Today’s Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes and 17 seconds

Happy Friday. Let’s get this clock ticking so we can get to 4 pm and close our laptops. We’re all itching for the weekend and we have a feeling the air quality is about to be exceptional… or maybe we’re just feeling hopeful because we’re talking college football today.

Here is what’s on the agenda:

• Stanley Cup Update

• NBA Finals, Game 4

• Le French Open

• Sooners Softball

• BIG 10 Football

Stanley Cup Finals, Game 3

The Florida Panthers grab a 3-2 OT win at home in game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals against the Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas leads the series 2-1.

Florida scored the first goal of the game just 4 minutes and 8 seconds into the 1st period. Vegas would overpower Florida for practically the entire game but Sergei Bobrovsky had an unbelievable showing in the net for the Panthers to even the playing field.

Vegas would score in the 2nd and 3rd periods on power plays and would have a 2-1 lead, almost to the end. With less than 3 minutes to go in the game, Florida pulled the goalie and with an extra man on the ice, Matthew Tkachuk would score his 11th goal of the playoffs to tie up the game 2-2.

Carter Verhaeghe would score the game-winner in OT with a wrister from the top of the zone. Check out the highlights if you have time.

NBA Finals

The NBA Finals remain in Miami for game 4 tonight. The Denver Nuggets are up 2-1 in the series vs Miami. The Heat are going to need to win this game if they want to have any chance as there is a very low probability that they can win 3 games in a row, especially with games 5 and 7 taking place in Denver. Gametime is 8:30 pm ET and you can watch it on ABC.

A Quick Thought

The Stanley Cup Finals are eerily similar to the NBA Finals going on right now. You have two desert juggernauts with the Vegas Golden Knights and The Denver Nuggets and you also have two 8 seeded Florida teams with the Florida Panthers and Miami Heat. When the Juggernauts win, they win by a large margin and when the 8 seeds win, they are barely scraping by. Look, a win is a win, and you always take the W whenever you can get it. It does make you think, can the underdogs really pull off another upset in the finals? After seeing the only way the Heat or Panthers can win is by a razor-thin margin, our feeling is no.

Le French Open

The French Open Semifinals are taking place today. 1-seeded Carlos Alcaraz is taking on 3-seeded Novak Djokovic and 4-seeded Casper Ruud is taking on 22-seeded Alexander Zverev.

The Alcaraz vs. Djokovic match is on at 8:45 am ET and will be on the Tennis Channel until NBC takes over at 11 am ET.

The Ruudd vs. Zverev match is set to start at 11:30 am ET and will be on NBC.

The final is scheduled for Sunday at 9:00 am ET.

Sooners Softball

They’re building a dynasty in Norman Oklahoma and it’s not on the gridiron. Nope, this time it’s on the diamond.

The Oklahoma Sooners Softball Team won their 3rd straight national championship with a WCWS win over the Florida State Seminoles.

The Sooners faced FSU in a best of 3 games series and the 'Noles were swept in 2. Oklahoma dismantled FSU in game 1 with a 5-0 win. The Sooners completed the sweep in game 2 with a 3-1 win.

Oklahoma finished with a 61-1 record this season and this is their 7th national championship in history.

Congrats to all the young ladies and coaches!

Football Couldn’t Come Sooner

The sun’s not boiling, temps are a little low, the atmosphere smells like one big tailgate(sorrey Canada), and it seems like we’re getting a little taste of the fall today. So let’s talk football.

Conferences are releasing their schedules for the 2023 NCAA season but we’re not necessarily here for that. We’re here for the Big 10 changes taking place in 2024 and beyond when USC and UCLA join the conference.

It’s interesting any time there is some conference realignment. There are always a few things to consider, like….

• Is this making our conference stronger?

• Do the schools get more money from new TV deals?

• Will we get better players?

• WILL OUR RIVALRY GAMES CHANGE?!

The last one is always the big one and the Big 10 is here to protect those rivalry games. The conference released a “Flex Protect Plus” scheduling model for 2024 and 2025. It has a two-play opponent part where two schools will play each other for two years, rotating the home and away sites. It also includes a protected opponent part of the schedule where the historic rivalries will always be guaranteed. Think Michigan vs. Ohio State or USC vs UCLA. Those games will happen every year.

So check out the new scheduling model and hang tight for about 12 more weeks, we’re almost there.

Enjoy them happy hours!

-The Daily Breakroom Team