St. John's has notified AD Chris Monasch that "he will be replaced," and one of the "leading candidates" to replace him is NBA Kings GM Pete D'Alessandro. Monasch, a St. John's alumnus, has been AD since '05. While he has improved the school's "national athletic profile," his tenure also "has been pocked with missteps and ethically ambiguous moments." Perhaps his "biggest misstep" was alienating golfer Keegan Bradley, the school's "most-visible athlete and public supporter" (NYDAILYNEWS.com, 5/28).

The Bulls fired coach Tom Thibodeau with roughly $9M remaining on his deal. Bulls GM Gar Forman said, "As we looked ahead and evaluated how we as a team and an organization could continue to grow and improve, we believed a change in approach was needed." Iowa State coach and former Bulls player Fred Hoiberg is "widely considered the front-runner to replace Thibodeau." This comes after a second-round playoff exit and amid Thibodeau's "tumultuous relationship with management" (CHICAGOTRIBUNE.com, 5/28).

FIFA President Sepp Blatter today issued his first public comments on the organization's growing corruption scandal, saying, "I know many people hold me ultimately responsible." He added, "I'm sure more bad news will follow." Blatter said the indictments "bring shame and humiliation" on the sport of soccer. He said that FIFA should "agressively root out wrongdoing." Blatter: "These are unprecedented and difficult times for FIFA. ... We have lost trust, at least part of it, and we must now earn it back through the decisions we make" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 5/28).

Roc Nation Sports has hired MLB player agent Kyle Thousand away from Excel Sports Management to run its baseball player representation division. Thousand becomes Managing Dir of Baseball and will report to Roc Nation Sports President Juan Perez. It is not clear which clients, if any, Thousand will bring with him. Thousand joined Excel Sports Management in '11, after working as an attorney in Chicago. He worked under Excel partner and powerful MLB agent Casey Close, where he was involved in all aspects of the agent business, including recruiting, client management and contract negotiation.

Roc Nation execs have been looking to hire an experienced MLB agent for several months and they approached him about the job, Thousand said.

Comcast Business this afternoon is announcing that it will provide one-gigabit Ethernet connections at five NASCAR-hosting tracks in a bid to enhance communications between sanctioning-body officials, teams and broadcast partners during races. The services will be provided at ISC’s Martinsville Speedway, Michigan Int’l Speedway and Richmond Int’l Raceway plus SMI’s New Hampshire Motor Speedway and independently owned Dover Int’l Speedway. Comcast is also working with APXnet and Arris to deliver connectivity to and from end-user devices at each of the five tracks.

Digital advertising is evolving along with technology, which has implications for companies trying to reach consumers, for figuring out what constitutes premium content, and for how brands determine success, said panelists on Day 2 of the '15 Intersport Brand Engagement Summit. A panel titled “Fan Engagement: What is the Future of the Digital Experience?” featured J.P. Colaco of online video service Vessel, Shannon Dan of Intersport, John Doyle of Liquid Thread, Shawn Quill of KPMG and Derek Dabrowski of Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

Dabrowski said that the prevalence of social media has made it possible for spontaneous campaigns to reach millions of people and still remain relevant. This makes preparation vital, as windows open and close quickly, he said. He cited a “Banana Tech” joke in a CFP commercial featuring “Dr Pepper Guy” Larry Culpepper. Soon after the release of a spot in which Culpepper jokingly sketches out a bracket featuring an “overrated” fictional team called Banana Tech, the ad’s traction on social media led to users referring to anything they deemed overrated as “so Banana Tech.” The joke trended for several weeks in the top 10 of social trend charts. “We had to be ready to jump on that,” Dabrowski said. “We had to just kind of go with the movement. It became something that people talked about. I think that’s the whole reason we’re there.”

CBS today announced the addition of two early-season college football games to its '15 broadcast schedule via a sublicensing agreement with ESPN: Louisville-Auburn in the Sept. 5 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game and Georgia-Vanderbilt on Sept. 12 (CBS Sports).

MLB will partner with the D-backs to co-host the '16 MLB Diversity Business Summit in Greater Phoenix in March. The event for the first time will be held during Spring Training (MLB).

EA Sports today announced that its "FIFA 16" video game will feature 12 women’s national soccer teams for the first time in franchise history. The game is scheduled for a Sept. 22 launch in North America (EA Sports).

Bimba will sponsor golf's '15 U.S. Amateur Championship, which will be held Aug. 17-23 at Chicago's Olympia Fields Country Club (Bimba).

"Not since we had the Bowl Championship Series have we had such a fun time selling something" – Fox Sports Media Group VP/Sales Neil Mulcahy, on selling ad inventory around the Women's World Cup (ADAGE.com, 5/28).

“There is a real demand for golf. The challenge is to bring golf to people. People aren't going to come find the game an hour away. We have to create more facilities and right now the biggest headwind we face is the housing industry because from 1960 for 40 years, the housing industry drove a lot of our golf course development” – PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem (“Squawk Box,” CNBC, 5/28).

.@SykesCharlie says the Bucks arena deal outlined by Journal Sentinel in today's paper is "exponentially worse" than expected.

— Jason Stein (@jasonmdstein) May 28, 2015

FYI: the Bulls announcement comes eight days before JVG can offer his thoughts during Finals telecast. Coincidence? Not bloody likely.

— Frank Isola (@FisolaNYDN) May 28, 2015

#Sabres were fully planning to hold a Bylsma presser this afternoon. Still may. #Pens insistence on compensation is the holdup. Goofy rule.

— Mike Harrington (@BNHarrington) May 28, 2015

Sad news in Bay Area with passing of legendary sportswriter Ron Bergman. "Bergie" always offered words of wisdom, a smile and elite writing.

— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) May 28, 2015

.@apat246 @chicagobulls love thibs and think he did a great job. Sorry to see him go but expect he will be snatched up soon by another team.

— President Obama (@POTUS) May 28, 2015

We're baaaaack! @StreetLeague 2015 season kicks off tonight on @FOXSports1 at 8PM EST! pic.twitter.com/mFyfowO3Hs

— Rob Dyrdek (@robdyrdek) May 28, 2015

FIBA created this tribute video for Andy Ortiz Jr., who died this weekend in a car crash at age 28. Ortiz led the winning team in FIBA's inaugural 3x3 World Tour in '12.

$937,500 – The rental fee waived by the Chicago Park District for the NFL to use "Grant Park and nearby parkland" for its outdoor fan festival in connection with last month's NFL Draft. The district "also waived a security deposit" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 5/28).