Tuesday Sports in Brief

NFL

PHOENIX (AP) - Pass interference, whether flagged or not, 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 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.

MMA

NEW YORK (AP) - Superstar UFC fighter Conor McGregor announced on social media that he is retiring from mixed martial arts.

McGregor’s verified Twitter account had a post early Tuesday that said the former featherweight and lightweight UFC champion was making a “quick announcement.”

The tweet says: “I’ve decided to retire from the sport formally known as “Mixed Martial Art” today.” The note wishes his colleagues well going forward and said that he would “join my former partners on this venture, already in retirement. Proper Pina Coladas on me fellas!”

The 30-year-old McGregor also announced retirement on Twitter in April 2016, saying he decided to retire young, though he quickly reversed that amid a dispute with his promoters about how much he should be obligated to tout a fight scheduled with Nate Diaz that was postponed.

BASEBALL

NEW YORK (AP) - NL Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom and the New York Mets have agreed to a $137.5 million, five-year contract, a deal that guarantees an additional $120.5 million over four seasons.

New York and deGrom had agreed in January to a $17 million, one-year deal, and he was on track to be eligible for free agency after the 2020 season.

His new deal calls for a $10 million signing bonus, half to be paid in January 2020 and the rest in January 2021. He gets a $7 million salary this season, $23 million in 2020, $33.5 million each in 2021 and 2022 and $30.5 million in 2023. The Mets have a $32.5 million option for 2024.

NHL

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - The NHL-leading Tampa Bay Lightning have signed coach Jon Cooper to a multiyear contract extension.

The team announced the deal with the league’s longest-tenured coach on Tuesday, but did not say how long the new contract will run.

Cooper has led the Lightning, who have the NHL’s best record this season, to the Eastern Conference finals three of the past four seasons. The team also appeared in the 2015 Stanley Cup Final.

LAW

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft now says he wants his misdemeanor solicitation of prostitution charge tried by a jury, not a judge.

Kraft’s attorneys filed a court notice Tuesday also waiving his arraignment, which had been scheduled for Thursday. His lawyers also reiterated his not guilty plea, which he made last month.

Kraft and 24 other men were charged in Palm Beach County as part of a multicounty crackdown on massage parlor prostitution. About 300 men are charged overall.

NEW YORK (AP) - Attorney Michael Avenatti came out swinging Tuesday against Nike, accusing the shoemaker of “rampant” corruption mere hours after he was released from U.S. custody on charges he tried to extort up to $25 million from the company.

In a string of posts on Twitter - a medium he often used to accuse others of wrongdoing - Avenatti claimed Nike has funneled “large sums” of money to elite student-athletes bound for top colleges.

He added that corruption “reaches the highest levels of Nike” and cryptically referred to receipts that are “clear as day.” Avenatti didn’t produce evidence or detail exactly what he believed the company had done wrong.

A Nike spokesman declined to answer questions about Avenatti’s tweets.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio man has made history with a March Madness bracket that’s perfect through 48 games on the NCAA.com’s “Bracket Challenge,” according to the NCAA.

Gregg Nigl of Columbus told The Columbus Dispatch he almost didn’t fill out his bracket last week, saying he was home sick just hours before the deadline. But he felt bad about not entering a bracket in his friend’s tournament group.

Instead, he correctly predicted every game through the first two rounds of the 2019 NCAA tournament.

The NCAA bracket tracker says the bracket is the only perfect one remaining across all major online bracket games, including Yahoo, ESPN, CBS, Fox, Sports Illustrated and the NCAA’s own contest. It’s the longest streak of correct bracket picks, breaking the reported record of 39 games, which happened in 2017.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska fired seventh-year coach Tim Miles on Tuesday, and athletic director Bill Moos said he’s spoken with former Iowa State and Chicago Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg to gauge his interest in the job.

Moos announced the firing two days after the Huskers finished a 19-17 season with an 88-72 loss to TCU in the second round of the NIT.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) - Arkansas has fired men’s basketball coach Mike Anderson after an eight-year run during which he made three NCAA Tournament appearances.

The school made the announcement in a news release Tuesday.

Anderson went 169-102 with the Razorbacks. The Razorbacks made five postseason tournaments on his watch - three trips to the NCAAs and two in the NIT. Arkansas went 18-16 this past season and reached the second round of the NIT.

PROVO, Utah (AP) - Dave Rose is stepping down as BYU’s head basketball coach after 14 seasons during which he led the Cougars to 13 straight postseason berths, including eight NCAA Tournament appearances.

Rose announced his retirement Tuesday, bringing an end to a career during which he became the school’s second all-time winningest coach. The 61-year-old Rose compiled a 348-135 record after taking over the program in 2005, ranking behind Stan Watts, who went 371-254 from 1949 to 1972.

IRVINE, Calif. (AP) - UC Irvine coach Russell Turner has apologized for remarks he made about Oregon’s Louis King during an NCAA Tournament game.

Turner said in a statement that referring to King as “queen” during the first half of Sunday’s second-round game was “inappropriate and insensitive.” Turner said following the game, which Oregon won 73-54 , that he was trying to irritate King.

Turner added that King had a couple of things to say during the game.

AUTO RACING

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - NASCAR made the first significant changes to its schedule in years by shuffling the 2020 season into a freshened new sequence that tries to meet the wants of fans to the best of its current ability.

The 2020 schedule released Tuesday moved the season finale to the Phoenix area and iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway got July 5th to give it back-to-back summer holiday weekends. Daytona gave up its traditional and often rain-wrecked July 4th weekend for the final race of the regular season, when the playoff field will be completed.

Pocono Raceway will run both its 400-mile races on back-to-back June afternoons, Martinsville Speedway got a Mother’s Day race under the lights and also a slot in the playoffs - one of three short tracks featured in NASCAR’s 10-race playoffs. Even better for Martinsville, it got the penultimate race for the championship finale.

Bristol and Richmond short tracks both joined the playoffs, as did Darlington Raceway.

OBITUARY

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - Former Oakland Raiders running back and AFL all-time leading rusher Clem Daniels has died at age 83.

The team announced Daniels’ death late Monday night but did not give a cause.

Daniels played nine seasons of pro football starting with the Dallas Texans of the AFL in 1960. He spent his next seven seasons with the Raiders where he had his greatest success before finishing his career with the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL in 1968.

___

More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports