Wisconsin Is Put on Probation

Wisconsin was put on five years’ probation and lost some football and basketball scholarships Tuesday after an investigation found a shoe store gave unadvertised discounts to athletes.

But the NCAA did not strip the school of any postseason awards, including the 2000 men’s Final Four.

The NCAA reduced the number of football scholarships the university can offer in 2002-03 and 2003-04 from 25 to 20. It ordered the school to cut a men’s basketball scholarship in 2003-04.

Motor Racing

Anticipating a move by the NFL to change the date of the Super Bowl to the first week in February, the NHRA has announced it will move the Winternationals to Feb. 7-10 at Pomona.

NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield was fired by Penske Racing and driver Mike Skinner was hired by Morgan-McClure Motorsports.

Tennis

Anna Kournikova lost to wild-card entry and fellow Russian Galina Fokina, 6-2, 1-6, 6-2, in the first round of the Kremlin Cup at Moscow. Fokina is ranked 248th.

In the men’s tournament, defending champion and top-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov defeated wild-card entry Mikhail Youzhny, 6-3, 6-3, in an all-Russian match.

College Basketball

Cincinnati center B.J. Grove, who was limited much of last season by weight problems and drew a one-game suspension from Conference USA, has left the school for personal reasons.

Northwestern dismissed sophomore guard Ed McCants from the team for an unspecified violation of team rules.

Soccer

U.S. men’s captain Claudio Reyna has a bruised right knee but probably will play in Sunday’s World Cup qualifier against Jamaica.

Miami forward Diego Serna, already forced to sit out one playoff game for punching Kansas City’s Nick Garcia last week, was suspended an additional game and fined $5,000 by Major League Soccer for the incident.

Jurisprudence

With the divorced parents of Rashidi Wheeler unable to agree on who will administer his estate, a Cook County judge scheduled an Oct. 30 hearing on the matter.

Wheeler’s mother, Linda Will, wants sole authority over the case while her ex-husband, George Wheeler Jr., wants to share oversight.

Wheeler, a 22-year-old strong safety at Northwestern, died Aug. 3 after collapsing during conditioning sprints.

Bob Knight has signed an affidavit waiving his confidentiality rights to his employee records at Indiana, said an attorney working with the former Hoosier coach.

The affidavit, expected to be filed today, will become part of a lawsuit filed by a group of alumni and basketball fans challenging whether Indiana legally fired Knight, now the coach at Texas Tech, last September.

The minor league baseball team in Salt Lake City, which for years called itself the Buzz, agreed to pay Georgia Tech $600,000 for infringing on the school’s trademark name for its mascot “Buzz.”

Miscellany

French authorities have closed a doping case and ruled out sanctions against Russian runner Olga Yegorova after a laboratory failed to explain why one of her urine samples, taken at the Golden League meet in Paris on July 6, was unusable. ... The 2007 U.S. Open was awarded to Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh. ... The LPGA Tour will not have a Florida swing next year for the first time since its inception in 1950.