Associated Press
NORFOLK, Va. ó Fallen NFL star Michael Vick must appear at a bankruptcy hearing next month but should pay his own way from the Kansas prison where he is serving time for his role in a dogfighting conspiracy, a judge ruled y.
One of Vick’s criminal attorneys, Lawrence Woodward, presented receipts showing it only cost about $3,636 to bring Vick from Leavenworth to Surry County, Va., in November to plead guilty to state dogfighting charges. Vick paid for that trip.
Vick’s eight bedroom, 11 bath home in suburban Atlanta is being sold to pay off part of his debts, but no one bid Tuesday when it went up for auction with a minimum price of $3.2 million.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
CLEMSON, S.C. ó Dabo Swinney is opening Clemson football to more than just his players.
Swinney announced his first Clemson Tiger Football Fantasy Camp on Tuesday. It will take place from April 17-19 and is open to men and women 21 years and up. For $2,000, attendees will meet and work with Tiger coaches, practice and play in Death Valley. Campers will also meet with past Tiger standouts like coach Danny Ford, defensive lineman Michael Dean Perry, receiver Perry Tuttle and linebacker Jeff Davis among others.
– Swinney said quarterback Jon Richt, the son of Georgia coach Mark, has left the team and intends to transfer.
– NEW YORK ó The Fiesta, Orange, Rose and Sugar bowls extended their agreements with the Bowl Championship Series, deals that will keep the national championship game at the sites of those games through 2013.
– TALLAHASSEE, Fla. ó Florida State plans to formally respond next week to sanctions from the NCAA resulting from an academic cheating scandal, school officials said Wednesday.
The university will make its response on Tuesday, according to athletic director Randy Spetman, who would not otherwise comment. Florida State has until March 21 to appeal the NCAA’s penalties.
The school is expected to challenge the NCAA’s directive to forfeit up to 14 football victories as well as wins in other sports for contests where athletes involved in a classroom cheating scandal participated.
SOCCER
MANCHESTER, England ó FIFA president Sepp Blatter believes a financial “tsunami” will eventually hit world soccer, even if the sport is weathering the global meltdown so far.
Soccer’s governing body relies on the World Cup ó held every four years ó for 90 percent of its revenue and expects to earn $3.2 billion in television and marketing revenue from the 2010 tournament in South Africa.
NASCAR
DARLINGTON, S.C. ó In a rare show of accord, the NASCAR drivers testing tires at Darlington Raceway this week agreed that Goodyear is making progress on the most thankless task in racing.
All four drivers testing at Darlington ó Kevin Harvick, Bobby Labonte, Elliott Sadler and Denny Hamlin ó felt the tires Goodyear brought to the track had worked well so far, pointing to strong, exciting racing when Sprint Cup returns to Darlington on May 9 with the rechristened Southern 500.
If Goodyear brings good, effective rubber to a racetrack, people think the manufacturer is simply doing its job. Bring a tire that doesn’t hold up or slips around ó and gentlemen, start your griping.
That’s what happened a year ago here when a tire test at Darlington followed the disastrous race at Atlanta where Tony Stewart let loose at Goodyear for what he and others felt was a shoddy product.
“I feel like they’re in the worst position in the sport,” Harvick, a Chevrolet driver, said Wednesday during the second and final day of testing at the track.
– DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. ó John Boyd, a crew member for the No. 23 team of R3 Motorsports, failed a random drug test on March 9. He was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR on Wednesday, and his race team said he’s no longer with the organization.