The Las Vegas Aces are under investigation by the WNBA for salary cap violations, The Next’s Howard Megdal reported Wednesday.

The reigning WNBA champions allegedly made under-the-table payment offers to players, sources told The Next. The Aces would inform the agent of a potential signee to expect a phone call with a sponsorship offer “from a particular, pre-selected company,” per the report.

The WNBA’s salary cap for the 2023 season stands at $1,420,500. The collective bargaining agreement prohibits teams from exceeding the cap, and it also explicitly forbids teams from making a deal with a sponsor “to pay compensation for basketball services.”

BREAKING from our @howardmegdal: nine league sources tell @TheNextHoops the @LVAces are under investigation by the @WNBA for circumventing the salary cap. A breakdown of what's alleged and the stakes involved: #WNBA https://t.co/TqlyFYeSOX pic.twitter.com/QKeENRFjgR

— The Next: A women's basketball newsroom at The IX (@TheNextHoops) February 8, 2023

Per the CBA, the league looks out in particular for sponsorship agreements that exceed the fair market value for such deals, or for player contracts that fall below the fair market value in free agency.

While the report from The Next did not implicate any specific player contracts, the Aces did sign two-time MVP Candace Parker at a steep discount. The 36-year-old forward signed a one-year, $100,000 contract with Las Vegas,  Her Hoops Stats’ Richard Cohen reported last week. She made an average annual salary of $192,500 during her last two seasons with the Chicago Sky.

The investigation shines a harsh light on the limits of the WNBA’s salary cap structure.

The maximum player salary in 2023 is $234,936, but top players can make much more than that playing for international leagues in the offseason. For example, New York Liberty signee Breanna Stewart has made $1.5 million per year playing in Russia in recent years.

WNBA teams must make it worth players’ whiles to sign with them — both as individual franchises and as a league.

The Liberty got in trouble for providing their own incentive of sorts in 2021. The franchise received a $500,000 fine for chartering flights to away games in the latter half of that season in violation of league policy. And while charter flights are still against the rules, Stewart made the prospect of private flights key to her free agency negotiations.

If the Aces are found to have violated the CBA, the WNBA faces a dilemma that could have league-wide ramifications. Any punishment inflicted on the team would renew public scrutiny on the league and player salaries, while also likely affecting the player or players involved. The situation also underlines an increasingly problematic competitive balance issue among WNBA owners, with some who might be willing to incur financial penalties in exchange for paying the best players and winning.

The battle for continental soccer glory continues on Wednesday, as the Portland Thorns and Gotham FC land in Mexico for the 2024/25 Concacaf W Champions Cup semifinals.

After advancing past last fall's group-stage play, both NWSL sides now face Liga MX standouts in the knockout rounds with a ticket to Saturday's Champions Cup Final on the line.

The back-to-back semifinals will take place on Wednesday in Nuevo León, Mexico, with live coverage streaming on Paramount+:

• Club América vs. Gotham FC, 7:30 PM ET: Both the Bats and this year's Liga MX regular season champions are looking to bounce back, as Gotham attempts to shake off a recent NWSL skid while América seeks redemption after stumbling in their season-ending league tournament earlier this month.

• Tigres UANL vs. Portland Thorns, 10:30 PM ET: Expect a high-energy clash between the three-time NWSL champs and six-time Liga MX title-winners, with the Thorns coming off a five-match undefeated streak and the Tigres shooting to impress in front of their home crowd at Estadio Universitario.

It's not just hardware and continental bragging rights on the line, though.

Saturday's 2024/25 Concacaf W Champions Cup victors will also earn automatic qualification into FIFA's 2026 Champions Cup — a six-team tournament between confederation winners — and the first-ever Club World Cup, which will kick off in 2028.

After a first-round weekend of pitcher's duels and red-hot bats, the 2025 NCAA softball tournament's best-of-three Super Regionals field is set — and it's missing four of the 16 national seeds.

No. 10 LSU fell on Saturday after two upset losses to unseeded SE Louisiana, before Sunday saw No. 13 Arizona and No. 14 Duke follow suit while unseeded Ole Miss, Georgia, and Nebraska all punched second-round tickets.

Eventually ousting SE Louisiana in the winners' bracket to advance to their first Super Regionals in 11 years, the Huskers rode in on the back of two-time All-American pitcher Jordy Bahl, with the Oklahoma transfer throwing 12 innings and hitting four home runs across Nebraska's three Regional games.

Elsewhere, unseeded Liberty booked a program-first trip to the Supers by eliminating top-seed Texas A&M — the first time the NCAA bracket's overall No. 1 seed failed to advance from Regionals.

Should they similarly bounce No. 16 Oregon this weekend, Liberty will become just the second mid-major team to make the Women's College World Series (WCWS) since 2014, joining James Madison's 2021 Cinderella run.

Rounding out the rest of the Super Regional round's 16 teams are No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 Florida, No. 4 Arkansas, No. 5 Florida State, No. 6 Texas, No. 7 Tennessee, and No. 8 South Carolina, as well as No. 9 UCLA, No. 11 Clemson, No. 12 Texas Tech, No. 15 Alabama, and the aforementioned No. 16 Ducks.

Super Regional weekend to feature blockbuster matchups

The 16 contenders will battle head-to-head for eight available WCWS berths, with the four-time defending champion Sooners now leading the field.

To advance, however, Oklahoma must first outlast Alabama, a team with which the Sooners have a long, contentious postseason history — the pair have faced off in five of the last 12 NCAA tournaments.

After Oklahoma bounced Alabama from the 2019 WCWS semifinals — the last time the pair squared off before becoming SEC rivals — the Tide enacted revenge by narrowly beating the Sooners in April's conference play, teeing up a tense weekend Super Regional series.

After narrowly missing this weekend's hosting rights as the No. 9 seed — UCLA's lowest seeding since 2016 — the Bruins proved why they are the sport's winningest program, run-ruling ever Regional game while allowing just two runs all weekend.

The 12-time champions will now travel to Gamecock territory, where No. 8 South Carolina will try to boost the Bruins and book their first WCWS ticket in 28 years.

Powerhouses still rule the diamond, but parity has never been higher in college softball, with this year's NCAA tournament already delivering whiplash results.

How to watch the 2025 NCAA softball Super Regionals

The best-of three NCAA softball Super Regionals kick off on Thursday and run through the weekend, with possible winner-take-all clashes finalizing the WCWS slate on Sunday.

First games are as follows:

• No. 12 Texas Tech at No. 5 Florida State, 7 PM ET on Thursday (ESPN2)
• No. 11 Clemson at No. 6 Texas, 9 PM ET on Thursday (ESPN2)
• Georgia at No. 3 Florida, 11 AM ET on Friday (ESPN2)
• No. 9 UCLA at No. 8 South Carolina, 1 PM ET on Friday (ESPN2)
• No. 15 Alabama at No. 2 Oklahoma, 5 PM ET on Friday (ESPN2)
• Nebraska at No. 7 Tennessee, 7 PM ET on Friday (ESPN2)
• Ole Miss at No. 4 Arkansas, 8 PM ET on Friday (ESPNU)
• Liberty at No. 16 Oregon, 10 PM ET on Friday (ESPNU)

With the 2025 PWHL Finals in full swing and new franchises on the horizon, the league rolled out a detailed expansion plan to build its two new teams on Monday.

The expansion process will see 24 current PWHL players — four from each of the six founding teams — join either Vancouver or Seattle next month.

To be eligible for selection, athletes must be either under contract or have rights held by a current team for the 2025/26 season. 

Each original team can protect three eligible athletes at the outset, with squads reserving the right to protect one additional player should the incoming clubs select two players off the same roster.

In the lead-up to June 9th's expansion draft, Vancouver and Seattle will have five days to sign up to five unprotected players each.

After that window closes, Seattle and Vancouver will increase their rosters to a required total of 12 players via expansion draft selections, with the number of picks for each team determined by how many athletes the new franchises choose to sign.

Finally, the West Coast squads will then complete their 23-athlete lineups alongside the other six teams during the PWHL's June 24th entry draft.

With such a broad unprotected player pool, about half of the PWHL's current athletes — including some of its brightest stars — will be up for grabs, ensuring a very different landscape when the league takes the ice for its third season.

Team USA hockey titan Hilary Knight is hanging up her international skates, with the record-10-time world champion announcing Tuesday that the 2026 Winter Games in Milan, Italy, will be her fifth and final Olympic run.

"It's time," Knight told USA Today. "I'm at peace. I just have this feeling that it’s time."

Going out on her own terms is top-of-mind for the USA hockey great, with Knight acknowledging "That is such a privilege that only a handful of competitors get."

Making her national team debut at 17, the now-35-year-old is one of the sport's most decorated athletes, winning Olympic gold in 2018 to complement three silver medals in 2010, 2014, and 2022.

Just last month, Knight led the US to victory at the IIHF Women's World Championship, and currently sits as the tournament's all-time leader in goals (67), points (120), and assists (50).

Despite her impending step off the international ice, Knight, who currently captains the PWHL's Boston Fleet, plans to continue playing for the second-year league — a pro venture she helped bring to life in 2023.

"I understood what the sport gave me and I wanted to give that to other people," Knight said. "Obviously, there's tons of work that always needs to be done, but I think we now have a career path."