When the Big Ten Conference announced it's new format, the two six team divisions splits rivals Michigan and Ohio State, but sets up the possibility of the teams playing twice in the same year. The two divisions, as yet unnamed, places Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin in one division and Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska and Northwestern in the other. The conference will expand to 12 members, and two football divisions, beginning with the 2011-2012 school year.

The United States eased its way to a top seed in the knockout round of the world championship, beating Iran 88-51 yesterday to clinch group B. The U.S. team, which downplayed the political aspect of the match-up, used its superior size and depth to pull away in the first half. U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski, who used his starters for most of the second half in Tuesday's win over Brazil, went to his bench early in yesterday's win. The Americans, who improved to 4-0, will face the number four team from group A in the round of 16.

In the spring of 2002, Jeff Francoeur led Parkview into the high school baseball playoffs. One of the players he faced that year was Wheeler's Jeremy Hermida. Both were drafted in the first round after turning down scholarship offers to play football at Clemson. Five years after each made his major league debut, the career paths of the longtime friends continue to parallel. Francoeur was traded by the Mets earlier this week to the Rangers. His $5 million contract makes it doubtful the Rangers will keep him past this year's playoffs. Hermida, traded by the Marlins to...

Washington pitcher Stephen Strasburg will undergo the reconstructive elbow operation knows as Tommy John surgery tomorrow in Los Angeles. On-air criticism of Strasburg has led to the dismissal of Nationals' television analyst Rob Dibble. According to reports from the team's broadcast department, Dibble made comments about Strasburg on Sirius XM Radio, saying at the time that the rookie wasn't willing to play through pain. That was before the extent of Strasburg's injury was diagnosed. Still the team felt Dibble should not continue on the broadcast team.

The personnel problems continue to mount for 18th ranked North Carolina. Tar Heels coach Butch Davis suspended senior defensive tackle Marvin Davis indefinitely yesterday for violating unspecified team rules. The suspension of Davis is not part of the ongoing NCAA review, which earlier had led to the suspension of 16 Tar Heel football players. North Carolina will open the season Saturday at the Georgia Dome with they face LSU. Unless North Carolina is successful in convincing the NCAA to stagger the suspensions, the Tar Heels could be without as many as seven defensive starters for Saturday's game.

Five of Bibb County's six public high schools will play football tonight, the first time that's happened in county history. Four of the teams play in Macon, including Westside and Howard, who face each other at Henderson Stadium. Rutland hosts Peach County at the Ed DeFore Sports Complex, and Northeast will be on the road to face Monroe-Albany. Central, the only local school not playing tonight, will face Baldwin in Milledgeville tomorrow. The Chargers learned yesterday that their 30-21 loss to Towers last week has been overturned by forfeit after it was learned that Towers used an ineligible player.

The St. Louis Cardinals have steadily played themselves out of the playoff picture. Leaders in the NL central division less than a month ago, the Cardinals dropped their fifth game in a row last night, 5-2 to the Astros, to fall eight games behind Cincinnati in the division standings. The Cardinals have 31 games remaining, the Reds have 29. The NL west leading Padres are also struggling. They've lost seven of their last ten games, allowing the Giants to pull to within three games on the division lead.

Two years after committing to fielding a football team and 97 years after the school's founding, Georgia State will finally play a game. The Panthers open the season tonight at the Georgia Dome against Shorter in the history-making event that will also be history-making of sorts for kicker Iain Vance. Now with his third college team since leaving Duluth High School five years ago, Vance has yet to play in a college game. He walked on at Georgia Tech, then transferred to Alabama, and finally to Georgia State when that school announced its football plans. Coach Bill Curry and...

The Braves will try to complete a four-game sweep of the Mets tonight at Turner Field with Tim Hudson on the mound. Tommy Hanson pitched seven innings in last night's 4-1 win, allowing just one hit and no runs, in picking up his first win since July 3rd. Jason Heyward and Omar Infante combined for seven of Atlanta's eleven hits. Heyward, who has raised his batting average to .284, had his second four-hit game in the three games with the Mets. Atlanta faces Johan Santana tonight as they hope to sweep the Mets and protect their...

Talk about a bad golf swing. The usual cry on the golf course for a bad shot is "FORE". But at the Shady Canyon Golf Course in Southern California on Saturday afternoon, the cry was "FIRE". Seems that a golfer, whose name was not released, hit a shot into heavy rough. Trying to hit the ball out of the rough, the golfer struck a rock with his club, causing a spark that ignited the heavy grass. The fire, which eventually attracted 150 firefighters, burned through the rough into vegetation next to the course and over two dry,...

Hurricane Earl weakened to a Category 1 storm Friday morning with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph hour. Residents of New York and New England, however, are still bracing for the storm.

President Barack Obama will award the Medal of Honor, the military's highest award for bravery, to Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Richard Etchberger for his valor in saving the lives of three wounded comrades in Laos in 1968, the White House announced Friday.

BP began operations to remove its failed blowout preventer from atop its well deep below the Gulf of Mexico, the company said Friday.

Cammie King Conlon, who played the ill-fated Bonnie Blue Butler in "Gone With the Wind," used to joke "that I peaked at age 5."

Bomb squad investigators were at Miami International Airport on Friday after a suspicious item was spotted in a baggage screening area, authorities said.