Tigerprince Radio

You can call it surprising but Michigan basketball is finally back. Michigan has beaten two top five teams in the regular season for the first time since 1986-87, the year after its last Big Ten title.

The Wolverines (6-2) beat then-No. 4 UCLA before losing 71-56 to Duke in the 2K Sports Classic final. Saturday Michigan got their revenge beating Duke 81-73 in a see-saw battle.

Whether Michigan makes it to the big tourney or not, it must be noted that they have something to build on for the future.

USC offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian will be named Washington coach, multiple sources have reported.

Sarkisian, who was quarterback at BYU, led the Cougars to a 13-1 finish in 1996. The 34-year-old has been the offensive coordinator at USC for two seasons. He was up for the Raiders head coaching job last year before it went to fellow USC assistant Lane Kiffin, who earlier this week was named head coach at Tennessee.

Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, Fresno State coach Pat Hill and Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly also interviewed for the job. Washington also persued Seattle Seahawks coach-in-waiting Jim Mora.

In the middle of perhaps his best season, The Carolina Panthers Chris Gamble signed a six-year contract extension that agent Carl Poston said makes him one of the five top-paid cornerbacks in the league. That would make it worth more than $50 million.

Tennessee has reached an agreement with former Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin to take over as the Volunteers’ next coach, with an announcement planned for Monday, barring any snags, according to multiple sources.

Kiffin, 33, will be making his college head coaching debut in succeeding Phillip Fulmer, who will coach his last game for the Vols on Saturday.

I wonder if Tennessee has a crazy overlord like Al Davis?

General Motors is bailing out on Tiger Woods. Woods has been carrying the Buick logo on his golf bag for the last nine years and still had one year left on his contract.

But General Motors Corp. was looking to cut costs and hoard cash while trying to survive the worst sales downturn in a quarter-century. And it said Monday the world’s No. 1 golfer wanted more time for himself, especially with a second child on the way.

“Timing is everything,” said Larry Peck, golf marketing manager for Buick. “We’ve had such a great partnership with Tiger. It’s hard for us to walk away from that. But this frees up time for him. And it sure frees up a lot of money for us.”

The endorsement deal, believed to be worth at least $7 million a year, was to expire at the end of 2009.

New York Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina has decided to retire. Mussina, who turns 40 next month, spent the last eight seasons with the Yankees after pitching for the Baltimore Orioles for the first 10 years of his career. His 270 wins rank second among all active right-handers, behind only Greg Maddux. In the final start of his career, he pitched six shutout innings against the Boston Red Sox to finish off the first 20-win season of his career.

The NFL is giving Adam “Pacman” Jones another chance.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Wednesday the suspended cornerback has been reinstated by league commissioner Roger Goodell, but he must miss two more games this Sunday and the following game on Thanksgiving. He’ll be back Dec. 7 at Pittsburgh.

Well we can all thank Mr. Deep Pockets himself (Jerry Jones) for this one!

Fox Sports has decided to pull its bid on the next round of television rights for the Bowl Championship Series college football games.

Fox’s four-year deal with the BCS ends after the 2009 season. The Bowl Championship Series says it is close to a deal with ESPN.

“Currently, over 98 million homes receive ESPN,” BCS coordinator John Swofford said in a statement. “With the ever-changing technology and as we look toward January 2011, when the first games in this package will be played, we know that the number of households that receive ESPN will only continue to grow.”

SportsBusiness Daily reported that, according to sources, ESPN bid $125 million per year over four years to get the games, while Fox’s top bid was $100 million per year.

One person who won’t be swayed by President-elect Barack Obama’s recent call for an eight-team national college football playoff is Oregon president David Frohnmayer, chair of the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee.

“We deeply respect the president-elect and we are glad that he is a fan of college football,” Frohnmayer said in an e-mail response to ESPN Tuesday. “We have the most compelling regular season in all of sports, and I’m sure that contributes to Senator Obama’s enjoyment of our great game.”

Frohnmayer opposes a playoff for the former Division I-A. Other presidents on the committee are Rev. John Jenkins (Notre Dame), Robert Khayat (Ole Miss), Mark Nordenberg (Pittsburgh), John Peters (Northern Illinois), Harvey Perlman (Nebraska), Graham Spanier (Penn State) and Charles Steger (Virginia Tech.)

“My colleagues and I on the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee have discussed the future of postseason football on many occasions and we do not believe a playoff would be in the best interest of the sport, the student-athletes or our many other constituencies,” Frohnmayer said.

When asked what change he’d make in sports during last week’s Monday Night Football broadcast, Obama said “I think it’s about time we had playoffs in college football. I’m fed up with these computer rankings and this that and the other. Get eight teams the top eight teams right at the end. You got a playoff. Decide on a national champion.”

Amid growing fan discontent, Charlie Weis insisted Notre Dame is on the right path and he is the coach to lead the Fighting Irish out of their latest rut.

“I’m confident that the program is going to go where we all want it to go. That’s as honest as I can be,” Weis said Tuesday. “Because I think we have pretty good players. When you have pretty good players, you have a chance to be pretty good.”

Notre Dame fans, though, aren’t looking for pretty good. They’re looking for national championships, something they haven’t celebrated since 1988. The Irish went 3-9 last season and despite an easier-than-usual schedule by Notre Dame standards, the Irish (5-4) are just a game above .500 and have lost three of their last four.

Weis, who as a Notre Dame student more than 30 years ago called the university president to complain about a loss, said he understands fans being upset.

“I think that I’d be perturbed, too, if I were them, to be honest with you,” he said.

Some blamed last year’s dismal record on Weis’ predecessor, Tyrone Willingham, whose last recruiting class left Weis to rely on a bevy of inexperienced players. But Weis has four recruiting classes, three full, highly rated classes in place and isn’t showing as much progress as many fans expected.