Morning Briefing Oct. 8, 2010
Football
Jay Cutler was in helmet and pads at practice, just don’t expect to see him on the field when the Chicago Bears visit Carolina on Sunday.
The quarterback will sit out the game against the Panthers with a concussion from being sacked nine times in the first half of last week’s loss to the New York Giants.
“He’s making progress,” coach Lovie Smith said Thursday. “All we know right now is he’s not playing this week. Hopefully, he’ll be ready to go next week.”
Cutler was examined by team and independent doctors after practicing on a limited basis Wednesday, and the decision was made to have him sit this week.
The Pac-10’s athletic directors wrapped up two days of agenda-setting meetings in San Francisco and, not surprisingly, nothing was settled.
Faced with the complex task of creating plans for revenue sharing, divisional alignment and a championship game in football, the athletic directors hashed out the details that will set the foundation for the conference’s presidents and chancellors at their meeting on Oct. 21.
“I’m very pleased with how the meetings went,” Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott said. “I would describe it as significant progress on the important strategic issues we’ve been debating and I feel good about where we are. In my view, we’ve narrowed the options and kind of flushed out the pro and cons of different scenarios in a way we hoped we would.”
The meetings were never intended to reach any final conclusions, only recommendations for the board as the conference expands to 12 teams next school year with the addition of Colorado and Utah.
The three major, interconnected issues are complex and wide-ranging, each school having its own unique stake in what happens.
Revenue sharing is the marquee issue, whether to continue with the current appearance-based model, which favors USC and UCLA, or to split up the money equally among the 12 schools.
The football championship game appears to be a done deal, but the conference still needs to decide whether to use an NFL-based model where the higher-ranked team plays at home or to hold it at a neutral site like San Diego or Las Vegas.
Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez rushed for 242 yards and four touchdowns and the seventh-ranked Cornhuskers (5-0) defeated Kansas State (4-1) 48-13 at Manhattan, Kan., in the Big 12 opener for both.
John Rollins kicked off the PGA’s inaugural McGladrey Classic with a 7-under 63 at St. Simons, Ga., to take a one-shot lead over David Toms and Troy Merritt.
Cristie Kerr shot a 7-under 65 to take a one-stroke lead over Morgan Pressel, Anna Nordqvist and Dorothy Delasin in the Navistar LPGA Classic at Prattville, Ala.
nTom Kite shot a 3-under 67 at Potomac, Md., to take a one-stroke lead over Mark O’Meara, Michael Allen and Joe Ozaki in the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship, the Champions Tour’s final major of the season.
Hurricanes 4, Wild 3: At Helsinki, Brandon Sutter scored twice as Carolina beat Minnesota in the opening game of the NHL season.
Oilers 4, Flames 0: Jordan Eberle scored a pair of goals in his NHL debut and Edmonton beat visiting Calgary.
Avalanche 4, Blackhawks 3, OT: At Denver, Paul Stastny scored in overtime and Colorado beat Chicago.
Flyers 3, Penguins 2: Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 29 shots in his NHL debut, leading Philadelphia at Pittsburgh.
Maple Leafs 3, Canadiens 2: Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 25 saves, and host Toronto edged Montreal.
— The Associated Press