Singh sues PGA Tour in deer-antler aftermath

VIJAY SINGH sued the PGA Tour yesterday for exposing him to "public humiliation and ridicule" during a 12-week investigation into his use of deer-antler spray that ended last week when the tour dropped its case against him.

The lawsuit was a surprise, and so was the timing - the day before The Players Championship, the flagship event on the PGA Tour held on its home course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., where Singh has honed his game for the last 2 decades.

"I am proud of my achievement, my work ethic and the way I live my life," Singh said in a statement. "The PGA Tour not only treated me unfairly, but displayed a lack of professionalism that should concern every professional golfer and fan of the game."

Singh filed the lawsuit in New York, where he has a home and the tour has an office. He is in the field at The Players Championship.

The NCAA has given former Wingate women's basketball coach Barbara Nelson a 2-year show-cause penalty for providing players with money and prescription drugs. The school also was given 1 year of probation and vacated all 24 victories from 2011-12.

* Utah State athletic director Scott Barnes has been chosen as the NCAA Division I basketball committee chairman for 2014-15.

* Davidson is joining the Atlantic 10 Conference in 2014. The school announced it will leave the Southern Conference to become the A-10's 14th team on July 1, 2014.

* The University of Michigan's 10-year dissociation from Chris Webber, Maurice Taylor and Louis Bullock is over. The NCAA forced Michigan to dissociate from basketball players Webber, Taylor, Bullock and the late Robert "Tractor" Traylor for a decade - until May 8, 2013 - because a federal investigation revealed now-deceased booster Ed Martin gave them more than $600,000 when they were student athletes.

* Wagering among male athletes is down nearly 10 percent from 2008, though concerns remain over the increased use of social media and technology for betting, according to the latest NCAA report on gambling. The NCAA's study found that 57 percent of men reported they gambled for money in 2012, a drop of 9 percent from 4 years earlier.

* Todd Hoffner, the former head football coach for Minnesota State University, Mankato, who was cleared of child pornography charges last year but reassigned to an administrative position, is no longer employed at the university, the school said. It declined to say if he was fired or left on his own. A faculty union said Hoffner was fired and that it has filed a grievance over his termination. Hoffner was charged with possession of child pornography in August after school officials found videos of his naked children on his work-issued cellphone, which he had turned in to be repaired. A judge cleared him in November, ruling that the short videos of his children acting silly after a bath were not child porn and showed nothing illegal.

The WTA signed a 5-year deal to host its season-ending championship in Singapore starting in 2014, featuring the year's top eight women's singles players and top eight doubles teams.

* Victoria Azarenka lost her temper, broke her racket and argued with the chair umpire in an exit from the Madrid Open. Losing to Ekaterina Makarova, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3, in the second round ended Azarenka's 18-match winning streak to start the season. Azarenka returned after a 2-month layoff because of an ankle injury.

Wrestling's international governing body is poised to add two weight classes for women in its push to remain in the Olympics.

* Germany's Thomas Bach is expected today to become the first member to declare he is a candidate to succeed Jacques Rogge as president of the International Olympic Committee.

A NASCAR appeals panel sided with Joe Gibbs Racing and eased some of the penalties imposed for having an illegal part in Matt Kenseth's race-winning engine at Kansas last month. The points deducted from Kenseth were reduced from 50 to 12, which moves him from 11th in the standings to fourth.

* A Utah 17-year-old accused of punching a soccer referee who later died was charged in Salt Lake City with homicide by assault, a count issued when an attack unintentionally causes death.