By wire sources
Mountain West, C-USA to form new league
Members of Conference USA and current and future members of the Mountain West are taking a bigger-is-better approach to college sports leagues.
The 16 schools announced plans Monday to form a new league that will begin in 2013 and have as many as 24 teams located in five time zones.
“This is an exciting development that will stabilize the current conferences and create the first truly national conference with members in five time zones and television viewership from coast to coast,” UNLV President Neal Smatresk said in a statement. “We are moving our plans forward rapidly and expect to complete our conversations in the near future. Look for further announcements soon as we work together on this exciting new venture.”
The new conference likely will have 18-24 schools, split into divisions, and not only have a football championship game but also semifinals. It also will hold a conference basketball tournament, the statement said.
School leaders said they plan to complete work on the new league in six months.
“This is a member-driven initiative as opposed to a conference-driven initiative,” Tulane President Scott Cowen said in a telephone interview.
Pac-12 has groundbreaking for new network
SAN FRANCISCO — Ronnie Lott and J.T. Snow helped put up a wall, Marshawn Lynch cleared space with a sledgehammer and the Pac-12 got started building the studios for its new television network.
The conference held the groundbreaking for the Pac-12 networks in downtown San Francisco on Monday, about six months before it will hit the air with a national cable television network, six regional networks and a digital network.
“It’s truly a seminal moment for the conference,” Commissioner Larry Scott said at a ceremony featuring former great athletes from the conference, as well as San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee. “It’s an exciting time for college sports in general and there’s no more exciting place to be than the Pac-12. We’ve got a great dynamic and bold vision for the future of college sports and the future of our conference.”
Schilling launches first video game
NEW YORK — Curt Schilling has loved role-playing video games since he was a teenager, and now the retired pitcher’s company has produced one.
“Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning” was released last week. His business, 38 Studios, was launched in 2006.
Schilling said he got hooked on gaming playing “Wizardry” on an Apple II in the early 1980s.
By the late 1990s, he was toying with the idea of launching a production company. Schilling got serious about it several years later.
Randy Moss plans NFL comeback
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Randy Moss once said, “I play when I want to play.”
Six months after retiring, the veteran NFL wide receiver wants to play again.
Moss announced on a webchat Monday — his 35th birthday — that he’s planning a comeback.
His agent, Joel Segal, wouldn’t go into his client’s available options.
“Randy and I have discussed it,” Segal said of Moss coming out of retirement. “He still has his fire and he’s looking forward to playing football. He’s excited.”
Moss posted on his Twitter page: “Now back to biz!! There’s good an bad an u have to b ready for both! its in gods hand now.”
Moss retired last August, compiling 14,858 receiving yards and 153 touchdowns in 13 seasons.
He last played in 2010, getting traded by the New England Patriots to the Minnesota Vikings before finishing the season with Tennessee. That year he had career lows of 28 catches for 393 yards.
Zambia team returns home after African Cup win
LUSAKA, Zambia — Zambia’s soccer team triumphantly returned home to throngs of fans at the airport after they beat Ivory Coast in the African Cup of Nations finals.
The victorious Chipolopolo descended from their plane on Monday to shake their fans’ hands and show off the coveted trophy that had eluded Zambia for more than 30 years.
They were then driven in open army trucks along a route filled with cheering Zambians to a new commercial district that has sprung up in Lusaka near parliament, where official speeches and a musical concert are expected.
It was a bittersweet victory for Zambia playing in Libreville, Gabon, where in 1993 a Zambian military plane crashed into the ocean soon after takeoff.
By wire sources