Good Morning and Happy Wednesday. We’re inching closer to the weekend, so just hang in there. We’ve got a full agenda for you today with

• MLB Trade Deadline Recap

• Cooper Kupp Injury

• College Football Talk

• World Cup Coverage

Let’s do it.

MLB Trade Deadline

We had some notable trades at the deadline today with some teams making last effort pushes to lock down a playoff roster this year and some teams taking the L for the year. Here are some of the bigger trades

• The Houston Astros traded two prospects and got back Justin Verlander from the New York Mets. Verlander spent six seasons with Houston before signing with the Mets in the offseason.

• The Baltimore Orioles received RHP Jack Flaherty from the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for 3 players

• The Toronto Blue Jays fill an infield need by trading for St. Louis Cardinals SS Paul DeJong. Toronto will send St. Louis a 24-year-old pitching prospect.

• The Phillies acquire all-star RHP Michael Lorenzen from the Detroit Tigers for a Minor league Prospect

If you want more on the trade deadline, check out this ESPN article detailing the winners and losers who made or didn’t make moves.

Cooper Kupp Injury

LA Rams WR Cooper Kupp underwent an MRI on an injured hamstring. Kupp reportedly pulled up a little bit during a redzone route running workout. Kupp missed the final 8 games of last season with a high ankle sprain and he’s a big part of the team. He was statistically the best receiver in the league just two years ago. Kupp will be out for most of the preseason likely and the Rams expect him to make a full recovery and be ready to go for the regular season. Keep an eye out for it when you’re prepping for fantasy football.

College Football Chit Chat

We had a few things go down on Tuesday in the world of College Football. Let’s dig in.

Iowa State Gambling Ring

Iowa State’s QB Hunter Dekkers has been accused of betting on events involving his team. A DraftKings account that was linked to Dekkers was found to have a bet on the football team in 2021 and there were also bets for 26 other Iowa State sporting events.

The 2021 bet was a matchup between Iowa State and Oklahoma, which Iowa State won and Dekkers did not play in.

Still, the NCAA policy on gambling states that players can’t bet on their own games or on other sports at their school.

3 other athletes at the school have also been accused of placing bets or tampering with records.

Pac-12 TV Deal

Football is a business, and businesses need to make decisions based on money.

All of the conference realignments? It’s just money.

Where’s that money coming from?

TV Deals

Texas and Oklahoma heading to the SEC. USC and UCLA heading to the Big 10. Colorado heading to the Big 12. It’s about the money!

The Pac-12’s TV deal expires at the end of the season and the conference is figuring out their next steps. The conference commissioner presented a primarily subscription-based Apple streaming deal to conference big wigs, and it doesn’t seem to be passing with flying colors(honestly, what does flying colors even mean?)

This deal really seems like it would be bad for business for the Pac-12. You’ll need a massive amount of subscriptions to generate revenues like the cable providers will pay. Going to a subscription model may be good for folks on the West Coast, but I think the conference would lose many East Coast viewers. Streaming might be the future of television, but I don’t think it’s the future of football.

World Cup Coverage

USWNT

We tried to spare you the coverage yesterday and by now you likely know the result of the USWNT matchup vs Portugal. It wasn’t a pretty performance, the US almost let up a game-winning goal at the end of the match but they held on in a 0-0 draw to advance to the round of 16.

The USWNT will be facing Sweden on Sunday at 5 am ET. If the US can’t find a way to perform than they did in the group stage, it’s likely they’ll be getting bounced by a very talented Swedish team.

Hopefully, the match against Portugal was a wake-up call. 0-0 won’t get it done in the next round.

South Africa Upsets Italy

South Africa scored a game-winner in stoppage time to defeat Italy 3-2 in the final match of group G. If this resulted in a draw, South Africa would’ve been bounced and Italy would’ve advanced. South Africa grabbed 3 points with the win and is now sending Italy home.

There are still two group-stage matches to be played tomorrow morning. We’ll update you with the full round of 16 brackets Friday morning.

Enjoy the day and we’ll catch up with you tomorrow.

-The Daily Breakroom

p.s. What does passing with flying colors even mean?

To pass with flying colours means to accomplish something difficult. It derives from when ships would return home from battle flying their flags aka colors and it would show they were victorious.