National Sports Briefs

Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn. — Competitive cheerleading is not an official sport that colleges can use to meet gender-equity requirements, a federal judge ruled Wednesday in ordering a Connecticut school to keep its women’s volleyball team.

Several volleyball players and their coach had sued Quinnipiac University after it announced in March 2009 that it would eliminate the team for budgetary reasons and replace it with a competitive cheer squad.

The school contended the cheer squad and other moves kept it in compliance with Title IX, the 1972 federal law that mandates equal opportunities for men and women in education and athletics. But U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill disagreed in a ruling that those involved say was the first time the cheerleading issue has been decided by a judge.

“Competitive cheer may, some time in the future, qualify as a sport under Title IX,” Underhill wrote. “Today, however, the activity is still too underdeveloped and disorganized to be treated as offering genuine varsity athletic participation opportunities for students.”

FAVRE UPDATE

MINNEAPOLIS — Brett Favre shared a laugh with Brad Childress about the two of them butting heads over the direction of the offense during a recent visit the Minnesota Vikings coach made to Hattiesburg, Miss.

What Favre didn’t share with Childress is any decision about his future.

Favre told USA Today on Tuesday that Childress stopped to visit him. The two chatted about a lot of things, but no deadline was imposed for the QB to announce a decision about returning for a 20th NFL season.

MORE NFL

BALTIMORE — Ravens Pro Bowl safety Ed Reed says he expects to miss the start of the regular season while he recovers from offseason hip surgery.

Reed told 105.7 The Fan he expects to be placed on the Physically Unable to Perform list, which requires a player to miss the first six games of the season.

• LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Chicago Bears have signed back Harvey Unga to a four-year contract.

Taken in the seventh round of the supplemental draft, Unga is BYU’s all-time leading rusher with 3,455 yards on 696 carries.

TOP FRANCHISES

NEW YORK — For all the turmoil and talk of debt, Manchester United is still the most valuable franchise in all of sports.

Forbes released its list of the world’s most valuable teams with the English Premier League club leading the way at $1.84 billion.

The top American franchise, the Dallas Cowboys, was second at $1.65 billion. The New York Yankees, Washington Redskins, New England Patriots, Real Madrid, New York Giants, Arsenal, New York Jets and Houston Texans round out the top 10.

HOUK DIES

BOSTON — Ralph Houk, who managed the powerhouse Yankees teams of the early 1960s to two World Series championships, died Wednesday. He was 90.

Red Sox spokesman Dick Bresciani said Houk’s grandson, Scott Slaboden, told the team Houk died at his home in Winter Haven, Fla.

Slaboden, who lives in the Boston area, told the team in an e-mail that Houk “died peacefully of natural causes after having a brief illness.”

“People forget that before he was a manager, he was a war hero and he was a catcher for a lot of years,” Tigers radio analyst Jim Price said.

NHL

NEWARK, N.J. — Ilya Kovalchuk is no closer to figuring out his future than he was when NHL free agency opened three weeks ago.

Kovalchuk’s landmark 17-year, $102 million contract with the New Jersey Devils was rejected by the NHL, which ruled that the longest deal in league history violated its salary cap.

Where the high-scoring forward — the biggest prize on the free agent market — will land now is anyone’s guess.

The contract was rejected because years of low salary at the end of the contract were added to lower the cap hit. No side believes Kovalchuk will play the final years of the deal at those terms: $550,000 in each of the last five ending in 2027, when he’ll be 44.

CYCLING

PAU, France — Andy Schleck knows he has one opportunity to win the Tour de France — on the climb up the Col du Tourmalet in the Pyrenees on Thursday.

He believes the fierce ascent at the end of the 17th stage is the only place he can wrest the yellow jersey from two-time champion Alberto Contador and put at least a minute between him and his Spanish rival going into the final weekend of the three-week race.

• BEND, Ore. — While the Tour de France goes on a half-world away, disgraced former winner Floyd Landis is riding without a team in the Cascade Cycling Classic in central Oregon.

In Tuesday night’s prologue time trials for the six-stage race, Landis wore a simple gray T-shirt because race officials would not allow him to wear a logo-emblazoned jersey. He finished 91st out of 172 entrants.

TENNIS

NEW YORK — Serena Williams is hoping to recover from a right foot injury in time to play at the U.S. Open, the agent for the 13-time Grand Slam singles champion said.

The No. 1-ranked Williams had surgery last week in Los Angeles to repair deep cuts on her right foot. She was hurt while she was in Munich this month — shortly after winning her fourth Wimbledon singles title on July 3, and before playing in an exhibition match against Kim Clijsters that drew a tennis-record crowd of 35,681 in Brussels on July 8.

SOCCER

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Diego Maradona will reportedly remain coach of Argentina’s national team, a decision he is expected to announce next week after meeting with Argentine Football Association president Julio Grondona.