• NFL agrees to six-year extensions with Fox and CBS worth $8 billion • Kansas No. 1 in AP polls • Utah slips in BCS List • Lady Vols start No. 1 NFL agrees to six-year extensions with Fox and
• NFL agrees to six-year extensions with Fox and CBS worth $8 billion
• Kansas No. 1 in AP polls
• Utah slips in BCS List
• Lady Vols start No. 1
NFL agrees to six-year extensions with Fox and CBS worth $8 billion
NEW YORK — The NFL agreed Monday to $8 billion in contract extensions with Fox and CBS to televise Sunday afternoon games for six more years, deals that would also allow the league to show better matchups late in the season in prime time.
The current contract, which expires after the 2005 season, was worth $17.2 billion, including the Sunday night (on ESPN) and Monday night (on ABC) packages. The extensions will run through 2011. The league still is in negotiations for the prime-time packages.
The deals give the NFL the option to move seven late-season games from Sunday to Monday night to feature more attractive matchups, according to an official within the league who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said there will be no changes in the traditional Sunday afternoon kickoff times for regular-season games.
Each network gets two Super Bowls during the contract period. CBS will do the game on Feb. 4, 2007, and Fox will handle the game a year later. The other Super Bowls for the networks will be assigned later.
The agreements also include a commitment by CBS and Fox to phase in high-definition coverage and introduce new interactive elements to NFL game telecasts.
Kansas No. 1 in AP polls
Kansas often grabs a spot in the upper half of the AP preseason college basketball poll, but the school hasn’t been No. 1 since a player named Wilt Chamberlain suited up for the Jayhawks in the 1950s.
Kansas stood atop The Associated Press’ Top 25 on Monday, the 13th straight season the Jayhawks have been ranked 11th or higher in the first poll.
The Jayhawks received 25 first-place votes and 1,697 points from the national media panel, edging Wake Forest, which had 22 first-place votes and 1,680 points.
The Demon Deacons were the first of three straight Atlantic Coast Conference teams in the poll, and six teams from the league were in the Top 25.
Utah slips in BCS List
A perfect record probably isn’t going to be enough to get Utah into the Bowl Championship Series.
The unbeaten Utes slipped one spot to seventh in the BCS standings Monday, a drop that could cost them a berth in one of the four big-money bowl games.
The top five in the BCS stayed the same with Southern California, Oklahoma and Auburn leading the way, followed by California and Wisconsin.
The top two teams in the final standings will play in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 4 for the BCS national title.
Lady Vols start No. 1
Tennessee is no longer chasing Connecticut. The Lady Vols are back on top.
Pat Summitt’s team took the No. 1 spot in The Associated Press’ preseason women’s basketball poll Monday, the 11th time it has started the season atop the rankings — and first since 1998.
The Lady Vols received 20 of 45 first-place votes from a national media panel to edge Texas, Southeastern Conference rival LSU and three-time defending NCAA champion UConn for No. 1.
Tennessee had 1,085 points in the voting, while Texas had 1,056, three more than LSU. Connecticut was fourth with 1,017.
Texas had seven first-place votes, LSU 12, and UConn six.
Tennessee returns starters Shanna Zolman, Loree Moore and Shyra Ely, plus four other veterans, from a 31-4 team that lost to Connecticut in the national championship game in April.
