The NCAA has issued what's becoming an annual appeal to Division I baseball coaches to not cancel nonconference midweek games to protect their teams' positioning for the national tournament.
Scheduling hijinks allow teams to avoid no-win situations this time of year, so games against mid- or low-major opponents sometimes are called off because a win wouldn't help the RPI and a loss would hurt it, perhaps badly.
In a memo sent to coaches last week, the Division I Baseball Oversight Subcommittee said it was concerned with the practice of canceling games for reasons other than inclement weather.
“It is not the intent or spirit of the game to adjust scheduled games in an attempt to strategically impact selection data or metrics,” the memo said.
The subcommittee warned it would track cancellations and that games called off to avoid the impact on metrics “will be discussed and could have a negative impact on the subcommittee's evaluation of a team.”
Oregon, No. 19 in the RPI, canceled two games against No. 212 Grand Canyon last week with no reason given. No. 42 North Carolina State announced it canceled a game against No. 279 North Carolina A&T by mutual agreement. No. 34 Miami said it canceled a game against No. 219 Florida International “due to overnight conditions” that made its field unplayable, but no details were given about the nature of those conditions.
No. 12 Mississippi State went ahead with its midweek game against No. 141 Nicholls and won 21-6.
“A lot has been made of teams this time of year canceling games because it’s not in their best RPI interest,” MSU coach Brian O'Connor said. “I don’t believe in it. I believe in karma, and I’m not judging anybody that does. We control our own program and the right thing to do is play the games."
UCLA (46-5), North Carolina (40-9) and Georgia Tech (42-8) were the consensus top three teams Monday in the D1Baseball.com and Baseball America rankings.
The Bruins, who won their first 25 Big Ten Conference games, won their series against Oregon on Sunday after Dean West's grand slam in the eighth inning completed their comeback from five runs down for a 9-6 victory. The Tar Heels swept Pittsburgh to reach 40 wins for the fourth time in six seasons under Scott Forbes. Georgia Tech outscored Duke 39-12, including 29-3 over the second and third games. The Yellow Jackets, at 10.3 runs per game, are the only Division I team averaging 10 runs.
Georgia (41-11, 21-6) clinched its first Southeastern Conference regular-season championship since 2008 with its 13-8 win over LSU on Saturday, then punctuated the weekend with a 12-1 victory to sweep the series.
“It’s massive,” coach Wes Johnson said. “It’s so hard to win this league, and then win it outright. It’s something that you want to check off on your list of things that you’ve ever accomplished. It’s right up there. It’s hard to do. It’s 10 weekends of just meat-house grinding.”
Daniel Jackson hit his 25th homer of the season on Sunday and needs one stolen base to make him the first 25-25 player since North Carolina's Vance Honeycutt had 28 homers and 28 steals in 2024.
Southern California homered four times in an eight-run seventh inning to break open a 12-4 win over Nevada on Sunday. Jack Basseer and Walter Urbon hit two-run homers, Adrian Lopez hit a solo shot and Kevin Takeuchi connected for two more runs. The win gave USC a 32-1 record at Dedeaux Field, the best mark in the storied program's history.
Vanderbilt's 19-year NCAA Tournament streak is in jeopardy after it lost two of three at Missouri. The Tigers (23-27, 6-21 SEC) hadn't won a conference series at home since April 2024. The Commodores (29-24, 11-16) close the regular season at home with three games against 15th-place South Carolina. ... Wake Forest's sweep of Western Carolina improved the Demon Deacons to 90-2 in nonconference home games since 2022. ... Florida State's series win at Clemson was its first on the Tigers' field since 2015. ... Tague Davis set single-season records for home runs (ACC) and RBIs (school) in a 16-9, 11-inning win at Miami on Friday. He enters the week with 33 homers and 91 RBIs. ... Old Dominion took two of three at Coastal Carolina, ending the Chanticleers' streak of 16 Sun Belt Conference series wins.
AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
FILE - The NCAA logo is seen on a baseball during an NCAA college baseball tournament regional game between Louisiana-Lafayette and Mississippi State in Lafayette, La., June 2, 2014. (AP Photo/Jonathan Bachman, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices rose Monday as the war with Iran threatens to drag on for longer, but the U.S. stock market nevertheless inched toward more records.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil climbed 2.9% to settle at $104.21 after President Donald Trump said the U.S.-Iran ceasefire was on “life support” after he rejected Iran’s latest proposal to end their war. The rejection raises the stakes for Trump’s trip this week to China, where he could urge President Xi Jinping to pressure Iran into making concessions. Xi has influence because China is the biggest buyer of Iran’s sanctioned crude oil.
The war has already sent the price for a barrel of Brent up from roughly $70 and delivered a blast of painful inflation through the global economy. That’s because it has shut the Strait of Hormuz and kept oil tankers stuck in the Persian Gulf instead of delivering crude to customers worldwide.
Still, the U.S. stock market has set a run of records on hopes that the war will not keep oil prices high for very long. Companies are meanwhile producing bigger profits than analysts expected, while signals suggest the U.S. economy is holding up even though households are feeling discouraged by expensive gasoline and tariffs.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 0.2% from its prior all-time high set on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 95 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.1% to reach its own all-time high.
The majority of stocks within the S&P 500 fell, even though the overall index rose. Among them was Mosaic, which reported much weaker results for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
The fertilizer company is benefiting from higher prices for its products, but it’s also contending with much higher prices for sulfur and other raw materials because of logistics snarls created by the war with Iran. Mosaic’s stock fell 1.8%.
Stocks of companies whose customers have the least cushion to absorb higher gasoline prices also struggled, and Dollar General fell 7.6%. Businesses with big fuel bills likewise had sharp losses, including drops of 4.3% for Royal Caribbean and 3.2% for Southwest Airlines.
Helping to offset that was Fox, which climbed 7.6% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
More than four out of every five companies in the S&P 500 that have reported their results for the latest quarter so far have topped profit expectations, and they’re on track to deliver overall growth of nearly 28%, according to FactSet. If that turns out to be the case, it would be the best growth since the end of 2021.
It’s not just U.S. companies muscling past analysts’ profit expectations. Globally, companies are on track for their strongest growth in more than four years, according to Deutsche Bank strategists led by Binky Chadha. The boom in artificial-intelligence technology has helped corporate profits rise at a faster rate than overall economies.
Outside of earnings reports, Beazer Homes USA soared 34% after Dream Finders Homes offered to buy it in a deal valued at roughly $704 million. A combination would create the country’s seventh-largest homebuilder, and Dream Finders is asking Beazer’s shareholders to push its management and board to OK the deal after making several attempts itself.
Dream Finders rose 5%.
Tech stocks were also strong, continuing their big run amid the AI boom. Gains of 2% for Nvidia and 6.5% for Micron Technology were the strongest forces pushing the S&P 500 upward.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 13.91 points to 7,412.84. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 95.31 to 49,704.47, and the Nasdaq composite gained 27.05 to 26,274.13.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia. France’s CAC 40 fell 0.7% for one of the world’s bigger losses, while South Korea’s Kospi soared 4.3% thanks to gains for Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and other tech stocks benefiting from AI.
In the bond market, Treasury yields ticked higher. The 10-year yield rose to 4.40% from 4.38% late Friday.
Yields had moderated a bit this month, but they remain well above where they were before the war with Iran began. Higher yields can raise rates for mortgages and other kinds of loans going to U.S. households and businesses, which in turn can slow the economy. Higher yields also tend to push downward on prices for stocks and other kinds of investments.
A report on Monday said the pace of sales for previously occupied U.S. homes was weaker last month than economists expected.
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
Options trader Brian Garvey, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, May 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Options trader Steven Rodriguez, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, May 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Specialists Anthony Matesic, left, and Dilip Patel work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, May 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
FIL:E - The New York Stock Exchange is shown in New York's Financial District on Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
The South Korean-operated vessel HMM NAMU is docked after being damaged from a fire following an explosion in the Strait of Hormuz, at a port in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Friday, May 8, 2026. (Kim Sang-hun/Yonhap via AP)
Options trader Justin Kanda works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, May 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, May 11, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People work and rest near an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index in an office building Monday, May 11, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A man sweeps in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, May 11, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People stand in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, May 11, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
