Off the wire

LITTLE ROCK — COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Chizik quiet about probe

Auburn Coach Gene Chizik declined to comment on reports that the NCAA is investigating alleged improprieties involving the football program. “I’m not going to comment on speculation,” Chizik said Wednesday. “It won’t be a distraction to me. I’m just focused on the Iron Bowl.” The Birmingham News reported Wednesday that NCAA investigators have interviewed at least one assistant coach and several players this week as the Tigers prepare for their season finale Saturday against No. 2 Alabama. The newspaper, citing an unidentified source, reported the investigation included but is not limited to the signing of running back Jovon Robinson, who was ruled ineligible amid allegations of academic improprieties. The report said Auburn has not received an official letter of inquiry from the NCAA. Yahoo! Sports also reported Wednesday that the NCAA has been investigating potential wrongdoing involving Auburn recruits, players, coaches and others. That report said assistants Trooper Taylorand Curtis Luper haven’t been allowed to recruit for several weeks. NCAA spokesman Stacey Osburn said Wednesday the governing body does not comment on current, pending or potential investigations. Auburn spokesman Kirk Sampson said the school had no comment on the reports.

BOXING Camacho critical

Hector “Macho” Camacho was clinging to life Wednesday in San Juan, Puerto Rico, after being shot in the face while in a car, with doctors and his family expected to decide whether to remove the former boxing champion from life support. Doctors initially had said Camacho was in critical, but stable condition and expected to survive after he was shot Tuesday night in his hometown of Bayamon. But his condition worsened overnight and his heart stopped at one point, said Dr. Ernesto Torres, director of the Centro Medico trauma center in San Juan. “He’s battling minute to minute. This is the most important fight of his life,” Torres told The Associated Press outside the hospital in the Puerto Rican capital. Camacho, 50, was shot as he and a friend sat in a Ford Mustang parked outside a bar. Police spokesman Alex Diaz said officers found nine small bags of cocaine in the friend’s pocket, and a 10th bag open inside the car. Torres said doctors were trying to determine the boxer’s level of brain activity. The specialists will then consult with other doctors and Camacho’s mother, who flew in from New York to discuss whether he should be removed from life support.

HORSE RACING

Jockey Dettori suspended

Frankie Dettori, one of the world’s best known jockeys, was temporarily suspended from racing in France on Wednesday following a positive drug test. He tested positive for an unidentified banned substance Sept. 16 after riding at Longchamp. The 41-year-old Britishbased jockey will not ride anywhere else or make any comment until the matter is settled. The French association’s medical committee helda hearing Tuesday and said it was temporarily suspending the Italian on “medical grounds.” The panel transferred the case to France Galop, the sport’s governing body in France. It must now decide whether to open its own investigation and extend the suspension.

Channel Lady rallied to beat Nayarra by three-quarters of a length Wednesday in the $80,000 Stardusk Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on the turf at Aqueduct. Ramon Dominguez was aboard for trainer Todd Pletcher as the chestnut filly improved to 3 for 5 with her first stakes victory. The time was 1:42.99 for 1 1/16 miles over the firm course. Channel Lady paid $10.20, $4.60 and $3.10. Nayarra returned $24.40 and $15.20, and Absolute Crackers paid $4.40 to show.

WRESTLING

Iowa wrestlers suspended

Two University of Iowa wrestlers were suspended from the team Wednesday after they admitted to illegally hunting rabbits on Iowa City campus in hopes of making rabbitskin caps, according to police. Alex Meyer and Connor Ryan, both freshmen, were arrested Tuesday night after a security officer saw two men, including one with a long gun, near the nursing building, according to an incident report. Officers later found the two in Hillcrest Residence Hall and discovered rabbit skins in Meyer’s dormitory. Meyer and Ryan each admitted to hunting with friends on campus using air rifles, which typically discharge pellets or BBs. Each explained that they went hunting Saturday and again Tuesday because they wanted “to make hats,” according to criminal complaints filed against them. Meyer and Ryan were both charged with violating a municipal code by discharging air rifles within city limits, a simple misdemeanor punishable with anywhere from a $65 fine to 30 days in jail; and cited for violating a state law that bans hunting after dark, which carries a $93 fine. Meyer was also cited for hunting without a license, a $100 infraction.

FOOTBALL ESPN to broadcast college football playoffs

NEW YORK - The college football playoff system will be televised on ESPN for 12 years once it starts after the 2014 season, the network said Wednesday.

The title game will be played on a Monday, at least a week after the semifinals.

The deal is worth close to $500 million a year, a person with knowledge of the terms said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the fee had not been announced.

“Folks are going to love this playoff and the attention ESPN will give to it,” BCS executive director Bill Hancock said in a statement.

ESPN’s current four-year contract to air the Sugar, Orange and Fiesta bowls along with the BCS title game is worth about $125 million per year.

ESPN will own the rights to all six bowls involved in the four-team playoff system. Conference commissioners had decided that the two semifinals would rotate among those half-dozen sites; the four not involved each year will host major bowl games similar tothe current BCS contests. The title game will be bid out each season through a separate process, as the Super Bowl is for the NFL.

There will be three “contract bowls” that offer automatic bids to particular conferences in years they don’t host one of the semifinals: the Rose, Sugar and Orange. The network already had separate deals for the same 12-year period through the 2025 season for those games, which are affiliated with the Pacific-12, Big 12, Big Ten, ACC and SEC.

The new agreement also gives ESPN the rights to the three “host bowls,” which will feature at-large teams along with the top squad from the group of five conferences without ties to a contract bowl. The sites for the host bowls are still to be determined, though themost likely landing spots are the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., the Cotton Bowl in Arlington, Texas, and the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta.

Wednesday’s agreement in principle includes rights for TV, radio, mobile, online and international.