SEC presidents will discuss admitting Texas A&M

Southeastern Conference presidents will meet Sunday to discuss Texas A&M’s admission to the league, the New York Times reported.

The newspaper said all but one of the presidents will be at the SEC meeting, held the day before the Texas A&M System board of regents is to meet. That meeting includes an agenda item about conference alignment.

The session comes amid reports that Texas A&M is leaving the Big 12 to become the SEC’s 13th team, a move that could lead the SEC to bring on a 14th team.

The SEC is interested in Texas A&M because the move “brings us into the Texas market,” a person familiar with the situation told the Associated Press. The person added that “it’s not about us wanting or needing 14 teams, Texas A&M came to us.”

According to media reports, several schools are being considered for the 14th SEC slot, including Florida State and Clemson.

Florida State President Eric Barron and Clemson President James Barker said Saturday that they have had no contact with the SEC.

MOTOR RACING

Busch holds on for Nationwide victory

Kurt Busch, filling in for injured Penske Racing teammate Brad Keselowski, held off Jimmie Johnson in a green-white-checkered finish to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.

Busch won by nearly a second for his third victory in 12 Nationwide races. He also deprived brother Kyle Busch of his 50th career victory, which would have broken a tie with Mark Martin for the most in series history.

Joey Logano edged Kyle Busch for third, and Carl Edwards was fifth.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. maintained his series lead with a 15th-place finish.

Kyle Busch will start from the pole for the Sprint Cup race Sunday at Watkins Glen. He won a pole on a NASCAR road course for the first time, shattering the track record at Watkins Glen. Busch posted a lap of 126.421 mph around the 11-turn circuit, nearly 2 mph faster than the mark Jeff Gordon set eight years ago.

IndyCar points leader Dario Franchitti won the pole for Sunday’s 225-mile race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. Franchitti, who won the series championship the last two years, averaged 170.843 mph in his two qualifying runs. Oriol Servia qualified second at 169.831 mph.

Rookie Pippa Mann will not drive in the race after crashing into a wall during a practice run Saturday. She is scheduled to undergo an MRI exam on her back Monday.

ETC.

Williams reaches Rogers Cup final

Serena Williams advanced to the women’s final in the Rogers Cup, beating fourth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, 6-3, 6-3, at Toronto.

Williams will face 10th-seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia on Sunday. Stosur beat Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.

Top-ranked Novak Djokovic advanced to the Rogers Cup men’s final at Montreal when Jo-Wilfried Tsonga retired from their semifinal match because of an apparent right arm injury. Djokovic led, 6-4, 3-0, when Tsonga retired.

Earlier, sixth-seeded Mardy Fish advanced to his third final in a row, beating Janko Tipsarevic, 6-3, 6-4.

Authorities in Beaumont, Texas, charged Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kendrick Perkins with misdemeanor disorderly conduct and public intoxication after an altercation early Saturday.

A statement from police said officers saw a large crowd outside a club just after 2 a.m. and received complaints of fights and pepper spray inside. An officer saw about 50 people inside around Perkins, who police said was attempting to fight the club’s manager.

The statement said the crowd pushed Perkins out the back door of the club, where he continued to yell obscenities and start other fights.

Defending champion Danielle Kang and Thailand’s Moriya Jutanugarn advanced to the U.S. Women’s Amateur final at Barrington, R.I. Kang, the 18-year-old Pepperdine star from Westlake Village, beat University of Alabama player Brooke Pancake of Chattanooga, Tenn., 1 up.

Jutanugarn, 17, defeated Louisiana State’s Austin Ernst, the NCAA champion from Seneca, S.C., 1 up. The 36-hole final is Sunday.

Irish-bred Cape Blanco won the Arlington Million, surging to the lead at the head of the stretch to beat 2009 champion Gio Ponti by 21/2 lengths at Arlington Heights, Ill. Dean’s Kitten finished third in the 10-horse field. Under jockey Jamie Spencer, Cape Blanco ran the 11/4 -mile turf race in 2 minutes 5.39 seconds in a steady rain.