Here is the latest Big Ten Conference sports news from The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close is getting rewarded after guiding the Bruins to a national title. On Tuesday, the school announced a four-year contract extension that will keep Close in Westwood through the 2029-30 season. The Bruins routed South Carolina 79-51 last month to earn the program’s first NCAA championship. They had a program-best 31-game winning streak. Close has a record of 358-144 in 15 seasons and is the only coach in program history to surpass 300 wins. The Bruins had a record six players chosen in the WNBA draft last month.

NEW YORK (AP) — ESPN’s “College GameDay” will achieve a pair of milestones on its first show of the season. The venerable college football program will be celebrating its 40th season this year. The Sept. 5 show from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, before Lane Kiffin makes his LSU debut against Clemson will be the 500th show on the road. The announcement was made during ESPN’s upfront to advertisers on Tuesday. The first “College GameDay” show that took place from a campus was Nov. 13, 1993, in South Bend, Indiana, before No. 2 Notre Dame hosted top-ranked Florida State. Since then, the show has visited 82 schools in 39 states, as well as kicking off the 2024 season in Ireland when Florida State took on Georgia Tech.

UNDATED (AP) — Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley’s teams will meet for the first time since the two coaches had a tense exchange at the end of their Final Four matchup. UConn and South Carolina will play at the annual Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase at Mohegan Sun on Nov. 24. Defending champion UCLA will play St. John’s in the other game. The South Carolina-UConn matchup had been announced in November while the Bruins and Red Storm game was made official on Tuesday.

UNDATED (AP) — The PWHL’s upcoming draft class is made up of a 235-player pool and, as highly anticipated, headed by five members of the U.S. Olympic gold medal-winning team, including defender Caroline Harvey. The prospect pool is the largest since the PWHL’s inaugural draft totaled 268 in 2023. And this year’s group features 23 players who competed at the Milan Cortina Games. The quality and quantity of talent represents one of the reasons why the eight-team league elected to add as many as four expansion franchises for next season. Detroit, which will host the draft on June 17, has already been announced as a new team, with more to be added in the coming days.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Indianapolis Colts general manager Chris Ballard and two-time NBA All-Star Michael Finley are part of the nine-person search committee to help select Wisconsin’s next athletic director. Incoming Interim Chancellor Eric Wilcots is leading the search process. Marcus Sedberry is serving as Wisconsin’s interim athletic director while the school seeks to find a permanent successor to Chris McIntosh. McIntosh stepped down last month to accept a newly created position as the Big Ten’s deputy commissioner for strategy. Lauren Bishop is chairing the search committee.…Read more by AP