Sports

NEW YORK (AP) - The NHL and the players' association have announced a tentative labor agreement that will save the hockey season.

A marathon negotiating session that lasted more than 16 hours and stretched from early Saturday afternoon until Sunday morning produced a deal that will ultimately end the lockout that has reached its 113th day.

The 10-year deal still must be ratified by a majority of the league's 30 owners and the union's membership of approximately 740 players.

There are several bills passed by the Michigan legislature that are still sitting on the governor’s desk. One of them may hold the fate of Michigan’s horse racing industry.

By one estimate, Michigan’s horse racing industry has lost half its jobs in the past few years. The four tracks operating in Michigan are fighting a losing battle against two dozen casinos, multi-state lotteries and online gaming.

To help, the legislature passed a bill to expand wagering options and gives extra incentives to track owners and horse breeders to invest in Michigan.

2012 was a remarkable year in many ways, and the sports world was no exception.

Just a few hours into the New Year, Michigan State and Michigan both won bowl games in overtime, and both finished with eleven wins.  A good start.

Not all the news was happy, of course.  We said goodbye to some legends.  Budd Lynch, who lost his right arm in World War II, announced Red Wing games for six decades, right up to his death this fall, at 95. Another Bud, VanDeWege, ran Moe’s Sports Shops in downtown Ann Arbor for 46 years, turning thousands of Michigan fans into friends. He passed away at 83. 

The people who sell bowl games need us to believe a few things:

• Their games are rewards for great seasons;
• They offer players and fans a much-wanted vacation;
• The bowls are non-profits, while the schools make a killing. 

These claims are nice, and would be even nicer if they were true.

Forty years ago, college football got by with just eleven bowl games.

The 22 teams they invited were truly elite, and so were the bowls – like the Orange Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Cotton Bowl and The Granddaddy of Them All, the Rose Bowl.

When your team got into a bowl game back then, you knew they’d done something special.

But the number of bowls has more than tripled, to a staggering 35, including such timeless classics as the The Meineke Car Care Bowl, the Advocare V100 Independence Bowl, and the legendary Taxslayer.com Bowl.

This time last year, Brady Hoke was the darling of Michigan football fans. 

He’d charmed everybody at his first press conference, then led a team that had averaged just five wins a year to a 10-2 regular-season record, with thrilling wins over Notre Dame, Nebraska and arch-rival Ohio State.

Then he capped it all off with an overtime victory in the Sugar Bowl. 

The man could do no wrong.

When he referred to injuries as “boo-boos” and Ohio State as “Ohio,” fans did not conclude he was an ignoramus who knew nothing about the greatest rivalry in sports, but a motivational genius, who understood exactly what the duel was all about. 

Some dream of the Powerball,  others live the Powerball.

From Crain's Detroit Business:

For winning the American League pennant, each of the Detroit Tigers will get $284,274.50 as his share of postseason revenue.

Each member of the World Series-winning San Francisco Giants, who swept the Tigers in the fall classic, will get $377,002.64.

The numbers, which are pretax, were provided this morning by Major League Baseball.

Yesterday, the University of Maryland announced that they'll join the Big Ten Conference, and there was speculation that Rutgers would follow suit.

Today it's official.

From the AP:

Rutgers is announcing that it will join the Big Ten at an afternoon news conference Tuesday on its campus in Piscataway, N.J.

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany will be joined by Rutgers University President Robert Barchi and athletic director Tim Perenetti.

Rutgers will be leaving the Big East, where it has been competing since 1991. The move follows Maryland's announcement on Monday that it was departing the Atlantic Coast Conference to join the Big Ten in 2014. Rutgers will be the Big Ten's 14th member.

Rutgers also plans to join its new conference in 2014, though the Big East requires 27 months' notification for departing members. The Scarlet Knights will have to negotiate a deal with the Big East to leave early.

The Big Ten Conference will soon include 14 teams.

Michigan Radio's John U. Bacon addressed the conference's decision to bring Maryland and Rutgers into its competitive network.

“On the Michigan chat boards, it is 98% apocalyptic disgust. It should be noted, that is in great contrast to Nebraska joining last year. They are not against expansion, per se,” said Bacon.

The potential financial gains are of great interest to the conference, said Bacon.

“The whole reason why they are doing that is the Big Ten Network’s footprint. This can add up to around $200 million dollars. I can think of no other reason why they would do it,” said Bacon.

There are two ways you can podcast "Stateside with Cynthia Canty"

• Podcast of the entire show
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