Update, 5:30 p.m. — Moore has confirmed his signing with the Lions to the Idaho Statesman’s Boise State beat reporter Chadd Cripe.

Update: 5:35 p.m. — Cripe and Brian Murphy note that Moore will be the third quarterback on the Lions roster with starter Matthew Stafford and Shaun Hill.

• This story will be updated.

1, Rick McNeil; 2, Garrett Sisk ;3, Jim Langdon; 4, Duane Swanson; 5, Randy Schaff; 6, Chance Overholt; 7, Jeff Sisk; 8, Andon Allen; 9, Randy Beddow; 10, Jesse Branham; 11, Jon Vangessen; 12, Bill Kik; 13, Chanse Page; 14, Jose Zamudio; 15, Lloyd Bigler; 16, Josh Aguirre; 17, Simon Buchan; 18, Eric Shover.

Pure Stocks

1, Rob Allen; 2, Jeff Wilkinson; 3, Chris Marang; 4, Chris Richter; 5, Kyle Wade; 6, Harold Emmons; 7, Chris Morrison; 8, Cody Denton; 9, Pepe Rojas; 10, James Harris; 11, Joe Estep; 12, Mike Denton; 13, Daniel Coble.

Sportsman

1, Buck Noel Jr.; 2, Lucas Valdez; 3, Jack Anderson; 4, Jerry Walker Jr.; 5, Chris VanAmburg; 6, Jeff Mullins; 7, Kyler Conduff; 8, Ed St. Mary; 9, Don Klang; 10, Allen Reid; 11, Tom Wentz; 12, Ron Morton; 13, Terry Cook; 14, Morgan Morrison; 15, Garrett Sisk; 16, Jimmy Zorrozua; 17, Kevin Bull.

West Coast Street Stocks

1, Rich Peters; 2, Kim Wennerberg; 3, Ron Stewart; 4, Zach Beaman; 5, Bryon Goetz; 6, Josh Childress; 7, Andy Stibal; 8, Todd Connell; 9, Andy Beaman; 10, Steve Woods; 11, Kelly Hellewell; 12, Darren Goetz; 13, Bart Hector Jr.; 14, Gary Flammang; 15, Terry Cook; 16, Randy Pugh; 17, Barry Mueller; 18, Brad Morrison; 19, Bill Rutherford; 20, Mel Patnode; 21, Chris Hart; 22, Josh Ingram; 23, Rick Villyard; 24, John Fortenberry.

Super Late Model

1, Owen Riddle; 2, Garrett Evans; 3, Naima Lang; 4, J.C. Wofford; 5, Jon Hubbert; 6, Tayler Riddle; 7, Rick Suran; 8, Mike Longton; 9, Dave Smick; 10, Christopher Kalsch; 11, Erick Hargraves; 12, Bart Hector Sr.; 13, Dan Obrist; 14, Brian Levant; 15, Alex Kerslake; 16, Brent Harris; 17, Shane Mitchell; 18, Pete Harding; Did not start: Jesse Brown, Giles Thornton, Mitch Kleyn.

Follow us on Twitter at @sportsyakima for all the updates. We’ll also have occasional updates on the Season Ticket blog as well.

Here’s how you can watch the 3:45 p.m. matchup:

• Television — The game will be broadcast by KWYT on Channel 39.4. The channel is not available on Charter, Dish or DirecTV. The only way to get the channel is with an antenna (rabbit ears or one on the roof or in the attic will work). For more information, contact KWYT at 509-248-5971.

• Radio — The game will be on KUTI (1460 AM) in the greater Yakima area.

• Online — Washington Sports Network and the WIAA will be live streaming the games on the Internet. The Washington Sports Network Feed will be available on sportsyakima.com. You can reach the WIAA’s feed at their website, www.wiaa.com or by clicking here

To find out how you can receive SWX, visit this website

The Cle Elum native made his World Cup debut in 2005 and a year later won a bronze medal at the 2006 World Junior Championships.

He enjoyed a successful 2009 campaign as he won a gold medal in moguls at the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships in Japan and later won the U.S. Olympic Trials, which secured a spot on the 2010 U.S. Olympic Team.

In 2011, Deneen was crowned the U.S. Freestyle Moguls National Champion in Vermont.

On Feb. 19, he won the men’s FIS Freestyle World Cup dual moguls event in Naeba, Japan.

Deneen will be available to talk about his skiing career, competing at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and much more in a live chat at noon Wednesday on seattletimes.com.

Click here to join the chat

SAN FRANCISCO — Don’t yell obscenities, don’t flip the bird — and don’t even think about insulting anyone’s mother.

The San Francisco 49ers and the NFL have adopted extraordinary security measures for Sunday’s NFC championship against the New York Giants after New Orleans Saints fans complained of harassment by unruly 49ers faithful last week.

Undercover police will be dressed in Giants’ garb and on the lookout for nasty fans. Giants ticketholders will be handed a card as they enter Candlestick Park with details on how to contact police if they feel threatened. And more security cameras and undercover police officers will be in place to identify abusive fans.

Season ticketholders have also been warned to follow the NFL Fan Code of Conduct: no foul or abusive language or obscene gestures and no verbal or physical abuse of opposing team fans.

The nail-biting 36-32 win last Saturday for the 49ers was the team’s first playoff game in nine years, and a raucous crowd was on hand to enjoy the victory at the expense of the Saints.

“I apologize for any rudeness that may have happened,” San Francisco 49ers president and CEO Jed York said. “I think you saw 49ers fans who were very excited about hosting a playoff game for the first time in a long time.”

Those fans were so excited that they ruined the day for a shaken Don Moses and his two teenage daughters. Moses, a longtime Bay Area resident who is from New Orleans, said they were wearing the Saints colors and prepared for some good-natured ribbing.

Instead, he tells a horror story of fear and humiliation when his daughters asked him why he didn’t do anything to stop the hulking 49ers fans who yelled vulgarities and threw footballs at them, screamed in their faces and called their mother a whore.

“The hostility and threats of violence were a constant throughout our experience,” Moses said in a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle, one that launched some soul-searching by city officials and led to some 49ers fans to apologize on behalf of their city.

“Every other word from dozens of fans around us was an f-bomb shouted at the top of their lungs,” Moses said. “There were seven or eight large 30- to 35-year-old guys directly behind us who cursed and threatened us the entire game.” He turned to ask them to tone it down in front of his girls and they yelled: “Do not turn around again! Do not ever turn around again.”

He was afraid that if the fans saw him calling or texting security, the men would harm his daughters.

“Every 49ers fan, the team and its owners should be ashamed and embarrassed to wear the red and gold today,” Moses wrote in the letter published Tuesday. “They won the game but are losers in every other way.”

NFL security director Jeff Miller told the AP that if the security cameras or undercover police catch such abusive behavior by fans on Sunday, they will be yanked from the stadium.

“We’ll be looking early on to identify people trying to do those things in the parking areas and take action to remove them,” said Miller, who will be at the game. “We’re not going to be warning people inside the stadium. They will be removed.”

Authorities are already sensitive about the heartbreaking case of Brian Stow, a paramedic and San Francisco Giants fan who suffered a traumatic brain injury after a beating by two men dressed in Dodgers gear following the home opener against the Giants in Los Angeles on March 31. Medical care for Stow is expected to cost as much as $50 million and the father of two has sued the Dodgers.

Tailgating after kickoff already has been banned from the parking lot at Candlestick Park under security measures introduced after two shootings, a beating and fights broke out during an Aug. 20 pre-season game with across-the-bay rivals Oakland Raiders.

San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr said he heard first-hand how Saints fans were treated last Saturday when he gave three of them a lift from the stadium back into the city after the game. They gave him an earful about how badly they’d been belittled.

“We’re all native San Franciscans and, you know, that’s not the way we want to represent the team and the city,” Suhr said.

He said Mayor Ed Lee instructed him to do whatever it takes to make Giants fans feel safe.

Police officers and team personnel at the ticket gates will be welcoming them with cards that tell them how to contact police.

The 49ers also purchased Giants attire for undercover police officers.

“They’ll be seated around the stadium as decoys, if you will, trying to draw out the obnoxious fans and they will be removed immediately,” he said.

Then there are the lights.

A good portion of the game will be played under the same stadium lights that blacked out and delayed the nationally televised Monday Night Football game between the 49ers and the Pittsburgh Steelers on Dec. 19.

The city and the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. insist there won’t be an embarrassing repeat of the two blackouts at the 51-year-old stadium, which had prompted the mayor to call the night a “national embarrassment.”

PG&E spokesman Joe Molica is confident the nearly $1 million in upgrades to the park by the electric utility and the city will prove the old bayside stadium proud.

He said the wire for the electrical circuit that serves the park has been replaced with more than a mile and a half of new wire that is resistant to contact and carries three times the electrical load. A new computer system allows workers to better monitor the circuit.

The command center at the stadium has conducted a string of tests simulating the Dec. 19 blackout and everything tested well.

Will Molica be holding his breath on Sunday about another blackout?

No, he said, “I’ll be holding my breath for the 49ers to win.”

• AP Sports Writer Janie McCauley contributed to this report from Santa Clara, Calif.

YAKIMA, Wash. — After a delayed start because of a months-long lockout, the NBA season finally starts on Christmas day.

Here are some of the things to look out for while watching the games.

1. How Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers respond to their conference finals loss to the eventual champs, the Dallas Mavericks. Will being swept by the Mavs give Kobe the motivation and hunger to go after a sixth championship, or will this season be the beginning of a decline in his career? Stay on the lookout for Kobe and his team.

2. Derrick Rose’s season as reigning MVP. Will he defend this title well, or will he disappoint his fans and confirm his critics skepticism? The addition of Richard Hamilton to Chicago might help Rose and the Bulls be a threat this season.

3. The Miami Heat vs. the Dallas Mavericks. Will this be the season of redemption for LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh (collectively known as The Big Three), or will the Mavs again show that they are the better team? With the additions of Vince Carter and Lamar Odom to the Dallas team, combined with the virtually invisible offseason moves for Miami (with the exception of Shane Battier to add to the Heat’s defense), the edge goes to the Mavs. Sure, the Heat have James and Wade, but how well they come back to the court this season will be the biggest question.

4. Chris Paul’s first game for the Los Angeles Clippers. Will Paul and Blake Griffin play just like Paul and Tyson Chandler did when the two played for the New Orleans Hornets? It will take some time for Paul and Griffin to mesh, but it could eventually happen, and the pair could be just what’s needed for the suddenly resurgent Clippers to be relevant in the league.

• Michael Moreno is a student at Toppenish High School and a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed youth journalism program.

On the morning of Nov. 5, Paterno’s Nittany Lions were undefeated in the Big Ten and ranked No. 16 in the country, and the 84-year-old Hall of Famer was renowned as the winningest coach in Division I football, a leader who preached and practiced “Success with Honor.” Then came the staggering revelations: the indictment of longtime defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky for allegedly sexually assaulting eight boys over a 15-year span, perjury charges against two high-ranking school administrators — and a grand jury report that suggested Paterno knew of accusations against Sandusky and did not do enough to pursue them.

Within four days, Penn State’s board of trustees had done the once-unthinkable, firing JoePa after 46 seasons as head coach.

There were 214 ballots submitted from U.S. news organizations that make up the AP’s membership. The voters were asked to rank the top 10 sports stories of the year, with the first-place story getting 10 points, the second-place story receiving nine points, and so on.

The Penn State saga received 2,044 points and 172 first-place votes. It was also voted the No. 6 news story for 2011 in the AP’s annual poll of U.S. editors and news directors.

The No. 2 sports story — labor strife in the NFL and NBA — had 15 first-place votes and 1,345 points.

The turmoil that at times seemed to rock college sports on a weekly basis this year was evident in the voting beyond the Penn State selection. Three more of the top 10 stories involved upheaval in the NCAA: conference realignment (No. 4); the Ohio State infractions that cost Jim Tressel his job (No. 6); and more sex abuse accusations, these involving Syracuse basketball (No. 9).

Tiger Woods’ humbling return to the public eye was the top story last year.

Here are 2011’s top 10 stories:

1. PENN STATE: Paterno said in a statement Nov. 9, “It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more,” and that he would retire at the end of the season. It wasn’t enough to quell the rising outrage that he didn’t go to the police after then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary told him in 2002 about witnessing an apparent assault. By the night of Nov. 9, Paterno was out, and so was Penn State President Graham Spanier. As 2011 comes to a close, athletic director Tim Curley, who was placed on leave, and since-retired university vice president Gary Schultz await trial, and Sandusky faces additional charges. Paterno revealed Nov. 18 he had been diagnosed with a treatable form of lung cancer. The Nittany Lions play Houston in the TicketCity Bowl on Jan. 2.

2. NFL/NBA LOCKOUTS: “Millionaires vs. billionaires” was often fans’ reaction to the labor woes that struck the NFL and NBA this year. Football’s work stoppage lasted 4 1/2 months before an agreement was signed Aug. 5; it cost the league just one preseason game. Fans have quickly forgiven the owners and players based on ticket sales and television ratings. Basketball’s dragged on for more than five months and wiped out 16 games of the normal 82-game schedule. The fallout won’t be clear until the season begins on Christmas.

3. PACKERS WIN: Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay are shining and well out of Brett Favre’s shadow. The injury-ravaged Packers barely made the playoffs as a No. 6 seed last season, then won three road games to reach the Super Bowl, where they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 in February. They kept right on winning into the 2011 season, rolling to a 13-0 start led by play from their quarterback almost as perfect as their record, until an upset loss to the Chiefs.

4. CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT: San Diego State in the Big East? Another dizzying round of college conference hopping made a mockery of geography. Texas A&M bolted the Big 12 for the SEC in September — likely ending its more than century-old rivalry with Texas — which set off the dominoes. Missouri followed the Aggies to the SEC. The Big East lost Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the ACC and West Virginia and TCU to the Big 12, then regrouped by adding some hardly Eastern schools: Boise State, San Diego State, Houston, SMU.

5. CARDINALS WIN: St. Louis trailed in the wild-card race by 10 1/2 games in late August but rallied to clinch a playoff berth on the season’s final day. The Cardinals’ comeback in the World Series might have been even more remarkable. They were twice down to their final strike in Game 6 against the Texas Rangers, who were up by two runs in the ninth and 10th innings. St. Louis won it on David Freese’s home run in the 11th before clinching the championship in Game 7. Manager Tony La Russa retired after the victory parade.

6. OHIO STATE: The Buckeyes beat Arkansas 31-26 on Jan. 4 in the Sugar Bowl with five players allowed to take part even though they were suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season for NCAA infractions. Ohio State would soon have far bigger problems. The school learned that month that Jim Tressel, who coached the Buckeyes to their first national title in 34 years, long knew about the transgressions and had violated NCAA rules by not reporting them. On May 30, he finally resigned under pressure. After a 6-6 season, Ohio State replaced Tressel with somebody who’s won two national championships: former Florida coach Urban Meyer.

7. MAVERICKS WIN: Five years after blowing a series lead in the NBA finals to the Heat, Dallas and Dirk Nowitzki got revenge and redemption against Miami. The Mavs picked up fans around the country by beating the Heat, suddenly everybody’s favorite team to hate with the nucleus of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. After Dallas won in six games, Dirk finally got his title — while LeBron still seeks his.

8. WHELDON DIES: Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon was killed Oct. 16 during IndyCar’s season finale in Las Vegas in a fiery 15-car crash. The 33-year-old Brit won Indy this year in one of just three starts during the season as he searched for sponsorship. Wheldon was chasing a $5 million incentive in Las Vegas, and IndyCar is still answering questions about whether the race was excessively dangerous.

9. SYRACUSE: Less than two weeks after the Sandusky charges, ESPN reported that two former Syracuse ball boys accused longtime men’s basketball assistant coach Bernie Fine of molesting them. Then, on Nov. 27, Fine was fired after the network aired a tape in which a woman it identified as Fine’s wife tells one of the men, Bobby Davis, she knew “everything” that was going on. Fine has not been charged, and a federal investigation is ongoing.

10. WOMEN’S WORLD CUP: Their country devastated by a tsunami and earthquake, Japan’s soccer players vowed they would inspire their homeland. They did it with an improbable victory in the final, rallying from a goal down late in regulation and again in overtime against the favored Americans to force penalty kicks, which they won 3-1. The Japanese also upset host Germany in the quarterfinals.

• Follow Rachel Cohen at http://twitter.com/RachelCohenAP

“I asked athletic director Bill Moos to select the best head football coach in the country and I am convinced that he has done exactly that,” WSU president Elson Floyd said in the news release.

FILE - In this Sept. 19, 2009, file photo, Texas Tech coach Mike Leach waits as a play is reviewed during the first quarter of their NCAA college football game against Texas in Austin, Texas. Leach has reached a verbal agreement to be the new football coach at Washington State, an official within the athletic department told the Associated Press on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Moos said, “This is an exciting day for Washington State University and Cougar football. I have spoken about the need to re-energize our fan base and take Cougar football to the next level. I believe the hiring of Mike Leach accomplishes both of those goals. His credentials speak for themselves.”

Leach replaces Paul Wulff, fired Tuesday by Washington State after a 9-40 record in four seasons. The quick push for Leach was not unexpected. The Seattle Times reported last week that Wulff was likely to be fired, and that Leach would be the top target of the Cougars. An informed source told The Times the deal might be done quickly.

Leach, 50, had been expected to be a top choice at Kansas, where he had an old friendship with athletic director Sheahon Zenger.

Leach has been out of coaching for the past two years after a controversial exit from Texas Tech. He was fired just short of collecting on an $800,000 salary bonus. At issue was whether he mistreated a Red Raiders player, Adam James, by directing him to stay in a darkened equipment shed to help treat a concussion.

Leach coached 10 Texas Tech to 10 straight bowl games and favors a spread passing offense.

“First off I would like to express my appreciation to Paul Wulff for all his efforts and dedication to Washington State and wish him the best in the future,” Leach said in the news release. “It’s an honor to have the opportunity to work with Bill Moos, who is a legend in this business. To have the opportunity as a coach to work with someone like that is an experience few head coaches get. Along with Bill and Dr. Floyd, I’m excited about being a part of the future of Washington State.

“I have always admired the tradition of Washington State. It’s a university on the move that is experiencing growth. I’m excited about what they are doing with the facilities and it’s a team that has battled through some hard times and shows great promise in the future. I’m proud to be a part of this team.”

— Bud Withers

Tuesday morning, Moos dismissed Wulff after four struggling years of Cougars football in which WSU went 9-40.

At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Moos said informing Wulff on Tuesday morning that he had been fired “was not an easy thing to do.”

Moos thanked Wulff for his contributions to WSU but said the Cougars were at a critical juncture and needed to make a change.

“I feel we have apathy in our fan base,” said Moos, who claimed a coaching change was necessary to raise the energy among WSU fans.

Moos said the search for Wulff’s successor will begin immediately and said he has had conversations with coaches on a “shortlist.”

Wulff said he hoped to have a new coach in the next two to three weeks.

“You’re looking at the search committee,” Moos said.

Moos said he talked with Wulff for an hour and a half Sunday and “pretty much” made the choice then to fire Wulff but elected to take another day to mull the decision.

Moos had been a consultant on a search committee when Wulff was hired in December 2007, urging the committee to consider a couple of WSU alums, including Wulff. In spring 2010, Moos became the school’s athletic director, and more than once voiced the thought that “nobody wants Paul to succeed more than I do.”

After a 3-22 start — results on the field which Moos said he largely disregarded because of the downtrodden state of the program in 2007 — the Cougars began to show improvement in 2010 and 2011. But hopes for gaining six victories and bowl eligibility this year were dashed, partly by some key quarterback injuries, and the Cougars went 4-8.

Almost since the start of the Wulff regime, there was divisiveness in the fan base. In 2008, the Cougars were shut out three times — they hadn’t been blanked since 1984 — and six times, they allowed 58 or more points.

There was improvement each year. There were fewer problems off the field, after 25 players were arrested in an 18-month span bridging the Bill Doba and Wulff regimes. The Cougars had a heavy representation on conference all-academic teams, after some Academic Progress Rate shortfalls caused them to be docked eight scholarships against a maximum of 85 as part of the problems Wulff inherited.

Two problems developed in 2011 as key to Wulff’s demise. One happened shortly into the opener against Idaho State.

Jeff Tuel, one of the underrated quarterbacks in the Pac-12, broke his clavicle on his fifth snap of the game after being inserted on the third series despite suffering from a virus. Tuel’s season was essentially ruined; after he tried to come back against Stanford and Oregon State in midseason, he took hits to that side and was unable to play in the final five games of the season.

The schedule, meanwhile, was initially kind but ultimately demanding. Some fans presumed a 5-0 start for the Cougars, who opened with Idaho State, UNLV, San Diego State, Colorado and UCLA. But without Tuel, WSU lost to San Diego State and a tight, 28-25 loss at UCLA, putting them at 3-2.

Over the long haul, with WSU playing the Oregon State game at CenturyLink Field and it being a year when it had only four conference games in its stadium, WSU went from Sept. 10 to Nov. 12 with just one game in Pullman — against Stanford. Home for consecutive games in November, the Cougars ambushed Arizona State and lost a thriller in overtime to Utah.

They ended with a 38-21 loss to Washington in the Apple Cup, but it’s believed the decision was already made on Wulff. On Nov. 18, the WSU regents approved Moos’ renovation plans for Martin Stadium — suites and club seats on the south side, and eventually, a football-only facility beyond the west end zone — and Moos was open in saying that the football coach, whoever he was, would be pivotal in rallying support from donors.

The Cougars have to pay the final year of Wulff’s contract. He was earning about $600,000 annually, the lowest-paid coach in the Pac-12.

Mike Leach, the former Texas Tech coach, is believed at the top of WSU’s list of possible successors. But Leach has been reported also to be coveted by Kansas, which fired Turner Gill over the weekend after two years.

 — Bud Withers/The Seattle Times

After a secret meeting earlier this week, the sides met for more than 15 hours Friday, working to try to save the season. This handshake deal, however, still must be ratified by both owners and players.

“We’ve reached a tentative understanding that is subject to a variety of approvals and very complex machinations, but we’re optimistic that will all come to pass and that the NBA season will begin Dec. 25,” Commissioner David Stern said.

The league plans a 66-game season and aims to open camps Dec. 9.

“We thought it was in both of our best interests to try to reach a resolution and save the game,” union executive director Billy Hunter said.

The Christmas Day deadline created a sense of urgency because that schedule is traditionally a showcase for the league. This season’s three-game slate was to include Miami at Dallas in an NBA finals rematch, plus MVP Derrick Rose leading Chicago into Los Angeles to face Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.

A majority on each side is needed to approve the agreement. The NBA needs votes from 15 of 29 owners. (The league owns the New Orleans Hornets.) Stern said the labor committee plans to discuss the agreement later Saturday and expects them to endorse it and recommend to the full board.

The union needs a simple majority of its 430-plus members. That process is a bit more complicated after the players dissolved the union Nov. 14. Now, they must drop their antitrust lawsuit in Minnesota and reform the union before voting on the deal.

Because the union disbanded, a new collective bargaining agreement can only be completed once the union has reformed. Drug testing and other issues still must be negotiated between the league and the players.

The settlement first was reported by CBSSports.com.

Participating in the talks for the league were Stern, deputy commissioner Adam Silver, Spurs owner Peter Holt, the chairman of the labor relations committee, and attorneys Rick Buchanan and Dan Rube. The players were represented by executive director Billy Hunter, president Derek Fisher, vice president Maurice Evans, attorney Ron Klempner and economist Kevin Murphy.

When last talks broke down, the sides were still divided over the division of revenues and certain changes sought by owners to curb spending by big-market teams that players felt would limit or restrict their options in free agency.

On Nov. 14, players rejected the owners’ proposal, which included opening a 72-game schedule on Dec. 15, announcing instead they were disbanding the union, giving them a chance to win several billion dollars in triple damages in an antitrust lawsuit.

Two days later, players filed two separate antitrust lawsuits against the league in two different states. On Monday, a group of named plaintiffs including Carmelo Anthony, Steve Nash and Kevin Durant filed an amended federal lawsuit against the league in Minnesota, hoping the courts there will be as favorable to them as they have been to NFL players in the past.

Now, players will dismiss that lawsuit and get back to the business of basketball.

The previous CBA expired at the end of the day June 30. Despite a series of meetings in June, there was never much hope of a deal before that deadline, with owners wanting significant changes after saying they lost $300 million last season and hundreds of millions more in each year of the old agreement, which was ratified in 2005.

Owners wanted to keep more of the league’s nearly $4 billion in basketball revenues to themselves after guaranteeing 57 percent to the players under the old deal. And they sought a system where even the smallest-market clubs could compete, believing the current system would always favor the teams who could spend the most.

Initially, the salary cap emerged as the biggest obstacle. Owners first proposed a hard cap, but players fought hard to maintain the current system that allows teams to exceed the cap through the use of various exceptions.

The league was adamant the system needed some adjustment, because the old rules gave too many advantages to teams who could afford to keep adding to their payrolls. So the league’s proposals targeted the highest-spending teams, seeking to eliminate the use of the midlevel exception by teams over the luxury tax and prevent them from participating in sign-and-trade deals.

When it became clear he actually was a viable threat, he kicked it into another gear and vowed to go for broke in his pursuit of Carl Edwards.

Did he ever.

Stewart used a powerful and relentless drive — some might suggest the best in NASCAR history — on Sunday in the season finale to seize his third NASCAR championship. He overcame a hole in the grill of his Chevrolet, a rain delay, used debatable fuel strategy and made 116 passes on the track to win at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Edwards led the most laps — 119 of the 267 — but finished a helpless second. The two ended up tied in the final Sprint Cup points standings, but Stewart’s five victories — all in the chase — to Edwards’ one gave him the championship.

Stewart became the first owner/driver to win the championship since the late Alan Kulwicki in 1992, and the driver to end Jimmie Johnson’s record five-year title run.

“Are you kidding me?” Stewart asked in Victory Lane. “We said all week we’d just go out and win the race and didn’t have to worry about what he did. If this doesn’t go down as one of the greatest championship battles in history, I don’t know what will.”

If this doesn’t go down as one of the greatest championship battles in history, I don’t know what is.”

Edwards was disappointed but held his head high after the race.

“This night is about Tony Stewart. Those guys rose to the occasion and they beat us fair and square,” Edwards said. “That is all I had. We came here and sat on the pole, led the most laps and Tony still managed. That’s it. That’s all I got at the end. That’s as hard as I can drive.

“I told my wife, ‘If I can’t win this thing, I’m going to be the best loser NASCAR has ever had.’ So, I’m going to try really hard to keep my head up and know that we’ll just go next year and we’ll be just as hard to beat.”