BASKETBALL
Griffin suspended
The Los Angeles Clippers suspended Blake Griffin four games without pay on Tuesday for punching a team staff member. His salary will be withheld for an additional game because he broke his shooting hand. In all, Griffin will lose $859,442 from his season salary of $18,907,725. A team spokesman said the suspension will begin when Griffin is healthy, cleared to play and active. He was expected to be out four to six weeks while his hand heals. The Clippers will donate Griffin's salary from the five games to charities that help disadvantaged youth in Los Angeles. The team said Griffin asked to donate his time to the organizations. The team said the NBA helped in deciding the punishment. Griffin has been away from the team since he punched assistant equipment manager Matias Testi on Jan. 23 in Toronto. The Clippers are 18-4 without Griffin, who has been out since Dec. 26 with a partially torn left quadriceps tendon. He was close to returning from that injury when he punched Testi, who sustained multiple facial injuries.
• George Karl will continue as coach of the Sacramento Kings, General Manager Vlade Divac said after meeting with Karl in Philadelphia on Tuesday, just one day after Karl's firing appeared imminent. "George is our coach and we're collectively working through our issues," Divac said in a statement. The meeting focused on how Karl can get the Kings to improve on three-point defense, transition defense and an overall lack of energy on defense that has plagued the team. Divac said he does not believe firing Karl is the solution to the problems. The Kings have lost four in a row and eight of nine. The team is 21-31 and has slipped to 10th place in the Western Conference after a solid stretch had moved them into the eighth and final playoff spot. The four-game road trip was seen as a chance to make strides before the All-Star break. Instead, the Kings have played some of their worst basketball of the season. They've lost all three games, giving up 125.3 points per game.
• Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol is out indefinitely with a broken bone in his right foot after an MRI exam found the fracture earlier Tuesday. The Grizzlies said in a statement that Gasol was examined by team physicians Tuesday morning. Memphis will update Gasol's status after the All-Star break. The 7-foot-1 Gasol is averaging 16.6 points and 7.0 rebounds in 52 games this season. He left Monday night's overtime loss to Portland in the first quarter after scoring 11 points and did not return. Coach Dave Joerger said after the game that Gasol had a problem with each leg. Gasol signed a five-year contract last July after earning a starting spot in the All-Star game last season and also became the first Grizzlies player voted to the All-NBA first team.
MISCELLANEOUS
Title IX suit filed
A lawsuit filed by a group of women alleges that the University of Tennessee has violated Title IX policies and created a “hostile sexual environment” through a policy of indifference toward sexual assaults by student-athletes. David Randolph Smith, a lawyer representing six unidentified plaintiffs, said he filed the federal lawsuit Tuesday in Nashville. The Tennessean first reported the lawsuit. It states Tennessee’s policies made students more vulnerable to sexual assault and had a “clearly unreasonable response” after incidents that caused the women making complaints to endure additional harassment. The suit also states the university interfered with the disciplinary process to favor male athletes. Bill Ramsey, a lawyer representing the school, said in a statement the university “acted lawfully and in good faith” in the situations described in the complaint.
FOOTBALL
SEC seeks rule
The SEC is asking for a rule preventing football teams from holding practices during spring break. The move comes nearly a week after Michigan Coach Jim Harbaugh said on national signing day that the Wolverines would practice in Florida over spring break, which starts Feb. 27. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said Tuesday that he asked the new NCAA Football Oversight Committee to place the issue "on their agenda for timely review." CBSSports.com first reported the request. "In the context of the ongoing discussion on time demands, seeing the news that was pretty public, and I think intentionally public and prominent, it seems the wrong time to be taking spring break for spring football practice," Sankey said. "Rather than allow that to proliferate, we asked the oversight to spend some time reviewing the matter with the idea that we can prevent this." The oversight committee met on Tuesday. Sankey also wants to discuss barring spring break practices for other out-of-season sports. It's not the first time the SEC has reacted to Harbaugh and Michigan. The league took aim at recruiting camps at its spring meetings last year. SEC athletic directors voted to either bar such camps altogether or allow its own teams to hold them. The vote came after Harbaugh, Penn State Coach James Franklin and others set satellite camps in the Southeast.
• More than 56,000 people have placed deposits on season tickets for the return of the Los Angeles Rams. Rams Chief Operating Officer Kevin Demoff called the response inspiring. The team began accepting the $100 deposits last month and the deadline ended Monday. Prices for the nine-game tickets haven't been set. The Rams, who left LA in 1981, are moving back this year from St. Louis. They will play in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for three seasons until a new stadium is built in neighboring Inglewood. In addition to getting priority for the chance to buy 2016 tickets, depositors are guaranteed a spot on the waiting list for the Inglewood stadium, which is scheduled to open in 2019.
TENNIS
Muller advances
Gilles Muller set up a second-round match with former U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic at the World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, Netherlands, after coming from a set down to beat Andreas Seppi on Tuesday. Muller, the world No. 40, hit 19 aces on his way to a 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4 victory over Seppi, his first over the Italian in four meetings. Top-seeded Richard Gasquet -- winner in Montpellier last week -- withdrew from the indoor event because of illness and a groin injury. Fourth-seeded David Goffin was upset 6-1, 5-7, 7-6 (5) by Marcos Baghdatis, who came back from a 5-2 deficit in the tie-break and won a 41-shot rally on match point. Philipp Kohlschreiber advanced to the second round with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over 2013 runner-up Julien Benneteau to extend his unbeaten record against the Frenchman to six matches. Next up for Kohlschreiber is qualifier Ivan Dodig. Also progressing were Gael Monfils and Hyeon Chung, who defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. The fifth-seeded Monfils got the better of Latvian qualifier Ernests Gulbis, advancing with a 6-4, 6-4 victory.
MOTOR SPORTS
NASCAR to award charters, cut racing fields
NASCAR announced significant changes Tuesday in its business model designed to improve financial stability by establishing a "charter system" for teams.
The nine-year deal will grant NASCAR Cup Series charters to 36 teams and cut Sprint Cup fields from 43 to 40 cars. It also will establish a Team Owner Council, which will have a voice in industry decisions.
The owner of each charter will have a guaranteed entry into the field of NASCAR Cup Series points races. The field will be reduced from 43 to 40 cars, with the final four spots to be determined weekly by so-called "open" team owners.
The field reduction isn't going to affect the competitive balance. Many cars that qualified at the back of the pack have historically been field-fillers that rarely completed a race.
Teams that fielded cars regularly since 2013 have been granted charters. Under the new system, Hendrick Motorsports has the most (four charters) while other teams, including Stewart-Haas Racing, will have three. SHR does not have a charter for the No. 41 car (Kurt Busch) because he came on board after 2013. Joe Gibbs Racing is in the same situation (three charters, four cars) with Carl Edwards and the No. 19 team. Owners can keep charters or sell them to the highest bidder.
The new system is intended to give teams more value to potential investors and buyers while allowing teams to count on more predictable revenue. The industry will remain sponsorship-driven -- with about three-fourths of a team's revenue coming from sponsorship money.
There are only two charters on the open market now, both belonging to Michael Waltrip Racing, which folded after last season. MWR owner Rob Kauffman will be able to set an initial standard for the market value of those franchises based on the sales price, estimated to be between $9-10 million.
The two most likely buyers for those spots would be Stewart-Haas Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing because of their investments in non-chartered rides.
Sports on 02/10/2016