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The last remaining obstacle to expanding the College Football Playoff to 12 teams in the 2024 and 2025 seasons has been cleared.

A source told ESPN on Wednesday night that the Rose Bowl has agreed to terms that will pave the way for the College Football Playoff to expand in the final two seasons of the current contract — 2024 and 2025.

Any more steps toward an expanded playoff are a formality, as the formal announcement of the CFP expansion beginning in 2024 is expected to be imminent.

In early September, the College Football Playoff board of managers voted to expand the CFP to 12 teams starting in 2026.

With nearly $450 million at stake in the final two years of the current contract, the path toward expanding in those two seasons has been fraught with complications.

But after months of haggling, getting the Rose Bowl on board loomed as the final step. The Rose Bowl needed to amend its contract as the other five so-called “contract bowls” needed to do in order to accommodate the new system. Ultimately, the Rose Bowl’s cooperation loomed as the final barrier.

A source told ESPN’s Heather Dinich earlier this week that the Rose Bowl was essentially given an ultimatum this week to agree to terms or risk being shut out of the next television contract, which begins in 2026.

The Rose Bowl’s requests for special treatment included an exclusive window for the game — a television window considered one of the most valuable in sports — in years when the Rose Bowl wasn’t hosting a College Football Playoff game on New Year’s.

Essentially, sources told ESPN that CFP officials told Rose Bowl officials this week that they’d make good-faith efforts to work with them. But that would not include the exclusive window for the Rose Bowl that isn’t a part of the CFP. Any of the Rose Bowl’s requests that involved the next contract — be it financial or otherwise — were impossible to even address, as there’s no way to know what the television contracts for the next iteration of the CFP will look like.

Ultimately, if the Rose Bowl wanted to take part in the next version of the CFP, it needed to accept a role that didn’t include significant special favors. The upcoming announcement puts an end to the awkward and complex process to expand the College Football Playoff, which has epitomized the fractured and nonlinear structure of college sports. To reach the September expansion decision to 12 teams, it took significant momentum swings that included introducing a 12-team proposal in June 2021. That eventually got shot down amid conference infighting, leading to second-guessing on why a potential model was announced before it was approved by all the constituents.

The following year, the college presidents who make up the CFP board of managers essentially decided to work backward, first approving the 12-team model in September that would start in 2026. They then targeted 2024 and 2025, which was always going to be complicated because it required presidents from all 10 conferences and Notre Dame to agree unanimously.

Then the group of commissioners dove in for months of meetings, calls and all the details involving schedule, bowl games, game sits, the academic calendar and television contract complications. Three full months later, the board of managers pushed through all the issues — revenue distribution was a big one — until finally solving the Rose Bowl conundrum on Wednesday night. The 12-team playoff will start in the 2024 season, meaning just two more four-team playoffs — this year and next — before the sport’s postseason changes indelibly.

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Rodriguez makes history with another 20-20 year

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Rodriguez makes history with another 20-20 year

SEATTLE — Julio Rodriguez homered to become the first player in major league history with 20 or more home runs and 20 or more stolen bases in each of his first four seasons, and the Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers 5-4 on Sunday.

Rodriguez hit a two-run shot in the third inning — his 100th career homer — and the slugging and speedy center fielder also added his 21st stolen base of the season after singling in the fifth inning.

“That’s a very big accomplishment,” Rodríguez told reporters, according to MLB.com. “I know my family’s very happy, and I’m sure they’re thinking of all the things I had to do to be able to get here. To be able to do it with this team and this organization is awesome. I’m just excited to see where things are going to go from here.”

Jorge Polanco added a solo shot in the second, and shortstop J.P. Crawford smacked a two-run blast in the fourth against Rangers starter Jacob deGrom (10-4), who became the fastest pitcher in major league history to reach 1,800 career strikeouts by games and innings Sunday.

The Rangers kept things close by pushing across three runs against Mariners starter Logan Evans (5-4), but tallied only one run against the Mariners bullpen before closer Andrés Muñoz locked down his 25th save of the season.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Marlins def. Yankees, earn 1st-ever sweep of N.Y.

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Marlins def. Yankees, earn 1st-ever sweep of N.Y.

MIAMI — Kyle Stowers hit a three-run homer and the Miami Marlins defeated the New York Yankees 7-3 on Sunday, completing their first-ever sweep of the Yankees in a series of three or more games.

The Marlins (55-55) reached .500 for the first time since April 15, when the team was 8-8. Since June 13, the Marlins are 30-14; that’s tied with the 2003 team for the most wins in a 44-game span in franchise history, according to ESPN Research.

The 2003 Marlins went on to beat the Yankees in the World Series in six games.

Marlins starter Edward Cabrera (5-5) pitched six innings of two-hit ball with seven strikeouts and one walk. His only blemish came against the first batter he faced. Trent Grisham drove Cabrera’s 98.1 mph four-seam fastball to right-center.

Miami rookie Jakob Marsee, who made his major league debut on Friday, was 2-for-4 and finished a single short of the cycle.

Stowers made it 6-1 when he connected on an 0-2 fastball from Brent Headrick, who entered in the fourth with two on after starter Luis Gil (0-1) was lifted 3⅓ innings into his season debut.

Gil, the reigning AL Rookie of the Year, struck out three and surrendered five runs and five hits while issuing four walks in his return from a high-grade lat strain. He threw 77 pitches.

Gil’s shaky debut comes at a rough point in the season for the Yankees, whose inconsistency has prompted a rash of criticism, the latest coming from former Yankees stars Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez on Fox’s pregame show Saturday night.

“They make way too many mistakes,” Jeter said. “Way too many mistakes, and you can’t get away with making that number of mistakes against great teams.”

Added Rodriguez: “Where’s the accountability?”

Boone addressed those criticisms before Sunday’s game, saying it comes with the territory of being the Yankees, but he added after the loss that it’s “gut-check” time for his club.

New York’s weekend series at Miami included the Yankees blowing a six-run lead in a wild 13-12 loss on Friday, before a 2-0 loss on Saturday.

The Yankees had a seven-game lead in the AL East in late May. By July 2, the lead was gone and the Yankees have been looking up at Toronto in the division ever since. The red-hot Boston Red Sox, who were more than 10 games behind the Yankees about two months ago, have overtaken their rival for the second spot in the AL East and AL wild-card lead.

“It’s getting late,” Boone said. “And it’s certainly not too late for us. I am confident that we’re going to get it together. But that’s all it is right now is, you know, it’s empty until we start doing it.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Rodriguez makes history with 4th 20-20 season

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Rodriguez makes history with another 20-20 year

SEATTLE — Julio Rodriguez homered to become the first player in major league history with 20 or more home runs and 20 or more stolen bases in each of his first four seasons, and the Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers 5-4 on Sunday.

Rodriguez hit a two-run shot in the third inning — his 100th career homer — and the slugging and speedy center fielder also added his 21st stolen base of the season after singling in the fifth inning.

Jorge Polanco added a solo shot in the second, and shortstop J.P. Crawford smacked a two-run blast in the fourth against Rangers starter Jacob deGrom (10-4), who became the fastest pitcher in major league history to reach 1,800 career strikeouts by games and innings Sunday.

The Rangers kept things close by pushing across three runs against Mariners starter Logan Evans (5-4), but tallied only one run against the Mariners bullpen before closer Andrés Muñoz locked down his 25th save of the season.

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