Another Loss for NCAA, This Time to Coaches

Underpaid college coaches who successfully sued the NCAA are finally getting a big bonus: $54.5 million.

The NCAA agreed Tuesday to pay the amount to about 2,000 Division I assistant coaches whose annual salary was capped at $12,000.

The so-called restricted-earnings rule lasted three years before a judge struck it down in 1995. The coaches and the NCAA had been fighting over a settlement ever since.

The settlement came a day after another NCAA setback. A federal judge in Philadelphia threw out the organization’s minimum test-score requirement for freshman student-athletes, saying it was unfair to blacks. The NCAA is appealing the ruling.

The NCAA’s 302 Division I schools are now on their own in determining which freshmen are academically eligible to play college sports.

Pro Football

UCLA defensive line coach Terry Tumey has been hired as an assistant coach by the Denver Broncos. . . . The Minnesota Vikings promoted quarterback coach Ray Sherman to offensive coordinator as Chip Myers’ replacement. Myers died of a heart attack Feb. 23. Sherman was the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive coordinator last season. . . . Defensive back Kwamie Lassiter has re-signed with the Arizona Cardinals for $3.6 million over three years. . . . Cincinnati signed free-agent nose tackle Oliver Gibson to a three-year, $3.6-million contract.

Olympics

DaimlerChrysler AG, the U.S.-German merged car giant, has threatened to cut three decades of Olympic sponsorship because of the Salt Lake City bribery scandal, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Matthias Kleinert, a senior vice president for the company that has financially backed the Olympics with cash and Mercedes-Benz cars since 1964, said the decision on future sponsorship would be made after the IOC’s meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, next week.

Miscellany

Floyd Mayweather will join Oscar De La Hoya on a boxing card at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on May 22. De La Hoya will defend his World Boxing Council welterweight title against Oba Carr, and Mayweather will defend his WBC super-featherweight title against Goyo Vargas in the semi-main event.

DaVarryl Williamson, seeking to become only the fourth man to win four consecutive titles at the U.S. Boxing Championships, was eliminated from the competition at Colorado Springs, Colo., by Jason Estrada, 18, of Providence, R.I. Estrada, making his debut in the championships, outpointed the 30-year-old Williamson, 13-6, in their 201-pound bout.

Prosecutors in Fresno said they have decided not to pursue criminal charges against a minor league defenseman accused of using his stick as a deadly weapon. Dean Tryboyevich of the Anchorage Aces was already suspended for the rest of the regular season and fined an undisclosed sum for cross-checking Jacques Mailhot of the Fresno Falcons.

Cammi Granato and Katie King each scored two goals as the United States outclassed Sweden, 11-0, in the women’s World Hockey Championships at Helsinki, Finland. Co-favorite Canada routed Germany, 13-0.

Marvin Quijano, 19, has been assigned to the Galaxy by Major League Soccer as a Project-40 player, after starring at Reseda High and Whittier’s Rio Hondo College. Project-40 was established in 1997 with the goal of fostering development of young players, who get salaries and tuition stipends.

Montana musher Doug Swingley was the leader of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race as the lead pack reached the checkpoint of Nikolai, Alaska, an Athabaskan Indian village.