Louis, MO (Sports Network) - St. Louis Rams running back Steven Jackson will not play Sunday against the Chicago Bears because of a strained right thigh muscle.

Jackson was hurt during the October 19 game against Dallas, despite rushing for 160 yards and three touchdowns, and has now missed four of the Rams' last five games.

That quartet, which joins 12 other players already on the list, will be among the 16 players who will be on the official ballot distributed to voters next week. The three finalists for the Payton Award will be announced on Dec. 1.

The winner of the 22nd Walter Payton Award, symbolic of the top player in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), will be announced at the annual Sports Network Awards banquet on Dec. 18 in Chattanooga, TN at the Marriott Hotel. The Eddie Robinson Award, which goes to the top coach in FCS, and the Buck Buchanan Award, which is given to the top FCS defensive player, will also be awarded the night before the NCAA Division I football...

Mike Krzyzewski's Blue Devils recorded routs in the first two rounds of this event, posting lopsided wins over both Presbyterian (80-49) and Georgia Southern (97-54) in Durham. However, things got a lot tougher on Sunday, as Duke welcomed a quality Rhode Island program to Cameron Indoor Stadium and escaped that matchup with an 82-79 decision.

Chris Lowery's Salukis also had the luxury being the host team in one of the four regions in this event. SIU was able to get past a scrappy California (Pa) squad in opening round action (66-52) and followed that with a nice win over Massachusetts (80-73).

Chattanooga, which competes in the Southern Conference, has certainly challenged itself with a very difficult schedule to open this new season. The Mocs dropped a 114-75 decision at Tennessee on Saturday, and they followed that effort with a 103-75 setback at Missouri on Monday. Clearly, things won't get any easier today.

Memphis is fresh off Monday's 80-58 decision over UMass, and John Calipari is now the winningest coach in program history with 221 victories. The Tigers are 2-0 on the young season, as they also beat Fairfield on Saturday in convincing fashion. Last season, the Tigers reached the national title games, and while it can be argued that the three best players from that team are gone, there is still plenty of talent in place.

Steinbrenner's sons, Hank and Hal, had been named co-chairpersons of the team last April after taking over the day-to-day operations of the Yankees following the 2007 campaign.

"At the MLB meetings today, the clubs approved Hal Steinbrenner as the control person for the New York Yankees," family spokesman Howard Rubenstein said in a statement.

Reports circulated on Wednesday that Mussina had decided to call it quits after the first 20-win campaign of his illustrious career. He finished the 2008 season with a record of 20-9 and a 3.37 earned run average in 34 starts for the Yankees, and was awarded his seventh Gold Glove.

At age 39, Mussina became the oldest pitcher in baseball history to record 20 wins in a season for the first time in his career.

Smid was placed on injured reserve because of a concussion earlier in the month. He was hurt during a November 5 game against Columbus and has missed the last seven games. He has two assists in eight games this season.

Paul, MN (Sports Network) - The Vancouver Canucks recalled defenseman Nolan Baumgartner on Thursday, prior to the team's game with Minnesota.

The journeyman backliner did not play in the NHL last season, but appeared in 13 games with Philadelphia and Dallas in 2006-07, collecting three assists. The Canucks signed Baumgartner this summer, bringing the 32-year-old back for this third stint with the club.

Donovan, who scored 20 goals for the Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer, joined Bayern for a 10-day trial last Tuesday and impressed the team enough to open the possibility of a move.

"He's made an excellent impression here, so we've agreed to open talks with MLS about a loan spell starting [in] January," Bayern coach Jurgen Klinsmann said on the team's website.

Blanco will join Santos for the Apertura playoffs and rejoin the Fire for the 2009 Major League Soccer season.

He had seven goals and 11 assists in MLS this season, leading the Fire to the Eastern Conference final. Blanco finished third in voting for the league's Most Valuable Player.

"It's been a great 11 years at Roush Fenway Racing," Kenseth said in a team statement.

"We've had a lot of success together including a championship, and I'm really proud of that.

For Johnson, winning the championship included more than just the Sprint Cup trophy presentation and post-race media obligations at Homestead.

"Left the track around midnight, with the obligation, post-race obligations and stuff like that," Johnson said. "And then went out with my guys, went to a bar and they had a big party to celebrate the year and saw a bunch of drivers and team folks there and all my guys were there as well.

The draw for the best-of-five tie was revealed Thursday at the palatial surroundings of the NH Provincial Hotel.

The world No. 12 Ferrer is 6-3 lifetime against the 11th-ranked Nalbandian, but the Argentine has won two of their last three meetings. The two men have not met this year and have never faced off in Davis Cup play.

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Colorado Golf Club just opened in 2007, but has been recognized as one of the top new private courses in the country.

"Colorado Golf Club's pedigree on the American golf landscape is barely over two years old, but it lies on a piece of property that seems like it was destined to be the site of a great golf course," said PGA of America President Jim Remy. "The PGA of America is very excited to be able to host the Senior PGA Championship at Colorado Golf Club in the spring of 2010, which will connect the greatest senior players in the game to Colorado's enthusiastic and knowledgeable golf fans." The 2010 Senior PGA Championship will be contested May 27-30. Jay Haas will defend his Senior PGA title next year at Canterbury Golf Club.

Hull collected her first win earlier this season at the Canadian Women's Open.

In-Kyung Kim, the Longs Drugs Challenge winner, and Ji-Yai Shin, who won twice this season including her first major title at the Women's British Open, share second place at minus-three at Trump International Golf Club.

And unless Floyd Mayweather Sr.'s work with him in training camp was on the level of Creed-Balboa in Rocky III, he'll not veer too far from script in Las Vegas.

Which makes Paul Malignaggi the real X factor come Saturday night.

The 30-year-old Taylor (28-2-1), fighting for the first time in his career at 168 pounds, won by scores of 119-109 from two of the judges and 118-110 from the other one.

Coming off consecutive losses to Kelly Pavlik, the former middleweight champion pounded Lacy early on.

The Monday edition of the Louisville Courier-Journal is reporting that trainer Steve Asmussen does not expect Curlin to race again this year. Asmussen told the newspaper, "I don't see anything worthy of him," during a telephone interview.

Curlin's majority owner, Jess Jackson, released a statement over the weekend indicating that the colt will begin his stud career in 2009, but left room for one more start in 2008.

Three names came to dominate the headlines this year: Curlin, Big Brown and Zenyatta.

All three secured themselves at least one Eclipse Award with the only question being, Who is the 2008 Horse of the Year? Defending Horse of the Year Curlin made thoroughbred history in 2008 by becoming the first horse to surpass the $10 million mark in lifetime earnings. The four-year-old colt went past Cigar on the career earnings list with a second straight win in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.