Snodgrass takes over

COLUMBUS — The Ohio High School Athletic Association Board of Directors has placed incoming Executive Director Jerry Snodgrass into his new post as leader of the OHSAA earlier than planned.

Outgoing commissioner Dr. Dan Ross planned to serve through Sept. 15, but the move was changed after Ross underwent a successful major medical procedure in June.

“First and foremost, our thoughts and prayers are with Dr. Ross and his family and he continues to recover,” said Paul Powers, OHSAA Board of Directors President and the athletic director at Aurora High School. “Jerry is ready to take over and the Board has all the confidence in his ability to make the transition quickly from his current position to Executive Director.”

World Cup plans for ’22

MOSCOW (AP) — The big numbers of Latin American fans who came to Russia are making 2022 World Cup organizers rethink their own plans for Qatar.

Tens of thousands of people gathered in central Moscow even when their team was not playing. The much smaller city of Doha would be packed for the tournament’s first two weeks in November 2022 if the same occurred.

In the streets around Red Square, fans from Peru, Mexico and Argentina were a vibrant presence from days before the World Cup started.

With eight stadiums in Doha or within an hour of travel, the 28-day World Cup is sure to dominate the tiny emirate of only 2.58 million people. A World Cup host city must have a hub for fans to meet and watch games.

Players, refs trade punches

EMERSON, Ga. (AP) — A video shows players and referees trading punches at an Amateur Athletic Union basketball game in an Atlanta suburb.

News outlets report the video has been shared on social media thousands of times. It shows the Sunday morning brawl in the AAU game between Chicago-based R.A.W. Athletics and the Houston Raptors at the LakePoint sports facility in Emerson.

R.A.W. Athletics coach Howard Martin tells WSB-TV he thinks one of his players had complained to a referee about a call before he was ejected from the game. Martin says the player was walking toward the bench when the referee pushed him.

Raptors coach Bobby Benjamin says he saw a player bump into the referee, but he’s not exactly sure what started the fight.

Sale of NFL’s Panthers closed

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Panthers announced the sale of the franchise to David Tepper has closed.

Tepper becomes only the second owner in team history. He started work on Monday.

Tepper, the founder and president of global hedge fund Appaloosa Management, L.P., bought the team from founder Jerry Richardson for $2.2 billion — the most ever paid for an NFL franchise. Richardson put the team up for sale in December after reports of sexual and racial misconduct in the workplace, which the league later confirmed .

Tepper said in a release Monday he’s thrilled to begin a “new era” in Carolina.

Alabama dismisses linebacker

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Alabama has dismissed linebacker VanDarius Cowan from the team for violating unspecified team rules.

Coach Nick Saban announced the decision Monday in a statement, saying “each of us has a responsibility to represent the University of Alabama in a first-class way, and failure to meet those standards can’t be tolerated.”

Saban says Cowan violated team rules, but did not specify what rules. Cowan played in seven games last season as a freshman.