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SURPRISE, Ariz. — The morning after Tony Clark’s abrupt resignation, the Major League Baseball Players Association was still without an acting executive director. But that could change as soon as Wednesday afternoon. The union’s executive board of player representatives met Tuesday afternoon with MLBPA staff and outside counsel to discuss next steps following Clark’s ouster but did not come to a vote on a successor. That vote, however, could take place before the end of the day Wednesday, when MLBPA’s executive board is expected to reconvene to determine future leadership. Union officials began their annual spring training camp visits by meeting with Royals players on Wednesday morning. Following that visit, Royals player rep John Schreiber said he thinks the MLBPA could have a new executive director by day’s end. “We’ll see how the meeting goes today,” Schreiber said. “We’re going on the right path. I think we’ll have a decision shortly.” Clark, who had led the MLB players union since 2013, resigned from his role on Tuesday after an internal investigation reportedly revealed an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law, who was hired as a union employee in 2023. Separately, a federal investigation into Clark and the union’s handling of finances remains ongoing. Clark was scheduled to join union officials on Tuesday to begin the MLBPA’s first camp visits with the Guardians before that meeting was canceled. MLBPA deputy executive director Bruce Meyer said the information that led to Clark’s resignation did not come to light until the last “72 hours or so.” “Just on a personal level, I think we were all fairly devastated by things that have happened in the last 48 to 72 hours,” Meyer said. “I’m not going to go beyond that in terms of personal feelings, but it’s fair to say we were all personally upset, concerned about Tony. But I think this was something players determined had to happen at this particular point in time, and we’ll move forward and again be strong as we always are.” What’s next in the search for a new union leader Meyer is perhaps the most logical option to replace Clark, however that decision had not been made as of Wednesday morning. Meyer offered no comment when asked if he wanted to be the next executive director or if there were other internal candidates. “We want the union to be in a good place,” Meyer said. “We want the union to remain strong. That’s all any of us care about.” Whether or not Meyer ends up being voted in as Clark’s successor, he expects to continue his role as the union’s lead negotiator ahead of what is likely to be a contentious labor battle. “Everything’s up to the players, but I don’t anticipate that anybody’s going to be leading negotiations other than me,” Meyer said. The new executive director will be voted on by the 72-member executive board, which includes the eight-member executive subcommittee, 30 player representatives and 34 minor league positions. “Players, I think, are aware there’s a need in terms of stability both internally and otherwise for ideally a quick decision,” Meyer said. “But on the other hand, it’s more important for players to make the right decision. They recognize that, and they’ll take as much time as they feel they need.” What’s next for the unity and strength of the MLBPA The current MLB collective bargaining agreement expires on Dec. 1, after which the owners could decide to lock out the players if a deal hasn’t been reached. That makes the timing of the director vacancy particularly troubling, though Meyer remained adamant that it won’t impact negotiations with the league. “We don’t expect anything to change in terms of bargaining,” Meyer said. “We’ve been preparing for bargaining for years. Players have been preparing. Players know what’s coming. At the end of the day, leadership is important, and leadership comes and goes, but what remains is the players. At the end of the day, it’s the players who determine the direction of the union. At the end of the day, it’s the players who determine our priorities in bargaining. Those priorities obviously have not changed and will not change.” Meyer also went on to say he doesn’t think Clark’s resignation will weaken the union. “Anybody who’s going to assume that and act on that is really making a mistake,” Meyer said. “I’m not going to say this is a great thing. This is unforeseen. There have been some issues hanging over, as you know, and in some respects it’s good to get them out of the way sooner than later. “I’m not going to say this is like a nothing and that there’s not going to be some disruptions, but at the end of the day, bargaining is the most important thing, it’s always been the most important thing, and our team that’s been preparing for that for years remains in place.” [MLB Spring Training Buzz: Dodgers RHP Brusdar Graterol Not Yet Ready for 2026] What’s next for the timeline of negotiations Meyer doesn’t anticipate Clark’s ouster to impact the timing of negotiations, which are expected to begin at some point after Opening Day, likely in April. “For reference, I checked, last time we started on April 20,” Meyer said. “There’s no hard and fast rule, but we’ll be ready, and I anticipate that it will operate on a normal schedule starting sometime in the spring.” The question looming over the upcoming negotiations is how far owners will go to enforce a salary cap, which is a concept the players have always strongly rejected. “We have a duty to the players and otherwise to listen to anything the league offers,” Meyer said. “We will evaluate, analyze anything that’s offered. We will report to our players and give them our recommendations. Our position, and the historic position of this union for decades on a salary cap, is well-known. It’s the ultimate restriction. It’s something that owners in all the sports have wanted more than anything, and in baseball in particular there’s a reason for that — because it’s good for them and not good for players.” Last spring, MLBPA officials met with teams to discuss bargaining and the upcoming 2026 negotiations. They then went on a summer tour with teams, something they hadn’t done before, meeting with each team individually on the road to continue discussing bargaining. “We got great participation in that, great engagement,” Meyer said. “We had a fantastic board meeting in December. In between, talking to players, not just me but our former players on staff. So, guys are engaged. Guys are locked in. Guys appreciate the importance and significance of what’s coming.” Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at @RowanKavner.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

You know all about the Power 6 conferences in college basketball. You hear about those more than any other, and those groups often dominate the March Madness conversation. There are 31 other conferences out there, however, and our goal is to get you up to speed on the teams, players and fights in the standings to know before the conference tournaments, Selection Sunday and the official start of March Madness. It’s time for you to get to know a mid-major: this time, it’s the Big West. The Big West name works in a couple of different ways. For one, most of it is located in California, which is about as big and west as you can get — for the purposes of this wordplay, Alaska is more like the big northwest. Hawaii is there, too, and while that isn’t big, it’s more west than the rest. While there have been plenty of other non-California schools in the Big West over the years and decades, in the present, it’s all California besides Hawaii. And next year, it will be all California besides Utah Valley, but that’s a 2026-2027 discussion. As of now, there are 11 teams in the conference, and the top eight will qualify for the Big West conference tournament in March. The top two seeds receive byes straight to the semifinals, awaiting whichever teams come out of the battles of the first two rounds, while seeds three and four get a pass to the quarterfinals. In both men’s and women’s basketball, the automatic bid has been the only way into March Madness over the last three years. Given the makeup of the conference in 2025-2026, that is unlikely to change, either, but that isn’t the same thing as saying that we already know who is going to represent the conference in March. That is an open question for both the men and women. Big West — Men’s College Basketball Leaders: Hawaii and UC Irvine are tied at 10-4 atop the Big West, and have already played each other twice: the Rainbow Warriors won the first matchup by the narrow score of 67-66, and the Anteaters took the second in overtime, 87-76. Behind these two in the standings is UC Santa Barbara, at 10-5, Cal State Northridge (9-5), UC Davis (9-6), Cal State Fullerton (8-7), UC San Diego (8-7) and Cal Poly (7-8). The other teams — all below the Big West tournament qualification as of now — are Long Beach State (4-10), UC Riverside (3-12) and Cal State Bakersfield (2-12). The lone top-100 team in the NCAA Evaluation Tool is Hawaii, just sneaking in at 99th. UC Irvine is 119th, UC San Diego 126th, UC Santa Barbara 135th, rounding out the top-150 teams. Hawaii has four of the conference’s top-20 players in Player Efficiency Rating (PER), with senior center and seven-footer Isaac Johnson second at 25.6, senior guard Quandre Bullock (18.2), senior forward Harry Rouhliadeff (18.1) and senior forward Gytis Nemeiksa (17.0) 15th, 17th and 18th in PER — no one else in the conference has more than three (UC San Diego has the 4th, 14th and 20th players), while UC Irvine has two. Top-rated senior forward Kyle Evans (26.5) sophomore guard Jurian Dixon, at 19th (16.5). Hawaii, UC Irvine and UC San Diego are much closer together in KenPom, at 103, 115 and 118, respectively, with Hawaii’s defense being the reason the Rainbow Warriors are first up. While adjusted for strength of schedule Hawaii doesn’t stack up against the competition, on the season it has allowed 99.9 points per 100 possessions, the 36th-best Defensive Rating in Division I. The offense, however, comes in at 216th. UC Santa Barbara is best in class there, at 70th with 116.3 points per 100 possessions, basically making it the opposite of Hawaii because of its own defensive issues. Given the stacking at the top and the relative closeness of these teams in NET and KenPom, just who will emerge from the Big West tournament is unclear. Hawaii and UC Irvine have the best chance through Feb. 17, however, almost entirely because of seeding: getting a pass right to the semifinals as one of the top two seeds is the path of least resistance, and that is going to matter in a conference where so many teams stack up well against each other. Big West – Women’s College Basketball Leaders: Things are a little less clustered, though not entirely so, on the women’s side of the Big West. UC San Diego is in first at 13-2, with 12-2 UC Irvine holding the second seed. UC Davis is half-a-game back at 12-3, with Cal State Fullerton 11-4. Some space begins to open up for the teams looking at byes, however, as UC Santa Barbara is two games back at 9-6 and Hawaii 8-6. Then the last two teams currently qualifying for the Big West tournament are the under-.500 UC Riverside (6-9) and Cal State Northridge (4-10). Cal State Bakersfield and Long Beach State are both 2-12, while Cal Poly is 1-14. UC Irvine is in bubble territory, at 71st in NET: it’s the lone school in the conference with that designation. UC San Diego might be first in the conference, but NET has it 132nd overall. UC Santa Barbara (143), UC Davis (159), Hawaii (166) and Cal State Fullerton (198) are all within the top-200 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool. After that, the rest of the teams are in or near the bottom-100 in Division I. So, plenty of competition at the top, even if UC Irvine sticks out more than the rest as a potentially genuine tourney-caliber team, but it gets thin. The Anteaters are the lone team in the Big West with an Offensive Rating putting them at over 100 points per 100 possessions (100.34). UC Davis is next up, at 93.33, and again, it thins out in a hurry. Hawaii has the 91st-best Defensive Rating, however, best in the conference, at 87.91 points per 100 possessions. UC Irvine is right behind it, then UC San Diego, so it’s not much of an advantage — there is a reason the Anteaters are on top in more ways than one, basically. UC Irvine is 22nd in made 3-pointers per game in D-I women’s basketball, with 8.76, and 26th in 3-point shooting percentage at 35.8%. It’s a top-100 rebounding school, too, and while it doesn’t stack up fantastically defensively against the larger Division I landscape, within the Big West its 53.1 points per game allowed is the best mark in the conference. UC Riverside’s Hannah Wickstrom is a legitimate scoring threat, currently sixth in D-I at 23.2 points per game. She’s also first in PER, and it isn’t close — 35.2 to Cal State Fullerton’s Cristina Jones, at 28.4. (Jones, in addition to being one of D-I’s best thieves, is scoring 16.5 points per game as a freshman guard while pulling down 9.4 rebounds). It hasn’t helped UC Riverside to a great record, but the presence of the star sophomore guard and a potential big scoring game does make the Highlanders a potential threat in every conference tourney game regardless. Then there is Megan Norris, out of UC Davis: the 6-foot-3 senior center is third in all of Division I in rebounds per game, but she’s also managed 12.6 points, 2.6 assists, over a steal and 1.5 blocks per game, and is seventh in the Big West in PER, as well.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports