos in 2010 and spent his entire career there before last year’s trade. He is the second-leading receiver in Broncos’ history, with 9,055 yards and 60 touchdown receptions.

LANGHORNE, Pa. (AP) — Pop Warner will become the first national football program at any level to eliminate the three-point stance in further efforts to make the sport safer for young players.

The nation’s longest-serving youth football organization said Thursday the ban will be introduced in Pop Warner’s three youngest divisions this season. It’s aimed at changing how offensive and defensive linemen engage in contact when the ball is snapped.

Under the new rule, players in Tiny Mite (5 to 7 years old), Mitey Mite (7 to 9) and Junior Pee Wee (8 to 10) will not be allowed to position themselves on the line with their hand on the ground before the snap. Instead, they must either be upright or in a modified squat position with their hands on their legs.

“We believe this change is another step in creating a safer, better football experience for young people,” said Jon Butler, executive director of Pop Warner Little Scholars. “By moving away from the three-point stance at our youngest levels we are changing how players are introduced to the sport and how they learn to play the game. We are also setting the stage for our higher levels of play to adopt the change. Because our sport has been willing to evolve over the past 150 years it is safer than ever, while maintaining what makes it so great.”

Pop Warner will use the 2019 season to assess the new rule in the younger divisions and will consider implementing it later for the program’s higher levels.

Also changing in September: no kickoffs at the Pee Wee (9 to 11 years old) level. Pop Warner’s in 2016 rule barred kickoffs in its three youngest age groups. The ball following a score or to start a half will be placed at the 35-yard line.

(North Platte, Nebraska, February 26, 2019) – Local 10-0 professional mixed martial arts fighter Ryan MacDonald will host a press conference on February 27 at 3pm in the Commons Lobby at NebraskaLand National Bank, 1400 S. Dewey St. Macdonald will announce his UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) debut on March 23 in Nashville, as back in his hometown fans gather for Midwest Championship Fighting’s 17th local show – St. Paddy’s Beatdown 7. MacDonald’s opponent for the bout will be Chris Gutierrez (12-3-1) (UFC 0-1).

Fans attending the St. Paddy’s Beatdown will be treated to a watch party during the show, as fight promoter Russ Jones will pause the local fights to show the MacDonald fight on the arena big screens in front of his hometown fans. MacDonald, who has been preparing for nine years for his UFC debut, is familiar with North Platte crowds at the MCF events filling the arena with shouts of ‘Ryan’.

MacDonald’s UFC debut was slated to happen in 2017, but was delayed due to his older brother, Kyle MacDonald’s suicide two weeks before the fight. Kyle was Ryan’s earliest fan and mentor, always pushing him to persevere and follow his dreams. Ryan is certain that everything happens for a reason. He has continued to train hard in the intervening two years and is excited about the opportunity to fight in Nashville while appearing via the big screens in front of his hometown fans.