Tennessee’s Bruce Pearl lied to the NCAA

Tennessee men’s basketball Coach Bruce Pearl acknowledged providing misleading and incorrect information to the NCAA during a 17-month investigation into possible recruiting violations.

And Tennessee is making him pay for his actions.

Volunteers Athletic Director Mike Hamilton is reducing Pearl’s pay by $1.5 million over five years and prohibiting him from participating in off-campus recruiting for a year beginning Sept. 24.

“I’ve made some serious mistakes, and for that I’m truly sorry,” a tearful Pearl said during a Friday news conference. “I provided incorrect and misleading information to the NCAA. I’ve learned some invaluable lessons. After I provided the false and misleading information, subsequently I went back and corrected the record.

“I learned that it’s not OK to tell the truth most of the time, but you’ve got to tell the truth all of the time,” he said.

The university received a letter from the NCAA on Friday, notifying the Volunteers of an official investigation into the entire athletic department, including possible recruiting violations under former football coach Lane Kiffin, now at USC.

GOLF

Pressel (66) has one-shot lead

Morgan Pressel shot a five-under-par 66 to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the NW Arkansas Championship at Rogers.

Yani Tseng, Gloria Park and Na Yeon Choi opened with 67s. Michelle Wie, coming off a victory in the Canadian Women’s Open, was another stroke back along with Suzann Pettersen, Janice Moodie, Danielle Downey and Jee Young Lee.

Pressel finished with birdies on Nos. 8 and 9 on the Pinnacle Country Club course. She’s winless since the 2008 Kapalua LPGA Classic.

Fred Funk, Michael Allen and Jay Don Blake shot three-under 69s to share the first-round lead in the Songdo Championship at Incheon, South Korea, the Champions Tour’s first tournament in Asia.

John Cook and Sandy Lyle were a stroke back, and Bernhard Langer, a five-time winner this year, opened with a 73. The start of play was delayed for 1 hour 39 minutes after the course was hit with more than 2 inches of rain.

ETC.

Mayweather is out on bail

Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. was jailed briefly Friday in Las Vegas on a felony charge after his ex-girlfriend alleged he beat her and stole her cellphone during an argument in front of their three children.

Mayweather, 33, was released from the Clark County jail on $3,000 bail after being booked on a grand larceny charge. He could face up to five years in state prison if he is convicted of taking items valued at less than $2,500.

He is scheduled for an initial court appearance Nov. 9.

Mayweather’s lawyer, Richard Wright, denied Mayweather was guilty of the criminal charges based on allegations by Josie Harris.

Kevin Harvick passed Brad Keselowski for the lead with just over 50 laps to go and won the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Richmond, Va.

Harvick earned his third victory of the season and the 37th of his career in the series.

The world’s top surfers will head to San Onofre State Beach near San Clemente from Saturday through Sept. 18 to compete in the ASP World Tour’s lone North American event this year, the Hurley Pro Trestles.

The event, the sixth of 10 World Tour events, will feature a newly approved 36-man competition format featuring elite surfers from the Assn. of Surfing Professionals, who will be competing for valuable points toward a world title as well as a slice of the $400,000 prize money.

—Baxter Holmes

Sunil Gulati, the president of U.S. Soccer, said that the U.S. might abandon its quest to stage the tournament in 2018 and concentrate on 2022 instead.

Dec. 2 is the date that FIFA’s 24-man executive committee, meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, will announce its choice of host nations for 2018 and 2022.

—Grahame L. Jones